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ibrarjp  of  trhe  Cheolojical  Remittal 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

the  author 

BV    30    .D4    1902 

Deems,    Edward  Mark,    1852- 

1929. 
Holy-days   and   holidays 

rjp 

^ofe=©a^0  anb  ^oltba^© 


A   TREASURY   OF   HISTORICAL    MATERIAL,    SERMONS    IN 

FULL  AND  IN  BRIEF,  SUGGESTIVE  THOUGHTS, 

AND  POETRY,  RELATING  TO 


HOLY  DATS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Compiled  by 
EDWARD   M.  DEEMS,  A.M.,  PH.D. 


FUNK    &    WAGNALLS    COMPANY 

NEW   YORK  AND  LONDON 
MDCCCCII 


Copyright,  igoz, 

By  FUNK  &  WAGNALLS 

COMPANY 


Registered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 


Printed  in  the 
Untied  States  of  A  merica 


Published  February,  190a 


PREFACE 

THE  object  of  this  book  is  to  help  busy  people  in  our  busy  age  to  find  and 
enjoy  the  very  best  that  has  been  written  on  the  vital  events  and  great  men 
whose  memory  society  is  trying  to  perpetuate. 

The  attempt  has  not  been  made  to  treat  all  the  saints'  days  and  special  days 
of  the  ecclesiastical  calendar.  Only  the  most  important  days,  such  as  are  com- 
memorative of  the  most  significant  facts  and  principles  of  the  Christian  faith, 
have  been  dealt  with.  On  the  other  hand,  days  and  anniversaries  not  in  the  Church 
calendars  are  included,  such  as  Thanksgiving  Day,  New  Year's  Day  and  Old 
Year  Day — occasions  which  are  rich  in  suggestion  to  thoughtful  minds.  This 
work  includes,  besides  the  most  important  secular  legal  holidays,  the  anniversaries 
most  widely  observed  in  America,  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Canada. 

As  moral  and  educational  influences,  holy  days  and  holidays  are  of  inestimable 
value.  For  an  example,  the  stimulus  to  Christian  gratitude  and  patriotism  that 
comes  from  the  annual  observance  of  Thanksgiving  Day  throughout  the  nation 
cannot  easily  be  exaggerated. 

The  literature  bearing  upon  holy  days  and  holidays  is  vast,  and  greatly  scat- 
tered, but  some  of  the  best  thoughts  of  the  brightest  minds  are  now  offered  the 
readers  of  this  volume,  while  it  refers  them  to  much  more  material,  which  has 
been  excluded  through  lack  of  space. 

The  compiler  takes  this  opportunity  to  thank  all  authors  and  publishers 
who  have  courteously  contributed  toward  the  completeness  of  this  work.  Every 
effort  has  been  made  to  give  full  credit  to  all  to  whom  credit  is  due,  and  any 
omission  to  do  this  has  been  unintentional. 

The  compiler  also  wishes  to  thank  Montrose  J.  Moses,  B.S.,  for  his  invaluable 
assistance  in  matters  relating  to  general  Uterary  form,  and  his  help  in  the  work 
of  seeing  the  book  through  the  press. 

Holy-Days  and  Holidays  is  now  given  to  the  reading  public  both  as  a 
book  of  reference  and  as  a  book  for  recreation,  with  the  sincere  hope  and  convic- 
tion that  it  has  a  mission,  and  that  it  will  be  welcomed  to  its  niche  in  the  library 

of  the  reader  and  thinker  of  our  times. 

EDWARD  M.  DEEMS 
The  Manse, 

HORNELLSVILLE,   NeW  YoRK 


V 


CONTENTS 


Preface     . 

Key  to  Abbreviations 

HOLY-DAYS : 

New  Year's  Day 

Epiphany 

Lent 

Palm  Sunday 

Communion  Sunday 

Good  Friday 

Easter 

Sunday 

Ascension  Day 

Whitsunday 

Children's  Day 

Trinity  Sunday 

Rallying  Day.    (See  Children's  Day) 

All  Saints'  Day 

Thanksgiving  Day 

Advent 

Christmas 

Old  Year  Day 

HOLIDAYS : 

Emancipation  Day.     (See  Lincoln's  Birthday) 

Lincoln's    Birthday 

Washington's  Birthday 

Arbor  Day  .... 

Liberty  Day.     (See  Independence  Day) 

Victoria  Day.     (See  Empire  Day). 

Empire  Day 

vii 


PAGE 
V 

ix 


vm                                                              CONTENTS 

HOLIDAYS— Continued :                                                                                         page 

Memorial  Day          .             .            .            .            .    '        .            .      •          566 

Flag-Raising  Day  .... 

588 

Dominion  Day          .... 

604 

Independence  Day    . 

622 

Labor  Day    ...... 

645 

Harvest  Home.     (See  Thanksgiving  Day) 

340 

Discovery  Day          ..... 

661 

Election   Day            ..... 

684 

King's  Birthday.     (See  Empire  Day) 

541 

Forefathers'  Day      ..... 

704 

Bibliography              ..... 

727 

Index,  Topical          ..... 

73; 

Index,  Authors         .... 

757 

Index  of  Texts        .... 

768 

KEY  TO  ABBREVIATIONS 

[In  order  to  give  full  credit  to  authors  and  publishers  of  the  material  used  in  this  work, 
and  in  order  to  enable  readers  to  follow  up  the  quotations  made  in  its  pages,  initials  are 
placed  at  the  end  of  articles,  and  this  key  explains  their  significance.] 


A.  G.  ...Apples  of  Gold.     New  York:  Am. 

Tract  Society. 
A.  M. ..  .American  Messenger.     New  York: 

Am.  Tract  Society. 

A.  P.    L.  ..  .Anglican   and   American   Pulpit 

Library.     New  York :  Edwin  S.  Gor- 
ham. 

At.       M Atlantic       Monthly.         Boston: 

Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 

B.  A.  ..  .Baptist  Argus. 

B.   C.   E.  . .  .Brantford    (Canada)    Expositor. 

Brantford,  Ontario. 
B.  E.  ..  .Brooklyn  Eagle.     Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
B.   J.... Boston   Journal.     Boston. 
B.   M.  ..  .Biblical   Museum.     New  York:   E. 

R.  Herrick  &  Co. 

B.  O.  K.  ..  .By  Order  of  the  King. 

B    W.  ..  .British  Weekly.    London,  England. 

C.  . .  .Congregationalist.     Boston. 

C.  A. ..  .Christian  Advocate.     New  York. 

C.     Ad.  ..  .Central     Advocate.       St.     Louis, 
Mo. 

C.     An.  ..  .Current     Anecdotes.       Cleveland, 
Ohio:  F.  M.  Barton. 

Can.      M .  . .  .  Canada      Magazine.      Toronto, 
Canada. 

C.    A.    W....The    Church   at   Work.     New 
York. 

C.  B.  F.... Century  Book  of  Facts.     Spring- 
field, Mass. :  King-Richardson  Co. 

C.     E     W.  ..  .Christian     Endeavor     World. 
Boston. 

C.  G....Cut  Gems.     Cleveland,  Ohio:  F.  M. 
Barton. 

C.  H. ..  .Christian  Herald  and  Signs  of  Our 
Times.     New  York. 

Ch.  St.  ..  .Chicago  Standard.     Chicago. 

C.   J. ..  .Chambers'   Journal.    London,   Eng- 
land. 

C.    M.... Century    Magazine.      New    York: 
The  Century  Co. 

C.  O.  . .  .Columlaian  Orations.     (See  Col.  S.) 

Col.    S. ..  .Columbian    Selections.      Philadel- 
phia :  Porter  and  Coats. 

Col.  W. ..  .Collier's  Weekly.     New  York. 
•  C.    P Cumberland    Presbyterian.      Nash- 
ville, Tenn. 

C.  P.... Church  Press. 

C.  R.  ..  .Contemporary  Review.     (See  T.  C. 
R.)     London,  England. 

C.  U. . .  .Christian  Union.     New  York, 

Cul ....  The  Cultivator. 


C.  Up Christian  Uplook.     Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

C.  W Christian  Work.     New  York. 

C.  Y.    B Canadian    Year    Book     (1900). 

Toronto,  Canada. 

D.  T.  C.  Y.  . .  .Daily  Thoughts  for  the  Chris- 

tian Year.     New  York:   Brentano"s. 

E.  . .  .Evangelist.     New  York. 

E.  G Educational  Gazette,  Rochester,  N. 

E.  H Epworth  Herald.     Chicago. 

E.  T_.  . .  .Every  Thursday.     New  York. 

E.  Times Expository  Times.    Edinburgh  • 

T.    &    T.    Clark.      N.    Y. :    Scribner's 

Sons. 

E.  W Everywhere.     Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

F Forward.       Philadelphia,   Pa.        (Pres. 

Board  of  Publication.) 

F.  I Foster's  Cyclopedia  of  Prose  Illus- 

trations, Series  I.  New  York:  Funk 
&  Wagnalls  Co. 

F.  II Foster's  Cyclopedia  of  Prose  Illus- 
trations, Series  II.  New  York:  Funk 
&  Wagnalls  Co. 

*F.  I.... Foster's  Cyclopedia  of  Poetical  Il- 
lustrations, Series  I.  New  York: 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 

*  F.  II Foster's  Cyclopedia  of  Poetical  Il- 
lustrations, Series  II.  New  York: 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 

F.  R Fortnightly  Review.    London,  Eng- 

land. 

G.  F Gems  for  the  Fireside.     Washing- 

ton :  H.  W.  Bolton. 
G.    R Golden    Rule.      Boston:    Christian 

Endeavor  World. 
G.  T.... Great  Thoughts.     London,  England. 

H Harper's  Magazine.  New  York:  Har- 
per and  Bro's. 

H.  A.  C Hymns  for  All  Christians.      New 

York. 

H.  A.  C.  Y.  . .  .Homiletic  Aids  for  Christian 
Year.     New   York:    Thos.   Whittaker. 

H.  L.  S.  E.  . .  .Homiletic  Library,  Spence  and 
Exell.  New  York:  A.  D.  F.  Ran- 
dolph &  Co. 

H.    P Herald    and    Presbyter.     Pittsburg, 

H.  R.  ..  .Homiletic  Review.  New  York: 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 


IX 


KEY   TO    ABBREVIATIONS 


H.     W.  ..  .Harpers     Weekly.     New     York: 

Harper  and  Bro's. 
H.   Y.   P Harper's  Young  People.     New 

York:   Harper  and  Bro's. 

I.  . .  .Independent.     New  York. 

I.  A Illustrated  American.     New  York. 

In.  . .  .Interior.     Chicago. 

J.  E Journal  of  Education.     New  York. 

L     C The    Living   Church.       Milwaukee, 

Wis. 

L.  H.  J Ladies'  Home  Journal.  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

L.  Pu London  Punch.     London,  England. 

L.  W Leslie's  Weekly.     New  York. 

M.  R Methodist  Recorder.    Pittsburg,  Pa. 

M.     R.     W.  ..  .Missionary     Review     of     the. 

World.     New    York:    Funk    &    Wag- 

nalls  Co. 

N.   B.   A.    D.   M.    (1898) Nebraska    Bird 

and  Arl'or  Day  Manual  (1898). 

N.  C.  ..  .Nineteenth  Century.  London,  Eng- 
land. 

N.     C.    T.     M New     Century    Teachers' 

Monthly.    D.  C.  Cook:  Chicago. 

N.  T.  A. ..  .National  Temperance  Advocate. 
New  York. 

N.  Y.  J.  ..  .New  York  Journal.     New  York. 

N.  Y.  O.  . .  .New  York  Observer.   New  York. 

N.  Y.  S New  York  Sun.     New  York. 

N.  Y.  T. . .  .New  York  Tribune.    New  York. 

N.  Y.  Ti....New  York.  Times.     New  York. 

N.  Y.  W New  York  World.     New  York. 

O.  ..  .Outlook.     New  York. 
O.    C.    W....Our    Church    at   Work.     New 
York. 

P....F.   N.   Peloubet's   Select  Notes  on.  the 

International   S.  S.  Lessons.     Boston : 

W.  A.  Wilde  &  Co. 

P.  H Pulpit  Herald. 

P.  I.... Pulpit  Illustrator.     Corning,  N.  Y. 
P.  J.  ..  .Presbyterian  Journal.     Philadelphia. 
P.  M.  ..  .Preacher's  Magazine.     New  York: 

Wilbur  B.  Ketch  am. 
P.  S.  M.... Popular  Science  Monthly.     New 

York :  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co. 
P.  T Pulpit  Treasury.    New  York:  E.  B. 

Treat  &  Co. 


P.    Tid.  ..  .Parish    Tidings.     Williamstown, 
Mass. 

Q....The  Quiver.     New  York. 


R.   H. 
R.  R. 


.Religious  Herald.     Richmond,   Va. 
.Review  of  Reviews.     New  York. 


S.  . .  .Scribner's  Magazine. 

S.  B.  . .  .Sermon  Bible.     New  York:  Funk  & 

Wagnalls  Co. 
S.    C... Silver    Cross.     New   York:    King's 

Daughters. 
S.  J.  M....St.  James  Messenger. 
S.     M.  ..  .Scribner's     Magazine.     (See     S.) 

New  York:  Scribner's  Sens. 
S.     N....St.     Nicholas.     New     York:     The 

Century  Co. 
Sp.  ..  .Spectator.     London,  England. 
S.  R.  . .  .Sabbath  Recorder.     Plainfield,  N.  J. 
S     S.    D.  ..  .Students'    Standard    Dictionary. 

New  York:  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 
S.  S.  T.... Sunday  School  Times.    Philadel- 
phia. 
S.  S.  V.  ...S.  S.  Visitor.     New  York:  Am. 

Tract  Societv. 
St.  . .  .The  Standard.     Chicago. 
St.  D.  ..  .Standard  Dictionary.     New  York: 

Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 
S.  Y.  B.  (1891).  ..  .Sermon  Year  Book.  New 

York :  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co. 

T.  C.  R .  . .  .  The  Contemporary  Review. 
T.  T. . .  .Teacher's  Treasury. 

U.  G.  N.... Union  Gospel  News.     Cleveland, 

Ohio. 
U.  L.  ..  .Universalist  Leader.     Boston 
U.  S.... Union  Signal.     Chicago. 

W.  . .  .Watchman,  The.     Boston. 

W.  A World  Almanac.     New  York:   N. 

Y.  World. 
W.  B.  O.  . .  .The  World's  Best  Orations.    St. 

Louis:  Fcrd.  P.  Kaiser. 
W.     C.     M Will     Carleton's     Magazine. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
W.    S Washington     Star.       Washington, 

D.  C. 
W.  T. ..  .Watchword  and  Truth.     Boston. 

Y.  C.  . .  .Youth's  Companion.     Boston. 
^'     L    J.... Young    Ladies'    Journal.      New 
York. 


V 


C^e  I)alic0t  of  all  I)oltIiap6  are  tl)06e 

fecpt  i)j>  Dttrscltoeji  in  silence  anii  apart, 
8ri)e  eecret  anniijergarics  of  tl)e  I)eart, 
^I)en  tl)e  full  ritier  of  feeling:  olierflotog. — 
C|)e  bappp  tiaj)6  uncIottlieU  to  tbeir  close, 

CI)e  fiuUBen  iope  tl)at  out  of  liarfenefig  etart 
91b  flameg  from  agfjes;  etoift  liefiireg,  t|)at  5art 
Litie  etoallotDg  einffins  loton  eaci)  toinU  tl)at  blotoe  I 

Henry  W.  Longfellow — Holidays. 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 

FROM  very  ancient  times  the  first  day  of  the  year  has  been  observed  as  a  holy 
festival.  Among  the  Jews  we  find  directions  for  its  proper  observance  in 
passages  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  like  Numbers  xxix:  i,  2.  It  was  called 
the  Feast  of  Trumpets,  and  is  to  this  day  carefully  observed  by  pious  Hebrews. 

Among  the  old  Romans  the  year  began  with  the  first  of  March,  when  the 
festival  of  Ancylia  was  celebrated  with  processions,  and  feasting  and  rejoicing. 
When  the  Roman  calendar  was  changed  so  as  to  make  January  first  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  the  same  sacredness  was  attached  to  the  day.  To  show  the  contrast 
between  heathenism  and  Christianity,  Christians  began  to  observe  January  first 
as  a  day  of  joy  and  of  religious  services. 

Among  the  Hindus,  the  first  day  of  the  year  is  celebrated  with  sacrifices  to 
the  God  of  Wisdom,  and  festivities  and  rejoicing  throughout  India  mark  the  day. 
In  China  and  Japan  the  day  is  the  most  striking  and  joyous  of  all  the  religious 
observances.  The  Persians  celebrate  the  New  Year  with  customs  similar  to  those 
which  characterized  the  Hebrew  Sabbatical  Year. 

The  ancient  Druids  commenced  their  year  on  the  tenth  of  March,  the  cutting 
of  the  mistletoe  and  banqueting,  sacrificing,  and  feasting  being  customary.  "  On 
the  first  day  of  the  year,"  Lyman  D.  Abbott  tells  us,  "  the  Mexicans  carefully 
adorned  their  houses  and  temples,  and  employed  themselves  in  various  rel.'gious 
ceremonies.  One,  which  was  at  first,  perhaps,  peculiar  to  this  season,  tho  it 
became  subsequently  of  more  frequent  occurrence,  was  the  offering  to  the  gods  of 
a  human  sacrifice." 

It  thus  appears  that  among  all  nations  and  in  all  ages  the  first  day  of  the  new 
year  has  been  and  is  regarded  not  only  as  a  holiday  but  also  and  especially  a  holy 
day,  a  day  of  glad  rejoicing  and  of  reverent  worship. 


NEW  YEAR'S  EVE  AND   DAY 

By  Alice  Morse  Earle 


The  sole  record  of  the  observance  of  the 
New    Year    by    the    Pilgrims    in    the    New 
World,  named  New  England,  was  most  pro- 
saic,  most  brief — "  We  went  to 
In  New      work    betimes."      Many    of    the 
England     good   Puritan  ministers  thought 
the  celebration  or  even  notice  of 
the  day  in  any  way  savored  of  improper  and 
unchristian    reverence    for    the    heathen    god 
Janus.     Yet  these  English  settlers  came  from 
a    land    where    New    Year's    Eve    and    New 
Year's   Day  were   second   in   importance  and 
in   domestic    observance   only   to    Christmas. 
Throughout     every     English     county     New 
Year's  Eve  was  always  celebrated ;  in  many 
it  was  called  by  the  pretty  name  of  Singing 
E'en,    from    the    custom    which    obtained    of 
singing  the  last  of  the  Christmas   Carols  at 
that  time. 


In  Scotland  the  last  day  of  the  year  was 
called  by  the  uglier  name  of  Hogamanay,  a 
name   of   unknown   and   inexplicable   deriva- 
tion ;  and  in  Scotland  it  was  re- 
in garded   as   the  most  popular  of 
Scotland     all  the  Daft  Days,  as  the  Christ- 
mas     holidays      were      termed. 
Scotch  children  of  the  poorer  class  in  small 
towns    still   beg    on   that   day   from   door   to 
door  at  the  houses  of  wealthier  families  for 
a   dole  of  oat-bread,   calling  out  "  Hogama- 
nay "  or  some  of  the  local  rhymes  which  are 
given    in    Chambers's    Popular    Rhymes    of 
Scotland,  such  as : 

"  Hogamanay, 
Trollolay, 
Give  us  of  your  white  bread 
And  none  of  your  gray !  " 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


They  also  beg  for  cheese,  which  they  call 
"  nog-money,"  and  Brand's  Popular  An- 
tiquities gives  this  begging  rhyme  used  by 
Scotch  children: 

"  Get  up,  gude  wife,  and  binno  sweir. 
Deal  cakes  and  cheese  while  ye  are  here ; 
For  the  time  will  come  when  ye'U  be  dead 
And  neither  need  your  cheese  nor  bread." 

As  the  children  on  these  forays  are 
swathed  in  great  sheets  formed  into  a  deep 
bag  or  pouch  to  carry  the  oatcake,  they  form 
quite  a  mumming  and  fantastic  appearance 
on  the  by-streets  and  lanes. 

In    County    Antrim,    Ireland,    among    the 

Scotch-Irish,  a  similar  custom  obtains;    and 

round    oaten   bannocks    with    a   hole    in   the 

middle,  like  our  doughnuts,  are 

In  specially    baked    for    gift    cakes. 

Ireland      In   other    Irish   counties   a   cake 

and  the      is   thrown   outside   the   door   on 

Isle  of      New   Year's   Eve   "  to  keep   out 

Man         hunger  "  the  ensuing  year. 

In  the  Isle  of  Man  a  curious  be- 
lief and  custom  e^nsted  till  the  middle  of  this 
century.  In  each  home  the  housewife  smoothed 
the  ashes  over  the  kitchen  floor  just  before 
stepping  into  bed.  If  there  were  found  in 
the  morning  on  the  surface  of  the  ashes  any- 
thing resembling  the  print  of  a  foot  that 
pointed  toward  the  door  it  indicated  a  death 
in  the  family  within  the  year.  But  if  the 
heel  of  the  footprint  were  toward  the  door 
it  was  a  sure  proof  that  the  family  would  be 
increased. 

No  English  holiday  was  of  much  account 
that  was  not  observed  with  flowing  bowl. 
On  New  Year's  Eve  the  wassail  bowl  was 
filled  with  spiced  ale  and  drunk  in  families, 
and  poorer  folk  tied  a  bowl  with  ribbons  and 
begged  for  money  for  ale  to  fill  and  refill 
the  bowl,  singing: 

"  Wassail,  wassail  all  over  the  town, 
Our  toast  it  is  white,  our  ale  it  is  brown; 
Our  bowl  it  is  made  of  a  maplin  tree. 
We  be  good  fellows  all,  I  drink  to  thee." 

In  some  parts  of  England  the  old  year  is 
"  swept  out "  by  men  and  boys  with  black- 
ened faces,  dressed  to  represent  sweeps ;  in 
others  it  is  "  burned  out "  with  bonfires. 
Sometimes  it  is  rung  out  with  muffled  bells 
that  are  unmufiled  and  rung  clear  after  twelve 
o'clock. 

Another     curious     local     name     for     New 
Year's   Eve  a  century  and   a  half   ago   was 
"  Scrutiny  Night."     In  Merton  College,  Ox- 
ford,   all    the    college    servants 
Scrutiny    th'en  delivered  up  their  keys  to 
Night  and  the  warden  and  fellows,  and  the 

Watch      worthy    servants    received    them 

Night       again  with  a  Latin  address. 

The  observance  in  the 
churches  of  what  was  named  by  the  Meth- 
odists "  Watch  Night,"  and  the  ringing  of 
the  old  year  out  and  the  New  Year  in,  are 
our  present  American  customs  for  New 
Year's  Eve,  and  may  they  long  continue.     I 


think  no  one  who  has  ever  attended  these 
beautiful  midnight  services  or  heard  those 
bells — equally  solemn  and  happy — has  ever 
done  so  with  indifference.  Charles  Lamb 
says: 

"  Of  all  sounds,  of  all  bells  most  solemn 
and  touching  is  the  peal  which  rings  out  the 
old  year.  I  never  hear  it  without  a  gather- 
ing up  of  my  mind  to  a  concentration  of  all 
the  images  that  have  been  diffused  over  the 
past  twelvemonth.  I  begin  to  know  the 
worth  of  that  regretted  time,  as  when  a  per- 
son dies." 

In  lack  of  other  customs  we  might  revive 
the    pretty    Derbyshire    custom    of    a    posset 
pot,  into  which  is  placed  the  wedding  ring  of 
the     hostess,      each      unmarried 
The  drinker  trying  to  catch  the  ring 

Posset  Pot  in  his  or  her  ladleful  of  posset, 
and  thereby  insure  being  mar- 
ried within  a  year.  I  am  not  sure  that  mod- 
ern palates  would  relish,  or  modern  stom- 
achs digest  posset  which  was  thus  concocted : 
"  Take  eighteen  Eggs,  whites  and  all,  tak- 
ing out  the  treads,  let  them  be  beaten  very 
well,  take  a  pint  of  Sack,  and  a  Quart  of 
Ayle  boyld,  and  scum  it,  then  put  in  three 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  sugar  and  a  Little 
Nutmeg,  let  it  boyl  a  walm  or  two,  then  take 
it  off  the  fire,  stirring  the  eggs  still,  put 
into  them  two  or  three  ladles  full  of  drink, 
then  mingle  all  together  and  set  it  on  the 
fire,  and  keepe  stirring  till  you  find  it  thick, 
then  so  serve  it  up." 

Another  popular  compound  was  called 
"  lamb's  wool  "  and  "  powsowdy  "  was  also 
much  in  vogue — boiled  ale  full  of  roasted 
apples  and  toasted  bread  and  raisins  and 
currants — but  would  prove  doubtful  fare 
nowadays.  In  Scotland  was  everywhere 
drunk  a  "  hot-pint "  made  of  beer,  whisky, 
and  eggs — a  villainous  compound. 

When  the  clock  struck  twelve  the  house 
door  was  thrown  open,  as  for  an  honored 
guest,  and  the  New  Year  was  ushered  in 
with  a  shout  of  "  Welcome !  " 
Various  and  the  first  human  incomer 
Customs  was  watched  for  with  much 
eagerness,  a  woman  visitor  being 
thought — rather  ungallantly — to  bring  ill- 
luck;  a  light-haired  man  was  also  regarded 
with  much  disfavor.  In  Lancashire  many 
swarthy,  dark-haired  men  went  from  house 
to  house  on  New  Year's  morn  "  to  take  the 
New  Year  in,"  receiving  a  gift  of  liquor  or 
money  from  each  host.  In  Scotland  this 
"  first-footing  "  was  a  ceremony  of  much  im- 
portance ;  and  so  universal  was  the  custom 
of  visiting  from  house  to  house  that  a  cen- 
tury ago,  in  Edinburgh,  the  streets  were 
more  thronged  from  twelve  to  one  in  the 
New  Year's  morning  than  at  midday.  As  it 
was  deemed  unlucky  to  enter  a  house 
empty-handed,  the  visitors  bore  with  them 
cakes,  cheese,  and  bowls  or  kettles  of  "  hot 
pint."  As  parties  of  friends  met  in  the 
streets  they  exchanged  cakes  and  buns  and 
sipped  each  other's  drink.  It  was  also  held 
everywhere  to  bring  ill-luck  if  anything 
were  carried  out  of  the  house  before  any- 
thing was  brought  in : 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


"  Take  out  and  take  in, 
Bad  luck  is  sure  to  begin; 
But  take  in  and  take  out, 
Good  luck  will  come  about." 

In  some  portions  of  England  the  Bible 
was  consulted,  or  "  dipped,"  on  New  Year's 
morning  as  an  oracle.  This  ceremony  took 
place  before  breakfast.  The 
The  Bible  book  was  opened  at  random,  and 
Used  the  finger  of  the  seeker  was 
placed,  without  time  even  for 
hssty  perusal,  upon  any  chapter  that  chanced 
to  be  contained  in  the  two  open  pages.  The 
contents  of  this  chapter  were  construed  in 
some  way  into  foretelling  his  fortune  for  the 
year.  I  should  like  to  try  the  skill  and  in- 
genuity of  these  diviners  with  some  of  the 
chapters  in  Leviticus  and  Numbers. 

A  very  pretty  custom  was  that  of  tasting 
the  "  cream  of  the  well,"  the  first  drink  from 
spring  or  well  on  New  Year's  morn.  The 
first  pail  of  water  drawn,  "  the  flower  of  the 
well,"  insured  positively  the  best  husband  in 
the  parish  to  the  water  drawer. 

"  Twall  struck — two  neebour  hizzies  raise 
An  liltin  gaed  a  sad  gate ; 
The  flower  o'  the  well  to  our  house  gaes 
An'  I'll  hae  the  bonniest  lad  yet." 

The  custom  of  exchanging  gifts  on  New 
Year's  is  of  long  standing.  It  was  a  prac- 
tice among  the  Romans  and  the  Saxons, 
and  was  for  many  years  a  time 
New         of    annual    gift-offering    to    the 

Year's  royal  family  of  England.  In 
Gifts  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
these  gifts  assumed  such  pro- 
portions that  it  is  thought  the  royal  ward- 
robe and  jewel  case  were  principally  sup- 
ported by  these  New  Year's  presents  which 
came  from  the  highest  in  the  land  down  to 
the  dustman.  The  Queen  made  gifts  also, 
but  with  a  most  thrifty  eye  to  a  tidy  balance 
in  her  own  favor.  Agnes  Strickland  quotes 
this  account  of  the  method  of  the  royal  re- 
ception of  New  Year's  gifts  in  a  previous 
reign  from  a  manuscript  of  the  time  of  Henry 
VII.: 

''  On  the  day  of  the  New  Year,  when  the 
king  came  to  his  foot-sheet,  his  usher  of  his 
chamber  door  said  to  him,  '  Sire,  here  is  a 
New    Year's   gift   coming   from   the   queen.' 


Then  the  king  replied,  *  Let  it  come  in.'    Then 
the  king's  usher  let  the  queen's 
Henry  VII.  messenger     come     within    the 
and  the       gate.  Henry  VII.,  sitting  at  the 
New  Year     foot  of  the  bed  in  his  dressing 
gown,  the  officers  of  his  bed- 
chamber having  turned  the  top  sheet  smoothly 
down  to  the  foot  of  the  bed  when  the  royal 
personage   rose.     The   queen   in   like  manner 
sat  at  her  foot-sheet  and  received  the  king's 
New  Year's  gift  within  the  gate  of  her  bed- 
railing.    When  this  formal  exchange  had  taken 
place  between  the  king  and  his  consort,  they 
received,  seated  in  the  same  manner,  the  New 
Year's  gifts  of  their  nobles." 

This  system  of  royal  taxation  lasted  long 
and    extended     wide.     Sturdy    old    Latimer 
dared  to  give  King  Henry  VIII.,  instead  of 
a   purse    of   gold,    a    Bible    with 
Gifts  to     the  leaf  boldly  turned  down  at 
Royalty     Heb.      xiii :  4.     The      Common- 
wealth   destroyed    this    burden- 
some   observance    of    costly    royal    gifts    on 
New  Year's. 

Gloves  were  a  common  gift  among  friends, 
and  pins,   when  pins   were   rare  and    few   in 
number.     Oranges    stuck    with    cloves,    and 
apples,  skewered  on  three  sticks  in  the  form 
of  tripod  legs,  and  gilded  nutmegs  were  all 
given.     Tho  Christmas  gifts  were  never  ex- 
changed  in  colonial   days   in   New    England, 
we    learn    from    contemporary    diaries    that 
New  Year's  gifts  of  money,  books,  toys,  etc., 
were  given. 
It    is    curious    to    find    the    Puritan    Judge 
Sewell,   a   hater   of  all    holidays 
Judge       and     set-days,     recording     with 
Sewell's     much  pleasure  his  being  awak- 
New  Year,  ened     on     New     Year's     morn- 
1700        ing  in  sober  Boston,  in  1698,  by 
a    levet    or    blast    of    trumpets; 
and  he  celebrated  January   ist,   1700   (which 
he   seemed   to    deem   the    opening   of   a   new 
century),  by  writing  a  very  poor  poem  and 
causing  it  to  be  cried  or  recited  through  the 
town  by  the  town  crier. 
The  New  Year's  cakes  of  the  Dutch  set- 
tlements   were    not    an    English 
New         fashion ;   and  the  custom  of  New 
Year's       Year's  calls  as  practiced  to  our 
Cakes       own   day   on   Manhattan    Island, 
and   Calls    was     not     of     English     origin. 
This    latter    custom    lived    to    a 
good  old  age,  died  slowly,  and  is  still  deeply 
lamented. — I. 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY  IN  THE  EAST 

By  Alcide  de  Andria 


New   Year's    day   in   part   of  the   Turkish 

Orient  is  the  gayest  holiday  of  the  year,  for 

it  is  also  the  day  of  St.  Basil's  festival.     The 

celebration  of  the  two  feasts  has 

In  the       become  inseparable,  so  to  speak, 

Turkish     in  the  minds  of  the  Greeks,  and 

Orient       the    first     of    January     is     now 

known    throughout    the    Levant 

as  St.  Basil's  day. 


But  it  is  the  Greek  Church  only  which 
honors  the  saint  on  that  date ;  the  Latin 
Church  observes  simply  his  ordination  day, 
some  time  in  June,  while  the  other  Chris- 
tian denominations  have  for  him  merely  the 
same  reverence  as  for  the  principal  Greek 
Fathers,  such  as  St.  Chrysostom,  St.  Greg- 
ory Nazianzen,  etc. 

The    Russians,    tho    following    the    same 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ritual  as  the  Greeks,  hold  no  particular  cele- 
bration on  New  Year's  day  in  honor  of  St. 
Basil :     and    the    true    Hellenes, 
Russians    those   who   live   on   Greek   terri- 
and  tory,   seldom  give  importance  to 

Greeks      a   saint's   feast  on  January   first. 
So    St.    Basil's    birthday    is    dis- 
tinctly  celebrated    only    by   the    Greeks    who 
dwell  on  Turkish  territory  and  are  subjects 
of  the  Sultan. 

They  are  known  as  Greek  Rayahs.  Of 
their  fatherland  they  have  preserved  nothing, 
save  the  religion  and  an  impure  dialect,  which 
varies  more  or  less  in  every  vilayet,  or  prov- 
ince and  little  resembles  the  harmonious 
and  venerable  mother  tongue.  This  dialect 
in  its  varieties  is  by  no  means  the  modern 
Greek,  which  is  a  beautiful  and  very  expres- 
sive language,  rich  in  constructions,  possess- 
ing a  grammar,  and  also  a  vocabulary,  al- 
most as  extensive  as  that  of  the  ancient 
Greek.  The  Rayah  dialects  on  the  other 
hand  are  corrupt  patois  formed  with  words 
borrowed  from  Turkish,  Hebrew,  Armenian, 
Italian,  and   French. 

Nor  does  the  costume  of  the  Rayahs  re- 
semble the  true  Hellenic  dress,  but  rather 
that  of  the  Mohammedans. 

The  ignorance,   debasement,  and  sluggish- 
ness   of    the    Rayahs    are    extreme,    notwith- 
standing  the    efforts    of   the    Greek    govern- 
ment to  supply  them  with  edu- 
The  Status  cational  institutions,  in  the  hope 
of  the       that  they  may  rise  against  their 
Greek        oppressors  and  succeed  in  shak- 
Rayah.     ing    off    their    yoke.     But    it    is 
likely    to    be    long    before    these 
descendants  of  a  noble  race  shall  appreciate 
the     philanthropic     efforts     of     their     freed 
brethren. 

At  present  they  have  adopted  nearly  all 
the  Turkish  fashions,  and  lack  ambition  to 
improve  their  condition.  They  are  fond  of 
their  ease,  love  drinking  and  smoking,  and 
care  for  nothing  beyond  their  material  wel- 
fare. 

Still  they  have  remained  faithful  to  their 
religion  nevertheless ;  and  follow  all  its 
rites  with  a  respectful  and  blindly  supersti- 
tious obedience.  They  observe  all  the  holi- 
days of  the  church,  but  prefer  above  all  St. 
Basil's   day. 

Popular   tradition    represents   St.    Basil   as 
a  venerable  man,  clad  in  bishop's  vestments, 
carrying  incense,   myrrh,  and   other  Oriental 
perfumes.      He    is    supposed    to 
St.   Basil    come  on  the  eve  of  his  birthday, 
reputed  as  January  ist  old  style, 
— January   12th   according   to   the   Gregorian 
calendar, — and    distribute    presents    to    chil- 
dren.    He  is  the  patron   saint   of  the  home 
and    of   the    young.     From    Armenia    to    the 
Archipelago,    and    from    the    Black    Sea    to 
Syria,  there  is  not  a  Rayah  child  who  does 
not  regard  its  New  Year's  presents  as  posi- 
tive proof  of  his  coming. 

Among  the  young  he  ranks  as  high  as  St. 
Nicholas  in  Russia,  Germany,  and  other 
countries :  but  among  the  old  he  is  held  in 
great  veneration  as  one  of  the  most  eminent 
Greek    Fathers,    and    also   as   the    most   elo- 


quent promoter  of  monasticism  throughout 
the  East.  Besides,  he  was  a  great  philan- 
thropist and  an  ardent  apostle. 

Csesarea,  the  capital  of  the  former  prov- 
ince of  Cappadocia,  was  St.  Basil's  native 
place.  At  the  age  of  thirty-three  he  was 
made  a  presbyter,  and  a  few  years  later 
bishop  of  the  same  city,  a  position  which  he 
held  until  his  death,  A.  D.  379. 

Elaborate  preparations  are  made  for  his 
festival,  which  begins  at  an  early  hour  on 
the  evening  of  December  31st.  The  shop- 
keepers adorn  their  windows 
St.  Basil's  with  an  attractive  medley  of 
Eve,         toys  and  holiday  gifts.    Oranges, 

Dec.  31  dried  and  fresh  fruit,  imported 
and  domestic  table  delicacies, 
candies,  cakes,  are  either  displayed  in  the 
show-cases  or  piled  up  in  front  of  the  stores, 
which  are  extravagantly  lighted  up  for  the 
occasion,  and  decorated  with  garlands  of  col- 
ored paper  skilfully  cut  out  in  the  shape  of 
natural  flowers.  From  the  ceilings,  from  the 
chandeliers,  from  the  pictures,  from  the  top 
of  the  windows,  they  fall  in  grouped  festoons. 

The  mild  climate  permits  a  large  and  varie- 
gated crowd  to  circulate  through  the  streets 
and  gather  in  the  stores,  and  no  sight  is  more 
picturesque  than  a  street  in  the  East  on  St. 
Basil's  eve.  There  are  to  be  seen  people  of 
communities  and  races  having  nothing  in  com- 
mon but  the  land  and  the  surrounding  atmos- 
phere ;  there  are  curious  contrasts  of  complex- 
ion and  wearing  apparel ;  there  the  genuine 
attire  of  five  races  is  on  constant  exhibition. 

You  see,  for  instance,  the  long,  loose  robes 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  bright  red  or  yellow  silk 
garments  worn  by  their  wives.  There  are 
the  short,  wide  breeches  of  the  Turks,  con- 
trasting with  the  long  ones  of  the  Rayahs. 
The  small  red  fez  and  the  large  vermillion 
one,  designed  to  hang  down  on  one  side  of 
the  face  like  the  Phrygian  cap,  are  inter- 
mingled with  the  plain  Derby  and  black  silk 
hats  of  the  European  gentlemen,  whose 
simple  attire  is  made  obtrusively  plain  by 
the  bright-colored  goods  used  by  the  natives. 

Conceive,  too,  the  variety  of  garments 
worn  by  the  women.  Imagine,  for  instance, 
the  Parisian  dress  and  bonnet  of  a  European 
merchant's  daughter,  side  by  side  with  the 
loose  yellow  breeches,  the  lilac  doublet,  and 
the  long  green  veil  of  a  wealthy  Armenian 
lady !  Every  day  one  sees  embroidered 
bosoms,  long  garments  sometimes  trimmed 
with  fur,  robes.  Cashmere  shawls,  and  bright 
red  silk  slippers,  on  the  women. 

Among  men  it  is  not  uncommon  to  behold 
bare  legs  and  gorgeous  holiday  turbans ; 
often  a  gallant  Mohammedan,  covered  with 
rags  and  filth,  carries  in  his  belt  an  assortment 
of  Damascus  blades,  yataghans,  and  jewel- 
encrusted  firearms,  worth  a  small  fortune. 

Two    singular    customs    contribute    to    this 

holiday's    particular    character ;     one    is    the 

making  of  "  St.  Basil's  cake,"  the  other  the 

singing   of   a   song   through   the 

"  St.         streets  on  the  eve  of  the  saint's 

Basil's      alleged  birthday. 

Cake  "  Elaborate  preparations  for  the 

kneading   of   the    cake    begin    in 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


every  house  two  days,  at  least,  before  the 
festival,  for  much  labor  is  involved  in  its 
confection.  All  the  women  of  the  family 
squat  on  a  rug  in  the  Turkish  fashion,  around 
a  low  circular  pastry-table,  and  amidst  gay 
stories  and  laughter  the  rolling-pin  runs  over 
the  rich  paste,  while  the  housewives  vie  in 
decorating  and  forming  the  cakes.  The 
commonest  decorations  are  Oriental  ara- 
besques representing  palms,  flowers,  shells, 
or  grotesque  figures  with  which  to  amuse  the 
children,  while  the  most  skilful  workers  make 
dolls  whose  faces  are  red  eggs  firmly  em- 
bedded in  the  paste. 

These  would  seem  simple  to  an  American 
housekeeper ;  but  in  a  country  where  cooking 
utensils  and  baking  ovens  are  very  rude,  the 
undertaking  requires  much  patience.  The 
cake  consists  of  butter,  eggs,  and  sugar,  and 
its  flavoring  is  of  certain  spices.  It  is  usu- 
ally made  very  rich,  so  that  it  may  keep  soft 
for  days  after  it  is  baked. 

Housekeepers  dread  the  task,  for  a  large 
quantity  of  St.  Basil's  cake  is  made  in  each 
family.  A  large  part  of  it  is  destined  for  the 
hospitals,  the  children's  and  orphan's  asy- 
lums, the  prisons,  and  the  poor;  another  part 
is  given  away  to  callers,  to  servants,  and  to 


the  boys  who  come  around  in  the  early  eve- 
ning to  sing  St.  Basil's  song. 

New   Year's   eve   is   a   great   time   for  the 
Rayah  boys.     As  soon  as  they  ring  the  bell 
of  a  house  the   door  is   thrown 
The  Rayah  open  and  the  voice  of  the  mas- 
Boys  on    ter  is  heard,  saying : 
New  "  Let    the    boys    in    at    once ! 

Year's  Eve  Give  them  money,  fruit,  and  all 
that  they  can  carry  of  St.  Basil's 
cake.      Come   on,   servants,   fill   their  pockets 
while  they  give  us  their  song !  " 

Then  the  poor  children,  delighted  by  the 
warm  welcome  of  the  host  and  the  profusion 
of  dainty  things  given  them,  sing  with  frenzy 
the  romantic  little  tale  of  St.  Basil,  which 
ends  with  the  calling  down  of  numerous 
blessings  on  the  generous  family  during  the 
new  year. 

But  the  strangest  thing  of  all  is  neither  St. 

Basil's     song     nor     St.     Basil's 

Confusion  cake;  it  is  a  curious  mistake  as 

of  a  Date  to     date    which    has     prevailed 

among    the    Greek    Rayahs    for 

many  generations.     For  history  declares  that 

the  1st  day  of  January  is  not  the  anniversay 

of  St.  Basil's  birth,  but  that  of  his  death! — 

Y    C. 


A  GREETING  TO  THE  NEW  YEAR 

By  J.  R.  Miller,  D.D. 


We  are  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  year. 
We  do  not  know  what  the  year  holds  for 
us.  but  we  are  not  afraid  of  it.  We  have 
learned  to  look  for  kindness  and  goodness 
in  all  our  paths,  and  so  we  go  forward  with 
glad  hope  and  expectation. 

It  is  always  a  serious  thing  to  live.  We 
can  pass  through  any  year  but  once.  If  we 
have  lived  negligently  we  cannot  return  to 
amend  what  we  have  slurred  over.  We  can- 
not correct  mistakes,  fill  up  blank  spaces, 
erase  lines  we  may  be  ashamed  of,  cut  out 
pages  unworthily  filled.  The  irrevocableness 
of  life  ought  alone  to  be  motive  enough  for 
incessant  watchfulness  and  diligence.  Not  a 
word  we  write  can  be  changed.  Nothing  we 
do  can  be  canceled. 

Another  element  of  seriousness  in  living 
is  the  influence  of  our  life  on  other  lives. 
We  do  not  pass  through  the  year  alone ;  we 
are  tied  up  with  others  in  our  homes,  our 
friendships,  our  companionships,  our  associa- 
tions, our  occupations.  We  are  always 
touching  others  and  leaving  impressions  on 
them.  Human  lives  are  like  the  photog- 
rapher's sensitized  plates,  receiving  upon 
them  the  image  of  whatever  passes  before 
them.  Our  careless  words  drop,  and  we 
think  not  where  they  fall,  but  the  lightest 
of  them  lodges  in  some  heart  and  leaves  its 
blessing  or  its  blight.  All  our  acts,  disposi- 
tions and  moods  do  something  in  the  shaping 
and  coloring  of  other  lives. 

It  is  said  that  every  word  whispered  into 
the  air  starts  vibrations  which  will  quiver  on 


and  on  forever.  The  same  is  true  also  of 
influences  which  go  out  from  our  lives  in  the 
commonest  days — they  will  go  on  forever. 
This  should  make  us  most  careful  what  we 
do,  what  we  say,  and  what  quality  of  life  we 
give  to  the  world.  It  would  be  sad,  indeed, 
if  we  should  set  going  unholy  or  hurtful 
influences,  if  we  should  touch  even  one  life 
unwholesomely,  if  we  should  speak  even  a 
word  which  starts  a  soul  toward  death. 

Still  another  reason  why  life  is  so  serious 
is  because  we  must  give  account  of  it  all. 
Jesus  hinted  at  the  large  meaning  of  this 
truth  when  He  said  that  for  every  idle  word 
that  men  speak  they  must  give  account.  If 
for  the  idle  words — light,  airy,  trivial,  empty 
words — how  much  more  for  the  words  which 
are  filled  with  bitterness,  or  with  malice,  or 
with  the  poison  of  impurity,  or  with  the  evil 
of  falsehood,  of  envy,  of  irreverence !  We 
are  not  done  with  life  as  we  live  it ;  we 
shall  meet  it  all  again.  This  should  make 
us  exceedingly  watchful  over  every  word, 
act,  and  influence  of  our  days.  Nothing  can 
be  concealed.  Every  secret  thing  shall  be 
brought  to  light.  We  should  give  the  year 
nothing  which  we  shall  ever  be  ashamed  to 
see  again. 

These  things  being  true,  how  should  we 
enter  upon  the  new  year?  For  one  thing, 
we  should  begin  it  with  Christ.  Who  is 
sufficient  for  the  serious  problem  of  living 
without  the  divine  grace  and  help?  One 
New  Year's  eve  a  trembling  young  Christian, 
who  in  the  year  just  closing  had  been  greatly 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


helped  by  a  strong  friendship,  said  to  the 
friend  who  had  given  the  help,  "  May  I  put 
my  hand  in  yours  for  another  year?"  The 
answer  was,  "  Yes,  but  in  Christ's  first." 
There  is  no  other  hand  that  can  guide  us  safely 
through  the  new  and  strange  experiences. 

Then  we  need  great  watchfulness  if  we 
would  make  the  voyage  of  the  year  in  safety. 
Tho  we  have  Christ  with  us,  this  does  not 
relieve  us  of  our  own  share  of  the  responsi- 
bility. God  does  not  carry  us  on  angel  wings 
through  this  world.  The  devoutest  pilot 
would  not  run  his  vessel  over  the  sea  by 
prayer  alone,  without  giving  heed  to  his  com- 
pass and  his  chart.  Pray  as  earnestly  as  he 
might  for  divine  protection  and  guidance, 
he  would  watch  every  movement  of  his  ves- 
sel and  give  it  his  utmost  care.  A  life  of 
prayer  does  not  free  us  from  duty.  One  of 
our  Lord's  words  of  counsel  was  "  Watch!  " 
We  need  to  watch  ourselves,  for  our  hearts 
are  deceitful.  We  need  to  watch  against  the 
evil  there  is  in  others  about  us.  We  need 
to  watch  that  we  are  not  swept  upon  fatal 
rocks  by  sudden  storms. 

Another  suggestion  for  a  prosperous  new 
year  is  that  we  should  fill  its  every  hour 
with  duty  well  done.  Duty  is  a  large  word. 
It  includes  all  that  we  owe  to  God — honor, 
love,  obedience,  faithfulness.  It  includes  all 
that  we  owe  to  men.  No  year  can  be  happy 
or  beautiful  with  God  left  out.  Some  people 
strive  to  render  all  love's  duties  to  their  fel- 
lowmen,  and  then  suppose  they  have  done  all 
that  needs  to  be  done.  But  all  the  while  they 
have  forgotten  God,  giving  Him  no  honor, 
not  seeking  to  do  His  will,  never  bowing  in 
homage  before  Him.  It  is  a  poor  life  that 
has  no  heavenly  outlook.  A  picture  without 
sky  is  defective.  A  life  without  heaven  in 
it,  lacks  the  chief  glory  of  life.  Duty  toward 
God  must  fill  the  year  that  is  to  be  deeply 
happy.  Prayer  must  bring  down  into  all  its 
days  heaven's  grace  and  strength.  The 
flowers  must  have  the  sun  and  the  rain  and 
dew  of  the  skies  to  fill  their  cups  with  fra- 
grance. So  do  we  need  God's  blessing  in  our 
life. 

Then  there  are  duties  to  man.  If  we  love 
God  we  shall  love  our  brother  also.  St. 
Paul  said  he  was  a  debtor  to  every  man, 
Greek  or  Barbarian.  He  meant  that  he  owed 
to  every  one  the  duty  of  love.  Every  rela- 
tion of  life  brings  its  obligations.  We  make 
gladness  for  ourselves  only  when  we  do  our 
duty  as  well  as  we  can,  wherever  we  are.  It 
never  can  be  found  in  selfishness. 

"  He  is  dead  whose  hand  is  not  opened  wide 
To  help  the  need  of  a  human  brother ; 

He  doubles  the  length  of  his  life-long  ride 
Who  gives  his  fortunate  place  to  another; 


And  a  thousand  million  lives  are  his 
Who  carries  the  world  in  his  sympathies — 
To  give  is  to  live !  " 

Some  people  dream  of  happiness  as  some- 
thing they  will  come  to  by  and  by,  at  the 
end  of  a  course  of  toil  and  struggle.  But 
the  true  way  to  find  happiness  is  as  we  go 
on  in  our  work.  Every  day  has  its  own  cup 
of  sweetness.  In  every  duty  is  a  pot  of  hid- 
den manna.  In  every  sorrow  is  a  blessing 
of  comfort.  In  every  burden  is  rolled  up  a 
gift  of  God.  In  all  life  Christ  is  with  us  if 
we  are  true  to  Him. 

"  The  work  which  we  count  so  hard  to  do, 
He  makes  it  easy,  for  He  works  too ; 
The  days  that  are  long  to  live  are  His, 
A  bit  of  His  bright  eternities. 
And  close  to  our  need  His  helping  is." 

If  we  have  learned  this  secret,  even  the 
things  that  seem  unpleasant  and  disagreeable 
yield  joy  in  the  doing.  A  traveler  in  South 
Africa  saw  some  boys  playing  marbles,  us- 
ing pebbles.  One  of  these  rolled  to  the 
traveler's  feet,  and  picking  it  up,  it  seemed 
to  him  only  a  rough  stone,  without  beauty  or 
worth.  But  as  he  turned  it  over  a  gleam  of 
light  flashed  from  one  spot  of  it.  It  was  a 
diamond.  Duties  seem  dull  and  dreary  to 
us,  unattractive,  hard,  but  they  enfold  se- 
crets of  happiness  which  we  find  when  we 
accept  them  with  love  and  do  them  cheer- 
fully. 

Another  way  to  be  sure  of  a  good  year  is 
to  make  it  a  year  of  growth.  We  are  in 
this  world  to  grow.  Each  day  should  show 
its  new  line  in  every  life  and  character.  We 
should  be  better  men  and  women  at  the  end 
of  the  year  than  we  were  at  the  beginning. 
Yet  we  must  remember  that  mere  largeness 
is  not  always  growth.  One  may  be  richer 
in  estate  and  yet  be  poorer  in  mind  and  heart. 
Ruskin  says,  "  He  only  is  advancing  in  life 
whose  heart  is  growing  softer,  whose  blood 
warmer,  whose  brain  quicker,  whose  spirit 
is  entering  into  living  peace." 

"  The  glory  of  our  life 
Comes   not   from   what   we   do   or  what   we 

know. 
But  dwells  for  evermore  in  what  we  are." 

These  are  but  a  few  suggestions  of  ways 
in  which  we  may  make  the  new  year  one  of 
happiness  and  blessing.  Let  us  give  it  noth- 
ing to  keep  which  will  not  prove  an  honor 
to  God's  name  and  a  blessing  to  the  world ; 
nothing  which  we  shall  not  be  willing  to 
learn  of  again  when  we  stand  before  the 
great  white  throne. — P.  J. 


A  HAPPY  NEW  YEAR 

By  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.D. 


Few  persons  begin  a  new  year  without  some 
sort  df  hope  or  determination  that  it  shall  be 
a  happier  year  than  the  preceding.    But  most 


men  and  women  come  to  the  close  of  the  year 
disappointed  and  discouraged.  The  year  has 
been  about  the  same  as   other  years.     The 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


fond  hopes  of  New  Year's  Day  have  been 
blasted.  Is  there  any  sure  way  by  which 
the  year  to  come  may  be  a  happier  year  than 
any  of  its  predecessors?  What  is  the  se- 
cret of  a  happy  year? 

First,  get  rid  of  sin.  Sin  is  not  only  the 
sting  of  death,  but  also  the  sting  of  life. 
"  The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard.' 
One  who  has  never  tried  God's  remedy  for 
sin  may  dream  that  he  is  happy,  but  he  is 
as  one  who  dreams  that  he  eats,  but  he 
waketh,  and,  behold,  he  is  yet  hungry.  Sin 
is  darkness,  weakness,  death.  Some  seek  to 
cover  their  sins,  but  ''  he  that  covereth  his 
sin  shall  not  prosper."  Some  try  to  justify 
themselves  in  sin,  but  this  is  impossible, 
because  each  one  is  condemned  by  his  own 
conscience.  Some  ignore  the  fact  of  sin  and 
seek  to  silence  conscience  by  multiplying  in- 
iquity, but  this  will  only  augment  the  dark 
account  and  heap  higher  the  mountain  under 
which  the  soul  already  groans.  Some  seek 
happiness  in  the  good  things  of  the  world, 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  or  in  the  society 
of  kindred  spirits.  While  this  joy  is  real,  it 
is  marred  by  the  awful  fact  of  unconfessed 
and  unpardoned  sin.  Some  study  philoso- 
phy, some  read  amusing  fiction,  some  reform 
their  lives  and  mend  their  ways.  All  these 
expedients  must  fail.  They  have  all  failed. 
There  is  one  way  to  get  rid  of  sin.  "  Repent 
and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be 
blotted  out."  Then  shall  the  soul  take  up 
the  song  of  the  psalmist,  "  As  far  as  the  east 
is  from  the  west,  so  far  hath  he  removed 
our  transgressions  from  us." 

Learn  to  serve.  So  long  as  we  bend  our 
energies  and  our  wits  to  the  task  of  securing 
the  service  of  others  we  can  never  be  happy. 
"  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 
The  mistake  of  this  world  is  the  belief  that 
all  blessedness  is  found  in  receiving.  This 
fatal  error  is  seen  in  the  way  most  men  use 
their  friends.  They  cherish  their  friendship 
for  what  they  can  make  out  of  them.  Most 
men  love  their  country  for  what  they  hope 
to  get  out  of  it.  Many  church  members  have 
no  use  for  the  Church  except  so  far  as  they 
can  make  the  Church  serve  them.  Some 
ministers  decline  calls  to  Christian  pulpits 
and  refuse  appointments  or  complain  of 
them  merely  because  the  only  interest  they 
have  in  the  Church  is  the  salary  or  support 
it  offers.  The  question  should  be,  "  How 
much  can  I  put  into  that  Church?"  not, 
"  How  much  can  I  get  out  of  it?  "  Even  in 
prayer  men  make  this  mistake.  It  is  right  to 
plead    with    God    for    help,    because    we    are 


helpless,  and  He  is  an  almighty  helper.  But 
when  we  never  speak  to  God  except  to  beg 
Him  for  help,  we  prove  our  ignorance  of  the 
great  secret  of  life  and  happiness.  If  we 
love  God,  our  hearts  will  be  set  on  serving 
Him.  We  will  not  be  content  to  have  Him 
serve  us.  Jesus  was  servant  of  all.  He 
came  to  minister.  He  taught  us  that  the 
chief  place  is  the  place  of  a  servant.  The 
new  year  will  be  full  of  happiness  in  pro- 
portion to  its  fulness  of  service.  Let  one  set 
about  serving  God,  serving  his  kindred,  serv- 
ing the  church,  serving  his  country,  serving 
his  fellow-men,  and  fill  each  day  full  of  serv- 
ice, and  the  year  will  be  filled  with  joy. 

Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow.  Much 
of  the  trouble  of  our  past  years  has  been 
borrowed  trouble.  We  have  suffered  more 
from  ills  that  never  happened  than  from  any 
other.  We  have  the  best  of  reasons  for 
keeping  the  mind  free  from  the  troubles 
of  to-morrow.  One  is,  the  trouble  of  to- 
day is  sufficient.  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day 
is  the  evil  thereof."  Moreover,  we  have 
the  promise  that  the  strength  we  need  will 
come  when  it  is  needed :  "  As  thy  day,  so 
shall  thy  strength  be."  Another  reason  is, 
God  has  hidden  the  future  from  us  for  this 
very  purpose,  that  we  might  not  worry 
over  it.  Overburdened  souls  .are  overbur- 
dened chiefly  with  borrowed  burdens.  They 
could  bear  present  trouble,  but  they  are 
carrying  burdens  for  to-morrow  in  addi- 
tion. 

Learn  the  lesson  of  transformed  sorrow. 
"  Count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations."  All  blessings  abused  become 
a  curse,  and  all  ills  sanctified  become  a  bless- 
ing. "  All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God."  Good  men  have 
been  enriched  more  by  their  sorrows  than  by 
their  joys.  We  have  made  more  advance- 
ment in  the  darkness  than  in  the  light.  If 
we  count  our  burdens,  our  trials,  our  suf- 
ferings, all  loss,  we  make  a  great  mistake. 
"  Count  it  all  joy."  "  Your  sorrow  shall  be 
turned  into  joy."  Whatever  the  year  shall 
bring  will  be  a  blessing  to  the  righteous. 
We  know  not  which  will  bring  most  good — 
gain  or  loss,  pain  or  pleasure.  Then  leave 
to  our  heavenly  Father  the  choice  of  the 
way.  Let  it  be  our  concern  to  follow  whith- 
ersoever He  leadeth.  Let  the  new  year  be  a 
year  of  freedom  from  sin.  a  year  of  service, 
a  year  of  trust  in  God,  and  it  will  be  a  happy 
year  from  first  to  last.  It  may  be  the  hard- 
est year  we  have  known,  but  it  will  be  the 
happiest. — C.  A. 


THE  PLEA  OF  THE  FUTURE 

By  Henry  Armitt  Brown 


My  Countrymen: — 

The  moments  are  quickly  passing,  and  we 
stand  like  some  traveler  upon  a  lofty  crag 
that  separates  two  boundless  seas.  The 
century  that  is  closing  is  complete.  "  The 
past,"  said  your  great  statesman,  "  is  secure." 


It  is  finished  and  beyond  our  reach.  The 
hand  of  detraction  cannot  dim  its  glories, 
nor  the  tears  of  repentance  wipe  away  its 
stains.  Its  good  and  evil,  its  joy  and  sorrow, 
its  truth  and  falsehood,  its  honor  and  its 
shame    we    cannot    touch.     Sigh    for    them, 


lO 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


blush  for  them,  weep  for  them  if  we  will, 
we  cannot  change  them  now.  The  old  cen- 
tury is  dying  and  they  are  to  be  buried  with 
him ;  his  history  is  finished  and  they  will 
stand  upon  its  roll  forever. 

The  century  that  is  opening  is  all  our  own. 
The  years  that  are  before  us  are  a  virgin 
page.  We  can  inscribe  them  as  we  will. 
The  future  of  our  country  rests  upon  us. 
The  happiness  of  posterity  depends  upon  us. 
The  fate  of  humanity  may  be  in  our  hands. 
That  pleading  voice,  choked  with  the  sobs 
of  ages,  which  has  so  often  spoken  to  deaf 


ears,  is  lifted  up  to  us.  It  asks  us  to  be 
brave,  benevolent,  consistent,  true  to  the 
teachings  of  our  history,  proving  "  divine 
descent  by  worth  divine."  It  asks  us  to  be 
virtuous,  building  up  public  virtue  upon  pri- 
vate worth ;  seeking  that  righteousness  that 
exalteth  nations.  It  asks  us  to  be  patriotic, 
loving  our  country  before  all  other  things ; 
making  her  happiness  our  happiness,  her 
honors  ours,  her  fame  our  own.  It  asks 
us  in  the  name  of  charity,  in  the  name  of 
freedom,  in  the  name  of  God ! — W.  B.  O. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

OUR  GUIDE 

By  James  Stalker,  D.D. 
Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  aftcrzvard  receive  me  to  glory. — Psa.  Ixxiii:  24 


We  are  met  this  morning  to  wish  one 
another  a  happy  New  Year,  and  let  me  vvish 
you  one  and  all  a  happy  New  Year.  It  is  a 
good  thing  surely  that  we  should  begin  the 
year  with  prayer,  seeking  to  lay  our  life 
anew  on  God's  altar;  and  it  is  good  also,  I 
think,  to  begin  it  in  the  Church,  that  our 
sympathies  may  not  be  confined  within  our 
own  breasts,  but  be  taught  to  circle  round 
our  friends  and  our  fellow-members,  and 
round  the  things  and  Kingdom  of  Christ. 
Now  I  like  to  give  a  New  Year's  day  motto 
for  the  year,  and  it  is  often  very  delightful 
for  me  to  find  far  on  in  the  year  that  the 
New  Year's  motto  is  well  remembered.  I 
heard  one  of  our  elders,  just  a  couple  of 
months  ago,  quoting  up  at  the  mission  last 
New  Year's  motto,  and  I  am  not  sure  but 
he  quoted  those  of  several  years  past.  Now 
I  am  going  to  give  you  one  to-day  that  I 
think  will  be  very  encouraging  and  helpful. 
You  will  find  it  in  the  Psalms — seventy-third 
Psalm,  twenty-fourth  verse :  "  Thou  shalt 
guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  afterward 
receive  me  to  glory." 

The  Word  of  God  says  a  great  deal  about 
guiding.  There  are  many  prayers  in  it  in 
which  God's  people  ask  for  guidance,  and 
there  are  many  promises  in  it  which  God  un- 
dertakes to  guide  His  people.  Now  what  does 
that  imply?  Who  are  they  who  need  to  be 
guided?  Well,  children  do.  When  very 
young  you  know  how  a  mother  requires  to 
take  a  child's  hand,  and  even  teach  it  to 
walk,  and  in  many  respects  we  are  children. 
Some  of  us  have  just  begun  the  Christian 
life,  and  even  those  of  us  who  have  been 
longer  in  it  are  in  many  respects  children. 
You  remember  when  Jeremiah  was  called  to 
be  a  prophet,  how  he  said  at  once,  '"  Ah, 
God,  I  am  a  child ;  "  and  when  Solomon  was 
called  to  be  a  king,  he  said  very  much  the 
same  thing.  Now  when  we  think  of  our 
high  vocation — for  the  Christian  calling  is 
both  a  prophetic,  and  a  kingly  and  priestly 
vocation — we  also  say,  "  I  am  a  child."     We 


need  to  be  guided.  Then,  again,  strangers 
need  to  be  guided.  When  we  are  in  a  for- 
eign land  we  need  to  take  a  guide-book  with 
us.  When  we  are  in  a  strange  town  we  need 
to  ask  our  way.  Now  every  New  Year  as 
it  comes  is  a  foreign  country.  We  have  not 
passed  this  way  heretofore.  We  do  not 
know  what  the  year  contains.  There  are 
none  who  need  guidance  so  much  as  the 
blind,  and  we  may  almost  say  that,  as  re- 
gards the  future,  we  are  blind.  There  is  a 
dark  curtain  hanging  before  us,  and  we  can- 
not penetrate  the  future,  therefore  we  need 
some  one  to  guide  us. 

Then,  again,  guidance  is  needed  when  any 
one's  road  is  very  adventurous  or  perilous. 
You  know  when  travelers  go  away  to  Swit- 
zerland, and  want  to  ascend  the  Alps,  they 
have  to  take  guides  with  them  ;  and  I  be- 
lieve that  when  the  ascent  is  very  perilous 
they  are  tied  to  the  guide.  Even  that  is  not 
sometimes  a  perfect  protection,  because  the 
guide  may  slip  away;  but  if  we  are  tied  to 
our  Guide,  there  is  no  fear  that  He  will  fail 
us.  And  our  path  is  generally  a  perilous 
one.  We  are  not  going  the  broad  highway 
of  ordinary  life ;  we  are  seeking  the  white 
heights  of  purity,  the  lofty  heights  of  medi- 
tation and  contemplation ;  and,  therefore,  we 
need  a  Guide  to  take  us  up  the  perilous  and 
difficult  way.  And  then,  once  more,  the 
erring  need  a  guide ;  and  I  think  the  most 
pathetic  thought  suggested  by  the  words, 
"  Thou  shalt  guide  me,"  is  how  much  we 
have  gone  astray  in  years  past.  There  was 
a  clear  path,  but  how  often  we  have  turned 
to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left,  and  we  know 
what  the  result  of  that  has  been,  how  disas- 
trous both  to  us  and  to  others ;  and  when  we 
remember  our  past  errors,  most  pathetically 
and  most  earnestly  of  all  do  we  say,  "  Thou 
shalt  guide  me." 

"  Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel." 
There  is,  I  am  certain,  an  unconscious  guid- 
ance in  Providence.  God  sees  us  past  many 
a    peril    that    we    do    not    see.      There    is    a 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


II 


loveh^  phrase  somewhere — I  think  it  is  in 
the  Psalms — about  guidance.  It  says,  "  I  will 
guide  thee  with  mine  eye."  What  does  that 
mean?  It  always  makes  me  think  of  a 
mother,  out  in  the  open  air,  perhaps,  sitting 
on  a  green,  or  in  a  room  sitting  with  her 
charge ;  and  her  child  is  playing  through  the 
house,  and  she  is  sewing  or  knitting,  but  with 
the  corner  of  her  eye  she  is  watching  the 
little  one  all  the  time,  and  with  her  feet  she 
pushes  something  out  of  the  way  to  clear  its 
path ;  or  if  she  sees  something  sharp  lying  in 
the  path  she  takes  it  quietly  away.  And  I  have 
no  doubt  unconsciously  to  us  God  thus 
guides  us  with  His  eye,  taking  many  a  peril- 
ous thing  out  of  our  path,  shutting  up  many 
a  by-way,  controlling  us  often  when  we  do 
not  know  it  by  His  Providence,  so  that  we 
are  guided  aright.  But  on  the  whole  the  guid- 
ance of  Christians  by  God  is  a  conscious 
guidance.  "  I  will  guide  thee  with  my  coun- 
sel." It  is  an  intelligent  guidance.  We 
come  to  think  God's  thoughts  about  our  life. 
It  is  a  voluntary  guidance.  He  does  not  lead 
us  against  our  will,  but  He  makes  our  will 
insensibly  to  harmonize  with  His,  and,  there- 
fore. He  guides  us  with  His  counsel.  Where 
do  we  find  that  counsel?  Well,  we  find  it 
in  His  Word,  and  I  am  going  to  say  to  you 
now  that  we  are  gathered  here  to  speak  about 
guidance  for  the  year — if  we  want  really  to 
be  guided  we  must  be  searching  the  Word 
during  the  year  more  than  ever  we  have 
done,  more  carefully  than  we  have  done. 
You  that  have  any  experience  of  this  are 
aware  how  the  Word  throws  light  on  every 
day's  duties,  and  how  the  new  difficulties 
and  dangers  of  the  way  grow  light  by  the 
Word  of  God.  Another  way  in  which  He 
guides  us  by  His  counsel  is  by  the  preaching 
of  the  Word.  And  I  would  say  to  you  who 
want  to  be  guided,  attend  diligently  upon  the 
preaching  of  God's  Word  in  His  House. 
I  think  you  can  say  that  the  sermons  of  the 
Sabbath  day  throw  light  upon  the  week,  and 
your  experience  through  the  week  often 
gives  a  wonderful  meaning  to  the  sermon. 
And  then,  last  of  all,  God  gives  us  His 
counsel  through  His  Holy  Spirit — by  the 
Word,  by  preaching,  and  by  the  Spirit. 

"  Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel, 
and  afterward.  .  .  .  "  Do  you  know  I 
think  that  is  the  best  word  in  the  whole 
verse.  It  is  a  perilous  way,  it  is  a  difficult 
way  we  are  going  on,  but  there  is  a  glorious 
afterward.  There  is  an  afterward  even  for 
this  world,  and  there  is  a  glorious  afterward 
for  the  next  world.  Now,  my  dear  people, 
I  think  there  is  nothing  laid  on  my  heart  so 
much  to  say  to  you  this  morning  as  this — 
do  not  despair  in  yourselves.  Do  not  think 
that  your  life  has  come  to  an  end,  that  you 
have  already  seen  the  best  of  existence.  No ; 
the  best  is  still  in  front.  I  think  that  is  a 
glorious  hope  to  the  Christian.  In  regard 
to  the  merely  natural  life  there  comes  a  time 
when  everything  begins  to  give  way.  The 
body  gets  stiff,  and  begins  to  fail.  Even  the 
memory  begins  to  be  lost,  and  the  mind  is 
not  so  reliable  as  it  once  was.  The  taber- 
nacle has  to  be  taken  down,  but  it  is  not  so 


with  the  inner  life,  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
Tho  the  outward  man  perish,  the  inner  mart 
is  renewed  day  by  day.  Do  not  despair  of  your- 
self, but  keep  a  bright  hope  for  the  future. 

Some  of  us  have  been  reading  dear  Dr. 
Bonar's  life  during  the  last  few  days. 
Well,  it  is  a  very  beautiful  book  in  many 
ways,  but  I  think  Dr.  Bonar's  life— to  me, 
at  all  events — had  its  greatest  charm  and 
best  lesson  in  this:  that  he  never  gave  up. 
He  never  thought  that  his  service  to  God  was 
done,  and  he  never  thought  that  God's  good- 
ness to  him  was  done.  He  was  ripening  and 
growing  to  the  very  end.  And  can  we  not 
say  this — I  felt  it  whenever  I  came  to  Glas- 
gow— that  that  dear  old  man's  very  presence 
in  Glasgow  streets  was  a  message  and  a  ser- 
mon? We  all  felt  here  that  merely  to  have 
him  there  was  might,  a  tower  of  strength 
to  religion,  and  an  encouragement  to  us  all. 
And  I  would  say  to  you  who  are  growing  old, 
look  for  an  influence  of  that  kind.  Even 
tho  part  of  your  activity  has  to  cease,  and 
some  great  scheme  in  which  you  have  been 
engaged  has  to  be  laid  aside,  God  has  new 
forms  of  interest  and  activity  for  you.  Do 
not  look  upon  your  life  as  done  and  over. 
I  think,  perhaps,  we  are  far  too  apt  to  think 
our  life  is  over.  We  soon  begin  to  despair, 
and  we  do  so  in  regard  to  the  inner  life. 
I  dare  say  there  is  some  one  here  who  has 
been  fighting  hard  with  some  sin  or  tempta- 
tion, and  you  are  beginning  to  despair. 
Don't  despair !  God  will  give  you  the  vic- 
tory yet.  Perhaps  some  of  you  have  been 
thinking,  when  you  looked  upon  an  advanced 
Christian,  "  I  never  could  become  like  that. 
There  is  a  beauty,  a  godliness  that  I  never 
can  attain."  There  is  no  beauty  of  holiness 
God  cannot  give  to  you  and  me.  Keep  look- 
ing to  the  future.  There  is  always  an  after- 
ward. We  have  not  exhausted  Christ  yet. 
We  have  not  exhausted  God's  grace  yet. 
The  well  of  salvation  is  still  deep  and  flow- 
ing.    Look  ever  to  the  afterward. 

And  then  there  is  the  afterward  of  the  next 
world,  to  which  the  text,  perhaps,  specially 
refers.  "  Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy 
counsel,  and  afterward  receive  me  to  glory." 
I  was  saying  a  short  time  ago — I  forget 
whether  in  the  pulpit  or  the  prayer-meeting 
— that  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  our  time 
is  the  growing  faith  in  the  religious  im- 
portance of  the  present  life,  but  along  with 
that  there  goes  too  much  the  want  of  interest 
in  the  future  life.  Now,  I  think,  while  we 
lay  hold  of  the  one  we  should  take  care  and 
not  lose  the  other.  There  was  a  time  in  the 
history  of  Christianity,  an  age  in  Europe, 
when  the  next  world,  so  to  speak,  engrossed 
this  world  ;  the  light  of  the  coming  glory  so 
dazzled  men's  eyes  they  could  not  see  the 
importance  of  time ;  and  so  they  fled  from 
common  life  and  hid  themselves  in  monas- 
teries and  nunneries.  Well,  we  have  got 
over  that,  but  perhaps  we  have  got  too  much 
over  that.  I  think  we  have  recovered  a 
great  truth  of  Christianity,  a  great  thought 
of  Christ,  in  taking  this  world  very  seriously, 
in  looking  upon  it  as  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance. 


12 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


There  is  a  great  work  to  do  here  in  the 
present  life;  there  is  a  vast  deal  we  have  to 
do  for  ourselves  and  others  and  God,  and 
we  cannot,  perhaps,  make  too  much  of  it. 
Y'es ;  but  while  we  grasp  that  truth  which 
Christianity  at  one  stage  lost  hold  of,  don't 
let  us  lose  hold  of  the  other  truth — the  glory- 
that  is  to  come.  Of  course,  it  is  possible 
to  cherish  that  as  a  very  idle  hope,  and  I 
suppose  it  is  from  that  the  reaction  has  come. 
Heaven  has  been  spoken  about  in  an  un- 
natural way,  and  therefore  by  degrees  peo- 
ple have  come  not  to  care  about  it  at  all. 
Ah,  but  it  is  capable  of  doing  two  things 
for  you.  You  remember  what  St.  John  said : 
"  Now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be ;  but  we 
know  that,  when  he  shall  appear,  we  shall 
be  like  him :  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is." 
Therefore  he  adds :  "  And  every  man  that 
hath  this  hope  in  him  purifieth  himself,  even 
as  he  is  pure."  If  the  thought  of  Heaven 
has  that  effect  on  us,  if  it  makes  us  purify 
ourselves  that  we  may  be  fit  for  that  exalta- 
tion, if  the  sense  that  we  are  citizens  of  that 
glorious  country  lays  on  us  an  obligation  that 


leads  us  to  live  up  to  the  dignity  of  the  sons 
of  God,  then  that  is  no  idle  or  useless  hope. 
Then  there  is  another  practical  issue,  for 
the  thought  of  Heaven  and  its  glory  makes 
us  wish  to  take  others  there.  Oh,  when  we 
see  what  men  are  living  for,  when  we  see 
how  unhappy  the  most  of  them  are,  do  you 
not  feel  the  passion  in  your  soul  to  try  to 
take  some  of  them  to  Heaven  with  you? 
I  have  often  said,  both  in  public  and  in  pri- 
vate, one  of  my  chief  ambitions  for  this  con- 
gregation is  that  it  may  consist  of  those  who 
are  not  only  going  to  Heaven  themselves, 
but  trying  to  take  a  great  many  others  with 
them ;  and  if  the  thought  of  Heaven  has  that 
effect  on  us,  it  will  be  by  no  means  an  idle 
or  impracticable  thought. 

Let  me  go  over  these  points  again.  "  Thou 
shalt  guide  me."  We  need  guidance  for  all 
the  reasons  I  mentioned.  "  With  thy  coun- 
sel " ;  there  is  not  only  an  unconscious  guid- 
ance, but  an  intelligent,  voluntary  guidance; 
and  "  afterward  " — there  is  a  glorious  after- 
ward for  Christian  hearts ;  first,  the  after- 
ward of  this  world,  and,  second,  the  after- 
ward of  the  eternal  world. — P.  M. 


DISCOUNTING  THE  FUTURE 


By  H.  C.  Potter,  D.D. 

Come  ye,  say  they,  I  will  fetch  wine,  and  we  will  fill  ourselves  with  strong  drink;    and 
to-morrow  shall  be  as  this  day,  and  much  more  abundant. — Isaiah  hi:  12 


In  this  picture,  that  exaggerated  hope- 
fulness which  it  describes  seems  to_  have 
been  the  result  of  intoxication.  It  is  one 
who  has  filled  himself  with  strong  drink; 
who,  from  the  midst  of  his  revels,  cries  out, 
"  To-morrow  shall  be  as  this  day,  nay, 
much   more   abundant." 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  such  artificial 
stimulous  is  no  wise  necessary  for  the  ex- 
citement of  extravagant  hopes.  Such  hopes 
are  born  out  of  circumstances  the  most  dis- 
couraging and  amid  surroundings  the  most 
dismal  and  dreary.  There  is  probably  not  a 
man  in  this  church  this  morning  who,  hav- 
ing balanced  his  accounts  and  closed  his 
books  for  the  year  yesterday,  does  not  believe 
and  expect  that  the  year  before  us  will  be, 
as  compared  with  the  year  that  is  behind  us, 
better  and  more  abundant.  And  this  not 
at  all  because  the  year  behind  us  has  been 
so.  exceptionally  bad  and  unprofitable,  nor 
because  the  most  lugubrious  prophets  ad- 
mit that  things  in  the  business  world  must 
take  a  turn  some  time  or  other,  but  because, 
underneath  the  hopelessness  of  even  the 
most  chronic  croaker,  there  is  an  indestruc- 
tible substratum  of  expectation  which  is  per- 
petually looking  for  and  anticipating  the  dawn 
of  a  brighter  day  and  a  better  era. 

Let  us  bless  God  that  it  is  so.  I  doubt 
whether  life  would  be  long  endurable  if  it 
v/ere  otherwise.  In  fact,  it  is  at  the  point 
when  the  spring  of  hopefulness  fairly  snaps 
that  men  and  women  break  down.    You  who 


are  a  spectator  of  the  struggle  which  your 
neighbor  is  making,  whether  it  be  for  wealth 
or  fame  or,  as  in  so  many  overtaxed  lives 
and  in  so  many  sick  chambers,  for  bare 
existence  itself,  you  can  see  how  hopeless 
that  struggle  often  is.  You  can  see  the  in- 
firmities in  your  neighbor's  plans  or  his 
powers  or  his  partnerships  that  predict  his 
failure  as  inevitably  as  dawn  predicts  the 
daylight.  But  he — let  us  thank  God,  I  say, 
that  it  is  so — he  can  neither  read  the  stern 
prophecy  of  failure  that  is  written  across 
his  present  nor  discern  the  dismal  certain- 
ties of  his  future.  And  so,  while  you  are 
thinking  that  you  would  almost  go  and  hang 
yourself  if  you  were  in  his  place,  he,  per- 
haps, is  quite  clear  that  he  would  drown 
himself  if  he  should  be  in  yours.  In  other 
words  we  are  all  of  us  living  largely  upon 
hope — an  ethereal  diet,  which  is  not  to  be 
purchased  in  the  markets,  but  which  has, 
nevertheless,  a  power  of  sustentation  which 
no  other  food  at  all  pretends  to  rival. 

And  yet,  like  some  other  forms  of  so- 
called  nourishment,  this  is  one  which  has  a 
perilous  power  of  enervation.  Wretched  as 
life  would  become  if  there  were  taken  out 
of  it  that  dim  but  deathless  expectancy  of 
better  days  and  a  more  blessed  lot,  it  is  a 
singular  illustration  of  the  fact  that  every 
good  is  offset  and  qualified  by  its  corre- 
sponding evil,  that  when  we  come  to  look  at 
what  has  been  the  fruitage  of  many  of  the 
m.ost  ardent  hopes  of  humanity,  we  find  that 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


13 


the  net  result  has  been  only  too  often  in- 
dolence and  inertness  and  apathy.  Men  talk 
about  the  future  as  tho  the  future  were  a 
sort  of  divinity  who  was  coming  down  the 
gleaming  slopes  of  time  with  both  hands  full 
of  infinite  riches  and  indiscriminate  bless- 
ings. As  in  trade,  people  are  fond  of  say- 
ing in  bad  times  that  things  will  "  take  a 
turn  " — as  if  somewhere  at  hand  there  were 
a  benevolent  fairy  who  might  at  any  moment, 
from  a  mere  freak  of  good  nature,  empty 
her  apronful  of  bounties  into  all  the  waiting 
and  idle  industries  of  the  hour — so,  out  of 
trade,  in  art,  in  letters,  above  all,  in  religion, 
we  are  fond  most  of  all  of  discounting  the 
future,  and  of  believing  that,  somehow,  to- 
morrow shall  be  much  more  abundant, 
though  we  cannot  for  the  life  of  us  give  the 
remotest  reason  why. 

Now,  it  is  worth  while  to  remember  that 
the  future  is  simply  and  inevitably  and  in- 
exorably the  outgrowth  and  outcome  of  the 
present.  It  is  the  period  in  which  one  reaps 
what  he  has  been  sowing  in  the  present.  It 
is  only  that,  and  invariably  that,  and  eter- 
nally that,  and  all  the  misery  of  life  that  does 
not  come  from  man's  hereditary  sinfulness 
of  nature  comes  from  his  more  or  less  con- 
scious and  deliberate  refusal  to  recognize 
this  fact.  We  are  all  bemoaning  the  "  hard 
times  "  and  wondering  why  they  do  not  get 
better,  and  when  the  golden  future  which  is 
to  make  them  better  is  to  dawn.  Well,  the 
golden  future  will  come  when  it  has  been 
honestly  earned  and  its  harvest  faithfully 
sown,  and  not  before.  When  men  and 
women  stop  buying  what  they  cannot  pay 
for  and  spending  what  they  have  not  earned, 
when  we  have  had  enough  of  calling  houses 
our  own  which  belong,  in  fact,  to  the  me- 
chanics who  reared  them  or  to  the  creditors 
with  whose  borrowed  money  we  have 
adorned  them — when,  in  one  word,  we  are 
willing  as  a  nation  to  live  frugally,  and  spend 
moderately,  and  deal  honestly  with  others 
and  no  less  honestly  with  ourselves — then, 
when  we  have  some  fair  dealing  and  plain 
living  and  chastened  ambitions  as  our  seed, 
shall  we  have  permanent  prosperity  as  our 
harvest.  Yes,  then,  and  not  till  then,  tho 
we  were  to  have  a  currency  as  hard  and  as 
precious  as  diamonds,  with  St.  Paul  for 
Chief  Magistrate  and  the  whole  College  of 
the  Apostles  as  his  Cabinet ! 

And  so  in  every  other  department  of  life, 
however  lofty  or  lowly  its  range,  there  are 
a  great  many  estimable  people  who  are  ex- 
pecting amid  the  kindlier  atmosphere  of  the 
future  to  outgrow  their  infirmities.  They 
are  conscious  of  them ;  they  bemoan  them ; 
they  will  do  everything  to  be  rid  of  them — 
but  grapple  with  them.  With  them  to-mor- 
row will  be  as  to-day,  as  good  a  time  for 
such  a  task  as  to-day,  only  with  this  diflfer- 
ence.  that  to-morrow  will  be  much  more 
abundant  than  to-day — more  abundant  in  its 
opportunities,  its  inspirations,  its  freedom 
from  hindrances.  But,  alas !  that  sort  of  to- 
morrow  never  comes. 

The  man  or  woman  of  ungoverned  temper 
imagines  that  age  will  cool  their  blood  and 


so  diminish  their  provocations.  But  age 
weakens  nothing  save  our  powers  of  demon- 
stration. I  have  seen  a  man  of  eighty  in  as 
towering  a  passion  as  a  youth  of  eighteen; 
and  that  to-morrow  to  which  he  had  been 
looking  all  his  life  to  do  for  him  that  which 
he  would  not  do  for  himself  had  achieved 
no  more  than  the  making  his  blind  anger 
feeble  and  impotent  in  its  expression.  The 
ungoverned  passion  was  all  there,  as  un- 
governed and  undisciplined  as  in  the  begin- 
ning. And  so  of  the  rest  of  the  infirmities 
of  our  nature.  Does  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
or  the  lust  of  the  eye,  or  the  pride  of  life — 
do  our  covetousness  and  our  selfishness  and 
our  untruthfulness  go  through  a  sort  of 
transformation-scene  process,  and  emerge  at 
some  given  point  in  our  future  in  the  guise 
of  the  Christian  graces  or  the  cardinal  vir- 
tues? Is  the  future  a  moral  alchemist,  under 
whose  skilful  manipulation  the  seven  deadly 
sins  become  metamorphosed  into  the  seven 
signs  of  saintly  perfection?  There  is  a  per- 
fectly easy  method  of  answering  that  ques- 
tion. Ten  years  ago,  the  ten  years  which 
end  to-day,  were  the  future.  Then  as  now, 
the  New  Year  began  in  close  conjunction 
with  a  Sunday.  Then,  as  now,  we  were  al- 
ready discounting  our  future.  Out  of  it 
was  to  come  to  us,  somehow,  a  loftier  plane 
of  living.  Somewhere  in  it  we  should  meet 
the  opportunity  to  make  Christ  a  personal 
Friend  and  Master.  Somewhere  there  would 
open  to  us  the  way  out  of  a  great  many 
associations  and  intimacies  that  we  were 
most  anxious  to  be  free  from,  if  only  it 
could  be  accomplished  by  some  other  means 
than  by  the  ordinary  means  in  such  cases — 
namely,  by  rising  up  and  abandoning  them. 
Well,  since  then  the  future  has  become  the 
past,  and  what  have  we  to  tell  to-day  of 
that  future's  magic  potency? 

In  fact,  is  it  not  time,  dear  brethren,  that 
we  learned  that  the  future  does  not  create 
progress,  but  only  reveals  it?  We  are  fond 
of  looking  back  to  the  dark  ages  of  the 
world's  history  and  reminding  ourselves  how 
upon  their  darkness  suddenly  the  light  burst 
and  the  morning  dawned,  and  the  world  be- 
came new  and  young  again.  Yes,  the  light 
did  dawn,  but  it  dawned  because  brave  hearts 
and  strong  hands  had  hewn  and  cleft  a  way 
for  it.  We  talk  of  the  Reformation  in  Ger- 
rnany  and  in  England,  and  recall  how  the 
light  of  a  purer  gospel  flashed,  as  it  were, 
simultaneously  within  the  walls  of  monastic 
cells,  whether  those  cells  were  at  Oxford  or 
at  Erfurt.  Ay,  but  who  were  within  those 
cells?  Dozing  monks,  who  were  making  no 
struggle  toward  the  light,  and  smiting  no 
walls  of  lifelong  prejudice  to  let  it  in?  Ah! 
I  _  think  of  Luther  climbing  painfully  upon 
his  knees  that  long  and  wearisome  ascent  of 
the  Scala  Sancta  at  Rome,  where  to-day 
you  may  see  the  disciples  of  the  Roman 
obedience  painfully  and  laboriously  repeat- 
ing the  same  penance.  I  think,  I  say,  of 
Luther  mounting  one  by  one  those  same 
stairs  and  crying  to  himself  in  an  agony  of 
longing  and  aspiration :  "  Tell  me,  O !  thou 
Holy  One,  is  this  the  road  to  heaven  ?  "    And 


14 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


then,  as  there  flashes  into  his  expectant  soul 
those  words  of  the  apostles,  "'  The  just  shall 
live  by  faith,"  and  he  sees,  as  in  a  moment, 
the  life  of  simple  and  loving  trust  opening 
before  him,  instead  of  a  life  of  bitter  and  pain- 
ful penance.  I  see  in  that  experience  a  rev- 
elation given  to  one  w^ho  had  been  wrestling, 
striving,  praying,  struggling  to  attain  it ;  not 
to  one  who  had  sat  down  in  drowsy  idleness 
to  dream  until  the  future  should  bring  near 
that  revolution.  And  so,  wherever  light  has 
broken  on  the  world,  we  shall  find  that  some 
earnest  thinker  and  toiler,  delving  beneath 
the  dull,  dead  surface  of  the  times,  has  been 
digging  the  mine  and  laying  the  train  that 
made  some  vast  upheaval  of  the  social  or 
spiritual  fabric  of  human  society  not  merely 
a  possible,  but  an  actual  thing.  Such  men, 
whoever  they  were,  were  not  men  who  be- 
lieved in  the  future  half  so  much  as  they 
believed  in  and  verified  the  present.  They 
had  learned  what  we  need  to  learn,  that  the 
future  is  not  an  actor ;  that  it  is  only  a 
result,  and  that  that  which  to-morrow  does 
for  us  is  simply  to  add  up  the  transactions 
of  to-day. 

And  thus  we  see  the  province  and,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  the  function  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  world  of  Hope.  That  function  is 
to  inspire  the  present.  When  you  are  strug- 
gling up  the  steeps  of  duty,  and  when,  amid 
the  storm  and  darkness,  you  cannot  see 
vv^here  you  may  safely  plant  your  feet,  then 
from  beyond  Hope  flashes  its  rays  of  light 
and  makes  your  pathway  plain.  When  you 
are  wrestling  with  the  demon  of  evil  in  your 
own  nature,  and  that  struggle,  as  day  after 
day  you  are  called  upon  to  renew  it,  seems 
so  hard  and  so  ineffectual,  then  Hope  bids 
you  see  in  such  daily  struggles  the  seed-time 
of  your  future  triumph.  You  are  sowing 
now — sowing  in  faith  and  hope.  Be  patient, 
then,  and  He  who  has  never  failed  to  bless 
the  labors  of  the  husbandman  will  not  fail 
to  bless  your  labors  also.  And  so  Hope 
whispers  to  you,  "  In  due  season  ye  shall 
reap  if  ye  faint  not,"  and  thus  gilds  the  often 
dry  and  cheerless  horizon  of  your  present 
with  the  distant  dawning  of  a  brighter  future. 
But  let  us  take  care  how  we  transform  what 
God  gave  as  an  inspiration  to  effort,  as  a 
consolation  in  sorrow,  into  an  excuse  for 
apathy  and  neglect.  If  we  sit  still  and  fold 
our  hands  and  intermit  all  effort,  then  we 
may  be  sure  that  our  expectancy,  in  all  the 
vastness  of  its  irrational  proportions,  will 
be  the  precise  measure  of  our  disappoint- 
ment. One  cannot  help  feeling  as  if  the 
world  had  found  a  new  divinity,  and  that 
amid  all  its  festering  evils  and  imrighted 
wrongs  it  was  content  simply  to  worship  the 
Goddess  of  the  Future.  Is  the  State  corrupt? 
No  matter !  Let  us  wait  for  the  redeeming 
influence  of  the  "  Future."  Is  the  tone  of 
morals  lower  than  we  would  fain  see  it? 
Again,  no  matter.  It  will  all  come  right 
"  in  the  future."  Above  all,  are  our  souls 
cold  and  lifeless  and  unaspiring?  Are  we 
still  uninfluenced  by  the  love  of  Christ  and 
unenlightened  by  the  indwelling  power  of 
the    Spirit?     Once   more,    "no   matter,"    we 


are  saying.  It  will  be  different  and  better  in 
the  "future."  But  why?  It  is  true  that  in 
the  learned  professions  and  in  the  case  of 
almost  all  permanent  success  and  prosperity 
in  business,  the  prizes  come  to  a  man  com- 
paratively late  in  life,  and  that  the  chief 
encouragement  through  long  years  of  ob- 
scurity and  straitened  means  must  needs  be 
found  in  looking  toward  the  tardy  successes 
of  the  future.  But  in  such  cases  what  a 
record  of  quiet,  steadfast,  persistent  toil  and 
study  has  laid  the  foundations  of  that  fu- 
ture ;  and  when  it  comes,  how  plainly  we 
see  that  the  future  has  given  the  man  noth- 
ing save  the  fruitage  of  those  seeds  of  en- 
deavor which  he  planted  long  ago  in  the 
waiting  furrows  of  his  past ! 

And,  therefore,  if  I  were  asked  to  indite 
that  legend  or  motto  which  should  be  the 
rule  and  law  for  every  young  life  among  us, 
I  would  write  the  one  word  "  Now."  If  I 
were  bidden  to  choose  the  watchword  to  be 
blazoned  upon  all  the  banners  of  our  social 
reforms  and  philanthropic  endeavors,  I 
would  choose  the  watchword  "  Now  !  "  If  it 
were  given  to  me  to  trace  upon  the  walls  of 
our  school-houses,  and  in  the  recitation- 
rooms  of  our  colleges,  and  in  every  other 
place  where  minds  and  hearts  are  trained 
for  manly  science  the  single  syllable  that 
should  best  inspire  and  inform  that  service, 
that  single  syllable  would  be  "  Now !  " 
Nay,  if  in  this  house  of  God,  if  in  our  sepa- 
rate houses,  if  in  the  chambers  where  we 
sleep  and  the  closets  where  we  kneel,  one 
zvord  might  quicken  and  comfort  us  always, 
I  would  that  it  might  be  the  one  word, 
"  Now  !  "  "  Now  is  the  accepted  time,"  and 
God  has  never  anywhere  told  us  that  He 
will  accept  or  honor  that  postponing  trust 
that  builds  on  any  other.  We  have  all  read 
of  that  Persian  prince  who,  having  grown 
to  man's  estate  and  completed  his  educa- 
tion, divided  his  life  into  four  decades.  The 
first  ten  years  of  his  life  he  would  devote  to 
travel,  since  travel,  he  rightly  argued,  was 
as  much  an  educator  as  were  books.  The 
second  decade  he  would  employ  in  the  affairs 
of  government,  since  government  is  part  of 
the  duty  of  a  prince.  The  third  decade  he 
would  reserve  for  the  pleasures  and  the 
benefits  of  friendship,  since  friendship  is, 
after  all,  the  melody  and  fragrance  of  life. 
And  then  the  fourth  decade  he  would  give 
to  God.  It  was  a  most  taking  and  attractive 
plan  of  life.  It  seemed  singularly  equitable 
in  its  partition  of  time  between  rival  and  ur- 
gent claims.  Nay,  it  seemed  even  generous 
in  its  recognition  of  the  claims  of  religion. 
For  the  religion  of  the  Brahmin,  like  the 
religion  of  the  Hebrew  and  of  the  Chris- 
tian, only  asks  for  the  devotion  of  one- 
seventh  of  one's  time  to  God,  and  here  there 
v/as  pledged  one-fourth.  Yes,  it  seemed  to 
be  an  admirable  plan,  but  it  was  marred  by 
one  considerable  defect.  During  the  first  ten 
years  the  prince  died,  and  for  that  contin- 
gency he  had  made  no  provision  whatever. 
Dear  brethren,  let  us  take  this  simple  story 
and  sit  down  and  read  it  between  the  lines. 
I  will  not  speak  of  the  men  who  have  been 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


'5 


discounting  the  future  in  the  matter  of  their 
plans  for  others.  We  have  had  some  exam- 
ples of  that  of  late,  which  are  only  weakened 
in  their  solemn  and  searching  emphasis  by 
any  human  endeavor  to  press  them.  I  leave 
them,  amid  these  last  hours  of  a  vanishing 
year,  to  your  memories  and  your  judgments. 
But  how  is  it  with  our  plans  for  ourselves? 
I  cannot  think  that  there  is  one  of  us  here 
this  morning  who  is  determined  always  to 
leave  God  out  of  the  account.  I  will  not 
believe  but  that  somewhere  in  your  future 
you  look  for  the  coming  of  a  moment  which 
will  make  the  love  of  God  and  of  good  in 
you  the  living  and  sovereign  law.  But  when 
and  how? 

A  gifted  Englishman  told  us  lately  of  his 
first  night  as  a  youth  within  the  walls  of 
his  university :  "  Do  any  of  us  remember," 
he  writes,  "  when  leaving  home  and  school 
and  the  boy's  life  behind  us,  we  stood  for 
the  first  time  within  college  walls?  The 
first  night  in  the  antique  place,  how  wonder- 
fully we  were  struck  by  it !  As  we  looked 
out  of  our  window  on  the  still  quadrangle, 
with  the  moonlight  streaming  down  like  some 
silvery  flood  upon  the  grave  buildings  and 
the  grass,  and  heard  the  bells  answering  one 
another  in  the  vocal  air,  it  seemed  as  if  the 
place  were  alive  with  all  the  dead.  The 
thousand  forms  of  famous  men  who  came 
thither  with  unborn  thoughts  within  them, 
which,  when  born,  should  move  the  world 
to  passion  and  to  power,  appeared  to  thrill 
the  air  with  their  unseen  presence.  The 
silence  was  eloquent  with  those  secrets  which 
are  told  to  hearts  that  listen  in  the  hour  of 
presentiment ;  secrets  which,  tho  they  seem 
our  own  thoughts,  are,  it  may  be,  impressions 
from  that  silent  world  of  souls  of  which  our 
intellect  knows  nothing,  but  our  heart  so 
much.  As  we  dreamed  our  dream,  hope  and 
fear,  enthusiasm  and  depression  interchanged 


their  glow  and  gloom  within  us.  The  past 
life — home  and  school  and  childhood — van- 
ished for  a  time.  We  seemed  to  have  been 
asleep  and  only  now  to  have  awakened.  And 
with  what  a  loosened  rein  we  rode  forward 
into  the  unknown  fields  of  the  future ! 
Should  it  be  failure  or  success,  fame  or  a 
wasted  life,  enthusiasm  deepening  into  work 
or  grown  craven  in  the  chill  of  difficulty, 
pleasure  decaying  into  pain  or  pain  grow- 
ing into  the  pleasure  of  conquest?  And  then 
we  answered,  '  Nay,  it  shall  not  be  failure, 
but  success — no  wasted  life,  but  one  made 
famous  and  immortal  by  achievement.' 
Only,  we  would  delay  the  struggle  and  post- 
pone our  fight  until  we  had  tasted  something 
of  the  joys  of  college  life  and  run,  for  once 
at  least,  its  round  of  gaiety  and  dissipation. 
And  so,"  he  writes,  who  tells  us  thus  much 
of  so  many  human  histories,  "  and  so  our 
vows  of  victory  vanished  like  vapor  in  the 
midnight  sky,  and  aspirations  ended  in  an 
impotent   and   unborn    hope !  " 

How  many  of  us  here  are  waiting  for  the 
opportunities  of  the  coming  year !  With 
how  many  of  us  is  it  the  unuttered  hope 
that  to-morrow,  next  week,  next  month,  the 
next  year  may  be  as  to-day  in  its  privi- 
leges and  opportunities  only  far  more  abund- 
ant? I  pray  God,  my  brother,  that  it  may  be 
so !  I  pray  Him  that  He  may  have  in  store 
for  you  in  that  to-morrow  such  disclosures 
of  Himself  and  of  His  truth  as  He  has 
never  before  vouchsafed  to  you !  But  of  one 
thing  suffer  me  to  assure  you.  li  you  would 
ever  taste  them  you  must  begin  to  seek  them 
now.  We  are  told  that  the  first  day  of  the 
New  Year  is  an  appropriate  time  to  form 
good  resolutions.  But  the  New  Year  is  to- 
morrow, and  therefore  there  is  a  better  time 
for  such  a  task,  and  that  time  is  to-day. 
For  "now  is  the  accepted  time;  now  is  the 
day  of  salvation." — H.  R. 


THIS  YEAR  ALSO 

By  Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon 


This  year  also. — Luke  xiii:  8 


[The  following  short  address  was  written 
by  Mr.  Spurgeon  on  his  sick-bed.  He  sat 
up  to  write  when  he  was  able,  but  some  of  it 
was  written  with  his  head  on  his  pillow.] 

At  the  opening  of  another  year,  and  at  the 
commencement  of  another  volume  of  ser- 
mons, we  earnestly  desire  to  utter  the  word 
of  exhortation :  but,  alas !  at  this  present 
the  preacher  is  a  prisoner,  and  must  speak 
from  his  pillow  instead  of  his  pulpit.  Let 
not  the  few  words  which  we  can  put  together 
come  with  diminished  power  from  a  sick 
man,  for  the  musket  fired  by  a  wounded 
soldier  sends  forth  the  bullet  with  none  the 
less  force.  Our  desire  is  to  speak  with  liv- 
ing words,  or   not   at  all.     He  who  enables 


us  to  sit  up  and  compose  these  trembling 
sentences  is  entreated  to  clothe  them  with 
His  Spirit,  that  they  may  be  according  to 
His  own  mind. 

The  interceding  vine-dresser  pleaded  for 
the  fruitless  fig-tree,  "  let  it  alone  this  year 
also,"  dating  as  it  were  a  year  from  the  time 
wherein  He  spoke.  Trees  and  fruit-bearing 
plants  have  a  natural  measurement  for  their 
lives ;  evidently  a  year  came  to  its  close 
when  it  was  time  to  seek  fruit  on  the  fig- 
tree,  and  another  year  commenced  when  the 
vine-dresser  began  again  his  digging  and 
pruning  work.  Men  are  such  barren  things 
that  their  fruitage  marks  no  certain  periods, 
and  it  becomes  needful  to  make  artificial 
divisions  of  time  for  them ;    there  seems  to 


i6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


be  no  set  period  for  man's  spiritual  harvest 
or  vintage,  or  if  there  be,  the  sheaves  and 
the  clusters  come  not  in  their  season,  and 
hence  we  have  to  say  one  to  another,  '^'^This 
shall  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  year."  Be 
it  so,  then.  Let  us  congratulate  each  other 
upon  seeing  the  dawn  of  "  this  year  also," 
and  let  us  unitedly  pray  that  we  may  enter 
upon  it,  continue  in  it,  and  come  to  its  close 
under  the  unfailing  blessing  of  the  Lord  to 
whom  all  years  belong. 

L  The  beginning  of  a  new  year  suggests 
A  RETROSPECT.  Let  US  take  it,  deliberately 
and  honestly.  "This  year  also;" — then 
there  had  been  former  years  of  grace.  The 
dresser  of  the  vineyard  was  not  for  the  first 
time  aware  of  the  fig-tree's  failure,  neither 
had  the  owner  come  for  the  first  time  seek- 
ing tigs  in  vain.  God,  who  gives  us  "  this 
year  also,"  has  given  us  others  before  it ; 
His  sparing  mercy  is  no  novelty,  His  pa- 
tience has  already  been  taxed  by  our  provoca- 
tions. 

First  came  our  youthful  years,  when  even 
a  little  fruit  unto  God  is  peculiarly  sweet  to 
Him.  How  did  we  spend  them?  Did-  our 
strength  run  all  into  wild  wood  and  wanton 
branch?  If  so  we  may  well  bewail  that 
wasted  vigor,  that  life  misspent,  that  sin 
exceedingly  multiplied.  He  who  saw  us  mis- 
use those  golden  months  of  youth  neverthe- 
less affords  us  "  this  year  also,"  and  we 
should  enter  upon  it  with  a  holy  jealousy, 
lest  what  of  strength  and  ardor  may  be  left 
to  us  should  be  allowed  to  run  away  into  the 
same  wasteful  courses  as  aforetime. 

Upon  the  heels  of  our  youthful  years  came 
those  of  early  manhood,  when  we  began  to 
muster  a  household,  and  to  become  as  a  tree 
fixed  in  its  place;  then  also  fruit  would 
have  been  precious.  Did  we  bear  any?  Did 
we  present  unto  the  Lord  a  basket  of  sum- 
mer fruit?  Did  we  offer  Him  the  firstling 
of  our  strength?  If  we  did  so,  we  may  well 
adore  the  grace  which  so  early  saved  us ; 
but  if  not,  the  past  chides  us,  and.  lifting  an 
admonitory  finger,  it  warns  us  not  to  let 
"  this  year  also  "  follow  the  way  of  the  rest 
of  our  lives.  He  who  has  wasted  youth  and 
the  morning  of  manhood  has  surely  had 
enough  of  fooling :  the  time  past  may  well 
suffice  him  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the 
flesh  :  it  will  be  a  superfluity  of  naughtiness 
to  suffer  "  this  year  also "  to  be  trodden 
down  in  the  service  of  sin. 

Many  of  us  are  now  in  the  prime  of  life, 
and  our  years  already  spent  are  not  few. 
Have  we  still  need  to  confess  that  our  years 
are  eaten  up  by  the  grasshopper  and  the 
canker-worm?  Have  we  reached  the  half- 
way house,  and  still  know  not  whither  we 
are  going?  Are  we  fools  at  forty?  Are  we 
half  a  century  old  by  the  calendar,  and  yet 
far  off  from  years  of  discretion?  Alas! 
great  God,  that  there  should  be  men  past 
this  age  who  are  still  without  knowledge! 
Unsaved  at  sixty,  unregenerate  at  seventy, 
unawakened  at  eightv,  unrenewed  at  ninety ! 
These  are  each  and  all  startling.  Yet,  per- 
adventure,  they  will  each  one  fall  upon  ears 
v/hich  they  should  make  to  tingle,  but  they 


will  hear  them  as  though  they  heard  them 
not.  Continuance  in  evil  breeds  callousness 
of  heart,  and  when  the  soul  has  long  been 
sleeping  in  indifference  it  is  hard  to  arouse 
it  from  the  deadly  slumber. 

The  sound  of  the  words  "  this  year  also  " 
makes  some  of  us  remember  years  of  great 
mercy,  sparkling  and  flashing  with  delight. 
Were  those  years  laid  at  the  Lord's  feet? 
They  were  comparable  to  the  silver  bells 
upon  the  horses — were  they  "  holiness  unto 
the  Lord "  ?  If  not,  how  shall  we  answer 
for  it  if  "  this  year  also  "  should  be  musical 
with  merry  mercy  and  yet  be  spent  in  the 
ways  of  carelessness? 

The  same  words  recall  to  some  of  us  our 
years  of  sharp  affliction  when  we  were,  in- 
deed, digged  about  and  dunged.  How  went 
those  years  ?  God  was  doing  great  things 
for  us,  exercising  careful  and  expensive  hus- 
bandry, caring  for  us  with  exceeding  great 
and  wise  care, — did  we  render  according  to 
the  benefit  received  ?  Did  we  rise  from  the 
bed  more  patient  and  gentle,  weaned  from 
the  world,  and  welded  to  Christ?  Did  we 
bring  forth  clusters  to  reward  the  dresser 
of  the  vineyard?  Let  us  not  refuse  these 
questions  of  self-examination,  for  it  may  be 
this  is  to  be  another  of  these  years  of  cap- 
tivity, another  season  of  the  furnace  and  the 
fining-pot.  The  Lord  grant  that  the  coming 
tribulation  may  take  more  chaff  out  of  us 
than  any  of  its  predecessors,  and  leave  the 
wheat  cleaner  and  better. 

The  new  year  also  reminds  us  of  oppor- 
tunities for  usefulness,  which  have  come  and 
gone,  and  of  unfulfilled  resolutions  which 
have  blossomed  only  to  fade ;  shall  "  this 
year  also  "  be  as  those  which  have  gone  be- 
fore? May  we  not  hope  for  grace  to  ad- 
vance upon  grace  already  gained,  and  should 
we  not  seek  for  power  to  turn  our  poor 
sickly  promises  into  robust  action  ? 

Looking  back  on  the  oast  we  lament  the 
follies  by  which  we  would  not  willingly  be 
held  captive  "  this  year  also,"  and  we  adore 
the  forgiving  mercy,  the  preserving  provi- 
dence, the  boundless  liberality,  the  divine 
love,  of  which  we  hope  to  be  partakers  "  this 
year  also." 

II.  If  the  preacher  could  think  freely  he 
could  wherry  the  text  at  his  pleasure  in 
many  directions,  but  he  is  feeble,  and  so 
must  let  it  drive  with  the  current  which 
bears  it  on  to  a  second  consideration :  the 
text  MENTIONS  A  MERCY.  It  was  in  great 
goodness  that  the  tree  which  cumbered  the 
soil  was  allowed  to  stand  for  another  year, 
and  prolonged  life  should  always  be  regarded 
as  a  boon  of  mercy.  We  must  view  "  this 
year  also "  as  a  grant  from  infinite  grace. 
It  is  wrong  to  speak  as  if  we  cared  nothing 
for  life,  and  looked  upon  our  being  here  as 
an  evil  or  a  punishment ;  we  are  here  "  this 
year  also  "  as  the  result  of  love's  pleadings, 
and  in  pursuance  of  love's  designs. 

The  wicked  man  should  count  that  the 
Lord's  longsuffering  points  to  his  salvation, 
and  he  should  permit  the  cords  of  love  to 
draw  him  to  it.  O  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
would    make    the    blasphemer,    the    Sabbath- 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


17 


breaker,  and  the  openly  vicious  to  feel  what 
a  wonder  it  is  that  their  lives  are  prolonged 
"  this  year  also  "  !  Are  they  spared  to  curse, 
and  riot,  and  defy  their  Maker?  Shall  this 
be  the  only  fruit  of  patient  mercy?  The  pro- 
crastinator  who  has  put  off  the  messenger  of 
heaven  with  his  delays  and  half  promises, 
ought  he  not  to  wonder  that  he  is  allowed 
to  see  "this  year  also"?  How  is  it  that  the 
Lord  has  borne  with  him  and  put  up  with 
his  vacillations  and  hesitations?  Is  this  year 
of  grace  to  be  spent  in  the  same  manner? 
Transient  impressions,  hasty  resolves,  and 
speedy  apostasies — are  these  to  be  the  weary 
story  over  and  over  again?  The  startled 
conscience,  the  tyrant  passion,  the  smothered 
emotion ! — are  these  to  be  the  tokens  of  yet 
another  year? 

May  God  forbid  that  any  one  of  us  should 
hesitate  and  delay  through  "  this  year  also  "  ! 
Infinite  pity  holds  back  the  ax  of  justice; 
shall  it  be  insulted  by  the  repetition  of 
the  sins  which  caused  the  uplifting  of  the 
instrument  of  wrath?  What  can  be  more 
tantalizing  to  the  heart  of  goodness  than  in- 
decision? Well  might  the  Lord's  prophet 
become  impatient  and  cry,  "  How  long  halt 
ye  between  two  opinions?"  Well  may  God 
Himself  push  for  a  decision  and  demand  an 
immediate  reply.  O  undecided  soul !  wilt 
thou  swing  much  longer  between  heaven  and 
hell,  and  act  as  if  it  were  hard  to  choose 
between  the  slavery  of  Satan  and  the  liberty 
of  the  Great  Father's  home  of  love?  "This 
year  also "  wilt  thou  sport  in  defiance  of 
justice,  and  pervert  the  generosity  of  mercy 
into  a  license  for  still  further  rebellion? 
■■  This  year  also  "  must  divine  love  be  made 
an  occasion  for  continued  sin?  Oh  do  not 
act  so  basely,  so  contrary  to  every  noble  in- 
stinct, so  injuriously  to  thine  own  best  in- 
terests. 

Tlie  believer  is  kept  out  of  heaven  "  this 
year  also  "  in  love,  and  not  in  anger.  There 
are  some  for  whose  sake  it  is  needful  he 
should  abide  in  the  flesh,  some  to  be  helped 
by  him  on  their  heavenward  way,  and  others 
to  be  led  to  the  Redeemer's  feet  by  his  in- 
struction. The  heaven  of  many  saints  is  not 
yet  prepared  for  them,  because  their  nearest 
companions  have  not  yet  arrived,  and  their 
spiritual  children  have  not  yet  gathered  in 
glory  in  sufficient  number  to  give  them  a 
thoroughly  heavenly  welcome ;  they  must 
wait  "  this  year  also  "  that  their  rest  may  be 
the  more  glorious,  and  that  the  sheaves 
which  they  will  bring  with  them  may  afford 
them  greater  joy.  Surely,  for  the  sake  of 
souls,  for  the  delight  of  glorifying  our  Lord, 
and  for  the  increase  of  the  jewels  of  our 
crown,  we  may  be  glad  to  wait  below  "  this 
year   also."    This   is   a   wide   field,    but    we 


may  not  linger  in  it,  for  our  space  is  little, 
and  our  strength  is  even  less. 

III.  Our  last  feeble  utterance  shall  remind 
you  that  the  expression,  "  This  year  also," 
IMPLIES  A  LIMIT.  The  vine-dresser  asked  no 
longer  a  reprieve  than  one  year.  If  his  dig- 
ging and  manuring  should  not  then  prove 
successful  he  would  plead  no  more,  but  the 
tree  should  fall.  Even  when  Jesus  is  the 
pleader,  the  request  of  mercy  has  its  bounds 
and  times.  It  is  not  forever  that  we  shall 
be  let  alone,  and  allowed  to  cumber  the 
ground ;  if  we  do  not  repent  we  must  perish, 
if  we  will  not  be  benefited  by  the  spade  we 
must  fall  by  the  ax. 

There  will  come  a  last  year  to  each  one  of 
us ;  therefore  let  each  one  say  to  himself — 
Is  tliis  my  last?  If  it  should  be  the  last  with 
the  preacher,  he  would  gird  up  his  loins  to 
deliver  the  Lord's  message  with  all  his  soul, 
and  bid  his  fellow-men  be  reconciled  to  God. 
Dear  friend,  is  "  this  year  also  "  to  be  your 
last?  Are  you  ready  to  see  the  curtain  rise 
upon  eternity?  Are  you  now  prepared  to 
hear  the  midnight  cry,  and  to  enter  into  the 
marriage  supper?  The  judgment  and  all  that 
will  follow  upon  it  are  most  surely  the 
heritage  of  every  living  man ;  blessed  are 
they  who  by  faith  in  Jesus  are  able  to  face 
the  bar  of  God  without  a  thought  of  terror. 

If  we  live  to  be  counted  among  the  oldest 
inhabitants  we  must  depart  at  last ;  there 
must  be  an  end,  and  the  voice  must  be  heard 
— "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  this  year  thou  shalt 
die."  So  many  have  gone  before  us,  and  are 
going  every  hour,  that  no  man  should  need 
any  other  memento  mori,  and  yet  man  is  so 
eager  to  forget  his  own  mortality,  and 
thereby  to  forfeit  his  hopes  of  bliss,  that  we 
cannot  too  often  bring  it  before  the  mind's 
eye.  O  mortal  man,  bethink  thee !  Prepare 
to  meet  thy  God;  for  thou  must  meet  Him. 
Seek  the  Savior,  yea,  seek  Him  ere  another 
sun  sinks  to  his  rest. 

Once  more,  "  this  year  also,"  and  it  may 
be  for  this  year  only,  the  cross  is  uplifted 
as  the  pharos  of  the  world,  the  one  light  to 
which  no  eye  can  look  in  vain.  Oh  that  mil- 
lions would  look  that  way  and  live !  Soon 
the  Lord  Jesus  will  come  a  second  time,  and 
then  the  blaze  of  His  throne  will  supplant 
the  mild  radiance  of  His  cross ;  the  Judge 
will  be  seen  rather  than  the  Redeemer.  Now 
He  saves,  but  then  He  will  destroy.  Let  us 
hear  His  voice  at  this  moment.  He  hath  lim- 
ited a  day ;  let  us  be  eager  to  avail  ourselves 
of  the  gracious  season.  Let  us  believe  in 
Jesus  this  day,  seeing  it  may  be  our  last. 
These  are  the  pleadings  of  one  who  now 
falls  back  on  his  pillow  in  very  weakness. 
Hear  them  for  your  souls'  sakes  and  live. — 
C.  H. 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


OCCUPY  TILL  I  COME 


By  a.  McLaren,  D.D. 

And  he  called  his  ten  servants,  and  delivered  them  ten  pounds,  and  said   unto  them.  Occupy 

till  I  come. — Luke  xix:  13 


We  have  four  things  here,  which,  keeping 
to  the  metaphor  of  the  text,  I  may  designate 
as  the  Capital,  the  Business,  the  Profits,  and 
the  Audit. 

L  The  Capital. — A  pound  was  a  very 
h'ttle  thing  for  a  prince  who  was  going  to  get 
a  kingdom  to  leave  with  his  servants  to  trade 
upon.  The  smallness  of  the  gift  is,  I  think, 
an  essential  part  of  the  representation.  May 
it  not  be  intended  to  point  out  to  us  this 
lesson — how  small  after  all,  even  the  high 
gift  that  we  all  receive  alike  here  is.  in 
comparison  with  what  we  are  destined  to 
receive  when  the  kingdom  comes?  Even  the 
salvation  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  is  at 
present  experienced  on  earth,  is  but  like  the 
one  poor  pound  that  was  given  to  the 
servants,  as  compared  with  the  unspeakable 
wealth  that  shall  be  theirs — the  ten  cities, 
the  five  cities,  and  all  the  glories  of  suprem- 
acy and  sovereignty,  when  He  comes. 

n.    Now     A     WORD     ABOUT     THE     TRADING. — 

You  Christian  men  and  women  ought  to 
make  your  Christian  life  and  your  Christian 
service  a  matter  of  business.  Put  the  same 
virtues  into  it  that  some  of  you  put  into  your 


trade.  Your  best  business  in  this  world,  as 
the  Shorter  Catechism  has  it,  is  to  glorify 
God  and  to  enjoy  Him  for  ever.  And  the 
salvation  that  you  have  got,  you  have  to 
trade  upon,  to  make  a  business  of,  to  work 
it  out,  in  order  that,  by  working  it  out,  by 
living  upon  it,  and  living  by  it,  applying 
its  principles  to  daily  life,  and  seeking  to 
spread  it  among  other  people,  it  may  increase 
and  fructify  in  your  hands. 

HL  The  Profits. — The  immediate  results 
are  in  direct  correspondence  and  propor- 
tion to  the  immediate  activity  and  diligence. 
The  truths  that  you  live  by,  you  will  be- 
lieve more  because  you  live  by  them.  The 
faculties  that  you  employ  in  Christ's  service 
will  grow  and  increase  by  reason  of  your 
employment  of  them. 

IV.  The  Audit. — "  Till  I  come,"  or, 
"  Whilst  I  am  coming."  As  if  all  through 
the  ages  the  king  was  coming,  coming 
nearer.  We  have  to  work  as  remembering 
that  everyone  of  us  shall  give  an  account  of 
himself  and  his  trading  imto  the  Proprietor 
when  He  comes  back. — S.  B.,  vol.  vii.  p. 
299. 


LOT'S  CHOICE* 


TO  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  CHILDREN 
By  John  Hall,  D.D. 


It  is  well  for  Lot's  character  that  Peter 
put  him  down  as  a  "  righteous  "  man  in  his 
Second  Epistle  (ii:7),  for  his  life  leaves  it 
in  doubt.  He  acted  like  a  bad  man  several 
times,  and  he  suffered  for  it.  If  ever  you 
go  to  Europe,  by  Queenstown,  you  may  see 
in  the  bay  a  wooden  frame  with  a  bell  swing- 
ing and  ringing  with  the  waves.  A  fine 
steamer  got  on  a  rock  there.  It  lies  too  low 
to  be  seen  above  water,  but  too  high  to  let 
vessels  over  it  safely.  Like  a  beacon  should 
be  the  report  of  this  sore  shipwreck  long  ago. 
There  is  a  great  rock,  just  out  of  sight,  but 
in  all  men's  way,  and  they  should  hear  the 
warning-bell,  tolling  in  Genesis,  tolling  in 
the  Gospels,  "  Remember  Lot's  wife — re- 
member Lot's  choice !  " 

I.  Lot  forgot  himself. — He  had  come  out 
of  Haran  with  his  wiser  uncle.  He  had 
lived  and  grown  rich  along  with  him.  He 
had  had  the  benefit  of  Abraham's  good  com- 
pany and  example,  and  doubtless  worshiped 
at  the  altars  which  Abraham  never  failed  to 
build.  All  this  kept  him  right,  and  so  long 
he  was  blameless ;  and  very  likely  he  thought 


he  would  always  get  on  just  as  well.  If  the 
strong  angel  who  had  to  hurry  him  at  last 
out  of  Sodom  had  met  him  and  said,  ''  Lot, 
beware ;  you  will  lose  your  religion  in 
Sodom !  "  he  would  probably  have  replied : 
"Never  fear;  I  know  what  I  am  doing; 
there  is  no  danger !  "  He  forgot  how  easily 
men  are  tempted  ;  how  much  good  company 
keeps  us  right ;  how  great  need  we  have  of 
religious  services  to  help  us — in  a  word,  he 
forgot  himself. 

Many  people  do  just  the  same  now.  Liv- 
ing in  a  good  family,  with  well-kept  Sab- 
baths and  pleasant  church-helps,  their  way 
is  hedged  up.  The  rails  are  nicely  laid  for 
them,  and  they  come  to  think  they  can  go 
smoothly  anywhere,  and  they  rather  like  to 
go  alone ;  so,  when  some  chance  is  offered 
them,  they  set  out.  without  any  regret  for 
what  they  lose,  or  any  fear  of  what  they 
meet.  Sabbaths,  friends,  the  church  and  all 
that,  they  say,  "  it  is  a  pity  to  leave ;  but 
they  will  take  care  of  themselves,  and,  in 
fact,  they  must "  make  money,  or  whatever 
else  they  have  chosen.     So  Lot  looked  about 


'■  From  a  New  Year's  Address.    A.  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Co. 


NEW   YEAR'S  DAY 


19 


and  decided  for  the  plain  of  Jordan.  True, 
the  people  were  awfully  wicked,  and  the 
cities  dens  of  sin.  He  thought  of  his  cattle, 
and  not  of  his  children;  of  his  substance, 
and  not  of  his  soul.  He  looked  at  it,  as 
Fuller  says,  "  with  the  eye  of  a  mere 
grazier."  What  did  he  gain?  He  had  rea- 
son, by  and  by,  to  move  into  Sodom,  and, 
after  a  little,  he  and  all  belonging  to  him 
were  made  captives,  and  only  rescued  by  the 
courage  and  quickness  of  Abraham.  After  a 
little  longer,  the  whole  place  was  burnt  up, 
and  he  lost  cattle  and  home,  some  of  his 
children  and  his  wife.  He  lived  in  daily 
vexation,  without  honor  from  the  people, 
and  he  went  out  penniless  and  widowed  and 
crushed  under  a  load  of  sorrows.  His  choice 
proved  bad  every  way. 

When  you  shoot  your  arrows  at  a  mark, 
let  the  arrowhead  be  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
to  the  right  of  the  line  to  the  mark,  and  it 
will  be  many  yards  to  the  right  at  the  mark. 
When  the  riflemen  take  aim,  let  the  muzzle 
of  the  gun  point  half-an-inch  too  low,  and 
tne  ball  will  fall  many  feet  too  low  at  the 
target.  And  so  it  is,  boys,  with  the  wrong 
choice.  It  is  only  turning  a  little  Lit  wrong 
at  the  moment ;  but  it  is  a  great  deal  wrong 
in  the  long  run.  And  as  you  cannot  set  the 
arrow  right  after  you  have  pulled  the  string 
and  let  it  go ;  as  the  very  smartest  rifle-shot 
cannot  give  the  ball  a  friendly  touch  after 
he  has  fired,  so,  when  the  choice  has  been 
made,  the  natural  consequences  may  be  ex- 
pected. Therefore  choose  cautiously  and 
well.  It  is  common  enough  to  say,  "  Of  two 
evils  choose  the  less."  This  much-abused 
proverb  needs  explaining.  If  I  must  lose 
my  thumb,  or  have  the  arm  mortify,  I  choose 
to  part  with  my  thumb.  But  if  I  am  between 
moral  evil  and  physical,  I  will  not  choose 
either.  The  three  Hebrew  children  might 
have  avoided  the  furnace  by  idolatry.  They 
would  not  worship  an  idol ;  and  they  did 
not  choose  the  furnace.  It  was  forced  on 
them.  If  I  am  between  two  moral  evils,  I 
will  not  have  either.  "  There  is  small  choice 
in  rotten  apples."  I  am  to  reject  both.  A 
man  is  not  to  lie,  to  save  from  the  necessity 
to  steal ;  nor  to  break  the  Sabbath,  lest  he 
should  not  be  able  to  pay  his  debts.  Never 
choose  to  do  wrong. 

Now,  my  dear  reader,  you  have  to  make 
decisions  every  day.  What  books  will  you 
read?  What  friends  will  you  make?  What 
studies  will  you  follow?  What  pleasures 
will  you  enjoy?  What  will  you  do  with  your 
money?  You  can,  if  you  please,  do  like 
Lot.  You  can  make  everything  bend  to  self 
and  present  pleasure.  You  can  turn  your 
back  on  Sabbath-school,  and  teacher,  and 
Bible,  and  church.  You  can  choose  to  make 
the  Sabbath  an  idle  or  a  pleasure-seeking 
day.  You  can  select  a  set  of  friends  who 
care  nothing  about  their  own  souls  or  yours. 
As  you  grow  up,  you  can  make  up  your 
mind  that  the  one  thing  is  to  get  on,  make 
money  and  be  somebody,  no  matter  how  it 
is  to  be  done.  And  you  may  think  in  your 
heart  that  you  will  go  no  farther  than  is 
safe.     But   by   and   by   you   will   come   where 


you  must  go  farther  and  farther,  and  have 
to  do  more  than  you  ever  meant.  Lot  did 
not  intend,  possibly,  to  live  in  Sodom.  But 
ic  could  not  be  helped.  Perhaps  it  was  not 
safe  to  be  away  from  a  city.  Perhaps  his 
family  wanted  to  have  "  some  people  to 
know."  Perhaps  his  wife  wished  her  chil- 
dren to  be  like  the  rest,  and  to  get  settled  in 
liie;  and  "better  be  out  of  the  world  than 
out  of  fashion,"  according  to  the  devil's  gos- 
pel. And  so  they  went  into  Sodom,  and  his 
daughters  were  settled,  and  perished  in  the 
ruins  of  the  place. 

Have  you  a  good  friend,  who  loves  you, 
who  tells  you  the  truth — whom  you  love? 
Cling  to  him.  His  friendship  will  bless  you, 
and  it  glorifies  God,  who  is  pleased  to  see 
His   creatures   unselfishly   bound   together. 

"  Fall  not  out  upon  the  way ; 

Short  it  is,  and  soon  will  end; 
Better  far  to  fly  the  fray, 
Than  to  lose  the  friend. 

"  Christ  hath  sent  you  two  and  two, 
With  an  order  to  return : 
Can  ye  meet  the  Master's  view, 
If  with  wrath  you  burn?" 

Lot  made  a  bad  decision  when  he  parted 
company  with  his  true   friend,   Abraham. 

Children,  if  you  saw  a  sea-beach  covered 
with  wrecks  and  bodies  of  sailors,  would 
you  not  think  it  very  dangerous ;  and  if 
you  were  sailors,  would  you  not  keep  away 
from  it  as  far  as  possible?  Well,  children, 
the  plan  of  getting  on  at  any  cost  is  such  a 
shore;  and  it  is  covered  with  wrecks  of 
body,  of  mind,  of  honor,  of  conscience,  of 
means  of  life,  and,  one  fears,  too  often,  of  the 
soul  itself. 

There  is  a  castle,  of  which  I  want  to  tell 
you,  with  a  splendid  front.  On  that  front 
is  inscribed  "  God-fearing."  Its  right  side  is 
called  Moderate  Living ;  and  the  wall  to  the 
left — so  strong  and  solid — is  called  Honest 
Principle.  It  has  to  the  rear  two  fine  towers, 
called  Sabbath-keeping  and  Bible-reading, 
and  a  great  crowd  of  people  are  safe  and 
happy  inside. 

These  people  have  a  bitter  enemy  outside, 
vvho  would  fain  destroy  them,  but  he  can  do 
little  harm  in  the  castle.  His  name  is  the 
Devil,  and  he  has  an  ally  called  the  world. 
Could  he  only  get  them  out !  And  so  he 
goes  to  work,  and  around  the  gates  he  scat- 
ters those  attractions  "  that  nobody  can  ob- 
ject to."  Here  the  world  helps  him.  Shall 
they  go  out  to  them?  "  What  harm  can  they 
do?"  No;  in  themselves  they  are  neither 
good  nor  bad.  They  go.  Then,  a  little  far- 
ther on,  he  has  another  set.  "  They  have 
done  one  thing,  and  no  harm  came  of  it. 
Why  not  this  as  well?  There  is  no  evil  in 
it "  And  so  he  proceeds,  perhaps,  through 
many  years.  You  could  not  show  the  actual 
harm  of  any  of  these  things  by  themselves. 
But  they  draw  people  away  from  their  castle 
and  from  safety,  and  then  their  ruin  is  sure 
and  easy.  That  was  just  Lot's  case,  and  you 
know  the  result. 


20 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Keep  within  the  castle,  dear  children,  no 
matter  what  gay  and  charming  scenes  are 
spread  to  draw  you  out  of  it. 

"  The  story  of  the  past 

Comes  up  before  our  view; 
How   well    it   seems   to   suit   us  still — 
Old,  and  yet  ever  new  I 

"  It  is  the  oft-told  tale 
Of  sin  and  weariness — 
Of    grace    and    love    yet    flowing    down, 
To  pardon  and  to  bless. 

"  No  wider  is  the  gate ; 
No  broader  is  the  way; 
No  smoother  is  the  ancient  path 
That  leads  to  life  to-day. 

"  No  slacker  grows  the  fight ; 
No  feebler  is  the  foe ; 
No  less  the  need  of  armor  tried — 
Of  shield  and  spear  and  bow." 

II.  Lot  treated  Abraham  badly. — So 
soon  as  trouble  arose  between  his  servants 
and  those  of  the  good  man,  to  whom  he 
owed  so  much,  he  forgot  all,  and  was  ready 
to  leave  him.  Abraham  likely  saw  how  it 
was  to  be.  Such  men  never  want  to  quarrel, 
especially  with  their  relations.  So  he  made  a 
noble  offer  to  Lot.  Now  Lot  should  have  left 
the  choice  to  Abraham,  if  they  must  part. 
But  he  never  thought  of  it.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  he  took  what  seemed  best  to  him, 
and  turned  his  back  on  his  uncle. 

It  was  ungrateful,  mean,  and  selfish.  Dear 
children,  never  do  such  wrong.  When  yon 
are  strong,  stand  by  those  who  stood  by  you 
when  you  were  weak.  Never  take  advantage 
of  a  good  man's  softness.  Never  abuse  good 
nature.  Some  are  so  gentle,  they  will  bear 
a  great  deal ;  and  some  are  so  great  in  feel- 
ing, they  will  not  resent  injuries.  Do  not 
trade  upon  those  fine  qualities.  Good  men 
cannot  respect  or  love  you  if  you  do.  God  is 
not  likely  to  bless  such  a  course.  Rather 
learn  to  help  the  weak,  than  to  lean  on 
others,  and  you  will  grow  stronger  and  hap- 
pier in  the  attempt. 

"  For  the  heart  grows  rich  in  giving ; 
All  its  wealth  is  living  grain : 
Seeds,  which  mildew  in  the  garner, 
Scattered,  fill  with  gold  the  plain. 

"Is  thy  burden  hard  and  heavy? 
Do  thy  steps  drag  wearily? 
Help  to  bear  thy  brother's  burden : 
God  will  bear  both  it  and  thee." 

So  Abraham  found,  when  going  out  of 
his  way  and  running  such  risks  to  save  his 
kinsman. 

Let  us  hope  Lot  was  ashamed  of  himself 
when  Abraham  saved  him  from  the  kings 
and  gave  him  back  all  again.  Children  some- 
times forget  their  parents,  and  fling  them  off 
as  if  they  were  nothing  to  them.  Many  a 
careless  daughter  wounds  a  mother's  heart. 
Young  men  will  be  bribed  by  the  offer  of  a 
few  dollars  from  the  best  friends  and  em- 
ployers in  the  world,  and  quit  those  to  whom 


they  owe  everything.  This  is  all  wrong. 
Next  to  God's  love,  the  best  thing  in  the 
world  is  the  love  of  true  human  hearts. 
You  cannot  buy  it  with  all  the  money  in  the 
mint.  Don't  sell  it,  boys  and  girls,  for  a 
handful  of  dollars.  Be  true,  generous,  grate- 
ful. There  are  many  to  whom  you  can  make 
no  return  but  that  of  the  heart :  they  have  a 
right  to  that  from  you.  You  are  better  for 
loving  those  who  deserve  it  at  your  hand. 
You  are  worse  for  forgetting  them  as  Lot 
did  Abraham.  You  grow  fickle,  selfish,  cold- 
hearted,  and  unhappy  in  yourself.  You  care 
for  no  one,  and  by  and  by  no  one  will  care 
for  you. 

III.  Lot  robbed  God. — Why  did  Abraham 
leave  Haran  ?  Because  God  meant  him  and 
his  to  be  separate  from  the  worshipers  of 
false  gods.  But  Lot,  who  owed  obedience 
to  God's  will  in  this,  went  among  the  idola- 
ters. Abraham  set  up  his  altar  wherever  he 
went.  Is  it  likely  that  Lot  had  an  altar  to 
God  in  Sodom?  Abraham  looked  for  a  wife 
for  Isaac  among  those  who  would  not  lead 
him  to  sin.  Lot  did  not  take  any  such 
trouble.  His  daughters  married  men  of 
Sodom,  "  wicked  before  God  exceedingly," 
but  probably  with  nice  houses  and  good  posi- 
tions. And  little  comfort  he  could  have  had 
in  sons-in-law,  who,  when  he  warned  them  of 
ruin  not  a  day  off,  thought  him  a  fool.  All 
through,  he  acts  as  if  God  was  nothing.  He 
is  partner  in  the  losses  with  the  Sodomites, 
but  the  warning  is  nothing  to  him,  and  he 
goes  back  again  as  before.  The  next  time 
God  speaks,  it  is  in  the  destruction  of  his 
married  children  and  his  unhappy  wife.  He 
escapes,  indeed,  with  his  two  daughters,  but 
even  they  show  in  their  lives  the  ill  effects 
of  bad  training  and  a  life  in  Sodom. 

Now  my  dear  young  friends,  I  wish  you 
to  be  happy  all  this  year,  all  your  lives,  all 
through  eternity.  But  I  know  you  cannot 
be  happy  if  you  rob  God.  He  wishes  you 
to  be  His,  and  to  put  His  will  first  in  every- 
thing. Nothing  can  make  up  to  you  for 
holding  back  God's  due  from  Him.  Rob- 
bing God.  my  dear  boy,  docs  not  pay  in  any 
way.  Don't  believe  that  boy  who  wants  you 
to  deceive  your  mother  or  share  his  sins. 
You  owe  it  to  God  to  obey  her.  Don't  you 
think  God's  eye  and  hand  can  follow  you 
when  you  steal  to  the  theater  ?  Do  not  listen 
to  that  tempter  who  puts  the  glass  to  your 
lips  and  tells  you.  "  Every  fellow  drinks." 
Do  not  believe  the  whisper  in  your  heart  that 
you  can  take  forbidden  joys  and  remain 
happy.  The  devil  is  a  liar  from  the  begin- 
ning. It  is  an  old  lie  of  his,  that  to  make 
money  and  get  rich  in  any  way  is  a  grand 
success.  I  wish  you  would  learn  by  heart 
these  lines : 

"  Gold  filleth  none  ! 
That  which  has  life 
Alone  can  fill  the  living; 
That  which  has  love 
Alone  can  fill   the  loving. 
Gold  is  not  life  or  love; 
It  is  not  rest  or  joy ; 
It  filleth  coffers,  hearts  it  cannot  fill." 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


21 


Riches  in  Sodom  are  little  worth  to  Lot, 
and  riches  gained  at  the  cost  of  disobeying 
God  make  the  road  to  hell  easy.  The  first 
thing,  dear  children,  is  to  do  God's  will. 
Take  heed  to  God,  and  He  will  take  care  of 
you.  Despise  Him,  and  you  will  be  lightly 
esteemed. 

There  was  a  place  at  which  Lot  might 
have  returned  and  escaped.  He  first  set- 
tled toward  Sodom  (Gen.  xiii :  12),  not  in  it, 
but  dangerously  near  it.  Oh,  how  many 
things  there  are  on  which  you  might  put 
"  Toivard   Sodom!  " 

That  boy  at  the  corner  in  the  dusk,  making 
a  man  of  himself,  with  three  or  four  others, 
with  a  cigar,  is  "  toward  Sodom."  The  oath 
and  the  coarse  word  are  the  language  of  the 
place. 

That  girl  to  whom  a  gay  dress  is  every- 
thing, and  the  display  of  it  perfect  bliss,  no 
matter  where  it  leads  her,  is  "  toward 
Sodom."  That  family  whose  carriage  is  at 
the  door  on  a  Sunday  morning  for  a  day's 
pleasure  is  "  toward  Sodom."  That  lad  who 
goes  into  a  godless  business  for  immense 
profits  is  ''  toward  Sodom."  God  help  them, 
and  pluck  them  back  before  the  evil  day 
comes,  and  the  fire  descends  in  judgment! 

"  What  would  have  kept  Lot  right?  So 
far  as  we  can  see,  a  right  choice  at  this 
critical  time.  He  should  have  said  to  Abra- 
ham, "  Thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and 
thy    God   my   God."      Better   be   with   God's 


servants,  and  in  God's  service,  than  in 
Sodom  and  a  prince.  So,  my  dear  children, 
be  sure,  it  will  be  with  you.  Follow  the  Lord 
fully.  Begin  this  year  in  His  fear.  He  loves 
you ;  His  Son  died  to  redeem  you  from  all 
iniquity,  and  to  bring  you  to  heaven.  This 
is  His  will  concerning  you.  Let  that  blessed 
will  have  its  way.  It  will  be  best  for  you. 
Learn  to  say : — 

"  When  obstacles  and  trials  seem 
Like  prison-walls  to  be, 
I  do  the  little  that  I  can, 
And  leave  the  rest  to  Thee. 

"  111  that  Thou  blessest,  is  our  good, 
And  unblest  good  is  ill ; 
And  all  is  right  that  seems  most  wrong, 
If  it  be  Thy  sweet  will." 

Do  not  wrong  yourselves.  You  can  never 
be  safe  but  in  God's  keeping.  Do  not  turn 
away  from  the  best  friend  you  ever  can  have, 
who  would  have  you  near  Him  here  and  for- 
ever. Do  not  wrong  the  Lord  God  Almighty. 
Give  your  heart  to  Him,  through  and  in 
Jesus  Christ,  His  Son  and  your  Savior. 
Choose  the  good  part  that  shall  not  be  taken 
away ;  and  when  palaces  and  cities  have  been 
burned  up  in  the  last  fire,  you,  as  the  re- 
deemed of  the  Lord,  shall  be  safe  in  the  city 
that  hath  no  need  of  the  sun. — H.  R. 


THE  GOLDEN  GATE  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

By  G.  B.  F.  Hallock,  D.D. 

Ye  have  not  passed  this  way  heretofore. — Josh.  Hi:  4 


The  new  year  is  a  golden  gate  of  oppor- 
tunity. The  children  of  Israel  were  just 
going  to  cross  the  Jordan  and  the  message 
came  to  them,  "  Ye  have  not  passed  this  way 
heretofore."  We  have  not  passed  this  new 
year's  way  heretofore.  It  was  a  prospect 
calculated  to  try  the  stoutest  hearts  among 
them ;  yet  it  was  the  opening  up  of  many 
possibilities  for  noblest  achievement.  The 
ark,  the  symbol  of  God's  presence,  was  car- 
ried before  them.  God  was  their  leader. 
He  must  be  ours.  If  we  will  accept  Him  as 
our  guide  in  every  path,  if  we  will  follow 
Him  always,  we  will  find  that  to  us  rivers 
will  open  and  we  shall  be  led  into  lands  of 
glorious  promise.  The  reason  the  ark  was 
to  be  carried  before  the  people  was  that  they 
might  know  the  way.  It  was  a  new  path  to 
them.  "  Ye  have  not  passed  this  way  here- 
tofore." We.  too,  are  constantly  coming  to 
experiences  that  are  altogether  new  to  us. 
Indeed,  all  life  is  in  a  sense  new  and  strange. 
Every  day's  path  is  an  untried  one.  Each 
year's  path  is  also  an  untried  one.  The  new 
century's  path  is  an  untried  one.  There  arc 
also  many  special  times  in  life  when  it  can 
be  truly  said  to  us,  "  Ye  have  not  passed  this 


way  heretofore."  It  is  so  of  youth,  and  to 
every  happy-hearted  child  the  counsel  well 
may  come :  "  Keep  the  ark  always  before 
you,  and  keep  in  sight  of  it,  for  you  have  not 
passed  this  way  heretofore."  It  is  true  when 
a  young  man  goes  out  from  his  home  to  try 
the  world  for  himself.  It  is  true  of  the 
young  woman  who  steps  forth  from  her 
father's  door  to  go  to  the  marriage  altar. 
It  is  true  when  we  are  called  to  meet  our 
first  great  sorrow.  It  is  true  when  we  take 
up  our  first  serious  responsibilities  in  life. 
It  is  true  at  the  last  when  we  are  moving 
into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 

But  we  wish  to  apply  this  truth  especially 
to  the  opening  of  the  year  1901. 

I.  The  new  year  is  a  golden  gate  of  op- 
portunity, especially  in  affording  us  neiv 
chance  for  coming  into  contact  zvith  Christ. 
In  it  we  may  learn  to  know  Him  better  than 
ever  before.  We  may  walk  with  Him,  and 
talk  with  Him,  and  dwell  "  in  the  secret 
of  His  presence  "  as  never  before,  if  we  will 
embrace  the  opportunities  for  fellowship  the 
new  year  brings. 

When  Christ  was  on  earth  the  words  He 
so  frequently  used  in  speaking  of  the  rela- 


22 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


tions  of  His  disciples  to  Himself  were: 
"  Follow  me."  But  when  He  was  about  to 
leave  for  His  heavenly  home  He  gave  them 
a  new  expression,  conveying  an  idea  much 
more  intimate  and  spiritual :  "  Abide  in  me." 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  there  are  many  ear- 
nest followers  of  Jesus  from  whom  the 
meaning  of  this  expression,  with  the  experi- 
ences it  promises,  is  very  much  hidden. 
While  trusting  in  their  Savior  for  pardon 
and  help,  and  seeking  in  some  extent  to 
ol  ey  Him,  they  have  hardly  realized  to  what 
closeness  of  union,  to  what  intimacy  of  fel- 
lowship, to  what  wondrous  oneness  of  life 
and  interest  He  invites  as  He  says,  "  Abide 
in  me." 

II.  The  new  year  is  a  golden  gate  of  oppor- 
tunity to  appropriate  Christ  as  never  before. 
We  do  not  need  so  much  to  work  for  and 
pray  to  and  commune  with  our  Savior  as 
we  do  to  appropriate  Him,  to  make  Him 
"  the  soul  of  our  soul,  the  life  of  our  life." 
There  is  a  mystical  union  between  Christ 
and  each  believer  transcending  all  the  analo- 
gies of  earthly  relationships  in  the  intimacy 
of  its  communion,  in  the  transforming 
power  of  its  influence  and  in  the  excellence 
of  its  consequences.     It  is  a  spiritual  union. 


It  is  a  vital  union.  It  is  an  indissoluble 
union.  It  is  a  union  which  gives  us  the 
power  to  assimilate  His  life,  to  reproduce 
His  character,  and  to  display  in  some  de- 
gree all  the  graces  He  displayed. 

III.  The  new  year,  therefore,  is  a  golden 
gate  of  opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of 
Christian  character.  It  gives  us  new  chance 
for  growth  in  grace.  Each  year  should  leave 
its  mark  upon  Christians  as  it  does  upon 
trees,  by  an  additional  circle  of  growth.  We 
should  become  larger,  stronger,  better  with 
each  passing  year.  Vegetable  growth  is  un- 
planned for  and  unconscious,  but  growth  in 
grace  is  largely  the  result  of  purpose  and  per- 
sistence. 

IV.  The  new  year  is  a  golden  gate  of  op- 
portunity for  doing  good.  We  made  a  good 
many  failures  the  past  year.  The  new  year 
is  a  chance  to  try  again  with  the  hope  of  do- 
ing better.  Many  a  musician  has  desired, 
after  a  public  pageant,  to  play  his  parts  over 
again,  believing  that  he  could  have  done 
them  accurately  and  well  but  for  a  small 
misunderstanding  of  some  little  note.  Dur- 
ing this  year  the  concert  will  be  repeated. 
The  chances  of  life  are  open  anew. — P.  T., 
vol.  xviii.,  p.  715. 


THE  NEW  YEAR 


Psahn  xxxi:  15 


To-day  we  wish  each  other  "  a  happy  new 
year."  We  seem  to  stand  at  a  fresh  starting- 
point.  Naturally  we  wish  each  other  _  well 
through  it.  Yet  how  many  utter  it  with  a 
sore  heart.  Text,  a  thought  full  of  consola- 
tion to  every  believer.  We  stand  on  the 
threshold  of  the  New  Year.  It  is  a  solemn 
time.  Consider  thoughts  suggested  by  text. 
It  teaches  us : 

I.  Our  dependence  on  God.  The  ungodly 
disown  God's  providential  government.  But 
believer  rejoices  that  "  the  Lord  reigneth." 
Reconciles  him  to  present  evils,  and  fortifies 
against  future  ones.  He  is  convinced  that 
nothing  is  casual  or  accidental.  God  has 
steered  his  bark  from  earliest  infancy.  Our 
time  marked  out  by  Him.  Gives  and  takes 
away  blessings,  Amos  viii:ii.  No  circum- 
stance too  trivial  for  Him.  Look  back  on  past 
and  discern  His  hand.  In  His  hand,  too,  are 
the  Seasons  of  death  as  well  as  the  occur- 
rences of  life.  Death  at  last  comes  to  all. 
Man  lives  on  word  of  God's  mouth.  Our 
wisest  course  to  cling  to  His  love  and  faith- 
fulness. Pillows  dying  heads  of  His  people 
in  Jesus'  bosom.  How  many  have  thus 
passed  away  in  past  year.  They  appeal  to 
us  to  "  acquaint  ourselves  with  God."  Begm 
year  by  consecrating  yourselves  anew  to  Him. 

II.  Our  security  in  God.  This  afforded 
David  comfort  and  confidence.  We  are  al- 
ways exposed  to  perils.  Let  text  assure  us 
that  in  God's  hand  we  are  safe.     We  see  this 


constantly  exemplified  in  Scripture.  David 
hunted  by  Saul.  Our  Lord  had  His  "  hour," 
and  could  say  to  Pilate,  John  xix :  11.  Paul 
furnishes  a  list  of  His  perils.  The  Christian 
is  immortal  till  His  work  is  done.  Like 
Elisha  at  Dothan  he  is  in  God's  hand.  None 
can  hurt  us  without  His  permission.  The 
promise  is  still  sure.  Is.  Iiv:i7.  Faith  in 
this  promise  would  banish  care.  Peter  asks. 
Pet.  iii:  13?  While  our  times  are  in  His  hand 
we  are  safe  tho  in  a  den  of  lions.  Learn  to 
seek  God  zvithout  delay.  Do  not  provoke  Him 
to  withdraw  His  support.  Do  not  despise  His 
patience  and  forbearance.  Begin  now  to  seek 
Him  as  you  never  sought  Him  before.  Think 
to  how  little  purpose  you  have  hitherto  lived. 
Ask  Him  for  Grace  to  "  number  your  days." 
True  wisdom  consists  in  knowing  God  in 
Christ.  Learn  to  serve  Him  zvithout  fear. 
Servile  fear  is  banished  from  a  believer's 
service.  Yet  he  often  shrinks  from  boldly 
giving  himself  up  for  God's  service.  Fear  of 
man  brings  a  snare.  Is.  li :  12,  13.  Let 
thought  of  His  presence  dispel  fear.  Every 
trial  be  pure  will  come  duly  weighed  and 
meted.  Learn  to  trust  Him  without  careful- 
ness. Where  could  our  times  be  in  better 
keeping?  Shall  proofs  of  His  past  love  fail 
to  banish  anxiety?  Shall  we  desire  to  wrest 
reins  of  government  from  His  hands?  He 
doeth  all  things  well.  To  Him,  then,  let  us 
commit  ourselves  and  all  belonging  to  us. — 
H.  A.  C.  Y. 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


23 


TO-DAY 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Hcb.  iv:  7 


Nothing  unusual  in  to-day.  We  have  made 
our  routine  of  business,  etc.  Because  "  since 
the  fathers  fell  asleep,"  etc. 

Had  there  been  signs  you  would  listen  to  a 
voice,  even  the  voice  of  man  and  certainly  of 
God. 

Let  us  study  what  is  in  "  to-day." 

I.  The  value  of  a  whole  life. — The  fu- 
ture as  valuable  as  all  Sibylline  leaves. 
What  would  you  take  for  your  whole  future 
life?  What  money?  What  pleasure?  That 
whole  future  may  be  in  this  hour.  Whole- 
sale and  retail.  But  why  talk  in  market  lan- 
guage ?  A  day  in  saving  a  soul !  "  What 
shall  it  profit,  etc."  Price  of  Christ's  blood. 
Past  and  future. 

II.  To-DAY    IS    all    that    IS    CERTAIN. — And 

that  certain  "to-day"  is  an  instant.  3,600 
certainties  die  in  an  hour ;  86,400  in  a  day ; 
31.500,000  in  a  year.  In  this  case  each  dead 
certainty  makes  a  probability  that  the  next 
will  be  the  last.  It  is  certain  there  is  a 
last. 

III.  To-day's  relation  to  eternity. — 
On  a  draft  one-eighth  of  an  inch  may  stand 


for    miles.      Life    is    the    draft    of    eternity. 
Each  moment  represents  ages. 

IV.  Each  day  has  its  appropriate  work. 
—  (a)  For  our  own  soul's  character  build- 
ing. Divide  this  whole  work  by  the  number 
of  days  of  life,  (b)  For  others :  for  the 
world.  Divide  this.  Fail  in  other  things, 
you  may  repair.  But  this  is  imperious.  No 
insurance  on  time. 

V.  How  MUCH  may  be  done  in  a  day! — 
Adam's  fall.  Israel's  sin.  Peter's  sermon. 
Christ's  death. 

VI.  Eternity  gives  value  to  to-day. — 
What  abides  is  more  precious  or  painful 
than  what  is  evanescent.  Pain.  Pleasure. 
Glory. 

VII.  Task  of  some  days  much  greater. — 
Crisis.  Disease.  Law.  Now  is  your  "  de- 
ciding "  day.  The  whole  case  has  been  sub- 
mitted. 

VIII.  To-day  is  passing. — It  goes,  goes,, 
goes.  You  may  hear  His  voice  now.  It 
may  be  awful  silence  hereafter.  Strive  to 
seize  and  hold  to-day.  There  is  no  to- 
morrow l^Selected. 


THE  DIMENSIONS  OF  LIFE 

By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 

And  the  city  lieth  four  square,  and  the  length  is  as  large  as  the  breadth:  and  he  measured 
the  city  zvith  the  reed,  tzvelve  thousand  furlongs.  The  length  and  the  breadth  and  the 
Iieiglit  of  it  are  equal. — Rev.  xxi:  16 


"  The  length  and  the  breadth  and  the 
height  of  it  are  equal."  There  are  then  three 
directions  or  dimensions  of  human  life  to 
which  we  may  fitly  give  these  three  names : 
length,  and  breadth,  and  height.  The  length 
of  a  life,  in  this  meaning  of  it,  is,  of  course, 
not  its  duration.  It  is  rather  the  reaching 
on  and  out  of  a  man  in  the  line  of  activity, 
and  thought,  and  self-development,  which 
is  indicated  and  prophesied  by  the  character 
which  is  natural  to  him,  by  the  special  am- 
bitions which  spring  up  out  of  his  special 
powers.  It  is  the  push  of  a  life  forward  to 
its  own  personal  ends  and  ambitions.  The 
breadth  of  a  life,  on  the  other  hand,  is  its 
outreach  laterally,  if  we  may  say  so.  It  is 
the  constantly  diffusive  tendency  which  is 
always  drawing  a  man  outward  into  sym- 
pathy with  other  men.  And  the  height  of  a 
life  is  its  reach  upward  toward  God;  its  sense 
of  childhood ;  its  consciousness  of  the  Di- 
vine life  over  it,  with  which  it  tries  to  live 
in  love,  communion,  and  obedience.  These 
are  the  three  dimensions  of  a  life, — its  length. 
and  breadth,  and  height, — without  the  due 
development  of  all  of  which  no  life  becomes 
complete. 


I.  Consider  the  length  of  life  in  this  under- 
standing of  the  word.  Here  is  a  man  who, 
as  he  comes  to  self-consciousness,  recog- 
nizes in  himself  a  certain  nature.  He  can- 
not _  be  mistaken.  Other  men  have  their 
special  powers  and  dispositions.  As  this 
young  man  studies  himself,  he  finds  that  he 
has  his.  That  nature  which  he  has  dis- 
covered in  himself  decides  for  him  his  career. 
He  says  to  himself,  "  Whatever  I  am  to  do 
in  the  world  must  be  done  in  this  direction." 
It  is  a  fascinating  discovery.  It  is  an  ever- 
memorable  time  for  a  man  when  he  first 
makes  it.  It  is  almost  as  if  a  star  woke  to 
some  subtle  _  knowledge  of  itself,  and  felt 
within  its  shining  frame  the  forces  which  de- 
cided what  its  orbit  was  to  be.  Because  it 
is  the  star  i:  is,  that  track  through  space 
must  be  its  track.  Out  on  that  track  it 
looks;  along  that  line  which  sweeps  through 
the  great  host  of  stars  it  sends  out  all  its 
hopes ;  and  all  the  rest  of  space  is  merely  the 
field  through  which  that  track  is  flung:  all 
the  great  host  of  stars  is  but  the  audience 
which  waits  to  hear  it  as  it  goes  singing  on 
its  way.  So  starts  the  young  life  which  has 
come  to  self-discovery  and  found  out  what 


24 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


it  has  to  do  by  finding  out  what  it  is.  It 
starts  to  do  that  destined  thing,  to  run  out 
that  appointed  course.  Nay,  the  man  when 
he  arrives  at  this  self-discovery  finds  that 
his  nature  has  not  waited  for  him  to  recog- 
nize himself.  What  he  is,  even  before  he 
knows  it,  has  decided  what  he  does.  It  may 
be  late  in  life  before  he  learns  to  say  of  him- 
self. "  This  is  what  I  am."  But  then  he 
looks  back  and  discerns  that,  even  without 
his  knowing  himself  enough  to  have  found 
it  out,  his  life  has  run  out  in  a  line  which 
had  the  promise  and  potency  of  its  direction 
in  the  nature  which  his  birth  and  education 
gave  him.  But  if  he  does  know  it,  the  course 
is  yet  more  definite  and  clear.  Every  act 
that  he  does  is  a  new  section  of  that  line 
which  runs  between  his  nature  and  his  ap- 
pointed work.  Just  in  proportion  to  the  def- 
initeness  with  which  he  has  measured  and 
understood  himself  in  the  sharpness  of  that 
line,  which  every  thouglit,  and  act,  and  word 
is  projecting  a  little  further,  through  the  host 
of  human  lives,  toward  the  purpose  of  his 
living,  toward  the  thing  which  he  believes 
that  he  is  sent  into  the  world  to  do. 

II.  Look  at  the  second  dimension  of  life, 
which  we  call  breadth.  I  have  ventured  to 
call  this  quality  of  breadth  in  a  man's  life 
its  outreach  laterally.  When  that  tendency 
of  which  I  have  just  been  talking,  the  tend- 
ency of  a  man's  career,  the  more  loftily  it 
is  pursued,  to  bring  him  into  sympathy  and 
relationship  with  other  men — when  that  tend- 
ency, I  say,  is  consciously  and  deliberately 
acknowledged,  and  a  man  comes  to  value  his 
own  personal  career  because  of  the  way  in 
which  it  relates  him  to  his  brethren  and  the 
help  which  it  permits  him  to  offer  them, 
then  his  life  has  distinctly  begun  to  open  in 
this  new  direction,  and  to  its  length  it  has 
added  breadth.  When  a  man  has  length  and 
breadth  together,  we  feel  at  once  how  the 
two  help  each  other.  Length  without  breadth 
is  narrow  and  hard;  breadth  without  length, 


sympathy  with  others  in  a  man  who  has  no 
intense  and  clear  direction  for  himself,  is 
soft  and  weak.  The  man  whom  the  world 
delights  to  find  is  the  man  who  has  evi- 
dently conceived  some  strong  and  distinct 
purpose  for  himself,  from  which  he  will 
allow  nothing  to  turn  his  feet  aside,  who 
means  to  be  something  with  all  his  soul,  and 
yet  who  finds  in  his  own  earnest  effort  to 
fill  out  his  own  career  the  interpretation  of 
the  careers  of  other  men,  and  also  finds  in 
sympathy  with  other  men  the  transfigura- 
tion and  sustainment  of  his  own  appointed 
struggle. 

III.  The  height  of  life  is  its  reach  upward 
toward  something  distinctly  greater  than  hu- 
manity. The  height  of  life,  its  reach  toward 
God,  must  be  coextensive  with,  must  be  part 
of  the  one  same  symmetrical  whole  with  the 
length  of  life,  or  its  reach  toward  its  per- 
sonal ambition,  and  the  breadth  of  life,  or  its 
reach  toward  the  sympathy  of  brother-lives. 
It  is  when  a  man  begins  to  know  the  am- 
bition of  his  life  not  simply  as  the  choice  ot 
his  own  will,  but  as  the  wise  assignment  of 
God's  love,  and  to  know  his  relations  to  his 
brethren  not  simply  as  the  result  of  his  own 
impulsive  affections,  but  as  the  seeking  of  his 
soul  for  their  souls  because  they  all  belong 
to  the  great  Father-soul — it  is  then  that  life 
for  that  man  begins  to  lift  itself  all  over, 
and  to  grow  toward  completion  upward, 
through  all  its  length  and  breadth.  That  is 
a  noble  time,  a  bewildering  and  exalting 
time,  in  any  of  our  lives,  when  into  every- 
thing that  we  are  doing  enters  the  Spirit  of 
God ;  and  thenceforth  moving  ever  up  to- 
ward the  God  to  whom  it  belongs,  that 
Spirit,  dwelling  in  our  life,  carries  our  life 
up  with  it,  not  separating  our  life  from  the 
earth,  but  making  every  part  of  it  while  it 
still  keeps  its  hold  on  earth  soar  up  and 
have  to  do  with  heaven,  so  completing  life 
in  its  height  by  making  it  Divine. — S.  B., 
vol.  xii.,  p.  367. 


NEW  YEAR  THEMES  AND  TEXTS 


[From  The  Honiilctic  Review] 


CHILDREN,  New  Year's  Address  to.— 

Prov.    viii:  17:     Those    that   seek    me    early 
shall  £nd  me. 

1.  We  have  lost  our  way.  We  may  not 
admit  it,  nor  even  know  it.     All  the  worse. 

We  can  find  out  whether  this  is  so  by 
comparing  our  life  with  the  heavenly  course 
in  the  Bible, — as  a  ship  which  has  lost  her 
compass  may  study  her  course  from  the 
stars. 

2.  Christ  offers  to  be  our  guide.  lie  has 
been  near,  tho  not  noticed,  and  is  closest  to 
those  who  feel  that  they  are  lost.  His  par- 
ables of  the  lost  sheep,  silver,  son. 

3.  We  can  trust  Him,  for  He  knows  every 
step  of  way.  He  has  strength  to  hold  us 
up,  and  He  has  never  lost  a  life  intrusted  to 
His  care. 


4.  Those  that  seek  Him  early  shall  find 
Him.  We  have  to  look  for  Him  before  He 
reveals  Himself.  Those  who  love  their  own 
way  will  not  see  Him. 

5.  Seek  Him  early. 

(a)  The  wrong  way  leads  to  death. 

{b)  The  wrong  way  fascinates  and  blinds 
us  to  better  things. 

(c)  We  may  wait  till  too  late. — From  a 
Sermon  by  Rev.  James  Black. 

DESTINY,    Christ   the   Fit   Ruler   of.— 

Rev.  v:  g:  They  sung  a  nezv  song,  saying, 
Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book,  and  to 
open  the  seals  thereof. 

The  "  book "  is  the  book  of  our  destiny, 
which  turns  a  new  page  with  this  new  year. 
Christ  alone   is   able   happily  to  control   that 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


25 


turning.  Our  New  Year  will  bring  joy  and 
progress  rather  than  failure  and  sorrow,  ac- 
cording as  our  destiny  is  put  in  the  hands  of 
Christ. 

1.  Christ  has  died  for  us  and  redeemed 
us  from  a  guilty  past. 

2.  Christ  opens  before  us  our  true  and 
high  place  as  honored   servants   of  God. 

DISTBICTS,  The  Untraveled,  of  Life.— 

Isa.  x-vz'i:  3:  Thou  zcilt  keep  him  in  perfect 
peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  thee,  because 
he  trustcth  in  thee. 

The  New  Year  opens  out  with  uncertainty. 
The  events  of  the  year  are  known  alone  to 
the  Omniscient  God.  The  child  of  God  real- 
izes this.  Hence  we  must  cultivate;  (i) 
The  habit  of  trust.  (2)  The  habit  of  faith- 
fulness.    (3)   The  habit  of  dependence. 

The  result  of  this  will  be:  (i)  A  sense 
of  duty.  (2)  A  disciplined  life.  (3)  A  new 
view  of  things  regarding  the  untraveled  dis- 
tricts of  life. 

FUTURE,    A    Look    into    the. — i.    Jer. 

xxviii:  16:    This  year  thou  shalt  die. 

The  time  of  his  death  was  declared  to 
Hananiah  because  of  his  sin;  but  while  not 
declared,  the  time  of  our  death  is  equally 
fixed,  and  to  some  of  us  it  is  literally  "this 
year." 

2.  Luke  xiii:  8:  Let  it  alone  this  year 
also. 

A  new  year  is  a  new  opportunity. 

3.  James  iv:  13:  Go  to  now,  ye  that  say, 
To-day  or  to-morrow  we  will  go  into  such  a 
city,  and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy,  and 
sell,  and  get  gain. 

Do  we  include  God  in  our  plans  for  the 
year? 

FUTURE,    The    Uncertainty    of    the.— 

James  iv:  14:  Ye  know  not  what  shall  be  on 
the  morrow. 

1.  Our  ignorance  of  the  future  is  as  ob- 
vious as  any  fact  of  our  life;  and  we  can 
see  that  it  is  essential  to  our  reasonable  life. 

2.  Because  of  our  imperfection  and  sin  it 
does  not  free  us  from  trouble  that  the  future 
is  all  under  absolute  law.  Its  events  grow 
out  of  what  precedes. 

GOD,  New  Reason  for  Praising. — Psalm 
xcvi:  I :  Sing  unto  the  Lord  a  new  song. 

New  praises  for  the  New  Year. 

I.  The  old  gifts  of  God  have  not  been 
adequately  prai.-cd. 

1.  His  greatness  and  power. 

2.  His  salvation. 

3.  Christ's  fitness  to  arrange  our  destiny. 
II.  He   has   given   new   gifts  that   call   for 

thanksgiving. 

1.  The  mercies  of  the  year. 

2.  The  continued  blessing  of  His  presence. 
He  '■  taketh  pleasure  in  his  people." 

3.  He  extends  His  blessing  into  new  fields. 

HEED,  The  Unfolding  Year  Calls  for 
Watchful  and  Devout. — Mark  xiii:  33: 
Take  ye  heed;  zvatch  and  pray;  for  ye  knoiv 
not  when  the  time  is. 

JUDGMENT  is  What  the  Years  and 
Seasons  Are  for,  God's   Rule  of. — Jer.  viii: 


7:  The  stork  in  the  lieaven  knoweth  her  ap- 
pointed time,  and  the  turtle  and  the  crane 
and  the  sivalloiv  observe  the  time  of  their 
cojuing;  but  my  people  know  not  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Lord. 

KINGDOM,  God's,  in  the  New  Year.— 

Matt,  vi:  33:  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

1.  The  changes  of  time  prepare  the  way 
for  eternity 

2.  The  spiritual  New  Year  is  the  setting 
up  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

3.  Of  all  the  interests  of  the  new  year 
none  is  so  great  as  that  progressive  develop- 
ment of  Christian  character  in  us  and  around 
us  which  we  call  the  kingdom  of  God. 

4.  Perhaps  our  practical  wisdom  would  be 
to  put  God's  kingdom  first  in  time.  Seek  it 
in  January,  and  on  January  i. 

LIFE,  The  True  Limit  of  OuT.—Eccles. 
vii:  17:  Why  shouldst  thou  die  before  the 
time? 

Machinists  speak  of  the  "  life  of  an  en- 
gine," meaning  the  time  it  will  run  if  used 
with  care,  not  allowing  for  its  destruction  by 
collision  or  derailment.  So  a  man's  life  is 
according  to  his  natural  endowment  of 
strength,  but  may  be  cut  short  by  sin. 

The  promise  of  the  new  year  is  conditional 
upon  the  highest  wisdom  of  looking  to  God, 
and  the  true  virtue  which  puts  away  sin  and 
accepts  grace. 

MERCIES  AND  SONGS,  A  New  Year's 

Meditation.— P^a/ju  ci:  i.-  I  will  sing  of 
mercy  and  judgment. 

Song  is  the  natural  expression  of  a  noble 
emotion  of  grief  or  joy. 

I.  God's  mercies. 

1.  They  are  so  full  that  sorrow  seems  an 
impertinence. 

2.  They  put  to  shame  our  past  fretting. 

3.  He,  who  alone  could  do  it,  extends  His 
mercy  over  sin. 

4.  He  puts  forth  mercy  with  fulness  in 
proportion  to  sinful  need. 

5.  Mercy  is  not  unmindful  of  judgment, 
wakes  deep  sorrow  for  sin,  but  in  penitence 
brings  blessing. 

II.  Our  songs. 

1.  We  look  away  from  our  discontent  to- 
ward God's  grace. 

2.  We  look  at  our  advantage  over  those 
who  know  not  God's  mercy. 

3.  We  recognize  God's  good  purpose  even 
in  trials,  and  can  give  "  songs  in  the  night." 

4.  Those  who  triumph  over  great  tribula- 
tion sing  the  sweetest  song. — From  a  Sermon 
by  Rev.  James  Black. 

MORAL  CHANGE,  The  Change  of  the 
Year  Calls  for  a.— Mark  i:  15:  The  time  is 
fulfilled.     .     .     .     Repent. 

NEW  YEAR,  God  Opens  the.— i.  Gen. 
viii:  22:  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed- 
time and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and 
summer  and  winter,  and  day  and  night  shall 
not  cease. 

Dr.  Hawes  said  to  his  Sunday-school : 
"  What    season    is    this  ?  "     "  Winter,"    they 


26 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


answered.  "What  will  come  next?" 
"Spring."  "What  after  that?"  "Sum- 
mer." "  How  do  you  know?  "  Then  Henry 
Camp,  who  grew  up  to  be  known  as  "  the 
knightly  soldier,"  stood  up  and  answered: 
"  Because  the  Lord  has  said,  '  While  the 
earth  remaineth,'  etc." 

Because  God  reigns,  the  order  of  nature 
will  not  fail. 

2.  Dcut.  xi:  12:  A  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  careth  for;  the  eyes  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  are  always  upon  it,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
year. 

3.  Isa.  xlviii:  6:  I  have  showed  thee  new 
things  from  this  time. 

4.  Isa.  Ixv:  17,  18:  Behold,  I  create  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth:  and  the  former 
shall  not  be  remembered,  nor  come  into 
mind;  but  be  ye  glad  and  rejoice  forever  in 
that  which  I  create;  for  behold,  I  create 
Jerusalem  a  rejoicing,  and  her  people  a 
joy. 

NEW  YEAR,  Looking  Forward  to  the. 
— Psalm  xci:  g-ii:  Because  thou  hast  made 
the  Lord,  which  is  my  refuge,  even  the  Most 
High,  thy  Iiabitation;  there  shall  no  evil 
befall  thee,  neither  shall  any  plague  come 
nigh  thy  dwelling.  For  he  shall  give  liis 
angels  charge  over  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  all 
thy  ways. 

What  the  last  Sabbath  of  the  old  year 
was,  a  period,  has  sprung  up  into  an  interro- 
gation-point.    What  of  the  future? 

1.  It  is  a  pathway  ready  for  our  feet.  God 
carves  a  path  for  the  river ;  much  more  for 
a  man.  We  may  break  away  from  the  path, 
but  it  is  there. 

2.  Life  is  a  failure  apart  from  the  divine 
path.  God's  intent  touches  all  your  pur- 
poses, and  every  thought  not  fitted  into  His 
is  worthless.  Even  His  forgiveness  does  not 
retrieve  the  loss  of  wilfulness. 

3.  How  find  the  line  of  God's  purpose? 

(a)  Life  is  so  intricate  that  it  needs  a 
chart — the  Bible. 

(b)  Each  step  well  taken  prepares  us  to 
see  the  next. 

(c)  If  we  desire  to  do  His  will.  He  will 
show  us  the  way.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lopd 
is  with  them  that  fear  him." 

4.  To  take  God's  will  for  ours  is  the  con- 
summation and  acme  of  destiny;  not  the  de- 
struction of  our  will,  but  harmony  with 
God's,  so  that  both  sound  but  one  note. 

5.  The  church  labors  to  bring  us  to  this. 
We  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  upon  our 
knees.  So  shall  we  rightly  enter  the  New 
Year. — From  a  Sermon  by  C.  H.  Parkhurst. 
D.D. 

NEW  YEAR,  Our  Year  of  Redemption, 
Christ  Makes  the. — i.  2  Cor.  v:  17:  If  any 
man  be  in  Christ  lie  is  a  new  creature:  old 
things  are  passed  away;  behold,  all  things 
are  become  new. 

A  new  man  in  a  new  year. 

2.  Heb.  ix:  7:  Into  the  second  went  the 
high  priest  alone  once  every  year. 

So  great  an  intercession  it  was  fitting 
should    no^   be    made    common    by    frequent 


and  familiar  repetition.  The  long  year 
period  makes  us  think  of  even  greater  in- 
tercession of  Him  who  has  entered  in  "  once 
into  the  holy  place."  Do  we  entrust  our 
case  this  year  to  Him? 

3.  Matt,  vi:  S3-  Seek  ye  first  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  Jiis  righteousness. 

What  to  begin  the  year  with. 

NEW  YEAR,  The.— £^/i.  v:  16:  Re- 
deeming the  time,  because  the  days  are  evil. 

I.  "  The  days  are  evil."  The  outcome  may 
be  bad  or  good. 

II.  The  value  of  time  as  relating  to  this 
life. 

III.  The  value  of  time  as  relating  to  all 
the  future. 

PRAYER  FOR  CARE  THROUGH  THE 
YEAR. — Luke  i:  74,  73:  That  lie  would 
grant  unto  us  that  we,  being  delivered  out  of 
the  hand  of  our  enemies,  might  serve  him 
without  fear  in  holiness  and  righteousness  be- 
fore him  all  the  days  of  our  life. 

PROVISION    FAR    AHEAD.— /o/jn  iv: 

14:  Whosoever  drinketh  of  the  zvater  that 
I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the 
zvater  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a 
well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life.  _ 

With  the  onward  movement  of  time,  natural 
desires,  now  only  conscious,  will  become  im- 
perative. Wise  provision  for  them  is  only 
common  prudence. 

REDEMPTION,  The  Year  a  Period  in 
the  Course  of. — Isa.  Ixiii:  4:  The  year  of  my 
redeemed  is  come. 

Accepting  the  idea  of  a  race  which  grows 
slowly  toward  perfection,  rather  than  of  a 
community  of  faultless  but  unimproving 
beings,  God  has  accepted  the  struggle  of 
good  and  evil  with  all  that  is  involved  in  it. 

There  is  necessity  for  time,  and  each  year 
makes  a  period  of  the  struggle. 

RESOLUTIONS,  Shattered.— Lw/t^  xv: 
18:    I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father. 

I.  It  is  well  to  make  good  resolutions  at 
this  time. 

II.  We  should  be  very  careful  in  making 
our  resolutions. 

HI.  We  should  hold  tenaciously  to  our  de- 
termination no  matter  what  it  costs. 

IV.  How  to  be  able  to  keep  our  resolu- 
tions. 

V.  The  best  resolution  for  an  unconverted 
person  to  make. 

TEXTS,  A  Tew.— Luke  xviii:  8:  Let  it 
alone  this  year  also. 

We  have  been  spared  to  see  another  year 
in  order  to  bring  forth  fruit. 

Gen.  xlvii:  8:  And  Pharaoh  said  unto 
Jacob,  how  old  art  thou? 

It  has  been  said  that  a  man  is  only  as  old 
as  he  feels.  This  is  especially  so  with  the 
spiritual  man. 

Job  xxxii:  7 :  Days  should  speak,  and  mul- 
titude of  years  should  teach  wisdom. 

We  are  not  influenced  nearly  as  much  by 
either  precept  or   example  as  we  are  by  ex- 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


27 


perience.  What  have  the  past  years  taught 
us  in  our  experience  of  the  things  of  God? 

Psalm  xc:  10:  The  days  of  our  years  are 
threescore  years  and  ten;  and  if  by  reason  of 
strength  they  be  fourscore  years. 

This  is  a  wise  and  merciful  Hmit,  for  God 
only  knows  what  fools  or  scoundrels  many  of 
us  would  become  if  allowed  to  live  much 
longer. 

TIME,  and  its  Meaning. — Eccles.  viii:  5: 
A  zcise  man's  Iieart  discerneth  both  time  and 
judgment. 

Not  material  issues  onlv,  but  moral.  The 
year  as  the  setting  of  a  just  and  gracious 
providence. 

TIME,  The  Old  Forgotten  in  tlie  New. — 
Isa.  Ixv:  ij:  Behold  I  create  neiv  heavens 
and  a  nezv  earth  and  tJie  former  shall  not  be 
remembered,  nor  come  into  mind. 

Sometimes  in  careless  enjoyment  of  the 
present  we  neglect  the  wholesome  and  in- 
structive lesson  of  past  trials,  and  for  this  we 
are  to  blame.  But  sometimes  a  new  time 
comes  with  so  great  uplift  and  enlargement 
that  the  past  loses  its  importance  or  sinks  out 
of  thought.  This  latter  is  the  thought  of  this 
scripture. 

1.  The  new  present  may  well  eclipse  the 
past  when  it  includes  the  highest  as  well  as 
the  most  practical  interests  suggested  by  the 
"  new  heavens  and  new  earth." 

2.  The  new  present  may  claim  our  intens- 
est  interest  when  we  see  God's  hand  mani- 
festly in  it.  "  Behold  I  create  new  heavens 
and  a  new  earth." 

3.  The  new  time  claims  us  altogether  when 
we  see  in  it  our  redemption  from  former  sor- 
rows and  sins. 

Our  present  New  Year  may  include  all 
these  elements  of  authoritative  attraction. 

UNCHANGING,  God  Alone.— i.  Psalm 
cii:  27 :  Thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years 
shall  have  no  end. 

2.  Psalm  ciii:  17:    The  mercy  of  the  Lord 


is  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  upon  them 
that  fear  him,  and  his  righteousness  unto 
children's  children. 

3.  /  Pet.  i:  24.  25:  All  flesh  is  as  grass, 
and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the  Hozver  of  the 
grass.  The  grass  zvithcreth  and  the  Aozver 
thereof  falleth  azvay ;  but  the  zvord  of  the 
Lord  endureth  for  ever. 

YEAR,  The  Old  and  the  New. — Eccles. 
Hi:  15:  That  zchich  lias  been  is  nozv,  and 
that  zvhich  is  to  be  hath  been. 

1.  The  stability  of  nature  is  matter  of  ex- 
perience. It  must  be  so,  because  God  gov- 
erns by  law  and  adheres  to  His  chosen 
Older.  So  we  know  that  seedtime  and  har- 
vest will  be  in  the  next  year — just  as  in  past 
years. 

2.  We  also  Know  that  providence  is  to  be  as 
it  has  been ;  that  the  year  to  come  will  have 
light  in  it  and  dark  in  it  for  us  and  our  fel- 
lows. 

3.  God  has  kept  His  promises  in  the  past ; 
He  will  keep  them  in  the  future.  Last  year 
He  saved  His  Church  from  the  assaults  of 
infidels;  He  will  do  even  the  same  in  this 
year. 

4.  Look  back,  then,  over  the  past  year  and 
recall  the  mercies  of  God  in  harvest,  in  do- 
mestic joy,  in  personal  health,  in  spiritual 
gifts.  Forecast  from  last  year  the  Divine 
goodness  to  be  revealed  in  the  next. 

5.  Look  back  at  the  afflictions  and  chas- 
tisements of  last  year ;  look  at  their  meaning, 
that  you  may  avoid  the  sin,  that  you  may 
get  the  good  of  the  sorrow  that  will  come 
again. 

6.  Our  experience  of  last  year  should  en- 
able us  to  avoid  its  errors.  We  have  been 
too  worldly.  Let  the  solemn  hours  of  suffer- 
ing and  penitence,  as  they  come  back  to  mem- 
ory, warn  us  to  be  more  spiritually-minded. 
The  danger  to  the  Christian  Church  is  the 
worldly  spirit  that  has  crept  into  it.  Culti- 
vate, above  all  things,  personal  piety. — R.  M. 
Hatfield,  D.D. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS    AND    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ACTION,  Pledge  of.— A  young  Roman 
nobleman  of  the  eleventh  century,  just  mar- 
ried, during  the  nuptial  feast  joined  in  a  game 
of  ball,  and  to  relieve  himself  of  his  wedding 
ring,  took  it  off  and  placed  it  on  the  finger  of 
a  statue  of  Venus.  The  game  ended,  he  went 
to  reclaim  the  ring,  but  found  it  immovable, 
for  the  stone  finger  clenched  upon  it.  Ever 
after  he  heard  the  whisper,  "  Embrace  me ;  I 
am  Venus,  whom  you  have  wedded ;  I  will 
never  restore  your  ring."  Only  by  calling  a 
priest  to  his  aid  was  he  able  to  recover  his 
ring.  A  first  act  either  wrong  or  right  com- 
mits us,  and  is  influential  in  shaping  our 
character. — F.  H. 

AIM,  A  Christian. —  The  artist,  when  he 
paints,  knows  right  well  that  he  shall  not  be 


able  to  excel  Apelles ;  but  that  does  not  dis- 
courage him  ;  he  uses  his  brush  with  all  the 
greater  pains,  that  he  may,  at  least  in  some 
humble  measure,  resemble  the  great  master. 
So  the  sculptor,  tho  persuaded  that  he  will 
not  rival  Praxiteles,  will  hew  out  the  mar- 
ble still,  and  each  to  be  as  near  the 
model  as  possible.  Thus  the  Christian  man : 
forgetting  all  he  has  attained,  he  will  press 
forward,  crying.  Excelsior!  going  upwards 
still,  desiring  to  be  conformed  more  and 
more  to  the  image  of  Christ  Jesus. — C.  H. 
Spurgeon. 

AIM,  Effective. — A    sharp-shooter    from 
one  of  the  Vermont  regiments  in  the  battle  of 

fired  ninety-six  cartridges,  three-fourths 

of  which  were  effective.   In  the  random  shoot- 


28 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ing  of  common  soldiers  in  battle  it  is  estimated 
that  no  more  than  one  bullet  in  four  thousand 
does  execution.  The  teacher  or  Christian 
worker  who  would  save  souls  must  make 
seme  particular  heart  his  target  and  aim  for 
it : — must  select  the  best  rifle  and  ammunition, 
and  if  he  does  not  hit  must  try  again,  and 
again,  till  he  has  smitten  the  mark  and  se- 
cured the  capitulation  of  the  soul  to  Christ. 
So  of  every  other  object  desired. — F.  H. 

AIM,  Effort  and.— At  the  battle  of  the 
Alma,  when  one  of  the  regiments  was  being 
beaten  back  by  the  hordes  of  Russia,  the  en- 
sign in  front  stood  his  ground  as  the  troops 
retreated.  The  captain  shouted  to  him  to 
bring  back  the  colors ;  but  the  reply  of  the 
ensign  was,  "  Bring  up  the  men  to  the 
colors." — F.  L 

AIM,  Execution  and.— A  gentleman  call- 
ing on  Thorwaldsen,  found  him,  as  he  said, 
in  a  glow,  almost    in    a    trance,    of  creative 
energy.     On    his    inquiring    what    had    hap- 
pened, "  Aly  friend,  my  dear  friend,"  said  the 
sculptor,  "  /  have  an  idea,  I  liavc  a  work  in 
my  head,  zvhich  zvill  be  zvorthy  to  live.    A  lad 
had  been  sitting  to  me  some  time  as  a  model. 
Yesterday,  when  I  bade  him  rest  awhile,  in 
so   doing,  he  threw  himself  into  an  attitude 
which  struck  me  very  much.     '  What  a  beau- 
tiful statue  it  would  make!'     I  said  to  my- 
self; '  But  zvhat  would  it  do  for?    It  zvould 
do — it   would    do — it   zvould    do    exactly    for 
Mercury  drazving  his  sword,  just  after  he  has 
played  Argus  to  sleep.'    I  immediately  began 
modeling.     I  worked  all  the  evening,  till  at 
my  usual  hour  I  went  to  bed.     But  my  idea 
would  not  let  me  rest.    I  was  forced  to  get 
up   again.     I  struck  a  light,  and  worked  at 
my  model  for  three  or  four  hours,  after  which 
I  again  zvent  to  bed.     But  again  I  could  not 
rest;  again  I  was  forced  to  get  up,  and  have 
been  working  ever  since.     O  my  friend,  tf  I 
can  but  execute  my  idea,  it  will  be  a  glorious 
statue."     And    a    noble    statue    it    is;     altho 
Thorwalsden  himself  did  not  think  that  the 
execution  came  up  to  the  idea.     For  I  have 
heard   of  a   remarkable   speech  of   his,   made 
some  years  after  to  another  friend  who  found 
him    one    day    in    low    spirits.      Being    asked 
whether  anything  had  distressed  him,  he  an- 
swered,   "  My  genius  is   decaying."     "  What 
do  you  mean?"  said  the  visitor.   "  Why!  here 
is  my  statue  of  Christ:    it  is  the  first  of  my 
works   that  I   have    ever   felt   satisfied   zvith. 
Till  now,  my  idea  has  alzvays  been  been  far 
beyond  zvliat  I  could  execute.     But  it  is  no 
longer  so.     I  shall  never  have  a  great  idea 
again."     The  same,  I  believe,  must  have  been 
the  case  with  all  men  of  true  genius.     While 
they  who  have  nothing  but  talents  may  often 
be  astonished  at  the  effects  they  produce  by 
putting  things  together,  which  fit  more  aptly 
than   they   expected,   a   man   of   genius,    who 
has  had  an  idea  of  a  whole  in  his  mind,  will 
feel  that  no  outward  mode  of  expressing  that 
idea,  whether  by  form  or  colors  or  words,  is 
adequate  to  represent  it. — F.  H. 

AIM,  High. —  Some  time  ago,  half  a  dozen 
young  men.   dressed  in  green,  were  shooting 


at  a  target  with  bows  and  arrows,  when  the 
arrows  of  one  of  them  invariably  struck  the 
earth,  on  account  of  his  aiming  too  low. 
"  Aim  higher;'  cried  out  one  of  his  compan- 
ions. "Aim  higher,  for  your  arrow-head  is 
always  pomted  to  the  ground.  He  that  aims 
at  a  barn-door  will  never  hit  the  weather- 
cock on  the  church-spire." 
^^  A    father,   giving   advice   to   his    son,    said, 

Let  your  objects  be  high  and  holy,  and  then 
the  High  and  Holy  One  will  give  you  strength 
and  grace  to  attain  them." 

"What  would  you  advise  me  to  aim  at'" 
asked  a  young  man  of  a  Christian  friend 
,,  At  riches  and   honors."   replied   his   friend 

if  you  mean  to  be  satisfied  with  earth ;  but 
at  Christian  graces  if  you  have  any  desire 
ever  to  enter  heaven."— Q.  Mogridge. 

AIM,    Importance    of   Definite.— Lieut - 

Col.  M'Leroth,  of  the  95th  British  regiment, 
relates  the  following  anecdotes  of  the  skill  of 
sharp-shooters,  and  the  inefficacy  of  ordinary 
musketeers : — 

In  an  action  of  some  importance,  a  mounted 
otticer  of  the  enemy  was  on  the  point  of  being 
made  prisoner.  One  only  way  presented  it- 
self, by  which  he  had  a  chance  of  escaping- 
this  was  along  the  front  of  our  line,  within 
musket  range.  He  embraced  this  alternative  • 
and  altho  the  whole  brigade  fired  at  him' 
both  man  and  horse  escaped  with  impunity' 

Another  fact,  from  the  same  authority  is 
equally  curious: 

In  order  to  cover  themselves  as  much  as 
possible  from  the  enemy's  aim,  at  the  siege  of 
\orktown,  our  soldiers  had  each  three  bags 
of  sand  to  lay  on  the  parapet.  Two  of  these 
were  placed  with  their  ends  at  a  little  distance 
from  each  other,  and  the  third  crossed  over 
the  mterval,  leaving  a  small  loop-hole  for  the 
soldiers  to  fire  through.  The  American  rifle- 
men, however,  were  so  expert,  that,  on  seeing 
a  piece  protruded  through  the  hole,  they 
levelled  toward  it,  and,  penetrating  the  open- 
ing frequently  shot  the  men  through  the 
head. — Percy. 

AIM,  Want  of.- The  French  have  re- 
cently published  some  statistics  in  regard  to 
the  recent  war  with  Germany  that  are  signifi- 
cant and  instructive.  They  count  now  that 
during  the  war  there  came  into  France  one 
million  Germans,  but  there  were  only  one 
hundred  thousand  Frenchmen  killed;  there- 
fore, nine  Germans  in  ten  fired  away  for 
seven  months  and  never  hit  any  one.  and  the 

\^n  !-• ''°^  "^^^^  ^'"^^  '^"t  °"e  effective  shot 
All  this,  too,  in  the  age  of  needle-guns  and 
most  perfect  military  education.— W  F 
Crafts. 

ANXIETY,  Prevention  of .— We       may 

consider  the  year  before  us  a  desk  containing 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  letters  addressed 
to  us— one  for  every  day,  announcing  its 
trials,  and  prescribing  its  employments,  with 
an  order  to  open  daily  no  letter  but  the  letter 
for  the  day.  Now,  we  may  be  strongly  temp- 
ted to  unseal  beforehand  some  of  the  remain- 
der. This,  however,  would  only  serve  to  em- 
barrass us,  while  we  should  violate  the  rule 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


29 


which  our  Owner  and  Master  has  laid  down 
for  us :  "  Take,  therefore,  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,  for  the  morrow  shall  take  thought 
for  the  things  of  itself." — William  Jay. 

ASPIRATION,  Heavenly.— What  epic 
can  equal  those  um^'rittcn  words  which  pour 
into  the  ear  of  God  out  of  the  heart's  ful- 
ness !  still  more,  those  unspoken  words  which 
never  find  the  lip.  but  go  up  to  heaven  in  un- 
utterable longing  and  aspirations !  Words  are 
but  the  bannerets  of  a  great  army,  a  few  bits 
of  waving  color  here  and  there :  thoughts  are 
the  main  body  of  the  footmen  that  march 
unseen  below. — H.  W.  Beecher. 

ASPIRATION,  Universal.— Every  man 
is  born  witli  aspiration.  It  does  not  develop 
in  every  man :  neither  do  half  the  buds  in 
trees  blossom ;  but  they  are  there.  And  there 
is  aspiration  in  every  man,  whether  you  sus- 
pect it  or  not,  and  tho  it  may  not  blossom.  As- 
piration means  tendril,  twining,  or  any  thing 
else  by  which  one  climbs  upward,  holding  on 
by  the  way  to  whatever  will  support  it.  Some 
plants  take  hold  by  winding  around,  some  by 
little  roots,  some  by  tendrils,  some  by  hooks, 
and  some  by  leaves  that  catch  like  anchors. 
But  these  things  take  hold,  not  for  the  sake  of 
staying  when  they  take  hold,  but  only  that 
they  may  climb  higher.  And  so  it  is  with 
men.  We  clasp  things  above  by  every  part  of 
our  nature,  one  after  another,  not  for  the  sake 
of  remaining  when  we  take  hold,  but  that  we 
may  go  higher.  In  other  words,  when,  in  the 
ordinary  experience  of  life,  we  gain  satisfac- 
tion, we  do  it  almost  only  by  feeding  on  each 
other.  When  we  attain  development,  we  do 
that  in  the  same  way.  The  soul  feeds  on 
soul  whether  for  satisfaction  or  develop- 
ment.— H.  W.  Beecher. 

BEGINNING,  Delayed.— It  was  said  of 
Alfred  De  Vigny  that  he  proposed  making  a 
great  poem,  and  he  had  the  capacity  and  gen- 
ius to  make  it ;  but  he  spent  his  life  in  gather- 
ing materials  for  that  poem.  Sometimes  his 
friends  used  to  say  to  him,  "  Why  don't  you 
begin  ?  You  are  getting  on  in  life,  and  after 
awhile  you  will  be  too  old  to  write  the  poem." 
And  he  would  keep  saying,  "  To-morrow  I 
will  begin."  One  morning  the  papers  in 
Paris  announced  his  death,  his  work  all  un- 
done ;  he  lay  dead  amid  the  magnificent  mate- 
rials he  had  with  which  to  begin  the  poem. — 
Talmage. 

BEGINNING,  Evil.  —  That  temptation 
that  at  first  is  but  a  little  cloud  as  big  as  a 
man's  hand,  may  quickly  overspread  the  whole 
heaven.  Our  engaging  in  sin  is  as  the  motion 
of  a  stone  down,  vires  acquirit  eundo,  "  it 
strengthens  itself  by  going,"  and  the  longer 
it  runs  the  more  violent.  Beware  of  the  small" 
e?t  beginnings  of  temptation.  No  wise  man 
will  neglect  or  slight  the  smallest  spark  of 
fire,  especially  if  he  see  it  among  barrels  of 
gunpowder.  You  carry  gunpowder  about 
you.    Oh,  take  heed  of  sparks. — John  Flavel. 

BEGINNING,  Faulty.— Some  workmen 
were  lately  building  a  large  brick  tower, 
which  was  to  be  carried  up  very  high.     In 


laying  a  corner,  one  brick,  either  by  accident 
or  carelessness,  was  set  a  very  little  out  of 
line.  The  work  went  on  without  its  being 
noticed,  but  as  each  course  of  bricks  was  kept 
in  line  with  those  already  laid,  the  tower  was 
not  put  up  exactly  straight,  and  the  higher 
they  built  the  more  insecure  it  became.  One 
day,  when  the  tower  had  been  carried  up 
about  fifty  feet,  there  was  a  tremendous  crash. 
The  building  had  fallen,  burying  the  men  in 
the  ruins.  All  the  previous  work  was  lost, 
the  materials  wasted,  and,  worse  still,  valu- 
able lives  were  sacrificed,  and  all  from  one 
brick  laid  wrong  at  the  start.  The  workman 
at  fault  in  this  matter  little  thought  how  much 
mischief  he  was  making  for  the  future.  Do 
you  ever  think  what  ruin  may  come  of  one 
bad  Jiabit,  one  brick  laid  wrong,  while  you  are 
now  building  a  character  for  Hfe?  Remem- 
ber, in  youth  the  foundation  is  laid.  See  to 
it  that  all  is  kept  straight. — T.  T. 

BEGINNING,  Good.— When  the  ancients 
said  that  a  work  well  begun  was  half  done, 
they  meant  that  we  ought  to  take  the  utmost 
pains  in  every  undertaking  to  make  a  good 
beginning. — Polybius. 

BEGINNING,  Prayerful.— Victoria  was 
aroused  at  midnight  and  informed  that  she 
was  Queen  of  England.  She  asked  her  in- 
former to  pray,  and  they  knelt  down  in  prayer 
together.  Thus  began  the  prosperous  reign 
of  England's  worthy  queen. — F.  II. 

BROODING,  A  Remedy  for.—"  A  reason- 
able amount  of  fleas  is  good  for  a  dog;  they 
keep  him  from  broodin'  on  bein'  a  dog." — 
E.  N.  Westcott  in  David  Haruni. 

CAPACITIES,  Special.— I     am      of     the 

opinion  that  every  mind  that  comes  into  the 
world  has  its  own  specialty — is  different  from 
every  other  mind ;  that  each  of  you  brings 
into  the  world  a  certain  bias,  disposition  to 
attempt  something  of  its  own,  something  your 
own — an  aim  a  little  different  from  that  of  any 
of  your  companions ;  and  that  every  young 
man  and  every  young  woman  is  a  failure  so 
long  as  each  does  not  find  what  is  his  or  her 
own  bias;  that  just  so  long  as  you  are  in- 
iiuenced  by  those  around  you,  so  long  as  you 
are  attempting  to  do  those  things  which  you 
see  others  do  well  instead  of  doing  that  thing 
which  you  can  do  well,  you  are  so  far  wrong, 
so  far  failing  of  your  own  right  mark.  Every- 
body sees  the  difference  in  children.  They 
very  early  discover  their  tastes.  One  has  a 
taste  for  going  abroad,  another  for  staying  at 
home ;  one  for  books,  another  for  games  ;  one 
wishes  to  hear  stories,  another  wants  to  see 
things  done ;  one  is  fond  of  drawing,  the  other 
cannot  draw  at  all,  but  he  can  make  a  ma- 
chine. This  difference,  as  you  advance,  be- 
comes more  pronounced.  You  are  more  dis- 
tinct in  your  conception  of  what  you  can  do — 
more  decided  in  avoiding  things  which  you 
cannot  and  do  not  wish  to  do.  Now,  I  con- 
ceive that  success  is  in  finding  what  it  is  that 
you  yourself  really  want,  and  pursuing  it; 
freeing  yourself  from  all  importunities  of 
your  friends  to  do  something  which  they  like, 


30 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


and  insisting  upon  that  thing  which  you  like 
and  can  do. — Emerson. 

CHARACTER,  Light  of.—  Have  only  one 
chief  end.  The  head-light  on  an  engine  is  a 
small  lamp,  back  and  set  forth  by  a  bur- 
nished reflector.  Then  it  casts  forth  its  bright- 
ness, pointing  out  and  illumining  the  way 
for  the  speeding  travelers.  Your  lamp  may 
not  be  large,  but  if  you  will  put  behind  and 
about  it  the  burnished  reflector  of  a  consistent, 
concentrated  life,  it  may  shine  forth  into  the 
darkness,  guiding  hurrying  pilgrims  safely 
through  the  night. — Fowler. 

CHILDREN,  Treatment  of  .—If  you  make 
children  happy  now,  you  will  make  them 
happy  twenty  years  hence  by  the  memory  of 
it. — Kate  Douglas  Wiggin. 

CHRISTIANS,  Aim  of.— Even  as  a  man 
that  passeth  through  a  strong  flood  or  stream 
on  foot,  lest  he  stumble  and  fall  down,  setteth 
his  eye  steadily  upon  the  firm  land  which  he 
mindeth  to  attain  unto,  and  marketh  not  the 
swift  course  of  the  water,  and  so  goeth  over 
safely,  and  is  nothing  dismayed ;  so,  likewise, 
a  sound  and  good  Chri.-tian,  passing  the  ra- 
ging waves  of  present  troubles,  turneth  away 
his  sight,  his  thought,  and  all  apprehension 
that  he  might  otherwise  have  of  the  misery 
of  them,  and,  lifting  up  his  eyes  to  heaven, 
beholdeth  there,  with  a  spiritual  regard,  the 
inestimable  treasures  of  the  heavenly  inherit- 
ance, which  he  striveth  unto;  and  by  this 
means  easily  surmounteth  all  horror  and  fear 
of  torrnents  and  griefs,  which  commonly  make 
alterations  in  men's  heads,  and  casteth  them 
headlong  into  desperation. — Cawdray. 

CONCESSION,  The  First.— A  woodman 
came  into  a  forest  to  ask  the  trees  to  give 
him  a  handle  for  his  ax.  It  seemed  so 
modest  a  request  that  the  principal  trees  at 
once  agreed  to  it,  and  it  was  settled  among 
them  that  the  plain  homely  ash  should  fur- 
nish what  was  wanted.  No  sooner  had  the 
Avoodman  fitted  the  staff  to  his  purpose,  than 
le  began  laying  about  him  on  all  sides,  fell- 
ing the  noblest  trees  in  the  wood.  The  oak 
now  seeing  the  whole  matter  too  late,  whis- 
pered to  the  cedar.  "  The  first  concession 
has  lost  all ;  if  we  had  not  sacrificed  our 
humble  neighbor,  we  might  have  yet  stood  for 
ages  ourselves." — ^sop. 

COURTESY. — If  you  will  be  cherished 
when  you  are  old,  be  courteous  when  you  are 
young. — John  Lyly. 

DAYS. — We  are  always  complaining  our 
days  are  few,  and  acting  as  if  there  were  no 
end  of  them  ! — Addison. 

DAYS.— Write  it  on  your  heart  that  every 
day  is  the  best  day  in  the  year.  No  man  has 
learned  anything  rightly,  until  he  knows  that 
every  day  is  Doomsday. — Emerson — Society 
and  Solitiidc.     JVork  and  Days. 

DAYS. — The  days  are  made  on  a  loom 
whereof  the  warp  and  woof  are  past  and  fu- 
ture time. — Emerson — Society  and  Solitude. 
Work  and  Days. 


DAYS,  Common.— One  of  the  chief  dan- 
gers of  life  is  trusting  occasions.  We  think 
that  conspicuous  events,  striking  experiences, 
exalted  moments  have  most  to  do  with  our 
character  and  capacity.  We  are  wrong.  Com- 
mon days,  monotonous  hours,  wearisome 
paths,  plain  old  tools,  and  everyday  clothes 
tell  the  real  story.  Good  habits  are  not  made 
on  birthdays,  nor  Christian  character  at  the 
New  Year.  The  vision  may  dawn,  the  dream 
may  waken,  the  heart  may  leap  with  a  new 
inspiration  on  some  mountain  top,  but  the 
test,  the  triumph,  is  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tain, on  the  level  plain. 

The  workshop  of  character  is  everyday  life. 
The  uneventful  and  commonplace  hour  is 
where  the  battle  is  won  or  lost.  Thank  God 
for  a  new  truth,  a  beautiful  idea,  a  glowing  ex- 
perience; but  remember  that  unless  we  bring 
it  down  to  the  ground  and  teach  it  to  walk 
with  feet,  work  with  hands,  and  stand  the 
sti'ain  of  daily  life,  we  have  worse  than  lost  it 
—we  have  been  hurt  by  it.  A  new  light  in 
our  heart  makes  an  occasion,  but  an  occasion 
IS  an  opportunity,  not  for  building  a  taber- 
nacle and  feeling  thankful  and  looking  back 
to  a  blessed  memory,  but  for  shedding  the 
ncAv  light  on  the  old  path,  and  doing  old 
duties  with  new  inspiration.  The  uncommon 
life  is  the  child  of  the  common  day  lived  in 
an    uncommon    way. — Maltbie    D.    Babcock, 

DAYS,  Divine.— The  days  are  ever  divine. 
They  come  and  go  like  mufiled  and  veiled 
figures  sent  from  a  distant  friendly  party; 
but  they  say  nothing  and  if  we  do  not  use 
the  gifts  they  bring,  they  carry  them  as 
silently  away. — Emerson. 

DEFEAT.— To  expect  defeat  is  nine-tenths 
of  a  defeat  itself.— F.  Marion  Crawford. 

DISAGREEABLE,  Things.- Don't  look 
too  hard  except  for  something  agreeable. 
We  can  find  all  the  disagreeable  things  we 
want  between  our  own  hats  and  boots.— 
Hunt. 

DOUBT,  When  in.— When  in  doubt,  tell 
the  truth.— Samuel  Clemens  (Mark 
Twain). 

DRUDGERY,  What  Men  Call.— The 
every-day  cares  and  duties,  which  men  call 
drudgery,  are  the  weights  and  counterpoises 
of  the  clock  of  time,  giving  its  pendulum  a 
true  vibration,  and  its  hands  a  regular  mo- 
tion; and  when  they  cease  to  hang  upon  the 
wheels,  the  pendulum  no  longer  swings,  the 
hands  no  longer  move,  the  clock  stands  still.— 
H.  W.  Longfellow.— Kavanagh.     Ch.  XIII. 

EMULATION,       Necessity      of.— Altho 

there  may  be  some  degree  of  pride  in  emula- 
tion, yet  a  laudable  ambition  should  always 
be  encouraged,  especially  in  youth ;  for,  with- 
out this,  they  will  never  rise  to  eminence  in 
any  thing.  When  we  think  of  some  of  the 
greatest  generals,  historians,  or  poets,  what 
was  it  but  emulation  that  brought  them  to 
excel  others?  In  short,  without  emulation, 
we    sink    into    meanness    or   mediocrity;    for 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


31 


nothing  great  or  excellent  can  be  done  with- 
out it. — F.  I. 

EXAMPLE. — There  is  nothing  so  power- 
ful as  example.  We  put  others  straight  by 
walking    ourselves — Madame    Anne    Sophie 

SWETCHINE. 

FAITH  CORD,  The.— In  passing  over  the 
more  perilous  portions  of  the  way  (up  the 
Alps)  the  tourist  is  roped  to  his  guide.  In 
that  way  you  become  one  with  him.  That 
rope  seems  as  a  visible  expression  of  your 
faith  in  him ;  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
the  same  word  in  Greek  denotes  "  faith " 
and  "  rope."  You  are  confident  that  your 
guide  is  not  going  to  perish,  and.  bound  to 
him  by  the  palpable  strands  of  a  faith  cord, 
because  he  lives  you  expect  to  live ;  because 
he  stands,  you  expect  to  stand ;  he  is  not 
going  to  be  lost  in  a  crevasse,  therefore  you 
do  not  expect  to  be. 

It  is  interesting,  too,  in  what  quiet,  deft  ways 
your  guide  will  make  that  same  rope  a  min- 
istry of  relief  to  you  in  the  midst  of  the  hard 
strains  of  the  journey.  In  scrambling  up  a 
steep  pitch,  say  the  rugged  slopes  of  the  Mat- 
terhorn,  with  the  breath  almost  out  of  you, 
the  wind,  it  may  be,  threatening  to  topple  you 
over,  and  the  flying  snow  perhaps  blinding 
you  and  almost  suffocating  you,  just  as  you 
are  beginning  to  wonder  whether  all  this 
really  pays,  and  whether,  after  all,  you  are 
not  going  to  be  obliged  to  give  up  before 
reaching  the  top,  just  then  there  comes  a  little 
tug  at  the  rope  that  is  bound  around  you, 
and  just  enough  of  the  guide's  surplus  un- 
weariness  is  made  over  to  you  to  make  you 
light  and  nimble  and  full  of  confidence  again. 
That  gentle  pull  at  the  rope  is  a  kind  of  gos- 
pel lift,  and  means  to  you  very  much  what  it 
meant  to  St.  Paul  when  in  toiling  up  the  hill 
of  his  difficulty  he  heard  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  saying  to  him,  "  My  strength  is  suffi- 
cient for  you." — C.  H.  Parkhurst,  D.D. 

FORESIGHT. —  Foresight  is  very  wise, 
but  fore-sorrow  is  very  foolish ;  and  castles 
are,  at  any  rate,  better  than  dungeons  in  the 
air. — Sir  John  Lubbock. 

FUTURE,  Dodging  the.— Dodging  the 
future,  in  this  world,  is  a  success  equal  to  that 
of  the  old  woman  who  triumphantly  an- 
nounced that  she  had  borrowed  enough 
money  to  pay  all  her  debts. — Selected. 

GERMANY,  New  Year  in.— There  ex- 
ists a  very  beautiful  custom  in  Germany, 
which  it  would  be  well  to  imitate  everywhere. 
On  the  first  day  of  the  New  Year,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  quarrels  or  estrangement 
between  friends  and  relatives,  mutual  visits 
are  interchanged,  kindly  greetings  given  and 
received — all  is  forgotten  and  forgiven.  Let 
this  custom  begin  with  reconciliation  to  God, 
then  friendship  and  fellowship  may  be  found 
that  shall  be  blessed  and  lasting. — F.  II. 

GOD,  The  Guidance  of.— If  God  be  our 
guide.  He  will  be  our  guard. — Matthew 
Henry. 

GROANING  AND  GRUMBLING.— 
Groaning    and    grumbling    under    your    bur- 


dens doesn't  lighten  them  of  one  ounce  of 
weight,  but  it  does  deprive  you  of  that  much 
breath,  which  might  be  useful  in  carrying  the 
load. — Selected. 

GUIDANCE.— There  is  no  trouble  about 
guidance,  if  only  we  want  to  be  guided.  The 
trouble  lies  here, — that  we  want  to  lead,  not 
to  be  guided.  Thus  we  fall  into  the  ditch 
and  possibly  lead  some  one  else  there  also. 
God  has  made  abundant  provision  for  our 
guidance  in  the  smallest  matters,  if  only  we 
will  avail  ourselves  of  it.— A.  F.  Schauffler, 
D.D. 

GUIDANCE.— The  Lord  went  before 
them.  .  .  .  They  saw  Him  by  day  in  a 
pillar  of  cloud  to  guide  them  on  the  way,  and 
by  night  in  a  pillar  of  fire  to  give  them  light.  • 
1  he  glory  of  Israel  was  that  manifested  Pres- 
ence, lacking  which,  Moses  besought  him  to 
carry  them  up  no  farther. — G.  A.  Chadwick, 
D.D. 

GUIDANCE.—"  He  shall  guide  you  into 
all  the  truth."  That  is  not  a  promise  of 
omniscience,  but  the  assurance  of  gradual 
and  growing  acquaintance  with  the  spiritual 
truth  revealed  in  Jesus.  Not  to-day,  nor  to- 
morrow, will  it  all  be  known,  but  step  by  step 
we  shall  be  led. — Alexander  McLaren,  D.D. 

HOPE,  Benefit  of. —  Hope  is  the  most 
beneficial  of  all  the  affections,  and  doth  much 
to  the  prolongation  of  life,  if  it  be  not  too 
often  frustrated,  but  entertaineth  the  fancy 
with  the  expectation  of  good;  therefore  they 
which  fix  and  propound  to  themselves  some 
end  as  the  mark  and  scope  of  their  life,  and 
continually  and  by  degrees  go  forward  in  the 
same,  are,  for  the  most  part,  long-lived ;  inso- 
much that  when  they  are  come  to  the  top  ot 
their  hope,  and  can  go  no  higher  therein, 
they  commonly  droop,  and  live  not  long  after. 
— Bacon. 

HOPE,  Refuge  in.—"  It  was  a  dark,  chill, 
misty  morning,  like  to  end  in  rain;  one  of 
those  mornings  when  even  happy  people  take 
refuge  in  their  hopes." — George  Eliot. 

HUMOR. — Honest  good  humor  is  the  oil 
and  wine  of  a  merry  meeting. — Washington 
Irving. 

INDIVIDUAL  LIFE.— The  higher  and 
more  consecrated  the  individual  life,  the 
clearer  will  probably  be  its  recognition  of  its 
dependence  upon  and  guidance  by  the  God 
who  is  acknowledged  in  all  its  ways. — C.  P. 

INTENTIONS,  Biblical.— The  Lord  dis- 
cerns them.  Heb.  iv :  12.  The  chief  value  of 
good  deeds,  lies  in  their  right  intentions. 
Abraham  offered  Isaac  not  in  deed  but  in  in- 
tention ;  and  the  intention  was  accepted,  Heb. 
xi"i7.  David  was  commended  because  he 
desired  to  build  the  temple,  i  Kings  viii :  18. 
The  widow's  mite.  Mark  xii :  43.  Mary — 
What  a  noble  eulogy.  "  She  hath  done  what 
she  could."  Markxiv:8.  Th^  Macedonian's 
liberality,  2  Cor.  viii :  2,  3,  12.  Wickedness  lies 
not  in  acts  only,  but  in  intentions.  Look- 
ing may  be  lusting,  Matt,  v :  28.  Hatred  is 
accounted  murder,  i  John  iii :  15.    Jacob  was 


32 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


a  murderer  when  he  wished  to  kill  Esau,  Gen. 
xxii :  41 ;  Joseph's  brethren.  Gen.  xxxvii :  20, 
21 ;  Saul  wishing  to  kill  David,  i  Sam.  xviii : 
25 ;  Solomon  wishing  to  kill  Jeroboam,  i 
Kmgs  xi :  40.  Good  intentions  cannot  justify 
wrong  actions.  Gideon,  Judges  viii :  24-27. 
ULzah,  2  Sam.  vi :  6,  7.  James  and  John, 
Luke  ix  :  54.    Peter,  John  xviii :  10. — Bowes. 

INTENTIONS,  Transient.— No  sooner 
does  the  warm  aspect  of  good  fortune  shine, 
than  all  the  plans  of  virtue,  raised  like  a  beau- 
tiful frost-work  in  the  winter  season  of  ad- 
versity, thaw   and   disappear. — Warburton. 

JANUARY,  The  First  of.— No  one  ever 

regarded  the  first  of  January  with  indiffer- 
ence. It  is  that  from  which  all  date  their 
time,  and  count  upon  what  is  left.  It  is  the 
nativity  of  our  common  Adam. 

Of  all  sound  of  bells  (bells  the  music 
highest  bordering  upon  heaven),  most  solemn 
and  touching  is  the  peal  which  rings  out  the 
old  year.  I  never  heard  it  without  a  gather- 
ing-up  of  my  mind  to  a  concentration  of  all 
the  images  that  have  been  diffused  over  the 
past  twelve-month.  All  I  have  done  or  suf- 
fered, performed  or  neglected— in  that  re- 
gretted time.  I  begin  to  know  its  worth  as 
when  a  person  dies.  It  takes  a  personal 
color;  nor  was  it  a  political  flight  of  a  con- 
temporary, when  he  exclaimed :  "  I  saw  the 
skirts  of  the  departing  year."  It  is  no  more 
than  what  in  sober  sadness,  every  one  of  us 
seems  to  be  conscious  of  in  that  awful  leave- 
taking. — Charles  Lamb. 

JAPAN,  New  Year's  Day  in. — Somehow 
tho  the  sun  may  have  shone  just  as  brightly 
on  the  previous  day,  and  indeed  the  whole 
year  round,  yet  it  all  seems  changed  and  dif- 
ferent on  this,  the  first  day  of  the  year 
(writes  Onoto  Watanna  in  Leslie's  Popular 
Monthly).  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  New  Year! 
This  is  the  time  of  universal  peace  and  good 
will ;  when  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  em- 
pire start  life  anew  with  fine  resolutions  and 
promises  for  the  future,  and  all  ill-feeling 
done  away  with. 

The  first  of  January  bears  the  significant 
title  of  Gansan  (the  Three  Beginnings), 
meaning  beginning  of  the  year,  beginning  of 
the  month,  and  beginning  of  the  day.  And 
to  this  might  be  added  the  beginning  of  a 
new  and  better  life.  What  Christmas  is  to 
the  Occidentals,  New  Year's  is  to  the  Jap- 
anese, altho  greetings  and  congratulations  are 
not  confined  to  the  first  day  of  the  year,  but 
at  any  time  between  the  first  and  the  fifteenth. 

The  Japanese  begin  to  prepare  for  the  New 
Year  nearly  a  month  before,  and  in  fact  give 
their  houses  and  possessions  a  thorough 
cleansing,  just  as  the  good  American  house- 
wife does  in  the  spring-time.  Even  the  very 
poorest  people  do  this,  laying  mats  of  rice 
straw,  and  cleaning  every  nook  and  corner 
with  fresh  bamboo  dusters  and  brooms,  which 
are  said  to  symbolize  prosperity  and  good 
fortune.  And  after  the  house  has  been  aired 
and  cleaned,  it  is  decorated  with  pine  and 
bamboo,  for  the  Japanese  venerate  both  of 
these,  because  they  keep  green  through   the 


entire  winter  and  symbolize  longevity.  The 
Japanese  read  in  the  most  insignificant  natural 
objects  some  striking  significance,  and  there 
is  a  meaning  attached  to  almost  every  decora- 
tion or  ornament  in  the  house.  The  outside 
and  gardens  of  the  houses  are  also  beauti- 
fully decorated,  to  say  nothing  of  the  streets, 
which  present  a  most  interesting  and  ani- 
mated spectacle  at  this  time. 

On  New  Year's  eve  the  streets  and  stores, 
which  at  this  time  display  their  most  attract- 
ive goods,  are  thronged  with  people  intent 
on  buymg  the  requisites  for  the  coming  year. 
At  night  the  streets  are  beautifully  illumi- 
nated with  lines  of  big  lanterns,  family  crests, 
flags,  shop-signs,  etc.,  hung  from  every  store. 
On  this  eve  many  of  the  people  remain  up 
all  night,  and  watch  the  old  year  out  and  the 
new  year  in,  tho  a  few  old-fashioned  ones 
prefer  the  custom  of  rising  very  early  in  the 
morning  to  worship  the  first  rising  sun  of 
the  new  year. — E. 

JESUS,    Illustration    of    Looking    to. 

The  painter  who  undertakes  to  copy  some 
masterpiece  of  art,  sits  down  before  it, 
sketches  the  outline  upon  his  own  canvas' 
reproduces  the  coloring  of  the  model,  adds 
Item  by  item  to  his  picture,  constantly  look- 
ing upon  the  original,  noting  its  qualities  and 
the  deficiencies  of  his  work,  till,  by  scrupu- 
lous care  and  untiring  endeavor,  he  has  pro- 
duced a  fac  simile  of  the  original.  The 
Christian's  work  is  kindred.  He  has  a  better 
model,  even  Christ ;  but  a  harder  task,  for  his 
canvas  is  treacherous  and  his  work  is  life- 
long.—F.  I. 

JESUS,  Influence  of  Looking  to.— It  is 

related  of  Mr.  Astor,  that,  when  once  fording 
the  Sujquehannah  on  horseback,  he  found 
himself  becoming  so  dizzy  as  to  be  about  to 
lose  his  seat.  Suddenly  he  received  a  blow 
on  his  chin  from  a  hunter,  who  was  his  com- 
panion, with  the  words,  "  Look  up  !  "  He 
did  so,  and  recovered  his  balance.  It  was 
looking  on  the  turbulent  water  that  endan- 
gered his  life;  and  looking  up  saved  it  — 
F.  I. 

JEWISH  NEW  YEAR'S  DAY,   The.— 

The  New  Year  is  regarded  by  the  Jews  as 
a  festival  and  the  month  in  which  it  occurs 
(generally  in  our  September)  is  looked  upon 
as  very  sacred,  for  they  believe  that  the  des- 
tiny of  every  individual  is  now  determined, 
and  that  the  Creator,  on  the  first  day  of 
Tishri,  weighs  the  merits  and  demerits  of 
all.  Those  who  are  meritorious  are  sealed 
to  life  and  those  who  are  guilty  are  sealed 
to  death,  whilst  judgment  upon  those  whose 
merits  and  demerits  are  equal  is  delayed 
until  the  Day  of  Atonement.  Hence  the 
intervening  days  between  the  New  Year  and 
the  Day  of  Atonement  are  spent  by  the 
pious  in  praying,  fasting,  and  imploring  for- 
giveness. The  day  before  the  New  Year  is 
regarded  as  a  fast,  and  after  morning  service 
in  the  synagog  the  Jews  visit  the  graves  of 
the  dead,  upon  whom  they  call  for  interces- 
sory prayers.  In  the  evening  they  again  re- 
pair to  the  synagog  and  on  their  return  home 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


33 


for  supper  the  table  is  laid  with  several  kinds 
of  sweet  provisions,  especially  apples  and 
honey.  At  an  early  hour  the  Jews  go  to  their 
synagog  and  continue  their  devotions  till 
about  noon.  Various  prayers,  blessings,  and 
legends  are  strung  together  in  addition  to 
the  ordinary  morning  service.  The  most  im- 
portant part  of  the  service  is  the  ceremony 
of  blowing  the  shophar  or  ram's  horn  (com- 
pare Numb,  xxix:  I  and  Levit.  xxiii:24), 
which  is  done  by  a  well-qualified  person. 
This  festival  lasts  for  two  days. 

The  first  ten  days  of  the  month  of  Tishri 
are  called  the  Ten  Days  of  Repentance  or 
Awful  Days.— H.  R. 

LATJGH,  A. — A  laugh  is  worth  a  hun- 
dred groans  in  any  market. — Charles  Lamb. 

LIFE. —  It's  good  to  live  only  a  moment  at 
a  time;  ...  it  isn't  for  you  and  me  to 
lay  plans ;  we've  nothing  to  do  but  obey  and 
trust. — George  Eliot. 

LIFE.— Some  men  pass  through  life 
wreathed  with  four-leaved  clovers,  and  loaded 
down  with  horse  shoes ;  while  others  are  born 
on  Friday,  the  thirteenth  of  May,  and  have 
opals  given  to  them  in  the  cradle. — Brander 
Matthews. 

LITE.— Our  lives  are  drugged  with  bric- 
a-brac.  The  disease  of  bric-a-brac,  I  think, 
is  due  to  two  influences, — the  desire  of  un- 
creative  minds  to  create  beauty,  and  the 
mania  for  giving  Christmas  presents. — E. 
Chester. 

LIFE,  Business  in. —  Our  grand  business 
in  life  is  not  to  see  what  lies  dimly  at  a  dis- 
tance, but  to  do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand. — 
Carlyle. 

LIFE,  End  of.— What  is  the  end  of  life? 
The  end  of  life  is  not  to  do  good,  tho  many 
of  us  think  so.     It  is  not  to  win  souls,  tho  I^ 
once  thought  so.     It  is  to  do  the  will  of  God, 
whatever  it  may  he. — Drummond. 

LIFE,  Object  of. —  Lady  Huntingdon,  one 

evening,  was  on  her  way  to  a  brilliant  as- 
sembly ;  when  suddenly  there  darted  into  her 
soul  these  words,  "Man's  chief  end  is  to 
glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Him  forever,"  which 
she  had  committed  to  memory  years  before 
in  learning  the  Westminster  Shorter  Cate- 
chism. From  that  hour,  her  whole  life  re- 
volved round  a  new  center.  The  guilty,  trem- 
bling sinner,  hitherto  occupied  with  her  poor 
self,  gazed  on  the  face  of  Him  who  died  for 
her;  and,  as  she  gazed,  her  conscience  found 
peace,  and  her  heart  a  satisfying  rest.  Her 
whole  life  became  one  "  living  sacrifice." — J. 
Baillie. 

LUCK. —  Good  luck  will  carry  a  man  over 
a  ditch  if  he  jumps  well,  and  will  put  a  bit 
of  bacon  in  the  pot  if  he  looks  after  his 
garden  and  keeps  a  pig.  .  .  .  Luck  taps 
at  least  once  in  a  lifetime  at  everybody's  door, 
but  if  Industry  does  not  open  it,  away  it  goes. 
— Spurgeon. 

MAN,  The  Wise. — He  is  a  wise  man  who 
wastes  no  energy  on  pursuits  for  which  he  is 
not  fitted. — Gladstone. 


MARK,  To  Hit  the. — If  you  would  hit  the 
mark,  aim  a  little  above  it.  Every  arrow  that 
flies  feels  the  attraction  of  earth. — H.  W. 
Longfellow. 

MAZE,  In  the. — We  remember  once  hear- 
ing a  speaker  tell  how  in  his  youth  he  and 
a  young  companion  became  lost  in  the  maze 
at  Hampton  Court;  they  wandered  about, 
tired,  discouraged,  but  they  feh  sure  they 
would  find  their  way  out  presently,  and  they 
thought  it  would  seem  foolish  to  ask  direction, 
tho  they  saw  an  old  man  working  not  far  off. 
All  their  efforts,  however,  proved  unavailing, 
and  at  last  they  came  with  red  faces  to  ask 
the  old  man  if  he  could  possibly  tell  them  how 
to  get  out  of  the  maze. 

"Why,"  he  answered,  "that's  just  what  I 
am  here  for ;  why  did  you  not  say  before  that 
you  wanted  to  get  out  ?  "  And  he  put  them 
at  once  on  the  right  track. 

Those  young  men  learned  that  day  not  to 
rely  so  absolutely  on  their  own  wisdom  and 
ability.  There  is  One  who  stands  ready  to  be 
our  Counselor,  our  Guide,  our  Light  in  every 
labyrinth.  Instead  of  yielding  to  worry,  let  US 
simply  ask  him  to  take  us  by  the  hand  and 
lead  us  through. — Q. 

MOTIVE,  Want  of.—  What  makes  life 
dreary  is  want  of  motive. — George  Eliot. 

NEW  YEAR  BREVITIES.— Lord  Dun- 
das,  being  wished  a  happy  New  Year,  replied,, 
"  It  had  need  be  happier  than  the  last ;  for  I 
never  knew  one  happy  day  in  it."  Wilber- 
force  said,  "  The  last  year  has  been  the  hap- 
piest of  my  life."  Romaine's  new-year's  wish 
for  his  people  was,  "  God  grant  that  this  may- 
be a  year  famous  for  believing !  " — F.  I. 

NEW  YEAR,  Facing  the.— A  new  year 
i5  upon  us,  with  .new  duties,  new  conflicts, 
new  trials,  and  new  opportunities.  Start  on 
the  journey  with  Jesus — to  walk  with  Him, 
to  work  for  Him,  and  to  win  souls  to  Him. 
The  last  year  of  the  century,  it  may  be  the 
last  of  our  lives !  A  happy  year  will  it  be  to 
those  who,  through  every  path  of  trial,  or  up 
every  hill  of  difficulty,  or  over  every  sunny 
height,  march  on  in  closest  fellowship  with 
Jesus,  and  who  will  determine  that,  come 
what  may,  they  have  Christ  every  day. — 
Theodore  L.  Cuvler,  D.D. 

NEW  YEAR  NONSENSE.— A  great 
many  things  are  done  in  the  name  of  New 
Year,  which  no  doubt  cause  the  fine  old  day 
to  blush  when  it  contemplates  them. 

Some  people  have  a  regular  practice  of 
making  New  Year  resolutions — generally 
shattering  them  before  January  has  hidden  its 
cold  head  out  of  sight.  Resolves,  in  order  to 
be  of  any  use,  should  be  made  every  day  in 
the  year,  and  if  necessary  every  hour  in  the 
day. 

Some  men  go  around  calling  upon  their 
lady  friends,  drink  every  thing  that  is  offered 
them  on  the  way,  from  cider  to  sherry,  and 
make  their  last  call  of  the  day  upon  their 
wives  and  families,  carrying  with  them  a  pro- 
nounced case  of  inebriation.  Thus  is  a  good 
and  courteous  practice  often  turned  into  a 
shameful  bit  of  traveling  dissipation. 


34 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Some  men  do  not  take  the  pains  to  travel 
and  collect  the  different  drinks  that  are  to 
make  beasts  of  them,  but  go  directly  to  the 
saloons,  and  carouse  all  day  with  equally 
wretched  companions. 

It  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  our  dear 
old  wicked  whimsical  now-and-then-idiotic 
human  race,  that  it  is  perfectly  competent  to 
spoil  anything  in  the  world ;  that  it  can  make 
almost  anything  into  a  curse,  when  it  sets 
out.— W.  C.  M. 

NEW         YEAR         THOUGHTS.  —  The 

thoughts  of  the  New  Year  are  not  thoughts 
of  the  ease  of  attainment,  secured  or  antici- 
pated, but  they  are  thoughts  of  the  severity 
of  the  pilgrim  path  of  life,  and  of  the  toil- 
someness  of  the  track;  and  these  thoughts 
would  prove  disheartening  to  the  bravest  of 
us  if  we  could  not  have  faith  in  Him  who  has 
passed  this  way  before,  and  who  invites  us  to 
an  unfailing  trust  in  Him  in  hours  of  de- 
spondency or  of  cheer.  He  who  has  helped 
us  hitherto  will  not  desert  us  now. — S.  S.  T. 

NOTHING  IS  EVER  I.OST.—Eccles.  in: 
15:  God  require  til  that  which  is  past:  The 
meaning  of  a  sentence  cannot  be  gathered  into 
its  last  word ;  the  last  word  takes  significance 
from  what  has  gone  before.  So  with  life. 
Dying  utterances  and  even  thoughts  may  not 
be  taken  into  account.  Every  dying  man 
would  be  a  saint.  A  great  Southern  states- 
man said  to  those  who  asked  if  some  one 
should  pray  for  him,  as  his  pulse  was  failing : 
"  No;  my  life  must  be  my  prayer.  This  sol- 
emn moment  is  not  so  significant  as  the  sol- 
emn years  that  are  gone.  Let  them  stand."— 
H.  R. 

PAST  AND  FUTURE.- The  past  is  dead, 

and  has  no  resurrection;  but  the  future  is 
endowed  with  such  a  life  that  it  lives  to  us 
even  in  anticipation.  The  past  is,  in  many 
things,  the  foe  of  mankind;  the  future  is,  in 
all  things,  our  friend.  For  the  past  there  is 
no  hope;  for  the  future  there  is  both  hope 
and  fruition.  The  past  is  the  text-book  of 
tyrants;  the  future  is  the  Bible  of  the  free. 
Those  who  are  solely  governed  by  the  past 
stand  like  Lot's  wife,  crystallized  in  the  act 
of  looking  backward,  and  forever  incapable 
of  looking  forward. — Henry  Kirk  White. 

PATTERNS,  Highest.-There  is  no  man- 
ner of  inconvenience  in  having  a  pattern  pro- 
pounded to  us  of  so  great  perfection  as  is 
above  our  reach  to  attain  to,  and  there  may 
be  great  advantages  in  it.  The  way  to  excel 
in  any  kind  is  to  propose  the  brightest  and 
most  perfect  examples  to  our  imitation.  No 
man  can  write  after  too  perfect  and  good  a 
copy  J  and  tho  he  can  never  reach  the  per- 
fection of  it,  yet  he  is  like  to  learn  more  than 
by  one  less  perfect.  He  that  aims  at  the 
heavens,  which  yet  he  is  sure  to  come  short 
of,  is  like  to  shoot  higher  than  he  that  aims 
at  a  mark  within  his  reach. — Tillotson. 

PRESENT,  The.— Look  not  mournfully 
into  the  Past.  It  comes  not  back  again. 
Wisely  improve  the  Present.  It  is  thine.  Go 
forth   to  meet  the   shadowy   Future,   without 


fear,  and  with  a  manly  heart — H.  W.  Long- 
fellow. 

PROGRESS,  Alternative  of.— The  more 
thorough  a  man's  education  is,  the  more  he 
yearns  for  and  is  pushed  forward  to  new 
achievement.  The  better  a  man  is  in  this 
world,  the  better  he  is  compelled  to  be.  That 
bold  youth  who  climbed  up  the  Natural 
Bridge  in  Virginia,  and  carved  his  name 
higher  than  any  other,  found,  when  he  had 
done  so,  that  it  was  impossible  to  descend, 
and  then  his  only  alternative  was  to  go  on 
and  scale  the  height,  and  find  safety  at  the 
top.  Thus  it  is  with  all  climbing  in  this  life. 
There  is  no  going  down.  It  is  climbing  or 
falling.  Even  an  upward  step  makes  another 
needful ;  and  so  we  must  go  on  until  we  reach 
heaven,  the  summit  of  the  aspirations  of  time. 
— H.  W.  Beecher. 

PROGRESS,  Conservative.— Spain  once 
held  both  sides  of  the  Mediterranean  at  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar.  So  highly  did  she  value 
her  possessions,  that  she  stamped  on  her  coin 
the  two  Pillars  of  Hercules  (as  the  promon- 
tories of  rock  were  called)  ;  and  on  a  scroll 
thrown  OTer  these  were  the  words,  ne  plus 
ultra, — "  no  more  beyond."  But  one  day  a 
bold  spirit  sailed  far  beyond  these  pillars,  and 
found  a  new  world  of  beauty.  Then  Spain, 
wisely  convinced  of  ignorance,  struck  the 
word  ne  from  the  coin,  and  left  plus  ultra, — 
"  more  beyond."  How  many  a  man,  whose 
conceit  is  great,  thinks  he  has  reached  the 
limits  of  knowledge,  when  further  investiga- 
tion would  open  to  him  a  continent  of  truth 
before  unknown  ! — Bishop  Simpson. 

PROGRESS,  Laws  of.—  Gradual  ascent  is 
as  necessary  to  the  mind  in  order  to  its  reach- 
ing a  great  idea,  as  it  is  to  the  body  in  order 
to  its  reaching  a  great  height.  We  cannot 
ascend  to  the  pinnacle  of  a  cathedral  which 
towers  aloft  in  air,  without  either  steps  or  an 
inclined  plane.  We  cannot  reach  the  summit 
of  a  mountain  without  first  toiling  up  its 
base,  then  traversing  its  breast,  and  then  suc- 
cessively crossing  the  limits  where  verdure 
passes  into  crag,  and  crag  into  a  wilderness  of 
snow.  Even  when  we  have  gained  the  high- 
est point,  we  are  still,  it  is  true,  at  an  infinite 
distance  from  the  blue  vault  of  the  firmament 
which  stretches  above  our  heads.  Still  we 
have  a  better  and  more  exalted  view  of  what 
that  firmament  is:  we  have  at  least  risen 
above  the  fogs  and  mists  which  obscure  its 
glory;  and  the  air  which  encompasses  us  is 
transparent  to  the  eye,  and  invigorating  to  the 
frame.  Now,  the  law  of  man's  bodily  prog- 
ress is  also  the  law  of  his  mental  progress. 
Both  must  be  gradual.  No  grand  idea  can  be 
realized  except  by  successive  steps  and  stages 
which  the  mind  must  use  as  landing-places  in 
its  ascent. — Goulburn. 

PURPOSE,  Dominant.— Peter  the  Hermit 
visited  Palestine  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eleventh  century,  and  was  so  enraged  at  the 
Turks  for  their  cruel  treatment  of  Christians, 
that  he  resolved  to  rescue  the  holy  soil.  Re- 
turning he  went  through  the  towns  of  France 
and   Italy,   bareheaded  and   barefooted,   bear- 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


35 


ing  a  heavy  crucifix,  and  picturing  with  ex- 
treme eloquence  and  enthusiasm,  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  pilgrims  to  the  holy  places.  He 
soon  gathered  an  army  of  60,000,  which  he 
led  toward  Jerusalem. — F.  II. 

PURPOSE,  Emblem  of.— A  man's  pur- 
pose of  life  should  be  like  a  river,  which  was 
born  of  a  thousand  little  rills  in  the  moun- 
tains ;  and  when,  at  last,  it  has  reached  its 
manhood  in  the  plain,  tho,  if  you  watch  it, 
you  shall  see  little  eddies  that  seem  as  if 
they  had  changed  their  minds,  and  were  going 
back  again  to  the  mountains,  yet  all  its  mighty 
current  flows,  changeless,  to  the  sea.  If  you 
build  a  dam  across  it,  in  a  few  hours  it  will 
go  over  it  with  a  voice  of  victory.  If  tides 
check  it  at  its  mouth,  it  is  only,  that,  when 
they  ebb,  it  can  sweep  on  again  to  the  ocean. 
So  goes  the  Amazon  or  the  Orinoco  across  a 
continent, — never  losing  its  way,  or  changing 
its  direction,  for  the  thousand  streams  that 
fall  into  it  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left, 
but  only  using  them  to  increase  its  force,  and 
bearing  them  onward  in  its  resistless  channel. 
— H.  W.  Beecher. 

PXTRPOSE,  Execution  of.— Keep  your 
eye  fixed  upon  the  mark,  and  don't  flinch 
when  you  pull  the  trigger.  The  steady  nerve 
is  necessary  to  carry  out  the  bold  plan.  Could 
the  multitude  of  failures  which  are  recorded 
every  day  be  thoroughly  examined  into  as  to 
their  cause,  it  would  be  found  that  a  great 
proportion  of  them  have  resulted  from  a  want 
of  nerve  at  just  the  moment  when  an  un- 
wavering sight  and  steady  pull  would  have  ac- 
complished the  object.  If  one  is  to  succeed, 
he  must  fix  his  eye  on  the  mark,  and  never 
think  otherwise  than  that  he  shall  hit  it. 
Many  a  huntsman  whose  marksmanship  is 
none  of  the  best  has  astonished  himself  by 
shots  made  under  circumstances  when  he  must 
up  gun  and  blaze  away,  with  scarcely  time 
given  him  to  know  what  he  is  firing  at.  This 
was  because  he  had  no  opportunity  to  hesitate 
or  waver  when  pressing  the  trigger.  Let  an 
enterprise  be  ever  so  boldly  projected  and 
energetically  pushed,  if  the  nerve  fails  at  the 
last  moment,  good-by  to  success. — F.  I. 

PURPOSE  IN  LIFE.— Have  a  purpose  in 
life,  .  .  .  and  having  it,  throw  such 
strength  of  mind  and  muscle  into  your  work, 
as  God  has  given  you. — Carlyle. 

PURPOSE  IN  LIFE.— Do  not  dare  to  live 
without  some  clear  intention  toward  which 
your  living  shall  be  bent.  Mean  to  be  some- 
thing with  all  your  might. — Phillips  Brooks. 

PURPOSE,  Persevering.— On  one  bright 
summer  day,  the  boy  Warren  Hastings,  then 
just  seven  years  old,  lay  on  the  bank  of 
the  rivulet  which  flows  through  the  old  do- 
main of  his  house  to  join  the  Isis.  There,  as 
threescore  and  ten  years  later  he  told  the  tale, 
rose  in  his  mind  a  scheme,  which,  through  all 
the  turns  of  his  eventful  career,  was  never 
abandoned.  He  would  recover  the  estate 
which  had  belonged  to  his  fathers.  He  would 
be  Hastings  of  Daylesford.  This  purpose, 
formed  in  infancy  and  poverty,  grew  stronger 
as  his  intellect  expanded,  and  as  his  fortune 


rose.  He  pursued  his  plan  with  that  calm  but 
indomitable  force  of  will  which  was  the  most 
striking  peculiarity  of  his  character.  When, 
under  a  tropical  sun,  he  ruled  fifty  millions 
of  Asiatics,  his  hopes,  amidst  all  the  cares  of 
war,  finance,  and  legislation,  still  pointed  to 
Daylesford.  And  when  his  long  oublic  life, 
so  singularly  checkered  with  good  and  evil, 
with  glory  and  obloquy,  had  at  length  closed 
forever,  it  was  to  Daylesford  that  he  retired 
to  die. — Macaulay. 

PURPOSE,  Steadiness  of.— Many  who 
slumber  in  nameless  graves,  or  wander 
through  the  tortures  of  a  wasted  life,  have 
had  memories  as  capacious,  and  faculties  as 
fine,  as  Macaulay ;  but  they  lacked  the  steadi- 
ness of  purpose,  and  patient  thoughtful  labor, 
which  multiplied  the  "  ten  talents  "  into  '  ten 
other  talents  beside  them."  It  is  the  old  les- 
son, voiceful  from  every  life  that  has  a  moral 
in  it ;  from  Bernard  Palissy,  selling  his 
clothes,  and  tearing  up  his  floor,  to  add  fuel 
to  the  furnace,  and  wearying  his  wife,  and 
amusing  his  neighbors  with  dreams  of  his 
white  enamel,  through  the  unremunerative 
years ;  from  William  Carey,  panting  after  the 
moral  conquest  of  India,  whether  he  sat  at 
the  lapstone  of  his  early  craft,  or  wielded  the 
ferule  in  the  village-school,  or  lectured  the 
village  elders  when  the  Sabbath  dawned, — 
it  is  the  old  lesson,  a  worthy  purpose,  patient 
energy  for  its  accomplishment,  a  resoluteness 
that  is  undaunted  by  difficulties,  and,  in  ordi- 
nary   circumstances,    success. — W.    M.    PuN- 

SHON. 

RIGHT,  The  One  Inalienable. — Thou 
hast  but  one  inalienable  right,  and  that  is 
the  sublime  one  of  doing  thy  duty  at  all  times, 
under  all  circumstances  and  in  all  places. — 
Frederick  R.  Marvin. 

SADNESS,  Birds  of.— "You  cannot  pre- 
vent the  birds  of  sadness  from  flying  over 
your  head,  but  you  may  prevent  them  from 
stopping  to  build  their  nests  there." — Selected. 

SIN,  Beginnings  of. — Thieves,  when  they 
go  to  rob  a  house,  if  they  cannot  force  the 
doors,  or  the  wall  is  so  strong  that  they  can- 
not break  through,  then  they  bring  little  boys 
along  with  them,  and  these  they  put  in  at 
the  windows ;  who  are  no  sooner  in  but  they 
unbolt  the  doors,  and  let  in  the  whole  com- 
pany of  thieves.  And  thus  Satan,  when  by 
greater  sins  he  cannot  tell  how  to  enter  the 
soul,  then  he  puts  on  and  makes  way  by  les- 
ser, which  insensibly  having  got  entrance,  set 
open  the  doors  of  the  eyes  and  the  doors  of 
the  ears ;  then  comes  in  the  whole  rabble. 
There  they  take  up  their  quarters ;  there,  like 
unruly  soldiers,  they  rule,  domineer,  and  do 
what  they  list,  to  the  ruin  of  the  soul  so  pos- 
sessed.— Alsop. 

SPIRIT  OF  MAN,  The.— One     can     but 

admire  that  wise  and  beneficent  ordination 
of  Providence  whereby  the  spirit  of  man  as- 
serts its  power  over  circumstances. — Single- 
tary. 

SUNSET  IN  LIFE,  The.— If  I  can  put 
one  touch  of  a  rosy  sunset  into  the  life  of 


36 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


any  man  or  woman  I  shall  feel  that  I  have 
worked  with  God. — George  Macdonald. 

TIME.— That  great  mystery  of  Time,  were 
there  no  other ;  the  illimitable,  silent,  never- 
resting  thing  called  Time,  rolling,  rushing  on, 
swift,  silent,  like  an  all-embracing  ocean-tide, 
on  which  we  and  all  the  Universe  swim  like 
exhalations,  like  apparitions  which  are,  and 
then  are  not:  this  is  forever  very  literally  a 
miracle ;  a  thing  to  strike  us  dumb — for  we 
have  no  word  to  speak  about  it. — Carlyle. — 
Heroes,  and  Hero  Worship.     Lecture  L 

TIME.— What  is  Time?  The  shadow  on 
the  dial,  the  striking  of  the  clock, — the  run- 
ning of  the  sand, — day  and  night, — summer 
and  winter, — months,  years,  centuries; — these 
are  but  arbitrary  and  outward  signs,  the  meas- 
ure of  Time,  not  Time  itself.  Time  is  the 
Life  of  the  Soul. — H.  W.  Longfellow. — Hy- 
perion.   Bk.  n.  Ch.  V. 

TIME,  The  Calculation  of. — We  are  in- 
debted to  the  great  Roman  general  and  ruler, 
Julius  Caesar,  for  our  year,  for  the  length  of 
our  month,  and  for  the  extra  day  in  leap- 
year  ;  we  are  indebted  to  a  studious  pope, 
Gregory  XHL,  for  a  uniform  chronology 
common  to  all  civilized  lands ;  to  the  far- 
away half-mythical  Numa  Pompilius  for 
New  Year's  Day  on  the  first  of  January,  and 
the  months  as  we  know  them.  The  Roman 
heathen  gave  us  three  of  our  week  day  names, 
and  the  heathenish  and  altogether  ungodly 
Norsemen  supplied  us  with  the  names  of  the 
other  four,  while  the  name  of  the  Sabbath 
comes  from  the  Jews.  Heathen,  Christian, 
and  Jew,  crowned  pope,  world-famous  con- 
queror and  obscure  pirate  of  the  seas,  each 
and  all  have  helped  to  make  and  shape  our 


system  of  time  for  us.  Surely  the  science  of 
computing  time  may  well  be  called  cosmo- 
politan, since  it  is  a  result  of  the  labor  of  the 
wise  men  of  all  lands,  a  labor  that  continued 
through  three  thousand  years,  and  perhaps 
longer. — We  are  indebted  to  Christ  for  eter- 
nal life. — C.  An. 

TIME,  Well  Disposed.— When  Drexelius 

was  asked  by  his  friend  Faustinus  how  he 
could  do  so  much  as  he  had  done,  he  an- 
swered, "  The  year  has  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  days,  or  eight  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty  hours :  in  so  many  hours 
great  things  may  be  done ;  the  slow  tortoise 
made  a  long  journey  by  losing  no  time." — 
Bishop  Horne. 

WILBERFORCE,  BISHOP,  Advice  of .— 

A  man  said  to  Bishop  Wilberforce,  "  Pray, 
sir,  can  you  tell  a  plain  man,  in  a  single  sen- 
tence, the  way  to  go  to  Heaven?"  "Cer- 
tainly," was  the  instant  reply,  "  turn  to  the 
right  and  go  straight  ahead." — Selected. 

WISDOM. —  Formerly  we  were  guided  by 
the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors ;  Now  we  are 
hurried  along  by  the  wisdom  of  our  descend- 
ants.— L.  T. 

WISHING. — No  amount  of  wishing  will 
fill  the  Arno,  or  turn  a  plum  into  an  orange. 
— George  Eliot. 

WORLD,  A  Topsy-turvy.— The  bat  hangs 
upside  down,  and  laughs  at  a  topsy-turvy 
world. — Anon. 

YEAR,  The.— Beautiful  is  the  year  in  its 
coming  and  in  its  going — most  beautiful  and 
blessed  because  it  is  always  the  "  year  of  our 
Lord." — Lucy  Larcom. 


POETRY 


Annus  Mirahilis. 

This  year  the  wondrous  year  shall  surely  be 
To  such  as  have  the  gift  to  hear,  to  see ! 
We  greet,  between  prophetic  smile  and  tear, 
Annus  Mirabilis — new  year,  strange  year! 
Edith  M.  Thomas. 
Bless  the  Year. 

O,  tender  Christ,  bless  Thou  this  year ! 

Bless  Thou  its  dawn,  and  bless 
Its  noontide  and  its  evening  Lord; 

And  let  each  heart  confess. 
As  days  and  weeks  and  months  go  by 

To  help  the  year  grow  old, 
That  of  Thy  glory.  King  of  Kings, 

The  half  not  yet  is  told. 

Mary  D.  Brine.— O.  C.  W. 

Chance,  The  Main. 

As  the  ancients  say  wisely. 
Have  a  care  o'  the  main  chance, 
And  look  before  you  leap ; 
For  as  you  sow.  ye  are  like  to  reap. 

Samuel  Butler — Hudibras,  Pt.  77. 
Canto  H.,  1.  490. 


Day,  The  New. 

Every  day  is  a  fresh  beginning. 
Listen,  my  soul,  to  the  glad  refrain. 

And  spite  of  old  sorrow,  and  older  sinning. 
And  troubles  forecasted,  and  possible  pain. 
Take  heart  with  the  day,  and  begin  again. 
Susan  Coolidge. 

Death,  Expect  but  Tear  Not. 

Expect,   but  fear  not  Death:  Death  cannot 

kill. 
Till  Time    (that  first  must  seal  his  patent) 

will. 
Wouldst  thou  live  long?  keep  Time  in  high 

esteem ; 
Whom   gone,    if   thou    canst    not   recall,    re- 
deem. 

QuARLES — Hieroglyphics  of  the  Life 
of  Man.    Epigram  VL 

Deeds,  The  Power  of. 

One  deed  may  mar  a  life 
And  one  may  make  it. 

— Selected. 


NEW    YEAR'S  DAY 


37 


Destiny,  In  the  Field  of. 

The  tissue  of  the  Life  to  be, 

We  weave  with  colors  all  our  own, 
And  in  the  field  of  Destiny 
We  reap  as  we  have  sown. 

Raphael 
Development,  Man's. 

I  hold  it  truth  with  him  who  sings. 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones. 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping  stones 

Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things. 

Tennyson — In  Memoriam. 

Duty,  Man's. 

I    did    God's   bidding   and    man's   duty;    so 
breathe  free. 

Browning. 
Eternity. 

Out  of  eternity 

This  new  day  is  born; 
Into  eternity 

At  night  will  return. 

So  here  hath  been  dawning 

Another  blue  day — 
Think,  wilt  thou  let  it  slip 
Useless  away? 

Carlyle. 
Experience. 

Others'  follies  teach  us  not. 
Nor  much  their  wisdom  teaches; 

And  most,  of  sterling  worth,  is  what 
Our  own  experience  preaches. 

Selected. 

Future,  The. 

"  Yet  in  opinions  look  not  always  back ; 
Your   wake  is   nothing;   mind  the  coming 

track. 
Leave  what  you've  done  for  what  you  have 

to  do, 
Don't  be  '  consistent,'  but  be  simply  true." 
O.  W.  Holmes. 
Height,  Man's. 

The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept. 

Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight, 

But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 

Were  toiling  upward,  in  the  night. 

Longfellow. — The      Ladder     of     St. 
Augustine,  St.  lo. 
Hope. 

The  clouds  may  rest  on  the  present, 

And  sorrow  on  days  that  are  gone. 
But  no  night  is  so  utterly  cheerless 

That  we  may  not  look  for  the  dawn ; 
And  there  is  no  human  being 

With  so  wholly  dark  a  lot. 
But  the  heart  by  turning  the  picture 

May  find  some  sunny  spot. 

Selected. 
Hours,  The  Precious. 

Waste  not  the  precious  hours  in  idle  dreams, 
Vain  disputations,  and  perplexing  themes; 
This  life's  the  seed-time  of  eternity. 
And  as  thy  sowing  shall  thy  reaping  be. 
Be  earnest,  then,  O  man,  while  time  is  given, 
To    sow    for    righteousness,    for    God,    and 
Heaven. 

G.   Morison 


Life's  Journey. 

Does  the  road  wind  up  hill  all  the  way? 

Yes,  to  the  very  end. 
Will  the  day's  journey  take  the  whole  long 
day? 
From  morn  to  night,  my  friend. 

Christina  G.  Rosetti. — Up  Hill. 

Life's  Way,    On. 

The  world  is  wide, 
In  time  and  tide, 
And — God  is  guide; 
Then  do  not  hurry. 

That  man  is  blest 
Who  does  his  best. 
And — leaves  the  rest. 
Then  do  not  worry. 
Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Life,  The  Last  of. 

Grow  old  along  with  me,  the  best  is  yet  to  be, 
The  last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made ; 
Our  times  are  in  His  hand.  Who  saith  "  A 

whole  is  planned. 
Youth  shows  but  half;  trust  God, 
See  all,  nor  be  afraid." 

Browning. — Rabbi  Ben  Ezra. 

Life,  The  Twofold. 

He  lives  twice,  who  can  at  once  employ 
The  present  well,  and  e'en  the  past  enjoy. 

Pope. 
Losses  and  Crosses. 

Tho'  losses  and  crosses 

Be  trials  maist  severe. 

There's  wit  there  ye'll  get  there,     . 

Ye'll  find  nae  otherwhere. 

Burns. 
Move,  All  Things. 

We  sleep  and  wake  and  sleep,  but  all  things 
move. 

The  Sun  flies  forward  to  his  brother  Sun ; 

The  dark  earth  follows,  wheeled  in  her  el- 
lipse ; 

And  human  things  returning  on  themselves 

Move  onward,  leading  up  the  golden  year. 

Tennyson. — The  Golden  Year. 

New,  The. 

Only  a  night  from  old  to  new; 

Only  a  sleep  from  night  to  morn ; 
The  new  is  but  the  old  come  true; 

Each  sunrise  sees  a  new  year  born. 
Helen  Hunt  Jackson. — Y.  C. 

New  Year,  The. 

I  see  not  a  step  before  me 

As  I  tread  on  another  year. 

But  the  past  is  still  in  God's  keeping, 

The  future  His  mercy  shall  clear, 

And  what  looks  dark  in  the  distance 

May  brighten  as  I  draw  near. 

Mary  G-  Brainard. — Y.  C. 

New  Year,  The. 

A  Flower  unblown :    a  Book  unread : 
A  Tree  with  fruit  unharvested : 
A  Path  untrod:    a  House  whose  rooms 
Lack  yet  the  heart's  divine  perfumes: 
A  Landscape  whose  wide  border  lies 
In  silent  shade  'neath  silent  skies : 


38 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


A  wondrous  Fountain  yet  unsealed : 
A  Casket  with  its  gifts  concealed : — 
This  is  the  Year  that  for  you  waits 
Beyond  To-morrow's  mystic  gates. 

HoKATio  Nelson  Powers. — Y.  C. 

New  Year,  The. 

New  Year,  coming  on  apace, 
What  have  you  to  give  me? 
Bring  you  scathe,  or  bring  you  grace. 
Face  me  with  an  honest  face ; 
You  shall  not  deceive  me. 

Christina  Rossetti. 
Plans,    God's. 

"  God's  plans,  like  lilies,  pure  and  white  un- 
fold. 
We    must    not    tear    the    close-shut    leaves 

apart, 
Time  will  reveal  the  calyxes  of  gold." 

From  a  Tract. 
Power,  Human. 

I  ask  not  wealth,  but  power  to  take 
And  use  the  things  I  have,  aright ; 
Not  years,   but   wisdom  that  shall  make 
My  life  a  profit  and  delight. 

Phoebk  Cary. 
Present,  Past,  and  Future. 

Threefold   the   stride   of  Time,   from   first  to 

last! 
Loitering  slow,   the   Future   creepeth — 
Arrow-swift,  the  Present  sweepeth — 
And  motionless  forever  stands  the  Past. 
Schiller. — Sentence  of  Confucius.     Time. 

Present,  Past,  and  Puture. 

"  To-morrow  I  will  live,*'  the  fool  does  say; 
To-day  itself's  too  late ; — the  wise  lived  yes- 
terday. 

Martial. — Epigrams,  Bk.  V.,  Ep.  Iviii. 

Problem,  The  Common. 

The    common    problem,    yours,    mine,    every 

one's. 
Is — not  to  fancy  what  were  fair  in  life 
Provided  it  could  be, — but,  finding  first 
What  may  be,  then  how  to  make  it  fair 
Up  to  our  means :    a  very  different  thing ! 

Browning. — Bishop  Blougram's  Apology. 

Beward,   Life's. 

Be   good,    sweet   maid,   and   let   who   will   be 
clever ; 
Do  noble  things ;    not  dream  them  all  day 
long ; 
And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  for- 
ever. 
One  grand,  sweet  song. 

Charles  Kingsley. — A  Farczvell. 

Smile,  The  Test  of  a. 

'Tis  easy  enough  to  be  pleasant. 

When  life  Bows  along  like  a  song; 
But  the  man  worth  while  is  the  one  who  will 
smile 
When  everything  goes  dead  wrong. 
For  the  test  of  the  heart  is  trouble. 

And  it  always  comes  with  the  years, 
And   the   smile   that   is   worth   the  praise   of 
earth 
Is  the  smile  that  comes  through  tears. 
Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 


Strength  and  Weakness. 

Strength  alone  knows  conflict, 
Weakness  is  below  even  defeat, 
And  is  born  vanquished. 
Madame  Anne  Sophie  Swetchine. 

Thought,  New  Year. 

I  would  be  quiet,  Lord, 

Nor  tease  nor  fret; 
Not  one  small  need  of  mine 
Wilt  Thou  forget. 

Julia  C.  R.  Dorr. 
Time. 

Seize  time  by  the  forelock. 

PiTTACus,  of  Mytilene. 
Time. 

Time  is  the  nurse  and  breeder  of  all  good. 
Shakespeare. — Two  gentlemen  of  Verona, 
Act  III.,  Sc.  I. 
Time. 

O !    Old  Father  Time  grows  tender  and  mel- 
low, 

As,   roving  the  round  earth,  the  sturdy  old 
fellow. 

Year  in  and  year  out,  keeps  going  and  com- 
ing. 

In    winter's    wild    wrack,    and    in    summer's 
green  blooming. 

Lewis  J.  Bates. — Time. 

Time  and  Tide. 

For  the  next  win  he  spurs  amain. 
In  haste  alights,  and  scuds  away, — 
But  time  and  tide  for  no  man  stay. 
Wm.  Somerville. — The  Sweet-Scented 
Miser.     Line  98. 
Time's   Glory. 

Time's  glory  is  to  calm  contending  kings, 
To  unmask  falsehood  and  bring  truth  to  light, 
To  stamp  the  seal  of  time  on  aged  things. 
To  wake  the  morn  and  sentinel  the  night. 
To  wrong  the  wronger  till  he  render  right. 
To  ruinate  proud  buildings  with  thy  hours. 
And  smear  with  dust  their  glittering  golden 

towers. 
Shakespeare. — Rape  of  Lucrece.  Line  939. 

Time,  The  Flight  of. 

The  present  is  our  own ;  but,  while  we  speak, 
We  cease  from  its  possession,  and  resign 
The  stage  we  tread  on,  to  another  race. 
As  vain,  and  gay,  and  mortal  as  ourselves. 
Thomas  Love  Peacock. — Time. 

Time,  The  Flight  of. 

The  more  we  live,  more  brief  appear 

Our  life's  succeeding  stages; 
A  day  to  childhood  seems  a  year. 

And  years  like  passing  ages. 
Campbell. — A  Thought  Suggested  by  the 
New  Year.     St.  i. 
Time,  The  Flight  of. 

Time  wears  all  his  locks  before. 
Take  thou  hold  upon  his  forehead ; 

When  he  flies,  he  turns  no  more, 
And  behind  his  scalp  is  naked. 

Works  adjourn'd  have  many  stays; 

Long  demurs  breed  new  delays. 


r 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


39 


Time,  The  Flood  of. 

The  flood  of  time  is  rolling  on, 

We  stand  upon  its  brink,  whilst  they  are  gone 

To  glide   in   peace  down   death's   mysterious 

stream. 
Have  ye  done  well  ? 

Shelley. — Revolt  of  Islam.     Canto  XII. 

St.  27. 
Time,  The  Greatness  of. 

Time  is  great,  and  greater  no  man's  trust 
Than  his  who  keeps  the  fortress  for  his  king. 
Wearing  great  honors  as  some  delicate  robe 
Brocaded  o'er  with  names  'twere  sin  to  tarnish. 
George  Eliot. — The  Spanish  Gypsy.  Bk.  i. 

Time,  The  Hand  of. 

Time  has  laid  his  hand 
Upon  my  heart,  gently,  not  smiting  it, 
But  as  a  harper  lays  his  open  palm 
Upon  his  harp,  to  deaden  its  vibrations. 
Longfellow. — The  Golden  Legend. 

Time,  The  Host. 

Time  is  like  a  fashionable  host, 
That  slightly  shakes  his  parting  guest  by  the 

hand ; 
And  with  his  arms  outstretch'd  as  he  would  fly, 
Grasps  in  the  comer,  welcome  ever  smiles. 
Sh.\kespeare.  —  Troilus     and     Cressida. 
Act  III.,  Sc.  3. 
Time,  The  Lack  of. 

He  that  lacks  time  to  mourn,  lacks  time  to 

mend : 
Eternity  mourns  that.     'Tis  an  ill  cure 
For  life's  worst  ills,  to  have  no  time  to  feel 

them. 

Henry   Taylor. — Philip    Van  Artevelde. 
Act  I.     Sc.  5. 
Time,  The  River  of. 

A  wonderful  stream  is  the  River  Time, 
As  it  runs  through  the  realms  of  Tears, 

With  a  faultless  rhythm,  and  a  musical  rhyme. 

And  a  broader  sweep,  and  a  surge  sublime 
As  it  blends  with  the  ocean  of  Years. 
Benjamin  F.  Taylor. — The  Long  Ago. 

Time,  The  Tread  of. 

Nought  treads  so  silent  as  the  foot  of  time ; 
Hence  we  mistake  our  Autumn  for  our  prime. 
Young. — Love  of  Fame.    Satire  V.    Line 

497- 
Time,  The  Value  of. 

Know  the  true  value  of  time ;  snatch,  seize, 
and  enjoy  every  moment  of  it.  No  idleness, 
no  laziness,  no  procrastination ;  never  put  off 
till  to-morrow  what  you  can  do  to-day. 

Earl    of    Chesterfield. — Letters    to    his 
Son.     Dec.  26,  1749. 
Time,  The  "Waters  of. 

Unfathomable  Sea !    whose  waves  are  years. 
Ocean  of  Time,  whose  waters  of  deep  wo 
Are  brackish  with  the  salt  of  htmian  tears  ! 
Thou  shoreless  flood,  which  in  thy  ebb  and  flow 
Claspest  the  limits  of  mortality ! 
And  sick  of  prey,  yet  howling  on  for  more, 
Vomitest  thy  wrecks  on  its  inhospitable  shore, 
Treacherous  in  calm,  and  terrible  in  storm. 

Who  shall  put  forth  on  thee. 

Unfathomable  sea? 

Shelley. — Time. 


Time,  The  Wheel  of. 

No !    no  arresting  the  vast  wheel  of  time. 
That  round  and  round  still  turns  with  onward 

might. 
Stern,    dragging    thousands    to    the    dreaded 

night 
Of  an  unknown  hereafter. 

Charles  Cowden  Clarke. — Sonnet.    The 
Course  of  Time. 
Time,  The  Work  of. 

Ever  eating,  never  cloying, 
All-devouring,  all-destroying. 
Never  finding  full  repast 
Till  I  eat  the  world  at  last. 

Swift. — On  Time. 

To-days  and  Yesterdays,  Our. 

Our  to-days  and  yesterdays. 
Are  the  blocks  with  which  we  build. 
Longfellow. 
Truth  and  Falsehood. 

Falsehoods  which  we  spurn  to-day, 
Were  the  truths  of  long  ago ; 
Let  the  dead  thoughts  fall  away. 
Fresher  shall  the  living  grow. 

Whittier. 
Work,  God-appointed. 

I  am  glad  to  think 
I  am  not  bound  to  make  the  world  go  right, 
But  only  to  discover  and  to  do 
With  cheerful  heart,  the  work  that  God  ap- 
points. 

Jean  Ingelow. 

World,  All's  Right  with  the. 

The  year's  at  the  spring 
And  day's  at  the  morn ; 
Morning's  at  seven ; 
The  hillside's  dew-pearled; 
The  lark's  on  the  wing. 
The  snail's  on  the  thorn, 
God's  in  his  heaven, — 
All's  right  with  the  world. 

Browning. — Pippa  Passes. 

World-Treasures. 

The  world  is  so  full  of  a  number  of  things, 
I'm  sure  we  should  all  be  as  happy  as  kings. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 
Years,  The  Flight  of. 

Years  follow'ng  years,  steal  something  ev'ry 

day; 
At  last  they  steal  us  from  ourselves  away. 

Pope. — Imitations    of    Horace.     Bk.     II. 
Ep.  II.     Line  72. 
Years,  The  Trend  of. 

I  hear  the  mufifled  tramp  of  years 
Come  stealing  up  the  slope  of  Time ; 

They  bear  a  train  of  smiles  and  tears. 
Of  burning  hopes  and  dreams  sublime. 
James  G.   Clarke. — November. 

Year,  The  Next. 

No  backward  glance  shall  hinder  or  appal  me: 

A  new  life  is  begun; 
And  better  hopes  and  better  motives  call  me 

Than  those  the  past  has  won. 

Lillian  Knapp. — Y.  C. 


40 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  Cry  of  the  New  Century 

God,  give  us  men ;    a  time  like  this  demands 

Strong  minds,   great   hearts,  true   faith,  and 

ready  hands. 

Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy; 

Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 
Men  who  have  honor;   men  who  will  not  lie; 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagog 
And  scorn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without 
winking, 
Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the 
fog 
In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking. 
For  while  the  rabble  with  their  thumb  worn 

creeds, 
Their  proud  profession,  and  their  little  deeds. 

Mingle  in  selfish  strife — lo ! 
Freedom   weeps,   wrong  rules  the  land,   and 
waiting  Justice  sleeps. — O.  C.  W. 

The  World  for  Christ — A  New  Year 
Rallying    Song 

By  Fanny  Crosby 

lAir,  "  From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains."^ 

Arise,  O  Christian  soldiers, 

And  consecrate  anew 
Your  all  upon  the  altar. 

Of  Him,  who  died  for  you! 
Arise  in  faith  united, 

And  let  this  year  record 
Your  undivided  service. 

To  Christ,  our  risen  Lord! 

O,  rally  'round  H's  standard; 

Defend  the  cross  you  love; 
And  look  to  Him  for  wisdom 

And  counsel  from  above. 
Against  the  arch  deceiver, 

Against  the  host  of  sin, 
March  on  with  steady  purpose 

The  world  for  Christ  to  win ! 

.     Be  strong,  O  Christian  soldiers, 

On  Jesus  cast  your  care ! 
And  when  the  conflict  rages 

Let  every  breath  be  prayer. 
Fear  not ;    the  Lord  is  with  you : 

'Tis  He  who  speaks  within ; 
March  on  with  zeal  and  courage 

The  world  for  Christ  to  win! 

Go  forth,  go  forth  rejoicing, 

And  in  the  Master's  name, 
To  weary  souls  that  perish 

Eternal  life  proclaim ! 
The  crowning  day  is  coming; 

The  end  of  toil  and  sin; 
March  on  through  grace  determined, 

The  world  for  Christ  to  win ! 

W.  C.  M. 

Another  Year  is  Dawning 
By  Frances  Ridley  Havergal 

Another  year  is  dawning ! 

Dear  Master,  let  it  be, 
In  working  or  in  waiting. 

Another  year  with  Thee. 


Another  year  in  leaning 

Upon  Thy  loving  breast. 
Of  ever-deepening  trustfulness, 

Of  quiet,  happy  rest. 

Another  year  of  mercies. 

Of  faithfulness  and  grace; 
Another  year  of  gladness. 

In  the  shining  of  Thy  face. 
Another  year  of  progress, 

Another  year  of  praise ; 
Another  year  of  proving 

Thy  presence  "  all  the  days." 

Another  year  of  service. 

Of  witness  for  Thy  love; 
Another  year  of  training 

For  holier  works  above. 
Another  year  is  dawning  ! 

Dear  Master,  let  it  be 
On  earth,  or  else  in  heaven. 

Another  year  for  Thee ! 

Farther  On 

A  New  Year's  Song 
By  Helen  Boyden 

Once  again  has  old  Time  lifted 

All  the  curtains  of  the  years. 
Shows  the  good  from  evil  sifted. 

Makes  a  rainbow  of  our  tears. 
While  we  gaze  with  tender  yearning 

At  the   dear   enchanted   past, 
Memory  is  slowly  turning 

Pictures  on  life's  canvas  cast. 

Some  we  long  to  keep  for  ever, 

Crying  out  to  memory,  "  Hold !  " 
Others  haunt  us  with  a  "  Never!" 

Some  are  fancies,  strange  and  old. 
Ah,  we're  wiser  now  for  grieving, 

ThQ  we  cannot  tell  the  "  why;  " 
And  the  pain  and  joy  we're  leaving 

Thrill  us  with  new  mystery. 

Up  the  steeps  of  time  we  falter, 

Hope  and  courage  almost  gone; 
Nothing  can  our  pathway  alter. 

We  must  journey  farther  on! 
Shadowy   heights  their   crests   uprearing 

Dare  our  mounting  to  the  skies ; 
Treacherous  depths  in  mist  appearing 

Mock  our  weary,  fearful  eyes. 

Courage,  children !     One  beside  us 

Holds  our  footsteps  lest  they  stray: 
Good  or  ill,  whate'er  betide  us, 

Jesus  keeps  us  "  all  the  way :  " 
"  It  is  well,"  for  God  has  led  us; 

Sing  a  requiem  for  the  years 
As  we  climb  to  heights  above  us. 

Past  the  clouds  of  doubt  and  fears. 

Onward,  upward — such  is  living; 

Gaining,  losing,  smiles  and  tears. 
Partings,    meetings,   taking,   giving — 

Thus  we  keep  the  march  of  years : 
Trying,  failing,  trusting,  praising. 

Yet  a  welcome  strong  and  true 
Let  our  lips  and  hearts  be  raising 

To  this  Year  of  "  All  thines  new." 

A.  M. 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


41 


Trust  in  th.e  Future 
By  J.  G.  Whittier 

I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 

Of  marvel  or  surprise, 
Assured  alone  that  life  and  death 

His  mercy  underlies. 

And  so  beside  the  Silent  Sea 

I  wait  the  muffled  oar; 
No  harm  from  Him  can  come  to  me 

On  ocean  or  on  shore. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 

I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care. 

The  Future 

By  Henry  Jerome  Stockard 

As  brave  Columbus,  drifting  from  that  sea 
Which  mortal's  keel  had  never  dared  before, 
Came  breathless  on  the  banks  of  Salvador, 
With  veils  of  silver  mist  on  slope  and  lea. 
So  borne  by  winds  and  streams  of  destiny, 
But  with  no  memory  of  our  native  shore. 
Do  we  emerge,  and  life's  vague  land  explore. 
Here  on  the  outpost  of  eternity. 
He  never  dreamed  those  aisles  that  dimly  rose 
Upon  his  raptured  vision  skirted  land 
That  spreads  far  as  the  zones  of  earth  expand. 
Sail  on,  O  soul !    brave  life's  outlying  bars, 
For  heaven's  blazing  archipelagoes 
Fringe  continents  wide  as  the  range  of  stars. 

Gradatim 
By  J.  G.  Holland 

Heaven  is  not  reached  at  a  single  bound; 
But  we  build  the  ladder  by  which  we  rise 
From  the  lowly  earth  to  the  vaulted  skies. 

And  we  mount  to  the  summit  round  by  round. 

I  count  this  thing  to  be  grandly  true; 
That  a  noble  deed  is  a  step  toward  God — 
Lifting  the  soul  from  the  common  sod 

To  a  purer  air  and  a  broader  view. 

We  rise  by  things  that  are  under  our  feet; 

By  what  we  have  mastered  of  good  and 
gain; 

By  the  pride  deposed  and  the  passion  slain. 
And  the  vanquished  ills  that  we  hourly  meet. 

We  hope,  we  aspire,  we  resolve,  we  trust. 
When  the  morning  calls  us  to  life  and  light ; 
But  our  hearts  grow   weary,  and  ere  the 
night 

Our  lives  are  trailing  the  sordid  dust. 

He  Knows 

Mary   G.   Brainard 

I  know  not  what  will  befall  me ! 

God  hangs  a  mist  o'er  my  eyes ; 
And  o'er  each  step  of  my  onward  path 

He  makes  new  scenes  to  rise, 
And  every  joy  He  sends  to  me 

Comes  as  a  sweet  and  glad  surprise. 


I  see  not  a  step  before  me, 
As  I  tread  the  days  of  the  year, 

But  the  past  is  still  in  God's  keeping, 
The  future  His  mercy  shall  clear, 

And  what  looks  dark  in  the  distance, 
May  brighten  as  I  draw  near. 

For  perhaps  the  dreaded  future 
Has  less  bitterness  than  I  think; 

The  Lord  may  sweeten  the  water 
Before  I  stoop  to  drink. 

Or,  if  Marah  must  be  Marah, 
He  will  stand  beside  its  brink. 

It  may  be  there  is  waiting 

For  the  coming  of  my  feet, 
Some  gift  of  such  rare  blessedness, 

Some  joy  so  strangely  sweet. 
That  my  lips  can  only  tremble 

With  the  thanks  I  cannot  speak. 

O,  restful,  blissful  ignorance! 

'Tis  blessed  not  to  know. 
It  keeps  me  quiet  in  those  arms 

Which  will  not  let  me  go. 
And  hushes  my  soul  to  rest 

On  the  bosom  which  loves  me  so. 

So  I  go  on  not  knowing ! 

I  would  not  if  I  might ; 
I  would  rather  walk  in  the  dark  with  God, 

Than  go  alone  in  the  light, 
I  would  rather  walk  with  Him  by  faith. 

Than  walk  alone  by  sight. 

My  heart  shrinks  back  from  trials 
Which  the  future  may  disclose, 

Yet  I  never  had  a  sorrow 

But  what  the  dear  Lord  chose; 

So  I  send  the  coming  tears  back, 
With  the  whispered  words  "  He  knows." 

New  Year's  Hymn 

How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive ! 

To  wake  each  morn  as  if  the  Maker's  grac6 
Did  us  afresh  from  nothingness  derive 

That  we  might  sing,  "  How  happy  is  out 
case ! 
How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive !  " 

To  read  in  God's  great  book  until  we  feel 
Love  for  the  love  that  gave  it ;  then  to  knee) 

Close  unto  Him  whose  truth  our  souls  will 
shrive. 
While  every  moment's  joy  doth  more  reveal 

How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive. 

Rather  to  go  without  what  might  increase 
Our  worldly  standing,  than  our  souls  de- 
prive 

Of  frequent  speech  with  God,  or  than  to  cease 

To    feel,    through    having    wasted    health    or 
peace. 

How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive. 

Not  to  forget,  when  pain  and  grief  draw  nigh, 

Into  the  ocean  of  time  past  to  dive 
For  memories  of  God's  mercies,  or  to  try 
To  bear  all  sweetly,  hoping  still  to  cry, 
"  How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive !  " 


42 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Thus  ever  toward  man's  height  of  nobleness 
Strive   still   some  new  progression  to  con- 
trive ; 
Till,  just  as  any  other  friend's,  we  press 
Death's   hand;    and,   having  died,   feel   none 
the  less 
How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  alive. — W. 

The  White  Flowers  of  January 

"  The  aconites,  and  other  white  flowers  of  January, 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  blooms  of  summer." 

SlWAARMILL. 

By  William  Sharp 

The  woodland  ways  were  white;    the  boughs 
swung  low 

With  weight  of  snow ; 
There  was  a  shimmer  of  dancing  golden  light, 

And  through  the  glow 
The  goddess  Flora  moved  in  sudden  flight. 

But  when  she  saw  the  dead  blooms  every- 
where 
Laid  low  i'  the  mold, 
Her  sunny  wings  she  did  unfold. 
Long  did   she  brood  amid   that  woodland 

bare 
And  the  blooms  withered  there. 

Then,  with  a  smile,  she  called  the  snows  to 
her; 
There  was  a  stir, 
A  falling  rustle,  as  when  bird-wings  whir 
Alow  i'  the  thickets  in  the  twilight  hour; 
And  next,  a  glimmering  shower. 

Swift    'mid    the    green    gloom    flecked    with 
white,  she  fled; 
But  where  each  snowflake  fell 
There  was  a  happy  miracle ; 
Dead  pansies,  wind-flowers,  violets,  once  more 

rose. 
But  now  in  white  each  petal  did  unclose. 

Life 

By  Philip  James  Bailey 

Life's  more  than  breath  and  the  quick  round 

of  blood ; 
It  is  a  great  spirit  and  a  busy  heart. 
The  coward  and  the  small  in  soul  scarce  do 

live 

We  live  in  deeds,  not  years,  in  thoughts,  not 

breaths, 
In  feeling,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart  throbs. 

He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the 

best. 
Life's  but  a  means  unto  an  end ;    that  end 
Beginning,   mean,  and  end  to  all  things, 

—God 

Upon  the  summit  of  each  mountain — thought 
Worship  thou   God.     Keep  thy   spirit  pure 
From  worldly  taint  by  the  repellent  strength 
Of    virtue.    Think    on    noble    thoughts    and 

deeds 
Ever.     Count  o'er  the  rosary  of  truth ; 
And  practice  precepts  which  are  proven  wise. 


It   matters   not   then   what  thou   fearest. 

Walk 
Boldly  and  wisely  in  that  light  thou  hast; 
There  is  a  hand  above  will  help  thee  on. 
From  "  Festus." 

A  New  Year's  Meditation 

By  M.  S. 

The  earth  was  brown  and  bare  and  cold; 

Another  year  had  swiftly  rolled 

Its  twelve  months  round,  and  as  its  life  went 

out,  it  seemed 
To  bring  to  mind  all  the  fond  hopes  that  man 

had  dreamed, 
Which  in  the  waking  never  were  fulfilled — 
Every  disappointment  that  had  chilled 
A  single  heart ;    every  broken  vow 
Each  day  had  known ;    and  now 
The  year  was  going,  with  bowed  and  heavy 

head ; 
The  whole  earth  sad. 
And  nature,  too,  seemed  dead. 

The  heavens  looked  with  pity  on  the  earth 

below, 
And,  to  hide  its  desolation,  sent  the  snow. 
All  that  long  night  the  soft  white  flakes  were 

whirled. 
And  when  the  morning  came,  their  innocence 

and  purity  had  clothed  the   world. 
A  bright  New  Year  had  dawned,  which  did 

not  know 
The  sin  and  sadness  that  had  come  a  year  ago 
The   past   was   covered :     God   had   sent  this 

untried  year  to  give 
Another  chance  to  man,  that  he  might  wake 

and  hope  and  live. — O. 

New  Year's  Morning 

By  Helen  Hunt  Jackson 

Only  a  night  from  old  to  new ! 

Only  a  night  and  so  much  wrought ! 

The  Old  Year's  heart  all  weary  grew. 

But  said :    "  The  New  Year  rest  has  brought." 

The  Old  Year's  heart  its  hopes  laid  down. 

As  in  a  grave ;    but,  trusting,  said  : 

"  The    blossoms   of   the    New   Year's    crown 

Bloom  from  the  ashes  of  the  dead." 

The  Old  Year's  heart  was  full  of  greed ; 

With  selfishness  it  longed  and  ached. 

And  cried :    "  I  have  not  half  I  need. 

My  thirst  is  bitter  and  unslaked. 

But  to  the  New  Year's  generous  hand 

All  gifts  in  plenty  shall  return ; 

True  loving  it  shall  understand ; 

By  all  my  failures  it  shall  learn. 

I  have  been  reckless ;    it  shall  be 

Quiet  and  calm  and  pure  of  life, 

I  was  a  slave ;    it  shall  go  free. 

And  find  sweet  peace  where  I  leave  strife." 

The  New  Year 

By  Celia  Thaxter 

With  the  whirling  and  drifting  of  snows 
Comes  breathless,  the  wild  New  "Year, 

While   bitter  the   North   wind  blows 
O'er  the  fields  that  lie  stark  and  drear. 


NEW   YEAR'S  DAY 


43 


Yet  hope  is  alight  in  her  eyes 

As  she  looks  from  the  heart  of  the  storm, 
"  Earth  sleeps  in  her  shroud,"  she  cries, 

"  But  the  life  in  her  breast  is  warm. 

"  Death   is  but  a  dream  of  the  night, 

And  the  hymn  of  joy  is  begun, 
For  slowly  seeking  the  light 

The  great  globe  turns  to  the  sun. 

"  Behold,  I  will  bring  delight 
In  place  of  the  darkness  and  cold; 

Safe  under  the  meadows  so  white 
Is  hiding  the  buttercup's  gold. 

"  The  blush  of  the  sweet-briar  rose 

Where  is  it  treasured  to-day? 
I  will  call  it  from  under  the  snows 

To  bloom  on  its  delicate  spray. 

"  I  will  fling  all  the  flowers  abroad. 

And  loose  in  the  echoing  sky 
The  beautiful  birds  of  God, 

To  carol  their  rapture  on  high. 

"  And  the  summer's  splendor  shall  reign 

In  place  of  the  winter's  dearth. 
Her  color  and  music  again 

Shall  gladden  the  patient  earth. 

"  Look  but  with  eyes  that  are  pure 
On  the  gifts  in  my  hand  that  lie, 

And  your  portion  of  bliss  is  sure 
In  the  beauty  no  wealth  can  buy." 

Hark  to  the  New  Year's  voice 
Through  the  murk  of  the  winter  drear; 

O  children  of  men,  rejoice 
At  the  tidings  of  home  and  cheer ! 

Y.  C. 

The  New  Year 

By  Mrs.  M.  A.  Kidde 

New  Year's  Day  in  spotless  robes 

In  the  east  is  dawning, 

As  the  old  year  glides  away, 

Giving  us  no  warning. 

Fold  the  record  of  the  past — 

Close  the  book  forever — 

You  can  alter,  you  can  mend, 
What's  within,  no,  never. 

Let  us  take  the  Life  Book  new 
With  its  leaves  unspotted, 
And  with  nobler  purpose  write, 
Leaving  it  unblotted ! 
Let  us  trust  and  not  despair ; 
Hope  comes  with  the  morning. 

"  Peace    on    earth,    good    will    to    all " 
With  the  New  Year's  dawning. 

O.  C.  W. 

The  New  Year 

By  Rev.  C.  F.  M'Kown 

The  New  Year  come !     Its  pathway  lies 
Hid  by  the  mist  of  days  unknown ; 

Faith  sees  bright  stars  illume  its  skies, 
Hope  bids  each  heart  arise,  press  on. 


The  Old  Year  gone !   The  New  Year  come ! 

Thus  speed  the  years  till  pathways  blend. 
Till  old  and  new  greet  lustrous  dawn 

Of  fadeless  day,  where  time  shall  end. 

New  Year's,  1900 

By  E.  S.  Martin 

One  greeting  more  to  one  of  noble  fame, 
Our  comrades  since  our  birth ;   our  fathers', 
too; 
Into  whose  springtime  hopes  our  grandsires 
came. 
Whose  promises  to  them  for  us  came  true. 

What  struggles  and  what  gains  have  filled  his 
day! 

What  peerless  triumphs  of  a  mind  set  free ! 
What  stubborn  shrinking,  oftentimes,  to  pay 

The  woful  birth-price  of  the  is-to-be. 

Hoary,  sublime,  deathless  yet  doomed  to  die. 

No  other  New  Year's  dawning  his  shall  be. 
Vouchsafe  him.  Time,  such  end  that  men  shall 
cry — 
"  Grand  was  thy  passing.  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury !  "  S. 

The  New  Year  Dawns 

By  Louise  Chandler  Moulton 

The  New  Year  dawns — the  sun  shines  strong 
and  clear ; 
And'all  the  world  rejoices  and  is  gay: 
The  city-loving  birds  from  spray  to  spray 

Flit  busily,  and  twitter  in  my  ear 

Their  little  frozen  note  of  wintry  cheer : 
From  ruddy  children  with  the  snow  at  play 
Ring  peals  of  laughter,  gladder  than  in  May, 

While  friend  greets  friend  with  "  Happy  be 
thy  Year !  " 

So  would  I  joy,  if  Thou  wert  by  my  side — 
So  would  I  laugh,  if  Thou  couldst  laugh 
with  me — 
But  left  alone,  in  Darkness  I  abide, 
Mocked  by  a  Day  that  shines  no  more  on 
Thee  : 
From  this  too  merry  world  my  heart  I  hide — 
My  New  Year  dawns  not  till  Thy  face  I  see. 

Y.  C. 

New  Year's  Eve. 

By  Mrs.  Charles  F.  Thomas 

Ye  solemn  bells !    toll  sadly, 

The  old  year's  hours  are  few ; 
Sweet  bells !    ye'll  soon  ring  gladly 

To  welcome  in  the  new. 
But  from  old  friends  the  parting 

Is  sad  and  sore  to  me ; 
E'en  now  my  heart  is  smarting. 

Old  year !    to  part  with  thee. 

New  Year !  thou  coming  stranger. 
From  doubt,  and  fear  and  danger. 
Thy  hours  may  bring,  I  hasten 
To  Jesus  ;    tho  He  chasten. 
He  will  from  harm  defend  me; 
Still  will  His  grace  attend  me 
And  so,  whate'er  betide, 
Safely.  I  shall  abide.  P.  J. 


44 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


New  Year's  Eve 

The  night  is  starry,  bright,  and  clear. 
With  moonlight  glimmering  on  the  snow ; 
And  midnight  winds,  with  voices  low, 

Sing  dirges  for  the  dying  year. 

Old  Year,  I  pray  we  part  as  friends ! 
Sincerely  we  can  say  "  Adieu !  " 
And  as  we  welcome  in  the  New 

We  promise  him  to  make  amends — 

We  pledge  ourselves  to  nobler  deeds, 
To  loftier  thought  and  purer  life, 
To  be  more  faithful  in  the  strife 

For  what  our  nobler  nature  pleads. 

Remembering  all  the  solemn  past. 
Its  lessons  treasured  in  the  heart, 
So  we  will  live  and  act  our  part 

As  if  this  New  Year  were  our  last. 


L.  C. 


New  Year's  Eve 

By  Alfred  Tennyson 


Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky, 
The  flying  cloud,  the  frosty  light; 
The  year  is  dying  in  the  night; 

Ring  out,  wild  bells,  and  let  him  die. 

Ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new ; 

Ring,  happy  bells,  across  the  snow; 

The  year  is  going,  let  him  go; 
Ring  out  the  false,  ring  in  the  true. 

Ring  out  the  grief  that  saps  the  mind, 
For  those  that  here  we  see  no  more; 
Ring  out  the  feud  of  rich  and  poor. 

Ring  in  redress  to  all  mankind. 

Ring  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 
And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife ; 
Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life. 

With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood, 
The  civic  slander  and  the  spite ; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right. 

Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease. 
Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold; 
Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old, 

Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free, 
The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land; 

Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 

The  New- Year  Mine 
By  Amos  R.  Wells 

Every  year's  a  hidden  mine. 
Stoutly  up,  and  work  it ! 

What  tho  anxious  toil  is  thine? 
Never  think  to  shirk  it. 

Half  the  mine,  as  I  am  told, 
Harbors  dust  and  ashes ; 

Half  the  mine  is  precious  gold, — 
Ah,  how  bright  it  flashes ! 


Sink  the  shaft  of  Lazy  Mind, 
(What  a  dreadful  bore,  sir!) 

Dust  and  ashes  you  will  find, 
That,  and  nothing  more,  sir  I 

Sink  the  shaft  of  Earnest  Heart, — 

Lo,  the  treasure  glances. 
Gleaming  gay  in  every  part 

Where  your  pick  advances! 

See,  my  lad,  the  New- Year  Mine 
Bright  with  promise-flashes ! 

Will  you  dig  for  treasure  fine. 
Or  only  dust  and  ashes? 

G.  R. 

A   New    Year's   Reminder 

By  Mary  F.  Butts. 

The  season's  joy  you  wish  us — 
For  that  we  thank  you,  dear; 

Yet  wishes  are  not  quite  enough 
To  bring  a  glad  New  Year. 

Watch  day  by  day,  my  darling. 

For  helpful  work  to  do. 
And  through  the  new  year  you  yourself 

Will  make  your  wish  come  true. 

C.  U. 

The  Door  of  the  New  Year 

By  Lucy  Larcom, 

We  pause  beside  this  door: 
Thy  year,  O  God,  how  shall  we  enter  in? 

The  footsteps  of  a  Child 
Sound  close  beside  us.    Listen,  He  will  speak ! 
His  birthday  bells  have  hardly  rung  a  week, 
Yet  has  He  trod  the  world's  press,  undefiled. 
"  Enter  through  Me,"  He  saith,  "  nor  wander 
more; 
For  lo !    I  am  the  Door." 

G.  R. 

Threshold  of  the  New  Year 

We  are  standing  on  the  threshold,  we  are  in 

the  opened  door. 
We  are  treading  on  a  border  land  we  have 

never  trod  before : 
Another  year  is  opening,  and  another  year  is 

gone. 
We  have  passed  the  darkness  of  the  night; 

we  are  in  the  early  morn ; 
We  have  left  the  fields  behind  us  o'er  which 

we  scattered  seed ; 
We  pass  into  the  future  which  none  of  us  can 

read. 
The  corn  among  the  weeds,  the  stones,  the 

surface  mold. 
May   yield   a   partial    harvest;    we   hope   for 

sixty  fold. 
Then   hasten  to   fresh   labor,  to  thrash,   and 

reap,  and  sow, 
Then  bid  the  new  year  welcome,  and  let  the 

old  year  go — 
Then  gather  all  your  vigor,  press  forward  in 

the  fight, 
And  let  this  be  your  motto,  "  For  God,  and 

for  the  Right." — Anon. 

*F.  I. 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


45 


ITncertaiiity  of  the  New  Year, 

By  William  Cowper 

Could  I,  from  heaven  inspired,  as  sure  presage 
To  whom  the  rising  year   shall  prove  his 
last, 

As  I  can  number  in  my  punctual  page 
And  item  down  the  victims  of  the  past ; 

How  each  would  trembling  wait  the  mourn- 
ful sheet 
On  which  the  press  might  stamp  him  next 
to  die; 
And.  reading  here  his  sentence,  how  replete 
With    anxious   meaning,    heavenward   turn 
his  eye ! 

Then  doubtless  many  a  trifler,  on  the  brink 
Of   this    world's    hazardous    and   headlong 
shore. 

Forced  to  a  pause,  would  feel  it  good  to  think, 
Told  that  his  setting  sun  must  rise  no  more. 

Ah,  self-deceived !  could  I  prophetic  say 

Who  next  is  fated,  and  who  next  to  fall. 
The  rest  might  then  seem  privileged  to  play  ; 
But,  naming  none,  the  Voice  now  speaks  to 
all.  *F.  I. 

Opportunity 

By  Edward  Rowland  Sill 

This  I  beheld,  or  dreamed  it  in  a  dream : 
There  spread  a  cloud  of  dust  along  a  plain ; 
And  underneath  the  cloud,  or  in  it,  raged 
A  furious  battle,  and  men  yelled,  and  swords 
Shocked  upon  swords  and  shields.    A  prince's 

banner 
Wavered,  then  staggered  backward,  hemmed 

by  foes. 
A  craven  hung  along  the  battle's  edge 
And   thought :    "  Had   I   a   sword  of  keener 

steel — 
That  blue  blade  that  the  king's  son  bears — 

but  this 
Blunt  thing !  "     He  snapt  and  flung  it  from 

His  hand 
And,  lowering,  crept  away  and  left  the  field. 
Then    came    the    king's    son,    wounded,    sore 

bestead, 
And  weaponless,  and  saw  the  broken  sword. 
Hilt-buried  in  the  dry  and  trodden  sand. 
And  ran  and  snatched  it,  and  with  battle  shout 
Lifted  afresh,  he  hewed  his  enemy  down. 
And  saved  a  great  cause  that  heroic  day. 

C.  E.  W. 
Opportunity 

By  Mabel  Earle 

One    sought    for    rivers,    thirsting,    while    a 
spring 
Watered,  unseen,  the  grasses  at  his  feet. 
One    roamed    the    world    for    wealth,    while, 
glittering, 
Rich  ores  lay  hid  beneath  his  native  street. 

One  lived  apart  with  sorrow,  desolate. 
And    yearned    for   love's    sweet   help,    and 
never  smiled. 
While,    day   by   day,   before   his   fast-barred 
gate 
Wandered    with    wistful    eyes   a    homeless 
child. 


One   longed  in  vain  to  fight  for   Christ  his 
Lord, 
Out  in  the  fierce,  free  strife  with  open  ill, 
While  pride  and  self  crept  close,  with  unseen 
cord, 
And   bound  and   led   him   captive  at  their 
will.  C.  E.  W. 

Opportunity 

By  Rev.  Benjamin  Copeland 

Before  this  truth  be  bared  each  brow — 
The  infinite  is  here  and  now ! 
As  sacred  as  the  stars,  the  sod — 
As  near  to  Heaven,  as  close  to  God. 

Call  nothing  common  or  unclean, 
Nor  deem  thou  any  service  mean; 
Forevermore  this  faith  be  thine — 
All   days,   all   duties,   are   divine. 

E'en  now,  at  thy  reluctant  feet, 
The  seed-time  and  the  harvest  meet; 
"  The  morrow  in  the  moment  lies," 
Heed  well  the  Voice ;  awake  !  arise ! 

He,  only  he,  is  free  indeed. 

Who    in    his    heart    holds    fast    this    creed — 

(A  fadeless  wreath  for  every  brow), 

The  infinite  is  here  and  now! 

New  Year   as   Peacemaker 

By  Frank  Walcott  Hutt 

I  have  made  peace  with  my  foes,  peace  with 
the  lost  and  the  slain; 

Hope  and  the  Future  are  mine;  over  the  liv- 
ing I  reign. 

For  I  have  buried  the  old,  buried  and  put 

away, 
And  the  whisper  and  curse  of  wrong  I  suffer 

to  fail  to-day. 

And  the  sorrow  of  dark  regret,  and  the  dread 

of  the  vampire  past. 
Are  dead  on  the   white  highways  where  the 

Old  Year  breathed  his  last. 

I  am  the  glad  New  Year.    Songs  of  the  morn 

I  sing; 
Songs  of  the  triumph-soul,  with  the  pardon 
and  peace  I  bring. 

I. 
A  New  Year's  Prayer 

I  want  my  heart  made  pure,  dear  Lord, 
I  want  to  know  and  love  Thy  Word; 
To  be  all  glorious  within, 
k  Freed  from  each  spot  and  stain  of  sin. 

I  want  the  New  Year's  opening  days 
To  fill  with  love,  and  prayer,  and  praise. 
Some  little  things  to  do  for  Thee, 
For  Thou  hast  done  great  things  for  me. 

I  want  some  other  soul  to  bring 
To  Thee,  my  Savior  and  my  King. 
Thou  wilt  not.  Lord,  my  prayer  deny, 
For  Thou  canst  all  my  wants  supply. 


46 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


In  Jesus'  name  our  prayer  we  raise, 
Whose  guiding  hand  has   blessed   our  days. 
And  may  we,  Lord,  in  godly  fear 
Serve  Thee  through  all  this  coming  year. 

Selected. 

A  New  Year's  Prayer 
By  John  Hall,  D.D. 

O  God,  my  good  desires  fulfil ; 

The  bad  do  Thou  restrain; 
Reveal  to  me  Thy  holy  will, 

And  make  my  duty  plain. 

Sustain  me  by  Thy  heavenly  grace, 

And  keep  me  in  Thy  fear : 
Help  me  to  run  the  heavenly  race 

With  Jesus  ever  near. 

O  Christ,  my  all-wise  Prophet, 

I  sit  down  at  Thy  feet ; 
Teach  me  to  do  the  Father's  will, 

For  heaven  make  me  meet. 

O  Christ,  my  great  High  Priest, 

Ascended  now  to  heaven. 
On  Thine  atoning  work  I  rest, 

To  Thee  the  praise  be  given. 

0  Christ,  my  glorious  King, 
Thy  law  write  on  my  heart ; 

And  bring  me  to  the  heavenly  home 
Where  we  shall  never  part. 

There   let   me   sing  the    song  of   songs; 

There  let  my  praise  be  given, 
To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 

The  Trinity  in  heaven. 

G.  R. 

Sonnet  LXIV 

By  William  Shakespeare 

When  I  have  seen  by  Time's  fell  hand  de- 
faced 
The  rich-proud  cost  of  outworn  buried  age ; 
When    sometime    lofty    towers   I    see    down- 
razed. 
And  brass  eternal,  slave  to  mortal  rage ; 
When  I  have  seen  the  hungry  ocean  gain 
Advantage  on  the  kingdom  of  the  shore. 
And  the  firm  soil  win  of  the  watery  main. 
Increasing    store    with    loss,    and    loss    with 

store ; 
When  I  have  seen  such  interchange  of  state, 
Oi  state  itself  confounded  to  decay ; 
Ruin  hath  taught  me  thus  to  ruminate, — 
That  Time  will  come  and  take  my  love  away. 
This :   thought   is   as  a   death,   which  cannot 

choose 
But  weep  to  have  that  which  it  fears  to  lose. 

Teach  Me  Thy  Way 

By  Marianne  Farningham 

The  dark  comes  down  ere  it  be  late; 

1  stand  amid  the  shades  and  wait, 
Not  knowing  whether  left  or  right 

Will  bring  me  to  the  open  gate 
Where  I  can  pass  to  home  and  light. 
O  God,  with  whom  is  endless  day. 
Guide  Thou  my  steps;    teach  me  Thy  way. 


The  distant  lights  like  beacons  shine; 

The  city  they  illume  is  mine ; 
The  friends  I  love  are  gathered  there. 

Give  me  Thy  help,  O  Guide  divine. 
For  hope  and  faith  are  in  my  prayer; 

And  morn  will  break  and  I  shall  stand 

At  daybreak  in  my  fatherland. 

C.  E.  W. 

The  Accepted  Time 

If  you  have  a  friend  worth  loving, 
Love  him.     Yes,  and  let  him  know 

That  you  love  him,  ere  life's  evening 
Tinge  his  brow  with  sunset  glow. 

Why  should  praises  ne'er  be  said 

Of  a  friend — till  he  is  dead? 

If  you  hear  a  song  that  thrills  you, 

Sung  by  any  child  of  song. 
Praise  it.     Do  not  let  the  singer 

Wait  deserved  praises  long. 
Why  should  one  who  thrills  your  heart 
Lack  the  joy  you  can  impart? 

If  you  hear  a  prayer  that  moves  you 

By  its  humble,  pleading  tone. 
Join  it.     Do  not  let  the  seeker 

Bow  before  his  God  alone. 
Why  should  not  your  brother  share 
Strength    with    "two   or   three"    in   prayer? 


The  Three  Voices 


C.  G. 


Weep  I 


What  saith  the  Past  to  thee? 

Truth  is  departed, 
Beauty  hath  died  like  the  dream  of  a  sleep. 

Love  is  faint-hearted ; 
Trifles  of  sense,  the  profoundly  unreal. 
Scare  from  our  spirits  God's  holy  ideal; 
So,  as  a  funeral  bell,  slow  and  deep. 
So  tolls  the  Past  to  thee.     Weep ! 

How  speaks  the  Present  Hour?  Act! 

Walk,  upward  glancing; 
So  shall  thy  footsteps  in  glory  be  tracked. 

Slow,  but  advancing. 
Scorn  not  the  smallest  of  daily  endeavor. 
Let  the  great  meaning  ennoble  it  ever, 
Droop  not  o'er  efforts  expended  in  vain. 
Work  as  believing  that  labor  is  gain. 

What  doth  the  Future  say?  Hope! 

Turn  thy  face  sunward ; 
Look,  where  light  fringes  the  far-rising  slope 

Day  Cometh  onward. 
Watch,  tho  so  long  be  the  twilight  delaying 
Let  the  first  sunbeam  arise  on  thee  praying; 
Fear  not,  for  greater  is  God  by  thy  side 
Than  the  armies  of  Satan  against  thee  allied. 

R.  H. 
The  Eternal  Years 


By  Frederick  Faber 

How  shalt  thou  bear  the  cross 
So  dread  a  weight  appears? 

Keep  quietly  to  God.  and  think 
Upon  the  Eternal  Years. 

Brave  quiet  is  the  thing  for  thee. 
Chiding  thy  scrupulous  fears ; 

Learn  to  be  real  from  the  thought 
Of  the  Eternal  Years. 


that   now 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


47 


One  cross  can  sanctify  a  soul ; 

Late  saints  and  ancient  seers 
Were  what  they  were  because  they  mused 

Upon  the  Eternal  Years. 

Death  will  have  rainbows  round  it  seen 
Through  calm  contrition's  tears, 

If  tranquil  Hope  but  trims  her  lamp 
At  the  Eternal  Years. 

H.  A.  C 

The  Old  Year  and  Young  Year 
By  Nora  Perry 


Said  the  year  that  was  old, 

"  I  am  cold,  I  am  cold. 
And  my  breath  hurries  fast 

On  the  wild  winter  blast 
Of  this  thankless  December; 

Ah,  who  will  remember 
As  I  shivering,  go. 

The  warmth  and  the  glow 
That  arose  like  a  flame 

When  I  came,  when  I  came? 
For  I  brought  in  my  hands 

From  Utopian  lands, 
Golden  gifts,  and  the  schemes 

That  were  fairer  than  dreams. 
Ah  never  a  king 

Of  a  twelvemonth,  will  bring 
Such  splendor  of  treasure 

Without  stint  or  measure. 
As  I  brought  on  that  day 

Triumphant  and  gay. 
But  alas,  and  alas, 

Who  will  think  as  I  pass, 
I  was  once  gay  and  bold  ?  " 

Said  the  year  that  was  old. 


II 

Said  the  year  that  was  young — 

And  his  light  laughter  rung — 
"  Come,  bid  me  good  cheer. 

For  I  bring  with  me  here 
Such  gifts  as  the  earth 

Never  saw  till  my  birth; 
All  the  largess  of  life, 

Right  royally   rife 
With  the  plans  and  the  schemes 

Of  the  world's  highest  dreams. 
Then — Hope's  chalice  failed  up 

To  the  brim  of  the  cup, 
Let  us  drink  to  the  past. 

The  poor  pitiful  past," 
Sang  the  year  that  was  young, 

While  his  light  laughter  rung. 

Y.  C. 
The  Building  of  the  Year 

By  Frank  Walcott  Hutt 

Seek,  if  ye  may,  of  them  that  read. 
Whereto  the  year  thy  hopes  shall  lead ; 

Toward  what  proud  heights,  in  lines  of  flame, 
The  world  may  look  to  read  thy  name ; 

But  know  that  in  the  deepmost  vales. 
Where  heroes  strive  and  courage  pales. 

Amid  the  wilderness  and  fen, 
Along  the  beaten  paths  of  men. 

Where,  face  to  face  with  common  things, 
God's    saints    have    known    their    stress    and 
stings ; 

There,  brave  to  share  the  lot  of  all, 
Shalt  thou  endure  thy  part,  or  fall. 

There  only,  shalt  thou  raze  or  rear 
Thy  building  of  Another  Year. 


G.  R. 


48  HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


EPIPHANY 

EPIPHANY  (c7rt<^aveia,  cTTi,  upon, +<^atva)  show)  in  its  general  use  means  "  any 
appearance  or  bodily  manifestation,  especially  of  a  deity."  *  In  the  Greek, 
Latin,  Anglican,  and  other  branches  of  the  Christian  Church  on  January  6  the 
festival  called  Epiphany  has  been  observed.  The  day  gets  its  name  from  the 
fact  that  God  in  Jesus  Christ  manifested  Himself  to  the  world :  at  His  advent, 
to  the  wise  men  from  the  East,  on  the  occasion  of  His  baptism. 

The  day  has  been  called  Twelfth  Day  as  well  as  Epiphany,  because  it  falls 
on  the  twelfth  day  after  Christmas.  So  intimately  is  it  associated  with  the  festival 
of  the  nativity  of  Christ  that  some  authorities  claim  that  it  was  not  kept  as  a 
separate  holy  day  until  a.  d.  813.  Speaking  of  the  relation  of  Epiphany  to 
Christmas,  Bennett  says:  "The  labored  investigations  given  to  this  subject  have 
quite  firmly  established  the  following  conclusions :  ( i )  Until  near  the  close  of  the 
fourth  century  the  Nativity  was  celebrated  in  the  Oriental  churches  in  connection 
with  the  Epiphany,  or  on  January  6 — this  custom  continuing  in  many  parts  of  the 
East  for  a  century  or  more  later.  (2)  From  a  much  earlier  date  the  Nativity 
was  celebrated  in  the  Western  Churches  on  December  25,  and  it  occupies  an 
important  place  in  the  most  ancient  liturgies.  It  is,  however,  impossible  to  fix 
the  date  when  the  change  from  January  6  to  December  25  was  made."  f 

Coleman  says :  "  Christmas  commemorates  the  birth  of  Christ ;  God  Himself 
becoming  man.  This  great  event  indeed  is  represented  by  two  solemnities ;  the 
birth  of  Jesus  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  when  the  Divine  Being  entered 
on  His  Earthly  existence ;  and  the  day  of  His  baptism  on  the  sixth  of  January, 
when  He  first  manifested  Himself  as  Christ,  the  promised  Messiah.  On  this 
occasion  His  Divine  power  and  glory  were  publicly  revealed;  and  for  this  reason 
the  day  is  styled  Epiphany,  the  manifestation."! 

So  it  would  appear  that  Epiphany  was  first  observed  in  the  Eastern,  or 
Greek,  Church,  where  it  celebrated  Christ's  manifestation  of  His  Messiahship  on 
the  occasion  of  His  Baptism ;  and  after  the  fourth  century  it  was  observed  in  the 
Western,  or  Roman  Catholic,  Church,  with  especial  reference  to  God's  manifesta- 
tion of  Himself  in  Christ  to  the  whole  world,  but  especially  to  the  gentile  world. 
The  Anglican  Church,  and  all  the  churches  observing  Epiphany  in  America  very 
appropriately  use  the  day  to  magnify  the  cause  of  missions  and  hold  up  Jesus 
Christ  as  "  The  Light  of  the  World." 


OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  WORLD'S   EVANGELIZATION  § 

By  Rev.  J.  A.  Graham 


I.  The  results  already  attained,  more  par- 
ticularly during  the  last  hundred  years,  give 
cause  for  gratitude.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  missionary  movement  the  churches 
were    dead    to    the    claims    of    the    heathen 


world.  Now  every  branch  has  its  foreign 
mission  board  or  society,  whose  work  focuses 
the  living  interest  of  the  best  of  its  members. 
Before  the  famous  meeting  at  Kittering,  in 
1792,  only  one  or  two  agencies  were  at  work 


*  Standard  Dictionary.        t  Christian  Archaeology,  p.  456.        X  Ancient  Christianity  Exemplified,  p.  538. 
§  A  chapter  (condensed)  from  Missionary  Expansion  Since  the  Reformation,  1895.    (Revell.; 


EPIPHANY 


49 


among  the  heathens;  now  there  are  about  150 
separate  organizations,  with  an  annual  income 
of  over  $12,500,000.  Then  there  were  but  a 
few  missionaries  representing  Christendom 
among  non-Christians ;  now  there  is  a  great 
army  with  10,000  missionary  officers  (one- 
third  of  them  women),  aided  by  50,000  native 
workers,  of  whom  3.300  arc  ordained.  Then 
the  great  mission  fields  were  either  unknown 
or  closed  to  the  free  entrance  of  the  Gospel ; 
now  the  whole  wide  world,  with  inconsider- 
able exceptions,  is  open  to  its  heralds.  Then 
the  converts  of  Protestant  churches  i'.i 
heathendom  were  reckoned  by  the  thousand, 
now  there  are  said  to  be  3,000,000.  Then  the 
power  of  politics  and  the  influence  of  the 
press  were  almost  wholly,  and  often  bitterly, 
opposed  to  foreign  missionary  enterprise ; 
now  the  missionary  is  looked  upon  as  the 
pioneer  of  civilization,  and  the  valued  ally  of 
good  government. 

II.  But  notwithstanding  past  success,  only 
a  beginning  has  been  made  in  the  work  of 
missions.  The  area  actually  occupied  by 
Christian  peoples  is  small  compared  with  that 
of  non-Christian  nations,  and  large  tracts  of 
the  earth's  surface  remain  unevangelized. 
We  rejoice  over  three  million  converts  as  the 
result  of  modern  missions,  but  what  are  they 
to  the  thousand  million  unconverted?  And 
the  startling  fact  presents  itself  that  during 
the  period  in  which  the  three  millions  have 
been  won,  the  natural  increase  of  heathendom 
is  reckoned  at  two  hundred  millions ! 

III.  Christians  must  be  more  earnest  and 
self-sacrificing  if  the  whole  world  is  to  be 
speedily  evangelized.  The  number  of  those 
who  feel  called  to  go  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  the  heathen  increases  yearly,  but  their  num- 
ber is  utterly  inadequate  to  meet  the  urgent 
calls  which  open  doors  of  opportunity  are 
presenting  to  the  churches.  A  great  host  of 
consecrated  men  and  women — the  very  best 


in  Christendom — are  at  present  needed  in  the 
world's  harvest  field.  And  to  help  them  go 
there  is  required  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
wealth  of  those  who  are  unable  to  give  per- 
sonal service.  What  is  being  done  by  the 
poor  Moravian  Church  shows  what  might  be 
done  by  others.  If  even  their  standard  were 
reached  by  the  other  reformed  churches,  these 
would  be  represented,  says  Mrs.  Bird  Bishop, 
by  two  hundred  thousand  missionaries,  and 
would  contribute  $700,000,000  a  year.  "  We 
spend,"  she  adds  (referring  to  the  United 
Kingdom),  "  ii6o,ooo,ooo  ($800,000,000,  or 
$20  a  head)  upon  drink;  we  smoke  '£16,000,- 
OCD,  and  Ave  hoard  £240,000,000  while  our 
whole  contributions  toward  the  conversion  of 
this  miserable  world  are  but  one  and  a  half 
million  pounds,  or  ninepence  (18  cents)  a 
head." 

IV.  Yet,  withal,  the  present  outlook  is  full 
of  hope.  Of  all  the  faiths  in  the  world, 
Christianity  alone  presents  the  appearance  of 
a  world-wide  religion.  Mr.  Gladstone  has 
said  that  "  the  art,  literature,  the  system- 
atized industry,  invention,  and  commerce — 
in  a  word,  the  power  of  the  world — are  al- 
most wholly  Christian."  The  Christian  na- 
tions exercise  political  power  over  thirty-two 
out  of  the  fifty-two  million  square  miles  of 
the  earth's  surface — Protestant  Great  Britain 
alone  over  one-fourth  of  the  whole  world — 
and  the  Christian  peoples  increase  in  a  higher 
ratio  than  do  the  non-Christian.  The  hold 
of  the  non-Christian  faiths  is  weakened  as 
knowledge  increases,  while,  as  Dr.  Barrows 
asserts,  ''It  is  vastly  significant,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  genius  of  Christianity,  that 
the  religion  of  Christ  has  in  this  century  of 
intellectual  progress,  when  superstitions  have 
been  dispelled  by  the  light  of  truth,  made 
more  memorable  and  rapid  conquests  than  in 
any  previous  period  since  the  downfall  of 
Roman  paganism." — M.  R.  W. 


THE  FINGER  OF  GOD  IN  MODERN  MISSIONS* 

By  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 


Facts  are  the  fingers  of  God.  Altho  in- 
difference is  not  always  born  of  ignorance, 
there  will  be  little  zeal  without  knowledge. 
To  awaken  a  deep  passion  for  the  universal 
and  immediate  spread  of  Gospel  tidings  be- 
lievers must  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
tliose  grand  facts  which  make  the  march  of 
modern  missions  the  miracle  of  these  latter 
days. 

Not  to  go  back  further,  for  four  hundred 
years  we  can  trace  signal  providences  casting 
up  this  broad,  level  highway  between  the 
centers  of  Christendom  and  pagandom.  Near 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  new  route 
to  the  golden  Indies  by  way  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  led  to  the  chartering  of  the  East 
India  Company  a  few  years  later ;  and  so, 
while   the    Pilgrims   were   sowing   the    seeds 


of  this  Christian  republic  beneath  the  setting 
sun,  Protestant  England  planted  an  empire 
toward  the  sunrise,  and  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  pagan  Orient.  Unconsciously  the  leading 
nation  of  the  Protestant  Christian  world  was 
reaching  out  one  hand  eastward,  and  the 
other  westward,  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a 
world-wide  Church.  Subsequent  conflicts  in 
America  and  India  settled  the  question  that 
in  both  hemispheres  the  Cross  was  to  dis- 
place both  the  crescent  and  the  crucifix. 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
America  and  Asia  are  respectively  held  by 
the  two  foremost  Protestant  powers  of  the 
world.  England  has  a  firm  foothold  in  the 
critical  center  of  oriental  missions,  and  in  her 
hands  holds  the  keys  of  the  kingdoms  of  the 
East.     This    makes    necessary,    as   a    line   of 


*  ]<rief  portions  of  Dr.  Pierson's  paper  on  "God's  Hand  in  Missions,"  written  for  an  edition  of  David 
Brainerd's  Memoirs — 1884. 


50 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


communication,  an  open  highway  for  travel 
and  traffic  between  the  mother  country  and 
her  eastern  possessions.  If  Britain  had  any 
right  in  India,  she  had  a  right  to  a  safe  and 
peaceful  road  thither;  and  this  political  neces- 
sity was  used  of  God  ultimately  to  shape 
the  attitude  of  every  nation  along  that  high- 
way. Had  England  not  held  that  highway 
to  the  Indies,  the  destinies  of  Europe  and 
Asia  might  have  been  changed.  Turkey 
would  probably  have  been  devoured  by 
Russia,  or  divided  between  Russia  and 
France;  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches, 
crossing  the  mountains,  might  have  swayed 
all  Asia  and  kept  out  Protestant  missions. 
Behold  the  hand  of  God,  using  English  arms 
and  diplomacy  to  hold  popes,  czars,  and  sul- 
tans in  check ;  to  shield  converts  from  perse- 
cution by  Turkish  Armenians,  Persian  Nes- 
torians,  Syrian  Moslems,  or  Indian  Brah- 
mins ;  and  giving  Britain  a  casting  vote  in  the 
aflairs  of  the  Sublime  Porte  ! 

What  means  this  providential  establishment 
of  British  empire  in  India?  It  is  an  enter- 
ing wedge  driven  into  the  heart  of  Asia  ;  a 
wedge  the  direction  of  whose  cleavage  is 
still  eastward,  splitting  in  twain  these  gnarled 
and  knotted  trunks  of  moss-grown  empires ! 

Meanwhile,  from  seed  sown  at  Plymouth, 
develops  another  mighty,  evangelizing  power. 
The  Protestant  republic  of  America  strides 
from  Atlantic  to  Pacific,  and,  planting  foot 
on  the  western  shores,  moves  toward  the 
eastern  coasts  of  Asia,  as  tho  there  were  no 
more  sea.  Plere  is  God's  counter-force  mov- 
ing from  the  opposite  direction  to  meet  Eng- 
hmd  and  oppose  her  entering  wedge  with  the 
resistance  of  cooperation,  as  anvil  opposes 
sledge-hammer.  In  other  words,  another  ir- 
repressible conflict  has  come.  Commerce  will 
have  her  highway  round  the  world,  and 
knocks  imperatively  at  the  sealed  ports  and 
barred  gates  of  exclusive  Oriental  empires. 

Our  Republic  leads  the  way.  In  1853  Com- 
modore Perry  sails  into  the  bay  of  Yeddo, 
spreads  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  over  the 
capstan,  and  the  open  Bible  upon  the  flag, 
and,  without  firing  a  gun  or  shedding  a 
drop  of  blood,  peacefully  opens  the  ports  of 
Japan  to  the  world.  Five  years  later,  four 
leading  nations  knock  loudly  at  the  gates  of 
China,  and  the  walled  kingdom  opens  her 
doors,  expressly  stipulating  by  treaty  that 
"  any  person,  whether  citizen  of  the  country 
with  which  the  treaty  is  made,  or  Chinese 
convert  to  the  faith  of  the  Protestant  or 
Roman  Catholic  churches,  who,  according  to 
these  tenets,  peaceably  teaches  and  practices 
the  principles  of  Christianity,  shall  in  no  case 
bo  interfered  zvitli  or  molested."  This  one 
edict  of  toleration  gave  religious  liberty  to 
one-third  of  the  population  of  the  globe.  At 
one  titanic  blow,  God  levels  an  obstacle  as 
high  as  the  Himalayas,  and  opens  the  way 
from  Bosporus  to  the  China  sea,  through  the 
heart  of  Asia. 

Passing  by  all  other  providential  interposi- 
tions, let  us  emphasize  the  recent  unveiling 
of  Africa.  In  August,  1877,  after  999  days 
from  Zanzibar,  Stanley,  emerging  at  the 
mouth   of   the   Congo,   completes  the  transit 


of  the  Dark  Continent.  The  dying  cry  of 
Jesus  has  rent  the  last  veil  in  twain,  and  the 
missionary  has  only  to  follow  the  footsteps 
of  the  explorer.  The  same  Providence  that 
opens  the  door,  prepares  the  forces  of  His 
Church  for  the  crusade. 

The  missionary  advance  of  this  century  is 
directly  traceable  to  answered  prayer.  Since 
Luther  nailed  up  his  theses,  there  has  been 
no  historic  hour  so  dark  as  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Even  England  was, 
as  Isaac  Taylor  said,  in  "  virtual  heathenism," 
with  a  lascivious  literature,  an  infidel  society, 
a  worldly  Church,  and  a  deistic  theology. 
Blackstone  heard  every  clergyman  of  note  in 
London,  but  not  one  discourse  had  more 
Christianity  in  it  than  the  orations  of  Cicero, 
or  showed  whether  the  preacher  was  a  dis- 
ciple of  Confucius,  Mahomet,  or  Christ.  In 
America,  Samuel  Blaine  declared  that  "  re- 
ligion lay  a-dying."  In  France.  Voltaire, 
Rousseau,  and  Madame  de  Pompadour  led 
society ;  and  in  Germany,  Frederick  the  Great 
m.ade  his  court  the  Olympus  of  infidels. 

If  Collins  and  Tyndal  denounced  Chris- 
tianity as  priestcraft,  Whiston  called  Bible 
miracles  grand  impositions,  and  Woolston 
treated  them  as  allegories ;  if  Clark  and 
Priestly  openly  taught  the  heresies  of  Arius 
and  Socinus,  and  even  morality  was  trampled 
under  foot,  what  missionary  activity  could 
there  be?  To  diffuse  sucli  "Christianity" 
would  be  disaster ;  but  happily  such  a  type 
of  piety  has  no  diffusive  tendency  or  power. 
If  it  has  any  divine  fire  left,  it  has  not  a  coal 
or  even  a  spark  to  spare  to  light  a  blaze  else- 
where. 

The  only  hope  of  missions  lay  in  a  revival 
of  religion,  widespread  and  deep-reaching ; 
and  God  gave  that  to  His  Church  through  a 
wonderful  constellation  of  evangelists  :  White- 
field,  the  Wesleys,  Grimshaw,  Romaine,  Row- 
lands, Berridge,  Venn,  Walker,  Hervey,  Top- 
lady,  Fletcher — these  Bishop  Ryle  names  as 
twelve  of  the  apostles  of  that  new  Reforma- 
tion which,  between  1735  and  1785,  woke  not 
only  England,  but  the  Protestant  world  from 
the  awful  apostasy  of  irreligion  and  infidelity. 
At  first  even  the  Church  resisted  all  efforts 
to  revive  her  dying  life.  Whitefield  found 
Scotch  ministers  opposing  him  by  set  days 
of  fasting  and  prayer  :  and  church  doors  shut 
against  himself  and  Wesley,  compelled  that 
open-air  preaching  which  was  the  great  stride 
of  the  century  toward  the  reaching  of  the 
masses. 

But  the  Spirit  of  God  was  breathing  on 
the  dry  bones.  The  fires,  slowly  kindled  at 
first,  burned  brighter  and  hotter,  caught  here 
and  there,  spread  far  and  wide,  till  even 
America,  across  the  sea,  was  aflame.  Within 
fifty  j'ears  from  Whitefield's  first  sermon 
at  Gloucester,  all  Protestant  Christendom 
thrilled  with  a  renewed  evangelical  faith, 
and  as  evangelistic  zeal  is  sure  always  to 
fellow,  out  of  these  Pentecostal  outpourings 
came  the  flaming  tongues  of  witness.  The 
Church,  from  her  silver  trumpets,  pealed 
forth  her  summons  to  prayer  for  the  effusion 
of  the  Spirit  upon  all  disciples,  and  upon  the 
whole    habitable   earth.      Praying    bands   an- 


EPIPHANY 


51 


swered  the  trumpet  peal  in  all  parts  of 
Britain,  and  from  American  shores  came  the 
echo,  in  1747,  of  Jonathan  Edwards's  bugle 
"  Call  to  Concerted  Prayer."  The  tidal  wave 
of  revival  rose  higher  and  moved  with  greater 
momentum  under  the  Haldanes,  Andrew 
Fuller,  Sutcliffe.  Rowland  Hill  and  others. 

In  1792  the  Warwick  Association  formally 
made  the  first  Monday  of  each  month  a 
"  monthly  concert  of  prayer  "  for  the  world's 
evangelization.  No  sooner  did  the  revived 
Church,  after  this  awful  period  of  drought, 
begin  to  pray  for  a  great  rain,  than  a  cloud 
like  a  man's  hand  appeared  on  the  horizon ; 
and  in  that  same  year  (1792)  the  first  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  was  formed  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  next  year  sent  to  India  its  first 
missionary,  William  Carey,  who,  within  the 
thirty  years  following,  secured  the  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  into  forty  tongues,  and  the 
circulation  of  two  hundred  thousand  copies. 
Thus  the  revival  of  evangelical  faith  and  of 
concerted  prayer  are  the  two  pillars  on  which 
rests  the  arch  of  Modern  Missions. 

How  fast  that  little  cloud  has  grown,  till 
the  heaven  is  overspread,  and  there  is  a 
sound  of  the  abundance  of  rain !  During 
these  eighty  years  the  number  of  translations 
of  the  Word  has  increased  fivefold,  from 
fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty,  of  Protestant 
mission  societies  tenfold,  from  seven  to 
seventy ;  of  male  missionaries  Hfteenfold, 
from  one  hundred  and  seventy  to  twenty- 
four  hundred ;  of  moneys  contributed  tiventy- 
Hvefold,  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
to  six  and  a  quarter  million  dollars;  of  con- 


verts thirty-Uvcfold,  from  fifty  thousand  to 
one  million  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand; 
and  of  mission  schools  one  hundred  and 
seventyfold,  from  seventy  to  twelve  thousand! 

The  whole  tide  of  thought  has  turned  in 
the  Church  since  William  Carey  first  offered 
to  go  and  meet  the  giant  of  heathenism. 
The  wave,  at  its  lowest  ebb  a  century  ago, 
now  touches  a  flood-mark  never  before 
reached,  and  is  still  rising.  Sydney  Smith 
would  no  longer  dare  to  sneer  at  the  "  pious 
shoemaker  "  of  Paulersburg,  or  characterize 
his  schemes  as  "  the  dreams  of  a  dreamer 
who  dreams  that  he  has  been  dreaming." 
England  is  prouder  of  Carey  than  Athens 
was  of  Pericles,  or  Rome  of  Cicero,  and  lifts 
the  statue  of  Livingstone  to  its  lofty  pedestal 
in  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  to  inspire 
Christian  colonies  to  push  into  the  heart  of 
the  dark  continent.  American  churches  hurl 
their  columns  against  the  ranks  of  pagan  and 
papal  superstition,  and  erect  missionary  lec- 
tureships in  the  foremost  institutions  of 
learning  to  train  youth  to  imitate  the  devo- 
tion of  David  Brainerd,  Henry  Martyn,  and 
Alexander  Duff. 

In  fact,  the  whole  history  of  Modern  Mis- 
sions is  a  Burning  Bush,  whose  every  twig 
is  aflame  with  the  divine  presence.  We  are 
standing  on  holy  ground.  Many  and  marked 
are  the  divine  interpositions.  We  see  the  iron 
gates  open  of  their  own  accord,  obstacles 
suddenly  sinking,  continents  unveiling  their 
secrets,  and  missionary  exploration  going  for- 
ward so  rapidly  that  the  maps  of  yesterday 
are  out  of  date  to-day ! — H.  R. 


THE  TRANSFORMING  POWER  OF  THE  GOSPEL  * 

By  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 


The  Divine  Hand  has  been  conspicuous  in 
the  missionary  work  in  the  direct  transforma- 
tion of  character,  both  individual  and  na- 
tional. The  fiercest,  hardest,  rudest  of 
heathen  have  been  subdued,  softened,  re- 
fined by  the  Gospel.  Africaner,  that  monster 
of  cruelty,  who  would  kill  an  innocent  man 
to  make  a  drinking  cup  of  his  skull  and  a 
drum-head  of  his  skin,  was,  at  the  touch  of 
that  Gospel,  turned  from  a  lion  into  a  lamb. 
Guergis,  the  ferocious  Koord,  who  would 
have  killed  his  own  daughter  as  she  prayed 
for  him,  was  struck  by  it  into  penitence,  as 
bitter  as  Peter's,  and  as  potent.  He  laid 
aside  gun  and  dagger  for  Testament  and 
hymn  book,  and  made  the  mountains  echo 
with  the  story  of  his  great  sins  and  great 
Savior,  shouting  with  dying  breath,  "  Free 
grace !  "  Even  Fidelia  Fiske  could  scarcely 
believe  she  saw  the  miracle  of  such  a  con- 
version. Sau  Quala,  the  Karen,  was  by  that 
same  Gospel  changed  into  an  apostolic 
worker.  He  aided  the  missionaries  in  the 
translation  of  the  Word,  guided  them  for 
fifteen  years  through  the  jungles;  then  him- 
self  began   to   preach   and   plant   churches — 


within  three  years  gathering  nearly  twenty- 
five  hundred  converts  into  more  than  thirty 
congregations — and  refusing  a  tempting  gov- 
ernment position,  rather  than  mix  up  God's 
work  with  secular  labor,  tho  his  poverty 
forced  him  to  leave  his  lovely  wife  in  loneli- 
ness. 

So  has  the  Gospel  transformed  whole  com- 
rnunities.  In  1878,  the  Ko  Thah  Byu  Memo- 
rial Hall  was  consecrated,  commemorating 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  first  Karen 
convent,  whose  name  it  bears,  Karens  built  it 
ac  a  cost  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  It 
represented  twenty  thousand  living  disciples 
converted  from  demon  worship,  maintaining 
their  own  churches  and  schools,  beside  twenty 
thousand  more  who  had  died  in  the  faith  of 
Jesus.  That  hall  confronts  Shway  Mote  Tau 
Pagoda,  with  its  shrines  and  fanes  on  an 
opposing  hill — the  double  monument  of  what 
the  Karens  were  and  are. 

The  story  of  the  Gospel  in  the  South  Seas 
should  be  written  in  starlight.  John  Will- 
iams, the  blacksmith's  boy,  and  the  apostle 
of  Polynesia,  found  idolatry  of  the  most  de- 
graded type,  and  savages  of  the  lowest  grade 


*  See  note  to  previous  article  ;  this  is  a  continuation. 


52 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Yet  his  progress  was  one  rapid  career  of 
conquest.  Churches  and  schools  grew,  he 
knew  not  how.  A  lawless  people  adopt  a 
code  of  laws  and  trial  by  jury.  Printing 
presses  scatter  their  leaves  like  the  tree  of 
life ;  and  even  a  missionary  society  is  formed 
with  King  Pomare  as  its  president,  and 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars  as  its  first  year's 
contribution.  Within  a  year  after  he  landed 
at  Raratonga,  the  whole  Hervey  group,  with 
a  population  of  seven  thousand,  have  thrown 
away  their  idols,  and  a  church-building  is 
going  up,  six  hundred  feet  long.  He  turns 
to  the  Samoa  group,  and  shortly  has  the  whole 
people,   sixty  thousand,   in  Christian   schools. 

The  tale  of  Fiji  is  not  less  wonderful. 
These  cannibals  built  the  very  huts  of  their 
chiefs  upon  the  bodies  of  living  human  be- 
ings, buried  alive,  and  they  launched  their 
canoes  upon  living  bodies  as  rollers ;  they 
slew  infants  and  strangled  widows.  Human 
language  has  no  terms  to  describe  the  abase- 
ment of  this  people,  or  their  atrocious  cus- 
toms. Such  deeds  of  darkness  should  be 
written  in  blood  and  recorded  in  hell.  The 
Fijians  are  now  a  Christian  people.  In  1835 
missionary  labor  began  among  them ;  seven 
years  later  the  island  of  Ono  had  not  one 
heathen  left  on  it,  and  became  the  center  of 
Gospel  light  to  the  whole  group.  To-day 
every  village  has  its  Christian  homes  and 
schools,  and  there  are  nine  hundred  churches 
on  those  islands. 

So  it  was  with  new  Hebrides.  It  was 
written  as  Dr.  Geddie's  Epitaph,  that  "  when 
he  came  to  Aneityum,  there  were  no  Chris- 
tians; when  he  left,  there  were  no  heathens." 
These  are  but  a  few  representative  cases. 
Madagascar  was  so  hopeless  a  field  that  the 
French  governor  of  the  island  of  Bourbon 
told  the  pioneer  missionaries  that  they  might 
as  well  try  to  convert  cattle  as  the  Malagasy. 
Yet  the  Gospel  barely  got  a  foothold  there 
when  it  took  such  root  that  twenty-five  years 
of  fire  and  blood  failed  to  burn  out  or  blot 
out  its  impression.  And  now  a  Christian 
Church  stands  on  the  court  grounds,  and  on 
the  coronation  table  together  lie  the  Laws  of 


the  Realm  and  the  Bible,  as  the  Higher  Law 
of  Madagascar,  "  that  crown  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society." 

The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,  however,  in  1879,  declared 
at  Syracuse,  that  the  previous  seven  years  in 
Japan  furnish  the  most  remarkable  chapter 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  eclipsing  not 
only  Madagascar,  but  the  early  triumphs  of 
Christianity.  The  "  Lonestar "  mission 
among  the  Teloogoos,  almost  abandoned  as 
both  helpless  and  fruitless  in  1853,  in  1878 
blazed  forth  with  a  brilliancy  like  that  of  Sir- 
ius ;  within  forty  days  nearly  ten  thoufand 
converts  were  baptized.  The  experiences 
of  Powell  at  Nanumaga,  Duncan  at  Columbia, 
Judson  in  Burmah,  Wheeler  in  Turkey,  John- 
son in  Sierra  Leone,  Grant  in  Persia,  Scudder 
in  India,  Wolfe  in  China,  Mc'All  in  France, 
and  David  Brainerd  in  New  Jersey,  besides 
many  more  which  we  have  not  space  to  men- 
tion, furnish  unanswerable  proof  that  the 
Hand  of  God  is  in  this  work  of  modern  mis- 
sions. 

While  looking  at  the  marvels  of  this  mis- 
sionary history,  we  must  not  forget  how  the 
subsidence  of  opposing  systems  has  prepared 
the  way  for  Gospel  triumphs.  When  the  first 
seventeen  missionaries  landed  at  Hawaii,  God 
had  gone  before  them,  the  old  king  was  dead, 
the  idols  burned,  the  old  pagan  faith  cast 
away  as  worthless,  and  the  first  death  blow 
struck  at  the  tabu  system.  The  isles  were 
waiting  for  His  law.  When  McAll  crossed 
the  English  Channel,  the  fields  of  France  were 
already  white  for  the  sickle.  Bouchard,  Re- 
veillaud,  and  others,  had  already  forsaken 
Romanism,  as  the  ally  of  ignorance  and  su- 
perstition ;  and  a  whole  people  were  ready 
for  a  grand  insurrection  of  thought,  and 
resurrection  of  conscience.  Tired  of  feeding 
on  the  ashes  of  Atheism  and  priestcraft,  they 
hunger  for  the  bread  of  life.  God  has  let 
down  the  continent  below  the  sea  level.  It  is 
not  so  much  a  rising  tide  as  a  sinking  land. 
But  is  His  hand  any  the  less  conspicuous, 
when  He  thus  floods  the  continents  with  the 
Gospel?— H.  R. 


PRESENT  OBSTACLES  AND  OPPORTUNITIES,  1898 

[Notes  of  remarks  made  in  the  discussion  of  this  theme] 


Rev.  C.  C.  Baldivin,  D.D.,  of  China,  said : 
We  naturally  like  to  look  on  the  bright  side, 
but  it  is  well  sometimes  to  look  on  the  dark 
side  also.  It  will  be  at  least  a  good  topic  for 
faith.  There  are  about  a  million  temples  in 
China,  containing,  say,  from  five  to  ten  mil- 
lions of  idol  gods.  Besides  these  we  have  five 
hundred  million  manes  or  spirits  of  dead  an- 
cestors and  others  which  are  worshiped  in 
or  without  the  wooden  tablets.  The  Chinese 
may  give  up  the  idols,  but  no':  so  easily  the 
ancestral  worship.  To  do  so  is  a  grand  test 
and  climax  of  sincere  faith  in  God,  so  far  as 
a  true  heart  surrender  is  concerned  ;  for  the 
whole  practise  seems  to  rest  mainly  on  the 
beautiful    doctrine    of    filial    piety,    which    is 


dearer  to  them  than  aught  else,  unless  we  ex- 
cept the  living  family  and  worldlv  success. 

Then  there  is  the  sad  discouraging  fact 
that  the  Chinese  are  gross  materialists,  none 
grosser,  I  am  sure,  in  the  whole  world.  It 
is  an  immense  undertaking  to  them  to  look 
fairly  at  the  moral  and  spiritual  side,  and 
to  acknowledge  fully  moral  distinctions,  call- 
ing things  by  right  names  only.  Ancestral 
worship  and  materialism  are  the  prime  diffi- 
culties in  our  work  from  the  native  side. 

Rev.  Gilbert  Reid,  said :  There  is  one  im- 
portant obstacle  in  China,  found  not  in  the 
natives,  but  in  ourselves,  and  that  is  the 
political  character  of  Christianity,  owing  to 
the  political  complications  with  Christian  na- 


EPIPHANY 


53 


tions.  The  Church  is  regarded  as  a  politi- 
cal organization,  backed  up  by  foreign  pow- 
ers. The  difficulty  is  in  presenting  Chris- 
tianity in  the  right  light.  The  Chinese  do 
not  see  Christ  as  the  loving,  saving,  helpful, 
uplifting  friend.  When  they  do  see  Christ 
as  He  is,  He  will  be  accepted. 

/.  C.  Hepburn,  D.D.,  Japan,  said :  The 
principal  obstacles  to  missionary  work  in 
Japan  are : 

1.  The  intense  nationalism  of  the  Japanese 
and  their  superstitious  loyalty  to  the  Mi- 
kado. 

2.  The  strong  anti-foreign  spirit  of  the 
people,  and  their  regarding  Christianity  as  a 
foreign  religion,  revolutionary  and  subver- 
sive to  their  inherited  customs. 

3.  The  influence  of  Buddhism,  and  the 
strenuous  efforts  made  by  the  priests  to 
antagonize  Christianity,  even  adopting  the 
methods  used  by  Protestant  missionaries  in 
their  work. 

4.  But  the  greatest  of  all  obstacles  is  the 
natural  repugnance  of  the  human  heart  to 
the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

Mrs.  J.  T.  Whitney,  Micronesia :  While  in 
the  Marshall  Islands  (with  my ,  husband, 
Rev.  J.  T.  Whitney)  I  was  trying  to  per- 
suade a  native  young  man  to  go  as  a  teacher 
to  another  island.  He  said :  "  We  Marshall 
Islanders  are  not  like  white  people — we  love 
our  relatives  and  our  homes."  No  wonder 
he  said  it,  when  he  had  seen  so  many  white 
men  who  were  mere  driftwood.  To  coun- 
teract the  influence  of  these  low  white  men 
was  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  in  these 
islands. 

Rev.  J.  L.  Bruce,  Brazil :  The  greatest 
obstacle  in  Brazil  is  the  fact  that  we  have  a 
strongly  organized  Roman  Catholic  Church 
opposed  to  us.  The  Roman  Catholics  do  not 
hold  the  simple  truth  nor  the  simple  lie,  but 
the  truth  mixed  with  the  lie,  or  the  truth 
perverted.  Also,  religion  and  morality  have 
been  thoroughly  divorced,  so  that  gross  im- 
morality and  thorough  devotion  may  exist 
in  the  same  person.  They  think  they  have 
just  what  we  wish  to  give  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  our  great  difficulty  is  that  we 
will  undertake  to  combat  a  church  by  a 
church. 

Rev.  IVm.  M.  Nichol,  Egypt:  The  obsta- 
cles in  the  line  of  work  in  Egypt  are  many, 
but  let  me  mention  these  three  :  The  learn- 
ing of  the  Arabic  language  is  difficult  be- 
cause of  its  many  guttural  sounds.  The 
prevailing  religion  is  Moslem,  and  it  is  hard 
to  fight  against,  because  it  is  a  mixture  of 
truth  and  error.  Another  difficulty  is  the 
position  given  to  woman.  She  is  liable  to  be 
divorced  at  any  time,  and  divorce  hangs  over 
her  head  like  the  sword  of  Damocles. 

Rev.  T.  IV.  IVoodside,  Africa :  There  are 
two  classes  of  obstacles :  first,  from  the  na- 
tives themselves — the  apathy — they  are  so 
content  with  what  they  have  and  are ;  sec- 
ond, obstacles  from  without,  from  immoral 
white  men,  rum.  and  slavery.  The  rum  is 
the  vilest  kind  of  stuff,  made  of  potatoes 
and  doctored  with  sulphuric  acid.  Then  there 
is  slavery,  not  only  among  the  natives,  but 


also  among  the  white  men ;  Portuguese, 
Dutch,  and  Englishmen  buy  slaves.  This  is 
not  only  domestic,  but  there  is  also  slavery 
on  the  high  seas.  Slaves  are  shipped  upon 
the  high  seas.  There  were  one  hundred 
slaves  on  the  steamer  on  which  we  came 
home.  They,  of  course,  are  not  called  slaves, 
but  "  contract  laborers."  They  have  con- 
tracts made  out  by  a  notary  public,  but  they 
are  fraudulently  obtained. 

Rev.  C.  D.  Campbell,  Mexico :  Mexico 
has  twelve  and  one-half  million  inhabitants. 
There  are  one  hundred  thousand  Christians. 
The  country  is  open  from  end  to  end.  The 
two  principal  railroads  are  in  the  hands  of 
Americans.  The  mines  are  going  into  their 
hands,  but  they  are  not  Christians.  The 
government  is  friendly  to  missions.  Two 
states  are  without  Christian  workers.  Medi- 
cal missions  will  pay  as  well  in  Mexico  as 
elsewhere,  will  speedily  become  self-support- 
ing, and  there  is  but  one  medical  mission  in 
Mexico. 

Miss  Emily  C.  Wheeler,  Turkey:  The  op- 
portunities in  Turkey  are:  i.  The  eighty 
thousand  orphans  to  bring  to  Christ.  Fifty- 
two  recently  converted.  Generally  Gregor- 
ians.  2.  New  villages  opening,  never  before 
accessible;  Self-supporting.  3.  Mohamme- 
dans inquiring.  "  Who  is  this  Jesus  who 
makes  these  Armenians  so  brave?"  One 
woman  wishes  to  unite  with  the  church. 
Have  read  the  Bible.  Opportunity  for  us  to 
pray  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  quicken  the 
word  and  they  may  come  to  Christ.  Ask  the 
people  in  the  United  States  to  pray  and  give 
for  this — give  systematically,  so  we  shall 
spend  for  missions  as  we  ought,  and  not 
comparatively,  as  we  do  now,  when  shown 
in  inches,  seven  feet  for  liquor  and  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  for  foreign  missions. 

Rev.  Gilbert  Reid,  China :  '  One  oppor- 
tunity in  China  is  found  in  a  decree  issued 
by  the  emperor  to  allow  Western  branches 
in  all  examinations.  This  is  an  educational 
opportunity.  The  second  is  the  trend  of 
thought  and  policy  to  open  up  China  more 
fully  to  trade,  and,  of  course,  there  will  be 
more  openings  to  missions.  Thirdly,  the 
customs  under  English  direction  are  to  col- 
lect the  likin  tax  in  five  of  the  large  prov- 
inces. Where  the  customs  men  go,  mis- 
sionaries can  go.  Fourthly,  Americans  have 
special  opportunities,  because  they  are  free 
from  the  suspicion  of  territorial  aggrandize- 
ment.    We  go  as  friends. 

Dr.  Chalmers  Martin,  Laos :  The  special 
opportunity  of  the  Laos  Mission  at  present 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  French  officials  on  the 
Upper  Mekeng  (Cambodia)  River  are  now 
friendly  to  our  missionaries,  and  that  ,  the 
Roman  Catholics  have  not  yet  made  an  en- 
trance to  the  field.  If  we  can  strike  in 
this  great  region  now,  we  have  a  free  field ; 
when  once  the  Jesuits  have  appeared  there, 
the  history  of  the  past  and  of  other  countries 
tells  us  that  our  opportunity  as  Protestants 
will  be  more  limited,  if  it  does  not  disappear 
altogether. 

Rev.  G.  E.  Stone,  Arabia:  Arabia  is  (i)  A 
land  of  possibilities,      (o)   A   country   much 


54 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


more  fertile  and  populous  than  generally- 
supposed,  (b)  The  people  are  largely  town 
people,  not  ignorant  Bedouin.  (2)  Arabia 
is  a  land  of  opportunity.  (a)  Politically, 
only  partially  under  Turks.  The  interior  is 
independent.  The  eastern  and  southern 
coasts  under  British  influence,  (b)  People 
not  as  bigoted  as  in  Turkey.  Preaching  in 
streets  and  bazaars  at  Bahrein,  (c)  Oppor- 
tunity because  everything  is  yet  to  be  done. 
Only  three  missionaries  at  present  on  east 
coast,  and  one  on  the  southern  coast,  with 
the  reenforcements  going  out  this  year  only 
nine  or  ten  missionaries  for  ten  million  peo- 
ple. Arabia  is  promised  for  Christ,  and  He 
will  give  the  victory. 

Rev.  H.  Blodgct,  D.D.,  China:  The  West 
River  has  recently  been  opened  in  all  its 
length  to  trade  and  trading  vessels.  The 
Yang-tse  has  been  opened  in  like  manner. 
These  rivers  flow  through  densely  populated 
countries,  and  large  numbers  of  missionaries 
are  needed  to  reach  the  multitudes  of  people. 
A  steamer  has  passed  through  the  rapids  of 
the  Yang-tse,  and  the  fifty  millions  of  Sze- 
chuen  are  now  accessible  by  steam  communica- 
tion. The  number  of  missionaries  there  needs 
greatly  to  be  increased.  The  province  of 
Hunan  has  now  two  resident  missionaries. 
This  province  has  been  intensely  hostile  to 
foreigners.  No  foreign  missionaries,  until 
very  lately,  have  been  allowed  to  locate  within 
its  borders.  They  have  been  hunted  out 
with  insult,  abuse,  and  violence.  Here  have 
originated  the  vile  placards  and  tracts  against 
missionaries  so  widely  circulated  in  China. 
The  twenty  million  of  this  province  call  for 
a  large  number  of  laborers.  China  must  be 
converted  by  Chinese.  Christian  workers 
must  be  trained  in  the  field,  yet  a  large  nurn- 
ber  of  missionaries  from  western  lands  will 
be  needed  to  form  the  link  to  convey  the 
blessing  from  the  church  in  the  West  to  the 
church  in  the  East. 

Mr.  B.  B.  Blackly,  Mexico:  There  are 
now  about  twenty  colporteurs  in  Mexico. 
The  great  cry  is,  send  us  more  colporteurs 
to  work  from  house  to  house.  Mr.  H.  P. 
Hamilton,  Bible  agent  at  Mexico  City,  said 
that  thousands  more  copies  of  the  Bible  could 
be  circulated  if  there  were  more  workers. 
The  great  cry  of  the  people  is,  give  us  the 
Word  of  God.  The  American  Bible  So- 
ciety must  have  help,  or  their  society  will  be 
a  thing  of  history. 

Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  Turkey:  The  portion 
of  the   field  of   the   American  Board   which 


calls  loudly  for  occupancy  is  that  which  bor- 
ders the  eastern  part  of  the  Bulgarian  mis- 
sion, com.prising  a  portion  of  the  Albanian — 
a  very  brave  and  heroic  people,  for  whom 
Christianity  has  hitherto  done  little  good. 
The  Greek  Church  has  converted  about  half 
of  them ;  Islam  has  the  other  half.  It  is  a 
common  saying  that  they  are  bad  Christians 
and  bad  Moslems,  but  splendid  soldiers. 
They  are  now  accessible  to  one  missionary 
in  Bulgaria.  There  are  educated  native 
agents  ready  to  go  to  them  with  the  Bible  in 
their  own  language,  and  with  Christian  edu- 
cation they  would  be  gladly  received.  Only 
a  few  thousand  dollars  are  needed  to  inau- 
gurate a  most  interesting  mission  without 
demanding  a  single  new  American  mission- 
ary. The  native  force  is  ready  for  the 
work. 

Rev.  T.  IV.  IVoodside,  Africa :  I  read  a 
short  time  ago  in  one  of  the  leading  mission- 
ary magazines  of  the  new  mission  station  at 
Lake  Moero,  and  there  they  remarked,  "  Now 
there  is  a  chain  of  mission  stations  right 
across  the  Dark  Continent."  Let  me  explain 
just  what  that  means:  From  Benguela  in- 
land for  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  (twelve 
days'  journey)  there  is  not  a  station,  not  a 
missionary.  There  a  station,  with  two  fami- 
lies, then  four  days,  and  you  come  to  another 
station ;  again  three  days,  and  you  come  to 
a  third  station.  From  there  you  make  'forty 
camps,  or  forty  days'  journey,  to  the  little 
station  Kavungu,  of  the  English  mission. 
From  there  another  jump  of  fifteen  days  to 
the  Garaganze  mission,  where  you  find  two 
lone  men,  missionaries  ;  another  leap  of  fif- 
teen or  more  days  to  Lake  Moero,  and  this  is 
the  "  chain  of  mission  stations."  These  sta- 
tions are  mere  points,  lone  links,  and  then 
to  the  north  and  south  are  large  tracts  where 
there  is  not  a  missionary. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Baird,  Turkey :  Sadder  than 
the  sway  of  the  Turk  over  the  holy  places  of 
Christianity  is  the  reign  of  spiritual  death 
over  the  Eastern  Church  of  Salonica.  Tho 
a  thriving  city,  it  is  not  now  "  the  faithful 
city,"  nor,  as  a  thousand  years  ago,  do  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Gospel  take  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  to  surrounding  peoples.  There  is  no 
preaching  or  other  means  of  spiritual  en- 
lightenment. Education  is  coming  in  very 
rapidly.  The  Gospel  can  find  an  entrance. 
To  the  west  of  Macedonia  are  the  Albanians, 
a  most  promising  people,  entirely  without  the 
Gospel.  Servia  and  Bosnia,  too,  need  mis- 
sionary work  at  once. — M.  R.  W. 


THE    ECUMENICAL     CONFERENCE    ON     FOREIGN 

MISSIONS,  1900 


More  comprehensive  in  its  scope,  wider  in 
the  range  of  themes  discussed,  undoubtedly 
to  be  further  reaching  in  its  effects  and  of 
greater  potentiality  in  every  way,  was  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  on  Foreign  Missions 
just  ended  as  compared  with  those  that  pre- 
ceded  it.     Notable   as   were  the    Ecumenical 


Conferences  at  Liverpool  in  1866,  and  at 
London  in  1878  and  1888,  the  New  York 
Conference  has  exceeded  them  all  not  only 
in  attendance  and  universal  interest  but  in 
the  magnitude  of  the  issues  which  were  pre- 
sented for  consideration.  Since  1889  the 
preparations    for   this    congress    of   missiona- 


EPIPHANY 


55 


ries  were  in  progress,  and  the  body  of  pains- 
taking men  who  brought  the  Conference 
into  material  being  will  undoubtedly  have 
the  gratification  of  knowing  that  their  labors 
will  induce  a  widespread  and  long  con- 
tinuing revival  of  interest  in  missionary 
work. 

That  result  is  inevitable.  Each  of  the 
former  conferences  was  attended  with  such 
revivals,  with  increasing  intensity,  and  in 
view  of  all  that  has  been  accomplished  at  the 
Convention  of  1900,  as  it  will  be  known,  it 
is  certain  that  such  a  stimulus  will  be  given 
to  the  cause  of  missions  as  to  bring  appre- 
ciably nearer  that  Christian  millennium  upon 
which  the  followers  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
have  set  their  hearts  and  minds — the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world.  Some  of  the  more 
hopeful  speakers,  in  fact,  did  not  hesitate  to 
declare  that  if  the  vast  interest  which  the 
Conference  aroused  on  two  continents  was 
properly  taken  advantage  of,  this  end  would 
be  attained  within  the  next  two  or  three  gen- 
erations. They  demonstrated,  moreover, 
that  there  was  method  in  their  optimism.  It 
was  one  of  the  features  of  the  conference, 
this  combining  of  intellectual  vigor  and  ear- 
nestness of  purpose  with  practical  sagacity. 
It  was  again  and  again  proved  by  the  aid  of 
statistics  that  the  conversion  of  the  world 
to  Christianity  was  not  so  shadowy  a  vjsta  or 
such  a  far  off  goal  as  most  people  are  likely 
to  believe.  Eugene  Stock,  in  one  of  his  ad- 
dresses, remarked  that  if  any  one  had  proph- 
esied thirty  years  ago  that  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  would  have  so  many  work- 
ers in  the  foreign  fields  as  it  has  to-day 
he  would  have  been  laughed  at.  Yet  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  which  at  the 
time  it  was  formed  was  one  only  of  a  few, 
is  now  only  one  among  over  five  hundred 
societies  and  auxiliaries  which  exist  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe. 

These  organizations,  it  was  shown,  possess 
sufficient  strength  and  experience  to  guide 
an  enterprise  indefinitely  larger  than  the 
present  missionary  operations  of  the  Church, 
if  they  were  supported  with  more  generosity. 
That  the  money  power  of  the  Church  is  ca- 
pable of  meeting  the  cost  of  a  supreme  and 
an  immediate  effort  to  evangelize  the  world,- 
was  proved  by  the  assertion  that  if  only 
one-fourth  of  the  Protestants  of  America  and 
Europe  gave  one  cent  a  day  to  this  object  it 
would  yield  a  fund  of  over  $100,000,000  a 
year.  Again  it  would  take  less  than  one- 
fiftieth  of  the  Christian  young  men  and 
women  who  will  go  out  from  Christian  col- 
leges in  the  United  States  and  Canada  within 
this  generation  to  furnish,  according  to  the 
estimate  of  conservative  missionaries,  a  suffi- 
cient force  of  workers  to  achieve  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  in  this  generation. 

Attention  was  also  drawn  to  the  fact  that 
in  considering  this  possibility,  not  only  the 
resources  but  the  facilities  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Church  should  be  taken  into  account. 
Among  these,  mention  was  made  of  the  work 
of  the  eighty-three  geographical  societies 
which  have  done  so  much  to  make  the  world 
known,  of  the  greatly  enlarged  and  improved 


means  of  communication,  and  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  printing  press,  which  has  mul- 
tiplied the  power  of  the  Church,  to  dissemi- 
nate the  Gospel.  The  Bible  has  already  been 
printed  in  about  four  hundred  out  of  two 
thousand  languages,  and  due  attention  was 
called  to  the  significance  of  these  languages 
being  spoken  by  about  1,200,000,000  people, 
while  the  remaining  1,600  languages  are 
spoken  by  less  than  300,000,000.  These  were 
some  of  the  statistical  arguments  advanced 
by  those  who  addressed  the  Conference  in 
support  of  the  contention  that  the  early  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  is  something  more 
than  a  chimerical  hope. 

Apart  from  its  practical  purpose,  there  was 
a  picturesque  and  romantic  side  to  the  Con- 
ference. There  was  something  particularly 
impressive  in  that  gathering  of  over  two 
thousand  missionaries  from  every  part  of  the 
globe.  Many  of  them  were  from  remote  and 
semi-civilized  parts  of  the  earth.  There 
were  men  among  them  who  have  passed 
years  of  their  lives  in  a  constant  uncertainty, 
sacrificing  all  home  ties  to  the  effort  of  lift- 
ing their  fellows  to  a  higher  plane  of  belief 
and  understanding.  Few  of  them  there  were 
but  could  tell  of  some  tragedy  in  their  lives 
or  of  dangers  through  which  they  had  passed. 
It  was  this  knowledge  which  invested  the 
Conference  with  an  element  of  romance. 

In  some  instances  the  bodies  of  the  mis- 
sionaries who  stood  last  week  upon  the  plat- 
form pleading  the  cause  of  the  heathen  were 
literally  covered  with  the  marks  of  their 
devotion  and  enthusiasm.  Again,  there  were 
other  missionaries,  old  in  years  and  with  pa- 
triarchal beards,  who  have  for  so  long  been 
preaching  and  conversing  in  native  dialects 
as  to  have  lost  the  faculty  of  fluent  expres- 
sion in  their  own  language.  It  was  little 
wonder,  therefore,  that  for  the  most  part 
these  devout  workers  in  the  dark  lands  of 
the  world  should  be  somewhat  somber  of 
countenance  and  should  manifest  less  exu- 
berance of  spirit  than  people  whose  habita- 
tions are  laid  amid  the  brighter  surround- 
ings of  modern  civilization. 

The  brief  relaxation  these  missionaries 
had  from  their  vigils  and  duties  was  de- 
served, and,  altho  their  holiday  was  short, 
they  will  undoubtedly  return  cheered  and 
encouraged  by  the  belief  that  one  of  the  re- 
sults of  the  Conference  will  be  to  wipe  away 
some  of  the  indifference  with  which,  gener- 
ally speaking,  many  people  have  regarded 
them.  These  heroes  of  Christianity  have 
awakened  renewed  interest  upon  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  They  have  shown  to  those 
who  sit  in  luxury  at  home  that  theirs  is  in 
every  way  a  strenuous  life ;  they  have  won 
battles  without  shedding  blood ;  they  have 
settled  in  regions  where  hatred  of  foreigners 
is  a  predominant  characteristic,  and  have 
earned  honor  and  affection  from  tribes  whom 
travelers  have  reported  as  being  devoid  of 
all  instincts  of  humanity  and  incapable  of 
appreciating  kindness. 

There  was  probably  no  single  subject  ap- 
pertaining to  the  welfare  and  spread  of  for- 
eign missionary    work    that    was    not  con- 


50 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


sidered  at  the  Conference.  Meetings  were 
held  regularly,  morning,  afternoon,  and  eve- 
ning, and  often  as  many  as  half  a  dozen  or 
more  meetings  were  in  progress  at  once. 
By  the  interchange  of  views,  opinions,  sug- 
gestions, and  experiences,  the  best  means 
not  only  of  converting  the  heathen,  but  of 
raising  him  mentally,  of  educating  him  and 
generally  fitting  him  to  take  better  care  of 
himself,  were  thoroughly  ventilated.  It  was 
agreed  that  the  most  enduring  and  effective 
method  of  helping  the  ignorant  native  was  to 
place  him  in  a  position  whereby  he  could 
help  himself.  To  this  end  the  extension  of 
schools  and  industrial  training  was  advo- 
cated. The  schools  already  in  existence,  it 
was  shown,  have  done  a  wonderful  amount 
of  work,  and  have  directly  aided  in  further- 
ing Christianity.  Young  men  and  women 
who  have  been  trained  in  these  schools  in 
turn  themselves  become  missionaries  and  do 
excellent  work  among  their  own  races. 

By  every  speaker  who  touched  upon  the 
qualifications  necessary  for  the  successful 
missionary  of  the  future,  it  was  maintained 
that  only  a  thoroughly  trained  and  equipped 
man  or  woman  should  be  sent  out  to  the 
foreign  fields  of  work.  The  importance  of 
medical  missions  was  made  particularly 
prominent.  Medical  missions,  according  to 
every  voice  that  was  heard  upon  the  sub- 
ject, are  the  pioneers  and  permanent  agen- 
cies of  evangelism.  They  can  be  planted 
where  no  other  branch  of  evangelical  work 
is  possible.  Heathens  who  fall  sick  are  anx- 
ious for  the  ministrations  of  the  white  doctor, 
foreign  tho  he  be,  and  consequently  the 
medical  worker  has  access  to  vast  numbers 
who  otherwise  would  have  no  intercourse 
with  missionaries.  Some  of  the  speakers, 
indeed,  went  so  far  as  to  contend  that  no 
missionary  should  be  sent  out  who  had  not 
some  knowledge  of  medicine.  The  value  of 
such  a  knowledge  as  a  branch  of  evangelistic 
work  in  countries  of  intense  prejudice,  like 
China,  was  dilated  upon.  It  has  been  al- 
most solely  due  to  women  medical  mission- 
aries who  have  gone  out  to  China  that  it  has 
been  possible  to  reach  the  Chinese  women. 
It  constantly  happens  that  after  the  native 
doctors  have  failed  to  effect  a  cure  with  their 
incantations,  burning  of  red  paper,  and  other 
devices  peculiar  to  them,  the  medical  mis- 
sionary has  been  appealed  to.  By  that  means 
alone  has  it  been  possible  to  obtain  access 
to  that  most  difficult  of  all  places — the 
Chinese  home. 

Having  secured  that  foothold,  the  medi- 
cal missionary,  after  first  giving  physical  re- 
lief to  her  patient,  has  then  proceeded  to  ex- 
pound  the   Gospel    to   her.     By   this    means 


only  has  it  been  possible  to  reach  the  thou- 
sands of  native  women  who  now  profess 
Christianity.  And  it  has  been  made  clear 
during  the  last  two  weeks  that  the  efficacy 
of  a  medical  training  as  an  adjunct  to  evan- 
gelistic work  applies  with  as  much  force  to 
other  countries  as  it  does  to  China. 

One  of  the  most  significant  of  all  the 
lessons  that  the  Conference  has  served  to 
teach  has  been  the  perfect  comity  which  ex- 
ists between  all  Protestant  churches  in  mis- 
sion work.  From  first  to  last  representatives 
of  all  Protestant  denominations  sat  and  dis- 
cussed great  religious  problems  without  a 
note  of  discord.  It  was  an  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  harmony  and  unity  of  effort 
which  prevails  among  them,  so  far  as  the 
Christianizing  of  the  Pagan  world  is  con- 
cerned. Undoubtedly  not  the  least  of  the 
commendable  results  which  will  be  the  out- 
come of  the  Conference  will  be  an  even  bet- 
ter mutual  understanding  among  the  various 
denominations  than  has  hitherto  existed. 
This  will  tend  to  prevent  the  overlapping 
and  duplication  of  churches,  as  has  some- 
times happened  in  certain  missionary  dis- 
tricts. During  the  entire  life  of  the  Con- 
ference, denominationalism  was  totally  for- 
gotten and  only  the  essentials  of  Christianity 
considered.  In  every  paper  that  was  read 
and  in  every  address  that  was  delivered  there 
was  a  refreshing  absence  of  anything  ap- 
proaching intolerance  or  dogmatism.  Even 
when  opinions  or  views  differed  there  was 
uniform  courtesy,  and  individualism  gave 
way  to  catholicity. 

Yet  another  notable  feature  of  the  Con- 
ference of  which  mention  should  not  be 
omitted  was  the  interest  which  it  aroused 
in  the  laity.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  has  ever 
been  a  convention  open  to  both  sexes  where 
so  many  women  have  attended.  Moreover, 
day  after  day  there  were  present  at  the 
meetings  men  and  women  of  all  phases  of 
life.  Beginning  with  President  McKinley 
and  Governor  Roosevelt,  who  welcomed  the 
missionaries  for  the  country  and  State  re- 
spectively, the  meetings  have  been  attended 
by  men  who  stand  the  highest  in  business, 
finance  and  the  professions.  They  have 
given  the  most  zealous  attention  to  the  work 
of  the  Conference,  and  it  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  there  has  been  inculcated  in 
them  a  broader  view  of  foreign  missions 
than  they  held  before. 

"  It  is  not  opportunity  men  want :  it  is 
fire,"  Phillips  Brooks  once  said,  and  that  the 
New  York  Ecumenical  Conference  has  suc- 
ceeded in  giving  a  warm  and  fervent  stimu- 
lus to  missions,  time  will  unquestionably 
show.— N.  Y.  T. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   ADDRESSES    BEFORE    THE    ECU- 
MENICAL CONFERENCE,  1900 


The  Rev.  Dr.  James  S.  Dennis  read  a  re- 
port upon  Centennial  Statistics.  The  report 
contained  the  following  figures: 


Societies  directly  engaged  in  conducting 
foreign  missions  number  249,  distributed  as 
follows:     United    States,    49;     England,    42; 


EPIPHANY 


57 


Asia,  29;  Africa,  28;  Australasia  and 
Oceania,  26;  Germany,  15;  Netherlands,  10; 
Canada,  8;  Sweden,  7;  West  Indies,  11; 
Scotland,  7;  Ireland  and  Norway.  4  each; 
Denmark,  3 ;  France  and  Switzerland,  2  each ; 
Wales  and  Finland,  i  each.  The  total  in- 
come was  $17,161,092,  England  leading  off 
with  $6,843,031  ;  the  United  States,  $5,403,- 
048;  Germany,  $1,430,151;  Scotland,  $1,280,- 
684.  The  total  number  of  missionaries,  in- 
cluding ordained  physicians,  lay  missionaries, 
married  women  not  physicians,  unmarried 
women  not  physicians,  is  13.607,  divided  as 
follows:  England.  5,136;  the  United  States, 
4.110;  Germany,  1,515:  Scotland,  653.  The 
different  departments  are  in  much  the  same 
proportion,  tho  there  are  some  interesting 
points. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pier  son,  in  speak- 
ing upon  the  "  Superintending  Providence  of 
God  in  Foreign  Missions,"  said : 

He  has  opened  the  doors  and  made  sea  and 
land  the  highways  for  national  intercourse 
and  the  avenues  to  national  brotherhood. 
He  has  multiplied  facilities  for  worldwide 
evangelization,  practically  annihilating  time 
and  space,  and  demolishing  even  the  barriers 
of  language.  The  printing  and  circulating  of 
the  Bible  in  four  hundred  tongues  reverses 
the  miracle  of  Babel  and  repeats  the  miracle 
of  Pentecost.  Within  the  last  century  the 
God  of  battles  has  been  calling  out  His  re- 
serves. Three  of  the  most  conspicuous  move- 
ments of  the  century  have  been  the  creation 
of  a  new  regiment  of  medical  missions,  the 
Woman's  Brigade  and  the  Young  People's 
Crusade.  The  organization  of  the  Church 
army  is  now  so  complete  that  but  one  thing 
more  is  needful,  namely,  to  recognize  the 
invisible  Captain  of  the  Lord's  hosts  as  on 
the  field,  to  hear  His  clarion  call  summon- 
ing us  to  the  front,  to  echo  His  word  of 
command ;  and,  in  the  firm  faith  of  His  lead- 
ership, pierce  the  very  center  of  the  foe, 
turn  his  staggering  wings  and  move  for- 
ward as  one  united  host  in  one  overwhelm- 
ing charge. 

The  Rev.  J.  Fairley  Daly  asked  two  ques- 
tions :  "  What  has  God  been  doing  for  for- 
eign missions?"  and  "What  have  you  been 
doing?"  Then  he  answered  them  himself. 
In  showing  what  God  has  been  doing  he  said, 
among  other  things : 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  total  sum 
subscribed  by  Protestant  churches  for  for- 
eign missionary  work  did  not  exceed  $50,000. 
God  has  so  opened  His  people's  hearts  that 
they  now  give  $15,000,000.  There  were  then 
only  fifty  missionaries,  all  men ;  now  there 
are  10,500  of  both  sexes.  There  were  then 
no  native  preachers,  now  there  are  4,000. 
There  were  then  aboiit  100  native  mission 
workers,  now  there  are  7,000.  There  were 
then  about  7,000  native  communicants,  now 
there  are  1,500.000. 

When  Mr.  Daly  came  to  answer  the 
second  question  he  said  he  would  not  speak 
for  America,  but  would  only  say  that  his 
own  country  spent  in  four  days  for  strong 
drink  an  amount  equal  to  that  which  it 
gave  for   foreign  missions  in  one  year,  and 


expended  on  tobacco  in  one  month  what  it 
gave  to  foreign  missions  in  twelve.  Such 
puny  efforts  to  spread  the  Gospel,  he  de- 
clared,  were  appalling. 

Mr.  Eugene  Stock,  editorial  secretary  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  London,  in  a 
comprehensive  address,  reviewed  the  growth 
of  missionary  work  during  the  last  century. 
In  part  he  said  : 

In  rapidly  surveying  the  missionary  his- 
tory of  the  nineteenth  century  let  us  take  it 
in  four  periods  of  twenty-five  years  each. 
The  early  years  of  the  century  saw  the  estab- 
lishment of  two  of  the  great  missionary  or- 
ganizations, the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  in  1800,  and  in  1810  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners.  Two  great  strug- 
gles in  the  British  Parliament  marked  the 
early  years  of  the  century,  both  of  which  had 
an  important  influence  upon  the  missionary 
enterprise.  In  both  cases  it  was  William 
Wilberforce,  the  greatest  Christian  statesman 
England  has  produced,  who  led  the  Chris- 
tian party  to  victory.  In  1807  he  carried  the 
abolition  of  the  British  slave  trade.  In  1813 
he  compelled  the  East  India  Company  to 
open  the  doors  of  India  to  missions.  Eng- 
land from  being  the  chief  kidnapper  of  Afri- 
cans became  their  deliverer.  China  missions 
began  in  1807  with  the  going  forth  of  Robert 
Morrison.  New  Zealand  owes  the  Gospel 
to  Samuel  Marsden,  who  visited  the  cannibal 
islands  in   1814. 

The  second  quarter  was  a  period  of  prog- 
ress among  the  simpler  races  of  the  world. 
Missions  spread  rapidly  among  South  Afri- 
cans, in  the  Polynesian  Islands,  among  the 
West  Indies  negroes  and  the  simpler  vil- 
lagers of  India.  Alexander  Duff,  the  mighty 
Scotchman,  invented  a  new  method  to  reach 
the  higher  classes  and  castes  in  India  by 
the  offer  of  a  good  English  education. 
China's  doors  were  at  last  ajar  before  the 
second  quarter  had  run  its  course. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  Protestant 
missions  being  a  century  old  or  more,  and 
wc  fail  to  realize  how  great  a  part  of  our 
progress  has  been  achieved  during  the  last 
fifty  years.  In  1850  there  were  in  Africa  no 
Niger  Mission,  no  Congo  Mission,  no  Zam- 
besi Mission,  no  Nyassa  Mission,  no  Tangan- 
yika Mission,  no  Uganda  Mission,  no  North 
African  Mission.  Moreover,  there  was  no 
Japan  Mission,  no  Corea  Mission,  no  New 
Guinea  Mission,  no  missions  in  the  far  north 
of  Northwest  Canada,  no  Melanesian  Mis- 
sion, no  South  American  Mission.  The 
China  missions  had  only  just  begun.  India 
was  the  most  advanced  field,  but  even  in 
India  there  was  no  native  church  organiza- 
tion and  none  of  the  great  missions.  The 
long  barred  gates  of  Japan  were  gently 
pushed  open  by  Commodore  Perry  in 
1854. 

The  third  quarter  of  the  century  was  nota- 
ble for  martyr  deaths  in  the  mission  field, 
Besides  many  missionaries  and  native  Chris- 
tians cruelly  murdered  in  the  Indian  Mutiny, 
the  southern  hemisphere  was  especially 
stained  with  the  blood  of  Christ's  servants. 
The  great  Northwest  mission  of  the  Domin- 


58 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ion  of  Canada,  a  vast  field,  was  opened  dur- 
ing this  quarter. 

The  immense  advance  of  the  missionary- 
spirit  in  England  in  the  last  twenty-five  years 
— I  cannot  speak  of  America — is  due  in  the 
main  to  the  influence  of  evangelistic  and 
spiritual  movements  in  the  Church  at  home. 
I  refer  to  Mr.  Moody's  great  campaigns  of 
1874-75  and  1882-84,  the  parochial  mission 
movement,  the  Mildmay  Conference,  the  Kes- 
wick Convention  and  the  Children's  Special 
Service  Mission.  In  more  recent  years  the 
most  striking  sign  of  the  awakening  has  been 
the  Student  Volunteer  Movement. 

President  Capen,  of  the  American  Board 
said,  in  part : 

It  is  too  late  in  the  century  to  ask  whether 
or  not  foreign  missions  pay,  but  it  is  al- 
ways in  order  to  ask  the  question  how  much 
they  pay. 

Perhaps  we  shall  understand  this  a  little 
better  if  we  go  back  in  imagination  to  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  when  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  the  oldest  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sionary societies,  was  born.  The  United 
States  had  just  secured  its  independence. 
France  was  our  ally,  and  everything  that  was 
French  was  popular,  and  the  worst  of  it 
was  French  infidelity.  We  read  that  Yale 
University,  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
think  of  now  as  the  center  of  religious  life, 
was  a  hotbed  of  infidelity  and  old  Princeton 
only  had  one  Christian  student.  Christianity, 
the  religion  of  this  country,  one  hundred 
years  ago  was  at  a  very  low  ebb,  and  it  was 
not  much  better  in  other  nations.  There 
were  but  seven  foreign  missionaries  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  employing  only  170 
male  missionaries. 

Now  look  about  us  and  see  the  change ! 
Let  me  call  your  attention  to  Hawaii.  It  is 
only  eighty  years  ago  last  September  since 
the  first  mission  work  was  begun  on  that 
island.  When  the  missionaries  went  there 
and  saw  the  natives  they  almost  doubted 
whether  or  not  they  were  human  beings. 
They  found  them  eating  raw  fish  with  the 
dogs,  and  then,  eating  the  dogs. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  heroism 
exhibited  among  the  missionaries,  which  is 
equal  to  those  of  the  martyrs  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. You  have  heard  of  Miss  Shattuck. 
Everett  P.  Wheeler,  of  New  York,  said  that 
]\Iiss  Shattuck  stood  for  all  the  United  States 
Government  stood  for — righteousness  and 
law — and  when  a  howling  Mussulman  mob 
tried  to  enter  her  schoolhouse  she  interposed 
the  dignity  of  womanhood  and  the  power  of 
consecration.  We  speak  of  the  early  heroes, 
Carey  and  Judson,  and  we  take  no  laurels 
from  their  brow  when  we  speak  of  our  mis- 
sionary heroes  and  heroines  of  the  present 
day.  Our  Nation  had  a  Farragut,  but  we 
do  not  forget  our  Dewey,  or  our  Sampson, 
or  Captain  Philip.  This  country  had  a  Sedg- 
wick and  a  Kearny,  but  we  do  not  forget 
Lawton. 

However  we  may  feel  about  what  is  going 
on  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  blood  of 
every  American  flowed  a  little  quicker  when 
he  heard  General  Funston  say,  when  an  order 


was  sent  to  him  by  a  superior  officer  asking 
how  long  he  could  hold  the  place,  replied, 
"  Until  we  are  mustered  out."  Our  mission- 
aries are  doing  that  very  same  thing,  and 
with  no  regiment  back  of  them.  Now,  my 
point  is  this :  That  if  a  nation  builds  monu- 
ments to  its  heroes  our  Church  should  not 
forget  its  heroes  and  heroines. 

An  American  bishop  has  told  us  that  one 
educated  Christian  man  will  counteract  the 
influence  of  a  thousand  illiterate  and  vicious 
men.  If  that  is  so,  the  million  pupils  in  our 
schools  now  are  a  match  for  the  billion  of 
heathen,  and  in  a  very  few  years  this  million 
of  pupils  will  pass  out  and  another  million 
will  take  their  places.  I  pass  by  what  mis- 
sions have  done  for  science  with  the  single 
sentence  that  every  missionary  station  is  a 
scientific  observatory.  When  the  Gospel  of 
the  Son  of  God  gets  into  a  place  it  is  a 
death  blow  to  despotism.  When  a  man  be- 
comes a  child  of  God  he  wants  everything 
that  is  Christian — Christian  clothing.  Chris- 
tian furniture.  Christian  agricultural  imple- 
ments, and  everything  Christian.  We  have 
the  motto  that  "  Trade  always  follows  the 
flag,"  but  it  is  not  true,  as  I  could  show  you 
if  I  had  the  time ;  but  this  is  true :  "  Trade 
always  follows  the  missionary."  That  is 
proved  true  in  the  case  of  Hawaii.  In  1843 
the  exports  were  $227,000  in  Hawaii ;  last 
year  they  were  $10,000,000.  The  total  trade 
of  those  islands  sixty  years  ago  was  less  than 
$300,000.     Last  year  it  was  $27,000,000. 

Now,  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  this  is  not 
the  highest  kind  of  an  argument  to  appeal 
for  missions,  but  I  do  say  when  we  have 
men  going  around  sneering  and  saying  there 
isn't  any  good  in  foreign  missions,  it  is  well 
to  have  a  few  facts  of  this  kind  to  throw  at 
them  to  show  how  ignorant  they  are. 

We  all  know  the  state  of  unrest  through- 
out the  world,  just  as  it  was  apparently  when 
Jesus  came.  Japan  and  China  had  their  war, 
and  China  woke  up.  America  had  its  war 
with  Spain,  and  we  are  a  world  Power  to- 
day as  never  before.  Russia  is  pressing 
through  Siberia  into  China,  and  the  storm 
center  is  now  in  the  China  seas.  There  are 
three  great  nations  in  the  world — the  Teu- 
tonic, which  embraces  the  Anglo-Saxon  ;  the 
Latin  and  the  Slav.  I  think  the  Latin  are 
on  the  wane,  and  the  battle  is  between  the 
Slav   and   the   Anglo-Saxon. 

As  to  our  duty :  We  have  an  open  world, 
and  we  have,  as  President  Angell  has  said, 
the  men  ready.  The  great  need  now  is  for 
money  to  help  carry  on  this  work.  Besides 
money  we  need  Christian  statesmanship  of 
the  highest  order.  We  want  to  confederate 
our  work  at  home  and  abroad,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  strike  the  hardest  blow  possible. 
The  greatest  phenomenon  of  this  century  is 
the  passion  of  men  to  save  humanity,  in- 
spired by  love  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Let 
us  press  on.  Let  us  give  the  money  for  this 
grand  work,  and  God  will  consecrate  it,  and 
God  will  give  us  the  victory. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  George  F.  Pentecost  par- 
ticularly emphasized  the  relations  of  the 
home  Church  to  foreign  missions.     He  said: 


EPIPHANY 


59 


First,  I  would  dwell  upon  the  progress  of 
the  world  during  the  nineteenth  century. 
JMore  has  been  accomplished  in  both  material 
and  spiritual  lives  during  the  last  one  hun- 
dred years  than  in  all  the  centuries  preceding 
since  the  birth  of  Christ. 

This  cannot  be  more  distinctly  shown  than 
by  statistics.  One  hundred  years  ago  there 
were  less  than  twenty  foreign  missionaries, 
only  five  mission  stations  and  not  even  one 
thousand  converts  from  paganism.  Now 
there  are  6,387  male  missionaries,  6,287  fe- 
male missionaries  and  61,887  native  helpers, 
all  of  whom  are  commissioned  in  the  work 
bj-  home  churches.  There  are  now  5,207 
mission  stations  and  15.506  auxiliary  posts. 
The  annual  expenditure  of  the  home 
churches  for  foreign  missions  reaches  the 
sum  of  $17,000,000.  As  a  result  there  are 
now  two  million  native  communicants  and 
ten  million  native  adherents  to  the  Church. 

The  greatest  results  of  foreign  missions 
are  to  be  found  in  India.  The  religion  of 
the  Hindoos  is  a  rock-ribbed  and  a  rock- 
based  belief,  but  the  impact  of  Christianity 
has  broken  it  into  a  dozen  fragments.  In 
Bengal,  where  more  than  seventy  millions 
of  people  reside,  there  is  one  shattered 
remnant.  In  the  Punjab  there  is  another. 
Here  one  million  have  broken  away  from  the 
old  chains  of  caste.  In  Bombay  is  another 
religious  faction,  and  so  in  different  parts 
of  the  empire  there  are  dififerent  schisms. 

Thus  it  may  be  said  that  the  missionaries 
in  heathen  lands  have  thus  far  been  digging 
under  ground,  preparatory  to  a  great  over- 


turning. They  are  now  doing  a  work  similar 
to  the  undermining  of  Hell  Gate.  The  great 
upheaval  is  soon  to  follow.  To  the  eye  not 
much  appears  to  have  been  done,  but  deep 
down  great  influences  are  at  work. 

There  are  a  million  non-Protestants  in 
this  city.  We  ask  for  the  reason.  It  is  be- 
cause of  social  distinctions.  It  is  because  of 
the  crystallization  of  these  people  in  their 
old  habits  of  thought.  But  this  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  go  forth  into  foreign 
fields.  It  is  by  exporting  that  the  imports 
of  a  nation  are  increased.  That  has  been  the 
experience  of  our  own  country.  We  should 
put  into  the  virgin  soil  of  pagan  lands  the 
plow  of  Christianity,  where  the  harvest  will 
be  plentiful  and  the  ultimate  returns  will 
be  still  more  abundant. 

The  Rev.  Dr  Maltbie  D.  Babcock  empha- 
sized especially  the  demands  of  the  new  cen- 
tury.    He  said  in  part : 

The  true  Christian  cannot  get  away  from 
foreign  missions.  The  preachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  were  to  all  peoples.  He  exhorted  His 
disciples  to  go  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth.  Thus  we  must  forget  our  prej- 
udices against  this  race  or  that  race,  the 
Jew  or  the  Italian.  All  are  equal  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Creator.  Selfishness,  the  unwilling- 
ness to  impart  good  to  others,  is  the  greatest 
curse  which  can  rest  upon  humanity.  And 
we  must  remember  that  we,  too,  are  of  pagan 
blood.  Our  ancestors  were  as  savage  and  as 
needful  of  Christianity  as  these  pagans  among 
whom  these  missionaries  are  laboring  in  the 
dark  East.— N.  Y.  T. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 


THE  MISSIONARY  FIELD 

By  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D. 

The  Held  is  the  world. — Matt,  xiii:  38 


It  is  always  profitable,  when  one  has 
gained  the  particulars  of  a  subject  that  en- 
gages his  attention,  to  secure  one  broad, 
general  view  of  the  whole,  by  which  the 
particulars  are  themselves  interpreted,  co- 
ordinated and  unified  in  a  single  impression. 

After  reading  a  book,  paragraph  by  para- 
graph, page  by  page,  I  have  found  it  ad- 
vantageous at  the  end  to  read  again  the 
table  of  contents,  and  thus  acquire  one  defi- 
nite conception  of  all  I  have  followed  out  in 
detail.  '  You  enter  a  European  cathedral. 
The  portal  attracts  you,  the  pillar,  the  capital, 
the  arch,  the  chapel,  the  great  and  brilliant 
apse ;  but  to  obtain  a  satisfying  and  per- 
manent impression,  you  select  a  point,  within 
or  without,  where  you  can  see  the  details 
in  a  grand  unity ;  and  this  is  the  image  you 
carry  away.  Or  you  may  wander  in  the 
country  at  summer-tide,  enjoy  the  meadow, 
the  brook,  the  gentle  hill,  and  the  shadow  of 
the    forest;    but   it    is    from    some    elevation 


from  which  your  eye  sweeps  the  whole  scene, 
that  you  detect  the  interrelation  of  each  part 
with  every  other,  and  gain  an  impressive 
picture  of  the  whole.  So  with  the  subject 
of  Christian  Missions  before  us.  With  its 
individual  aspects  we  are  familiar.  We  are 
acquainted  with  individual  missionaries  and 
their  respective  missions.  Let  us  now  look 
at  the  whole  field.  What  is  it?  The  Master 
says:  "  The  field  is  the  world." 

All  parts  and  all  peoples  are  included. 
No  race  is  so  savage  and  none  so  cultured  as 
to  be  excepted.  The  Gospel  is  for  the  whole 
world ;  and  that  is  a  wider  field  to-day  than 
when  the  New  Testament  was  written.  Be- 
yond Roman  cities  and  colonies  little  was 
then  known  of  the  world.  It  is  not  four 
hundred  years  since  this  hemisphere  was 
known.  Now,  explorations  are  pushed  in 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  No  parts  are 
unknown  save  those  fenced  in  by  ice,  and 
even  against  these  frozen  barriers  the  energy 


6o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


of  modern  enterprise  is  continually  precipi- 
tated, to  force  a  passage  amid  those  Arctic 
solitudes  where  no  human  foot  has  yet 
walked. 

Religion  was  once  a  divisive  force,  for  the 
very  zeal  with  which  early  nations  clung 
to  their  own  worship  led  them  to  look  on 
other  religions  with  hostility.  Buddhism,  in- 
deed, spread  to  contiguous  nations ;  but 
Christianity  alone  has  overleaped  all  tribal 
and  racial  bounds,  and  encircled  the  earth 
in  its  beneficent  sway,  making  itself  wel- 
come to  communities  who  have  seen  in 
it  a  character  and  culture  they  had  never 
known  before.  God  has  now  wonderfully 
prepared  the  earth  for  its  progress,  as 
truly  as  He  did  in  the  early  centuries  by 
the  dispersion  of  believers,  by  the  supremacy 
of  the  Roman  power  and  the  Greek  tongue. 
By  steam  and  by  electricity  the  ends  of  the 
earth  are  now  nearer  each  other  than  were 
Boston  and  Berlin  a  few  years  ago.  Enor- 
mous changes,  swift  and  dazzling — mighty 
as  well  as  swift — are  as  signal  a  preparative 
for  the  conquests  of  grace  as  if  God's  own 
hand  had  opened  a  passage  amid  the  stars ! 

What  is  the  purpose  of  all  this?  To  make 
the  Gospel  familiar  to  every  man.  Why? 
To  meet  his  immortal  aspirations ;  to  save 
the  soul.  But  some  say  that  the  heathen 
will  be  saved  without  the  Gospel,  if  they  live 
up  to  the  inner  light  already  imparted.  The 
testimony,  not  only  of  missionaries,  but  of 
those  who  have  lived  among  the  heathen  for 
secular  ends,  is  this:  they  are  besotted,  they 
do  not  live  up  to  this  light,  they  do  not  seek 
life  through  repentance,  but  grovel  in  lust 
and  in  personal  indulgence.  The  Gospel 
comes  as  a  new  discovery.  God  is  a  Being 
to  be  loved,  as  well  as  feared.  New  affec- 
tions and  purposes  and  aspirations  are 
awakened.  The  results  are  seen  in  character. 
The  command  of  God  comes  to  each :  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God."  Thus  society 
is  leavened.  This  renovation  of  the  souls 
of  men  is  the  first  work  aimed  at.  Then 
there  follows  an  intellectual  impulse  through 
the  truth,  by  argument  and  appeal,  by  prov- 
erb and  by  song,  by  library  and  school,  by 
philanthropic  and  political  endeavor.  All 
things  become  new.  As  Correggio  made  the 
manger  bright  by  the  illumination  reflected 
from  the  face  of  the  infant  Jesus,  so  the 
Bible  has  illuminated  society  by  its  reflected 
light,  wherever  it  has  been  placed. 

We  owe  all  we  have  to  this  peerless,  price- 
less boon :  all  that  is  sweetest  and  noblest 
in  social  life,  and  all  that  is  freest  and  most 
prophetic  in  our  political  institutions.  Our 
ancestors  were  savages,  feeding  on  roots  and 
acorns,  worshiping  gods  of  the  storm  and 
pestilence,  and  sunk  in  moral  debasement. 
Our  present  civilization  we  owe  to  Chris- 
tianity. Two  centuries  ago  the  site  of  many 
a  New  England  village  of  to-day  was  an 
Indian  hunting-ground.  The  personal  and 
social  prosperity  now  witnessed  there,  the 
beautiful  family  life,  the  sweetness,  happi- 
ness, and  hope  enjoyed,  are  the  fruitage  of 
the  Gospel.  Such  results  are  more  con- 
clusive than  mere  abstract  arguments.     This 


work  of  individual  and  social  renewal  we  j 
are  to  undertake  for  all  nations.  He  is  mean  I 
who  does  not  desire  to  be  useful  to  others.  ' 
As  one  draws  near  to  the  close  of  life,  he 
feels  an  intense  enthusiasm ;  for  as  the  days 
are  fewer  they  appear  more  precious.  So 
it  will  be  if  we  recognize  our  privilege  to 
transmit  the  blessings  we  enjoy — the  fruit 
of  sacrifice  and  service  through  centuries 
past — to  generations  yet  to  come.  Standing 
on  soil  hallowed  by  noble  lives,  it  will  be 
ignoble,  ignominious,  if  we  do  not  eagerly 
engage  in  this  godlike  work.  As  we,  by  acts 
of  charity  and  love,  make  other  lives  brighter^ 
wc  shall  deepen  the  sense  of  immortality 
within  ourselves  and  in  others. 

Then  there  is  the  most  potential  motive  of 
all — the  love  of  Christ.  He  who  has  seen 
Him  and  felt  His  presence  and  comfort  in 
darkness  and  trouble ;  who  has  heard  when 
standing  under  cloudy  heavens  the  inspiring 
voice  of  the  Redeemer:  "Fear  not;  I  have 
found  a  ransom  for  thee  in  my  own  blood 
and  life  " — he  has  a  motive  for  toilful  and 
continuous  endeavor.  Do  you  ask.  How? 
By  what  means?  Your  gifts,  your  voice, 
your  example  may  aid.  He  who  illustrates 
the  Gospel  in  his  life,  unsoiled  in  the  midst 
of  temptation,  neither  unduly  elated  by  pros- 
perity nor  depressed  by  trial,  he  is  an  elo- 
quent preacher  of  righteousness.  The  print- 
ing press  is  a  means,  and  educational  in- 
stitutions as  well ;  also  efforts  for  the  salva- 
tion of  seamen,  and  many  other  methods 
that  reach  out  far  beyond  our  own  hand. 
The  finger  of  a  child  may  move  a  lever  to 
set  in  motion  the  machinery  of  a  mill.  You 
send  written  messages  across  the  sea  by  a 
steamer  which  you  have  not  builded,  along 
railway  lines  you  have  not  laid,  through 
mountains  you  did  not  tunnel ;  and  so  you 
may,  by  the  machinery  of  some  society,  set 
in  motion  the  water  of  life,  or  circulate  the 
messages  of  grace  through  wide  and  re- 
mote regions.  They  are  unwise  who  speak 
contemptuously  of  "  machinery,"  for  it 
clothes  and  feeds  us,  it  prints  our  books, 
it  carries  us  from  city  to  city,  it  ornaments 
and  gives  value  to  life.  So  the  organized 
work  of  such  a  society  as  the  American 
Board — carried  on  now  for  nearly  five  and 
seventy  years — is  a  blessed  and  beautiful 
work,  historic  and  honored.  This  board  has 
sent  out  as  many  consecrated  men  and 
women  as  any,  and  instrumentally  sent 
thousands  to  heaven,  and  is  an  heir  of  their 
prayer  and  blessing.  It  asks  our  gifts — not 
small,  but  large  gifts — because  it  needs  them. 
The  cost  of  administration  is  a  very  small 
percentage  of  the  amount  received. 

And  do  you  ask,  "  What  is  the  prospect  of 
success  ?  "  Some  scoff,  and  say  that  these 
efforts  are  as  futile  as  the  attempt  to  stay 
a  stream  by  scattering  on  its  bosom  a  hand- 
ful of  autumn  leaves.  Said  one  to  me :  "  I 
have  lived  in  China.  Your  missionaries  are 
good  men ;  but  in  one  place,  after  much  labor, 
they  made  but  two  converts,  and  one  of 
them  got  into  jail."  It  is  easy  to  point  to 
failures,  and  we  can  also  point  out  con- 
spicuous   successes.      Chinese    literature,    its 


EPIPHANY 


6i 


ethics  and  classics,  have  been  translated  into 
modern  tongues  by  the  missionaries.  They 
have  there  and  everywhere  enlarged  the 
sphere  of  knowledge.  It  is  one  function  of 
Christianity  to  reverse  the  curse  of  Babel. 
Pride  scattered  men,  and  the  humble  in 
Christ  are  united  to  all  others  by  means  of 
the  Gospel  in  every  land  and  language.  The 
missionary  is  loved  and  honored  by  those  who 
have  been  blessed  by  his  work.  That  work 
will  be  successful.  The  Gospel  that  has 
lifted  Germany,  and  England,  and  America, 
will  not  crack  under  the  strain  of  the  world. 
To  it  we  may  trace  the  blessings  already  en- 
joyed, and  from  it  greater  still  may  flow. 
Our  Magna  Charta,  our  Bill  of  Rights,  our 
United  States  Constitution,  we  may  trace  to 
the  leaves  of  the  Bible  brought  to  England 
by  a  pious  monk  from  Rome ;  and  this  Gos- 
pel is  to  fill  the  earth.  Our  Lord  has  said 
that  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth  is  His, 
and  that  He  will  be  with  us  alway  to  the 
end.  What  audacious  blasphemy,  if  He  be 
only  man !  Either  this  is  a  celestial  voice,  or 
that  of  one  who  is  foolish  and  insane.  There 
is  no  room  to  doubt.  The  same  power  that 
subdued  Rome  and  evangelized  barbarian 
Europe,  and  has  ennobled  our  own  civiliza- 
tion, will  go  on  from  victory  to  victory ! 
You  may  believe  it  or  not ;  it  will  make  no 


difiference.  The  papers  may  sneer  at  the 
missionary  cause,  but  it  will  make  no  dififer- 
ence.    The  Gospel  is  to  conquer  the  earth! 

Now  the  question  is.  Will  you  take  part? 
Not  in  this  agency  alone ;  but  will  you  co- 
operate with  God  Himself?  You  do  that 
when  you  turn  coal  to  gas,  and  water  to 
steam ;  when  you  make  iron  to  swim  and 
wire  to  talk ;  but  in  a  grander  sense  you 
strike  hands  with  God  when  you  undertake 
work  for  Him  in  the  field  which  is  the 
world.  This  service  makes  life  noble  indeed. 
Nothing  I  saw  or  heard  at  our  recent  Long 
Meadow  Centennial  impressed  me  so  much 
as  the  sight  of  an  elderly  lady  and  her  sweet 
voice,  as  she  bore  loving  testimony  to  the 
gladness  of  her  service  for  Christ  during 
many  years  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Before 
her  friends,  those  who  knew  her  in  girlhood, 
she  affirmed  that  there  was  no  life  so  beauti- 
ful and  precious  as  that  of  a  missionary — a 
missionary  woman  amid  Moslem  or  pagan 
civilization. 

Animated  by  such  an  exalted,  intrepid, 
heroic  consecration,  life  will  be  illuminated 
with  the  brightness  of  immortality.  Power 
will  be  glorified,  and  money  itself  will  take 
on  something  of  the  beauty  of  heaven,  shi- 
ning, as  it  were,  like  bits  of  the  golden  pave- 
ment in  the  city  of  our  God! — H.  R. 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEA 

By  Charles  H.  Fowler,  D.D. 
As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.— John  xx:  21 


The  missionary  idea  came  into  the  world 
with  Christianity  itself.  Christ  came  needed, 
but  hardly  wanted.  He  was  sent  into  the 
world,  a  missionary  from  heaven  to  earth. 
He  came  to  emphasize  and  to  illustrate  God's 
infinite  longing  for  the  salvation  of  men. 
There  is  no  thought  so  worthy  our  continued 
reflection  as  this  supremest  thought  of  God 
concerning  our  race.  It  is  the  one  idea 
which  God  saw  fit  to  utter.  For  this  idea 
time  continues  its  flight,  and  the  earth  con- 
tinues to  revolve ;  for  its  utterance  God  broke 
the  silence  of  eternity,  and  came  out  and 
declared  it,  that,  through  the  ages,  we  might 
know  the  center  of  His  great  purpose  con- 
cerning men.  We  ourselves  are  not  wont  to 
put  on  it  this  emphasis,  but,  busied  with  the 
little  piece  of  the  divine  garden  under  our 
eye,  we  only  glance  occasionally  to  the 
larger  field,  the  world.  Let  us,  therefore, 
return  to  and  linger  over  this,  the  divine 
idea — the  missionary  idea.  It  is  not  the  fruit 
of  philosophy.  Perhaps  an  argument  might 
have  been  made  on  the  grounds  of  human 
reason,  but  I  assume  your  belief  in  the  super- 
natural origin  of  the  Gospel,  in  the  Deity  of 
Christ,  the  regeneration  of  man  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  other  verities  of  Christianity. 
"  Go  ye,  therefore."  Look  back  a  little  at 
the  reach  of  this  thought :  Christ  had  lived 
and  taught ;  had  spent  days  in  blessing  the 
humble  poor,  and  nights  in  prayer  in  moun- 


tain solitudes ;  had  looked  into  the  hungry 
souls  of  the  people,  and  felt  their  needs. 
He  had  been  rejected  by  His  own;  had  been 
betrayed  by  priest  and  disciple ;  had  strug- 
gled in  the  garden,  and  confronted  there  the 
enemy  of  our  souls ;  had  borne  the  scourg- 
ing, the  hissing,  hooting,  and  spitting ;  had 
staggered  under  the  beam  of  the  cross,  died 
on  Calvary,  gone  into  our  sepulcher,  and 
risen  more  than  conqueror,  shouting,  "  Lift 
up,  ye  gates !  "  He  had  spoken  the  words  of 
peace  to  His  disciples,  and  breathed  on  them 
the  breath  of  power,  and  now  stands  on 
Olivet,  His  little  Church  about  Him,  which 
He  has  taught  and  inspired.  Angels  beckon 
Him.  With  outstretched  hands  He  says  that 
all  power  is  His,  and  bids  them,  therefoie, 
to  go  out  everywhere  and  teach  all  nations. 
Then  do  the  heavens  receive  Him. 

It  seems  that  the  conditions,  under  which 
this  command  was  given,  invest  it  with  su- 
preme binding  authority  over  us.  The  Lord 
was  organizing  His  forces,  preparing  the 
way  for  His  kingdom.  The  Comforter  was 
promised.  Material  obstacles  were  to  be  re- 
moved, and  perils  from  men — even  from 
viper  or  poison — were  averted.  All  power 
was  His ;  therefore  they  were  to  go — go  into 
all  the  earth — tarrying  not.  But,  in  course 
of  time,  somehow,  the  spirit  of  the  mission 
which  they  had  undertaken  seemed  to  be  mis- 
understood.     Paul   is   raised   up   and   sent   to 


62 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  Gentiles.  Thirty  years  after  the  ascen- 
sion he  expands  the  missionary  idea,  and 
says :  "  If  any  man  have  not  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  he  is  none  of  His."  Christ  came  to 
minister,  not  to  be  ministered  unto.  The 
rich,  He,  for  our  sakes,  became  poor.  Hu- 
man birth,  or  position,  or  power,  is  nothing 
without  the  Spirit  of  the  Master.  This 
searching  idea  Christ,  through  Paul,  im- 
pressed upon  the  Church.  Then,  through 
the  generations  it  labored  and  suffered ;  its 
martyrs  and  confessors  witnessed  till  the 
aged  John,  who  had  felt  the  throb  of  Jesus' 
breast — a  son  of  thunder  and  of  light  and 
love — wrote  the  text,  "  As  the  Father  hath 
sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.''  God  seemed 
to  see  the  people  dull,  omitting  the  divinest 
truth  of  all,  failing  to  grasp  the  missionary 
idea  in  its  completeness.  The  heralds  of  the 
Lord  are  to  go — go  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 
and  go,  as  Christ  Himself  was  sent  by  the 
Father,  embodying  His  divine,  self-sacrific- 
ing love. 

Calvary  is  a  mystery  to  me ;  its  vision 
is  incomprehensible.  I  cannot  understand 
how  that  the  shoulders  that  bore  the  world 
should  sink  beneath  the  cross ;  how  that  the 
hand  that  held  the  globe  should  hang  from  a 
felon's  spike.  Yet  I  see  the  blind,  the  leper, 
the  demoniac,  healed  and  the  dead  raised ;  I 
hear  the  words,  "  He  that  hath  seen  me 
hath  seen  the  Father,"  and  my  soul  responds, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God !  "  So  I  have  as- 
surance that  the  Son  of  man  has  power  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins.  Behind  Calvary,  be- 
neath the  cross,  older  than  the  book,  the  sac- 
rament, the  sacrifice,  the  ceremonial — all  the 
panorama  of  redemption — is  the  eternal  love 
of  God,  who  proposes  to  save  man  by  the 
Redeemer,  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  ministry 
of  His  Church.  This  love,  which  stoops  to 
the  guilt  and  need  of  man,  is  an  infinite, 
shoreless  ocean,  beyond  our  thought  or  de- 
scription. Here  is  the  missionary  idea.  To 
apologize  for  it,  is  to  apologize  for  Calvary, 
which  is  its  expression. 

We   infer : — 

I.  That  there  exists,  in  the  hearts  of 
many,  A  lack  of  conviction  of  the  necessity 
which  is  put  upon  us  to  send  the  Gospel  to 
the  heathen.  "  God  will  take  care  of  the 
heathen,  and  can  save  them  without  our  as- 
sistance," it  is  said.  But,  if  He  has  made 
any  plan  about  their  salvation,  it  will  be  as 
merciful  as  any  we  could  make.  It  is  folly 
to  put  our  maudlin  sympathy  against  His 
statements.  Again,  if  He  could  save  part  of 
the  race  without  a  Redeemer,  it  might  have 
been  possible  to  save  us,  to  save  all,  without 
the  needless  tragedy  enacted  on  Calvary. 
No ;  it  is  a  necessity  for  us.  and  for  all,  to 
accept  the  provisions  which  God  has  made. 
But  you  say  that  it  is  the  blackest  Calvinism 
to  affirm  that  they  are  to  be  lost,  because 
they  failed  in  doing  what  they  had  no  knowl- 
edge of.  I  answer  that  we  are  to  be  judged 
according  to  the  light  we  have.  Men  every- 
where vary  in  the  delicacy  of  their  moral 
sensibilities,  as  in  other  things ;  but  each  is 
judged  according  to  what  he  has,  and  not 
according  to  what  he  has  not,  received.     We 


read  in  Romans,  first  chapter,  that  the  in- 
visible things  of  God  "  are  clearly  seen, 
being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made, 
so  that  they  are  without  excuse!  "  This  is 
spoken  of  the  cultured  Romans.  The  wrath 
of  God  was  revealed  upon  them.  You  see 
their  chances  of  heaven. 

II.  It  is  said,  "  We  have  heathen  at 
HOME."  We  have  not.  There  are,  indeed,  a 
few  Chinese  or  Japanese  here,  of  soft  tread 
and  unreplying  tongue,  but  the  objector  does 
not  refer  to  them.  He  refers  to  our  Eng- 
lish-speaking population.  Now  I  affirm  that 
the  worst  men  have  a  great  deal  of  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth.  Go  to  the  lowest  ward  of 
New  York  city,  at  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
night,  and  select  a  dozen  cut-throats,  and  I 
am  ready  to  say  that  these  have  more  intel- 
lectual knowledge  of  God  than  any  dozen 
heathen  in  any  age  or  race,  even  if  you  in- 
clude Plato,  Socrates,  and  Confucius.  These 
live  among  Sabbaths,  sanctuaries.  Christians, 
and  some  of  them  have  been  in  our  Sunday- 
schools.  They  are  going  to  the  bad  because 
they  will,  yet  tliey  know  better. 

III.  "  It  costs."  Yes,  and  the  gift  of  God 
cost  an  infinite  self-sacrifice.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  plan.  We  are  to  enter  this  co-partner- 
ship of  sacrifice  and  service  with  this  under- 
standing. Mere  faith  in  certain  doctrines 
does  not  make  stalwart  Christians.  Perfect 
love  and  trust  do  not  make  a  young  convert 
a  ripe  Christian  in  a  minute.  He  may  be 
clean,  but  yet  in  babyhood.  He  first  has  milk 
and  then  meat.  An  infant  that  could  talk 
Greek  or  Hebrew  would  be  a  monstrosity ; 
and  so  is  he  who,  just  converted,  fancies 
himself  a  stalwart  Christian,  able  to  instruct 
aged  saints  in  the  knowledge  of  God.  There 
are  first  the  blade  and  the  stalk,  then  full 
corn  in  the  ear.  Character  is  builded  slowly, 
and  by  varied  processes,  among  which  are 
those  of  toil,  trial,  and  self-sacrifice. 

Again — 

IV.  Remember  the  facilities  we  now 
HAVE  FOR  this  WORK.  A  few  days'  ride  in  a 
Pullman  car  to  the  Golden  Gate,  and  a  few 
days  on  the  Pacific,  and  you  are  in  the  field 
at  little  wear  or  weariness.  We  are,  by 
means  of  the  telegraph,  brought  within 
speaking-distance  of  the  laborers.  Your  gift 
to  one  of  them  beyond  the  Himalayas  is  thus 
received  the  day  before  you  give  it.  It  can 
be  announced  and  acknowledged  in  forty 
seconds.  More  than  this,  the  Gospel  does 
succeed.  Rome  gave  our  white-haired  Saxon 
sires  the  Gospel  when  they  were  savages. 
They  sent  a  deputation,  and,  under  the  sky, 
heard  the  message,  refusing  to  go  within 
walls,  or  beneath  a  roof,  lest  they  be  be- 
witched. These  barbarians  were  too  low  to 
be  sold  even  as  Roman  slaves.  The  Feejee 
Islands  have  one  hundred  and  two  thousand 
attendants  on  public  worship,  out  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  population. 
The  Sandwich  Islands  were  evangelized  at 
a  cost  of  a  million  and  a  quarter,  and  every 
year  our  business  with  them  yields  a  profit 
of  five  millions.  Yes,  missions  pay — they  pay 
in  every  way — grandest  of  all,  in  the  build- 
ing of  character.     The   patriot    dies   for   his 


EPIPHANY 


63 


country,  and  the  martyr  for  the  cause  he 
loves,  and  we  revere  their  memory.  Noblest 
of  all  are  the  triumphs  of  the  grace  of  God 
in  converted  souls. 

See  yonder  multitude  in  a  Chinese  city, 
gathered  about  a  converted  heathen  who  is 
preaching  Christ !  He  stands  on  a  box,  and 
proclaims  the  word  of  life.  A  mob  gather 
and  drag  him  away,  beat  him  with  bamboo 
rods  till  blood  flows  from  his  face  and  back. 
He  washes  his  stripes  in  a  brook  outside  the 
town,  adjusts  his  torn  garments,  prays  for 
guidance,  and  returns.  A  second  time  he  is 
pulled  down  from  his  position  and  beaten 
till  he  is  left  for  dead.  He  recovers,  returns, 
and  is  a  third  time  seized,  to  be  killed,  but 
the  police  rescue  him  and  place  him  in  jail. 
From  the  barred  window  he  speaks  to  the 
crowd  once  more,  using  the  words  of  Paul, 
"  None  of  these  things  move  me,  neither 
count  I  my  life  dear  unto  me."  Is  not  his  a 
grand  character  ?  Will  you  remain  a  forty- 
year-old  baby,  or  aim  to  be  a  man,  strong 
and  stalwart,  and  made  perfect  through  sac- 


rifice and  suffering  if  need  be?  Such  a  one, 
pounded  by  foes,  scarred  and  cut  from  head 
to  foot,  yet  with  the  vigor  of  an  indwelling 
Christ,  may  stand  before  the  King,  who  will 
say,  "  See  what  My  grace  has  done !  "  God 
wants  such  heroic  saints.  Will  you  be  one? 
Christ  says :  "  Come  unto  me,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  You  can't  earn  it  or  buy  it. 
"  I  will  give  you  rest."  But  hear !  ''  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me  .  .  . 
ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."  Habits 
of  obedience,  service,  and  sacrifice,  crystallize 
into  character.  Here,  in  these  heights  of 
consecration,  is  supremest  rest. 

Go — go,  then,  in  His  name !  "  Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give."  This  world, 
staggering  under  sin,  God  puts  upon  the 
heart  of  the  Church.  He  could,  by  His 
omnipotent  grace,  save  it  without  us,  but 
chooses  to  develop  character  by  making  us 
co-workers  with  Him.  As  Christ  was  sent, 
so  are  we.  Will  you  go?  Will  you  send? 
The  Lord  help  you  to  do  now  as  you  will 
hereafter  wish  that  you  had  done. — H.  R. 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS* 

By  a.  J.  F.  Behrends,  D.D. 

We  then  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  our- 
selves. Let  every  one  of  us  please  his  neighbor  for  his  good  to  edification.  For  even 
Clirist  pleased   not   himself. — Rom.  xv:  i,  3 


These  words  outline  the  philosophy  of 
Christian  Missions. 

There  is  an  "  ought  "  here,  before  whose 
imperative  even  Christ  bowed,  an  obligation 
tianscending  all  positive  statutes,  essentially 
divine.  There  is  reasonableness  here,  for 
the  obligation  has  regard  to  the  neighbor's 
good.  The  energy  thus  exerted  is,  by  im- 
plication, effective,  inasmuch  as  Christ  Him- 
self leads  the  way  in  its  exercise.  Yet  is  it 
efficient  without  overriding  personal  re- 
sponsibility, for  the  end  is  edification,  up- 
building in  personal  character. 

I.  Here,  then,  is  the  obligation  of  the 
Church  to  evangelize  the  world ;  the  specific 
commission,  so  often  quoted  and  expounded, 
is  only  the  application  of  a  universal  princi- 
ple antedating  and  underlying  it — the  strong 
ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak. 
The  obligation  meets  us  only  when  moral 
life  appears ;  but  there  it  is  of  primary  and 
absolute  authority.  Great  prominence  is 
given,  in  some  departments  of  modern 
science,  to  what  is  called  the  "  struggle  for 
existence,"  and  the  consequent  "  survival  of 
the  fittest."  Nature  is  regarded  as  a  great 
battle-field,  where  the  warfare  is  fierce,  mer- 
ciless, and  incessant ;  where  strength  is  in- 
vested with  the  right  and  the  certainty  of 
sovereignty.  And  it  has  been  claimed  by  not 
a  few  that  this  law  of  nature  is  no  less  su- 
preme in  human  life  and  history.  The  strong 
are  entitled  to  rule,  and  before  their  behests 


the  weak  are  to  be  dumb.  We  cannot,  how- 
ever, quite  make  up  our  minds  that  personal 
force  is  entitled  to  rule.  It  seems  to  us  that 
the  world  needs  wise  men  and  good  men, 
even  more  than  strong  men.  We  do  not 
despise  greatness,  but  we  feel  that  it  ought 
to  be  the  handmaid  of  reason  and  of  right- 
eousness. Our  native  intuitions  therefore 
teach  us  that,  whatever  may  be  true  in  the 
realm  _  of  nature,  where  moral  law  is  not 
operative,  in  human  life  strength  is  secondary 
and  subordinate.  It  has  no  title  to  sov- 
ereignty, except  in  so  far  as  sovereignty  is 
secured  in  obedience  to  what  is  reasonable 
and  right— and  that  is  simply  reaffirming  the 
apostle's  thought  that  strength  is  under  the 
obligation  of  service.  Our  pre-eminence 
makes  us  debtors  to  the  race.  Our  superior 
advantages  are  a  disgrace,  and  will  prove  a 
curse,  bitter  and  blighting,  unless  we  employ 
them  to  the  utmost  in  the  service  of  truth 
and  of  righteousness. 

There  is  an  apparent  approach  to  this  prin- 
ciple in  the  Spencerian  doctrine  of  the  socio- 
logical law  and  limitation  of  morality.  There 
is  an  industrial  and  political  fellowship  be- 
fore which  every  man  is  compelled  to  bow ; 
and,  as  the  nations  are  brought  more  closely 
together,  the  imperatives  of  this  fellowship 
become  more  authoritative.  The  trades  sup- 
plement each  other.  Disaster  to  one  means 
suffering  to  all.  Civil  war  may  stimulate 
trade    for   a    season,   but   the   overproduction 


*  Preached   April   25,    1884,  at  the  ordination  of  Rev.  Mr.  Dwight  as  missionary  to  Western   Turkey,  in 
connection  with  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 


64 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


thus  encouraged  is  followed  by  the  inevitable 
industrial  retrenchment  and  financial  embar- 
rassment. Selfishness  is  thus  confronted  by 
inherent  and  necessary  limitations,  and  even 
prudence  suggests  the  law  of  universal 
benevolence.  But  this  prudential  benevolence, 
this  "  egotistic  altruism,"  is  altogether  dif- 
ferent from  the  principle  of  Christian  mis- 
sions. It  is,  after  all,  only  a  refined  selfish- 
ness that  bids  you  not  trample  on  the  weak, 
because  in  so  doing  you  injure  yourself. 
Benevolence,  on  such  a  basis,  will  always  be 
cold,  narrow,  calculating:  it  never  can  be 
spontaneous,  warm,  and  unstinted.  Ours  is 
no  such  mercenary  service.  We  are  sum- 
moned to  a  larger  and  a  richer  life.  We  are 
under  the  obligation  of  love,  as  interpreted 
bj  the  eternal  Son  of  God  in  His  voluntary 
sacrifice  for  man's  redemption.  His  glory 
was  incapable  of  increase.  His  power  could 
not  be  augmented.  He  came  to  give  His  life 
a  ransom  for  many.  The  law  that  the  strong 
ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak  is 
no  mere  temporary  enactment,  imposed  for 
disciplinary  ends ;  it  has  its  origin  in  the 
essential  life  of  God,  and  its  most  impressive 
illustration  in  the  ministry  and  mediation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Worldly  wisdom  counts  the 
obligation  a  sentimental  dream.  It  had  only 
sneers  for  the  Christ,  as  both  a  fanatic  and  a 
fool.  It  regarded  the  martyr  as  a  maniac. 
It  cannot  understand  the  spirit  that  supports 
the  foreign  missionary  enterprises  of  the 
Church.  The  principle  is  one  and  the  same 
with  that  under  which  our  Lord  endured  the 
cross — the  principle  of  love,  the  law  that  the 
strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the 
weak. 

2.  But  while  we  emphasize  the  indefeasible 
obligation  of  Christian  missions,  we  insist 
equally  on  their  supreme  reasonableness.  We 
are  under  the  law  of  love,  and  our  comrnis- 
sion  bears  the  seal  of  the  divine  authority. 
The  pressure  is  both  from  without  and  from 
within;  but  it  is  a  double  pressure,  com- 
manding the  approval  of  the  calmest  reason. 
For  the  divine  authority  is  never  arbitrary, 
finding  its  sanction  merely  or  mainly  in 
omnipotence ;  every  command  has  its  suffi- 
cient, reasonable  ground,  even  where  the 
same  cannot  be  clearly  discerned  by  man's 
thought.  And  love  is  never  a  blind,  unrea- 
soning, involuntary  instinct  of  nature.  It 
always  contemplates  the  worth  of  its  object, 
and  how  that  worth  may  be  maintained, 
guarded,  and  increased.  You  do  not  love  a 
dew-drop  as  you  love  a  flower ;  you  do  not 
love  a  flower  as  you  love  a  nightingale ;  you 
do  not  love  a  bird  as  you  love  a  child.  As 
the  oliject  of  your  affection  rises  in  the  scale 
of  being,  your  love  changes  in  kind  and  in 
degree.  Love  is  the  first  and  the  greatest  of 
the  fruits  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  it  is  of  divine 
origin,  and  of  spiritual  nature ;  and  the  Spirit 
of  God  always  enlightens  the  reason  and 
quickens  the  conscience  by  His  presence.  So 
that  love  must  be  both  intelligent  and  right- 
eous. It  never  works  blindly.  It  has  good 
reasons  for  what  it  does,  and  it  never  loses 
sight  of  definite  ends.  Sacrifice,  for  its  own 
sake,  it  never  demands  or  encourages.  _  It 
does  not  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak  sim- 


ply for  the  sake  of  bearing  them.  It  sum- 
mons us  to  please  our  neighbors  only  for 
their  good  to  edification.  It  is  not  every 
whim  that  we  are  to  humor.  It  is  not  every 
wish  that  we  are  to  gratify.  It  is  not  every 
weakness  that  we  are  to  condone.  We  are 
to  seek  our  neighbor's  upbuilding  in  all  that 
is  good.  We  are  so  to  bear  his  infirmities 
that  he  may  shortly  be  able  to  walk  alone, 
and  be  helpful  to  others.  In  a  word,  the 
spirit  of  Christian  missions  is  one  of  faith 
in  man,  as  well  as  of  love  for  man.  He  is 
recognized  as  outranking  all  other  orders  of 
existence,  because  created  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  redeemed  by  the  God-man,  Christ 
Jesus.  The  principle  of  love  is  justified  to 
the  reason  by  the  high  doctrine,  appearing  in 
the  very  first  pages  of  the  Bible,  articulate 
in  all  its  subsequent  utterances,  most  im- 
pressively illustrated  in  the  incarnation,  and 
solemnly  sealed  in  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead  and  the  ascension  into  glory :  that  man, 
tho  framed  in  body  of  the  dust  of  earth,  is 
the  heir  of  eternity,  and  the  child  of  God. 
Sadly  has  he  fallen,  but  he  is  not  beyond 
rescue.  He  cannot  be  what  he  ought  to  be, 
and  what  he  may  be,  until  the  grace  of 
Christ  has  renewed  and  sanctified  him ;  and 
therefore  love  impels  to  any  sacrifice  and 
endeavor  that  may  place  this  grace  within 
his   reach. 

The  providence  of  God  is  a  living  endorse- 
ment of  this  doctrine.  The  history  of  Chris- 
tian missions  vindicates  the  adaptation  and 
the  adequacy  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  the 
moral  wants  of  man.  There  is  a  gospel  o£ 
progress  by  colonization  and  elimination. 
The  ruder  races  are  to  be  gradually  weeded 
out  and  supplanted  by  a  more  vigorous  stock. 
The  Indian  must  go  to  the  wall,  the  prey  of 
civilized  vices,  for  whose  conquest  he  is 
wanting  in  moral  energy.  The  tribes  of 
Africa  are  doomed.  The  civilizations  of  In- 
dia and  of  China  are  corrupt  and  effete ;  they 
are  not  worth  saving,  and  their  populations 
must  disappear  before  the  steady  march  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  to  whom  belongs  the 
world's  future.  Over  against  this  ambitious 
and  heartless  speculation  is  the  fact  that 
Christian  missions  have  won  their  most  sig- 
nal triumphs  among  the  tribes  and  races  that 
a  worldly  wisdom  had  come  to  regard  as 
hopelessly  debased,  and  as  doomed  to  ex- 
tinction— among  fetichists  and  cannibals — in 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  New  Guinea,  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  Madagascar,  and  last,  but 
not  least,  in  the  Micronesian  Islands — that 
standing  miracle  of  Christian  evangelization, 
where  the  "  Morning  Star,"  representative 
of  our  American  Sunday-schools,  has  for 
many  years  been  making  its  annual  visits 
with  ever-widening  beneficial  results.  The 
Bible  declares  that  man  is  made  in  the  image 
of  God,  and  as  such  is  capable  of  redemp- 
tion ;  and  the  wondrous  transformation  is 
going  on  before  our  eyes ;  this  is  the  two- 
fold and  unanswerable  vindication  of  the 
reasonableness  of  our  endeavor. 

3.  Here  the  question  may  be  raised.  Is 
there  any  necessity  for  interference  with 
other  religions  and  civilizations,  for  an  active 


EPIPHANY 


65 


and  organized  propagandism  ?  Why  not  trust 
to  the  inherent  forces  of  human  nature,  in 
the  confident  assurance  that  these  will  be 
sufficient,  ultimately,  to  renew  the  face  of 
the  earth  ?  The  law  of  progress  is  elastic ; 
why  seek  to  reduce  it  to  rigid  uniformity  in 
method  and  result?  Why  not  leave  China, 
India,  and  Africa  to  work/ out  their  own  re- 
generation in  their  own  /way,  as  we  have 
dene?  Because  ive  have  not  done  it;  be- 
cause our  Anglo-America/ti  civilization  owes 
its  origin,  its  energy,  its  conquering  supe- 
riority, to  elements  that  were  brought  into 
it  by  the  missionaries  of  Christianity.  Until 
they  came,  our  ancestors  were  ignorant,  su- 
perstitious, cruel.  That  human  nature  is 
under  a  constitutional  law  of  ethical  progress 
is  the  purest  of  assumptions,  contradicted  by 
all  ethnic  testimony.  All  history  shows  that 
until  the  time  of  Christ  the  moral  degeneracy 
of  the  world  was  rapid,  continuous,  and  uni- 
versal; and  since  then,  the  path  has  been 
an  upward  one  only  for  those  nations  who 
have  received  the  Gospel.  Elsewhere  the 
darkness  still  deepens,  and  no  native  prophets 
appear,  clear  of  vision  and  strong  of  hand,  to 
lift  the  millions  from  the  grave  of  spiritual 
death.  The  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India,  under 
the  leadership  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  has 
seemed  to  not  a  few  prophetic  of  a  near  na- 
tional self-regeneration.  It  repudiates  alike 
Christianity  and  Hinduism,  presenting  as  its 
creed  a  strange  mixture  of  Oriental  philoso- 
phy and  Christian  ideas.  It  reminds  one  of 
the  ancient  Gnosticism,  in  which  both  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Greek  philosophy  were  sup- 
posed to  have  found  their  higher  interpreta- 
tion and  final  reconciliation.  The  Indian 
Gnosticism  finds  its  chief  value  in  the  confes- 
sion that  the  East  needs  a  new  religion.  Na- 
tional pride  succumbs  with  difficulty ;  it 
would  save  at  least  a  few  fragments  from 
the  ruins  of  the  Indian  temples,  incorporat- 
ing them  with  the  new  Christianity  to  which 
Asia  is  to  give  birth ;  but  the  stone  has  smit- 
ten the  colossal  image  of  Indian  heathenism, 
and  there  can  be  no  cessation  in  the  mighty 
moral  and  spiritual  revolution  until  the 
Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  is  domi- 
nant throughout  the  great  peninsula.  And 
what  India  needs,  Japan  and  China  and 
Africa  must  have.  They  will  not  regenerate 
themselves.  The  forces  requisite  to  produce 
such  a  result  are  not  lodged  in  human  na- 
ture. They  must  come  from  above.  They 
must  be  carried  abroad  by  those  who  have 
been  made  partakers  of  the  heavenly  light 
and  life.  The  Gospel  of  Christ,  in  our  hands, 
is  the  flaming  torch  that  is  to  dissipate  the 
world's  darkness,  and  the  mighty  hammer 
under  whose  blows  its  chains  are  to  be 
broken  and  its  prisons  demolished. 

4.  I  have  tried  to  set  forth  and  vindicate 
the  unconditional  obligation,  the  inherent 
reasonableness,  and  the  historical  necessity 
of  Christian  missions.  The  strong  ought  to 
bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak.  Such  is  the 
order  of  history,  the  law  of  reason,  and  the 
life  of  God.  But  the  principle  does  not 
regard  its  beneficiaries  as  objects  merely 
of    pity,     but     as     subjects     of     moral    dis- 


cipline. They  are  weak,  not  by  misfortune, 
but  by  guilt.  The  actual  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  does  not  inaugurate  for  them  the 
period  of  moral  probation ;  the  law  is  writ- 
ten on  their  hearts,  conscience  is  active  in  the 
accusing  and  excusing  thoughts,  the  truth  is 
held  down  in  unrighteousness,  and  they  are 
without  excuse.  Heathenism  discloses  no 
organic  law  of  ethical  progress ;  it  is  not  a 
stage  in  religious  development ;  it  is  an 
equally  fatal  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  un- 
evangelized  nations  are  innocent  children  of 
nature,  or  the  irresponsible  waifs  of  misfor- 
tune. They  are  men,  and  we  must  deal  with 
them  as  men.  Their  slumbering  and  para- 
lyzed manhood,  drugged  and  weakened  by  de- 
liberate wickedness,  must  be  roused  and 
quickened.  Their  spiritual  personality,  their 
original,  constitutional,  and  indivisible  moral 
accountability  must  be  persistently  recog- 
nized and  addressed.  They  can  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  only  through  the  strait 
gate,  where  the  eternal  law  convinces  them 
of  sin  and  judgment.  Remembering  this,  our 
task  is  immensely  simplified,  and  the  sim- 
plicity of  method  prepares  the  way  for 
greater  intensity  and  concentration  in  execu- 
tion. It  is  not  our  business  to  inaugurate 
for  any  man  the  period  of  moral  agency. 
With  that,  and  with  all  conditioned  upon  it, 
we  have  absolutely  nothing  to  do.  Nor  are 
we  summoned  to  assume  the  moral,  educa- 
tional, and  industrial  activity  of  those  tO' 
whom  we  carry  the  Gospel.  They  must,  as 
men  like  unto  ourselves,  under  the  leadership- 
of  Christ,  work  out  their  own  salvation.  It 
is  our  sole  business  to  make  men  the  disci- 
ples of  Christ.  It  is  not  our  duty  to  educate 
them,  or  to  emancipate  them,  or  to  civilize 
them,  but  to  Christianize  them.  Culture,  po- 
litical liberty,  industrial  improvement,  will 
follow;  but  none  of  the  products  of  Chris- 
tian civilization  will  come  to  stay  until 
Christianity  has  taken  root;  and  then  they 
will  come  without  foreign  pressure.  It  was 
a  timely  utterance  of  President  Angell,  at 
Detroit,  a  few  weeks  since,  made  all  the  more 
impressive  by  the  history  of  our  American 
missions,  when,  speaking  in  behalf  of  China, 
he  said :  "  The  great  empire  will  not  receive 
and  keep  your  locomotives  and  telegraphs 
until  she  has  bowed  the  knee  to  your  Christ. 
She  will  not  yield  her  ancient  civilization 
until  she  has  surrendered  her  religion."  We 
believe  in  schools,  in  literature,  in  deliver- 
ance from  political  tyranny,  in  social  im- 
provement; but  all  these  must  be  the  spon- 
taneous outgrowth  of  something  deeper  and 
more  radical — the  life  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
the  souls  of  men.  The  tree  must  be  planted 
before  the  fruits  can  le  eaten. 

5.  And  yet  the  simplicity  and  directness  of 
our  task  also  adds  to  its  difificulty.  For  it  is 
easier  to  carry  a  child  than  to  teach  it  the  use 
of  its  own  feet.  It  is  easier  to  do  something 
for  your  neighbor  than  to  spur  him  to  help 
himself.  It  is  easier  to  feed  a  beggar  than 
to  induce  him  to  eat  the  bread  of  his  own 
earning.  It  would  be  easy  to  cover  the  globe 
with  a  network  of  schools ;  to  set  up  a 
printing  press   in  every   city   and  town;    ta 


6(> 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


build  a  church  for  every  thousand  of  the 
world's  inhabitants.  That  would  require  only 
money.  But  the  change  would  be  nominal 
and  apparent  only.  The  hidden  life  must  be 
stirred  to  mighty  and  continuous  action,  and 
that  requires  wisdom  and  patience  even  more 
than  generosity.  And  so  the  question,  than 
which  none  can  be  more  momentous,  recurs : 
"  Is  there  sufficient  energy  behind  the  law 
whose  authority  binds  us,  whose  reasonable- 
ness commands  our  hearty  approval,  whose 
necessity  is  apparent  ?  "  Is  there  any  good 
hope  of  success?  The  task  to  which, we  are 
summoned   is  one  of  unparalleled  boldness, 


requiring  the  loftiest  faith,  the  most  un- 
wearied patience,  the  most  untiring  and  gen- 
erous enthusiasm.  Neither  Alexander,  nor 
Caesar,  nor  Napoleon  dreamed  of  such  an 
empire  as  that  to  whose  establishment  Jesus 
Christ  calls  us.  Is  there  energy  adequate  to 
the  aim?  Yes,  verily.  For  He  who  com- 
mands us  to  this  service  is  He  who  bore  our 
infirmities,  who  died  to  save  the  race,  and 
who  rose  again,  fathoming  our  misery  and 
guilt,  leaping  from  the  cross  and  the  tomb 
to  the  throne  of  universal  and  eternal  do- 
minion. And  by  that  sign  we  conquer ! — 
H.  R. 


GIVING  AND  DOING  FOR  THE  LORD 

By  F.  N.  Peloubet 
Ex.  XXXV :  20-27 


I.  The  Object.  The  chapter  in  which  the 
present  lesson  occurs  contains  an  account  of 
the  call  which  Moses  made  upon  the  liberal- 
ity of  the  people  (vers.  4-20),  at  the^divine 
command  (Ex.  xxv:  1-8),  for  materTals  for 
a  sanctuary,  and  of  the  response  of  the  peo- 
ple to  that  call  (vers.  21-29).  A  small  tax, 
arnounting  to  half  a  shekel  of  silver,  or  about 
thirty  cents  of  our  money,  was  levied  upon 
each  man,  according  to  the  divine  directions 
(Ex.  XXX :  12-16),  without  regard  to  his 
wealth  or  poverty,  in  order  to  enforce  the 
idea  of  the  equal  obligation  of  all  to  God. 
But  beyond  this  the  supply  of  the  materials 
necessary  for  the  building  of  the  Tabernacle 
was  left  wholly  to  the  voluntary  offerings  of 
the  people,  which  were  extremely  liberal. 

The  Tabernacle  and  its  furniture  were  to 
be  as  costly  and  as  precious  as  possible,  as  an 
expression  of  honor  to  God,  and  a  symbol  of 
the  preciousness  of  His  presence  and  care. 
The  whole  expense  must  have  been  at  least 
a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars. 

The  MISSIONARY  WORK  is  one  of  the  great 
instrumentalities  for  building  up  God's  spir- 
itual temple,  the  most  costly  and  precious 
object  in  the  world.  Our  Sunday-schools 
should  know  what  this  work  is,  the  different 
societies  which  are  working  for  it,  and  what 
they  are  doing,  and  especially  those  depart- 
ments in  which  each  one's  own  church  is 
most  engaged. 

II.  The  Contributions  for  this  Object 
(vers.  20-29).  The  spoil  of  the  Egyptians 
was  brought  as  a  free-will  offering  to  Jeho- 
vah,— jewels  and  precious  metals,  skins  and 
woven  fabrics,  spices,  oils,  and  incense. 
They  soon  found  the  offerings  of  the  people 
far  above  what  was  required :  and  they  made 
the  Tabernacle,  with  its  furniture  and  ves- 
sels, the  cloths  of  service,  and  the  garments 
of  the  priests,  after  the  pattern  shown  to 
Moses  in  the  mount ;  and  Moses  blessed 
them. 

Their  hearts  (ver.  21),  their  spiritual  na- 
ture, feelings,  intellect,  and  will,  stirred  them 
up.  by  the  opportunity  to  express  their  grati- 
tude to  God,  to  aid  in  the  cause  of  religion, 
and  confirm  and  train  the  nation.     The  blue, 


purple,  and  scarlet  (vers.  23,  25)  means  the 
woolen  yarn  or  cloth,  dyed  these  colors,  out 
of  which  to  make  curtains  and  coverings  for 
the  tabernacle,  and  vestments  for  the  priest. 
Onyx  stones  (ver.  27)  are  most  probably 
some  variety  of  the  stone  known  in  modern 
times  as  the  "  onyx,"  a  stone  formed  of 
strata  of  different  colors.  It  is  called  the 
onyx,  because,  as  the  color  of  the  iiesh  ap- 
pears through  the  nail  (Greek  onyx)  of  the 
human  body,  so  the  reddish  mass  which  is 
below  shines  delicately  through  the  whitish 
surface  of  the  onyx.  The  twelve  stones  were 
to  be  set  in  gold.  The  settings  mav  have 
been  separate,  but  it  is  much  more'  likely 
they  were  connected  in  a  square  frame  of 
gold,  which  was  attached  to  the  variegated 
cloth  of  the  breastplate,  as  the  settings  of  the 
onyx  stones  to  the  shoulder-straps  of  the 
ephod.  The  ephod  consisted  of  two  prin- 
cipal pieces  of  cloth,  one  for  the  back  and 
the  other  for  the  front,  joined  together  by 
shoulder-strans,  below  the  arms ;  probably 
the  two  pieces  were  kept  in  place  by  a  band 
attached  to  one  of  the  pieces  just  above  the 
hips.  The  breastplate  was  the  most  costly, 
beautiful,  and  glorious  part  of  the  high 
priest's  dress.  •  It  was  doubled,  so  as  to  form 
a  kind  of  bag,  a  span  in  length  and  in 
breadth:  it  was  worn  on  the  heart  of  the 
high  priest.  It  was  enriched  with  twelve 
precious  stones,  all  set  in  gold,  each  stone 
having  written  upon  it  the  name  of  one  of 
the  tribes  of  Israel.  It  was  made  of  linen, 
embroidered  with  colors  and  gold,  and  was 
fastened  by  golden  chains  to  the  onyx  stones 
on  the  shoulders,  and  to  the  girdle  of  the 
ephod. 

Note  that  these  contributions  were  (i) 
free-will  offerings,  (2)  rich  and  costly. 
They  "gave  till  they  felt  it."  (3)  Very 
abundant,  so  that  Moses  had  to  tell  them  to 
give  no  more.  (4)  They  worked,  as  well  as 
gave.  (5)  Each  one  did  his  part,  men  and 
women,  rulers  and  people.  Calculate  the 
amount  of  the  gifts,  if  each  member  of  the 
church  and  Sabbath-school  should  give,  ac- 
cording to  his  ability,  as  freely  and  gener- 
ously as  these  Israelites  did. 


EPIPHANY 


67 


WHO  ONLY  DOETH  WONDROUS  THINGS 

By  Sidney  Dickinson 


Ps.  Ixii:  1 8 


Nothing  is  so  wonderful,  no,  not  the  wild- 
est dreams  of  poet's  imagination,  as  what 
God  has  actually  done  for  His  people.  The 
sending  of  His  Son  from  heaven,  His  life 
and  death  expressing  infinite  love,  and  the 
transforming  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are 
all  transcendent  wonders. 

Illustr.vtions.  (i)  The  day  of  Pentecost. 
(2)  The  fruits  of  missions  during  the  last 
fifty  years.  (3)  In  the  Boston  Journal  of 
this  morning,  in  which  I  am  completing  this 
lesson  (May,  1891),  is  one  of  a  series  of  let- 
ters from  the  Fiji  Islands  from  a  traveler, 
expressing  his  astonishment  at  the  marvelous 
clianges  there,  from  a  savage,  ignorant,  war- 
like race  of  cruel  cannibals  to  a  quiet  and 
peaceful  civilized  people.  An  excellent  illus- 
tration of  these  changes  is  at  the  missionary 
station  in  Mbau,  where  the  present  large  and 
commodious  Christian  church  is  chiefly  built 


of  the  walls  of  a  former  great  heathen  tem- 
ple, in  which  the  "  devil  priests  "  in  fantastic 
and  terrifying  garb  superintended  the  satanic 
cannibal  feasts ;  and  where  the  great  stone 
of  human  sacrifice  is  now  used  as  a  baptis- 
mal font.  Christianity  has  slowly  overcome 
cannibalism  and  many  other  barbarous  cus- 
toms. Even  as  recently  as  twenty  years  ago 
missionary  labor  was  hazardous.  "  When  I 
was  a  school  boy,  Fiji  was  the  synonym  of 
all  that  was  barbarous  and  cannibalistic ;  that 
I  should  ever  travel  to  this  land  of  the  man- 
eaters  in  a  steamer  like  a  floating  palace  and 
lighted  with  electricity,  never,  I  am  sure,  en- 
tered my  head."  "  Among  our  ship's  com- 
pany from  Melbourne  was  a  missionary  who 
thrice  saw  the  fires  kindled  to  roast  him, 
and  the  executioner  standing  with  his  club 
awaiting  the  word  to  knock  him  on  the  head. 
Some  providential  influence  prevented." — B.  J. 


THE  WINNER  OF  SOULS 

The  fruit  of  the  righteous  is  a  tree  of  life ;    and  he  that  winneth  souls   is  wise. — Prov.  xi:  so 


The  central  thought  of  this  whole  passage 
from  verse  17  to  30  is  that  a  true  life  termi- 
nates upon  otiicrs.  The  righteous  becomes 
a  sort  of  sacramental  tree  of  life,  imparting 
life,  or,  to  use  a  very  different  figure,  a 
fisher  of  men,  a  captor  of  souls.  The  em- 
phasis is  on  the  wisdom  that  wins  men.  A 
fisher  does  everything  to  get  fish  on  his  hook 
or  in  his  net,  to  capture  his  prey.  Piety  must 
be  winning  not  repulsive. 

Consider  the  application. 

I.  To  preachers.  Every  one  who  teaches 
truth  is  a  lens  through  which  truth  reaches 
souls.  How  important  that  there  be  no  false 
color  in  the  medium  lest  a  wrong  and  false 
hue  be  given  to  the  truth.  A  young  student 
preached  in  a  theological  seminary  upon 
God's  wrath,  and  so  vindictive  did  he  make 
God  appear  that  a  little  boy  who  was  present 
went  home  and  told  his  mother  that  he  heard 
a  man  preach  ''  about  a  wicked  God."  The 
preacher   needs   a   regenerate  temper,    other- 


wise he  is  liable  to  impart  to  his  representa- 
tions of  God  his  own  wilfulness,  arbitrari- 
ness, impatience,  censoriousness,  etc. 

2.  To  disciples.  "  Ye  are  our  epistle  " — 
it  is  to  be  feared  many  of  these  "  living  epis- 
tles "  sadly  need  revision ;  they  do  great  in- 
justice to  the  original.  Even  Cretan  servants 
and  slaves  "  adorned  the  doctrine."  The  poor 
Indian  in  Mexico  said  he  would  "  rather  go  to 
hell  than  to  the  same  heaven  with  his  Spanish 
tyrant  and  oppressor."  How  can  we  win  men 
or  be  to  them  a  tree  of  life  while  our  own 
character  and  conduct  repel  ?  The  exclusive 
sectarian  bigot  cannot  teach  charity ;  the  bad 
tempered  man  is  a  poor  instructor  in  gentle- 
ness, and  the  selfish  man  in  self-sacrifice. 
Let  us  study  Christ,  as  a  winner  of  souls, 
with  the  woman  at  the  well,  etc.  An  infidel 
fled  from  the  society  of  Fenelon  lest  he 
should  be  compelled  to  be  himself  a  disciple. 
Hume  acknowledged  that  his  philosophy 
could  not  explain  a  true  Christian  life. — H.  R. 


THE  HARVEST  AND  THE  LABORERS 

By  F.  N.  Peloubet 
Matt,  ix:  35-38 


I.  The  Example  of  Jesus  as  a  Mission- 
ary (vers.  35,  36).  Jesus  came  from  heaven 
as  a  missionary  to  this  world,  and  He  here 
gives  us  an  insight  into  His  method,  (i) 
He  felt   the   needs   of  men.     He   "so   loved 


the  world."  He  saw  men  perishing;  He 
longed  to  save.  (2)  He  preached  the  simple 
Gospel.  The  plain  truths  about  the  king- 
dom, and  the  way  into  it.  (3)  He  helps 
men's  bodies  as  well  as  souls.     The  Gospel 


68 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


that  does  not  make  men  kinder,  more  help- 
ful, more  healthy,  that  does  not  seek  to  re- 
lieve want,  and  minister  to  the  sick,  and  help 
every  kind  of  need,  is  no  true  Gospel. 

Examples.  Every  earnest  Church  is  an 
example.  Every  mission  station  is  an  exam- 
ple. Facts.  Schools,  colleges,  hospitals,  re- 
formatories, houses  for  the  aged,  etc.,  spring 
up  everywhere  that  the  Gospel  is  preached  and 
lived.  Where  there  is  the  most  Christianity, 
there  are  the  largest  efforts  to  relieve  the 
temporal  wants  of  men.  Proofs.  These 
things  are  the  proofs  that  we  are  sincere  in 
offering  the  spiritual  Gospel. 

H.  The  Harvest  (vers.  36,  27)-  The  har- 
vest is  plenteous,  (i)  All  without  the  Gos- 
pel in  their  hearts  are  included  in  this  har- 
vest to  be  gathered.  (2)  Investigate  your 
own  town  or  neighborhood  and  church  dis- 
trict, and  see  how  great  this  harvest  is.  (3) 
Look  over  the  whole  world  and  see  how 
great  is  the  harvest.  (4)  Consider  what 
part  of  this  harvest  is  given  you  to  reap. 

Illustration.    A    chart    has    been     con- 
structed with  the  aim  of  awakening  a  new  , 
interest  in  the  salvation  of  the  world.    It  is 


divided  into  1,434  one-inch  squares,  each  rep- 
resenting a  million  people.  391  squares  rep- 
resent the  391  millions  in  Christian  nations; 
seven  squares,  or  seven  millions,  are  Jews; 
170  millions  are  Mohammedans ;  and  1,034 
millions  are  in  black  for  Pagans.  The  only 
mistake  is  in  not  dotting  this  mass  of  dark- 
ness with  radiant  stars  for  the  places  where 
mission  stations  are  shining  with  Gospel  light 
in  the  blackness  of  heathenism.  But  we  thus 
see  how  plenteous  is  the  harvest. 

III.  The  Laborers  (vers.  Z7>  38;  1-8). 
They  are  few,  but  we  can  make  them  more, 
(i)  By  prayer,  (2)  by  becoming  laborers 
ourselves,  (3)  by  becoming  better  laborers. 
Have  the  scholars  learn  the  names  of  the 
twelve  Apostles,  and  something  about  them. 

Note  in  reference  to  them,  and  apply  to 
present  times:  (i)  Their  call.  God  calls  us 
(a)  by  the  opportunity  to  do  good,  (b)  by 
fitness  to  do  it,  (c)  by  His  spirit.  (2)  With^ 
the  call,  Jesus  gave  them  power  and  author'^ 
ity.  (3)  They  were  to  preach  the  Gospel. 
(4)  They  were  to  do  good.  (5)  The  obliga- 
tion was  increased  by  the  fact  that  they  had 
freely  received  so  much  from  Jesus. 


THE  GREAT  COMMISSION 

By  F.  N.  Peloubet 


Matt,  xxviii:  16-20 


I.  The  Great  Meeting  (vers.  16,  17). 
This,  the  great  meeting,  during  the  forty 
days,  including  the  apostles  and  500  disciples. 
Final  instruction.  Worship  of  Christ. 
Doubts  of  these  men  leading  to  our  certain- 
ties. 

II.  The  Great  Commission.  Missionary 
(vers.  18,  19).  Explain  the  passage.  The 
grandeur  of  the  idea.  The  nobleness  of  the 
work.  Where  our  missionary  work  lies — 
home  and  abroad.  What  each  of  us  can  do. 
Objections  to  foreign  missions.  What  has 
been  already  done.  Necessity  of  obeying  this 
command,  to  the  growth  and  purity  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  individual  Christian.  The 
duty  of  baptism.  The  value  to  a  young  con- 
vert of  a  public  profession  of  religion. 

Illustrations.  (i)  Real  light  always 
shines,  and  the  brighter  the  light,  the  farther 
it  shines.  (2)  Flowing,  moving  water  is 
pure.  Stagnant  water  becomes  impure.  (3) 
The  spinning  top  stands;  stop  its  spinning, 
and  it  falls. 

Archdeacon  Farrar  says  that  "  he  who 
talks  of  missions  as  a  failure,  uses  the  lan- 
guage of  ignorant  error  as  an  excuse  for  un- 
christian sloth."  We  are  apt  to  know  the 
work  of  our   own   denomination   only;    but 


read  Dr.  Christlieb  on  Foreign  Missions,  and 
the  World's  Progress,  by  Dr.  Dorchester, 
and  we  shall  begin  to  understand  the  marvel- 
ous extent  of  missionary  work,  and  the  con- 
quering progress  of  the  Gospel.  In  this 
country  alone  there  were  raised 

For  Foreign 

Missions. 
In  the  thirty  years  .  .  1820  to  1850.  .  ,  $8,666,600 
In  the  next  thirty  years    1850  to  1880.    .     .     43,007,090 

For  Home 

Missions. 
In  the  thirty  jrears  .  .  1820  to  1850.  .  .  $5,382,000 
In  the  next  thirty  years    1850  to  1880.    .    .     45,331,700 

At  the  end  of  the  first  1,000  years  from  the  birth  of 

Christ  there  were  50,000,000  in  Christian  lands. 
In  the  next  500  years  the  number  was  doubled,  and 

there  were  100  000,000  in  1500  A.  D. 
This  number  was  doubled  in  the  next  300  years,  and 

there  were  200,000,000  in  1800  a.  d. 
This  number  was  again  doubled  in  the  next  80  years, 

and  there  are  415,000,000  in  1880  A.  D. 
And  the  progress  is  growing  more  and  more  rapid 

III.  The  Great  Commission.  Teaching 
(ver.  20).  The  duty  and  privilege  of  teach- 
ing and  of  being  taught.  What  to  teach. 
Where  to  learn  it.  The  great  encourage- 
ments from  the  presence  of  Jesus. 

IV.  The  Ascension  and  its  lessons.  What 
Jesus  is  now  doing  in  heaven  for  us, — a  liv- 
ing, guiding,  loving,  omnipotent  Savior. 


EPIPHANY 


69 


THE  FOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


By  Alexander  McLaren 

Matt,  xiv:  19,  20 


I.  Christ  feeds  the  famishing  world  by 
MEANS  OF  His  Church.  "  He  gave  the 
loaves  to  His  disciples,  and  the  disciples  to 
the  multitude." 

1.  The  food,  ahho  supernaturally  pro- 
vided, is  carried  to  the  hungry  by  the  ordi- 
nary means ;  the  disciples  gave  it  to  the  mul- 
titude. 

2.  The  disciples  were  prepared  for  their 
work.  The  first  lesson  they  had  to  learn 
was  the  almost  ludicrous  disproportion  be- 
tween the  means  at  their  command  and  the 


necessities  of  the  crowd.  "  How  many  loaves 
have  ye  ?     Go  and  see." 

3.  We  must  carry  our  poor  and  inadequate 
resources  to  Christ.  "  Bring  them  hither  to 
me." 

H.  The  bread  is  enough  for  all  the 
world.     "  They  did  all  eat,  and  were  filled." 

HI.  The  bread   which    is   given   to   the 

FAMISHING  IS    MULTIPLIED  FOR   THE  FUTURE  OF 

THE  DISTRIBUTORS.  "  They  took  of  the  frag- 
ments that  remained  twelve  baskets  full." — 
H.  R. 


THE  MISSIONARY  DUTY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

By  F.  N.  Peloubet 

Matt,  xxviii:  16-20 


Observe  that  this  command  implies  (i) 
that  Christianity  is  a  universal  religion,  not 
merely  one  of  the  religions  of  the  world ; 
(2)  that  it  is  adapted  to  all  nations  and  all 
classes  (Rom.  i:i6),  a  claim  which  history 
has  abundantly  justified;  (3)  that  not  a 
natural  development,  but  obedience  to  the 
principles  inculcated  by  Jesus  Christ,  con- 
stitutes the  secret  of  true  civilization  among 
all  nations,  and  thus  that  Christian  missions 
are  the  mother  of  civilization;  (4)  that  from 
all  nations  the  members  of  Christ's  Church 
triumphant  are  to  be  gathered  to  God  by 
obedience  to  this  commission  (Rom.  x:ii- 
13) — Abbott.  The  very  soul  of  our  religion 
is  missionary,  progressive,  world-embracing; 
it  would  cease  to  exist  if  it  ceased  to  be  mis- 
sionary, if  it  disregarded  the  parting  words 
of  its  Founder. — Max  Muller. 

1.  This  is  the  command  of  Christ.  The 
Church  cannot  be  obedient,  and  let  one  na- 
tion be  without  the  Gospel.  The  duty  is 
obligatory,  not  on  ministers  and  mission- 
aries alone,  but  upon  the  whole  Church.  The 
commission  was  given,  not  to  the  apostles 
only,  but  to  the  whole  body  of  five  hundred 
disciples. 

2.  This  command  includes  home  missions 
as  well  as   foreign;    our  own  neighborhood 


as  well  as  more  distant  places.  But  mission- 
ary effort  must  not  be  confined  to  the  home 
field.  Every  nation  needs  the  Gospel  as 
much  as  ours  need    it. 

3.  It  is  the  nature  of  a  living  Christianity 
to  be  missionary.  Max  Miiller  says  that  of 
all  religions,  only  the  missionary  religions 
are  living.  That  Church  is  dead  which  is 
not  anxious  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature. 

4.  This  is  the  only  way  the  Church  will 
keep  pure.  Nothing  without  this  can  keep 
the  doctrine  or  life  pure :  organizations, 
creeds,  persecutions — all  have  failed.  But 
any  Church  which  seeks  to  save  souls  will 
keep  pure,  because  it  cannot  do  its  work 
without  the  great  main  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

5.  The  true  Broad  Church  cares  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world;  the  Narrow  Church 
is  the  one  that  cares  chiefly  for  itself  and 
for  temporal  things. 

6.  The  Church  at  home  is  built  up  faster 
by  working  for  the  heathen. 

7.  The  grandeur  of  this  work  exalts  the  in- 
dividual Christians  who  give  and  labor. 

8.  It  is  blessed  to  have  part  in  the  final 
triumph  of  the  Gospel. 


THE  DEMONIAC  OF  GERASA,  TYPE  OF  HEATHENISM 


Mark  v:  20 


1.  Heathenism  is  a  place  of  Tombs. 
Spiritual  death  and  decay.  Bodily  disease, 
intellectual  degradation  and  wreck  of  true 
faith. 

2.  Humanity  is  possessed  of  unclean 
spirits.     Heathenism     sacrifices     to     demons, 


not  to  God.     The  whole  system  of  idolatry 
is  Satanic. 

3.  Their  name  is  Legion.  Every  conceiv- 
able form  of  inhumanity,  cruelty,  injustice, 
may  be  found  linked  with  idolatry,  caste^ 
woman's  thraldom,  infanticide,  torture,  can- 


70 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


nibalism,  slavery,  etc.  Often  paganism  has 
been  exceeding  fierce,  imperiling  the  lives 
even  of  travelers,  not  to  say  missionaries. 

4.  Heathenism  feeds  and  has  affinitv  for 
the  swine  of  bestial  and  brutal  lusts  and  pas- 
sions. It  panders  to  the  animal  nature  and 
gives  the  body  full  sway.  Witness  polj^gamy, 
drunkenness,  etc. 

5.  Heathenism  is  materialistic,  valuing  a 
herd  more  than  a  human  being,  and  oppos- 


ing   a    religion    that    makes    man    holy,    if   it 
imperils  an  unholy  trade. 

On  the  contrary — the  Gospel  casts  out  the 
evil  spirit,  brings  those  who  are  possessed 
to  a  right  mind,  shows  its  greatest  proofs 
in  its  own  transformed  converts,  and  sends 
them  out  to  be  evangelists  of  its  power.  Its 
power  is  thus  manifested  in  (i)  Exor- 
cism, (2)  Transformation,  (3)  Evangelism. 
— H.  R. 


THE  FESTIVAL  OF  EPIPHANY 

By  H.  Melvill 
John  viii:  12 


\.  There  is  no  figure  more  common  in 
Scripture,  and  none  more  beautiful,  than  that 
by  which  Christ  is  likened  unto  light.  In- 
comprehensible in  its  nature,  itself  the  first 
visible,  and  that  by  which  all  things  are 
seen,  light  represents  to  us  Christ.  Whose 
generation  none  can  declare,  but  Who  must 
shine  upon  us  ere  we  can  know  aught  aright, 
whether  of  things  Divine  or  human.  Itself 
pure  and  uncontaminated,  tho  visiting  the 
lowest  parts  of.  the  earth,  and  penetrating  its 
most  noisome  recesses,  what  does  light 
image,  if  not  that  undefiled  Mediator  who 
contracted  no  stain,  tho  born  of  a  woman 
in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh?  Who  can 
question  that  the  rising  of  Jesus  Christ  was 
to  the  moral  world  what  the  sun  is  to  the 
natural ? 

II.  Without  pleading  that  the  state  of  the 
world,  before  Christ  came,  was  a  state  of 
total  darkness,  we  may  yet  affirm  that  Christ 
emphatically  came  as  the  light  of  the  world. 
In  no  district  of  the  earth — not  even  in  Ju- 
daea, tho  privileged  with  revelation — was 
there  anything  that  could  be  called  more 
than  the  dawning  of  the  day.  Types  there 
were — significative  ceremonies — mysterious 
emblems,  but  these  do  not  constitute  the  day. 
At  best,  they  were  but  a  twilight,  that  gave 
promise  of  the  morning;    and  if  that  be  all 


we  can  affirm  of  Judaea,  then  certainly,  until 
the  light  of  which  we  have  been  speaking, 
there  brooded  over  other  lands  a  darkness 
that  might  be  felt.  Here  and  there  were 
lingering  traces  of  a  patriarchical  religion ; 
but  every  year  saw  the  gathering  of  thicker 
gloom,  and  streak  after  streak  grew  dim  on 
the  firmament. 

III.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  whole  Gen- 
tile world  when  He  appeared,  whom  the 
prophecy  announced  as  "  a  light  to  them  that 
sit  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death." 
Was  the  testimony  exaggerated,  or  has  it 
been  justified  by  events?  Wheresoever  the 
Gospel  has  been  published  and  received  as  a 
communication  from  God,  the  darkness  has 
fled  as  night  flies  before  the  sun.  It  hath 
hung  the  very  grave  with  bright  lamps,  and 
rekindled  the  spirit  of  an  almost  quenched 
immortality.  The  pardon  of  sin,  justifica- 
tion through  the  Mediator's  righteousness, 
the  gradual  overcoming  of  the  corruptions  of 
nature,  guidance  in  difficulty,  guardianship  m 
danger,  comfort  in  affliction,  triumph  m 
death — all  these  are  in  the  portion  of  him  who 
follows  Christ — followeth  Him  in  faith  as 
his  surety,  in  obedience  as  his  pattern.  And 
are  not  these  the  light — yea,  the  light  of  life? 
— S.  B.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  57. 


THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD 

By  F.  D.  Maurice 

John  viii:  12 


I.  Jesus  had  often  spoken  this  word  before. 
Every  act  of  mercy  He  did,  spoke  to  the  men 
who  were  the  subjects  of  it.  St.  John  dwells 
specially  upon  His  cure  of  blindness.  He 
takes  that  as  an  instance,  and  the  clearest 
and  liveliest  instance,  of  the  effects  which 
were  produced  by  all  His  miracles.  Each 
sufferer  felt  that  a  power  of  darkness  had 
taken  hold  of  him ;  that  a  portion  of  the 
beauty  :md  joy  of  the  universe  was  hidden 
from  him.  The  appearance  of  a  deliverer 
who  could  set  him  free  from  his  plague,  was 


the  appearance  of  a  Light.  He  was  brought 
out  of  a  cave ;  the  air  that  breathed  upon 
the  rest  of  men,  was  breathing  on  him ;  the 
common  sun  was  shining  on  him.  Christ's 
word  was  light ;  the  entrance  of  it  into  the 
soul  gave  light,  and  that  light  diffused  itself 
through  everv  part  of  the  man.  It  brought 
health  and  vigor  wherever  it  encountered 
sickness  and  decay. 

II.  Divines  are  wont  to  make  distinctions 
between  Christ  the  Teacher  of  the  world  at 
large,   and   Christ  the   Teacher  of  the   heart 


EPIPHANY 


71 


and  conscience  of  each  man.  They  talk  of 
an  outward  Christ  and  an  inward  Christ. 
The  Evangelists  indulge  in  no  such  refine- 
ments. The  Christ  who  was  born  of  the 
Virgin,  who  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate, 
reveals  Himself — not  to  the  eyes  of  those 
who  actually  see  and  handle  Him,  but  to  a 
spirit  within  them.  And  so  there  is  no  need 
of  artificial  rules  and  distinctions,  such  as 
doctors  invent  for  their  own  confusion.  The 
Light  makes  the  distinction.  It  is  not  the 
distinction  of  Pharisee  or  Publican,  of  religi- 
ous men  or  irreligious.  It  goes  deeper  than 
that.  It  is  the  distinction  between  that  in 
every   man   which   welcomes   the   light,    and 


claims  kindred  with  it,  and  that  in  every  man 
which  eschews  the  light  and  would  fain  ex- 
tinguish it  for  ever.  It  expresses  itself  in 
these  words.  "  He  that  followeth  me  shall 
not  walk  in  darkness."  The  Light  of  the 
world  is  not  put  out.  Now  have  death  and 
the  grave  been  converted  into  the  great  tes- 
timonies for  life  and  immortality.  Now  may 
each  man,  who  has  the  sentence  of  Adam 
upon  him,  know  that  he  is  a  kinsman  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Now  may  he  follow  Him ;  and 
so,  when  the  darkness  is  thickest  around  him 
and  within,  not  walk  in  it,  but  see  the  Light 
of  Life. — S.  B.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  58. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ANGELS,  Ministry  of. — It  is  a  great 
thought  on  this  subject,  that  the  human  race 
furnislies  but  a  small  part  of  the  holy  minis- 
tries of  this  world.  The  ministry  of  angels 
probably  swells  what  we  call  minorities  to 
secret  majorities.  '"  Are  they  not  all  minis- 
tering spirits?"  Invisible  multitudes  prob- 
ably fill  the  air  with  their  busy  pinions  in 
service  to  the  right.  One  of  England's  great 
poets  says  of  a  noted  champion  of  liberty : — 

"  Thou  hast  left  behind 
Powers  that  will  work  for   thee;  air,  earth, 

and   skies ; 
There's    not    a    breathing    of   the    common 

winds 
That  will  forget  thee.    Thou  hast  great  allies. 
.  .  .  Winds  blow  and  waters  roll 
Strength  to  the  brave." 

But  the  friend  of  Christ  has  allies  more 
imperial  than  skies  and  winds  and  waters. — 
Professor  Austin  Phelps. 

CHURCH,  The  Light  of  the.— I sa.  Ix:  i. 
There  is  a  little  church  on  a  lonely  hillside 
where  they  have  neither  gas  nor  lamps,  and 
yet  on  darkest  nights  they  hold  Divine  serv- 
ice. Each  worshiper,  coming  a  great  dis- 
tance from  village  or  moorland  home,  brings 
with  him  a  taper  and  lights  it  from  one  sup- 
plied and  carried  by  the  minister  of  the  little 
church.  The  building  is  thronged,  and  the 
scene  is  said  to  be  "  most  brilliant."  Let 
each  one  of  our  lives  be  but  a  little  taper — 
lighted  from  the  life  of  Christ,  and  carrying 
His  flame — and  we  shall  help  to  fill  this  great 
temple  of  human  need  and  human  sin  with 
the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God.— A.  P.  L. 

EPIPHANY,  The  Festival  of  the.— The 

Festival  of  the  Epiphany  must  be  deemed  of 
very  high  importance  by  a  believing  and 
thoughtful  Christian.  It  does  not  merely 
commemorate  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in- 
cidents of  our  Lord's  Infant  Life,  it  asserts 
one  of  the  most  fundamental  and  vital  fea- 
tures of  Christianity:  the  great  distinctixjn, 
in  fact,  between    Christianity    and  Judaism. 


The  Jewish  religion  was  the  religion  of  a 
race.  .  .  .  Was  a  merely  national  reli- 
gion like  this  a  full  unveiling  of  the  mind 
of  the  common  Father  of  the  human  family? 
Was  His  eye  ever  to  rest  in  love  and  favor 
only  on  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Palestine? 
Was  there  to  be  no  place  in  His  Heart  for 
more  races,  who  lay  east  and  west  and  north 
and  south  of  the  favored  region?  Or  was 
the  God  of  Israel  like  the  patron  deities  of 
the  heathen  world,  the  God  of  Israel  in  such 
sense  that  Israel  could  lastingly  monopolize 
His  interest,  His  protection.  His  love ;  that 
heathendom,  lying  in  darkness  and  in  the 
shadow  of  death,  would  lie  on  in  it  for  ever, 
without  a  hope  of  being  really  lightened  by 
His  Countenance  or  being  admitted  to  share 
His  embrace?  It  could  not  be.  The  Jewish 
revelation  of  God  contained  within  itself  the 
secret  and  the  reason  of  its  vanishing  by 
absorption  into  the  brighter  light  which 
should  succeed  it. — H.   P.  Liddon. 

GOD,  One  and. — One  great  principle  of 
God's  working  in  the  affairs  of  His  kingdom 

is  that  He  Works  zvith  minorities  who  are 
zvorking  for  Him.  An  old  saying  of  the 
German  reformers,  which  a  modern  re- 
former has  untruthfully  claimed  as  his  own, 
was :  "  One,  with  God  on  his  side,  is  a  ma- 
jority." "  The  battle  is  not  yours,  but 
God's."— P. 

HEATHEN,  The  Light  of  the.— Jsa.  Ix: 
I.  At  a  Church  Missionary  meeting  the 
Bishop  of  Moosonee,  furnishing  proofs  of  the 
growing  civilization  of  the  Indians,  said: — 
"  I  am  here  to  speak  of  the  conversion  of  men 
to  God  through  the  work  of  missionaries, 
and  I  can  tell  you  of  men  who  evidence  by 
their  lives  that  they  have  been  born  again  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  While  speaking 
some  time  ago  to  an  Indian,  I  said  to  him, 
'  My  friend,  I  should  be  glad  if  you  would 
give  me  a  picture  of  the  Indians  as  they  were 
before  they  received  Christianity.'  I  took 
down  the  man's  words  in  reply,  from  his 
own  lips  and  they  were  these  : — "  Before  we 
were  Christians  we  were  very,  very  wicked ; 


1^ 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


we  knew  nothing  save  the  devil  and  the 
devil's  works.  We  lied,  we  stole,  we  con- 
jured; we  thought  we  could  prophesy.  The 
Indians  robbed  men  of  other  tribes;  the  In- 
dians robbed  each  other ;  their  lives  were 
very,  very  wicked.'  " — A.  P.  L. 

JEWS,  The  King  of  the.— il/o«.  ii:2. 
Erasmus  thought  that  the  Magi  did  not  adore 
Christ  with  Divine  worship  (as  not  knowing 
that  He  was  God),  but  only  with  the  homage 
which  was  due  to  Him  whom  they  acknowl- 
edged as  the  '■  King  of  the  Jews."  But  the 
Fathers  generally  teach  otherwise. — A.  P.  L. 

MAGI,  The  Gifts  of  the.— ikfa«.  ii:  ii. 
St.  Leo  says :  "  Frankincense  they  offer  to 
God ;  myrrh  to  man ;  gold  to  the  King :  hon- 
oring with  full  intention  the  Divine  and 
Human  Nature  in  unity ;  because  they  be- 
lieve with  their  hearts,  they  witness  it  by 
their  gifts." — A.  P.  L. 

MISSIONABY        CONSECRATION.— A 

brilliant  Oxford  student  was  giving  him- 
self to  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  for 
African  service.  His  tutor  remonstrated. 
"  You  are  going  out  to  die  in  a  year  or  two 
in  that  deadly  climate.  It  is  madness."  The 
young  man,  who  did  die,  after  being  on  the 
field  about  a  year,  answered : 

"  I  think  it  is  with  African  missions  as 
with  the  building  of  a  great  bridge.  You 
know  how  many  stones  have  to  be  buried  in 
the  earth,  all  unseen,  to  be  a  foundation.  If 
Christ  wants  me  to  be  one  of  the  unseen 
stones,  lying  in  an  African  grave,  I  am  con- 
tent, certain  as  I  am  that  the  final  result  will 
be  a  Christian  Africa." — Selected 

MISSIONARY        INFLUENCE.—"  The 

whole  advance  of  Christianity  has  been  a 
missionary  movement.  From  the  time  that 
St  Paul  went  to  Cyprus  and  Asia  to  the 
latest  missions  of  any  board  of  America, 
Christianity  has  been  a  missionary  religion." 
— Secretary  Judson  Smith.  One  of  the  first 
privileges  and  duties  of  a  strong  church  is 
to  be  a  center  of  missionary  influence.  We 
are  told  to 

"  Measure  our  writings  by  Hesiod's  staff, 
Which  teaches  that  all  has  less  value  than 
half." 

We  should  learn  the  same  lesson  in  our 
churches.  The  large  church  that  sends  many 
of  its  best  men  and  women  to  evangelize 
others,  and  supports  them,  will  be  stronger 
by  the  gift.— P. 

MISSIONARY  SERMONS,  How  Often 
to  Preach.— Rev.  John  W.  Etter,  B.D.,  in  a 
new  work  on  Homiletics,  entitled  "  The 
Preacher  and  his  Sermon,"  says: 

"  A  missionary  sermon  must  be  preached 
as  often  as  a  congregation  becomes  lax  in 
its  zeal  and  contributions  for  missions.  The 
pulpit  must  develop  a  missionary  spirit  in  the 
Church,  and  through  it  '  Christians  be  kept 
in  an  habitual  and  alarming  sense  of  the  facts 
of  the  wretched,  terrible  state  of  the  heathen, 
and  of  our  ample  ability  and  bounden  and 
responsible  duty  to  send  them  the  Gospel." 
— H.  R. 


MISSIONARY  SPIRIT,  The.— When 
Jphn  Wesley  was  asked  to  go  out  to  Geor- 
gia to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  settlers  and 
native  Indians,  his  noble-minded  mother  not 
only  gave  her  free  consent,  but  said,  "  Had 
I  a  hundred  sons,  I  should  be  glad  to  see 
them  all  engaged  in  such  a  blessed  work, 
altho  I  might  see  them  no  more  in  this 
world."— H.  R. 

MISSIONARY  WORK,  MODERN,  The 
Facilities  for.— Gladstone's  statement  that 
the  first  fifty  years  of  the  present  century 
eclipse  all  the  centuries  preceding  in  human 
progress  is  no  exaggeration.  Consider  the 
triumphs  of  astronomical  science  in  the  per- 
fection of  the  telescope  and  the  invention  o£ 
the  spectroscope  and  in  sidereal  photography. 
Consider  microscopic  science  and  its  present 
perfection  and  utility;  the  advance  in  medi- 
cine and  surgery,  and  especially  in  the  case 
of  anesthetics;  in  the  science  and  art  of 
mining  and  the  invention  of  giant  explosives 
such  as  nitro-glycerine,  dynamite,  and  giant 
powder;  the  perfection  of  photography  and 
kindred  methods  of  producing  pictures  by  the 
aid  of  sunlight.  Consider  electricity  as  a 
motor,  messenger,  and  illuminator,  unknown 
one  hundred  years  ago;  anilin  colors,  the 
sewing  machine,  and  the  type-writer,  the 
steam  engine,  the  steam  printing  press,  the 
sewing  rnachine  and  the  type-writer,  the 
postal  union  and  the  wide  world  communica- 
tion.—H.   R. 

MISSIONARY,  Zeal  of  a.— Winfrid,  or 
Boniface,  having  laid  the  ax  at  the  roots 
of  the  trees,  literally,  in  Germany,  cutting 
down  the  oaks  sacred  to  Thor,  planting 
churches  and  making  converts  with  remark- 
able success,  longed  for  new  fields  and  fresh 
conquests.  When  over  seventy-five  years  of 
age,  he  set  forth  (so  strong  was  his  ruling 
passion)  to  win  pagan  Friegland  to  Christ. 
He  appointed  a  bishop  to  succeed  him  at 
Mainz,  and  left  everything,  as  if  he  did  not 
expect  to  return.  He  took  with  him  his 
shroud  and  St.  Ambrose's  treatise  on  the 
"Advantage  of  Death."  With  a  company  of 
eight,  he  entered  upon  his  work,  and  met 
with  good  success.  Many  had  been  baptized. 
The  pagans  became  alarmed,  and  went 
against  him  with  an  armed  band.  Boniface 
knew  too  well  their  I  loody  intent.  He  ex- 
horted his  followers  not  to  resist,  but  to 
await  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  He  him- 
self took  a  volume  of  the  gospel  for  a  pillow, 
and  stretching  his  neck  upon  it  for  the  blow, 
received  his  release  in  755.  Few  are  the 
names  of  missionary  heroes  more  illustrious 
than  his. — F.  II. 

MISSIONS  AND  SCIENCE.— Arch- 
deacon Farrar  sets  forth  forcibly  the  large 
debt  of  science  to  missions  in  these  words : 
"  Is  it  nothing  that  through  their  labor  in 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  the  German 
philologist  in  his  study  may  have  before  him 
the  grammar  and  vocabulary  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  languages?  Who  created  the 
science  of  anthropology?  The  missionaries. 
W'ho  rendered  possible  the  deeply  important 
science  of  comparative   religion?     The  mis- 


EPIPHANY 


73 


sionaries.  Who  discovered  the  great  chain 
of  lakes  in  Central  Africa,  on  which  will 
turn  its  future  destiny?  The  missionaries. 
Who  have  been  the  chief  explorers  of  Ocean- 
ica,  America,  and  Asia?  The  missionaries. 
Who  discovered  the  famous  Nestorian  monu- 
ment in  Singar  Fu?  A  missionary.  Who  dis- 
covered the  still  more  famous  Moabite  stone? 
A  missionary.  Who  discovered  the  Hittite 
inscriptions  ?      A    missionary." — Selected. 

MISSIONS,  Basis  for.— The  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  England  owes  its  ex- 
istence and  success  to  the  unflagging  zeal 
of  the  shoemaker,  school-master,  and 
preacher,  William  Carey,  of  Nottingham. 
He  preached  a  powerful  sermon  from  Is. 
liv :  23,  of  which  the  two  leading  divisions 
were,  "  Expect  great  things  from  God " — 
"  Attempt  great  things  for  God."  Under 
its  influence  a  mission  to  the  heathen  was 
resolved  upon.  Mr.  Carey  became  its  first 
missionary,  sailing  for  India  in  1793.  His 
expectations  were  not  disappointed. — F. 
II. 

MISSIONS,  Era  of.— It  was  not  until 
Christians  became  inflamed  with  the  zeal  of 
Wesley,  who  said,  "  The  world  is  my  par- 
ish," and  Whitefield,  who  saw  in  every  man 
a  brother,  that  missions  assumed  any  im- 
portance among  Protestants.  To  this  epoch 
the  great  societies  of  England,  date  their 
origin.  "  The  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  the  oldest 
of  all,  was  organized  in  1701 ;  "  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society,"  in  1799;  "Scotch  Mission- 
ary Society"  in  1796;  "London  Missionary 
Society"  in  1794;  "Baptist  Missionary  Soc- 
iety" in  1792;  "  Wesleyan  Missionary  Soc- 
iety "  in  1769.  The  foregoing  are  all  in 
Great  Britain.  "  The  American  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions "  was  organized  in  1810 ; 
"  The  American  Baptist  Missionary  Society  " 
in  1814;  "The  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission- 
ary Society"  in  1819;  "The  Episcopal  Board 
of  Missions  "  in  1820.  Various  minor  socie- 
ties exist,  of  later  origin.  The  obstacles  at- 
tending the  beginning  of  new  mission  enter- 
prises have  been  overcome.  The  great  har- 
vest of  the  heathen  world  is  being  rapidly 
gathered.  Soon  the  inhabitants  of  heaven 
will  shout,  "  The  kingdoms  of  this  world 
are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and 
of  his  Christ."     (Rev.  xi:  17.)— F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  Gold  for.— John  Sunday,  the 
converted  Indian  chief  of  Upper  Canada, 
addressing  a  missionary  meeting  in  England, 
in  his  appeal  to  the  benevolence  of  the  people, 
previous  to  collection,  said,  "  There  is  a  gen- 
tleman, I  suppose,  now  in  this  house ;  he  is  a 
very  fine  gentleman,  but  he  is  very  modest. 
He  does  not  like  to  show  himself.  I  do  not 
know  how  long  it  is  since  I  saw  him,  he 
comes  out  so  little.  I  am  very  much  afraid 
he  sleeps  a  great  deal  of  his  time,  when  he 
ought  to  be  going  about  doing  good.  His 
name  is  Mr.  Gold.  Mr.  Gold,  are  you  here 
to-night?  or  are  you  sleeping  in  your  iron 
chest  ?  Come  out,  Mr.  Gold ;  come  out,  and 
help  us  to  do  this  great  work,  to  send  the 
gospel  to  every  creature.    Ah,  Mr.  Gold,  you 


ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself,  to  sleep  so 
much  in  your  iron  chest !  Look  at  your 
white  brother,  Mr.  Silver,  he  does  a  great 
deal  of  good  in  the  world,  while  you  are 
sleeping.  Come  out,  Mr.  Gold !  Look,  too, 
at  your  brown  brother,  Mr.  Copper,  he  is 
everywhere !  See  him  running  about  doing 
all  the  good  he  can.  Why  don't  you  come 
out,  Mr.  Gold?  Well,  if  you  won't  come 
out  and  give  us  yourself,  send  us  your  shirt, 
that  is  a  bank  note,  and  we  will  excuse  you 
this  time." — F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  Love  for.— A  late  writer 
says,  "  Why  was  Christ's  long  journey  from 
heaven?  Why  His  long  sojourn  amidst  pov- 
erty and  scorn?  Why  His  toilsome  ministry 
in  Galilee  and  Judea?  Why  the  journey  to 
Jerusalem,  and  the  known  betrayal,  rejection, 
and  cruel  death  there?  Ah,  "  the  Son  of  man 
came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost."  With  the  Spirit  of  the  Master  upon 
them,  thousands  have  gone  forth  upon  the 
same  errand. — F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  Martyrs  of.— The  mission- 
aries' torch  has  been  lighted  in  every  land. 
Their  bones  scattered  everywhere  are  the 
seed  of  a  bountiful  harvest,  to  be  gathered 
when  the  earth  shall  be  fully  ripe.  Some  fell 
by  the  malaria  of  an  inhospitable  climate, 
like  Melville  B.  Cox  in  Africa.  Thousands 
of  true  martyrs  have  thus  died  for  their  faith. 
Rev.  William  Thielfall  was  martyred  in 
Namaqualand,  in  1825 ;  Rev.  J.  S.  Thomas 
in  Kaffirland,  in  1856;  Rev.  John  Williams  in 
Erromanga,  in  1838 ;  Rev.  J.  G.  Gordon  in 
the  same  place,  in  1872;  Rev.  Thomas  Baker 
in  Fiji  in  1867;  Bishop  Patterson  and  Rev. 
Mr.  Atkin,  in  Malanesia  in  1871.  The  only 
wonder  is,  considering  the  ignorance,  super- 
stition, and  cruelty  of  the  heathen,  that  so 
few  have  been  called  to  shed  their  blood  for 
Christ.— F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  Mystery  of.— Napoleon 
thought  that  he  knew  the  world  well.  He 
had  studied  the  history  of  great  empires, 
but  he  said  it  was  an  inexplicable  mystery 
to  him  that  Christianity,  beginning  as  it  did 
with  a  few  fishermen  of  the  feeblest  nation 
then  on  the  globe,  should  in  his  time  have 
risen  to  be  so  much  more  mighty  than  his 
own  conquests,  which  had  almost  all  the 
armies  of  Europe  to  back  them. 

"  Oh,  where  are  kings  and  emperors  now, 
Of  old  that  went  and  came? 
But,  Lord,  thy  church  is  praying  yet 
A  thousand  years  the  same." 

The  same  phenomenon  was  witnessed  in 
the  first  attempt  to  establish  American  mis- 
sions among  the  heathen.  When  one  of 
the  early  meetings  of  the  American  Board 
was  held  at  Bradford,  Mass.,  less  than  twenty 
persons  were  in  attendance,  and  they  were 
hooted  at  by  boys  on  the  piazza  of  the  hotel 
where  they  were  in  session. — P. 

MISSIONS,     Official    Tribute    to.— The 

English  blue-book,  published  in  1875,  after  a 
summary  of  missions  in  India,  about  half  of 
which  are  American  enterprises,  closes  with 


74 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  following  tribute:  "The  government  in 
India  cannot  but  acknowledge  the  great  ob- 
ligation under  which  it  is  laid  by  these  six 
hundred  missionaries,  whose  blameless  ex- 
ample and  self-denying  labors  are  infusing 
new  vigor  into  the  stereotyped  life  of  the 
great  population  placed  under  English  rule, 
and  are  preparing  them  to  be  in  every  way 
better  citizens  of  the  great  empire  in  which 
they  dwell." — F.  II. 

MISSIONS    Pay  Financially,  Do?— The 

total  cost  of  the  work  done  in  the  Sandwich 
Islands  was  about  one  and  one-quarter  mil- 
lion dollars,  the  cost  of  six  "  ironclads,"  not 
one-half  the  expense  of  the  tunnel  proposed 
under  the  river  at  Detroit;  at  Harpoot  four- 
teen congregations  were  formed,  in  as  many 
years,  at  a  total  cost  of  $120,000,  which  is 
often  spent  on  one  church  building  at  home. 
In  India,  Christian  residents  defray  one- 
fourth  the  expense,  seeing  the  value  of  the 
work  with  their  own  eyes.  The  Cincin- 
nati bridge  cost  double  all  the  work  in 
Persia,  which  gave  that  land  seventy  schools, 
ninety  congregations,  and  sixty  native 
preachers. — M.  R.  W. 

MISSIONS,  Providence  and. — Rev.  John 
Thomas,  founder  of  the  Friendly  Islands 
Mission,  applied  to  the  London  Mission  So- 
ciety for  permission  to  extend  his  work  to  the 
island  of  Haabai,  whose  chief  desired  his 
coming.  He  waited  with  some  anxiety  for 
a  reply.  About  that  time  a  box  was  washed 
ashore,  and  carried  to  one  of  the  mission- 
aries, containing  a  letter  from  the  society 
authorizing  the  establishment  of  the  mission. 
Neither  the  vessel  to  which  the  letter  was 
entrusted,  the  crew,  nor  any  of  the  freight, 
except  the  box  containing  the  letter  authoriz- 
ing a  new  effort  for  the  salvation  of  the 
heathen,  which  came  to  the  right  place  at 
the  right  time,  was  ever  heard  from. — F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  Result  of  Love  for. — A  poor 
Christian  mechanic  was  much  chagrined  that 
he  could  give  so  little  for  missions  when  the 
subscription  was  passed  among  the  workmen 
in  the  factory.  He  told  his  wife  of  it,  and  she 
was  inspired  to  try  to  earn  something  for 
the  cause  of  missions.  She  secured  some 
silk-twist  and  a  few  button-moulds,  and  be- 
gan the  manufacture  of  silk  buttons.  She 
sent  a  sample  to  a  New  York  merchant,  say- 
ing that,  if  they  would  sell,  the  money  was 
to  be  her  husband's  contribution  for  mis- 
sions. She  received  answer,  "  Make  as 
many  as  you  choose ;  I  can  sell  a  hundred 
dozen."  The  wife  made  her  venture  un- 
known to  her  husband ;  but  now  he  was  let 
into  the  secret.  Success  crowned  her  efforts. 
Machinery  supplanted  hand  labor.  A  large 
manufactory,  extensive  business,  and  ample 
fortune  grew  up  from  and  rewarded  their 
love  and  labor  for  missions. — F.  II. 

MISSIONS,  The  Spirit  of.— The  very  soul 
of  our  religion  is  missionary,  progressive, 
world-embracing:  it  would  cease  to  exist  if 
it  ceased  to  be  missionary,  if  it  disregarded 
the  parting  words  of  its  founder,  "  Go  ye, 
therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,"  etc.  The 
spirit   of  truth   is  the  life-spring  of  all   re- 


ligion ;  and  where  it  exists,  it  must  manifest 
itself ;  it  must  plead,  it  must  persuade,  it 
must  convince  and  convert.  There  may  be 
times  when  silence  is  gold,  and  speech  silver; 
but  there  are  times,  also,  when  silence  is 
death,  and  speech  is  life, — the  very  life  of 
Pentecost.  Look  at  the  religions  in  which 
the  missionary  spirit  has  been  at  work,  and 
compare  them  with  those  in  which  any  at- 
tempt to  convince  others  by  argument,  to 
save  souls,  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth,  is 
treated  with  pity  or  scorn.  The  former  are 
alive;    the   latter  are   dying   or   dead. — Max 

MULLER. 

MORAVIAN    BROTHERHOOD,    The.— 

John  vi:  1-14.  Most  of  us  have  only  one 
talent,  but  he  who  has  one  talent  sometimes 
makes  ten  of  it.  We  have  only  five  barley 
loaves,  etc.,  which  indeed  in  themselves  are 
useless,  but  when  given  to  Christ  He  can 
make  them  enough  to  feed  five  thousand. 
Take  the  one  instance  of  kind  words  of 
sympathy  and  encouragement. 

When  Count  Zinzendorf  was  a  boy  at 
school,  he  founded  amongst  his  school- 
fellows a  little  guild  which  he  called  the 
"  Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard  Seed."  and 
thereafter  that  seedling  grew  into  the  great 
tree  of  the  Moravian  Brotherhood,  whose 
boughs  were  a  blessing  to  the  world.  The 
widow's  mite !  When  they  laughed  at  Saint 
Theresa,  when  she  wanted  to  build  a  great 
orphanage  and  had  but  three  shillings  to 
begin  with,  she  answered,  "  With  three 
shillings  Theresa  can  do  nothing ;  but  with 
God  and  her  three  shillings  there  is  nothing 
which  Theresa  cannot  do."  Do  not  let  us 
imagine,  then,  that  we  are  too  poor,  or  too 
stupid,  or  too  ignorant,  or  too  obscure  to  do 
any  real  good  in  the  world  wherein  God  has 
placed  us. 

If  you  bring  no  gift,  how  can  God  use 
it?  The  lad  must  bring  his  barley  loaves 
to  Christ  before  the  five  thousand  can  be  fed. 
Have  you  ever  attempted  to  do  as  he  did? 
Have  you,  even  in  the  smallest  measure,  or 
with  the  least  earnest  desire,  tried  to  follow 
John  Wesley's  golden  advice:  "Do  all  the 
good  you  can,  by  all  the  means  you  can,  in 
all  the  ways  you  can,  to  all  the  persons  you 
can,  in  all  the  places  you  can,  as  long  as 
ever  you  can  ?  " — Farrar, 

NATIONS,  The  Oneness  of  the. — When 
the  Prophet  of  the  Apocalypse  looked  upon 
the  Holy  City  of  the  new  creation,  he  saw  that 
there  was  no  longer  any  temple  there — that 
was  the  symbol  at  once  of  religious  fellowship 
and  religious  separation — for  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  Temple  of  it; 
he  saw  that  it  had  no  need  of  the  sun — that 
was  the  symbol  of  the  quickening  energy  of 
nature  and  the  measure  of  time — for  the 
glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  lamp 
thereof  zvas  the  Lamb;  he  saw  the  nations 
(not  the  nations  of  them  zchich  are  saved, 
according  to  the  gloss  of  the  common  texts) 
walking  in  the  liglit  of  it,  and  so  revealed  in 
their  true  abiding  power :  he  saw  the  kings 
of  the  earth  bring  their  glory  into  it,  offering, 
that  is,  each  his  peculiar  treasures  to  com- 


EPIPHANY 


75 


plete  the  full  measure  of  the  manifested 
sovereignty  of  the  Lord.  This  is  the  end ; 
in  this  magnificent  vision  of  faith  the  Church 
and  the  nations  are  at  last  revealed  as  one  in 
the  open  presence  of  God.  And  meanwhile 
the  promise  is  for  our  encouragement  and 
for  our  guidance,  as  we  strive  to  win  for 
Christ  the  manifold  homage  of  men. — Bishop 
Westcott. 

SERMON,    Outline    for    Missionary.— A 

most  practical  missionary  sermon  it  would 
be  which  should  candidly  consider  and  an- 
swer  these    seven   popular   objections: 

(i)  "  The  work  of  missions  does  not  pay." 
(2)  Foreign  peoples  have  their  own  civiliza- 
tions and  religions."  (3)  "  There  are  plenty 
of  heathen  at  home."  (4)  "  Home  Churches 
are  even  now  loaded  with  debt."  (5)  "  For- 
eign missionaries  fare  better  than  home  pas- 
tors." (6)  "  Most  of  those  who  go  abroad 
die  soon,  or  return  broken  down."  (7)  "  It 
costs  five  dollars  to  send  ten  abroad." — H.  R. 

STAR  IN  THE  EAST,  The.— We  learn 
from  astronomical  calculations  that  a  re- 
markable conjunction  of  the  planets  of  our 
system  took  place  a  short  time  before  the 
birth  of  our  Lord.  About  283  years  ago,  in 
December,  1604,  the  great  astronomer  Kepler 
saw  a  strange  sight  in  the  heavens, — a  sight 
which  occurs  only  once  (or  rather,  is  re- 
peated two  or  three  times  at  one  period)  in 
eight  hundred  years.  It  was  the  conjunction 
of  the  bright  planets  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
close  together  at  one  point  of  the  heavens. 
Five  months  later,  in  the  following  May,  the 
wonder  was  repeated  in  a  more  wonderful 
way:  Mars  joined  with  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
a  fiery  trygon  in  the  constellation  Pisces,  in 
part  of  the  heavens  noted  in  astrological 
science  as  that  in  which  the  signs  denoted 
the  greatest  and  most  noble  events.  The 
attention  of  the  whole  astronomical  world 
was  called  to  the  sight ;  and  this  seemed  to 
draw  the  notice  to  another  sight, — the  ap- 
pearing of  a  new  star  in  the  constellation  of 
the  Serpent.  First  seen  in  October,  1604,  it 
grew  more  and  more  brilliant,  till  it  glowed 
like  a  planet;  then  its  luster  waned,  its  white 
light  turned  to  yellow,  then  to  red,  grew 
duller  and  dimmer,  and  finally,  at  the  end 
of  two  years,  had  vanished  altogether.  These 
unusual  occurrences  led  Professor  Kepler, 
who  was  as  religious  as  he  was  scientific, 
to  think  that  they  might  help  to  explain  the 
strange  star  which  the  wise  men  saw  in  the 
east,  and  how  it  was  that  the  star  in  the  east 
led  them  to  the  King  of  the  Jews ;  whether 
a  conjunction  of  planets  like  this  wns  the 
star  in  the  east,  or  whether  it  led  them  to 
see  and  recognize  the  real  star  of  the  east, 
as  this  conjunction  accompanied  the  new  star 
which  Kepler  saw  in  the  same  part  of  the 
heavens,  a  blazing,  burning  world.  The 
conjunction  could  occur  but  once  in  eight 
hundred  years ;  take  twice  eight  hundred 
years,  and  it  brings  us  to  within  one  or  two 
years  of  the  date  of  Christ's  birth,  the  exact 
date  of  which  is  unknown.  Several  great 
astronomers,  since  Kepler's  day,  have  made 
the  same  calculations, — Professor  Pritchard, 
of    the     Royal     Astronomical     Society,    and 


Encke;  and  it  rests  on  assured  grounds  that, 
about  the  time  of  Christ's  birth,  in  the  month 
of  May,  occurred  this  conjunction  of  Jupiter 
and  Saturn,  rising  about  three  hours  before 
sunrise,  and  therefore  seen  in  the  east.  Sup- 
pose these  wise  men  of  Persia,  the  far  East, 
seeing  this  wonderful  sight  in  their  clear 
skies,  had  started  on  their  journey  about  the 
end  of  May :  it  would  require  at  least  seven 
months.  The  planets  were  observed  to  sep- 
arate slowly  till  the  end  of  July,  when  they 
slow^ly  drew  together  again,  and  were  in 
conjunction  in  September,  when  the  wise 
men  would  have  reached  the  nearer  East, 
on  the  border  of  the  desert.  "  At  that  time 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jupiter  would 
present  to  astronomers  a  very  brilliant  spec- 
tacle. It  was  then  at  its  most  brilliant  ap- 
parition, for  it  was  at  its  nearest  approach 
both  to  the  sun  and  the  earth.  The  glorious 
spectacle  continued  almost  unaltered  for 
several  days,  when  the  planets  again  slowly 
separated,  came  to  a  halt,  and  then  Jupiter 
again  approached  to  a  conjunction  for  the 
third  time  with  Saturn,  just  at  the  time  the 
Magi  may  be  supposed  to  have  entered  the 
holy  city,  in  December.  And  to  complete 
the  fascination  of  the  tale,  if  they  performed 
the  journey  from  Jerusalem  to  Bethlehem 
in  the  evening,  as  is  implied,  then,  about  half 
an  hour  after  sunset,  the  two  planets  might 
be  seen  from  Jerusalem,  hanging,  as  it  were, 
in  the  meridian,  and  suspended  over  Beth- 
lehem in  the  distance." — Condensed  from 
Upham. 

These  circumstances  would  seem  to  form 
a  remarkable  coincidence  with  the  history 
in  our  text.  The  true  theory  seems  to  be, 
that  the  expectations  of  the  Magi  were 
aroused  by  the  remarkable  conjunction,  and 
their  watching  was  rewarded  by  the  sight  of 
the  miraculous  star.  This  conjunction  was 
a  John  the  Baptist  that  heralded  the  true 
Star  out  of  Jacob,  miraculously  shown  in  the 
heavens.  "  This  theory  recognizes  the  as- 
tronomical fact,  and  teaches,  even  more  fully, 
the  lesson  that  the  expectant  study  of  nature 
leads  to  the  discovery  of  the  supernatural. 
Equally  with  the  last  view,  it  shows  us  the 
Magi,  because  earnestly  seeking  the  Messiah, 
led  to  Him  by  nature,  by  science,  if  astrology 
can  be  so  termed."  So  Upham,  Schailf,  Ab- 
bott, and  others. — Peloubet  on  Matt,  ii : 
1-12. 

TESTIMONY,  More,  Concerning  Mis- 
sions.— Only   necessary    to    know   the    facts : 

"  Any  one  who  writes  that  Indian  officials, 
as  a  class,  have  no  faith  in  the  work  of 
missionaries  as  a  civilizing  and  Christianiz- 
ing agency  in  India  must  either  be  ignorant 
of  the  facts  or  under  the  influence  of  a  very 
Hind  prejudice.  .  .  .  Missionary  teach- 
ing and  Christian  literature  are  leavening 
native  opinion,  especially  among  the  Hindus, 
in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  quite  startling  to 
those  who  take  a  little  personal  trouble  to 
investigate  the  facts." — Sir  Charles  U.  At- 
chison. 

"  I  do  not  think  I  can  too  prominently  say 
that  our  gratitude  to  the  American  Marathi 
Mission  has  been  piling  up  and  piling  up  all 


76 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  years  of  this  century.  ...  I  take 
this  public  opportunity  of  conveying,  on  be- 
half of  the  Government  of  Bombay,  our  most 
grateful  thanks  for  the  assistance  the  people 
of  the  United  States  are  rendering  this  gov- 
ernment in  pushing  forward  the  cause  of 
education  in  India." — Lord  Harris,  Governor 
of  Bombay. 

TRADITION,  A  Beautiful.— One  tradi- 
tion is  beautiful.  In  the  farthest  East,  it 
says,  lived  a  people  who  had  a  book  which 
bore  the  name  of  Seth,  and  in  this  was 
written  the  appearance  of  the  star  of  the 
Messiah,  and  the  offering  of  gifts  to  Him. 
This  book  was  handed  down  from  father  to 
son,  generation  after  generation.  Twelve 
men  were  chosen  who  should  watch  for  the 
star,  and  when  one  died,  another  was  chosen 
in  his  place.  These  men,  in  the  speech  of  the 
land,  were  called  Magi.  They  went,  each 
year,  after  the  wheat-harvest,  to  the  top  of  a 
mountain,  which  was  called  the  "  mountain 
of  victory."  At  last  the  star  appeared,  and 
in  the  form  of  a  little  child,  and  over  him 
the  sign  of  the  cross ;  and  the  star  itself 
spoke  to  them,  and  told  them  to  go  to  Judea. 
For  two  years,  which  was  the  time  of  their 
journey,  the  star  moved  before  them,  and 
they  wanted  neither  food  nor  drink.  Greg- 
ory of  Tours  adds  that  the  star  sank,  at 
last,  into  a  spring  at  Bethlehem,  where  he 
himself  had  seen  it,  and  where  it  still  may 
be  seen,  but  only  by  pure  maidens. — Ellicott. 

WORLD,  The  Light  of  the,— Every  tree, 
plant,  and  flower  grows  and  flourishes  by 
the  grace  and  bounty  of  the  sun.  Leaving 
out  of  account  the  eruptions  of  volcanoes 
and  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tides,  every  me- 


chanical action  on  the  earth's  surface,  every 
manifestation  of  power,  organic  and  inor- 
ganic, vital  and  physical,  is  produced  by 
the  sun.  Every  fire  that  burns,  and  every 
flame  that  glows,  dispenses  light  and  heat 
which  originally  belonged  to  the  sun.  The 
sun  digs  the  ore  from  our  mines,  he  rolls 
the  iron,  he  rivets  the  plates,  he  boils  the 
water,  he  draws  the  train.  Thunder  and 
lightning  are  also  his  transmuted  strength. 
And  remember  this  is  not  poetry,  but  rigid, 
mechanical  truth. — Prof.  Tvndall. 

WORLD,  The  Light  of  the.— The  Bar- 
tholdi  Statue  of  Liberty  enlightening  the 
world.  It  is  the  gospel  which  enlightens  the 
world,  and,  placed  on  the  church  for  a  pedes- 
tal, holds  up  Jesus  to  let  all  on  the  stormy 
sea  of  life  see  the  light  of  the  world  and 
safely  reach  the  desired  haven. — P. 

XAVIER,  Francis.— When  Francis 
Xavier  was  in  Rome,  preparing  to  go  on  his 
great  mission  to  the  heathen,  he  was  heard 
by  his  friend  Rodriguez  uttering  in  his  sleep 
the  words,  "  Yet  more,  O  my  God,  yet 
more !  "  In  his  dreams  there  had  come  to 
him  a  vision  of  his  future  career :  of  his 
sufferings,  weariness,  hunger,  thirst,  the 
storms  to  be  battled,  and  the  fiercer  storms 
of  heathen  rage,  the  continents  to  be  traveled, 
the  rivers  and  seas  to  be  crossed,  dangers 
and  death  on  every  hand.  But  along  with 
these  he  saw  the  nations  that  he  would  bring 
to  Christ,  islands,  continents,  empires,  that 
would  by  his  voice  hear  the  Gospel  of  the 
kingdom ;  and  he  exclaimed.  "  Yet  more,  O 
my  God,  yet  more."  More  toil,  more  suffer- 
ing, and  more  souls  brought  into  eternal 
life.— P. 


POETRY 


Christ  for  the  World 

By  S.  WoLcoTT 

Christ  for  the  world  we  sing; 
The  world  to  Christ  we  bring, 

With  loving  zeal : 
The    poor,    and    them    that    mourn, 
The  faint  and  overborne. 
Sin-sick  and  sorrow-worn, 

Whom  Christ  doth  heal. 

Christ  for  the  world  we  sing; 
The  world  to  Christ  we  bring, 

With  fervent  prayer ; 
The  wayward  and  the  lost. 
By  restless  passions  tossed. 
Redeemed,  at  countless  cost, 

From  dark  despair. 

Christ  for  the  world  we  sing; 
The  world  to  Christ  we  bring, 

With   one   accord ; 
With  us  the  work  to  share. 
With  us  reproach  to  dare, 
With  us  the  cross  to  bear. 

For  Christ  our  Lord. 


Christ  for  the  world  we  sing; 
The  world  to  Christ  we  bring, 

With  joyful   song; 
The  new-born  souls,  whose  days, 
Reclaimed  from  error's  ways. 
Inspired  with  hope  and  praise, 

To  Christ  belong. 

Attendants  of  the  Epiphany 

Tr.  from   Ephraim   Syrus 

A  star  shines  forth  in  heaven  suddenly, 
A   wondrous   orb,    less    than     the    sun,   yet 

greater — 
Less  in  its  outward  light,  but  greater  in 
Its  inward  glory,  pointing  to  a  mystery. 
That  morning  star  sent  forth  its  beams  afar 
Into  the  land  of  those  who  had  no  light ; 
Led  them  as  blind  men,  by  a  way  they  knew 

not, 
Until  they  came  and  saw  the  Light  of  men, 
Offered  their  gifts,  received  eternal  life. 
Worshiped,  and  went  their  way. 
Thus  had  the  Son  two  heralds,  one  on  high, 
And  one  below.     Above,  the  star  rejoiced; 
Below,  the  Baptist  bore  Him  record : 


EPIPHANY 


n 


Two  heralds  thus,  one  heavenly,  one  of  earth ; 
That  witnessing  the  nature  of  the  Son, 
The   majesty  of   God,    and   this   His   human 

nature. 
O    mighty     wonder !     thus     were     they    the 

heralds, 
Both  of  His  Godhead  and  His  manhood. 
Who  held  Him  only  for  a  son  of  earth, 
To   such   the   star  proclaimed   His   heavenly 

glory ; 
Who  held  Him  only  for  a  heavenly  spirit, 
To  such  the  Baptist  spoke  of  Him  as  man. 
And    in    the    holy    temple    Simeon    held    the 

Babe 
Fast  in  his  aged  arms,  and  sang  to  Him: 

"  To  me,  in  Thy  mercy, 

An  old  man,  Thou  art  come; 
Thou  layest  my  body 

In  peace  in  the  tomb. 
Thou  soon  wilt  awake  me, 

And  bid  me  arise ; 
Wilt  lead  me  transfigured 

To    Paradise." 

Then  Anna  took  the  Babe  upon  her  arms, 
And  pressed  her  mouth  upon  His  infant  lips; 
Then  came  the  Holy  Spirit  on  her  lips, 
As  erst  upon  Isaiah's,   when  the  coal 
Had  touched  his  silent  lips,  and  opened  them : 
With  glowing  heart  she  sang : 

"  O  Son  of  the  King! 

Tho   Thy    birthplace    was   mean, 
All-hearing,  yet  silent, 

All-seeing,  unseen, 
Unknown,    yet    all-knowing, 
God,  and  yet  Son  of  man, 
Praise   to    Thy   name  1  " 

Christ's  Dominion 

By   Isaac   Watts 

Jesus  shall   reign  where'er  the   sun 

Does  his  successive  journeys  run. 

His    kingdom    spread    from    shore   to    shore. 

Till    moons    shall    wax   and   wane   no   more. 

From  north  to  south  the  princes  meet, 
To  pay  their  homage  at  His  feet, 
While  western  empires  own  their  Lord, 
And  savage  tribes  attend  His  word. 

To  Him  shall  endless  prayer  be  made. 
And  endless  praises  crown  His  head; 
His  name  like  sweet  perfume  shall  rise 
With  every  morning  sacrifice. 

People  and  realms  of  every  tongue 
Dwell   on   His    love   with   sweetest   song, 
And  infant  voices  shall  proclaim 
Their  early  blessings  on  His  name. 

The  Epiphany 

By  Frederick  W.  Kittermaster 

Isaiah  Ix:  3 

Beyond  the  barren  mountain  range 

Where  Hor  lifts  up  its  sacred  head. 
And  buried  lies  in  mystery  strange. 
As  years  work  out  their  silent  change. 
The  city  of  the  dead. 


Where  proud  Euphrates  day  by  day 

Winds  through  the  plain,  or  sleeping  lies. 
The  watching  Magi  nightly  pray, 
And   seek  the   future's   hidden  way 
From  planet-lighted  skies. 

Through  the  unclouded  midnight  air. 

On  vast  infinity's  dark  page, 
With  deepest  skill  and  constant  care. 
They  read  the  golden  letters  there 

That  wax  not  old  with  age. 

Lo !  as  they  gaze  with  deep  intent, 

A  star  more  brilliant  than  the  rest. 
The  herald  of  some  great  event, 
Moves  through  the  gilded  firmament 
Onward  towards  the  west. 

Then  came  the  sound  tradition  brought 

From  Peor's  top  in  day  of  old. 
What  time  the  seer  entranced  caught 
Prophetic  power,   and,   spirit  taught. 

The  future  did  unfold. 

A  scepter  shall  from  Israel  rise, 

A    star    from   Jacob    doubly   blest; 
And  now  before  their   wondering  eyes 
The  brilliant  meteor  walks  the  skies 
Still  onward  toward  the  west. 

Where'er  it  leads,  that  fiery  light 

Unhidden  by  the  blaze  of  day. 
And  marking  with  intenser  might 
The  darkness  of  the  deeper  night. 

They  follow  on  the  way. 

With  morning's  blush,  when  sunsets  fade. 
On  over  rock  and  steep  and  wild. 

By  palm  and  cedar-tree  and  shade. 

Till  in  the  homely  manger  laid 
They  find  the  royal  child. 

Intruding  doubts  away  they  fling. 

Unheeding  the  unwonted  stir, 
They  from  their  costly  treasures  bring 
Free  offerings   for  the  infant   King, 

Gold,    frankincense,    and    myrrh. 

Gold  shadows  forth   His  royalty 

While  frankincense   His  priesthood  shows, 
And  myrrh  that  He  shall  buried  be; 
And  so  the  wondrous  mystery 

With  deeper  meaning  grows. 

Epiphany  Hymn 

By  Aurelius   Clemens   Prudentius 
[Tr.  by  Edward  Caswell.     1849.] 

Bethlehem,  of  noblest  cities 

None   can    once    with    Thee    compare; 
Thou  alone  the  Lord  from  Heaven 

Didst  for  us  Incarnate  bear. 

Fairer  than  the  sun  at  morning 
Was  the  star  that  told  His  birth; 

To  the  lands  their  God  announcing, 
Hid  beneath  a  form  of  earth. 

By  its  lambent  beauty  guided. 
See,  the  Eastern  kings  appear; 

See  them  bend,  their  gifts  to  oflfer, 
Gifts  of  incense,  gold,  and  myrrh. 


78 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Offerings  of  mystic  meaning : 
Incense  doth  the  God  disclose; 

Gold  a  royal  child  proclaimeth ; 
Myrrh  a  future  tcmb  foreshows. 

Holy  Jesus,  in  Thy  brightness 
To  the  Gentile  world  displayed ! 

With  the  Father,  and  the  Spirit, 
Endless  praise  to  Thee  be  paid. 

The  Three  Kings 
By  F.  W.  Faber,  D.D. 

Who  are  these  that  ride  so  fast  o'er  the 
desert's  sandy  road. 

That  have  tracked  the  Red  Sea  shore,  and 
have  swum  the  torrents  broad; 

Whose  camel's  bells  are  tinkling  through  the 
long  and  starry  night — 

For  they  ride  like  men  pursued,  like  the  van- 
quished of  a  fight 

Who  are  these  that  ride  so  fast?  They  are 
Eastern  monarchs  three. 

Who  have  laid  aside  their  crowns,  and  re- 
nounced their  high  degree ; 

The  eyes  they  love,  the  hearts  they  prize,  the 
well-known  voices  kind. 

Their  people's  tents,  their  native  plains, 
they've  left  them  all  behind. 

The  very   least  of  faith's  dim   rays   beamed 

on  them  from  afar, 
And  that  same  hour  they  rose  from  off  their 

thrones  to  track  the  star ; 
They  cared  not  for  the  cruel  scorn  of  those 

who  called  them  mad ; 
Messiah's   Star  was  shining,  and  their  royal 

hearts  were  glad. 

But  a  speck  was  in  the  midnight  sky,  un- 
certain, dim,  and  far. 

And  their  hearts  were  pure,  and  heard  a 
voice  proclaim  Messiah's  Star: 

And  in  its  golden  twinkling  they  saw  more 
than  common  light. 

The  Mother  and  the  Child  they  saw  in  Beth- 
lehem by  night ! 

And    what    were    crowns,    and    what    were 

thrones,  to  such  a  sight  as  that? 
So   straight   away   they   left   their  tents,   and 

had  not  space  to  wait ; 
They  hardly  stop  to  slake  their  thirst  at  the 

desert's  limpid  springs, 
Mor    note    how    fair    the    landscape    is,    how 

sweet  the  skylark  sings ! 

Whole  cities  have  turned  out  to  meet  their 

royal  cavalcade, 
Wise  colleges  and   doctors  all  their  wisdom 

have  displayed ; 
And  when  the   Star  was  dim,  they  knocked 

at  Herod's  palace  gate. 
And   troubled    with    the    news    of    faith    his 

politic  estate. 

And  they   have    knelt   in    Bethlehem !       The 

Everlasting  Child 
They    saw    upon    His    mother's    lap,    earth's 

Monarch  meek  and  mild ; 
His  little  feet,  with  Mary's  leave,  they  pressed 

with  loving  kiss, — 


Oh  what  were  thrones,  oh  what  were  crowns, 
to  such  a  joy  as  this? 

One  little  sight  of  Jesus  was  enough  for 
many  years. 

One  look  at  Him  their  stay  and  staff  in  the 
dismal  vale  of  tears  : 

Their  people  for  that  sight  of  Him  they  gal- 
lantly withstood, 

They  taught  His  faith,  they  preached  His 
Word,  and  for  Him  shed  their  blood. 

Ah  me !     What  broad  daylight  of  faith  our 

thankless  souls  receive. 
How  much  we  know  of  Jesus,  and  how  easy 

to  believe : 
'Tis  the  noonday  of  His  sunshine,  of  His  sun 

that  setteth  never : 
Faith  gives  us  crowns,  and  makes  us  kings, 

and  our  kingdom  is  for  ever ! 

Oh  glory  be  to  God  on  high  for  these  Ara- 
bian kings. 

These  miracles  of  royal  faith,  with  Eastern 
offerings : 

For  Caspar  and  for  Melchior  and  Balthazar, 
who  from  far 

Found  Mary  out  and  Jesus  by  the  shining 
of  a  Star ! 

Let  There  Be  Light 

By  John  Marriott 

Thou  whose  almighty  Word 
Chaos  and  darkness  heard, 

And  took  their   flight, 
Hear  us,  we  humbly  pray; 
And  where  the  gospel  s  day 
Sheds  not  its  glorious  ray, 

Let  there  be  light. 

Thou,  who  didst  come  to  bring 
On  Thy  redeeming  wing 

Healing  and  sight — 
Health  to  the  sick  in  mind. 
Sight  to  the  inly  blind — 
Oh,  now  to  all  mankind 

Let  there  be  light. 

Spirit  of  truth  and  love, 
Life-giving,   holy   Dove, 

Speed  forth  Thy  flight: 
Move  o'er  the  water's  face. 
Bearing  a  lamp  of  grace, 
And  in  earth's  darkest  place 

Let  there  be  light. 

Blessed  and  holy  Three, 
Glorious   Trinity, 

Wisdom,  Love,  Might: 
Boundless  as  ocean's  tide. 
Rolling  in  fullest  pride. 
Through  the  earth,   far  and  wide. 

Let  there  be  light. 

Song  of  the  Wise  Men 

By   David   Vedder 

Matt,   ii:  lo 

Son  of  the  Highest !    we  worship  Thee, 
Tho  clothed  in  the  robe  of  humanity; 
Tho  mean  Thine  attire,  and  low  Thine  abode. 
We  own  Thy  presence,  incarnate  God ! 


EPIPHANY 


79 


We  have  left  the  land  of  our  sires  afar, 
'Neath  the  blessed  beams  of  Thine  own  birth- 
star, 
Our  spicy  groves,  and  balmy  bowers, 
Perfumed  by  the  sweets  of  Amra  flowers ; 
Our  seas  of  pearl,  and  palmy  isles, 
And  our  crystal  lake,  which  in  beauty  smiles, 
Our  silver  streams,  and  our  cloudless  skies. 
And  the  radiant  forms,  and  the  starry  eyes 
That  lit  up  our  earthly  paradise ! 

We  have  turned  us  away  from  the  fragrant  East 

For  the  desert  sand  and  the  arid  waste. 

We  have  forded  the  torrent,  and  passed  the 

floods, 
And  the  chilly  mountain  solitudes. 
And  the  tiger's  lair,  and  the  lion's  den, 
And  the  wilder  haunts  of  savage  men, 
Till  Thine  advent  star  its  glories  shed 
On  the  humble  roof,  and  the  lowly  bed, 
That  shelters,  Lord,  Thy  blessed  head ! 

Son  of  the  Highest !    we  worship  Thee, 
Tho  Thy  glories  are  veiled  in  humanity ! 
Tho  mean  Thine  attire,  and  low  Thine  abode, 
We  hail  Thine  advent,  eternal  God ! 

"Missionary  Convocation 

By  W.  B.  Collyer 

Assembled  at  Thy  great  command, 
Before  Thy  face,  dread  King,  we  stand ; 
The  voice  that  marshaled  every  star, 
Has  called  Thy  people  from  afar. 

We  meet,  through  distant  lands  to  spread 
The  truth  for  which  the  martyrs  bled; 
Along  the  line,  to  either  pole. 
The  thunder  of  Thy  praise  to  roll. 

Our  prayers  assist,  accept  our  praise, 
Our  hopes  revive,  our  courage  raise ; 
Our  counsels  aid,  to  each  impart 
The  single  eye,  the  faithful  heart. 

Forth  with  Thy  chosen  heralds  come, 
Recall  the  wandering  spirits  home ; 
From  Zion's  mound  send  forth  the  sound, 
To  spread  the  spacious  earth  around. 

Sun   of  Righteousness 

By  W.  Williams 

O'er  the  gloomy  hills  of  darkness, 

Cheered  by  no  celestial  ray. 
Sun  of  righteousness  !    arising. 

Bring  the  bright,  the  glorious  day; 
Send  the  gospel 

To  the  earth's  remotest  bound. 

Kingdoms  wide  that  sit  in  darkness, — 
Grant  them.  Lord !    the  glorious  light : 

And,   from  eastern  coast  to  western, 
May  the  morning  chase  the  night; 

And  redemption. 
Freely  purchased,  win  the  day. 

Fly  abroad,  thou  mighty  gospel ! 

Win  and  conquer,  never  cease; 
May  thy  lasting,  wide  dominions 

Multiply  and  still  increase; 
Sway  Thy  scepter 

Savior !    all  the  world  around. 


Home  Missions 
By  William  C.  Bryant 

Look  from  Thy  sphere  of  endless  day, 

O  God  of  mercy  and  of  might ! 
In  pity  look  on  those  who  stray, 

Benighted  in  this  land  of  light. 

In  peopled  vale,  in  lonely  glen, 

In  crowded  mart,  by  stream  or  sea. 

How  many  of  the  sons  of  men 
Hear  not  the  message  sent  from  Thee ! 

Send  forth  Thy  heralds.  Lord,  to  call 
The  thoughtless  young,  the  hardened  old, 

A  scattered,  homeless  flock,  till  all 
Be  gathered  to  Thy  peaceful  fold. 

Send  them  Thy  mighty  word  to  speak, 
Till  faith  shall  dawn,  and  doubt  depart, 

To  awe  the  bold,  to  stay  the  weak. 
And  bind  and  heal  the  broken  heart. 

Then  all  these  wastes,  a  dreary  scene, 
That  makes  us  sadden  as  we  gaze, 

Shall  grow  with  living  waters  green. 
And  lift  to  heaven  the  voice  of  praise. 

Missionaries 

By  William  Bingham  Tappan 

Onward,  ye  men  of  prayer ! 
Scatter  in  rich  exuberance  the  seed. 
Whose  fruit  is  living  bread,  and  all  your  need 

Will    God    supply;     His    harvest   ye    shall 
share. 

To  Him,  child  of  the  bow. 
The  wanderer  of  his  native  Oregon, 
Tell  of  that  Jesus,  who  in  dving  won 

The   peace-branch   of  the    skies,    salvation, 
for  His  foe ! 

Unfurl  the  banneret 
On  other  shores ;  Messiah's  cross  bid  shine 
O'er  every  lovely  hill  cf  Palestine ; 

Fair  stars  of  glory  that  shall  never  set. 

Seek  ye  the  far-off  isle ; 
The  sullied  jewel  of  the  deep, 
O'er  whose  remembered  beauty  angels  weep. 

Restore  its  luster  and  to  God  give  spoil. 

Go  break  the  chain  of  caste ; 
Go  quench  the  funeral  pyre  and  bid  no  more 
The  Indian  river  roll  its  waves  of  gore. 

Look  up,    thou    East,    thy    night   is   over 
past. 

To  heal  the  bruised  reed : 
Oh,  pour  on  Africa  the  balm 
Of  Gilead,  and,  her  agony  to  calm. 

Whisper  of   fetters   broken   and  the   spirit 
freed. 

And  thou,  O  Church,  betake 
Thyself  to  watching,  labor,  help  these  men : 
God  shall  thee  visit  of  a  surety  when 

Thou    art     faithful ;      Church    that    Jesus 
bought,  awake,  awake ! 


8o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


LENT 

LENT  is  a  fast  of  forty  days,  not  including  Sundays.  It  begins  with  Ash 
Wednesday,  and  ends  with  the  Saturday  preceding  Easter.  The  Roman 
CathoHc,  Anglican,  and  other  Churches  make  it  a  season  of  special  self-denial. 
It  is  sometimes  called  the  quadrigesimal  fast.  Because  of  the  mortifying  of 
the  flesh  and  special  penance  and  prayer,  Lent  is  preeminently  the  season  of 
Spiritual  revival  in  the  Church.  It  is  supposed  to  have  had  its  origin  in  a 
desire  to  commemorate  our  Lord's  forty  days  of  fasting  in  the  wilderness,  and 
His  temptation  by  Satan.  At  first  it  lasted  only  forty  hours,  the  length  of  time 
our  Lord  lay  in  the  grave,  and  was  purely  voluntary.  In  time,  however,  it 
developed  into  a  regularly  prescribed  fast,  and  was  observed  by  Christians 
generally.  Its  duration  was  extended  to  thirty-six  days  in  the  fifth  or  sixth 
century.  Either  Gregory  the  Great,  in  the  sixth  century,  or  Gregory  II.,  in  the 
eighth  century,  added  the  four  days  to  make  out  the  forty.  Moses,  Elias,  and 
our  Lord  each  fasted  forty  days,  and  many  contend  that  this  accounts  for  the 
forty  days  of  Lent. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  nations  and  individuals  in  all  ages  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  have  observed  days  and  seasons  of  fasting  and  prayer.  In 
Jonah  iii :  7-8,  we  read  of  the  fast  observed  by  the  Ninevites,  when  Jonah  threat- 
ened them  with  Jehovah's  judgment  on  their  sins.  The  Jews  from  the  beginning 
of  their  existence  as  a  distinct  nation  observed  days  of  fasting.*  While  our  Lord 
and  the  Apostles  did  not  command  fasting,  their  language  anticipates  such  an 
exercise  of  the  soul  on  fitting  occasions. f  The  Mohammedans,  annually  kept 
their  ninth  month,  Ramadan,  as  a  fast,  abstaining  from  food  and  drink,  from  the 
rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  and  otherwise  curbing  their  natural  appetites. 
That  fasting  was  a  practice  of  the  New  Testament  Church  is  shown  by  such 
passages  as  Acts  xiv :  23.  And  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  shows  that 
believers  of  all  nations  and  denominations,  as  organized  bodies  and  as  individuals, 
have  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  lenten  thought,  self-examination,  fasting,  and 
prayer. 

LENTEN  THOUGHTS 


One  of  the  most  impressive  features  of  the 
great  experience  which  the  Lenten  season 
commemorates  was  its  solitariness.  With- 
drawn from  all  companionship  in  the  silence 
and  loneliness  of  the  desert  those  tremen- 
dous temptations  came  and  were  resisted 
which  afforded  the  first  test  of  the  divine 
strength  of  Christ.  In  this  experience,  as  in 
all  the  experiences  which  made  up  the  story 
of  his  life,  all  men  and  women  have  a  share. 
The  great  temptations,  the  great  trials,  those 
things  which  shake  and  shape  us,  come  to  us 
in  solitude.  Sometimes,  under  the  spell  of 
the  contagion  of  feeling  which  a  great  crowd 
breathes     out,     men     and     women     perform 


decisive  acts ;  but  for  the  most  part  those 
things  which  determine  character  come  about 
in  silence  and  solitude. 

All  the  deepest  experiences  are  allied  with 
solitariness.  There  is  a  beautiful  significance 
in  this,  since  it  is  only  as  we  withdraw  our- 
selves from  men  that  we  find  ourselves  face 
to  face  with  God.  He  who  does  not  find  the 
Creator  in  the  creation  and  the  Father  in  the 
brother  as  he  goes  about  the  world  from  day 
to  day  will  never  find  him  in  any  desert 
places ;  but  he  who  does  thus  find  the  divine 
in  the  human,  and  who  renders  his  service  to 
God  in  His  helpfulness  to  men,  finds  no  place 
so  filled  with  a  great  companionship  as  those 


•  Lev.  xvi :  29 ;  Judges  xx  :  26 ;  2  Chron.  xx :  3 ;  Jer.  xii :  ^. 


t  Matt,  vi :  16-18  ;  ix  :  15. 


LENT 


8l 


solitary  places  which  men  call  deserts.  To 
be  alone  by  ourselves,  if  we  are  right  with 
our  fellows,  is  to  be  with  God. 

It  is  only  in  the  silence  of  the  world's  work 
and  the  world's  activities  that  the  still,  small 
voice  speaks  the  deepest  truths.  The  years 
ill  the  desert  were  years  of  mighty  discovery 
and  growth  to  Moses,  the  days  in  the  wilder- 
ness were  days  of  a  final  revelation  to  Christ ; 
it  has  happened  again  and  again  in  the  history 


of  the  world  that  men  have  been  withdrawn 
from  their  fellows  in  order  that  they  might  be 
prepared  for  some  great  disclosure  of  truth. 
He  who  believes  in  God  and  serves  Him  is 
never  alone.  It  is  only  the  atheist  or  the 
man  of  unfaithful  life  who  is  really  solitary ; 
that  which  seems  to  be  a  desert,  and  which 
may  be  a  place  of  supreme  trial,  is  also  a 
place  of  angelic  visitation  and  of  divine  con- 
solation.— C.  U. 


CHRIST'S  LAST  WORDS:   "IT  IS  FINISHED" 


Finished  means  not  merely  ended ;  it  means 
completed,  perfected,  accomplished. 

The  long  agony  is  finished.  The  throbbing 
brow  and  aching  limbs,  the  feverish  veins  and 
pain-racked  nerves,  the  taunting  priests  and 
gaping  onlookers  and  heartbroken  disciples, 
begin  to  fade.  The  end  has  come.  At  such 
a  time  memory  crowds  into  a  moment  the 
events  of  a  lifetime.  His  life  passes  in  review 
before  the  Sufferer.  All  the  scenes  of  the 
Passion — the  march  from  Jerusalem,  the  wail- 
ing women,  the  cruel  scourging,  the  shameful 
buffeting,  the  cowardly  Pilate,  the  malignant 
Caiaphas,  the  denying  Peter,  the  forsaking 
twelve,  the  betraying  Judas — move  before  him 
like  shadows  and  are  gone.  The  poverty,  the 
loneliness,  the  hostility  of  enemies,  the  de- 
sertion of  disciples,  the  misunderstanding  of 
friends,  the  recreancy  and  apostasy  of  the 
nation,  the  short-lived  popularity  with  the 
feeble  multitude  in  Galilee,  the  rancorous 
hate  of  the  hierarchy  in  Jerusalem,  the  temp- 
tation of  the  Evil  One — all  is  now  over.  The 
earthly  is  finished.  Sorrow  has  done  its 
worst.  Its  brief  reign  is  over  for  the  Divine 
Sufferer.     The  Passion  is  fulfilled. 

Human  malignancy  is  finished.  It  has  ac- 
complished its  desire,  realized  its  cherished 
plan,  fulfilled  its  purpose,  reached  its  end. 
The  Son  of  God  has  not  resisted  evil,  and 
evil  has  done  to  Him  what  it  would.  The 
malignant  powers  have  had  full  freedom,  and 
have  wreaked  their  worst  upon  the  Savior 
of  mankind.  "  This  is  your  hour,"  said 
Christ,  "  and  the  power  of  darkness."  What 
sin  unrestrained  would  do  in  its  hour  is 
attested.  It  can  go  no  further  than  to  whelm 
in  contumely  and  to  kill  the  Son  of  God  and 
Savior  of  the  world.  The  tares  are  fully 
grown,  and  this  is  their  poisonous  fruitage — 
such  recompense  for  such  love.  The  cruci- 
fixion of  the  world's  Redeemer  is  the  cul- 
minating sin  of  the  world.  "  Sin,  when  it  is 
finished,"  says  James,  "  bringeth  forth  death." 
The  tragedy  of  this  hour  is  not  the  apparent 
death  of  the  Son  of  God ;  it  is  the  real  death 
of  priest  and  soldier — the  insensibility  to 
patient  love  in  the  horrible  triumph  of  the 
one  and  the  scarcely  less  horrible  indifference 
of  the  other.  Nothing  that  human  misery  has 
ever  looked  upon  through  tearful  eyes,  or 
human  shame  through  downcast  eyes  can 
quite  equal  this  scene  of  perfect  love  luminous 
in  a  scene  of  darkness  which  it  cannot  il- 
lumine, warm  in  this  atmosphere  of  deathly 


coldness  which  it  cannot  recover  to  life.  Sin 
is  fulfilled. 

The  revelation  of  divine  love  is  finished. 
It  began  in  the  day  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  man  was  given  this  palace 
beautiful  for  his  home.  It  continued  in  the 
day  when  the  prophet  interpreted  the  mystic 
voice  of  conscience  in  a  law  so  clear,  so 
definite,  so  responsive  to  man's  own  nature, 
that  no  man  could  fail  to  see  that  "  it  was 
holy,  pure,  and  good."  It  was  carried  on 
through  all  the  wayward  steps  of  a  nation 
which  refused  to  feed  in  green  pastures,  or  lie 
down  beside  still  waters,  or  be  led  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  for  Jehovah's  sake. 
It  was  emphasized  in  the  voices  of  prophets 
bearing  witness,  in  an  almost  unbroken  line, 
to  One  who  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him,  as  a 
father  pitieth  his  children,  who  forgiveth  all 
their  iniquities,  healeth  all  their  diseases,  re- 
deemeth  their  lives  from  destruction,  and 
crowneth  them  with  loving-kindness  and 
tender  mercies.  But  it  was  completed  in  the 
Incarnation,  the  Passion,  and  the  death  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Not  even  divine  love  can  go 
further  than  this.  "  God  commendeth  hi^ 
love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet 
sinners,  Christ  died  for  us."  Beyond  this,  is 
and  can  be  nothing.  The  cross  of  Christ  is 
the  final  fruit  of  God's  love.  In  that  cross 
His  love  is  fulfilled. 

Redemption  is  finished.  Sin  has  done  its 
worst;  it  has  brought  up  its  last  reserve,  and 
is  conquered.  In  its  hour — the  hour  of  dark- 
ness— it  is  vanquished.  The  taunt  of  the 
priests  is  the  triumph-song  of  the  Christian : 
"  He  saved  others,  himself  he  cannot  save." 
This  is  why  He  saved  others — because  Himself 
He  could  not  save.  If  He  had  come  down  from 
the  cross,  the  cross  would  not  have  delivered. 
Had  He  not  been  more  than  conqueror,  He 
would  not  have  conquered.  As  nothing  re- 
mains to  manifest  the  blackness  of  human  sin, 
and  nothing  to  reveal  the  warmth  and  light  of 
God's  love,  so  nothing  to  complete  the  victory 
over  sin.  "  It_  is  finished,"  was  cried  with 
a  loud  cry;  it  is  not  the  voice  of  resig- 
nation, nor  a  battle-cry;  it  is  the  shout  of 
triumph. 

As  on  a  great  battle-field  there  is  one 
pivotal  point  on  which  the  whole  issue  turns, 
one  critical  hour  to  which  all  before  has  led, 
from  which  all  that  follows  issues,  in  which 
the  victory  is  really  won,  so  that  it  remains 
only   to   push    retreat    into    flight,    and    flight 


82 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


into  rout,  and  rout  into  irretrievable  defeat, 
so  the  long  campaign  between  good  and  evil 
culminates  in  Calvary  and  the  hour  of  the 
crucifixion.  That  was  the  critical  hour  in  the 
world's  history.  Could  Christ  have  faltered 
or  flinched  or  drawn  back  then,  all  would 
have  been  lost.  He  did  not ;  and  all  was 
gained.  The  battle  was  really  finished  then, 
and  has  never  been  for  a  moment  doubtful 
since.     All    that    remains    for    His    followers 


is,  armed  with  His  courage,  inspired  by  His 
spirit,  employing  His  methods,  to  complete 
the  victory  which  He  has  won.  When  from 
the  other  world  we  look  down  upon  this,  we 
shall  see  that  the  long  battle  does  not  wait 
to  be  finished  for  the  day  of  judgment;  that 
the  victory  was  really  achieved  on  the  day 
of  crucifixion;  and  that  the  judgment  does 
but  record  the  results  of  what  was  truly  fin- 
ished in  that  great  hour. — C.  U- 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 


THE  TRIAL  OF  CHRIST'S   PERSONAL  VIRTUE 

By  S.  E.  Herrick,  D.D. 
Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil. — Matt.  iv:i 


Led  of  the  Spirit  to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil.  Simultaneously  played  upon  by  two 
forces  directly  opposite  in  kind,  and  the  per- 
fected character  of  the  man,  Jesus  Christ,  was 
the  resultant  of  these  two  forces  so  contrasted 
in  His  experience.  Without  either  of  these 
He  would  not  have  been  the  perfect  man 
that  He  was.  He  did  not  begin  life  a  perfect 
man.  He  became  perfect,  we  are  told,  through 
suffering.  "  He  grew  in  wisdom,"  says  the 
Evangelist.  '"  He  learned  obedience,"  says 
the  apostle,  "  by  the  things  that  he  sufifered." 
He  rose,  through  temptations  resisted,  from 
grace  to  grace,  ever  graduating,  as  it  were, 
through  the  strife,  into  some  new  mastership 
of  spiritual  acquisition.  This  was  His  life's 
epitome — led  of  the  Spirit  and  tempted  of 
the  devil — His  whole  biography  in  eight 
words.  This  is  also  the  universal  genesis  of 
virtue.  There  is  no  virtue  on  earth,  and  there 
never  was  any,  that  was  not  begotten  in  pre- 
cisely this  way.  This  is  the  burden  of  life, 
and  of  life's  attainment,  which  is  set  before 
every  man.  No  doubt  we  have  often  wished 
that  it  might  have  been  otherwise.  We  do 
not  like  this  perpetual  antagonism  of  life ; 
this  warfare  of  the  flesh  and  the  spirit  on 
the  soul's  arena ;  the  wings  of  life  taking 
upward  against  the  gravity  of  the  body  of 
death.  If  we  could  always  and  only  be  led 
by  the  Spirit  without  feeling  at  all  that 
terrible  devil  pressure — but  no !  they  go 
together. 

Led  of  the  Spirit,  tempted  of  the  devil,  and 
it  is  that  devil  pressure  that  makes  Gethsem- 
ane,  and  gives  its  burden  and  its  bitterness  to 
the  cross.  Led  of  the  Spirit  to  be  tempted 
of  the  devil.  Some  people  think  to  escape  the 
antagonism  by  simply  throwing  themselves 
wholly  upon  the  leadings  of  the  Spirit ;  giving 
themselves  to  the  fierceness  of  the  temptation  ; 
willing  simply  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil,  with- 
out any  of  the  Spirit's  leading  : — simply  letting 
temptation  sweep  them  away  wherever  it  will. 
There  is  no  antagonism  about  such  a  life — it 
is  easy.  If  a  man  wishes  to  throw  himself 
at  the  mercy  of  the  waves,  they  will  carry 


him  whither  they  please.  Such  people  become 
like  wandering  stars — nothing  in  them  but 
the  centrifugal  force  of  life;  and  when 
borne  out  into  the  darkness — it  is  too 
painful  to  follow  their  course,  even  in  im- 
agination. 

Wo  will,  sooner  or  later,  be  to  the  man 
who  expects  to  be  led  of  the  Spirit  with- 
out being  also  tempted  of  the  devil,  or  who 
determines  that  he  will  be  tempted  of  the 
devil  without,  at  the  same  time,  being  led  of 
the  Spirit. 

Is  it  a  good  thing,  then,  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil?  Nay,  I  did  not  say  that,  but  L 
said:  "  What  God  hath  joined  together  let  no 
man  put  asunder."  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be 
led  of  the  Spirit  and  to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil.  Did  not  Christ,  very  shortly  after  this 
experience  of  His,  teach  His  disciples  to  pray, 
"Lead  us  not  into  temptation"?  No;  He 
did  not  teach  them  to  pray  any  such  thing.  It 
reads  quite  differently  if  you  read  the  whole 
of  it :  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  de- 
liver us  from  evil."  It  is  balanced  by  a  di- 
vine delivering  force;  that  is  the  thing  he 
deprecates.  A  tempest  is  not  a  bad  thing  for 
an  oak,  save  when  the  oak  has  no  roothold — 
then  it  is  a  bad  thing— but  a  tempest  is  a 
good  thing  for  an  oak  if  it  have  a  root- 
hold.  The  whole  trend  of  Bible  teaching  is 
that  temptations  under  the  Spirit's  leader- 
ship are  themes  for  thanksgiving  rather  than 
for  repining.  "  Ble- sed  is  the  man  that  en- 
dureth  temptation."  "  Count  it  all  joy,  my 
brethren,  when  ye  fall  into  manifold  tempta-' 
tions." 

There  is  no  grander  spectacle  to  be  beheld 
on  this  round  earth  than  the  man  who  is  be- 
set on  every  side  by  various  buffetings.  op- 
pressed by  evil  suggestions,  persecuted  by  so- 
licitations to  self-indulgence,  pursued  by  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  eye  and  of  the 
pride  of  life,  and  yet  enabled  to  encounter 
them  all— feeling  the  full  force  of  their  im- 
pact, and  yet  able  to  resist  them  all  in  the 
might  of  a  divine  energy  that  has  been  put 
within  him  by  the  Spirit  of  God.     Great  pos- 


LENT 


83 


sibilities  of  evil  are  in  any  temptation,  to  be 
sure,  but  only  in  temptation  by  itself ;  only  in 
temptation  as  divorced  from  that  resisting 
force  which  God  has  abundantly  supplied  for 
its  modification  and  transformation.  When 
the  twain  are  grappling,  there  are  in  that  con- 
flict great  possibilities,  and  of  that  grappling 
comes  all  human  virtue.  Character  is  born 
of  it.  What  is  character  ?  What  do  you  mean 
by  it?  Character  is  something  far  greater 
than  untempted  innocence.  Untempted  inno- 
cence is  not  character.  Adam  before  he  sinned 
had  innocence,  but  he  had  no  character. 
Character  begins  with  the  first  resistance  to 
temptation,  or  with  the  first  yielding  to  it. 
That  is  the  point  at  which  character  begins. 
It  does  not  begin  before  that.  No  man  has 
character  until  he  has  met  temptation,  and 
either  resisted  it  or  yielded  to  it. 

Think  about  that  word  "character"  for  a 
moment.  It  carries  an  abiding  significance  in 
itself.  It  means  something  that  has  been 
scored  or  engraved.  It  comes  down  to  us 
from  the  olden  time  when  all  writing  was 
done  with  some  hard  substance,  with  bone  or 
ivory,  with  an  iron  pen,  so  that  every  letter 
was  scored"  or  cut  into  the  substance  written 
upon,  and  the  letter  so  scored  was  called  a 
character,  because  it  was  "  cara^sed  "  into  the 
substance  written  upon,  cut  in.  We  mean 
now  by  the  word  certain  abiding  results  which 
have  been  scored  into  the  soul  of  a  man  by 
the  experiences  of  life,  by  some  searching 
trial.  Temptations  leave  a  mark,  and  that 
mark  is  always  significant  whether  we  have 
overcome  the  temptation  or  it  has  overcome 
us.  The  temptation  leaves  a  mark,  and  that 
is  character. 

Holiness,  what  is  it?  Simply  innocence, 
no  more  than  innocence.  It  is  innocence  that 
has  endured  the  test,  and  that  bears  the  mark 
— of  endurance.  What  is  unholiness?  Why, 
that  is  innocence  too,  but  it  is  innocence  that 
has  succumbed  under  the  stress,  and  bears  the 
mark ;  that  has  1.  roken  down  under  pressure. 
That  is  sin,  that  is  unholiness.  Holiness  and 
unholiness,  both  are  character.  Now  I  know 
of  no  words  in  the  biography  of  our  blessed 
Lord  that  bring  Him  down  so  closely  and  ten- 
derly into  the  fellowship  of  our  human  sym- 
pathies as  these  words  of  the  text,  "  Then  was 
Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness 
to  be  tempted  of  the  devil."  They  are  words 
which  seem,  on  the  surface,  to  be  preliminary 
or  prefatory  to  an  epistle  of  His  life,  but  as 
we  stop  to  ponder  them  we  feel  how  fully  He 
was  with  us.  I  think  there  are  no  words  for 
which  we  ought  to  be 'so  devoutly  grateful, 
not  even  those  that  tell  us  of  His  crucifixion 
or  of  His  resurrection.  Because  here  we  see 
Him,  the  Son  of  God,  putting  Himself  down 
into  our  conditions,  taking  life  at  just  our 
level — if  I  may  so  express  it — and  going 
through  with  its  great  struggle  which  we  all 
have  to  undertake.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean 
now  the  struggle  for  bread  and  butter.  I 
am  not  speaking  of  that,  tho  He  had  to  endure 
that  also,  but  I  mean  now  that  higher  conflict 
which  every  one  knows  who  has  ever  had  one 
noble  thought  start  within  him  ;  who  has  ever 
had    one    higher    ambition    awakened    within 


him,  and  who  has  felt  a  something  trying  to 
drag  him  down  from  those  higher  things. 

That  is  what  I  mean  by  the  struggle  with 
life  which  every  one  has  to  feel.  An  ever- 
lasting fight  it  is,  and  a  universal  one,  this 
struggle  between  the  endeavor  to  be  sons  of 
God  and  the  temptation  to  be  only  children  of 
the  flesh  and  of  earthliness.  Jesus,  I  say, 
entered  Himself  into  this  same  conflict,  and 
precisely  at  the  same  level  with  us.  We  see 
Him,  made  like  unto  us,  taking  upon  Himself 
the  same  susceptibilities  to  evil,  having  just 
such  possibilities  as  you  and  I — and  I  say  this 
in  its  fullest  meaning — with  just  such  possi- 
bilities as  you  and  I  have,  for  if  it  was  not 
possible  for  Him  to  sin,  then  He  was  not 
tempted  as  we  are  to  sin.  Having  just  the 
same  possibilities  that  you  and  I  have,  "  We 
have  not  a  High  Priest  that  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities."  If  it  was 
not  possible  for  Him  to  sin,  He  could  not 
have  been  touched  with  our  infirmities — He 
did  not  have  infirmities.  He  knew,  in  His 
own  personal  experience,  just  what  we  feel 
when  appetite  suggests  that  we  should  be- 
come, just  for  the  sake  of  gratifying  it,  less 
like  the  man  and  more  like  the  brute.  He 
knew  in  His  own  experience  just  what  we 
know  when  the  ambition  for  popular  influ- 
ence suggests  that  in  order  to  gain  that  in- 
fluence we  plunge  into  some  vulgar  and  vain- 
glorious and  sensational  display.  He  knew 
just  what  we  experience  when,  feeling  that 
our  path  is  rugged  and  the  way  upward  is 
slow,  we  are  tempted  to  take  some  short  cut 
to  wealth,  and  so  to  ease  and  comfort,  which, 
if  we  proceeded  in  strict  uprightness  and 
the  fear  of  God,  we  might  not  so  readily 
leach.  Nowhere  else  does  Jesus  come  closer 
to  us  than  just  here  on  this  path  of  our 
daily  experience,  when  "  tempted  of  the 
devil." 

This  story  of  Jesus  is  worth  nothing  to  us 
if  it  is  not  true.  The  Gospels  are  no  better 
than  almanacs  to  us  if  this  is  not  true.  In 
order  to  make  His  experience  available  and  in 
the  highest  degree  healthful  to  us,  we  must 
take  note  of  the  way  in  which  He  has  received 
in  His  own  life  these  two  contrasted  forces. 
We  must  take  notice  of  the  order  in  which  He 
allowed  Himself  to  be  subjected  to  their  play. 
Notice  how  carefully  the  statement  is  made, 
"  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  to  be 
tempted  of  the  devil."  It  will  not  do  for  us  to 
reverse  this  order,  as  some  of  us  do  at  times, 
and  come  to  be  teinpted  of  the  devil  with 
the  expectation  that  we  shall  be  led  of  the 
Spirit.  I  see  men  doing  that  occasionally;  I 
have  done  it  myself.  If  we  are  really  led  of 
the  Spirit,  then  let  Him  lead  whithersoever 
He  will,  and  we  shall  be  likely  to  receive  not 
detriment  but  blessing.  But  if  we  are  going 
merely  of  our  motion,  the  temptation  into 
which  we  enter  will  shortly  prove  defeat  and 
disaster.  Keep  in  the  order;  be  led  of  the 
Spirit,  and  let  Him  lead  you  wheresoever  He 
pleases,  and  you  can  be  tempted  of  the  devil 
with  safety ;  but  do  not  be  tempted  of  the 
devil  with  the  expectation  that  you  are  going 
to  be  led  of  the  Spirit. 

Let  us  look  a  little  more  particularly  at  this 


84 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


experience  of  our  Elder  Brother,  and  see  what 
was  the  nature  of  this  spiritual  leading;  what 
is  meant  by  this  word  of  the  Evangelist  as  he 
tells  the  story  of  Jesus'  life;  what  is  meant 
by  this  "  leading  of  the  Spirit,"  this  rein- 
forcement and  cooperation  which  were  vouch- 
safed to  him  as  some  special  preparation 
against  attack.  It  is  one  of  the  unnecessary 
hindrances  to  our  understanding  of  the  record, 
arising  from  the  dividing  of  the  Bible  into 
chapters  and  verses,  that  we  almost  always 
think  of  the  beginning  of  a  new  chapter  as  the 
beginning  of  a  separate  narrative.  Nowhere 
is  this  artificial  division  more  of  an  imperti- 
nence, almost  amounting  to  a  profanity,  than 
at  this  point.  "  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the 
Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil."  That  is.no  place  for  the  story  to 
begin,  and  the  man  was  impertinent  and  pro- 
fane when  he  cut  up  the  Bible  in  that  way. 
I  do  not  want  my  conversation  cut  up  in  that 
way  and  given  to  men  in  disconnected  bits. 
You  would  not  like  to  have  your  conversa- 
tion cut  up  in  that  way,  but  ministers  have  to 
submit  to  it  a  good  deal. 

Read  the  preceding  words,  "  Jesus  when  he 
was  baptised  went  up  straightway  from  the 
water,  and  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  to 
him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descend- 
ing as  a  dove,  and  coming  upon  him.  And  lo, 
a  voice  out  of  heaven  saying:  This  is  my 
beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased. 
Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil  " — led 
by  that  same  Spirit  that  had  just  descended 
upon  Him,  with  the  full,  clear,  unmistakable 
disclosure  of  His  Sonship  ;  with  the  words  of 
the  Father  ringing  in  His  ear,  the  same 
Spirit  that  comes  to  us.  His  disciples,  as  the 
apostle  says,  by  the  spirit  of  adoption  or  of 
sonship  by  which  we  cry,  Abba,  Father. 
That  heavenly  preparation  under  which  Christ 
went  forth  into  the  wilderness  to  meet  His 
trial  was  not  some  mystic,  undefinable  in- 
fluence. The  leading  of  the  Spirit  is  set  forth 
just  as  clearly  as  the  story  of  the  devil  is  told. 
They  are  both  told  together,  and  should  never 
be  cut  apart. 

Many  people  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
action  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  something  that 
exists  only  in  the  imagination  of  weak  enthu- 
siasts. It  is  no  such  thing.  Here  we  have 
it  given  us  with  the  utmost  clearness — the  way 
in  which,  and  the  end  to  which,  the  Spirit 
came  to  Jesus  Christ.  It  came  bringing  down 
into  the  mind  of  Christ  this  clear  strong  as- 
surance, that  He  was  God's  beloved  Son,  that 
God  was  His  Father.  Not  that  He  had  not 
known  it  before ;  He  had  known  it  before, 
even  from  His  childhood,  as  He  had  had  the 
Spirit  before  from  His  childhood.  But  there 
came  to  Him  at  this  point  such  an  impressive 
and  powerful  assurance  and  conviction  of  Son- 
ship  that,  under  the  burden  and  glory  of  the 
thought.  He  was  constrained  to  go  away,  away 
alone  by  Himself  into  the  wilderness,  to  con- 
template in  solitude  far  from  the  influence  of 
men,  the  relations  in  which  He  stood — the 
Son  of  God  !  the  Son  of  God,  well  beloved. 
How,  henceforth,  should  He  bear  Himself? 
That  was  the  thought.     What  does   sonship 


mean  ?  what  does  it  demand  of  me  ?  He  was 
asking.  What  towards  God,  if  I  am  His  be- 
loved Son?  What  towards  man,  my  brother, 
if  I  am  God's  Son?  What  if  I  bear  myself 
a  true  Son  in  my  Father's  house,  may  I  ex- 
pect from  my  Father?  What  may  I  expect 
from  my  brethren,  who  neither  know  my 
Sonship  nor  their  own? 

These  were  the  questions  that  were  burning 
like  fire  through  His  bones,  as  He  went  out 
under  that  impression  of  the  Spirit  into  the 
wilderness.  These  were  the  questions  which 
He  answered  there,  and  kept  on  answering 
through  all  His  life  and  with  His  death.  This 
explains  all  the  thoughts,  and  nothing  else 
does  explain  them.  This  explains  all  that 
follows;  the  character  of  the  temptation;  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount — that  was  no  extem- 
poraneous affair.  It  was  made  in  the  wilder- 
ness during  these  forty  days.  It  was  forged 
under  heat.  He  did  not  just  open  His  lips 
and  pour  out  that  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
Under  this  grand,  this  unquestionable  assur- 
ance of  His  relations  to  the  Father  were 
wrought  out  all  these  matchless  expositions 
of  the  essentials  of  human  wellbeing  that  are 
in  the  Beatitudes.  This  dowry  of  the  Spirit 
upon  Him  fits  into  the  whole  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  and  explains  it  as  nicely  and  as  ac- 
curately as  in  some  fine  piece  of  mechanism 
one  cog-wheel  explains  and  interprets  another. 
The  story  of  the  temptation  explains  and  in- 
terprets the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  the 
same  way. 

Now  this  was  the  end  of  the  Spirit's  power 
and  leading  upon  Him  by  which  He  became 
equipped  and  fortified  against  the  attack  which 
was  so  sure  to  fall.  You  can  see  if  this  is 
not  so.  Look  at  these  contrasted  forces  which 
are  let  loose  upon  Him.  We  have  already 
looked  at  the  leading  of  the  Spirit,  what  the 
nature  of  it  was.  In  what  shape  did  the 
temptation  come?  See  if  the  one  does  not 
exactly  correspond  to  the  other.  "  If  thou  be 
the  Son  of  God."  What  had  the  divine  Spirit 
just  said  to  Him?  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  The  first  words 
of  the  tempting  devil  are,  "  If  ihou  1  e  the 
Son  of  God,  command  these  stones  to  be  made 
bread."  "  If  thou  art  the  Son  of  God  cast 
thyself  down,  and  he  will  send  his  angels 
to  hold  thee  up."  All  these  temptations 
were  addressed  to  this  one  point  in  His  affec- 
tions. This  was  the  bull's-eye  of  the  target 
to  which  every  fiery  dart  was  directed.  "  If 
thou  be  the  Son  of  God."  The  whole  en- 
deavor was  to  shake  Him  and  loosen  Him 
at  this  point  of  His.  conviction  of  His  divine 
Sonship ;  to  make  the  poor  hungry  man  dis- 
believe that  He  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  that 
God  is  treating  Him  like  a  Son ;  to  make  Him 
act  as  if  He  was  not  a  Son ;  to  make  Him 
plunge  into  some  unfilial  course,  to  break  into 
some  temper  of  dissatisfaction.  See  how  the 
contrasting  forces  play  back  and  forth.  The 
Spirit  divine  and  the  spirit  devilish.  Like 
deep  calling  unto  deep.  If  you  are  the  Son  of 
God  there  is  no  need  that  you  should  go 
hungry.  Turn  the  stones  to  bread  if  you  are 
hungry.  Nay,  says  the  Sonly  spirit,  my 
Father  made  the  stones  to  be  stones  and  not 


LENT 


85 


something  else.  A  son  lives  not  alone  by  the 
bread  which  he  can  find  or  can  make  in  his 
father's  house;  he  maintains  his  sonship  by- 
obedience,  not  by  making  bread.  Let  him 
obey,  if  he  is  a  son,  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  from  his  father's  mouth,  then  he  will 
maintain  sonship,  not  by  making  bread. 

If  you  be  the  Son  of  God,  the  devil  says, 
you  can  win  the  following  you  ought  to  have 
among  your  brethren  by  giving  some  grand 
proof  before  their  eyes.  Your  Father  will 
sustain  you,  and  your  brethren  will  flock 
around  you.  No,  replied  Jesus,  a  son  will 
not  tempt  his  father  to  break  what  he  knows 
to  be  one  of  that  father's  laws,  and  the  force 
of  gravity  is  just  as  much  one  of  My  Father's 
laws  as  a  law  of  the  Decalog  graven  on  stone, 
and  every  law  of  nature  is  just  as  much  so 
as  a  law  of  Moses.  If  there  was  any  neces- 
sity for  so  doing,  no  doubt  My  Father  would 
be  willing  that  I  should  suspend  or  modify 
that  law,  but  there  is  no  necessity,  and  I  will 
not  be  unfilial. 

So  He  was  led  of  the  Spirit  and  tempted 
of  the  devil.  To  and  fro  the  forces  played 
on  Him,  and  they  are  working  on  the  char- 
acter of  every  man  in  precisely  the  same  way. 
This  is  the  method  and  the  rationale  of  their 
operation.  That  temptation  of  the  wilderness 
stands  typical  of  all  temptations.  There  is  no 
human  trial  that  does  not  still  range  under  it- 
Look  at  the  last  temptation  that  came  to  you, 
perhaps  this  morning  or  last  night,  or  take 
the  very  next  one  that  meets  you  and  study  it, 
and  you  will  find  that  this  is  at  the  heart  and 


center  of  it — that  you  are  God's  child,  and  it 
is  your  greatest  obligation  and  your  clearest 
privilege  to  tear  yourself  as  God's  child  in 
this  world,  which  is  simply  a  part  of  your 
Father's  house,  and  the  temptation  is  always 
to  do  something  that  will  break  down  your 
character  at  the  point  of  sonship.  I  care  not 
what  may  be  the  external  form  which  the 
temptation  takes ;  it  may  spring  out  of  the 
fires  of  youthful  appetite,  or  the  suggestions 
of  ambition  or  of  covetous  desire,  or  the  nar- 
rowness or  restrictions  of  your  poverty,  or 
your  pains  or  weakness,  and  the  meagerness 
of  your  life  itself,  with  its  dry  and  barren 
monotony,  or  out  of  your  wealth  and  ease 
and  comfort,  but  whencesoever  it  comes,  the 
evil  essence,  the  subtle,  evil  spirit  of  tempta- 
tion will  be,  in  every  case,  that  you  shall  be, 
or  do,  or  say,  what  is  unfilial,  what  will 
tend  to  break  down  God's  Fatherhood  and 
your  own  sonship,  in  your  heart  and  life ; 
what  will  put  estrangement  between  you 
and  Him,  of  whom  your  spirit  has  been 
begotten.  It  comes  to  me  as  the  great  con- 
viction of  my  life  that  we  need  to  be  born 
again  each  day  into  the  sense  of  a  divine  son- 
ship  ;  to  have  descend  upon  us  in  ever-in- 
creasing measures  that  same  spirit  of  adop- 
tion by  which  we  cry,  "  Abba,  Father."  Then, 
led  up  into  every  day  and  its  experiences  by 
that  Spirit,  as  temptations  earthly,  sensual, 
and  devilish  rise  upon  us,  they  will  simply 
work  for  us,  as  they  did  for  our  Elder 
Brother,  "  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory," — H.  R. 


SELF-RENUNCIATION  THE  LAW  OF  SELF-PRESER- 
VATION 

By  Joseph  Roberts,  D.D. 

Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth 
by  itself  alone;  but  if  it  die,  it  bcarcth  niucli  fruit.  He  that  loveth  his  life  (or  soul)  loseth 
it;  and  he  that  liatetli  his  life  (soul)  in  tliis  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal. — John 
xii:  24,  25 


How  can  it  be  affirmed  that  gain  is  loss  and 
that  loss  is  gain?  To  formal  logic  this  state- 
ment is  absurd.  You  might  as  well  say  that 
something  is  nothing,  or  that  down  is  up,  or 
that  the  south  is  the  north.  The  statement 
violates  the  principle  of  contradiction — that 
which  Sir  William  Hamilton  declares  to  be 
the  highest  of  all  logical  laws,  the  supreme 
law  of  thought.  Yet  the  statement  is  not  a 
mere  rhetorical  paradox,  but  an  exact  state- 
ment of  the  deepest  law  of  life,  the  funda- 
mental law  of  self-sacrifice  and  glorification 
of  the  Son  of  Man.  .  .  . 

"  Loveth  his  life,  ..."  "  hateth  his  life 
..."  "  eternal  life."  Do  you  like  para- 
doxes? Nature  is  full  of  paradoxes.  Some 
men  are  accustomed  to  apply  "  paradox  "  as 
if  it  were  a  term  of  reproach,  and  implied  ab- 
surdity. But  all  that  the  term  properly  im- 
plies is  that  the  burden  of  the  proof  lies  with 
him  who  maintains  the  paradox,  since  men 
are  not  expected  to  abandon  the  prevailing 


belief  until  some  reason  is  shown.  ...  As 
we  said,  nature  is  full  of  paradoxes.  The 
water  which  drowns  us  as  a  fluent  stream  can 
be  walked  upon  as  ice.  The  bullet  which, 
when  fired  from  a  musket,  carries  death,  will 
be  harmless  if  ground  to  dust  before  being 
fired.  The  crystallized  part  of  the  oil  of 
roses,  so  grateful  in  its  fragrance — a  solid  at 
ordinary  temperatures,  tho  readily  volatile — 
is  a  compound  substance,  containing  exactly 
the  same  elements,  and  in  exactly  the  same 
proportions,  as  the  gas  with  which  we  light 
our  streets.  The  tea,  which  we  daily  drink 
with  benefit  and  pleasure,  produces  palpita- 
tions, nervous  tremblings,  and  even  paralysis 
if  taken  in  excess;  yet  the  peculiar  organic 
agent  called  "  thein,"  to  which  tea  owes  its 
quality,  may  be  taken  by  itself  (as  thein,  not 
as  tea)  without  any  appreciable  effect.  .  .  . 

Thus  you  see  that  nature  is  full  of  para- 
doxes, and  not  nature  only,  but  also  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Teacher  from  heaven.     According 


86 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


to  His  teaching,  the  only  true  pain  is  through 
loss ;  the  only  true  enrichment  is  through 
giving;  the  only  true  victory  is  through  suf- 
fering and  humiliation ;  and  the  only  true 
life  is  through  death.  "  He  that  loveth  his 
life  loseth  it ;  and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in 
this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal." 
His  own  life  was  subjected  to  this  law. 

More  than  once  did  the  Lord  express — in 
the  words  which  He  here  emphatically  re- 
peats— the  course  of  life  which  those  must 
lead  who  would  follow  Him.  On  several 
great  occasions  He  impressed  this  law  of 
spirit,  of  life  upon  the  minds  of  His  disciples. 
After  calling  the  Twelve,  in  His  commission 
to  them,  to  place  His  own  claim  on  their 
afifections  as  greater  than  that  of  the  father, 
mother,  friend,  and  calling  for  self-denial  and 
self-sacrifice.  He  said:  "He  that  findeth  his 
life  shall  lose  it ;  he  that  loseth  his  life  for 
my  sake  shall  find  it."  (Comp.  Matt.  x:39; 
xvi :  25  ;    Luke  ix  :  24 ;    xvii :  23.) 

This  is  the  watchword  of  Christ  and  it 
should  be  our  watchword  also.  In  the  text 
He  is  applying  to  His  own  case  this  universal 
law  of  the  divine  life,  of  which  He  was  on  the 
point  of  giving  the  crowning,  climacteric  ex- 
pression by  His  suffering  and  death.  .  .  . 
Brethren,  do  you  grasp  this  great  thought? 
Do  you  understand  this  great  law  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  world?  What  is  it?  It 
is  the  fundamental  law  of  self-sacrifice.  What 
does  it  mean?  It  means  this:  That  self-re- 
nunciation is  the  law  of  self-preservation; 
and  conversely,  that  the  law  of  self-preserva- 
tion is  the  law  of  self-destruction. 

Let  us  try  to  realize  this  law,  and  pass  on 
now  to  the  consideration  of  it  under  the  fol- 
lowing divisions  : 

I.  First,  then,  let  us  look  at  the  vicarious 
death  of  Christ  in  the  light  of  this  law. 
"  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  except  a  grain 
of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth 
by  itself  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much 
fruit." 

This  is  true,  not  only  of  wheat,  but  of 
every  other  seed ;  every  seed  must  die  in 
order  to  bear  fruit.  There  is  no  harvest  with- 
out death.  All  nature,  conceived  of  as  ani- 
mated by  the  breath  of  God,  and  sustained  by 
His  Almighty  Word,  contains  in  her  phe- 
nomena the  most  pregnant  symbols  of  all  the 
truths  in  the  spiritual  world.  And  in  these 
words,  which  were  first  spoken  to  the  Greeks, 
Christ  does  not  appeal  to  the  testimony  of  the 
prophets,  but  to  the  secretly  prophesying 
similitude  of  nature.  "  Therefore,  nature  her- 
self, as  well  as  the  divine  prophecy  in  Israel, 
speaks  of  a  redeeming  death." 

Since  the  fall  of  mankind  was  foreseen,  and 
the  plan  of  their  redemption  laid  in  the  deep 
counsels  of  eternity,  the  Creator  implanted 
types  in  nature  of  this  great  principle — life 
through  death,  gain  through  loss.  From  this 
divine  ordinance  of  fruit  springing  from  the 
seed,  of  the  new  growth  from  the  death  of  the 
old,  we  have  the  most  primitive  prophecy  of 
the  mystery  of  the  atonement  which  pure 
creation  contains.  Indeed,  we  may  look  upon 
the  whole  world  as  one  great  parable  to  which 
the   Gospel    supplies   the   clew.     How   patent 


and  beautiful  is  this  analogy  to  illustrate  that 
change  from  weakness  to  power,  from  spring- 
ing forth  afresh  of  life  out  of  death !  From 
death  in  its  general  sense,  and  from  death  in 
its  special  sense,  namely,  as  the  wages  of  sin, 
new  life  has  sprung  forth.  Such  a  wonderful 
idea  is  this ;  death  is  the  source  of  the  natural 
and  the  spiritual  harvest.  Christ  could  not 
be  a  source  of  eternal  life  without  dying,  but 
through  His  death  He  became  a  source  of  life, 
increase,  fruitfulness,  and  glorification. 

I.  His  death  is  the  reviving  power  in  the 
moral  world  to  all  united  to  Him  through 
faith. 

The  grain  of  wheat  must  fall  to  the  ground 
and  die,  in  order  to  become  a  reviving  energy. 
It  must  undergo  death-like  change,  and 
death-like  transformation  before  it  springs  up 
and  bears  fruit.  So  the  eternal  Son  volun- 
tarily sinks  down  into  the  earth  of  death  and 
curse,  "  into  the  domain  and  destiny  of  sinful 
men,  not  to  remain  there,  but  to  rise  out  of  it 
as  the  Glorified  Glorifier,  the  risen  Raiser  of 
Men." 

In  the  history  of  nations,  in  the  life  of 
men,  in  the  plan  of  redemption,  as  well  as  in 
nature,  it  is  a  law  of  universal  operation  that 
out  of  self-renouncing,  self-sacrificing  resig- 
nation of  all,  the  benediction  of  richer  fruit- 
fulness,  of  glorified,  multiplied  existence, 
springs  forth.  If  Christ  had  not  died  He 
would  "  abide  alone," — alone  in  the  presence 
of  His  Father,  alone  in  the  bosom  of  eternal 
silence,  but  without  any  of  the  sons  of  men. 
Through  His  death  He  became  the  source  of 
a  reviving  power  and  fruitfulness.  The  in- 
carnation and  the  death  of  the  Son  of  Man 
form  the  spiritual  power  that  is  to  create  the 
world  anew.  If  we  would  become  one  with 
God — and  what  higher  glory  or  felicity  is 
conceivable? — let  us  ever  remember  that 
Christ  in  His  obedience  and  atoning  death  is 
the  medium.  "  For  as  the  Father  hath  life 
in  himself,  even  so  gave  he  to  the  Son  also 
to  have  life  in  himself."  "  For  as  the  Father 
raiseth  the  dead  and  quickeneth  them,  even 
so  the  Son  also  quickeneth  whom  he  will." 

"  The  Son  of  Alan  came  to  give  his  life  a 
ransom  for  many."  This  is  what  the  Holy 
Ghost  said  of  His  death  by  the  pen  of  in- 
spiration— "  Who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for 
all,  to  be  testified  in  due  time."  "  A  ransom  " 
— do  you  know  what  a  ransom  means?  It 
means  an  equivalent  or  satisfaction  for  things 
forfeited  or  lost.  "  He  gave  himself  a  ran- 
som for  all."  Let  us  take  note  of  the  word 
"  for."  The  vicariousness  of  the  sacrifice  is 
implied  in  the  word  "  for."  A  vicarious  act 
is  an  act  for  another.  The  Son  of  Man 
"  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death "  for  us, 
and  "  bare  the  sin  of  many."  And  when  the 
great  tragedy  of  Calvary  had  taken  place,  it 
was  said  that  "  His  own  self  bare  our  sins 
in  his  body  on  the  tree."  In  all  these  state- 
ments the  death  of  our  Lord  is  set  forth  as 
the  pivot,  as  the  soul  and  center,  of  the  mys- 
terious transaction  of  redemption  "  for " 
others.  .  .  . 

How  original  and  divine  is  this  scheme — 
life  through  death,  fruitfulness  through  de- 
struction !     A  grain  of  wheat  is  small  and  in- 


LENT 


87 


significant,  yet  what  a  mystery  is  contained 
in  it !  A  little  child  may  hold  scores  of  them 
on  the  palm  of  its  hand,  yet  all  the  wisdom, 
all  the  science,  and  all  the  philosophy  of  the 
world  could  not  produce  one  grain.  To  pro- 
auce  one  grain  of  wheat  there  is  nece-sary 
the  cooperation  of  all  the  laws,  forces,  and  in- 
fluences of  nature.  If  evolution  is  simply  the 
history  of  the  steps  by  which  the  world  has 
come  to  be  what  it  is,  then,  according  to  the 
investigation  of  science  within  the  last  ten 
years  into  the  origin  and  growth  of  wheat, 
wheat  apparently  does  not  come  under  the 
law  of  evolution.  It  does  not  come  under  tlie 
law  of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest."  I  do  not 
intend  now  to  indicate  the  course  and  scope 
of  these  searches  more  than  to  say  that  the 
record  of  history  and  the  deposits  of  geology 
testify  that  wheat  has  no  development,  no  de- 
scent. It  has  never  been  found  in  a  fossil 
state ;  it  has  no  existence  whatever  in  the  de- 
posits of  geology.  And,  further,  it  has  never 
been  found  in  a  wild  state  in  any  country,  nor 
in  any  age ;  and  never  existed  where  man 
did  not  cultivate  it.  Wheat  is  an  exception  in 
the  vegetable  kingdom,  for  the  reason  that  it 
has  no  power  whatever  to  perpetuate  its  own 
existence,  like  some  other  growing  and  living 
things.  A  crop  of  wheat  left  to  itself,  in  any 
latitude  or  country,  in  the  third  or  the  fourth 
year  from  its  first  planting,  would  entirely 
disappear.  In  regard  to  the  "  staff  of  life," 
man  is  the  High  Priest  who  was  ordained  to 
administrate  between  God  and  Nature.  It  has 
no  power  to  master  its  surrounding  difficul- 
ties so  as  to  become  self-perpetuating,  and 
never  exists  where  men  do  not  cultivate  it. 
Thus,  it  does  not  come  under  the  law  of  the 
"  survival  of  the  fittest." 

This  is  also  as  true  of  our  Redeemer  as  of 
a  grain  of  wheat.  He  descended  from  heaven. 
The  plan  of  our  salvation  originated  in  the 
Divine  Mind.  Christ  is  the  "  Bread  of  Life," 
"  For  the  bread  of  God  is  he  wiiich  cometh 
down  from  heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the 
world."  He  is  the  dispenser  of  this  heavenly 
vital  energy.  He  communicates  His  spiritual 
life  and  essence  itself  to  His  own,  and  there- 
fore makes  them  like  Himself,  first  spiritu- 
ally, then  corporeally.  This  is  the  universal 
law  of  life :  "  a  deathlike  metamorphosis,"  as 
a  condition  whereon  depends  the  renewal  of 
life,  is  type  of  the  fundamental  law  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God ;  which  law  provides  that 
we,  by  priestly  surrender  of  our  own  wills  to 
the  will  of  God,  do  obtain  new  kingly  life 
from  God. 

And  besides  this,  let  us  carry  this  thought 
further.  It  was  not  the  life  but  the  death  of 
Christ  that  multiplied  Him  a  thousandfold. 
"  But  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." 
Had  this  first  seed-corn  died  and  fallen  into 
the  earth,  it  would  be  alone  in  its  peculiar 
preeminence,  just  as  Jesus  stood  in  His  power 
of  the  Spirit,  His  divine  human  life  and 
energy,  incommunicable,  independent  of,  and 
above  the  rest  of  the  human  race,  before  He 
died.  But  now  what  a  thousandfold  fruit 
does  He  bear !  From  the  time  He  gave  up 
His  soul  as  an  offering  for  sin,  "  He  sees  his 
seed  and  prolongs  his  days."     We  may  imag- 


ine that  we  see  in  an  acorn  all  that  may  arise 
from  it — an  oak,  a  ship,  a  navy — for  an  acorn 
has  a  life-germ  that  is  capable  of  increase  and 
multiplication ;  but  we  cannot  imagine  the 
results  of  the  suffering  and  the  death  of  Christ 
to  humanity.  The  Son  of  God,  and  He 
alone,  through  His  omniscience  could  clearly 
foresee  and  foretell  the  spiritual  results  of 
His  obedience  unto  death.  This  earth  is  the 
only  wheat  country  in  the  great  universe  of 
God;  and  the  Grain  of  Wheat  is  bringing 
forth  much  fruit.  And  in  the  time  of  the 
harvest  God  will  say  to  the  reapers,  "  Gather 
the  wheat  into  my  barn."  Yes,  and  this  barn  is 
the  eternal  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  This  principle  involves,  further,  that  the 
Son  of  Man  is  glorified  in  His  death. 

When  He  explained  His  system,  in  brief,  to 
the  Greeks,  He  said,  "  The  hour  is  come  that 
the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified."  As  the 
Son  of  Man,  the  normal  and  the  central  Man, 
by  His  dying,  the  divine  energy  of  His  person 
will  be  set  free  and  exerted  for  all  mankind. 
Nature  arrives  at  the  true  and  the  beautiful 
by  passing  through  death  into  new  life.  The 
higher,  form  of  existence  is  obtained  only 
through  extinction  of  the  lower  form  that 
preceded  it.  The  food  perishes  in  the  pro- 
cess of  digestion  to  reappear  in  vivified  flesh 
and  blood.  So  in  a  symbolical  analogy  the 
grain  of  wheat  dies  in  order  to  prolong  and 
glorify  itself. 

When  Christ  uttered  the  words  "  The  hour 
is  come :  glorify  thy  Son,"  He  realized  all  the 
grief  and  pain  which  were  to  come.  But  the 
dark  cloud  of  suffering  and  death  could  not 
hide  from  Him  the  results  in  His  glorification. 
He  saw  both  the  star  and  cloud,  and  knew 
well  which  of  the  two  was  transient,  and 
which  would  endure.  The  hour  was  at  hand, 
and  the  sacrifice  and  the  struggle  were  real 
when  His  calm  soul  was  troubled.  Oh !  what 
a  tremendous  self-sacrifice  that  death  of  the 
cross  involved.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  His  suf- 
ferings, Christ  said,  with  a  burst  of  triumph : 
"  Now  the  Son  of  Man  is  glorified."  And 
what  is  very  remarkable,  in  five  brief  clauses 
He  repeats  the  word  "  glorify  "  five  times,  as 
if  to  His  view  a  coruscation  of  glories  played 
at  that  moment  al  ove  the  cross.  He  was 
glorified.  He  is  to  be  glorified  in  the  results  of 
His  death — "  bring  forth  much  fruit." 

II.  Once  more.  Self-renunciation  is  the 
law  of  self-preservation;  and  conversely, 
self-preservation  is  the  law  of  self-destruc- 
tion in  the  life  of  men.  "  He  that  loveth  his 
life  (his  own  soul),  shall  lose  it;  and  he 
that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep 
it  unto  life  eternal." 

The  way  to  eternal  life  is  to  hate  oneself. 
Death  of  self,  the  death  of  egoism  that  clings 
to  the  outward  life  of  appearance,  is  the  con- 
dition of  the  transition  from  the  old  life  to 
the  new.  Thus,  the  Master  and  the  servant 
are  under  the  same  law.  There  is  no  other 
way  to  preserve  or  redeem  against  ourselves 
than  by  self-hating  and  self-renouncing  sur- 
render of  ourselves  to  death.  That  which 
held  good  for  the  Master  in  its  own  peculiar, 
unapproachable  sense — as  of  the  seed  which 
He  alone  could  sow,  the  sacrifice  which  He 


88 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


alone  could  ofifer — is  not  less  on  that  account 
a  type  for  us  and  fulfilled  in  us.  The  dis- 
ciple, then,  must  be  like  his  Master,  the  serv- 
ant like  his  Lord.  There  are  many  things 
in  which  we  cannot  resemble  Him — in  free- 
dom from  sin,  in  knowledge,  in  wisdom,  and 
power.  But  in  this  highest  quality  of  all, 
in  the  divinest  faculty  and  grace,  we  can 
be  like  Him.  We  can  sacrifice  ourselves ; 
this  is  merely  a  necessary  means  to  a  higher 
end.  Sacrifice  is  the  indispensable  condition 
of  success.  We  must  renounce  in  order  to 
prevail. 

Now,  how  many  of  us  are  willing  to  follow 
Christ  in  the  regeneration  of  society  until  we 


get  sight  of  Calvary?  We  are  willing  to  make 
what  we  call  "  reasonable  sacrifice."  What 
do  you  mean  by  reasonable  sacrifice?  There 
is  nothing  reasonable  in  this  universe  but  the 
entire  sovereignty  of  the  law  of  self-sacrifice 
in  the  personal  life.  There  is  nothing  more 
reasonable  in  the  moral  order  than  sacrifice. 
There  is  but  one  reasonable  sacrifice  for  you 
and  me,  and  that  is  to  have  our  wills  to  be 
nailed  upon  the  cross  of  an  entire  self-renun- 
ciation in  the  service  of  Christ.  "  I  beseech 
you,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye 
present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service." — H.   R. 


LENT 

By  Rev.  E.  P.  Cachemaille 
/  will  be  sorry  for  my  sin. — Ps.  xxxviii:  i8 


At  this  season  we  are  reminded  of  our 
Lord's  fasting,  temptation,  sufferings  and 
death.  This  should  make  us  think  why  He 
sufifered  so  much.  He  sufifered  and  died  for 
our  sins.  Then  at  this  season  especially  we 
ought  to  think  upon  our  sin,  and  the  text  tells 
us  how  we  ought  to  think  about  it. 

L  "  I  WILL  BE  SORRY." 

Not  only  "  afraid,"  tho  sin  is  something  to 
be  afraid  about.  (Illust. — Adam,  Judas  Is- 
cariot.)  Nor,  "  I  will  try  to  hide  it,  or 
forget  it ;  "  but,  like  Peter,  who  wept  bitterly, 
"  be  sorry."  Sorry  for  whom?  Not  only  the 
person  against  whom  you  have  done  wrong — 
e.  g.,  if  you  have  told  your  mother  a  lie,  you 
will  be  sorry  before  her — but  also  "  against 
thee,  thee  only,  have  I   sinned." 

H.  "  Sorry  FOR  MY  SIN." 

Not  only  for  the  disgrace  it  has  brought 
upon  me,  or  the  suffering  it  has  caused  me ; 


but  for  my  having  broken  God's  holy  com- 
mandments and  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit. 

III.  "  Sorry  for  MY  sin." 

Whose  ?  Sad  to  see  others  sin ;  should 
never  rejoice  over  it,  but  pray  God  to  forgive 
them,  and  be  sorry  for  them.  But  here  I 
have  to  be  sorry,  not  only  for  my  brother's  or 
schoolfellow's  sin,  but  for  my  own. 

"  I  will  be  sorry."  Father,  mother,  teacher, 
minister,  friends,  all  who  know  how  wicked 
my  sin  is,  will  be  sorry.  But  these  are  not 
enough.     I,  too,  must  be  sorry. 

Ask  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  to  make  you 
truly  sorry  for  your  sin,  by  the  teaching  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Ask  Him  to  forgive  you  for 
Christ's  sake,  and  to  wash  you  in  the  precious 
blood  that  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  Ask  Him 
to  help  you  to  show  that  you  are  really  sorry 
by  forsaking  the  sin. — P.  T. 


ASH  WEDNESDAY 

By  E.  M.  a. 


Matt,  iv:  i 


Why  this  season  is  called  Lent?  Why  this 
day  Ash  Wednesday?  Let  us  use  the  season; 
hope  to  profit  by  it. 

(Forty  days  Moses  was  on  the  Mount. 
Forty  days  Jonah  was  crying  out  to  the  Nine- 
vites.) 

Think  to-day  of  Jesus  tempted.  Why?  For 
our  sakes.  (i)  To  teach  us  to  expect  temp- 
tation.    (2)  To  show  us  how  to  meet  it. 

Let  us  look  at  the  Catechism,  and  see  how 
it  warns  us  against  three  kinds  of  tempta- 
tion. What  did  your  Godfathers  and  God- 
mothers promise  for  you?  (Let  answer  be 
repeated.) 

I.  The  devil  and  all  his  works.  Sub- 
ject mysterious,  yet  we  know:  (i)  He  puts 
bad  thoughts  into  our  minds.  (2) Urges  us 
to  use  wrong  words.     (3)  Tempts  us  to  evil 


deeds.     All  his  works  are  wrong,  evil,  against 
God. 

II.  The  pomps  and  vanity  of  this  wicked 
world.  Its  sinful  pleasures.  May  have  many 
pure  pleasures ;  but  there  are  such  as  lead  us 
from,  not  to  God.  Its  outward  show  and 
pomp  help  to  turn  our  thoughts,  and  so  our 
desires,  from  Him.  (Contrast  Lot's  choice 
with   Daniel's.) 

III.  The  sinful  lusts  (or  desires  of  the 
flesh),  (i)  Such  as  laziness  (perhaps  too 
lazy  to  say  prayers,  or  help  another).  (2) 
Greediness ;  letting  our  appetite  master  us. 
(3)  Selfishness;  as  shown  in  thinking  more 
of  self  than  others ;  eagerly  seizing  best  place 
or  piece,  etc. 

Let  us  fight  as  Jesus  did,  with  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit.     "  It  is  written." — P.  T. 


LENT 


89 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  FASTING 


By  W.  C.  Smith 

Matt,  vi:  16-18 


Properly  speaking,  fasting  is  not  so  much  a 
duty  enjoined  by  revelation  as  it  is  the  nat- 
ural expression  of  certain  religious  feelings 
and  desires.  There  is  but  one  special  fast 
ordained  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  there  is 
none  at  all  ordained  in  the  New.  Yet  one 
cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  exercise  is  never- 
theless quite  in  accordance  with  the  whole 
tenor  of  a  true  religious  life  of  all  ages ;  and 
that,  if  it  is  not  expressly  commanded,  it  is 
only  because  nature  itself  teaches  us  in 
certain  circumstances  thus  to  afflict  the  soul. 
These  circumstances  which  would  obviously 
suggest  this  exercise  are  twofold. 

I.  Fasting  is  the  natural  expression  of  grief, 
and  therefore  the  natural  accompaniment  of 
godly  sorrow.  It  is  a  mistaken  kindness  to 
press  dainties  on  the  heart  when  it  has  no 
appetite  for  aught  but  its  sorrow.  Better  let 
it  have  its  fill  of  grief — better  every  way  for 
body  and  mind.  Spiritual  sorrow  in  the  same 
way  suggests,  and  is  the  better  for,  this  exer- 
cise of  fasting. 

IL  Fasting  is  also  a  wise  method  of  keep- 
ing down  the  law  of  the  flesh  which  is  in  our 
members.    Rich  and  poor  will  be  the  better 


for  a  fast  now  and  then,  to  mortify  the  flesh, 
to  weaken  the  incentives  to  evil,  to  subdue  in 
some  measure  the  carnal  nature,  and  give 
freer  play  and  power  to  the  spiritual  man 
within. 

III.  Our  Lord  counsels  His  people,  (l) 
that  their  fasting  must  be  real,  sincere,  genu- 
ine— a  thing  to  be  seen,  not  of  men,  but  of 
God;  (2)  that  fasting  in  the  Christian  Church 
should  be  altogether  private,  and  even  secret, 
not  only  not  in  order  to  be  seen  of  men,  but 
absolutely  hidden  from  them.  Religion  does 
not  consist  in  a  sour  visage  or  morose  habit 
— nay,  more,  religion  is  not  properly  a  sor- 
rowful thing.  The  Gospel  was  not  sad  tid- 
ings, but  glad  tidings  for  all  mankind,  and 
we  are  not  acting  fairly  by  it  unless  we  strive 
so  to  present  it,  in  all  its  winning  and  attract- 
ive beauty,  that  men  shall  be  led  to  seek  after 
Jesus.  Christianity  has  its  godly  sorrow,  has 
its  heartgrief  for  sin,  has  its  fasting  and  mor- 
tifying of  the  flesh;  yet  we  do  it  utter  injus- 
tice unless  we  also  make  it  appear  that  it  is, 
taken  as  a  whole,  the  only  true  blessedness  and 
peace  and  joy,  the  only  walk  with  God  which 
is  gladness  everlasting. — S.  B.,  vol.  v.,  p.  144. 


FAST  DAY 


By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 

Moreover  when  ye  fast,  he  not,  as  the  hypocrites,  of  a  sad  countenance;    .    .    .    that  thou 
appear  not  unto  men  to  fast,  but  unto  thy  Father  which  is  in  secret. — Matt,  vi:  16-18 


Let  us  ask  what  is  the  use  of  fasting,  for  so 
we  shall  best  come  to  understand  the  true 
methods  and  degrees  of  fasting.  All  bodily 
discipline,  all  voluntary  abstinence  from 
pleasure  of  whatever  sort,  must  be  of  value 
either  as  a  symbol  of  something  or  a  means 
of  something.  These  two  functions  belong  to 
it  as  being  connected  with  the  body,  which  is 
at  once  the  utterer  and  the  educator  of  the 
soul  within.  No  man  can  be  a  better  man 
save  as  his  pride  is  crushed  into  repentance, 
and  as  the  sweltering,  enwrapping  mass  of 
passions  and  indulgences  that  is  around  him 
is  broken  through,  so  that  God  can  find  his 
soul  and  pour  Himself  into  it.  This,  then, 
is  the  philosophy  of  fasting.  It  expresses  re- 
pentance, and  it  uncovers  the  life  to  God.  It 
is  the  voluntary  disuse  of  anything  innocent 
in  itself,  with  a  view  to  spiritual  culture. 

I.  Consider  first  the  value  of  fasting  as  a 
symbol.  It  expresses  the  abandonment  of 
pride.  But  it  is  the  characteristic  of  a  sym- 
bolic action  that  it  not  merely  expresses  but 
increases  and  nourishes  the  feeling  to  which 
it  corresponds.  And  if  abstinence  is  the  sign 
of  humility,  it  is  natural  enough  that  as  the 


life  abstains  from  its  ordinary  indulgences 
the  humiliation  which  is  so  expressed  should 
be  deepened  by  the  expression.  Thus  the 
symbol  becomes  also  a  means. 

II.  Note  the  second  value  of  fasting — its 
value  directly  as  a  means.  The  more  we 
watch  the  lives  of  men,  the  more  we  see  that 
one  of  the  reasons  why  men  are  not  occupied 
with  great  thoughts  and  interests  is  the  way 
in  which  their  lives  are  overfilled  with  little 
things.  The  real  Lent  is  the  putting  forth  of 
a  man's  hand  to  quiet  his  own  passions  and 
to  push  them  aside,  that  the  higher  voices 
may  speak  to  him  and  the  higher  touches  fall 
upon  him.  It  is  the  making  of  an  emptiness 
about  the  soul,  that  the  higher  fullness  may 
fill  it.  Perhaps  some  day  the  lower  needs 
may  themselves  become,  and  dignify  them- 
selves by  becoming,  the  meek  interpreters  and 
ministers  of  those  very  powers  which  they 
once  shut  out  from  the  soul.  There  will  be 
no  fasting  days,  no  Lent,  in  heaven.  Not  be- 
cause we  shall  have  no  bodies  there,  but  be- 
cause our  bodies  there  will  be  open  to  God,  the 
helps  and  not  the  hindrances  of  spiritual  com- 
munication to  our  souls. — S.  B.,  vol.  v.,  p.  143 


90 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


MEDITATION  ESSENTIAL  TO  THE   DEVELOPMENT 

OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

By  a.  E.  Kittredge,  D.D. 

And  He  said  unto  them,  Come  ye  yourselves  apart  into  a  desert  place,  and  rest  awhile;  for 
there  were  many  coming  and  going,  and  they  had  no  leisure  so  much  as  to  eat. — Mark 
vi:  31 


You  will  see  by  the  context  the  occasion 
for  these  words.  It  was  an  hour  of  triumph 
and  of  trial.  The  disciples  had  just  returned 
from  the  mission  upon  which  Christ  had  sent 
them  two  by  two.  During  their  absence  a 
terrible  event  had  taken  place  in  the  prison- 
house  of  Herod.  Word  was  just  now  brought 
to  Christ  and  His  disciples  announcing  the 
death  of  John,  the  forerunner  of  Christ. 
Then,  crowds  of  people,  sick  in  body,  sick  in 
soul,  friends,  enemies,  had  been  thronging  . 
them  until  the  disciples  had  forgotten  to  pro- 
vide even  for  their  hunger.  Then  Christ 
said  to  them,  "  Come  ye  yourselves  into  a 
desert  place,  and  rest  awhile,"  etc. 

Now,  I  take  this  to  teach  the  need  of  with- 
drawal from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the  world, 
that  man's  own  good  may  be  subserved ;  that 
quiet,  earnest,  continuous  meditation  is  es- 
sential to  the  development  of  spiritual  life. 
Such  a  theme  as  this  seems  out  of  place  in  the 
universal  hurry  that  surrounds  life  to-day. 
This  tidal  wave  of  feverish  excitement  has 
invaded  even  the  church,  the  pulpit.  Not  a 
few  pulpits  have  surrendered  to  sensational- 
ism. Said  a  man  to  me,  "  You  must  keep 
things  buzzing  in  the  church  as  in  the  world, 
if  you  would  interest  people.''  Of  course,  ac- 
tivity in  church  affairs  is  important.  But  our 
danger  is  the  neglect  of  the  inner  spiritual  life. 

The  essentials  of  strong  spiritual  character 
are,  not  church  membership,  nothing  out- 
ward ;  but  are,  hatred  of  sin,  love  to  God  as 
revealed  in  the  Bible,  loyalty  to  the  divine 
will,  an  ever  deepening  passion  for  the  souls 
of  men,  etc.  Now,  these  essentials  are  de- 
veloped by  meditation. 

I  remark — 

I.  That  this  spiritual  meditation  must  be 
quiet.  When  a  boy,  I  thought  it  strange  that 
the  Savior  should  say,  "  When  thou  prayest, 
enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut 
the  door,"  etc.  I  thought  the  shutting  of  the 
door  trivial.  It  is  not  trivial.  You  shut  the 
world  out,  and  yourself  in  with  Christ.  Ele- 
ments of  Christian  growth  are    (o)    knowl- 


edge of  yourself,  {b)  knowledge  of  Christ. 
Quiet  meditation  secures  this  knowledge. 
The  spirit  uses  but  two  channels  (c)  The 
Word,  {b)  Prayer.  The  spirit  uses  these  in 
the  still  hours.  The  accountant  and  the 
scholar  demand  quietness  in  solving  their 
problems.  Yet  the  Christian,  who  has  in- 
finitely more  important  problems  to  solve,  etc. 
Believer,  what  a  travesty  are  often  our  pray- 
ers ;  we  devote  a  few  moments  in  the  morn- 
ing to  a  hurried  prayer,  in  the  evening  to  a 
sleepy  prayer,  and  devote  all  the  rest  of  the 
day  to  the  world.  O  believer,  enter  thy  closet 
and  shut  that  door,  etc. 

2.  This  spiritual  meditation  must  be  fer- 
vent.    Jacob  wrestling  with  God,  etc. 

3.  This  spiritual  meditation  must  be  reso- 
lute. England's  greatest  engineer  was  said  to 
be  a  man  of  no  great  natural  talent,  yet  he 
performed  wonders,  bridged  torrents,  pierced 
mountains  for  his  viaduct,  etc.  When  he' 
came  to  a  difficulty  that  seemed  insurmount- 
able, he  would  shut  himself  in  his  room  and 
neither  eat  nor  drink,  that  he  might  concen- 
trate all  his  mind  on  that  difficulty.  At  the 
end  of  two  or  three  days  he  came  out  of  the 
room  with  the  look  and  step  of  a  conqueror, 
and  gave  orders  which  seemed  to  his  men 
like  inspirations.  Let  this  unyielding  reso- 
lution mark  our  prayers  to  God.  A  man 
takes  a  check  to  a  bank.  It  is  not  enough  to 
hand  in  the  check.  He  waits  for  an  answer. 
We  must  wait  on  God. 

The  highest  conception  of  prayer  is  not  that 
of  a  pump-handle,  to  bring  up  the  water  of 
life.  The  highest  conception  of  prayer  is 
seen  at  the  Last  Supper,  in  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple leaning  on  the  breast  of  Christ,  not 
uttering  a  zvord,  just  lying  there.  As  an  old 
divine  once  said,  we  should  fall  on  our  knees 
and    groiv   there. 

The  cry  was  heard  3,000  years  ago,  "  O 
Israel,  to  your  tents !  "  In  this  age,  when 
our  spiritual  life  is  so  feverish,  runs  to  as- 
semblies, to  talk,  and  is  so  shallow,  the  cry 
comes,  "  To  your  closets,  O  Israel !  " — H.  R. 


APOSTOLIC  SERVICE  AND  TEMPTATION 

By  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

And  at  Lystra  there  sat  a  certain  man,  impotent  in  his  feet,  a  cripple  from  his  mother's  womb, 
who  never  had  walked. — Acts  xiv.  8-18 


This  is  the  kind  of  man  who  is  always 
looking  out  for  religious  excitement  or  en- 
tertainment. Christianity  always  begins  with 
the  cripple,  with  the  poor,  with  the  outcast, 


with  the  friendless.  The  one  cry  of  Christi- 
anity is,  "  Give  me  a  man,"  and  the  answer  is 
always  a  cripple.  This  the  Church's  proper 
defense :  it  haS  a  seat  for  the  cripple  who  can- 


LENT 


91 


not  stand.  Paul  perceived  that  the  man  had 
"  faith  to  be  healed."  This  man  also  is  every- 
where. That  you  are  in  church  has  a  whole 
heartful  of  meaning.  You  do  believe.  Per- 
ceiving that  he  had  faith.  What  eyes  those 
men  had  !  They  knew  faith  when  it  was  only 
a  gleam  in  the  eye.  The  wise  preacher  must 
have  the  critical  eye  which  pierces  the  core 
of  the  case.  Why  did  Paul  speak  "  zvith  a 
loud  voice"?  Some  people  object  to  loud 
voices ;  they  say  they  could  hear  quite  as 
well  if  the  preacher  did  not  exert  himself  so. 
It  is  not  enough  to  hear.  An  utterance  must 
not  deliver  its  own  syllables  only,  but  take 
with  it  heart,  blood,  fire,  music,  life.  The 
gods  are  come  down.  Every  life  has  its 
hand-to-hand  fight  with  hell.  This  was  the 
devil's  hour :  if  they  get  over  that  bridge,  the 
Apostles  will  be  safe.  Their  self-knowl- 
edge was  their  salvation.  "  Sirs  we  are  men 
of  like  passions  with  you." 

The   narrative   sheds   light  on   Christianity 
itself;    it  makes  men  do  what  they  never  did 


before.  This  man  had  never  walked.  It 
does  not  make  us  do  things  a  little  better — it 
makes  us  do  things  we  had  never  done.  The 
attention  paid  to  Paul  and  Barnabas  was 
natural ;  its  root  is  right.  But  the  preacher 
must  never  become  the  priest.  Paul  must 
not  separate  himself  from  human  sympathy. 
When  the-  priest  of  Jupiter  saw  what  was 
done,  he  said :  "  We  have  never  seen  any- 
thing like  this."  He  would  have  put  the 
knife  to  Jupiter's  throat.  So  Christianity  in- 
dicates itself  by  the  men  it  makes:  a  noble 
manhood  convinces  the  priest  of  Jupiter.  The 
man  leaped  and  zcalked.  A  man  leaping  is 
always  beside  himself.  We  cannot  live  leap- 
ing; but  we  must  do  so  at  first.  It  would  be 
pleasant  to  see  some  of  us  leaping  a  little ; 
it  would  do  the  preacher's  heart  good  to  see 
some  people  trying  to  fly  a  little !  Without 
enthusiasm,  what  is  the  Church?  It  is  Ve- 
suvius without  fire;  Niagara  without  water; 
a  firmament  without  a  sun  ! — H.  R. 


THE  TRUE  METHOD  OF  SECURING  A  REVIVAL 

By  Frederick  Wagstaff 
Be  watchful,  and  strengthen  the  things  that  remain,  that  are  ready  to  die. — Rev.  Hi:  2 


In  an  age  when  so  much  is  said  and  thought 
about  revivals,  the  passage  before  us  is  pecu- 
liarly appropriate.  The  early  part  of  this 
chapter  gives  a  description  of  a  church  which 
needs  a  revival,  and  the  text  contains  a  di- 
vine command  as  to  the  proper  methods  to  be 
taken  in  order  to  secure  that  revival.  The 
great  secret,  after  all.  consists  in  rightly  cher- 
ishing those  thing;  that  are  already  possessed. 

I.  What  are  the  things  which  remain 
IN  such  a  church? 

1.  There  is,  in  the  first  place,  some  degree 
of  church  organisation.  There  was,  in  the 
case  of  Sardis,  a  "  name  to  live  " ;  they  had 
'■  received "  the  oracles  of  God.  It  was  a 
Church,  altho  a  weak  one.  The  fire  of  godli- 
ness was  there,  albeit  the  flame  was  well-nigh 
extinguished.  There  -i^'ere  the  germs  of  life, 
tho  they  were  very  feeble,  and  could  scarcely 
be  seen.  Yet  this  imperfect  existence  God 
did  not  despise,  since  the  apostle  was  di- 
rected to  address  an  epistle  to  the  Church. 
Christ  will  not  break  the  bruised  reed,  nor 
quench  the  smoking  flax. 

2.  They  had  some  of  the  Church  ordinances. 
They  had  the  Word  of  God.  The  ministry  cf 
the  Gospel  was  still  an  actual  fact ;  "  remem- 
ber how  thou  hast  heard,  and  hold  fast,"  etc. 
The  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  if  not  accom- 
panied by  the  saving  power  of  former  days, 
was  still  a  privilege  in  their  possession.  There 
may  have  been  a  lack  of  what  is  sometimes 
called  "  unction  "  in  the  preaching;  but  there 
was  no  false  doctrine  taught.  They  were  not 
warned  against  what  they  heard,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  were  charged  to  remember  it  and 
hold  it  fast. 

3.  They  appear  to  have  carried  out  to  a 
certain   extent   some  of  the  undertakings   to 


ivhich  a  Christian  Church  may  address  itself. 
"  I  know  thy  works."  The  works  of  this 
Church  are  twice  alluded  to,  and  in  the  second 
instance  there  is  an  intimation  that  God  had 
not  found  them  perfect.  It  is  literally :  "  I 
have  not  found  thy  works  full  to  the  JDrim." 
They  are  not  the  works  of  a  truly  healthy 
Church.  It  is  as  if  God  had  said :"  Go  back 
to  thy  first  love  and  repentance ;  get  filled 
with  grace,  and  the  works  of  a  Christian  life 
will  flow  abundantly." 

4.  There  was  also  tlie  presence  of  a  fezv 
godly  men.  In  Sardis  there  were  a  "  few 
names  which  had  not  defiled  their  garments." 
To  them  a  promise  is  given  that  hereafter 
they  shall  walk  with  Christ  in  white.  They 
are  spoken  of  as  fighting  for  the  truth,  and  to 
such  as  should  overcome  there  is  a  promise 
of  the  triumphal  robes  and  honors  of  the  vic- 
torious. 

Here,  then,  are  the  things  that  remain.  Per- 
haps it  may  be  said  the  catalog  is  not  a  very 
promising  one.  It  might  be  worse;  there 
might  have  been  no  organization — no  ordi- 
nances— no  Christian  work — no  true  believ- 
ers. But  what  shall  be  done  with  a  Church 
like  that  at  Sardis?  There  must  be  improve- 
ment or  destruction ;  for  the  things  that  re- 
main are  "  ready  to  die." 

II.  What  is  the  divine  method  of  se- 
curing A  REVIVAL.? 

Human  ingenuity  would  probably  resort  to 
one  or  other  of  these  two  methods  :  (i)  Some 
would  suggest  entire  reconstruction.  They 
would  remove  the  weak  and  sickly  plants,  and 
till  the  ground  afresh.  They  would  throw 
down  the  tottering  walls  of  the  old  struc- 
ture, and  build  anew  from  the  foundation. 
(2)   Others    would    seek    to    accomplish    the 


92 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


end  desired  by  introducing  some  poivcrful 
revival  element,  such  as  they  have  heard  of 
as  successful  elsewhere — revival  preaching, 
revival  services,  revival  hymns. 

God's  plan  differs  from  both  these.  He 
neither  destroys  nor  calls  in  the  aid  of  foreign 
excitement.  He  simply  says :  "  Strengthen 
the  things  that  remain."  Literally,  "  Make 
fast  the  surviving  things  that  are  about  to 
perish."     Here  then  we  have — 

1.  Church  organization  consolidated. 

2.  Church  ordinances  more  diligently  ob- 
served. 

3.  Church  zvork  more  actively  performed. 
Some  one  has  well  said :    "  I  believe  earnest 

Christian  work  to  be  the  divinest  remedy  for 
almost  every  Church  disease.     An  almost  in- 


fallible preventive  it  must  be ;  for  men  build- 
ing Zion's  walls  with  a  sword  in  one  hand 
and  a  trowel  in  the  other  are  sure  to  return 
this  answer  to  the  troublers  of  Israel,  who 
tempt  them  into  the  valley :  '  We  are  doing 
a  great  work,  so  that  we  cannot  come  down- 
Why  should  the  work  cease  while  we  leave  it 
and  come  down  to  you  ?  '  The  workers  in 
our  Churches  are  seldom,  if  ever,  found 
among  the  disturbers  of  their  peace  and  the 
hinderers  of  their  progress." 

4.  Godly  men  multiplied.  Thus  bestirring 
itself  about  "  the  things  that  remain,"  the 
Church  will  be  reminded  of  things  once  pos- 
sessed and  lost ;  and  so,  one  by  one,  the  full 
privileges  of  its  life  will  be  regained,  and  a 
complete  and  blessed  revival  ensured. — H.  R. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


CHRIST'S    FAST    and    Mortification. — 

On  one  of  these  forties  Tertullian  dwells  with 
peculiar  emphasis ;  often  bringing  out  the 
relation  between  the  forty  days  of  our  Lord's 
Temptation  and  the  forty  years  of  Israel's 
trial  in  the  wilderness.  His  fast  as  the  true 
Israel,  as  fulfiller  of  all  which  Israel  after  the 
flesh  had  left  unfulfilled,  as  the  victor  in  all 
where  it  had  been  the  vanquished,  was  as 
much  a  witness  against  their  carnal  appetites 
(for  it  was  in  the  indulgence  of  these  that  they 
sinned  continually.  Exod.  xv  :  23,  24;  xvi :  2, 
3)  as  a  witness  against  Adam's.  It  was  by 
this  abstinence  of  His  declared  that  man  was 
ordained  to  be,  and  that  the  true  man  would 
be,  lord  over  his  lower  nature.  In  this  way 
Christ's  forty  days'  fast  is  the  great  counter- 
fact  in  the  work  of  redemption,  at  once  to 
Adam's  and  to  Israel's  compliances  with  the 
suggestions  of  the  fleshly  appetite ;  exactly  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  unity  of  tongues  at 
Pentecost  is  the  counter-fact  to  the  confusion 
of  tongues  at  Babel  (Gen.  xi:7-8;  Acts  ii : 
6-11),  to  which  the  Church  would  draw  our 
attention  in  the  selection  of  the  latter  as  one 
of  our  Whitsuntide  lessons. — Archbishop 
Trench. 

CHRIST'S    FAST    Our    Example.— Our 

Savior's  fast,  like  every  act  of  His  life,  bears 
the  character  of  an  example,  and  instructs  us 
that  this  particular  exercise  of  religion,  while 
it  exposes  to  temptations  of  its  own,  is  yet  in 
itself  a  great  preliminary  safeguard  against 
sin — a  source  of  facility  for  vanquishing  all 
temptation.  That  there  are  demoniacal  pos- 
sessions which  no  means  without  this  can 
reach  effectually,  is  the  express  assertion  of 
our  Savior  on  another  occasion ;  and  His  ex- 
ample here,  no  less  than  His  precept  to  His 
chosen  followers  there,  instructs  us  forcibly 
that,  while  Christianity  is  the  most  mild  and 
liberal  of  institutions,  its  founder,  no  preacher 
in  the  desert  like  Elias,  or  His  forerunner 
the  Baptist,  but  one  who  came  "  eating  and 
drinking,"  as  His  censors  remarked,  neither 
fearfully  flying  nor  morosely  disdaining  the 


ordinary  converse  and  habits  of  mankind, — 
it  yet  requires  the  highest  prudence  and  as- 
sistances of  grace  proportional,  to  maintain 
this  intercourse  with  the  world  either  with 
safety  to  ourselves  or  benefit  to  others ;  and 
these  assistances  are.  to  be  found  where  our 
Lord  and  Savior  Himself  sought  them — in 
occasional  retirements,  in  meditation,  prayer, 
and  fasting.— W.  H.  Mill. 

CONFLICT. — Frequent  conflicts  render 
the  Christian  strong.  They  fit  preachers  for 
their  work, — oratio,  meditatio,  tentatio,  facunt 
theologum. — A.  P.  L. 

DAYS,  Forty.— For  forty  days  this  fast  of 
the  Lord  endured.  But  wherefore  for  ex- 
actly this  number,  for  forty,  and  neither  more 
nor  less?  .  .  .  On  a  close  examination  we 
note  it  to  be  everywhere  the  number  or  signa- 
ture of  penalty,  of  affliction,  of  the  confession, 
or  the  punishment  of  sin.  Thus  it  is  the  sig- 
nature of  the  punishment  of  sin  in  the  forty 
days  and  forty  nights  during  which  God  an- 
nounces that  He  will  cause  the  waters  by  the 
deluge  to  prevail  (Gen.  vii :  4,  12  ;  in  the 
forty  years  of  the  Israelites'  wanderings  in 
the  desert  (Num.  xiv:33);  in  the  forty 
stripes  with  which  the  offender  should  be 
beaten  (Deut.  xxv:3);  in  the  desolation  of 
Egypt  which  should  endure  forty  years 
(Ezek.  xxix :  11).  So  also  is  it  the  signature 
of  the  confession  of  sin.  Moses  intercedes 
forty  days  for  his  people ;  the  Ninevites  pro- 
claim a  fast  of  forty  days ;  Ezekiel  must  bear 
for  forty  days  the  transgression  of  Judah. 
.  .  .  And  in  agreement  with  all  this,  resting 
on  the  forty  days'  fast  of  her  Lord,  is  the 
Quadragesimal  Lent  fast  of  the  Church ;  and 
so.  too,  not  less  the  selection  of  this  Scripture 
of  the  Temptation  to  supply  the  Gospel  for 
the  first  Sunday  in  that  season,  as  being  the 
Scripture  which  duly  laid  to  heart,  will  more 
than  any  other  help  us  rightly  to  observe  that 
time. — Archbishop  Trench. 

DEVIL,  Craftiness  of  the. — Matt.  iv. 
When    Satan    first    comes    to    tempt,    he    is 


LENT 


93 


modest,  and  asks  but  a  little.  He  digs  about 
and  loosens  the  roots  of  faith,  and  then  the 
tree  falls  the  easier  on  the  next  gust  of 
temptation. — A.  P.  L. 

DEVIL,  Persistency  of  the. — Matt.  iv. 
The  enemy  of  man's  salvation  deems  it  no 
small  torment  to  abandon  his  suffering  vic- 
tim, and  the  longer  he  has  had  possession,  the 
more  reluctant  is  he  to  quit  (Mark  ix:2i). — 
A.  P.  L. 

EARTH,  Inheriting  the. — 2  Cor.  vi:  10. 
Bishop  Burnet  treated  with  most  distin- 
guished regard  such  clergy  in  his  diocese  as 
were  eminent  for  their  piety  and  most  atten- 
tive to  the  souls  of  their  people.  One  of  these 
had  frequently  expressed  the  importance  of 
well  understanding  our  Lord's  meaning  in  the 
Beatitudes  and  of  this  in  particular,  "  Blessed 
are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth." 
Many  anxious  inquiries  yet  left  this  clergy- 
man unsatisfied  in  his  mind  of  the  just  and 
true  explanation.  In  this  state  of  mind,  he 
happened  in  a  morning's  walk  to  observe  a 
very  wretched-looking  hovel,  and  walking 
toward  it,  he  heard,  to  his  surprise,  a  voice  of 
joyous  praise.  He  looked  in  at  the  window. 
and  saw  a  poor  woman  with  a  piece  of  black 
bread  and  a  cup  of  water  before  her.  With 
her  eyes  lifted  up  to  heaven,  she  was  repeat- 
ing the  words,  "  All  this,  and  Jesus  Christ 
too !  All  this,  and  Jesus  too !  "  The  clergy- 
man here  learned  that  they  who  inherit  this 
earth  are  they  who  possess  Jesus  Christ. — 
A.  P.  L. 

EMBER     AND     ROGATION     DAYS.— 

Ember  and  Rogation  Days  are  certain  periods 
of  the  year  devoted  to  prayer  and  fasting. 
Ember  Days  (twelve  annually)  are  the  Wed- 
nesday, Friday,  and  Saturday  after  the  first 
Sunday  in  Lent,  after  the  feast  of  Pentecost 
(Whit  Sunday),  after  the  festival  of  the  Holy 
Cross  (September  14),  and  after  the  festival 
of  St.  Lucia  (December  13).  Ember  Weeks  are 
the  weeks  in  which  the  Ember  Days  appear. 

Rogation  Days  are  the  three  days  imme- 
diately preceding  Holy  Thursday  or  Ascen- 
sion Day. — W.  A. 

FASTING.— Don't  flatter  yourself  that  you 
have  been  very  good,  if  your  fasting  has  been 
a  matter  of  neceisity. — Selected. 

FASTING  AND  SELF-CONTROL.— 5m^ 

/  keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  sub- 
jection, etc. — I  Cor.  ix:  27.  In  Christianity  we 
have  this  principle  which  men  had  approached 
from  various  sides  engrafted  into  the  religion 
which  is  to  meet  man's  inmost  needs— man  is 
a  complex  being,  body,  soul,  and  spirit ;  he 
must  not  neglect  his  body ;  it  is  useful,  it  is 
blessed,  it  is  holy ;  but  the  body,  if  a  good 
servant,  is  a  terrible  master — within  every 
man  the  will  must  reign  supreme,  and  there- 
fore the  will  must  show  its  supremacy. 
Where  Satan  is  leading  hundreds  upon  hun- 
dreds of  his  victims  captive  in  gluttony  and 
drunkenness  all  round  us,  the  will  of  the 
Christian  must  be  able  to  show  his  body  tem- 
perate, curbed,  restrained.  He  must  be  able 
to  say,  so  far  from  being  allured  into  excess, 
I  can  voluntarily  cut  off  those  things  which 


men  think  pleasant  or  necessary,  and  forego 
their  very  use.  When  the  world  is  following 
pleasure  and  ease,  and  neglecting  the  eternal 
mterest  of  the  soul,  the  Christian  ought  to  be 
able  to  say,  instead  of  being  entrapped  by 
pleasure,  I  can  of  mv  own  free  will  lay  it 
aside  if  need  be.  Where  the  world  shrinks 
from  unpleasant  duties,  the  Christian  ought 
to  be  able  to  say,  I  welcome  pain,  I  welcome 
suffering  as  something  which  God  sends  me. 
The  flesh  is  a  spoilt  child,  it  cries  out  for 
everything  which  it  sees  or  wants.  The  will  is 
the  disciplinarian  who  thwarts  it,  curbs  it,  con- 
trols it,  and  does  not  mind  in  what  way,  if  in 
any  way,  it  can  make  it  obedient.  What  is  an 
army  without  discipline?  What  are  the  great 
forces  of  nature,  unless  we  can  regulate 
them?  What  is  man  without  self-control? — 
W.  C.  E.  Newbolt. 

FASTING  AS  AN  ACT  OF  OBEDI- 
ENCE.— Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over 
you. — Heb.  xiii:  //.  If  this  be  any  one's  first 
Lent,  I  would  give  some  simple  rules  which 
may  smooth  some  difficulties.  Let  it  be  an 
act  of  obedience.  A  sacred  poet  of  our  own 
says,  "  the  Scripture  bids  us  fast,  the  Church 
says  now."  Thus  shall  we  do  it  more  simply, 
not  as  any  great  thing;  not  as  of  our  own  will, 
but  as  an  act  of  obedience ;  so  will  the  re- 
marks of  others  (if  such  there  be)  less  disturb 
us,  as  knowing  that  we  are  doing  but  little,  and 
that,  not  of  our  own  mind.  But  little  in  itself, 
it  is  connected  with  high  things,  with  the  very 
height  of  Heaven  and  the  depths  of  hell ;  our 
Blessed  Savior  and  our  sins.  We  fast  zvith 
our  Lord,  and  for  our  sins.  The  Church 
brings  us  nigh  to  our  Lord,  Whose  fast  and 
the  merits  of  Whose  fasting  and  Passion  we 
partake  of.  We  have  to  "  humble  our  own 
souls  with  fasting "  for  our  own  sins.  Re- 
member we  both.  Review  we  our  past  lives ; 
recall  to  our  remembrance  what  chief  sins  we 
can;  confess  them  habitually  in  sorrow,  with 
the  use  of  Penitential  Psalms  and  especially 
that  daily  medicine  of  the  penitent  soul,  the 
fifty-first.  Fast  we.  in  token  that  we  are  un- 
w^orthy  of  God's  creatures  which  we  have 
misused.  Take  we  thankfully  weariness  or 
discomfort,  as  we  before  sinned  through  ease 
and  lightness  of  heart.  And  thus,  owning 
ourselves  unworthy  of  all,  think  we  on  Him, 
Who  for  us  bore  all ;  so  shall  those  precious 
sufferings  sanctify  thy  discomfort,  the  irk- 
someness  shall  be  gladsome  to  thee  which 
brings  thee  nearer  to  thy  Lord. — E.  B.  Pusey. 

FASTING,  Benefits  of.— ^^  they  minis- 
tered to  the  Lord,  and  fasted,  the  Holy 
Ghost  said. — Acts  xiii:  2.  It  is,  we  believe, 
because  this  duty  is  so  little  practised  as  a 
regular  habit  that  its  benefits  are  so  under- 
valued. It  is  often  eagerly  commenced  in  a 
fit  of  transient  zeal,  but  the  natural  inclina- 
tions raise  their  remonstrance — it  is  found 
wearisome  and  painful — and  after  one  or  two 
attempts  entirely  laid  aside.  But  is  it  not 
true,  that  this  is  scarcely  giving  it  a  trial? 
To  be  appreciated,  and  its  benefits  felt,  it 
must  be  a  habit — be  practised  often — and  be- 
come, as  it  were,  a  portion  of  our  regular  re- 
ligious service.     Thus,  that  which  at  first  was 


94 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


performed  with  difficulty  is  rendered  easy ; 
and  we  learn  at  last,  that  the  ancient  Saints 
in  primitive  days  knew  human  nature  better 
than  we  do,  and  when  they  urged  those  who 
should  come  after  them  to  "  crucify  the 
flesh  "  as  a  source  of  spiritual  benefits,  were 
only  giving  the  result  of  their  own  experience. 
This,  then,  is  that  discipline,  by  whose  se- 
verity we  are  to  weaken  the  force  of  passion, 
and  of  those  appetites  which  else  assert  the 
mastery  over  the  soul  and  bind  it  down  to 
earth.  "  I  keep  under  my  body,"  says  St. 
Paul,  "and  bring  it  into  subjection;  lest  that 
by  any  means  when  I  have  preached  to  others, 
I  myself  should  be  a  castaway."  And  St. 
Chrysostom  declares  "  Fasting  restrains  the 
body  and  checks  and  bridles  its  inordinate 
sallies,  but  makes  the  soul  much  lighter,  and 
gives  it  wings  to  mount  up  and  soar  on  high." 
— Bishop  Kip. 

FASTING,  True.— Matt.  iv.  Our  fasting 
should  be  accompanied  with  abstinence  from 
evil ;  we  must  fast  from  our  passions  and 
vices :  without  this,  bodily  fasting  is  unprofit- 
able. Take  heed  that  you  make  not  your 
fasting  to  consist  only  in  abstinence  from 
meats.  True  fasting  is  to  refrain  from  vice. 
Tear  in  pieces  all  your  unjust  obligations. 
Pardon  your  neighbor.  Forgive  him  his  tres- 
passes. Fast  not  to  stir  up  strife  and  con- 
tention. You  eat  no  flesh,  but  you  devour 
your  brother  (Matt,  xxiii :  14).  You  drink  no 
wine,  but  you  cannot  refrain  from  doing  in- 
jury to  others.  You  wait  till  night  to  take 
your  repast,  but  you  spend  all  the  day  at  the 
tribunal  of  the  judges.  Wo  be  to  you,  who 
drink  without  wine.  Anger  is  a  kind  of 
inebriation,  which  does  no  less  trouble  __tlie 
mind  than  real  drunkenness  (Isa.  lviii:4-ii; 
Jer.  xiv:  12;    Mark  ii :  18).— A.  P.  L. 

FASTS,  Church.— The  Roman  Catholic 
Days  of  fasting  are  the  forty  days  of  Lent, 
the  Ember  Days,  the  Wednesdays  and  Thurs- 
days of  the  four  weeks  in  Advent,  and  certain 
vigils  or  evenings  prior  to  the  greater  feasts. 
In  the  American  Episcopal  Church  the  days 
of  fasting  or  abstinence  to  be  observed,  ac- 
cording to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  are 
the  forty  days  of  Lent,  the  Ember  Days,  the 
three  Rogation  Days,  and  all  the  Fridays  of 
the  year  except  Christmas  Day.  In  the  Greek 
Church  the  four  principal  fasts  are  those  in 
Lent,  the  week  succeeding  Whitsuntide,  the 
fortnight  before  the  Assumption,  and  forty 
days  before  Christmas. — W.  A. 

LIFE,  The  Austerity  of. — By  His  zvoimds 
the  Lord  calls  His  Church  to  austerity  of 
life. — There  is  no  master  so  gentle  or  so 
severe  as  Jesus,  for  He  gives  the  most  gen- 
erous invitation  and  the  kindliest  welcome 
when  we  come  to  Him ;  He  lays  on  us  the 
hardest  service  and  demands  of  us  the  hardest 
sacrifices  after  we  have  come. 

"  Peace  be  unto  you,"  He  said  that  night  to 
the  disciples,  and  He  breathed  upon  them 
that  they  might  receive  His  Spirit ;  but  be- 
fore James  lay  a  speedy  martyrdom,  and  be- 
fore John  a  lonely  exile,  before  them  all 
bonds  and  sufferings.  For  Christ  hath  two 
words    of    power :     one    is    "  Come,"    which 


draws  us  to  His  side,  where  there  is  peace 
for  evermore ;  and  the  other  is  "  Follow," 
which  draws  us  after  Him,  where  He  carries 
His  cross  in  the  paths  of  life.  The  wounds 
of  Christ  are  first  of  all  the  hope  and  hiding- 
place  of  the  soul ;  afterwards  they  turn  into 
the  soul's  standard  and  obligation. 

As  there  is  a  false  Christianity  which  ban- 
ishes the  cross  from  thought,  there  is  another 
which  banishes  the  cross  from  life ;  and,  as 
the  one  makes  no  distinction  between  Jesus 
and  other  teachers,  save  His  deeper  wisdom 
and  His  higher  goodness,  so  the  other  does 
not  separate  the  Christian  life  from  the  world 
life,  except  in  a  finer  degree  of  purity  and  of 
charity ;  but  the  true  Christianity^  which  has 
made  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  its  distinctive 
principle  of  thought,  makes  the  same  sacrifice 
its  rule  of  life.  It  does  not  pretend  that  it  is 
easy  to  follow  Christ,  or  that  the  cross  is  light 
to  carry,  but  rather  teaches  that  the  Christian 
must  be  prepared  upon  occasion  to  pluck  out 
the  right  eye  and  cut  off  the  right  hand,  to 
hate  father  and  mother,  to  sell  all  that  he  has, 
to  part  from  all  whom  he  loves,  to  do  work 
which  he  dislikes,  to  associate  with  unat- 
tractive people,  to  deny  himself  in  heart  and 
life,  in  his  reason  also  and  in  his  affections, 
even  as  Christ  Himself  did,  and  for  the  same 
cause, — the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  man. 
So  the  Church  comes  to  carry  the  print  of  the 
nails  upon  her  hands  and  her  feet,  and  the 
world  knows  that  she  is  the  body  of  Christ. — 
Ian  McLaren. 

SELF-MORTIFICATION,   Necessity  of. 

— Mortify  therefore  your  members  zvhicli  are 
upon  the  earth. — Col.  Hi:  5.  Believe  me,  the 
way  of  mortification  is  the  only  way  of  spirit- 
ual emancipation.  Holy  desires  without  dis- 
cipline will  never  make  us  free.  Emotional 
confessions  not  issuing  in  discipline  will 
never  strike  off  our  chains.  Constant  attend- 
ance on  the  means  of  grace  in  the  sanctuary 
or  in  the  closet  not  issuing  in  discipline  will' 
never  set  our  feet  at  liberty.  Helpful  indeed 
are  these  to  those  who  seek  to  live  the  morti- 
fied life,  but  without  the  practice  of  mortifica- 
tion they  cannot  secure  our  spiritual  freedom. 
This  is  ours  only  when  our  lower  nature  is 
mortified  in  imitation  of  and  in  dependence  on 
Jesus,  and  Him  crucified.  On  this  matter  I 
pray  you  do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  deceived. 
For  no  law  of  spiritual  life  is  more  certain  or 
more  imperative  than  this  law  of  mortifica- 
tion. There  cannot  be  such  a  thing  as  the 
perseverance  in  Christian  life  of  an  unmorti- 
fied  Christian  who  has  come  to  years  of  dis- 
cietion.  Obedience,  we  repeat,  is  religion ; 
and  mortification  is  the  essential  condition  of 
oliedience,  for  it  is  the  condition  of  its  actual 
expression  and  of  the  recovery  of  that  spirit- 
ual freedom  without  which  that  expression 
is  impossible  for  sinful  men. — George  Body. 

SIN  IS  AGAINST  GOD.— This  fact— that 
a  sin  is  agtiinst  God — is  that  in  which  consists 
the  greatness  of  its  guilt ;  for,  even  among 
men,  we  measure  the  guilt  of  crimes,  not  by 
the  actual  injury  resulting  from  them,  but  by 
their  injurious  tendencies.  The  traitor  who 
has  attempted  the  life  of  his  sovereign,  the 


\ 


LENT 


95 


rebel  who  has  tried  to  overthrow  his  author- 
ity, are  rightly  held  as  guilty  when  they  fail 
as  if  they  had  succeeded.  They  are  punished, 
not  for  the  harm  that  their  rebellion  or  their 
treason  has  done,  but  for  the  harm  which  re- 
bellion and  treason  must  do  if  not  repressed. 
Now,  what  is  a  sinner  but  a  rebel?  He  who 
sins  has  defied  the  sovereign  authority  of 
his  God ;  he  has  set  the  will  of  the  creature 
against  the  Creator.  It  is  true  that  such  re- 
bellion can  harm  only  the  rebel  himself — the 
Avickedness  of  man  no  more  extendeth  to  God 
than  his  goodness  does.  The  potsherd  of  the 
earth  seeks  in  vain  to  strive  with  his  Maker ; 
nevertheless,  his  sin  has  in  it  all  the  malignity 
of  treason.  The  revolt  of  his  will,  if  it  were 
only  successful,  would  end  in  the  dethrone- 
ment of  God.  ...  Is  it  not  plain,  then,  that 
disobedient  opposition  to  God  is  the  very 
deadliest  crime  possible  in  a  system,  the  well- 
being  of  which  depends  upon  the  perfect  sub- 
mission of  all  things  to  His  will,  and  that  a 
sinner  is  a  miserable  anomaly  in  the  midst  of 
an  obedient  universe — a  wretched  rebel 
against  almighty  power  and  eternal  law,  who 
for  the  sake  of  the  peace  and  safety  of  crea- 
tion, must  be  subdued,  or  destroyed  utterly 
and  forever? — Archbishop  Magee. 

SIN  MAN'S  GREAT  ENEMY.— No  doubt 
we  shall  all  of  us,  one  day,  come  to  see  (what- 
ever we  may  think  about  it  now),  that  Sin 
is  our  only  real  enemy,  the  one  thing  to  be 
really  afraid  of.  Even  the  sting  of  Death  is 
only  Sin.  And  it  is  always  the  part  of  a  wise, 
as  well  as  of  a  brave  man,  to  look  his  worst 
enemies  in  the  face,  to  study  their  nature  and 
character,  and  the  secret  of  their  power  of 
mischief,  that  he  may  the  better  know  how  to 
be  on  his  guard  against  them,  how  to  meet 
them,  how  to  disarm  and  overcome  them. 
Sin  is  not  the  same  thing  as  Crime.  When 
we  speak  of  Crime,  we  are  thinking  of  some- 
thing which  is  an  offense  against  human  law, 
punishable  in  this  life  by  sentence  of  a  human 
tribunal.  When  we  speak  of  Sin,  we  are 
thinking  of  something  which  is  an  offense 
against  a  far  higher  power,  and  which  may 
have  farther  reaching  and  more  enduring 
consequences.  Not  all  sins  are  crimes  such 
as  human  law  either  does  or  could,  or  perhaps 
ought  to,  punish.  And  not  all  crimes  or  of- 
fenses against  human  laws  are  sins.  For 
human  law — tho  one  of  the  most  sacred 
things  on  earth,  and  challenging,  as  a  rule, 
our  reverent  respect  and  obedience  as  a  mat- 
ter of  conscience — is  not  infallible.  It  may 
prescribe  things  which  an  enlightened  con- 
science cannot  conform  to,  whatever  the  con- 
sequences may  be.  .  .  .  Sin  and  Crime  are 
not,  then,  absolutely  identical  and  coexten- 
sive. A  sin  may  be  no  crime ;  a  crime  may 
be  not  only  no  sin,  but  an  act  of  the  highest 
goodness. — P.  G.  Medd. 

SUFFERING.— Out  of  suffering  have 
emerged  the  strongest  souls ;  the  most  mas- 
sive characters  are  seamed  with  scars ;  mar- 
tyrs have  put  on  their  coronation  robes,  glit- 
tering with  fire,  and  through  their  tears  have 
the  sorrowful  first  seen  the  gates  of.  heaven. 
— Selected. 


TEMPTATION.— Maif^  iv.  Satan  will 
seldom  come  to  a  Christian  with  a  gross 
temptation ;  a  green  log  and  a  candle  may  be 
safely  left  together;  but  bring  a  few  shavings, 
then  some  small  sticks,  and  then  larger,  and 
you  may  soon  bring  the  green  log  to  ashes. — 
A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTATION    AND    AFFLICTION.- 

Matt.  iv.  Remember  that  a  time  of  afflic- 
tion is  a  time  of  temptation.  Satan  will  not 
be  wanting  in  any  opportunity  or  advantage 
of  setting  upon  the  soul.  When  Pharaoh 
heard  that  the  people  were  entangled  in  the 
wilderness,  he  pursued  them.  And  when 
Satan  sees  a  soul  entangled  with  its  distresses 
and  troubles,  he  thinks  it  is  his  time  and  hour 
to  assault  it.  He  seeks  to  winnow,  and  comes 
when  the  corn  is  under  the  flail.  Reckon, 
therefore,  that  when  trouble  cometh,  the 
prince  of  this  world  cometh  also,  that  you 
may  be  provided  for  him.  Then  is  the  time 
to  take  the  shield  of  faith,  that  we  may  be 
able  to  quench  his  fiery  darts.  If  they  be 
neglected,  they  will  inflame  the  soul.  Watch, 
therefore,  and  pray,  that  you  enter  not  into 
temptation,  that  Satan  does  not  represent 
God  falsely  unto  you.  He  that  durst  repre- 
sent Job  falsely  to  the  all-seeing  God,  will, 
with  much  more  boldness,  represent  God 
falsely  unto  us,  who  see  and  know  so  little. 
Be  not  ignorant  of  his  devices,  but  in  every 
way  set  yourself  against  his  interposing  be- 
tween God  and  your  souls,  in  a  matter  which 
he  hath  nothing  to  do  with.  Let  not  this 
makebate  by  any  means  inflame  the  differ- 
ence.— A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTATION  AND  HOLINESS.— il/a^^ 

iv.  He  forced  him  not ;  he  touched  him  not ; 
only  said,  "  Cast  thyself  down  "  :  that  we  may 
know,  whosoever  obeyeth  the  devil,  casteth 
himself  down;  for  the  devil  mav  suggest; 
compel  he  cannot. — A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTATION    AND    PRAYER.— Ma«. 

izr  Very  strikingly  do  the  gospels  illustrate 
for  us  our  danger,  and  the  daily  value  of  this 
petition.  At  about  the  same  time  strong 
temptation  came  to  our  Lord,  to  Peter,  and  to 
Judas  Iscariot.  It  came  to  our  Lord ;  but  the 
tempter  found  nothing  in  Him,  no  point  of 
vantage.  It  came  to  Peter,  secure  as  he 
thought  himself  from  its  attacks ;  heedless, 
therefore,  and  unwatchful,  he  entered  into 
temptation  and  fell ;  the  tempter  found  some- 
thing in  him,  and  used  his  opportunity. 
Temptation  came  also  to  the  unhappy  traitor, 
and  carried  all  before  it,  the  tempter  entered 
into  him,  and  made  him  his  prey. — A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTATION  Follows  Graces.— Matt. 
iv:  I.  Christ  is  no  sooner  out  of  the  water  of 
baptism,  than  He  is  in  the  fire  of  temptation ; 
whence  we  learn  that  great  manifestations  of 
the  love  of  God  are  usually  followed  with 
great  temptations  from  Satan. — A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTATION    the    Road    to    Glory.— 

Matt.  iv.  None  can  be  crowned  unless  he 
conquer,  nor  conquer  unless  he  fight,  nor  fight 
unless  he  have  enemies  and  temptations.  (2 
Tim.  ii:3-5;   Jas.  i:2.)— A.  P.  L. 


96 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


TEMPTATION,    The   Safe   Course  in. — 

The  sentinel  picketed  to  watch  the  enemy  does 
his  duty  by  giving  the  alarm  if  the  enemy  ap- 
proaches— not  by  advancing  single-handed  to 
the  conflict.  So  the  duty  of  a  Christian, 
watchfully  discerning  the  approach  of  temp- 
tation, is  to  convey  the  case  to  God;  it  is 
foolhardiness  to  adventure  into  the  combat 
unsent  and  unprovided  for. — Budington. 

TEMPTATIONS,  To  Live  Without.— I 
find  it  most  true,  that  the  greatest  ternptation 
out  of  hell  is  to  live  without  temptations;  if 
my  waters  would  stand,  they  would  rot. 
Faith  is  the  better  for  the  free  air  and  the 
sharp  winter  storm  in  its  face ;  grace  withereth 
without  adversity.  The  devil  is  but  God's 
master-fencer,  teaching  us  to  handle  our 
weapons. — A.  P.  L. 

TEMPTER,  The.— Matt.  iv.  Behind  temp- 
tation and  evil  there  is  here  recognized  the 
baneful  agency  of  a  personal  tempter,  an  evil 
one.  Our  great  writers  of  fiction  invariably 
have  a  demon  in  human  character  plotting  the 
ruin  of  a  hero  or  heroine ;  but  whose  malev- 
olent designs  are,  as  a  rule,  thwarted_  by  a 
counteracting  good  agency.  And  this,  to 
those  who  see  below  the  surface  of  things, 
is  true  of  life.    The  Holy  Scriptures  tell  the 


children  of  God  that  they  have,  in  a  fallen 
spirit,  an  unscrupulous  foe,  who  is  the  father 
of  lies :  "  Your  adversary  the  devil,  who 
goeth  about  as  a  roaring  lion,  seeking  whom 
he  may  devour  "  ;  the  calumniator  of  God,  and 
of  all  that  is  good ;  the  accuser  of  the  brethren 
whose  assaults  they  must  encounter,  with 
whom  they  will  have  to  wrestle,  against  whom 
they  must  watch  and  pray ;  and,  in  order  to 
withstand  and  resist  him  successfully,  they 
must  arm  themselves  with  the  panoply  of  God. 
And  this  prayer,  to  be  delivered  from  evil, 
is  a  cry  to  "  the  stronger  than  the  strong," 
for  help  in  an  unequal  contest ;  to  the  "  Ad- 
vocate with  the  Father,"  for  His  interposition 
on  our  behalf;  to  the  "Good  Shepherd,"  to 
deliver  His  sheep  from  the  teeth  of  the  de- 
stroyer and  "  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost," 
both  of  peril  and  of  need. — A.  P-  L. 

ULYSSES  and  the  Enchanted  Isle. — We 
are  told  that  when  Ulysses  was  passing  by  the 
coast  of  the  Enchanted  Isle,  where  the  Sirens 
lived  and  sang,  he  had  to  have  his  ears  stopped 
with  wax,  and  himself  bound  to  the  mast  of 
the  ship,  lest  he  should  wish  to  listen  to  their 
song,  and  so  become  intoxicated  with  pleasure, 
and  never  get  beyond  that  shore,  as  had  been 
the  case  with  all  others. — A.  P.  L. 


POETRY 


Ash  "Wednesday 

By  John  Kebl£ 

When  thou  fastest,  anoint  thine  head,  and 
wash  thy  face;  that  thou  appear  not  unto 
men  to  fast,  but  unto  thy  Father  which  is  in 
secret.    Matthew  vi:  17,  18. 

Yes — deep  within,  and  deeper  yet 

The  rankling  shaft  of  conscience  hide. 
Quick  let  the  swelling  eye  forget 

The  tears  that  in  the  heart  abide. 
Calm  be  the  voice,  the  aspect  bold. 

No  shuddering  pass  o'er  lip  or  brow, 
For  why  should  Innocence  be  told 

The  pangs  that  guilty  spirits  bow? 

The  loving  eye  that  watches  thine 

Close  as  the  air  that  wraps  thee  round — 
Why  in  thy  sorrow  should  it  pine. 

Since  never  of  thy  sin  it  found? 
And  wherefore  should  the  heathen  see  * 

What  chains  of  darkness  thee  enslave, 
And  mocking  say,  Lo,  this  is  He 

Who  owned  a  God  that  could  not  save? 

Thus  oft  the  mourner's  wayward  heart 

Tempts  him  to  hide  his  grief  and  die, 
Too  feeble  for  Confession's   smart, 

Too  proud  to  bear  a  pitying  eye ; 
How  sweet,  in  that  dark  hour,  to  fall 

On  bosoms  waiting  to  receive 
Our  sighs,  and  gently  whisper  all ! 

They  love  us — will  not  God  forgive? 


Else  let  us  keep  our  fast  within, 

Till  Heaven  and  we  are  quite  alone. 
Then  let  the  grief,  the  shame,  the  sin, 

Before  the  mercy-seat  be  thrown. 
Between  the  porch  and  altar  weep. 

Unworthy  of  the  holiest  place. 
Yet  hoping  near  the  shrine  to  keep 

One  lowly  cell  in  sight  of  grace. 

Nor  fear  lest  sympathy  should  fail ; 

Hast  thou  not  seen,  in  night-hours  drear 
When  racking  thoughts  the  heart  assail. 

The  glimmering  stars  by  turns  appear. 
And  from  the  eternal  home  above 

With  silent  news  of  mercy  steal  ? 
So  Angels  pause  on  tasks  of  love. 

To  look  where  sorrowing  sinners  kneel. 

Or  if  no  Angel  pass  that  way, 

He  who  in  secret  sees,  perchance 
May  bid  His  own  heart-warming  ray 

Toward  thee  stream  with  kindlier  glance. 
As  when  upon  His  drooping  head 

His  Father's  light  was  poured  from  Heaven 
What  time,  unsheltered  and  unfed,t 

Far  in  the  wild  His  steps  were  driven. 

High  thoughts  were  with  Him  in  that  hour. 

Untold,   unspeakable   on   earth — 
And   who  can   stay  the  soaring  power 

Of  spirits  weaned  from  worldly  mirth, 
While  far  beyond  the  sound  of  praise 

With  upward  eye  they  float  serene. 
And  learn  to  bear  their  Savior's  blaze 

When  Judgment  shall  undraw  the  screen? 


♦  Wherefore  should  they  say  among  the  people ,  Where  is  their  God  ?    Joel  li:  17. 


+  Matthew  iv:  i. 


LENT 


97 


The  Stricken  Deer 

By  William  Cowper 

I  was  a  stricken  deer  that  left  the  herd 
Long  since :  with  many  an  arrow  deep  infix'd 
My  panting  side  was  charged,  when  I  with- 
drew. 
To  seek  a  tranquil  death  in  distant  shades. 
There  was  I  found  by  one  who  had  Himself 
Been  hurt  by  the  archers.     In  His  side  He 

bore, 
And  in  His  hands  and  feet,  the  cruel  scars. 
With  gentle  force  soliciting  the  darts. 
He  drew  them  forth,  and  heal'd,  and  bade  me 

live. 
Since  then,  with  few  associates,  in  remote 
And  silent  woods  I  wander,  far  from  those 
My  former  partners  of  the  peopled  scene; 
With  few  associates,  and  not  wishing  more. 
The  Task,  Bk.  iii.  1.  io8. 

Lenten  Fasting 

By  George  Herbert 

Welcome,  dear  feast  of  Lent;  who  loves  not 

thee, 
He  loves  not  temperance,  or  authority, 

But  is  composed  of  passion. 
The  Scriptures  bid  us  fast ;  the  church  says, 
Give  to  thy  mother  what  thou  wouldst  allow 

To  every  corporation. 

The  humble  soul,  composed  of  love  and  fear, 
Begins  at  home,  and  lays  the  burden  there. 

When  doctrines  disagree : 
He  says,  in  things  which  use  hath  justly  got, 
"  I  am  a  scandal  to  the  church,  and  not 

The  church  is  so  to  me." 

True  Christians  should  be  glad  of  an  occasion 
To  use  their  temperance,  seeking  no  evasion, 

When  good  is  seasonable; 
Unless  authority,  which  should  increase 
The  obligation  in  us,  make  it  less. 

And  power  itself  disable. 

Then  those  same  pendent  profits,  which  the 

spring 
And  Easter  intimate,  enlarge  the  thmg. 

And  goodness  of  the  deed. 
Neither  ought  other  men's  abuse  of  Lent 
Spoil  the  good  use ;    lest  by  that  argument 
We  forfeit  all  our  creed. 

"Tis  true,  we  cannot  reach  Christ's  fortieth 

day; 
Yet  to  go  part  of  that  religious  way 

Is  better  than  the  rest : 
We  cannot  reach  our  Savior's  purity; 
Yet  we  are  bid,  "  Be  holy  e'en  as  He." 

In  both  let's  do  our  best. 

Who  goeth   in  the   way  which   Christ  hath 

gone. 
Is  much  more  sure  to  meet  with  Him,  than 
one 

That  traveleth  byways. 
Perhaps  my  God,  tho  He  be  far  before, 
May  turn,  and  take  me  by  the  hand,  and  more, 
May  strengthen  my  decays. 


Yet,  Lord,  instruct  us  to  improve  our  fast 
By  starvmg  sin,  and  taking  such  repast 

As  may  our  faults  control; 
That  every  man  may  revel  at  his  door, 
Not  in  his  parlor,  banqueting  the  poor, 

And  among  those  his  soul. 

Acceptable  Fasting 

By  Francis  Quarles 

Is  fasting  then  the  thing  that  God  requires? 
Can  fasting  expiate,  or  slake  those  fires 
That  sin  hath  blown  to  such  a  mighty  flame? 
Can  sackcloth  clothe  a  fault,  or  hide  a  shame? 
Can  ashes  cleanse  thy  blot,  or  purge  thy  of- 
fense ? 
Or  do  thy  hands  make  heaven  a  recompense? 
By  strewing  dust  upon  thy  briny  face? 
Are   these   the    tricks    to    purchase    heavenly 

grace  ? — 
No !    tho  thou  pine  thyself  with  willing  want, 
Or  face  look  thin,  or  carcass  ne'er  so  gaunt; 
Altho  thou  worser  weeds  than  sackcloth  wear, 
Or  naked  go,  or  sleep  in  shirts  of  hair ; 
Or  tilio  thou  choose  an  ash-tub  for  thy  bed. 
Or  make  a  daily  dunghill  on  thy  head, — 
Thy  labor  is  not  poised  with  equal  gains, 
For  thou  hast  naught  but  labor  for  thy  pains. 
Such  holy  madness  God  rejects  and  loathes. 
That  sinks  no  deeper  than  the  skin  or  clothes. 
'Tis  not  thine  eyes,  which,  taught  to  weep  by 

art. 
Look  red  with  tears  (not  guilty  of  thy  heart)  ; 
'Tis  not  the  holding  of  thy  hands  so  high, 
Nor  yet  the  purer  squinting  of  thine  eye ; 
'Tis  not  your  mimic  mouths,  your  antic  faces,, 
Your  Scripture  phrases,  or  affected  graces, 
Nor  prodigal  upbending  of  thine  eyes, 
Whose  gashful  balls  do  seem  to  pelt  the  skies ; 
'Tis  not  the  strict  reforming  of  your  hair. 
So  close  that  all  the  neighbor  skull  be  bare; 
'Tis  not  the  drooping  of  thy  head  so  low. 
Nor  yet  the  lowering  of  thy  sullen  brow ; 
Nor  wolfish  howling  that  disturbs  the  air. 
Nor  repetitions,  or  your  tedious  prayer : 
No,  no !  'tis  none  of  this  that  God  regards — 
Such   sort   of   fools   their   own   applause   re- 
wards ; 
Such  puppet-plays  to  heaven  are  strange  and 

quaint ; 
Their  service  is  unsweet,  and  foully  taint: 
Their  words  fall  fruitless  from  their  idle  brain — 
But  true  repentance  runs  in  other  strain ; 
Where  sad  contrition  harbors,  there  the  heart 
Is  truly  acquainted  with  the  secret  smart 
Of  past  offenses — hates  the  bosom  sin 
The  most  which  the  soul  took  pleasure  in. 
No  crime  unsifted,  no  sin  unpresented, 
Can  lurk  unseen ;  and  seen,  none  unlamented. 
The  troubled  soul's  amazed  with  dire  aspects 
Of  lesser  sins  committed,  and  detects 
The  wounded  conscience ;    it  cries  amain 
For  mercy,  mercy — cries,  and  cries  again; 
It  sadly  grieves,  and  soberly  laments ; 
It  yearns  for  grace,  reforms,  returns,  repents. 
Aye,  this  is  incense  whose  accepted  savor 
Mounts  up  the  heavenly  Throne,  and  findeth 

favor ; 
Ay,  this  is  it  whose  valor  never  fails — 
With  God  it  stoutly  wrestles,  and  prevails; 


98 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


Ay,  this  is  it  that  pierces  heaven  above, 
Never  returning  home,  like  Noah's  dove, 
But  brings  an  olive  leaf,  or  some  incense 
That  works  salvation,  and  eternal  peace. 

A  True  Fast 

By  Robert  Herrick 

Is  this  a  Faste — to  keep 
The  Larder  leane. 
And  cleane, 
From  fat  of  veales  and  sheepe? 

Is  it  to  quit  the  dish 
Of  flesh,  yet  still 
To  fill 
The  platter  high  with  fish? 

Is  it  to  faste  an  houre, 
Or  rag'd  to  go. 
Or  show 
A  downcast  look  and  sowre? 

No ;  'tis  a  Faste  to  dole 
Thy  sheaf  of  wheat, 
And   meat, 
Unto  the  hungry  soule. 

It  is  to  faste  from  strife. 
From  old  debate. 
And  hate ; 
To  circumcise  thy  life. 

To  show  a  heart  grief-rent. 
To  starve  thy  sin, 
Not    bin : 
And  that's  to  keep  thy  Lent. 

Lent 

By  F.  W.  Faber,  D.D. 

Now  are  the  days  of  humblest  prayer, 
When  consciences  to  God  lie  bare, 
And  mercy  most  delights  to  spare. 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry, 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear ; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

Now  is  the  season,  wisely  long, 
Of  sadder  thought  and  graver  song. 
When  ailing  souls  grow  well  and  strong. 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry. 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear ; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear  ! 

The  feast  of  penance !  Oh  so  bright, 
With  true  conversion's  heavenly  light, 
Like  sunrise  after  stormy  night ! 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry. 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

Oh  happy  time  of  blessed  tears, 
Of  surer  hopes,  of  chast'ning  fears, 
Undoing  all  our  evil  years. 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry, 

Chastise  us  with  Thv  fear ; 
Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 
.  Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 


We,  who  have  loved  the  world,  must  learn, 
Upon  that  world  our  backs  to  turn. 
And  with  the  love  of  God  to  burn. 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry, 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear ; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

Vile  creatures  of  such  little  worth ! — 
Than  we,  there  can  be  none  on  earth 
More  fallen  from  their  Christian  birth- 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry. 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear ; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

Full  long  in  sin's  dark  ways  we  went. 
Yet  now  our  steps  are  heavenward  bent, 
And  grace  is  plentiful  in  Lent. 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry, 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear ; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

All  glory  to  redeeming  grace, 
Disdaining  not  our  evil  case. 
But  showing  us  our  Savior's  face! 
Oh  hearken  when  we  cry. 

Chastise  us  with  Thy  fear; 

Yet,  Father !    in  the  multitude 

Of  Thy  compassions,  hear ! 

The  Second  Sunday  in  Lent 

By  John  Keble 

And  when  Esau  Iieard  the  words  of  his 
father,  he  cried  with  a  great  and  exceeding 
bitter  cry,  and  said  unto  his  father,  Bless  me, 
even  me  also,  O  my  father.  Genesis  xxvii: 
37.  (Cf.  Hebrews  xii:iy.  He  found  no  place 
of  repentance,  though  he  sought  it  carefully 
zvith  tears.) 

"  And  is  there  in  God's  world  so  drear  a  place 
Where    the    loud    bitter    cry    is    raised    in 
vain? 
Where   tears   of   penance    come   too   late   for 
grace. 
As    on    the    uprooted    flower    the    genial 
rain?  " 

'  Tis  even  so ;    the  sovereign  Lord  of  souls 
Stores    in   the   dungeon   of   His   boundless 
realm 
Each  bolt,  that  o'er  the  sinner  vainly  rolls. 
With    gathered    wrath    the     reprobate    to 
whelm. 

Will  the  storm  hear  the  sailor's  piteous  cry, 
Taught  to  mistrust,  too  late,  the  tempting 
wave. 

When  all  around  he  sees  but  sea  and  sky, 
A  God  in  anger,  a  self-chosen  grave? 

Or  will  the  thorns,  that  strew  intemperance's 
bed, 
Turn  with  a  wish  to  down?  will  late  re- 
morse 
Recall  the  shaft  the  murderer's  hand  has  sped, 
Or  from  the  guiltless  bosom  turn  its  course  ? 


LENT 


99 


Then  may  the  unbodied  soul  in  safety  fleet 
Through   the    dark   curtains   of  the   world 
above, 
Fresh  from  the  stain  of  crime ;  nor  fear  to 
meet 
The  God,  whom  here  she  would  not  learn 
to  love : 

Then  is  there  hope  for  such  as  die  unblest, 
That   angel   wings   may   waft   them   to   the 
shore. 
Nor  need  the  unready  virgin  strike  her  breast, 
Nor    wait    desponding    round    the    bride- 
groom's door. 

But  where  is  then  the  stay  of  contrite  hearts? 

Of  old  they  leaned  on  Thy  eternal  Word, 
But  with  the  sinner's  fear  their  hope  departs. 

Fast  linked  as  Thy  great  Name  to  Thee, 
O  Lord: 

That   Name,  by  which  Thy  faithful   oath  is 
past. 
That  we  should  endless  be,  for  joy  or  wo: 
And    if   the    treasures    of   Thy    wrath    could 
waste. 
Thy    lovers    must    their   promised    Heaven 
forego. 

But  ask  of  elder  days,  earth's  vernal  hour, 
When    in    familiar    talk    God's    voice    was 
heard, 
When  at  the  Patriarch's  call  the  fiery  shower 
Propitious    o'er    the    turf-built    shrine    ap- 
peared. 

Watch  by  our  father  Isaac's  pastoral  door — 
The  birthright   sold,  the  blessing  lost  and 
won. 
Tell,   Heaven  has   wrath  that  can   relent  no 
more. 
The  Grave,  dark  deeds  that  cannot  be  un- 
done. 

We  barter  life  for  pottage ;  sell  true  bliss 
For  wealth  or  power,  for  pleasure  or  re- 
nown ; 
Thus,   Esau-like,  our  Father's  blessing  miss, 
Then  wash  with  fruitless  tears  our  faded 
crown. 

The  True  Lent 

By  W.  M.  Punshon 

There's  winter  on  the  hills  to-day, 

The  sad  wind  soughs  o'er  churchyard  knolls, 

And  weary  nature  seems  to  say, 
"  'Tis  Lenten-tide  for  sinful  souls." 

The  barb  is  in  our  heart  to-day ; 

Sore  crushed  with  sense  of  ail  and  sin, 
We  feebly  strive  and  faintly  pray, 

'Gainst  danger  near,  for  grace  within. 

We  mourn  our  pride  and  passion's  stain, 
The  earthly  in  our  hearts  enshrined; 

The  rebel  flesh,  too  oft  in  vain 
Commanded  by  the  nobler  mind ; 

And  all  of  human  curse  or  care 

Which  lurks  life's  dangerous  paths  among, 
To  quench  the  altar-flame  of  prayer. 

Or  hush  the  heavenward  strain  of  song. 


From  Pain  to   Pain 

By  F.  W.  Faber,  D.D. 

From  pain  to  pain,  from  wo  to  wo, 
With  loving  hearts  and  footsteps  slow 
To  calvary  with  Christ  we  go. 

See  how  His  Precious  Blood 
At  every  Station  pours! 

Was  ever  grief  like  His? 

Was  ever  sin  like  ours? 

Repentance 

By  Charles   Mackay 

By  the  red  lightning  rent  and  riven, 

And  stretch'd  along  the  plain. 
Can  the  tall  oak  extend  to  heaven 

Its  gay,  green  boughs  again? 
Or  when  a  star  hath  lost  its  track, 

And  faded  from  on  high ; 
Can  aught  restore  the  lost  one  back 

To  glory  and  the  sky? 

No ;  the  tall  oak  no  more  can  spread 

Its  green  leaves  to  the  blast, 
Nor  can  the  meteor  which  hath  fled 

Recall  its  splendors  past. 
Can  man,  deep  sunk  in  guilty  care. 

And  press'd  by  human  ill, 
Gain  triumph  o'er  his  dark  despair, 

And  find  a  solace  still? 

Yes !  He  who  for  our  ransom  bled 

Holds  back  the  avenging  rod, 
When  meek  contrition  bows  her  head. 

Repenting,  to  her  God : 
Tho    dark    the    sin — tho    deep   the    heart 

Be  sunk  in  guilt  and  pain, 
Yet  Mercy  can  a  balm  impart, 

And  raise  it  up  again. 

Repentance  and  Faith 

By  Rev.  W.  Alexander 

There  was  a  ship,  one  eve  autumnal,  onward 

Steered  o'er  an  ocean  lake ; 
Steered  by  some  strong  hand  ever  as  if  sun- 
ward : 
Behind,  an  angry  wake ; 
Before,  there   stretched  a  sea  that  grew  in- 
tenser. 
With  silver-fire  far  spread. 
Up  to  a  hill  mist-gloried,  like  a  censer. 
With  smoke  encompassed ; 
It  seemed  as  if  two  seas  met  brink  to  brink, 
A  silver  flood  beyond  a  lake  of  ink. 

There  was  a  soul  that  eve  autumnal  sailing 

Beyond  the  earth's  dark  bars, 
Toward  the  land  of  sunsets  never  paling. 

Toward  Heaven's  sea  of  stars : 
Behind,  there  was  a  wake  of  billows  tossing; 

Before,  a  glory  lay. 
O  happy  soul !  with  all  sail  set,  just  crossing 
Into  the  Far-away ; 
The  gloom  and  gleam,  the  calmness  and  the 

strife, 
Were  death  before  thee,  and  behind  thee 
life. 


lOO 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


And  as  that  ship  went  up  the  waters  stately, 

Upon  her  topmasts  tall 
I  saw  two  sails,  whereof  the  one  was  greatly 

Dark,  as  a  funeral  pall. 
But  oh!  the  next's  pure  whiteness  who  shall 
utter  ? 
Like  a  shell-snowy  strand, 
Or    when    a    sunbeam    falleth    through    the 
shutter 
On  a  dead  baby's  hand ; 
But  both  alike  across  the  surging  sea 
Helped  to  the  haven  where  the  bark  would 
be. 

And  as  that  soul  went  onward,  sweetly  speed- 
ing 
Unto  its  home  and  light. 
Repentance  made  it  sorrowful  exceeding, 
Faith  made  it  wondrous  bright; 
Repentance,  dark  with  shadowy  recollections 

And  longings  unsufficed, 
Faith,  white  and  pure  with  sunniest  affections 
Full  from  the  face  of  Christ :_ 
But  both  across  the  sun-besilvered  tide 
Helped  to  the  haven  where  the  heart  would 
ride. 

A  Few  Selections 

Fasting,  Private. 

When  thou  a  fast  would' st  keep. 
Make  not  thy  homage  cheap 
By  publishing  its  signs  to  every  eye; 
But  let  it  be  between 
Thyself  and  the  Unseen, 

So    shall    it   gain   acceptance   from   on  high. 
Bernard  Barton 

Fasting,  Senseless. 

Who  can  believe  with  common  sense 

A  bacon  slice  gives  God  offense; 
Or,  how  a  herring  has  a  charm 
Almighty  vengeance  to  disarm? 
Wrapp'd  up  in  majesty  divine, 
Does  He  regard  on  what  we  dine? 

Jonathan  Swift 

Life's  Foe. 

Conquer  but  self,  the  mightiest  foe  in  life. 
And  of  no  other  need'st  thou  stand  in  fear; 
For  none  will  care  to  prove  himself  the  peer 
Of  Him  who  vanquishes  in  such  a  strife. 

W.  H.  BiRCKHEAD 

Through  Trials 

From  the  German  of  Kosegarten 

Through  night  to  light.     And  tho  to  mortal 
eyes 
Creation's  face  a  pall  of  horror  wear. 
Good  cheer,  good  cheer !    The  gloom  of  mid- 
night flies ; 
Then  shall  a  sunrise  follow,  mild  and  fair. 

Through  storm  to  calm.    And  tho  his  thun- 
der car 
The  rumbling  tempest  drive  through  earth 
and  sky, 
Good  cheer,  good  cheer !    The  elemental  war 
Tells  that  a  blessed  healing  hour  is  nigh. 


Through  frost  to  spring.     And  tho  the  biting 
blast 
Of  Eurus  stiffen  nature's  juicy  veins. 
Good    cheer,    good    cheer !      When    winter's 
wrath  is  past. 
Soft    murmuring    spring    breathes    sweetly 
o'er  the  plains. 

Through  strife  to  peace.    And  tho  with  bris- 
tling front 
A    thousand    frightful    depths    encompass 

thee,  J 

Good  cheer,  good  cheer !    Brave  thou  the  bat-   \ 
tie's  brunt. 
For  the  peace  march  and  song  of  victory. 

Through  sweat  to  sleep.     And  tho  the  sultry 
noon, 
With  heavy,  drooping  wing,   oppress  thee 
now. 
Good  cheer,  good  cheer !    The  cool  of  eve- 
ning soon 
Shall  lull  to  sweet  repose  thy  weary  brow. 

Through  cross  to  crown.    And  tho  thy  spirit's 
life 
Trials  untold  assail,  with  giant  strength, 
Good    cheer,    good    cheer !      Soon    ends    the 
bitter  strife. 
And  thou  shalt  reign  in  peace  with  Christ 
at  length. 

Through  wo  to  joy.    And  tho  at  morn  thou 
weep. 
And  tho  the   midnight   find   thee   weeping 
still. 
Good  cheer,  good  cheer !     The  Shepherd  loves 
His  sheep ; 
Resign  thee  to  the  watchful  Father's  will. 

Through  death  to  life.  And  through  this  vale 
of  tears, 

And  through  this  thistle-field  of  life,  ascend 
To  the  great  supper  in  that  world  whose  years 

Of  bliss  unfading,  cloudless,  know  no  end. 

Temptation  of  Adam  by  Eve 

By  John  Milton 

This  tree  is  not,  as  we  are  told,  a  tree 
Of  danger  tasted,  nor  to  evil  unknown 
Opening  the  way,  but  of  divine  effect 
To  open  eyes,  and  make  them  gods  who  taste; 
And  hath  been  tasted  such :   the  serpent  wise, 
Or  not  restrain'd  as  we,  or  not  obeying, 
Hath  eaten  of  the  fruit,  and  is  become. 
Not  dead,  as  we  are  threaten'd,  but  thence- 
forth 
Indued  with  human  voice  and  human  sense, 
Reasoning  to  admiration :  and  with  me 
Persuasively  hath  so  prevail'd,  that  I 
Have  also  tasted,  and  have  also  found 
Th'  effects  to  correspond  ;  opener  of  mine  eyes. 
Dim  erst,  dilated,  ampler  heart, 
And  growing  up  to  Godhead ;  which  for  thee 
Chiefly   I    sought,   without  thee   can   despise. 
For  bliss,  as  thou  hast  part,  to  me  is  bliss; 
Tedious,  unshared  with  thee,  and  odious  soon. 
Thou  therefore  also  taste,  that  equal  lot 
May  join  us,  equal  joy,  as  equal  love. 


LENT 


lOI 


Benouncing  the  World 

By  Jane  Taylor 

Come,  my  fond,  fluttering  heart, 

Come,  struggle  to  be  free; 
Thou  and  the  world  must  part. 
However  hard  it  be ; 
My  trembling  spirit  owns  it  just. 
But  cleaves  yet  closer  to  the  dust. 

Ye  tempting  sweets,  forbear; 

Ye  dearest  idols,  fall; 
My  love  ye  must  not  share, 
Jesus  shall  have  it  all : 
'Tis  bitter  pain,  'tis  cruel  smart. 
But  ah !  thou  must  consent,  my  heart* 

Ye  fair  enchanting  throng ! 

Ye  golden  dreams,  farewell! 
Earth  has  prevail'd  too  long. 

And  now  I  break  the  spell: 


Ye  cherish'd  joys  of  earthly  years; 
Jesus,   forgive  these   parting  tears. 

But  must  I  part  with  all? 

My  heart  still  fondly  pleads ; 
Yes ;  Dagon's  self  must  fall, 
It  beats,  it  throbs,  it  bleeds : 
Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  found 
To   soothe   and    heal   the   smarting   wound? 

Oh,  yes,  there  is  a  balm, 

A  kind  Physician  there. 
My  fever'd  mind  to  calm. 
To  bid  me  not  despair. 
Aid  me,  dear  Savior;  set  me  free 
And  I  will  all  resign  to  Thee. 

Oh,  may  I  feel  Thy  worth, 

And  let  no  idol  dare, 
No  vanity  of  earth, 
With  Thee,  my  Lord,  compare. 
Now  bid  all  worldly  joys  depart. 
And  reign  supremely  in  my  heart. 


I02 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


PALM  SUNDAY 

PALM  SUNDAY  (Dominica  in  Palmis)  is  the  last  Sunday  in  Lent,  the  first 
day  of  Holy  Week  and  the  Sunday  immediately  preceding  Easter.  It 
commemorates  Our  Lord's  triumphal  Entry  into  Jerusalem,  accompanied  by  the 
multitude  who  greeted  Him  with  hosannas,  waving  palm  branches  and  scattering 
them  before  Him  in  the  way.  (Matt,  xxi:  i-ii ;  Mk.  xi:  i-ii ;  John  xii:  12-16.) 
There  is  evidence  that  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  the  feast  of  palms  (j8atW  kopr-q) 
was  observed  in  the  East.  But  as  observed  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic 
churches  of  to-day,  its  celebration  dates  from  the  tenth  century. 

At  St.  Peter's  Church,  in  Rome,  Palm  Sunday  is  celebrated  elaborately 
every  year.  Splendidly  arrayed  for  the  occasion,  the  Pope  is  brought  into  the 
Church,  borne  aloft  on  the  shoulders  of  eight  men.  His  court  is  in  attendance, 
and  the  priests  bring  him  palm  branches  on  which  he  pronounces  a  blessing  and 
sprinkles  holy  water.  The  great  procession  then  starts,  the  day's  ceremonies 
and  services  closing  with  high  mass.  All  who  attend  the  ceremony  are  granted 
thirty  years'  indulgence.  Each  one  who  has  been  present  on  the  occasion  takes 
away  his  palm  branch,  which  is  supposed  now  to  be  a  charm  against  diseases, 
and  which  is  kept  in  some  cases  to  be  burned  to  ashes  on  the  next  Ash-Wednesday. 
The  supreme  thought  of  Palm  Sunday  is :  "  Christ  is  King." 


HOLY  WEEK 


There  is  a  true  piety  in  the  observance  of 
anniversaries.  That  home  has  lost  some- 
thing of  the  sacredness,  something  of  the 
beauty  to  which  it  has  a  right,  in  which  the 
children's  birthdays  are  not  high  days ;  and 
where  to  these  happy  anniversaries  the  birth- 
days of  father  and  mother,  and  their  wedding 
day.  are  also  home  holidays,  the  cord  of  love 
and  of  parental  and  filial  piety  becomes  all 
the  stronger.  So  it  is  with  religious  anniver- 
saries. From  Thanksgiving  Day  we  have 
come  to  recognize  the  value  of  celebrating 
Christmas  and  Easter.  We  have  risen  above 
that  natural  reaction  against  holy  days  with 
which  their  perversion  inspired  our  Puritan 
ancestors,  and  have  come  to  see  that  the  most 
precious  days  in  the  year  ought  to_  be  those 
which  commemorate  the  most  important 
events  of  our  Lord's  life  on  earth.  In  a  more 
general  observance  of  the  same  holy  days, 
we  find  a  bond  of  union  which  seems  to  give 
us  a  foretaste,  or  at  least  a  vision,  of  that 
time  when  Christ's  last  prayer  will  be  an- 
swered,  and  all   Christians  shall  be  one. 

The  round  world  over,  this  week  is  ob- 
served as  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  year. 
There  is  hardly  a  country  on  the  globe  which 
does  not  now  hold  some  to  whom  its  observ- 
ances are  among  the  most  precious  of  their 
experiences.  And  tho  in  America,  the  ma- 
jority  belong   to   denominations   which   have 


not,  until  recently,  been  wont  to  think  much 
of  holy  days,  yet  in  the  whole  field  of  Chris- 
tendom the  majority  is  very  heavily  on  the 
other  side.  So,  in  the  observances  which  we 
are  learning  to  find  so  spiritually  helpful  and 
quickening,  we  have  the  further  stimulus 
of  this  sense  of  oneness,  knowing  that  we  join 
with  an  innumerable  company  of  worshipers. 
The  coming  Sabbath  is  Easter,  and  on  that 
day,  at  least,  the  whole  Christian  world  is 
one  in  commemorating  and  rejoicing  in  the 
Risen  Lord. 

And  now  we  are  beginning  to  feel  the 
solemnity  of  these  days  which  precede  that 
glorious  event.  It  was  on  this  very  Thurs- 
day, so  many  hundred  years  ago,  that  our 
Lord  first  broke  the  bread  and  blessed  the 
wine  for  His  disciples.  Can  any  hour  be 
more  sacred,  any  remembrance  more  precious 
than  this?  Can  we  whose  life  is  in  Him  spend 
the  evening  of  this  day  better  than  by  doing 
this  in  remembrance  of  Him  ?  It  was  to- 
night that  He  prayed  in  the  Garden.  It  was 
to-morrow  morning  very  early  that  He  stood 
before  Pilate,  and  all  the  slow  minutes  of 
the  day  mark  a  new  step  in  His  Passion,  a 
new  pang,  a  new  anguish,  endured  for  us. 
How  shall  we  sleep  to-night  and  to-morrow 
go  eagerly  about  our  business,  our  money- 
making,  or  our  pleasures,  as  if  these  things 
had  never  been? — E. 


PALM  SUNDAY 


103 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

THE  DAY  OF  PALMS 


By  Rev.  George  Hodges,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

On  the  next  day  much  people  that  were  come  to  the  feast,  when  they  heard  that  Jesus  was 
coming  to  Jerusalem,  took  branches  of  palm-trees  and  went  forth  to  meet  him. — Johnxii: 
12,  13 


Yesterday  He  was  at  Bethany.  Last  night 
they  made  Him  a  supper  there,  and  Mary 
anointed  His  head  and  feet  with  the  precious 
ointment — for  "  the  day  of  my  burying,"  He 
said,  looking  on  into  the  darkness  of  this 
week's  tragedy.  The  little  village  was  full 
of  Passover  pilgrims,  and  there  was  much 
going  and  coming  over  the  hill  road  which 
led  to  Jerusalem.  The  news  that  the  Prophet 
of  Nazareth  was  on  His  way  to  the  feast 
would  speedily  be  carried  into  the  city. 

People  were  full  of  expectation.  They  had 
been  debating  one  with  another  as  to  the 
likelihood  of  His  coming.  Some  feared  He 
might  be  kept  away  by  fear  of  priests  and 
sentries.     It  was  the  topic  of  the  hour. 

Jesus  had  now  been  going  up  and  down 
the  country  for  three  years.  He  had  preached 
in  city  after  city.  Many  had  seen  His  mir- 
acles. It  was  known  through  all  the  length 
and  breadth  of  Judea,  and  Samaria,  and 
Galilee,  that  this  new  Prophet  had  arrived, 
claiming  to  be  the  Messiah.  Everybody  was 
interested  in  Him.  It  was  known  also  that 
His  claims  were  utterly  disowned  by  all  the 
prominent  churchmen,  and  that  at  last  the 
religious  authorities  had  publicly  proclaimed 
Him  to  be  a  deceiver  and  a  dangerous  per- 
son, and  had  given  orders  that  He  .'^hould  be 
arrested. 

Most  people,  especially  in  Jerusalem,  sided, 
as  the  world's  way  is,  with  those  who  were  in 
authority.  Many  others  were  auite  different, 
but  were  interested  in  the  day's  happenings, 
as  people  are,  and  ready  to  join  a  crowd  at 
any  time  to  go  in  any  direction.  Others  there 
were  in  whose  hearts  sounded  still  some 
word  which  Jesus  had  spoken  in  the  streets 
of  their  town,  in  whose  eyes  was  still  the 
sight  of  Him  as  He  went  along  one  day, 
which  they  well  remembered — blessing  little 
children,  healing  the  sick,  comforting  the 
sad. 

A  strange  and  terrible  thing  it  seemed  to 
them  that  He  should  now  be  hunted  after 
like  a  thief  by  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  If 
He  came  to  the  Passover,  He  came  in  peril 
of  His  life.  They  knew  that,  and  they 
dreaded  what  might  come  to  pass.  And 
there  were  His  enemies,  also,  wondering 
what  He  would  do.  And,  when  men  came 
running  over  the  side  of  the  hill  into  the 
city,  bearing  the  news  that  Jesus  was  at 
Bethany,  and  would  upon  the  morrow  enter 
into  Jerusalem,  there  was  a  stir  among  the 
people. 

Thus,  as  Jesus  nears  Jerusalem,  presently 
this    great     crowd,     shouting     and     singing. 


comes  in  sight.  And  every  one's  heart  is 
stirred.  The  multitude  from  Jerusalem  turns 
back  escorting  Him ;  the  multitude  from 
Bethany  follows  on  behind  Him.  He  is  in 
the  midst  of  them.  And  some  pull  off  their 
long  cloaks  and  cast  them  in  the  road,  and 
others  break  off  branches  from  the  trees, 
green  with  the  first  leaves  of  spring,  and 
spread  them  in  the  way.  They  carry  palm- 
branches  in  their  hands,  and  sing.  And  as 
they  go  they  describe  one  to  another  the  good 
deeds  they  have  seen  Him  do,  and  they  re- 
joice and  praise  God  with  a  loud  voice  for  all 
His  mighty  works,  crying :  "  Hosanna, 
blessed  be  the  Lord ;  peace  in  heaven  and 
glory  in  the  highest." 

Some  of  the  Pharisees,  who  have  come 
out  with  the  crowd,  are  suddenly  alarmed, 
hearing  this  name  of  "  king,"  and  seeing  this 
great  enthusiastic  multitude  sweeping  on 
down  into  the  crowded  city.  "  Master,"  they 
cry,  "  rebuke  thy  disciples."  To  which 
Jesus  answers :  "  I  tell  you  that,  if  these 
should  hold  their  peace,  the  very  stones  would 
immediately  cry  out." 

You  see  with  what  intensity  He  speaks. 
He  has  been  silent,  hitherto,  listening  to  the 
voices  of  the  shouting  crowd,  and  looking 
into  their  eager  faces,  thinking  His  own  sad 
thoughts.  This  to  Him  is  no  holiday  pro- 
cession. He  is  indeed  a  king,  and  in  the 
Lord's  name  does  He  come ;  but  He  is  to 
be  rejected;  He  knows  that.  The  cross  is  at 
the  end  of  the  road. 

Now  the  way  descends  into  a  valley,  with 
a  hill  upon  the  right  and  a  wall  of  rocks  upon 
the  left ;  then  it  rises  again,  and  suddenly 
the  Holy  City  lies  outspread  across  a  deep 
ravine,  terrace  upon  terrace,  crowned  with 
the  Temple  tower,  all  white  with  marble 
walls  and  set  about  with  shining  roofs,  like 
gems.  Here  it  was,  no  doubt,  that  *'  He 
beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it ;  "  wept,  not 
with  silent  tears,  but  with  long  lamentation. 
For  Jesus  loved  that  city.  Every  stone  of  it 
was  precious  in  His  eyes.  He  had  come  to 
it  again  and  again,  as  the  prophets  came  in 
the  old  time ;  preaching  in  the  streets  and 
in  the  synagogs  and  in  the  courts  of  the 
Temple,  bearing  the  messages  of  God.  And 
few  had  heeded. 

Outside,  in  the  country,  ignorant  people, 
unprivileged  people,  had  listened  and  be- 
lieved. And  even  in  the  town  of  Galilee, 
where  men  thought  more  about  their  business 
than  they  did  about  the  services  of  the  church, 
there  had  been  many  disciples,  and  some  had 
been   willing  to  give  up  everything  and   fol- 


I04 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


low  Him.  But  here,  in  Jerusalem,  the  re- 
ligious city,  where  dwelt  the  priests  and 
doctors  of  the  law,  where  the  tower  of  the 
holy  temple  dominated  all  the  buildings  of 
the  town  and  where  the  church  was  the  su- 
preme interest  of  all  the  citizens — here  had 
Jesus  preached  and  done  His  deeds  of  mercy 
and  blessing.  And  they  had  despised  and 
hated  Him. 

And  the  day  of  divine  visitation  had  come, 
the  last  of  all  the  manifold  opportunities 
which  the  town  had  had,  the  final  call  of  God, 
and  the  city  lay  there,  beautiful  beyond  ex- 
pression, but  deaf  and  dumb  and  blind.  For 
this  did  Jesus  weep,  saying :  "  If  thou  hadst 
known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day, 
the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace ! 
But  now  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes." 

After  all  the  elaborate  preparations  to  re- 
ceive Christ,  He  came  and  was  rejected.  He 
came  so  simply,  so  naturally,  speaking  so 
directly  to  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men,  car- 
ing so  little  for  all  their  costly  ceremonies 
and  their  fine  ritual,  that  they  did  not  know 
Him.  They  had  deceived  themselves  by  their 
emphasis  upon  the  dress  and  posture  of  re- 
ligion, by  their  interest  in  the  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  the  church.  They  had  dwelt 
so  long  upon  the  mere  externals  of  devotion 
that  they  had  ceased  to  be  devoted.  And 
Jesus  looked  upon  the  religious  city,  with  its 
stately  Temple  crowning  the  summit  of  the 
hill,  with  its  streets  full  of  men  and  women 
preparing  for  the  great  church  festival  of  the 
divine  redemption  of  their  fathers,  and  wept 
over  it ;  looked  upon  these  throngs  of  people 
on  their  way  to  church  to  keep  their  Easter 
feast,  and  wept  to  see  them. 

Such  a  difiference  there  is  between  church- 
going  and  religion,  between  righteousness 
and  ritual,  between  our  way  of  looking  at 
things  and  Christ's  way.  We  are  busy,  we 
are  interested  in  many  matters  which  have 
something  to  do  with  the  Christian  religion, 
in  the  service,  in  the  singing,  in  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  house  of  God.  How  much  does 
it  all  mean?  Jesus  Christ  looks  upon  our 
stately  churches ;  does  He  rejoice  in  them 
as  the  comely  shrines  of  a  pure  devotion,  or 
does  He  behold  them  as  He  beheld  Jerusalem, 
looking  into  our  hearts  and  seeing  cause  for 
lamentation? 

On  moves  the  rude  procession,  with  wav- 
ing palms  and  singing,  Jesus  riding  in  the 
midst.  Thus  comes  the  King.  In  Rome 
there  have  been  scenes  of  triumph  when 
some  conqueror  enters  with  his  soldiers  to 
the  sound  of  music,  all  the  people  throwing 
flowers  before  him  and  shouting  in  the  streets, 
and  behind  him  are  led  his  captives,  the 
princes  of  some  unfortunate  province,  bound 
in  chains ;  and  all  along  the  way  the  spears 
glitter  and  there  is  clash  of  armor.  But  here 
comes  another  King,  the  King  of  peace,  the 
King  of  love,  in  very  different  fashion. 

The  road  leads  down  the  mountain,  past 
the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  over  the  Kedron 


bridge,  into  the  city.  And  here  is  noise  and 
tumult,  people  running  together  and  heads 
thrust  out  of  windows,  the  whole  city  moved, 
and  everybody  saying,  "Who  is  this?"  And 
the  bearers  of  the  palm-branches  answer, 
not  with  the  same  confidence  which  they  had 
shown  as  they  sang  along  the  road,  but  re- 
treating a  little  from  their  high  enthusiasm 
in  the  presence  of  their  unsympathetic  ques- 
tioners :  "  This  is  Jesus,  the  Prophet  of 
Nazareth  of  Galilee  " — a  perfectly  safe  say- 
ing. 

"  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David,"  they  had 
been  singing.  "  Blessed  be  the  King  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  They  do 
not  sing  that  in  the  streets. 

By  and  by  there  will  be  another  crowd  in 
these  same  streets,  and  some  of  these  same 
people  in  it  crying :  '^  Crucify  him !  "  That 
is  the  way  with  crowds.  Jesus  rides  on, 
silent  and  sad,  knowing  how  little  it  all 
means.  In  every  company,  in  every  congrega- 
tion, some  are  present  because  their  hearts 
are  filled  with  sincere  interest  and  genuine 
devotion,  and  they  cannot  stay  away. 

Others  are  there  because  they  have  seen 
people  going  in  that  direction  and  have  gone 
with  them,  or  because  it  is  the  conventional 
thing  to  do,  and  they  join  their  voices  in  the 
general  acclaim  because  it  is  the  way  of  hu- 
man nature,  doing  what  their  neighbors  do. 
This  Palm-Sunday  crowd  vanishes  away  and 
is  heard  no  more.  There  is  a  little  company 
of  true  disciples  standing  afar  off,  watching 
the  £nd,  when  the  darkness  falls  upon  the 
cross.  But  the  crowd  utters  no  voice,  is 
not  visible,  sits  trembling  at  home,  or  is  on 
the  other  side,  when  the  tragedy  comes. 
When  Jesus  needs  men  to  stand  up  in  the 
midst  of  his  enemies  and  speak  for  Him, 
these  loud  singers  of  Palm  Sunday  are  not 
there. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  religion :  The  re- 
ligion of  the  crowd,  and  the  religion  of  the 
consecrated  heart.  Many  people  who  ac- 
count themselves  good  Christians  are  good 
Christians  only  in  the  crowd.  It  is  so  easy 
to  go  with  the  multitude !  Opposition  tests 
religion,  so  that  we  may  see  of  what  sort  our 
religion  is.  Some  unsympathetic  and  in- 
credulous questioner  comes,  like  the  people 
who  looked  down  from  the  windows,  crying, 
"Who  is  this?"  and  then — what  do  we  say? 

Along  the  streets  the  simple  procession 
moves,  up  to  the  Temple,  into  which  Jesus 
enters  and  looks  about,  making  no  comment. 
He  sees  the  priests  and  the  people.  He  sees 
the  money-changers  and  the  traders.  But 
He  stands  there  silent.  Presently,  but  not 
to-day.  He  will  come  again  and  drive  away 
these  intruders  who  are  turning  the  house  of 
prayer  into  "  a  house  of  merchandise  "  and  a 
"  den  of  thieves." 

Then  the  sun  goes  down,  and  in  the  dusk, 
only  the  twelve  disciples  with  Him,  He 
leaves  the  city  and  seeks  the  peace  of  Beth- 
any.   The  Day  of  Palm  is  over. — H.  R. 


PALM  SUNDAY 


105 


THE  GLORY  OF  THE  KING 

By  Alexander  Maclaren,  D.D. 

Now  unto  the  king  eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  the  only  wise  God,  he  honor  and  glory  forever 

and  ever.    Amen. — /  Tim.  i:  17 


With  this  burst  of  irrepressible  praise  the 
apostle  ends  his  reference  to  his  own  con- 
version as  a  transcendent,  standing  instance 
of  the  infinite  love  and  transforming  power 
of  God.  Similar  doxologies  accompany  al- 
most all  his  references  to  the  same  fact. 
This  one  comes  from  the  lips  of  "  Paul  the 
aged,"  looking  back  from  almost  the  close  of 
a  life  which  owed  many  sorrows  and  troubles 
to  that  day  on  the  road  to  Damascus.  His 
heart  fills  with  thankfulness  that  overflows 
into  the  great  words  of  my  text.  He  had 
little  to  be  thankful  for,  judged  according  to 
the  rules  of  sense ;  but,  tho  weighed  down 
with  care,  having  made  but  a  poor  thing  of 
the  world  because  of  that  vision  which  he 
saw  that  day,  and  now  near  martyrdom,  he 
turns  with  a  full  heart  to  God,  and  breaks 
into  this  song  of  thanksgiving.  There  are 
lives  which  bear  to  be  looked  back  upon. 
Are  ours  of  that  kind? 

But  my  object  this  morning  is  mainly  to 
draw  your  attention  to  what  seems  to  me  a 
remarkable  feature  in  this  burst  of  thanks- 
giving. And  perhaps  I  shall  best  impress  the 
thought  which  it  has  given  to  me  if  I  ask 
you  to  look,  first,  at  the  character  of  the 
God  who  is  glorified  by  Paul's  salvation;  sec- 
ond, at  the  facts  which  glorify  such  a  God, 
and,  last,  at  the  praise  which  should  fill  the 
lives  of  those  who  know  the  facts. 

I.  First,  then,  notice  the  God  who  is  glori- 
fied by    Paul's   salvation. 

Now  what  strikes  me  as  singular  about  this 
great  doxology  is  the  characteristics,  or,  to 
use  a  technical  word,  the  attributes  of  the 
Divine  nature  which  the  apostle  selects. 
They  are  all  those  which  separate  God  from 
man  ;  all  those  which  present  Him  as  arrayed 
in  majesty,  apart  from  human  weaknesses 
unapproachable  by  human  sense,  and  filling  a 
solitary  throne.  These  are  the  characteris- 
tics which  the  apostle  thinks  receive  added 
luster,  and  are  lifted  to  a  loftier  height  of 
"  honor  and  glory,"  by  the  small  fact  that  he, 
Paul,  was  saved  from  sins  as  he  journeyed 
'to  Damascus. 

It  would  be  easy  to  roll  out  oratorical  plati- 
tudes about  these  specific  characteristics  of 
the  Divine  nature,  but  that  would  be  as  un- 
profitable as  it  would  be  easy.  All  that  I 
want  to  do  now  is  just  to  note  the  force  of 
the  epithets ;  and,  if  I  can,  to  deepen  the  im- 
pression of  the  remarkableness  of  their  selec- 
tion. 

With  regard,  then,  to  the  first  of  them,  we 
at  once  feel  that  the  designation  of  "  the 
King  "  is  unfamiliar  to  the  New  Testament. 
It  brings  with  it  lofty  ideas,  no  doubt;  but 
it  is  not  a  name  which  the  writers  of  the 
New  Testament,  who  had  been  taught  in  the 
school   of   love,    and   led   by   a    Son   to   the 


knowledge  of  God,  are  most  fond  of  using. 
"  The  King  "  has  melted  into  "  the  Father." 
But  here  Paul  selects  that  more  remote  and 
less'  tender  name  for  a  specific  purpose.  He 
is  ',  the  King  " — not  "  eternal"  as  our  Bible 
renders  it,  but  more  correctly  "  the  King  of 
the  Ages."  The  idea  intended  is  not  so 
much  that  of  unending  existence  as  that  He 
molds  the  epochs  of  the  world's  history, 
and  directs  the  evolution  of  its  progress. 
It  is  the  thought  of  an  overruling  Providence, 
with  the  additional  thought  that  all  the  mo- 
ments are  a  linked  chain,  through  which  He 
flashes  the  electric  force  of  His  will.  He  is 
"  King  of  the  Ages." 

The  other  epithets  are  more  appropriately 
to  be  connected  with  the  word  "  God  "  which 
follows  than  with  the  word  "  King  "  which 
precedes.  The  apostle's  meaning  is  this : 
"  The  King  of  the  ages,  even  the  God  who 
is,"  etc.  And  the  epithets  thus  selected  all 
tend  in  the  same  direction.  "  Incorruptible." 
That  at  once  parts  that  mystic  and  majestic 
Being  from  all  of  which  the  law  is  decay. 
There  may  be  in  it  some  hint  of  moral  purity, 
but  more  probably  it  is  simply  what  I  may 
call  a  physical  attribute,  that  that  immortal 
nature  not  only  does  not;  but  cannot,  pass 
into  any  less  noble  forms.  Corruption  has 
no  share  in  His  immortal  being. 

As  to  the  "  invisible,"  no  word  need  be 
said  to  illustrate  that.  It  too  points  solely 
to  the  separation  of  God  from  all  approach 
by  human  sense. 

And  then  the  last  of  the  epithets,  which, 
according  to  the  more  accurate  reading  of 
the  text,  should  be  not  as  our  Bible  has  it, 
"  the  only  wise  God,  but  "  the  only  God," 
lifts  Him  still  further  above  all  comparison 
and  contact  with  other  beings. 

So  the  whole  sets  forth  the  remote  attributes 
which  make  a  man  feel,  "  The  gulf  between 
Him  and  me  is  so  great  that  thought  cannot 
pass  across  it,  and  I  doubt  whether  love  can 
live  half-way  across  that  flight,  or  will  not 
rather,  like  some  poor  land  bird  with  tiny 
wings,  drop  exhausted,  and  be  drowned  in 
the  abyss  before  it  reaches  the  other  side." 
We  expect  to  find  a  hymn  to  the  infinite  love. 
Instead  of  that  we  get  praise,  which  might 
be  upon  the  lips  of  many  a  thinker  of  Paul's 
day  and  ours,  who  would  laugh  the  idea  of 
revelation,  and  especially  of  a  revelation  such 
as  Paul  believed  in,  to  absolute  scorn.  And 
yet  he  knew  what  he  was  saying  when  he  did 
not  lift  up  his  praise  to  the  God  of  tenderness, 
of  pity,  of  forgiveness,  of  pardoning  love,  but 
to  "  the  King  of  the  ages ;  the  incorruptible, 
invisible,  only  God ;  "  the  God  whose  honor 
and  glory  were  magnified  by  the  revelation  of 
Himself  in  Jesus  Christ. 

II.  And  so  that  brings  me,  in  the  second 


io6 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


place,  to  ask  you  to  look  at  the  facts  which 
glorify  even  such  a  God. 

Paul  was  primarily  thinking  of  his  own 
individual  experience ;  of  what  passed  when 
the  voice  spoke  to  him,  "  Why  persecutest 
thou  me?"  and  of  the  transforming  power 
which  had  changed  him,  the  wolf  with  teeth 
red  with  the  blood  of  the  saints,  into  a  lamb. 
But,  as  he  is  careful  to  point  out,  the  per- 
sonal allusion  is  lost  in  his  contemplation  of 
his  own  history,  as  being  a  specimen  and  test- 
case  for  the  blessing  and  encouragement  of 
all  who  "  should  hereafter  believe  upon  Him 
unto  life  everlasting."  So  what  we  come  to 
is  this — that  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ  is  that 
which  paints  the  lily  and  gilds  the  refined 
gold  of  the  Divine  loftinesses  and  magnifi- 
cence, and  which  brings  honor  and  glory 
even  to  that  remote  and  inaccessible  majesty. 
For,  in  that  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ,  there  is  added  to  all  these  magnificent 
and  all  but  inconceivable  attributes  and  ex- 
cellences, something  that  is  far  Diviner  and 
nobler  than  themselves. 

There  be  two  great  conceptions  smelted 
together  in  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ,  of  which  neither  attains  its  supremest 
beauty  except  by  the  juxtaposition  of  the 
other.  Power  is  harsh,  and  scarcely  worthy 
to  be  called  Divine,  unless  it  be  linked  with 
love.  Love  is  not  glorious  unless  it  be  braced 
and  energized  by  power.  And,  says  Paul, 
these  two  are  brought  together  in  Jesus ; 
and  therefore  each  is  heightened  by  the  other. 
It  is  the  love  of  God  that  lifts  His  power  to 
its  highest  height ;  it  is  the  revelation  of  Him 
as  stooping  that  teaches  us  His  loftiness.  It 
is  because  He  has  come  within  the  grasp  of 
our  humanity  in  Jesus  Christ  that  we  can 
hymn  our  highest  and  noblest  praises  to 
"  the  King  eternal,  the  invisible  God." 

The  sunshine  falls  upon  the  snow-clad 
peaks  of  the  great  mountains  and  tlushes 
them  with  a  tender  pink  that  makes  them 
nobler  and  fairer  by  far  than  when  they  were 
veiled  in  clouds.  And  so  all  the  Divine  maj- 
esty towers  higher  when  we  believe  in  the 
Divine  condescension,  and  there  is  no  god 
that  men  have  ever  dreamed  of  so  great  as 
the  God  that  stoops  to  sinners  and  is  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh  and  Cross  of  the  Man  of 
Sorrows. 

Take  these  characteristics  of  the  Divine 
nature  as  set  forth  in  the  text  one  by  one, 
and  consider  how  the  Revelation  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and  its  power  on  sinful  men,  raises 
our  conceptions  of  them.  ''  The  King  of 
the  ages " — and  do  we  ever  penetrate  so 
deeply  into  the  purpose  which  has  guided 
His  hand,  as  it  molded  and  moved  the  ages, 
as  when  we  can  say  with  Paul  that  His 
"  good  pleasure  "  is  that,  "  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  fulness  of  times,  he  might  gather 
together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ."  The 
intention  of  the  epochs  as  they  emerge,  the 
purpose  of  all  their  linked  intricacies  and  ap- 
parently diverse  movements,  is  this  one  thing, 
that  God  in  Christ  may  be  manifest  to  men, 
and  that  humanity  may  be  gathered,  like 
sheep  round  the  Shepherd,  into  the  one  fold 
of  the  one  Lord.  For  that  the  world  stands ; 
for  that  the  ages   roll,   and  He  who  is  the 


King  of  the  epochs  hath  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  the  Book  that 
contains  all  their  events ;  and  only  His  hand, 
pierced  upon  Calvary,  is  able  to  open  the 
seals,  to  read  the  Book.  The  King  of  the 
ages  is  the  Father  of  Christ. 

And  in  like  manner,  that  incorruptible  God, 
far  away  from  us  because  He  is  so,  and  to 
whom  we  look  up  here  doubtingly  and  de- 
spairingly and  often  complainingly  and  ask, 
"  Why  hast  Thou  made  us  thus,  to  be  weighed 
upon  with  the  decay  of  all  things  and  of 
ourselves  ? "  comes  near  to  us  all  in  the 
Christ  who  knows  the  mystery  of  death,  and 
thereby  makes  us  partakers  of  an  inheritance 
incorruptible.  Brethren,  we  shall  never 
adore,  or  even  dimly  understand,  the  blessed- 
ness of  believing  in  a  God  that  cannot  decay 
nor  change,  unless  from  the  midst  of  graves 
and  griefs  we  lift  our  hearts  to  Him  as  re- 
vealed in  the  face  of  the  dying  Christ.  He, 
tho  He  died,  did  not  see  corruption,  and  we 
through  Him  shall  pass  into  the  same  blessed 
immunity. 

"  The  King  .  .  .  the  God  invisible." 
"  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time,"  nor 
can  see  Him.  Who  will  honor  and  glorify 
that  attribute  which  parts  Him  wholly  from 
our  sense,  and  so  largely  from  our  appre- 
hension, as  will  he  who  can  go  on  to  say, 
"  the  only  begotten  Son  which  is  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him."  We 
look  up  into  a  waste  heaven ;  thought  and 
fear,  and  sometimes  desire,  travel  into  its 
tenantless  spaces.  We  say  the  blue  is  an 
illusion ;  there  is  nothing  there  but  blackness. 
But  "  he  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  And  we  can  lift  thankful  oraise  to 
Him,  the  King  invisible,  when  we  hear  Jesus 
saying,  "  Thou  hast  both  seen  him,  and  it  is 
he  that  talketh  with  thee." 

"  The  only  God."  How  that  repels  men 
from  His  throne !  And  yet,  if  we  apprehend 
the  meaning  of  Christ's  Cross  and  work,  we 
understand  that  the  solitary  God  welcomes 
my  solitary  soul  into  such  mysteries  and 
sacred  sweetnesses  of  fellowship  with  Him- 
self that,  the  humanity  remaining  undis- 
turbed, and  the  Divinity  remaining  unin- 
truded  upon,  we  yet  are  one  in  Him,  and  par- 
takers of  a  Divine  nature.  Unless  we  come 
to  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  awful  attri- 
butes in  the  text  spurn  a  man  from  His 
throne,  and  make  all  true  fellowship  impos- 
sible. 

So  let  me  remind  you  that  the  religion 
which  does  not  blend  together  in  indissoluble 
union  these  two,  the  majesty  and  the  lowli- 
ness, the  power  and  the  love,  the  God  in- 
accesible  and  the  God  who  has  tabernacled 
with  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  sure  to  be  almost 
an  impotent  religion.  Deism  in  all  its  forms, 
the  religion  which  admits  a  God  and  denies 
a  revelation ;  the  religion  which, '  in  some 
vague  sense,  admits  a  revelation  and  denies 
an  incarnation ;  the  religion  which  admits  an 
incarnation  and  denies  a  sacrifice;  all  these 
have  little  to  say  to  man  as  a  sinner ;  little 
to  say  to  man  as  a  mourner ;  little  power  to 
move  his  heart,  little  power  to  infuse  strength 
into  his  weakness.  If  once  you  strike  out 
the  thought  of  a  redeeming  Christ  from  your 


PALM  SUNDAY 


107 


religion,  the  temperature  will  go  down  alarm- 
ingly, and  all  will  soon  be  frost-bound. 

Brethren,  there  is  no  real  adoration  of  the 
loftiness  of  the  King  of  the  ages,  no  true 
apprehension  of  the  majesty  of  the  God  in- 
corruptible, invisible,  eternal,  until  we  see 
Him  in  the  face  and  in  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  truths  of  this  Gospel  of  our 
salvation  do  not  in  the  smallest  degree  im- 
pinge upon  or  weaken,  but  rather  heighten 
the  glory  of  God.  The  brightest  glory 
streams  from  the  Cross.  It  was  when  He 
was  standing  within  a  few  hours  of  it,  and 
had  it  full  in  view,  that  Jesus  Christ  broke 
out  into  that  strange  strain  of  triumph, 
"  Now  is  God  glorified."  "  The  King  of  the 
ages,  incorruptible,  invisible,  the  only  God," 
is  more  honored  and  glorified  in  the  forgive- 
ness that  comes  through  Jesus  Christ,  and 
in  the  transforming  power  which  He  puts 
forth  in  the  Gospel,  than  in  all  besides. 

HI.  Lastly,  let  me  draw  your  attention  to 
the  praise  which  should  fill  the  lives  of  those 
who  know  these  facts. 

I  said  that  this  apostle  seems  always,  when 
he  refers  to  his  own  individual  conversion, 
to  have  been  melted  into  fresh  outpourings 
of  thankfulness  and  of  praise.  And  that  is 
what  ought  to  be  the  life  of  all  of  you  who 
call  yourselves  Christians ;  a  continual 
warmth  of  thankfulness  welling  up  in  the 
heart,  and  not  seldom  finding  utterance  in  the 
words,  but  always  filling  the  life. 

Not  seldom,  I  say,  finding  utterance  in  the 
words.  It  is  a  delicate  thing  for  a  man  to 
speak  about  himself  and  his  own  religious 
experience.  Our  English  reticence,  our  so- 
cial habits,  and  many  other  even  less  worthy 
hindrances  rise  in  the  way;  and  I  should  be 
the  last  man  to  urge  Christian  people  to  cast 
their  pearls  before  swine,  or  too  fully  to 
"  Open  wide  the  bridal  chamber  of  the  heart," 
to  let  in  the  day.  There  is  a  wholesome  fear 
of  men  who  are  always  talking  about  their 
own  religious  experiences.  But  there  are 
times  and  people  to  whom  it  is  treason  to  the 
Master  for  us  not  to  be  frank  in  the  con- 
fession of  what  we  have  found  in  Him.    And 


I  think  there  would  be  less  complaining  of 
the  want  of  power  in  the  public  preaching 
of  the  Word  if  more  professing  Christians 
more  frequently  and  more  simply  said  to 
those  to  whom  their  words  are  weighty, 
"  Come  and  hear,  and  I  will  tell  you  what 
God  hath  done  for  my  soul."  "  Ye  are  my 
witnesses,"  saith  the  Lord.  It  is  a  strange 
way  that  Christian  people  in  this  generation 
have  of  discharging  their  obligations  that 
they  should  go,  as  so  many  of  them  do, 
from  the  cradle  of  their  Christian  lives  to 
their  graves,  never  having  opened  their  lips 
for  the  Master  who  has  done  all   for  them. 

Only  remember,  if  you  venture  to  speak 
you  will  have  to  live  your  preaching.  "  There 
is  no  speech  nor  language,  their  voice  is  not 
heard,  their  sound  is  gone  out  through  all 
the  earth."  "  The  silent  witness  of  life " 
must  always  accompany  the  audible  procla- 
mation, and  in  many  cases  is  far  more  elo- 
quent than  it.  Your  consistent  thankfulness 
manifested  in  your  daily  obedience,  and  in 
the  transformation  of  your  character,  will 
do  far  more  than  all  my  preaching,  or  the 
preaching  of  thousands  like  me,  to  commend 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus   Christ. 

One  last  word,  brethren.  This  revelation 
is  made  to  us  all.  What  is  God  to  you, 
friend?  Is  He  a  remote,  majestic,  unsympa- 
thizing,  terrible  Deity?  Is  He  dim,  shadowy, 
unwelcome ;  or  is  He  -God  whose  love  softens 
His  power,  whose  power  magnifies  His  love? 
Oh,  I  beseech  you,  open  your  eyes  and  your 
hearts  to  see  that  that  remote  Deity  is  of  no 
use  to  you,  will  do  nothing  for  you ;  can- 
not help  you,  may  probably  judge  you,  but 
will  never  heal  you.  And  open  your  hearts 
to  see  that  "  the  only  God  "  whom  men  can 
love  is  God  in  Christ.  If  here  we  lift  up 
grateful  praise  "  unto  him  that  loveth  us 
and  hath  loosed  us  from  our  sins  in  his 
blood,"  we,  too,  shall  one  day  join  in  that 
great  chorus  which  at  last  will  be  heard  say- 
ing, "  Blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and 
power  be  unto  him  that  sitteth  upon  the 
throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  forever  and  ever." 
— H.  R. 


WHO  IS  THIS  THAT  COMETH   FROM  EDOM  ? 

By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 
Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah? — Isaiah  Ixiii:  i 


The  victory  of  Christ ;  the  destruction  of 
evil  by  good ;  the  conquest  over  the  devil  by 
the  Son  of  God,  at  cost,  with  pain,  so  that 
as  He  comes  forth  His  robes  are  red  with 
blood ;  the  redemption  of  mankind  from  sin 
by  the  Divine  and  human  Savior, — this  is 
the  largest  and  completest  meaning  of  the 
ancient  vision.  Wherever  there  is  good  at 
work  in  the  world,  we  Christians  may  see  the 
progress  of  the  struggle,  and  rejoice  already 
in  the  victory  of  Christ.  It  does  us  good.  It 
enlarges  and  simplifies  our  thought  of  Christ's 
religion.  We  shall  conquer.  But  when  we 
say  that,  we  are  driven  home  to  Him  and  Him 


alone,  as  our  religion.  Look  at  the  method 
of  His  salvation,  first,  for  the  world  at  large, 
and  then  for  the  single  soul. 

I.  "  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from 
Edom  ?  "  Sin  hangs  on  the  borders  of  good- 
ness everywhere,  as  just  across  the  narrow 
Jordan  valley  Edom  always  lay  threatening 
upon  the  skirts  of  Palestine.  So  right  on  the 
border  of  man's  higher  life  lies  the  hostile 
Edom,  watchful,  indefatigable,  inexorable,  as 
the  old  foe  of  the  Jews.  Every  morning  we 
lift  up  our  eyes,  and  there  are  the  low  black 
hill-tops  across  the  narrow  valley,  with  the 
black  tents  upon  their  sides,  where  Edom  lies 


io8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


in  wait.  Who  shall  deliver  us  from  the  bad 
world  and  our  bad  selves?  The  Savior 
comes  out  of  the  enemy's  direction.  His 
whole  work  had  relation  to  and  issues  from 
the  fact  of  sin.  If  there  had  been  no  sin, 
there  would  have  been  no  Savior. 

II.  Look  next  what  He  says  to  His  anx- 
ious QUESTIONER,  (i)  We  ask  Him,  "Who 
is  this?"  and  He  replies,  "I  that  come  in 
righteousness,  mighty  to  save."  The  Savior 
comes  in  the  strength  of  righteousness.  He 
will  be  the  negotiator  of  no  low  compromise. 
He  wants  to  set  up  the  standard  of  absolute 
holiness  in  the  midst  of  a  nature  all  con- 
quered and  totally  possessed  by  Him.  (2) 
It  is  no  holiday  monarch  coming  with  a  blood- 
less triumph.  The  power  of  God  has 
struggled  with  the  enemy,  and  subdued  him 
only  in  the  agony  of  strife.  Only  in  self- 
sacrifice  and  suffering  could  even  God  con- 
quer sin.     (3)  He  has  conquered  alone.    He 


had  fellow-workers,  but  they  only  handed 
round  the  broken  bread  and  fishes  in  the 
miracle,  or  ordered  the  guest-chamber  on  the 
Passover  night.  They  never  came  into  the 
deepest  work  of  His  life.  With  the  mysteri- 
ous suffering  that  saved  the  world  they  had 
nothing  to  do.  (4)  What  was  the  fruit  of 
this  victory  over  Edom  which  the  seer  of 
Israel  discovered  from  his  mountain-top?  It 
set  Israel  free  from  continual  harassing  and 
fear,  and  gave  her  a  chance  to  develop  along 
the  way  that  God  had  marked  out  for  her. 
Christ's  salvation  sets  men  free ;  it  takes  off 
the  load  of  sin ;  it  gives  us  a  new  chance ;  and 
says  to  the  poor  soul  that  has  been  thinking 
there  was  no  use  of  trying  to  stagger  on  with 
such  a  load.  Go  on ;  your  burden  is  re- 
moved. Go  on;  go  up  to  the  home  that  you 
were  made  for,  and  the  life  in  God. — S.  B., 
vol.  iv.,  p.  195. 


THREE  CONTRASTS 


By  Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler,  D.D. 

Matt,  xxi:  12 


I.  The  Actual. — This  event  was  the  near- 
est to  a  triumphant  progress  that  Jesus  ever 
made  on  this  earth.  Yet,  in  reality,  it  was 
a  very  simple  affair.  With  a  few  plain  dis- 
ciples, and  a  number  of  very  simple  people 
who  sang  His  praises,  He  entered  the  city  as 
unlike  a  conqueror  as  possible. 

II.  The  Possible. — He  could  have  sum- 
moned a  vast  throng  of  those  whom  He  had 
restored  to  bodily  health.  Lazarus  and  Bar- 
timeus,  the  ten  lepers,  the  widow  of  Nain's 
son,  the  ruler's  daughter,  Peter's  mother-in- 
law,  a  host  of  those  from  whom  He  had  cast 
out  evil  spirits,  and  a  whole  army  of  others 
who  in  one  way  and  another  had  been  healed 
by  Him,  could  easily  have  been  summoned 
to  take  part  in  that  procession.  Such  an 
army  as  the  world  never  saw  might  have 
marched  up  the  hill  with  Him.  This  would 
have  been  a  triumphal  procession  worth  see- 
ing, indeed !  Moses  and  Elijah,  who  appeared 
on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  might  have 
joined  the  procession,  and  the  twelve  legions 
of  angels  He  once  said  were  ready  at  His  call. 
Heaven  would  swiftly  have  emptied  itself 
a  second  time,  and  each  created  angel  would 
joyfully  have  come  down  to  do  Him  honor. 
Not  all  of  earth's  monarchs  together  could 
have  summoned  such  a  train  of  followers  as 


Christ  could  have  had,  if  He  had  only  spoken 
the  word.  The  imagination  would  fail  to 
picture  the  scene  of  His  triumphal  procession, 
had  He  chosen  to  exert  all  His  powers  to 
make  it  a  regal  occasion. 

III.  The  Triumphal  Procession  to  come. 
— There  is  to  be  a  great  triumphal  procession 
in  which  Jesus  will  one  day  be  the  leader; 
for  in  that  day  He  will  call  forth  all  His  re- 
sources, and  will  march  in  real  triumph ! 
The  great  procession  of  the  universe  is  yet 
to  come ;  for  the  day  is  coming  when  the 
Son  of  man  will  return  to  this  earth  "  in  his 
glory,  and  all  the  angels  with  him."  The 
apostle  John  tells  us,  "  I  saw  heaven  opened ; 
and  behold,  a  white  horse,  and  he  that  sat 
thereon  was  called  Faithful  and  True.  And 
the  armies  which  are  in  heaven  followed 
him  upon  white  horses,  clothed  in  fine  linen, 
Vv^hite  and  pure ;  and  he  hath  on  his  garment 
and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written,  King  of 
KINGS  and  Lord  of  lords."  At  that  time 
heaven  shall  L  i  drained  of  all  its  resources 
to  make  that  procession  worthy  of  the  Son 
of  God.  Prophecy  had  foretold  His  coming 
in  humility,  and  it  came  to  pass.  But  proph- 
ecy has  also  told  of  His  coming  again  in 
glory,  and  that,  too,  shall  come  to  pass. — 
S.  S.  T. 


THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  CHRIST'S  CORONATION 

PROCESSION 

Mark  x:  46-52 


Discrepancies  in  three  accounts.  Some  as- 
sert two  miracles,  but  plainly  one  recorded  by 
independent  witnesses. — Silence  of  one  wit- 
ness   ought    not    to    invalidate   testimony    of 


another.  Mark,  in  specifying  Bartimeus,  does 
not  contradict  Matthew.  No  stumbling  block 
to  faith  here,  proofs  of  independent  char- 
acter  of    Evangelist's   testimony. — Christ    on 


PALM  SUNDAY 


1 09 


way  from  Ephraim  to  Jerusalem. — His  jour- 
ney took  form  of  festal  procession. — Full  of 
interesting  incidents. — Commencement  inau- 
gurated by  this  miracle. — Regard  procession 
in  three  aspects,  and  consider : — 

I.  What  it  signifies. — It  was  Christ's 
ratification  of  His  people's  Messianic  hopes. 
Previously  shunned  publicity;  hour  not  come. 
— Now  case  altered;  Prophet  begins  journey 
to  Holy  City. — Appeal  of  Bartimeus. — Pleas- 
ant news  for  sinner,  "  Jesus  passeth  by." — 
Times  when  Jesus  places  Himself  within 
reach.— Yet  we  slight  such  opportunities,  say 
with  Jacob,  Gen.  xxviii :  i6.  But  if  we  felt 
guilt,  cry  like  Bartimeus. — Then  wrestle,  "  I 
will  not  let  thee  go." — Then  cry  find  sym- 
pathetic echo  in  God's  ear. — But  Bartimeus 
also  manifested  signal  faith. — Uses  Messianic 
title,  not  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth." — "  No  man 
say  Jesus  is  Lord  but  by  Holy  Ghost." — 
Matt,  xxi :  22.  O  that  we  had  this  faith. — 
Beggar's  cry  proclaims  the  character  of  pro- 
cession.— Jesus  does  not  check  it,  but  stops  to 
answer  it. — Draws  attention  to  character  now 
assumed. — Hint  lost  on  followers — see  entry 
to  Jerusalem. 

H.    How    THE   CROWD   REGARDED   IT. — VarioUS 

motives  actuated  followers. — Disciples  alone 
knew  real  object  of  journey. — Others  by  curi- 
osity, malignity,  ambition,  while  many  mere 
Passover  pilgrims. — All  acknowledged  Jesus 
as  leader ;  enthusiasm  excited.  Coronation 
procession  of  kings. — Elated  at  having  rec- 
ognized Messiah;  enforce  His  claims  on 
polished  citizens  of  Capital. — Beggar's  cry 
jarred:  "hold  thy  peace." — This  view  of 
Christ's  progress  repeats  itself. — The  Church 
follows  in  Master's  train. — But  mistake  char- 
acter of  progress,  points  of  royal  progress. — 
Forget    king    calls    for    "  broken    hearts   and 


contrite  spirits." — Illustrate.  False  ecclesias- 
ticism  and  ritualism  act  on  consciences  as 
crowd  on  Bartimeus. — Awakened  sinner  re- 
ferred to  miserable  substitute  for  living 
Christ. — But  these  not  the  only  hindrances. — 
Our  own  hearts ;  worldly  friends. — Tempta- 
tions without  combine  with  solicitations 
within  to  stifle  the  cry : — 

"  What  various  hindrances  we  meet, 
In  coming  to  the  mercy  seat ; 
Yet,  who  that  knows  the  worth  of  prayer. 
But  wishes  to  be  often  there." 

For  there  find  "  Son  of  David  " 

III.  How  Christ  Himself  treated  it. — As 
a  journey  of  redemption  for  awakened  sin- 
ners. Thankful  for  difference  between  Christ's 
estimate  of  human  misery  and  His  servants. 
— Tho  journey  important,  and  "  straitened,'' 
yet  stops. — Touch  of  nature  in  fickleness  of 
crowd. — Wants  no  friendly  hand,  for  voice 
brings. — As  beggar  clutched  garment,  now  as 
sinner  throws  it  away. — Thanks,  Bartimeus, 
for  this  lesson. — Hear  Christ's  voice  in  word. 
— Fling  aside  garments  of  self-righteousness. 

"Just  as  I   am,  poor,   wretched,   blind; 
Sight,  riches,  healing  of  the  mind; 
Yea,  all  I  need  in  Thee  to  find, 
O  Lamb  of  God  I  come." 

V.  51.  Why  put  question. — How  many  sup- 
pliants would  be  confused  by  such  a  question ; 
no  clear  idea  of  want. — But  not  so  here ; 
come  then  and  you  will  receive  answer.  V. 
52.  Now  procession  sweeps  onward. — Now 
see  true  significance,  since  outset  thus  signal- 
ized.— Spiritual  sight  needed  for  intelligent 
following  of  Jesus. — H.  A.  C.  Y. 


CHRIST'S  ENTRANCE  INTO  JERUSALEM 

By  J.  C.  Hare,  D.D. 

Much  people  that  were  come  to  the  feast,  when  they  heard  that  Jesus  was  coming  to  Jerusa- 
lem, took  branches  of  palm  trees  and  went  forth  to  meet  him,  etc. — John  xii:  12,  13 


I.  We,  too,  like  the  people  in  the  text, 
should  go  forth  to  meet  our  Savior,  whenever 
H(  comes  to  us.  So  we  would  go  forth  to 
meet  Him,  some  may  perhaps  be  thinking,  if 
He  would  indeed  come  to  us,  as  He  came  to 
Jerusalem,  in  the  body,  that  our  eyes  might 
see  Him,  and  that  our  ears  might  hear  His 
words  so  full  of  grace  and  truth.  But  we 
should  remember,  that  if  Jesus  Christ  were 
abiding  at  this  day  upon  earth,  He  could  only 
be  in  one  place  at  one  time.  If  He  were 
dwelling  here  with  you,  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  would  be  without  Him.  But  now  that 
He  is  in  Heaven,  He  can  be  in  all  places  at  all 
times,  just  as  the  sun  is  not  only  with  you  in 
your  garden,  but  quite  as  much  with  your 
neighbor  in  his  corn-field,  and  with  the  sheep 
on  the  hills,  and  with  the  sailors  on  the  broad 
sea. 

II.  But  how  are  we  to  know  when  Christ 
is  coming  to  us?  If  He  does  not  come  to 
us  in  the  body,  how  and  in  what  docs  He 


come?  In  everything,  if  you  will  but  believe 
it,  sin  alone  excepted.  If  we  did  but  behold 
the  hand  that  brings  all  our  blessings  to  us, 
if  we  saw  how  they  are  brought  to  us  by  Him 
who  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  they 
would  become  doubly,  nay  tenfold  more  lovely 
and  precious,  from  the  light  of  His  love  shi- 
ning upon  them.  You  know  what  a  difference 
it  makes  in  the  brightness  and  beauty  of 
everything  in  the  world,  when  the  sun  is  shi- 
ning upon  it — how  cold  and  cheerless  earth, 
sea,  and  sky  would  be  without  the  sun — what 
freshness  and  gladness  beam  from  them  as 
soon  as  they  are  bathed  in  its  light ;  such,  so 
great,  yea,  still  greater  is  the  difference  which 
it  makes  in  the  whole  color  and  aspect  of  our 
lives,  u  we  look  at  the  events  which  befall  us, 
as  ordained  and  sent  to  us  by  the  love  of  our 
heavenly  Lord  and  Savior.  In  every  dis- 
pensation and  visitation  of  life,  Christ  comes 
to  us,  sin  alone  excepted.  He  came,  not  to 
conquer  our  great  enemy  once  for  all,  but  in 


no 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


order  that  He  might  be  continually  with  us, 
with  every  one  who  believes  in  Him,  stand- 
ing by  our  side  whenever  we  are  attacked, 
strengthening  our  arms,  nerving  our  hearts, 
bidding  us  to  be  of  good  courage,  for  that  the 


enemy  has  already  been  conquered ;  bidding 
us  lift  up  our  souls  to  heaven,  for  that  He  has 
gained  us  sure  inheritance,  if  we  will  but 
strive  to  make  it  sure  in  the  kingdom  of  His 
Eternal  Father — S.  B.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  119 


CHRIST'S  ENTRY  INTO  JERUSALEM 

Outlines  of  a  sermon  by  George  H.  Smyth  to  the  children  in  the  House  of 

Refuge,  New  York. 

Much  people  that  were  come  to  the  feast    ...     took  branches  of  the  palm-trees,  and  went 
forth  to  meet  him,  and  cried  Hosanna,  etc. — John  xii:  12,  13 


Christ  was  now  approaching  the  end  of  His 
ministry.  His  fame  had,  for  three  years, 
spread  far  and  wide;  great  crowds  went  out 
of  the  city  to  meet  Him.  Some  threw  their 
garments  in  the  way — as  a  young  nobleman 
once  threw  down  his  cloak,  when  the  road 
was  muddy,  for  Queen  Elizabeth  to  walk 
over.  Others  cut  down  branches  and  cast 
them  in  His  way,  just  as  the  children  of  our 
own  country  used  to  strew  tiowers  in  the  way 
where  Washington  was  to  pass.  Palm  was 
an  emblem  of  joy,  peace,  and  victory,  and  was, 
therefore,  appropriately  used  on  this  occasion. 

This  scene  in  the  life  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
teaches : 

(i)  That  all  that  God  has  said  in  His  Word 
will  come  true.  Five  hundred  years  before, 
this  entry  of  Christ  into  Jerusalem  was  pre- 
dicted and  minutely  described  by  the  prophet 
Zechariah.  (Seeixrg.)  (2)  The  fulfilment 
of  prophecies  that  are  past  is  a  sure  guaranty 
of  the  fulfilment  of  those  that  are  future. 
"  I,  the  Lord,  have  spoken  it,  and  will  do  it." 
Read  in  your  Bibles  what  has  been  said  about 
the  coming,  rejection,  and  crucifixion  of 
Christ;  about  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
of  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Tyre,  and  Sidon;  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jews,  and  see  how  surely 
it  has  all  come  to  pass,  and  learn  from  it  all : 
(3)  A  lesson  of  trust  in  God — in  all  that  He 
says  in  His  Word,  concerning  you.  Believe 
God  when  He  says  that  you  are  a  sinner, 
*'  For  all  have  sinned  " — "  None  righteous, 
no,  not  one."     And  when,  believing  this,  and 


feeling  it,  and  in  deep  sorrow  for  sin,  you 
ask,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?"  "Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt 
be  saved,"  there  and  then  saved  when  you 
believe.  (4)  A  lesson  of  human  weakness. 
The  crowd  that  now  shouted,  "  Hosanna  to 
the  Son  of  David,"  four  days  after  cried, 
"  Crucify  him,"  "  Away  with  this  fellow  and 
give  us  instead  the  murderer  Barabbas."  Oh ! 
how  we  need  to  offer  the  prayer  we  so  often 
sing,  carelessly,  I  fear : 

"  Savior,  more  than  life  to  me, 
I  am  clinging,  clinging  close  to  Thee; 
Let  Thy  precious  blood  applied. 
Keep  me  ever,  ever  near  Thy  side." 

(S)  We  should  best  celebrate  this  day  by 
receiving  Christ  gladly  into  our  hearts.  That 
day  when  He  entered  the  city  He  went  into 
the  temple  and  cleansed  it.  Let  Him  come 
in  and  cleanse  our  hearts.  He  is  just  outside 
now,  waiting  to  come  in.  Listen !  "  Behold, 
I  stand  at  the  door,  and  knock ;  if  any  man 
hear  my  voice,  and  open  the  door,  I  will  come 
in  to  him  and  will  sup  with  him  and  he  with 
me." 

Christ  wept  over  Jerusalem — He  is  yearn- 
ing over  you  just  now. 

(The  speaker  closed  with  Mr.  Moody's 
story  of  Mr.  Dorset,  the  missionary  of  Lon- 
don, about  the  dying  young  prodigal,  who 
had  been  expelled  from  his  father's  house. 
See  Moody's  sermon  in  Glad  Tidings,  page 
72.)— H.  R. 


CHRIST  IS  KING 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


John  xviii:  37 


Circumstances  of  His  arraignment.— 
Charged  with  plotting  against  Caesar.  Yet  it 
was  just  because  He  would  not  do  so  that  they 
hated  Him.  But  He  did  constantly  claim  to 
be  King.  It  was  not  a  figurative  expression 
but  literal.  They  understood  Him  to  speak 
literally:  and  when  He  entered  Jerusalem 
in  triumph.  He  should  have  corrected  if  not 
so.  He  was  executed  on  the  ground  of  that 
assumption. 


L  Christ  is  a  King.  He  claims  it — if  not 
fool  or  knave.  He  is  a  King.  Over  that 
"  Kingdom  of  God  " — that  Society  "  called  " 
— that  nation  in  the  nations. 

n.  In  that  "  Kingdom  of  God  "  he  does 
ALL  that  the  old  Jewish  Ktngs  did.  But 
His  Kingdom  was  not  in  the  Jewish  nation — 
nor  in  the  Roman  Empire.  The  thought  that 
it  was,  was  their  mistake. 

I.  He    refused   to    forbid    the   payment    of 


PALM  SUNDAY 


III 


Caesar's  tax — not  concerned  about  Jewish  in- 
dependence— nor  Roman  rule — but  He  created 
a  people — and  maintained  the  supremacy  of 
that  Kingdom  and  takes  tribute  from  the 
world. 

2.  He  is  Supreme  Judge — like  old  Jewish 
Kings. 

3.  He  is  leader  of  forces — Generalissimo — 
like  the  old  Hebrew  Kings.— All  the  seekers 
after  truth  rally  to  Jesus. 

III.  But  His  Kingdom  is  unsecular. 

1.  Did  not  reach  His  throne  like  other 
Kings. 

2.  Does  not  support  His  throne  like  them. 


3.  Its  objects,  nature  and  tendency  not 
worldly,  (a)  His  disciples  did  not  fight  for 
Him.     (b)   He  forbade  it. 

IV.  Its  Nature  shown  in  the  text.  He 
came  to  bear  witness  to  the  Truth.  He  re- 
vealed the  Truth.  His  royal  power  lay  in 
His  having  the  whole  Truth.  His  martyr- 
dom for  truth. 

He  thus  plants  Himself:  (i)  In  the  intel- 
lect.    (2)  In  the  heart  of  man. 

And  so  His  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world. 
It  is  everlasting.  Each  man  a  king  as  he 
holds  to  the  truth. 


JESUS,  THE  KING 

By  J.  Vaughan,  D.D. 

Pilate  therefore  said  unto  him,  Art  thou  a  king,  then?    Jesus  answered,  Thou  say  est  that  I 

am,  a  king,  etc. — John  xviii:  j/ 


It  was  not  as  the  Son  of  God  that  Jesus 
said  this,  but  as  the  Son  of  man.  It  would 
have  been  nothing  that  the  second  Person  in 
the  Blessed  Trinity  should  have  been  a  King; 
of  course  He  was,  and  much  more  than  a 
King.  But  that  poor,  weak,  despised  man, 
that  was  standing  there  before  Pontius  Pi- 
late, that  was  a  King ;  and  all  Scripture  con- 
firms it.  It  was  the  manhood  of  Christ  that 
was  there.  This  is  the  marvel,  and  here  is 
the  comfort. 

I.  The  subjugation  of  the  universe  to  the 
King  Christ  is  now  going  on,  and  it  is  very 
gradual ;  we  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under 
Him.  Little  by  little  it  is  extending  itself: 
"  One  of  a  city,  ten  of  a  family.''  The  in- 
crease will  grow  rapid  and  immense.  When 
He  comes  again,  at  once  to  Him  every  knee 
shall  bow  and  every  tongue  shall  swear : 
"  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy 
that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death."  Grand 
and  awful !  rather  to  be  felt,  than  under- 
stood ;  where  our  little  thoughts  drift  and 
drift  for  ever,  on  an  ocean  without  a  shore. 


II.  We  pray :  "  Thy  kingdom  come."  How 
much  of  that  rich  prayer  is  yet  answered? 
how  much  are  we  waiting  for?  Three  things 
it  means :  Thy  kingdom  in  my  heart ;  Thy 
kingdom  over  all  the  nations ;  Thy  kingdom 
in  the  Second  Advent,  (i)  The  throne  of 
God  is  set  up  in  me.  Sin  is  there,  but  now 
sin  is  only  a  rebel.  It  does  not  reign  as  it 
once  did.  (2)  The  second;  it  is  being  ac- 
complished, and  God  bless  the  missions.  (3) 
The  third ;  we  long  and  look  for  it  with  out- 
stretched neck,  and  hail  each  gleam  on  the 
horizon. 

III.  When  you  go  to  this  King  in  prayer, 
do  not  stint  yourselves  before  His  throne. 
Seek  regal  bounties.  Ask  for  largesses 
worthy  of  a  king.  Not  after  your  own  little 
measure,  but  after  His,  according  to  that 
great  name,  which  is  above  every  name  that 
is  named  in  earth  or  heaven  ;  and  prove  Him, 
on  His  heavenly  throne,  whether  He  will  not 
open  now  the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour 
a  blessing  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it. — S.  B.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  269. 


CHRIST  OUR  KING 

For  this  Melchizedek,  king  of  Salem,  priest  of  the  most  high  God,  etc. — Heh.  vii:  1-4 


All  sorts  of  grotesque  theories  have  been 
advanced  about  Melchizedek.  He  was  not  at 
all  a  supernatural  person,  but  merely  a 
Canaanitish  king  who  united  in  himself  the 
kingly  and  priestly  offices.  Tho  not  one  of 
the  chosen  people,  he  was  a  worshiper  of 
the  true  God. 

His  appearance  was  sudden  and  momen- 
tary. As  Abraham  was  returning  from  his 
battle  with  the  five  kings,  he  was  met  by 
Melchizedek,  before  whom  he  made  obei- 
sance, receiving  a  blessing  and  "  paying  tithes 
of  all."  In  this  shadowy  figure,  so  dimly 
and  briefly  outlined,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 


to  the  Hebrews  finds  a  suitable  illustration 
of  the  royal  priesthood  of  Jesus.  He  de- 
scribes him  as  "  without  father,  without 
mother,  without  descent,  having  neither  be- 
ginning of  days  nor  end  of  life."  This  is 
rhetorically  correct,  since  the  narrative  gives 
none  of  these  particulars.  The  point  which 
the  Apostle  makes  is  this :  "  Christ  is  not  a 
priest  of  the  Aaronic  order,  but  rather  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedek — that  singular 
priest-king  who  appears  for  a  moment  and 
is  gone,  without  lineage  or  posterity,  unborn 
and  undying,  so  far  as  the  vision  goes." 
It  is  impossible  to  consider  the  Kingship  of 


112 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Jesus  without  reference  to  His  priestly  office 
also.  His  miter  is  His  diadem.  His  crown 
of  glory  is  His  crown  of  thorns.  Like  Mel- 
chizedek,  He  combines  both  offices  in  Him- 
self. Observe  His  superiority  to  the  Aaronic 
priests. 

I.  He  stands  like  Melchizedek,  soli- 
tary AND  ALONE.  Since  the  entrance  of 
Christ  on  the  pontifical  office,  there  can  be  no 
other  priest.  No  man  must  presume  to  usurp 
or  supplement  His  function  as  Mediator  be- 
tween the  sinner  and  God.  "  What  can  I  do 
for  you?"  asked  a  passer-by  of  Diogenes  in 
his  tub.  "Nothing,"  was  the  reply;  "only 
stand  out  of  my  light." 

H.  His  priestly  work  is  effective.  He 
offered  Himself  on  Calvary,  a  sacrifice  "  once 
for  all."  There  can  be  thenceforth  no  more 
sacrifice  for  sin.  All  the  lambs  and  bullocks 
and  turtle-doves  of  the  ceremonial  economy 
find  their  fulfilment  in  Christ.  These  were 
but  foregleams  of  Him.  To  say  that  our  sac- 
rament is  a  "  sacrifice  "  is  to  contravene  the 
whole  philosophy  of  the  Gospel.  The  "  ele- 
vation of  the  Mass "  is  nineteen  centuries 
out  of  date. 


HL  Christ  is  a  priest  forever.  Other 
priests  have  come  and  gone;  one  has  fol- 
lowed another ;  but  Christ  abideth  always. 
He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us. 
Heb.  vii :  25. 

IV.  He  is  a  royal  priest.  Here  is  the 
chief  aptness  of  the  similitude.  Melchize- 
dek was  called  "  King  of  Righteousness  and 
King  of  Peace."  Christ  is  King  over  all  and 
blessed  forever,  (i)  His  priesthood  is  made 
effective  by  His  Kingship.  Darius  would 
have  delivered  Daniel  from  the  den  of  lions 
had  it  been  possible ;  our  King  makes  our 
deliverance  possible  by  His  sacrifice  for  us. 
(2)  He  is  worthy  of  loyal  service  and  com- 
plete surrender;  as  Melchizedek  received  of 
Abraham  "  tithes  of  all."  Nothing  that  we 
have  is  too  good  for  Christ.  All  our  gold  and 
myrrh  and  frankincense  must  be  laid  before 
His  feet.  (3)  In  His  blessing  is  fulness  of 
life.  Abraham  did  not  disdain  to  receive  the 
benediction  of  Melchizedek.  Our  Lord  stands 
ready  always  to  say  to  all  who  will  submit 
themselves  to  His  sovereignty,  "  Peace  be 
unto  you." — H.  R. 


THE  THRONE  AND  THE  RAINBOW 


By  C.  S.  Robinson,  D.D. 

And  he  that  sat  was  to  look  upon  like  a  jasper  and  a  sardine  stone:   and  there  was  a  rainbow 
round  about  the  throne,  in  sight  like  unto  an  emerald. — Rev.  iv:  3 


Look — 

I.  At  this  wonderful  throne. — Of  course 
we  understand  such  a  thing  to  be  the  symbol 
of  government,  of  the  Divine  government 
in  the  universe,  for  that  Being  on  the  seat 
of  royalty  is  God.  But  what  do  the  other 
emblems  mean?  The  whole  chapter  seems 
to  glitter  with  a  blaze  of  precious  jewels, 
some  of  them  with  strange  names,  (i) 
The  exalted  monarch  is  said  to  be  like 
a  jasper  and  a  sardine  stone.  I  find  the 
soberest  commentators  agreed  in  declaring 
that  what  is  here  called  jasper  must  be  the 
diamond,  and  the  sardine  is  only  what  we 
call  a  carnelian,  that  is,  a  flesh-colored  gem 
in  hue,  as  the  name  signifies.  And  hence 
these  expositors  would  have  us  believe  that 
this  personage,  with  a  Divine  brightness  and 
a  human  expression,  is  none  other  than  the 
Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  throne.  (2)  The 
attendants.  The  very  nobles  are  crowned, 
and  wear  royal  raiment;  their  ordinary  seats 
are  thrones.     (3)    This  vision  teaches  that 


earth  can  always  and  everywhere  be  seen 
from  heaven.  (4)  Observe  once  more,  this 
is  an  unimpeachable  government.  These 
living  creatures  are  worshiping  while  watch- 
ing. 

II.  The  rainbow. — This  represents  a  cove- 
nant, as  the  other  represented  a  rule,  (i) 
The  ancient  covenant  has  in  it  the  promise 
of  the  covenant  of  grace.  (2)  Its  appear- 
ance just  here  in  John's  vision  is  welcomed 
more  for  its  graciousness  than  for  its  an- 
tiquity. (3)  Observe  how  well  this  vision 
teaches  us  that  God's  covenant  is  completed 
This  rainbow  is  a  circlet ;  it  goes  around 
the  throne.  (4)  The  covenant  is  abiding; 
it  will  stand  for  ever.  (5)  This  covenant  is 
to  each  of  us  individual  and  personal. 

HI.  Note  the  collocation  of  the  two 
symbols. —  (i)  God's  promise  surrounds 
God's  majesty;  (2)  God's  grace  surrounds 
God's  justice;  (3)  God's  love  surrounds 
God's  power ;  (4)  God's  glory  surrounds 
God's  children. — S.  B.,  vol.  xii.,  p.  291. 


PALM  SUNDAY 


113 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND^  ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


CHRIST,  The  Coining  of.— I.  The  Earth 

IS     MORE    INTERESTING    SINCE    ChRIST    CAME. — 

He  comes  "  meek."  He  had  but  one  triumph. 
And  there  He  w-as  sitting  on  the  colt  of  an 
ass.  Jesus  knew  that  poor  forlorn  thing. 
Meekness  consistent  with  power — the  meek 
Dawn — the  meek  Spring. 

11.  He  Comes  a  Kinsman. — "  Son  of 
David  "  a  royal — but  also  a  human  title.  In 
John  xiv :  18  He  says,  "  I  will  not  leave  you 
orphans;  I  will  come  again." 

HI.  He  Comes  in  the  Name  of  Jehovah. 
— In  the  spirit  and  poicer  of  Jehovah.  His  be- 
nignity and  miracles  show  us  what  our  God 
is. 

IV.  He  Comes  a  King. — He  comes  to  His 
poor.  Not  to  every  poor  man,  not  man  who 
is  poor  by  drink  or  crime.  Especially  those 
who  are  poor  because  of  their  sacrifices  for 
others. — Charles  F.  Deems. 

CHRIST,  The  Enthroned.— In  the  beauti- 
ful cathedral  of  Orvieto,  among  its  bril- 
liantly decorated  ornaments  of  sculptures 
and  paintings,  is  one  of  Fra  Angelico's 
greatest  works,  "  Christ  Enthroned."  By  his 
left  hand  he  steadies  the  globe.  His  right  hand 
is  raised  in  divine  supremacy.  But  in  that 
hand  is  the  print  of  the  nail.  Ah,  it  is  the 
v/ounded  hand  that  is  so  raised ;  it  is  by  that 
hand  He  controls  the  world!  Ah,  it  was  by 
His  sufferings  that  He  became  the  enthroned 
Christ.  His  earthly  crown  was  the  crown  of 
thorns.  And  our  beloved  who  have  gained 
their  crowns — kings  and  priests  and  con- 
querors they — owe  their  victory  to  His  cross 
alone.  The  disciple  is  not  above  his  Master ; 
but  every  one  when  he  is  perfected  shall  be 
as  his  Master.  Sharing  with  Him  labor  and 
sacrifice,  they  are  enthroned  with  Him.  "  Ye 
are  they  that  have  continued  with  me  in 
my  trials  ;  and  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom, 
even  as  my  Father  appointed  unto  me,  that 
ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  my  table  in  my  king- 
dom ;   and  ye  shall  sit  on  thrones." 

With  the  glorious  company  of  the  apostles, 
the  goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets,  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs,  they  lift  their  praise  to 
Him  who  loved  them  and  washed  them  from 
their  sins  by  His  blood.  If  now  they  could 
speak  to  us  from  their  illuminated  homes, 
they  would  admonish  us  to  be  faithful  unto 
death,  and  would  assure  us  of  the  crown 
of  life,  of  which  they  well  know,  but  concern- 
ing which  we  vaguely  wonder. — Burdett 
Hart. 

CHRIST,  The  Enthusiasm  for. — We  are 

accustomed  to  say  that  this  same  multitude, 
who  on  Sunday  shouted  Hosanna,  cried 
"  Crucify  him !  "  on  the  following  Friday ; 
that  "  the  whole  enthusiasm  of  the  multitude 
at  the  end  is  nothing  more  than  the  last  up- 
streaming  brilliancy  of  an  evening  sun,  be- 
fore it  vanishes  beneath  the  horizon."  But 
Richard  Glover  is  doubtless  nearer  the  truth 


when  he  says,  "  The  whole  of  that  enthusi- 
asm was  not  excitement.  If  most  of  the 
gladsome  voices  were  silenced  by  the  cross, 
very  few,  if  any  of  them,  took  up  the  other 
cry,  '  Crucify  him !  '  Doubtless  many  of 
those  who  sang  Hosanna  that  day,  asked  at 
Pentecost,  '  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  ' 
and  were  among  the  first  believers.  In  times 
of  great  religious  excitement  all  emotion  is 
not  spiritual,  but  much  of  it  is  good  and 
will  endure."  "  This  story,"  says  Dr.  Robin- 
son, "  proves  Christ's  fitness  to  evoke  re- 
ligious enthusiasm.  It  is  a  frightful  mistake 
to  suppose,  and  a  wilful  perversion  to  assert, 
that  Christianity  as  a  scheme  of  faith  is  tame, 
insipid,  and  lifeless."  There  never  has  been 
anything  on  God's  earth  so  adapted  to  kin- 
dle all  the  enthusiasm  of  the  soul,  and  to 
make  it  an  enduring  flame.  Blessed  are  they 
who  have  felt  and  continue  to  feel  a  deep, 
abiding,  glowing  enthusiasm  for  Christ  and 
His  Gospel.  As  Christ  said  to  the  Pharisees 
at  this  time  (Luke  xix.40)  "  If  these  should 
hold  their  peace,  the  very  stones  would  im- 
mediately cry  out."  Only  stony  or  dead 
hearts  never  feel  enthusiasm  for  Christ. — 
P. 

END,  The  Beginning  of  the.— We  have 
now  reached  the  most  picturesque  event  of 
our  Savior's  life.  The  Passover  rapidly  ap- 
proached. The  roads  from  all  quarters  were 
crowded  with  the  assembling  worshipers. 
Not  only  the  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Palestine,  but  many  foreign  Jews  thronged 
from  every  quarter, — from  Babylon,  Arabia, 
Egypt,  from  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  Italy, 
probably  even  from  Gaul  and  Spain. — Mil- 
man.  The  question  uppermost  in  the  minds 
of  them  all  was,  "  Can  this  Nazarene  be  the 
Messiah?"  Our  lesson  opens  with  the  first 
day  of  Christ's  last  week  of  earthly  life,  and 
"  shows  to  what  a  pitch  of  expectation  and 
enthusiasm  the  people  were  aroused." — P. 

ENTRY,  A  Triumphal.— When  (at  the 
close  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war)  the  Ger- 
man army  entered  Paris,  they  had  a  regu- 
lar triumphal  procession,  and  the  world  ad- 
mired the  splendor  of  their  achievements. 
The  papers  were  full  of  pictures  of  that 
event,  and  German  artists  have  represented 
it  again  and  again  on  canvas.  But  there 
were  many  things  about  that  triumphal  en- 
try that  were  not  dwelt  upon  by  writers  or 
painters.  Behind  that  army  what  a  sea  of 
wo  surged !  How  many  dead  strewed  the 
way,  and  how  many  burned  villages  and 
towns  marked  their  progress !  How  many 
widows  and  orphans  were  the  consequence 
of  that  march,  and,  to  this  day,  how  much 
of  poverty  and  distress  bears  witness  to  the 
dreadful  progress  of  the  German  armies ! 
Yes,  the  grandeur  of  the  scene,  as  the  Ger- 
man emperor  marched  past  the  triumphal  arch 
on  the  Chamos  Elysees,  was  more  than  coun- 


114 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


terbalanced  by  the  bloodshed  and  havoc  that 
lay  behind  him.  This  was  a  triumphal  entry 
of  an  earthly  monarch,  and  it  is  the  kind  of 
march  to  which  the  world  has  been  accus- 
tomed ever  since  the  days  of  the  Roman 
emperors.  What  a  different  kind  of  a  trium- 
phal entry  is  that  of  which  we  read  to-day. 
— Rev.  A.  F.  Schauffler,  D.D. 

GARMENTS  IN  THE  WAY.— At  that 
time  (1834),  when  some  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Bethlehem,  who  had  participated  in  a 
rebellion  (against  the  Turkish  government) 
were  already  imprisoned,  and  all  were  in 
deep  distress,  Mr.  Farrar,  then  English  con- 
sul at  Damascus,  was  on  a  visit  to  Jerusalem, 
and  rode  out  with  Mr.  Nicolayson  to  Solo- 
mon's Pools.  On  their  return,  as  they  made 
the  ascent  to  enter  Bethlehem,  hundreds  of 
people,  male  and  female,  met  them,  imploring 
the  consul  to  interfere  in  their  behalf,  and 
afford  them  his  protection,  and  all  at  once, 
by  a  sort  of  simultaneous  movement,  they 
spread  their  garments  in  the  way  before  the 
horse?. — Dr.  Edward  Robinson. 

JESUS,  The  King.—"  Thus  (by  the  use  of 

the  three  languages  of  the  title  on  the  cross  of 
Jesus)  to  power  (Latin),  to  culture  (Greek), 
and  to  piety  (Hebrew),  was  the  sovereignty 
of  Jesus  declared,  and  it  is  still  declared  by 
means  of  such  language.  Power,  culture,  and 
piety,  in  their  noblest  forms,  pay  homage  at 
the  feet  of  Jesus." — J.  R.  Vincent.  Thus 
in  the  chief  tongues  of  men  who  proclaimed 
in  jest  what  became  a  living  truth, — that 
Jesus  is  king :  the  king  to  whom  all  nations 
and  peoples  should  yield  allegiance.  "  He 
is  a  king  with  many  crowns ;  He  is  a  king  in 
the  religious  sphere,  the  king  of  salvation, 
holiness,  love ;  He  is  king  in  the  realm  of 
culture ;  the  treasures  of  art,  of  song,  of 
literature,  of  philosophy  belong  to  Him ;  He 
is  to  be  king  in  the  political  sphere,  in  trade, 
commerce,  and  all  the  activities  of  men." 
And  it  is  through  the  crucifixion  that  Jesus 
becomes  king,  and  founds  His  kingdom,  and 
draws  the  hearts  of  men  to  be  His  loyal  sub- 
jects.— P. 

JESUS,  The  Prince  of  Peace.— The  tri- 
umph on  this  day  was  the  triumph  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  In  its  methods  :  The  king- 
dom of  Christ  is  one  of  moral  influences. 
"Truth  is  His  scepter;  love,  His  force.  He 
not  only  dispenses  with,  but  disowns,  all 
force.  Christ's  kingdom  has  been  extended 
to  every  land,  and  has  only  been  hindered  by 
the  force  sometimes  used  to  extend  or  to  se- 
cure it.  Meet  error  with  truth,  injustice  with 
honor,  selfishness  with  love,  and  you  will  un- 
derstand, by  attaining,  something  of  that  meek 
majesty  of  Christ  which  has  proved  so  om- 
nipotent."— R.  Glover.  In  its  results :  Jesus 
has  come  to  bring  peace  into  all  the  world  by 
righteousness.  His  reign  will  bring  peace 
into  the  soul,  now  a  troubled  seat  of  war,  into 
the  community  so  often  arrayed  in  contend- 
ing factions ;  between  nations,  and  every- 
where ;  peace,  which  passes  understanding, 
and  which  flows  like  a  river. — P. 

JESUS,  The  Prince  of  Peace. — He 
mounted,  that  He  might  enter  the  holy  city 


with  all  the  significance  of  a  triumph.  He 
would  not  enter  it,  indeed,  like  a  haughty 
warrior  on  His  steed.  He  was  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  Neither  would  He  enter  it  in  a  be- 
dazzlement  of  purple  and  pomp  and  pagean- 
try. He  was  the  meek  and  lowly  One.  And 
yet  He  was  a  Conqueror  and  a  King.  All  the 
ideas  that  were  incarnated  in  His  career,  and 
emblazoned  in  His  final  sufferings  and  death 
and  resurrection,  are  destined  to  be  triumph- 
ant.— MoRisoN.  His  riding  in  this  triumphal 
procession  was  an  object  lesson,  a  living 
parable,  setting  forth  the  fact  that  He  was  a 
king;  that  His  kingdom  was  at  hand;  and 
also  "  the  spiritual  peculiarities  and  dignities 
and  glory  of  the  reign  of  Christ.  It  is  a 
reign  of  peace,  humility,  and  meekness,  be- 
cause of  love." — P.  Palm  Sunday  also  pre- 
figured the  entire  history  of  the  church  here 
below.  The  history  of  the  church  is  the 
march  of  the  glorified  Lord  Jesus  across 
continents  and  centuries.  He  advances  on 
the  earth  as  on  the  road  to  Jerusalem,  with 
the  calm  majesty  of  a  sovereign;  He  takes 
possession  of  things  and  of  men ;  He  makes 
them  His  instruments  and  His  servants,  just 
as  on  Palm  Sunday  He  used  the  ass  which 
did  not  belong  to  Him,  and  drew  forth  a 
glorious  homage  from  all  those  mouths 
v/hich  on  that  day  had  no  voice  for  Him. 
Saluted  by  the  songs  of  all  the  churches  in 
all  the  countries  where  His  name  is  known, 
advancing  from  nation  to  nation.  He  marches 
toward  the  final  domination  of  the  whole 
world. — Prof.   Frederic   Godet. 

MESSIAH,  Jesus  Presents  Himself  as 
the. — The  purpose  of  this  riding  into  Jerusa- 
lem was  to  set  forth,  as  in  a  living  parable, 
that  He  was  the  Messiah,  the  expected  king, 
and  to  present  Himself  to  the  Jews  for  their 
acceptance.  It  was  the  final  offer  to  those  who 
had  rejected  Him  as  a  teacher,  that  they  might 
accept  Him  as  the  Messiah,  and  save  them- 
selves and  their  nation  from  destruction, 
(i)  He  came  as  a  kipg,  as  God's  ambassador, 
kingly  as  God  is  kingly,  in  spirit,  in  moral 
exaltation,  seeking  willing  subjects,  desiring 
to  do  only  good,  and  to  destroy  only  incor- 
rigible evil.  (2)  He  came  in  accordance  with 
prophecy  uttered  centuries  before  (Isa.  Ixii : 
II  ;  Zech.  ix  :  9).  (3)  He  came  as  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  the  riding  on  an  ass  being  a  symbol 
of  peace,  as  riding  on  a  horse  was  the  symbol 
of  war.  His  kingdom  will  be  one  of  peace 
through  righteousness, — peace  with  God, 
peace  with  the  laws  of  the  universe,  peace 
with  one  another,  peace  of  conscience,  peace 
among  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul, — peace 
that  passeth  understanding,  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory. — P. 

PALM-TREE,  Use  of  the.— The  palm- 
tree,  from  its  erect  and  noble  growth  and  its 
heavenward  direction,  is  used  in  Psalm  xcii : 
12,  as  an  illustration  of  the  righteous.  Its 
branches  are  also  used  as  emblems  of  victory 
or  triumph.  In  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the 
great  multitude  who  stood  before  the  thone 
and  before  the  Lamb,  are  represented  as 
"  clothed  with  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their 
hands.'— F.  II. 


PALM  SUNDAY 


115 


PEACE,  The  Prince  of.— I.  The  Prince 
OF  Peace  triumphs  over  Evil  Men. — Note 
the  power  of  Jesus ;  the  power  of  one  doing 
right;  the  weakness  of  those  in  the  wrong. 
Apply  to  the  evils  that  need  to  be  cleansed 
from  the  heart  and  from  the  church. 

Illustration.  Remember  the  state  of  the 
great  cathedral  of  London,  as  painted  in  the 
literature  of  Elizabeth  and  James,  when  mules 
and  horses  laden  with  market  produce  were 
led  through  St.  Paul's  as  a  matter  of  every- 
day occurrence,  and  bargains  were  struck 
there,  and  burglaries  planned,  and  servants 
hired,  and  profligate  assignations  made  and 
kept. — Ellicott. 

II.  The  Prince  of  Peace  triumphs  over 
Sorrow  and  Disease  (ver.  14).  These  the 
works  that  belong  to  the  house  of  prayer. 
God  is  ever  working  them  in  and  through 
cleansed  hearts  and  cleansed  churches. 

III.  The  Prince  of  Peace  and  Children's 
Praise  (vers.  15,  16). 

POMPEY'S  TRIUMPH.— In  September, 
B.  c.  61,  about  ninety  years  before  Christ's 
triumphal  entry,  the  most  magnificent  tri- 
umph ever  seen  in  Rome  was  given  to  Pom- 
pey.  For  two  days  the  grand  procession  of 
trophies  from  every  land,  and  a  long  retinue 
of  captives,  moved  into  the  city  along  the 
Via  Sacra.  Brazen  tablets  were  carried,  on 
which  were  engraved  the  names  of  the  con- 
quered nations,  including  1,000  castles  and 
900  cities.  The  remarkable  circumstance  of 
the  celebration  was,  that  it  declared  him  con- 
queror of  the  whole  world. — P. 

PROCESSION,  The  Invisible.— If  Christ 
had  opened  the  eyes  of  those  looking  upon 
this  scene  as  the  eyes  of  Elisha's  servant 
were  opened,  so  that  they  might  see  the  in- 
visible, and  hear  the  inaudible,  no  pen  could 
picture  the  real  triumphal  procession.  They 
would  have  seen  the  vast  multitude  of  those 
whom  He  had  healed  and  comforted  and 
saved  from  sin,  Lazarus  and  Bartimeus,  the 
ten  lepers,  the  widow  of  Nain's  son,  the 
ruler's  daughter,  Peter's  mother-in-law,  a 
host  of  those  whom  He  had  raised  from  the 
dead,  those  from  whom  He  had  cast  out 
devils,  the  blind  He  had  made  to  see,  and  the 
lame  that  now  walked,  the  lepers  He  had 
cleansed,  those  who  had  been  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  their  sins  and  brought  into 
the  light  of  the  gospel.  There  would  join 
them  the  angels  who  sang  at  His  birth, 
Moses  and  Elijah,  who  appeared  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  and  the  twelve 
legions  of  angels  He  once  said  were  ready  at 
His  call.  Heaven  would  swiftly  have  emp- 
tied itself,  and  all  its  choirs  would  joyfully 
have  come  to  do  Him  honor,  and  sing  their 
songs  of  joy  over  many  sinners  brought  to 
repentance. — Peloubet. 

PROCESSION,     The    TriumphaL— Ma«. 

xxi:  8,  p.  "  And  a  very  great  multitude,  r.  v., 
most  of  the  multitude,  because  only  a  few 
could  find  branches.  The  crowds  came  from 
two  directions,  from  the  city  (John  xii :  12), 
and  crowds  of  pilgrims  from  all  parts 
thronging  into  the  city  by  the  Jericho  road. 
By    a    census    taken    in    the    time    of    Nero, 


it  was  ascertained  that  there  were  2,700,000 
Jews  present  at  the  Passover.  Being  visi- 
tors, they  would  have  abundant  leisure  for 
any  procession  or  excitement.  "  Spread  their 
garments."  The  loose  blankets  or  cloaks 
worn  over  the  tunic  or  shirt.  "  In  the  way." 
"  Thus  manifesting,  extemporizingly,  their 
high  idea  of  our  Lord.  It  was  customary,  in 
royal  processions,  to  spread  decorative  cloth, 
or  carpet,  upon  the  ground,  that  the  feet  of 
royalty  might  not  be  defiled,  or  that  dust 
might  not  arise." — James  Morison. 

QUEEN,  Only  One.— A  beekeeper,  expert 
in  knowledge  of  bees  and  their  habits,  says 
there  can  be  but  one  queen  to  a  colony,  and 
as  soon  as  the  first  queen  is  born  she  will 
go  around  to  the  other  queen  cells,  rip  them 
open  and  kill  the  about-to-be-born  queens 
just  as  fast  as  she  can.  It  is  thus  that  she 
disposes  of  all  possible  rivals.  Her  course 
meets  with  the  entire  approval  of  the  other 
bees;  in  fact,  if  two  queens  happen  to  be 
born  at  the  same  time,  the  bees  bring  them 
together  at  once  and  make  them  fight  until 
one  or  the  other  is  dead.  Two  queens  would 
be  worse  than  none  at  all.  If  the  queens 
are  disposed  to  tolerate  one  another  and  will 
not  fight  when  brought  together,  the  other 
bees  will  force  them  to  it,  and  they  are  ob- 
liged to  combat  for  supremacy.  Surely  a 
man  ought  to  be  as  wise  as  a  bee,  and  when- 
ever he  is,  he  knows  that  Christ's  word  is 
true,  that  "  no  man  can  serve  two  masters." 
— Selected. 

RALEIGH  AND  THE  QUEEN.— This 
was  somewhat  on  the  principle  that  actuated 
the  heart  of  young  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  when, 
on  Queen  Elizabeth  coming  to  a  miry  part 
of  the  road,  and  hesitating  for  an  instant 
how  to  step  across,  he  "  took  off  his  new 
plush  mantle,  and  spread  it  on  the  ground. 
Her  Majesty  trod  gently  over  the  fair  foot- 
cloth." — James  Morison. 

SORROW  OVER  THOSE  WHO  RE- 
FUSED TO  JOIN  IN  THE  TRIUMPH.— 
Luke  xix:4i-44.  One  touching  incident  is 
related  by  Luke  only.  As  the  procession 
began  to  descend  from  the  summit  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  the  glories  of  Jerusalem  in 
all  its  splendor  burst  upon  Jesus'  view. 
"  It  rose  terrace  upon  terrace,  a  city  of  pal- 
aces." "  If,"  says  Canon  Tristram,  "  the 
prospect  be  impressive  now,  what  must  it 
have  been  when  the  grand  colonnade  of 
Herod,  gleaming  with  white  marble,  ran 
along  the  southern  face  of  that  platform  for 
a  thousand  yards,  and  reaching  a  height  of 
two  hundred  feet?  Then,  too,  the  golden 
gate  showed  its  gorgeous  fagade ;  but  the 
dazzling  marble  and  gilding  of  Herod's  tem- 
ple dominated  over  all  else,  so  that  the  city 
seemed  built  for  the  temple,  not  the  temple 
for  the  city."  Here,  while  others  shouted, 
Jesus  wept  over  the  city,  for  the  sins  of  its 
people,  who,  in  rejecting  Him,  sealed  the  ruin 
of  the  city  and  the  nation.  "  He  was  cross- 
ing the  ground  on  which,  a  generation  later, 
the  tenth  Roman  legion  would  be  encamped, 
as  part  of  the  besieging  force  destined  to 
lay  all  the  splendors  before  Him  in  ashes." 


ii6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


"  The  contrast  was  indeed  terrible  between 
the  Jerusalem  that  rose  before  Him  in  all  its 
beauty,  glory,  and  security,  and  the  Jeru- 
salem which  he  saw  in  vision  dimly  rising 
on  the  sky,  with  the  camp  of  the  enemy 
round  about  it  on  every  side,  hugging  it 
closer  and  closer  in  deadly  embrace ;  then 
another  scene  in  the  shifting  panorama,  and 
the  city  laid  even  with  the  ground,  and  the 
gory  bodies  of  her  children  among  her  ruins ; 
and  yet  another  scene,  the  silence  and  deso- 
lateness  of  death,  not  one  stone  left  upon 
another." — Edersheim.  Even  in  the  midst 
of  our  rejoicing  over  the  triumphs  of  Chris- 
tianity, we  should  weep  over  those  who  will 
not  come  and  be  saved. — P. 

TEIUMPH  OF  JESUS,  The.— Com- 
merce, railroads,  printing  presses,  inventions, 
wealth,  civilization  are  aiding  His  triumph, 
paving  His  way,  and  advancing  His  glory. 
All  are  cast  down  before  Him  in  His  on- 
ward march.  And  all  the  redeemed,  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  and  thousands 
of  thousands,  are  singing  His  hosannas,  and 
joining  in  the  song,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb 
that  was  slain  to  receive  power,  and  riches, 
and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and  honor,  and 
glory,  and  blessing."  Jesus  still  weeps  over 
those  who  refuse  to  come  to  Him  to  be 
saved.  But  His  triumph  is  increasing,  and 
soon 


"  The  gospel  ranner,  wide  unfurled. 
Shall  wave  in  triumph  o'er  the  world; 
And  every  creature,  bond  and  free. 
Shall  hail  the  glorious  jubilee." 

P. 

VISION,  The  Present.— The  triumphal 
procession  of  Christ  is  still  going  on.  Al- 
ready it  numbers  countless  millions,  who, 
as  these  people  cast  their  garments  before 
Jesus  as  He  rode  in  triumph,  have  cast  their 
talents,  their  money,  their  time,  all  that  they 
possess,  before  Him,  to  aid  His  cause,  and 
hasten  His  success. 

"  Ride  on  triumphantly ;  behold,  we  lay 
Our  lusts  and  proud  wills  in  Thy  way." 

"  They  know  that  to  Him  they  owe  all 
that  is  dearest  in  life.  From  Him  they  have 
received  pardon  and  grace,  and  a  title  to 
eternal  life.  I  see  among  them  the  re- 
deemed drunkard,  who  was  miserable,  and 
blind,  and  naked,  and  half  demented,  but 
who  now  is  clothed,  and  in  his  right  mind. 
I  see  there  the  harlot,  who  now  is  refined, 
and  trying  to  live  a  Christ-like  life.  Old 
men  and  young  boys,  feeble  women  and 
robust  maidens,  all  saved  by  the  power  of 
the  Lord,  unite  in  that  throng.  Multitudes 
of  Sunday-school  children  are  there  too,  and 
join  their  voices  with  those  of  the  others  in 
singing  His  praise.' — A.  F.  Schauffler. 


POETRY 


Alleluia 

By  Robert   Robinson 

Lord  of  every  land  and  nation, 
"  Ancient  of  eternal  days," 
Sounded  through  the  wide  creation, 
Be  Thy  just  and  lawful  praise. 
Alleluia !      Amen. 

For  the  grandeur  of  Thy  nature. 
Grand  beyond  a  seraph's  thought. 
For  created  works  of  power. 

Works   with   skill   and   kindness   wrought. 
Alleluia !     Amen. 

For  Thy  rich.  Thy  free  redemption. 
Dark  through  brightness  all  along ;_ 
Thought   is  poor,   and  poor  expression; 
Who  can  sing  that  awful  song? 
Alleluia !      Amen. 

"  Brightness   of  the   Father's  glory," 

Shall  Thy  praise  unuttered  lie? 
Shun,  my  tongue,   the  guilty   silence; 
Sing  the  Lord  who  came  to  die. 
Alleluia !      Amen. 

From  the  highest  throne  in  glory. 
To  the  Cross  of  deepest  wo, 
All  to  ransom  guilty  captives — 
Flow  my  praise,  forever  flow. 
Alleluia !     Amen. 


Go,  return,  immortal  Savior; 
Leave  Thy  footstool,  take  Thy  throne; 
Thence  return,  and  reign  forever; 
Be  the  kingdom  all  Thine  own. 
Alleluia !     Amen.     Amen. 

The  Name  of  Jesus 
By  Caroline  M.  Noel 

At  the  name  of  Jesus 

Ev'ry  knee  shall  bow, 
Ev'ry  tongue  confess  Him 

King  of  glory  now. 
'Tis  the  Father's  pleasure, 

We  should  call  Him  Lord, 
Who  from  the  beginning 

Was  the  mighty  Word. 

At  His  voice  creation 

Sprang  at  once  to  sight. 
All  the  angel  faces, 

All  the  hosts  of  light, 
Thrones  and   dominations. 

Stars  upon  their  way. 
All  the  heavenly  orders 

In  their  great  array. 

Humbled  for  a  season. 

To  receive  a  name 
From  the  lips  of  sinners 

Unto  whom  He  came, 


PALM  SUNDAY 


117 


Faithfully  He  bore  it 

Spotless  to  the  last, 
Brought  it  back  victorious, 

When  from  death  He  past. 

In   your   hearts   enthrone   Him; 

There  let  Him  subdue 
All  that   is   not   holy, 

All  that  is  not  true : 
Crown  Him  as  your  Captain 

In  temptation's  hour: 
Let  His  will  enfold  you 

In  its  light  and  power. 

Brothers,  this  Lord  Jesus 

Shall  return  again, 
With  His  Father's  glory, 

With   His   angel   train; 
For  all  wreaths  of  empire 

Meet  upon  His  brow, 
And  our  hearts  confess  Him 

King  of  glory  now.     Amen. 

A  New  Hymn 
By  S.  F.  Smith,  D.D. 

Haste  to  Thy  conquest  of  the  world, 

O  King,  with  glory  crowned ; 
Gather  Thy  trophies  far  and  wide 

Wherever  man  is  found. 

Ride  in  swift  triumph  o'er  the  earth. 

Lift  up  Thy  sceptered  hand ; 
Thine  is  the  kingdom.  Thine  the  right, 

Ride  forth  o'er  sea  and  land. 

Then  round  the  conquered  world  Thy  praise 

In  waves  on  waves  shall  ring; 
And  shore  to  shore,  and  sea  to  sea. 

In  answering  chorus  sing. 

Adoring  thousands  at  Thy  feet 

In  faith  and  love  shall  fall ; 
And   countless    souls,    redeemed   from    sin, 

Shall  crown  Thee  Lord  of  all. 


Then  he  that  sowed  in  patient  hope. 
Through  all  the  weary  years. 

Shall  find  at  last  abundant  sheaves. 
And  joy  for  toil  and  tears. 

Jesus  Reigns 


E.  T. 


By  T.  Kelly 

Hark!  ten  thousand  harps  and  voices 
Sound  the  note  of  praise  above; 

Jesus  reigns,  and  heaven  rejoices; 
Jesus  reigns,  the  God  of  love : 

See,  He  sits  on  yonder  throne ; 
Jesus  rules  the  world  alone. 

King  of  glory !  reign  for  ever — 

Thine  an  everlasting  crown ; 
Nothing,  from  Thy  love,   shall  sever 

Those  whom  Thou  hast  made  Thine  own; 
Happy  objects  of  Thy  grace. 

Destined  to  behold  Thy  face. 


Savior  !    hasten  Thine  appearing ; 

Bring,  oh,  bring  the  glorious  day. 
When,  the  awful  summons  hearing. 

Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away ; — 
Then,  with  golden  harps,  we'll  sing, — 

"  Glory,  glory  to  our  King !  " 

Thy  Kingdom  Come 

There's  a  light   from  the  cross !     There's  a 

light  from  the  Word ! 
It  is  flooding  the  earth  with  the  joy  of  the 
Lord! 
And  hearts  that  were  aching 
In  darkness,  and  breaking, 
Are  chanting  His  praises  in  blissful  accord. 

Bow  down.  Eastern  mountains !     The  Savior 

has  come ! 
And   sing,    O   ye   fountains,    in    every   wide 
zone ! 
To  every  dark  nation 
The  glad  proclamation 
Is  offering  welcome  and  pardon  and  home. 

Ay !    crumble    to    dust    in    your   temples    of 

gold, 
Ye  idols  so  ancient  and  stony  and  cold  I 

The  people  are  yearning 

For  comfort,  and  learning 
The  best,  sweetest  story  that  ever  was  told. 

There's  a  light  from  the   cross.    There's   a 

light  from  the  Word ! 
And  the  kingdoms  of  earth  are  the  realms 
of  our  Lord ! 
O  Savior  victorious. 
So  tender,  so  glorious ! 
We  praise  Thee,  we  bless  Thee,  in  reverent 
accord  ! — S.  C. 


The   King 

By  Mary  F.  Butts 

How    plain    soe'er    the    house    or    poor    the 

guests 
The  royalest  of  all  sits  at  thy  board, 
Shares   thy   small   space,   waits   longingly   to 

give 
Full  measure  of  the  comfort  of  His  love. 
How  great  thy  dignity !     How  little  need 
That  men   should  power  or  place  or  goods 

bestow ! 

O  give  Him  access  to  thy  pent-up  heart; 
No  longer  poor  the  place  where  God  takes 
part.— G.  R. 

The  Lord  Is  King 

By  Charles  Wesley 

Rejoice,   the   Lord   is    King, 

Your  Lord  and  King  adore ; 
Mortals,  give  thanks  and  sing, 
And   triumph   evermore : 
Lift   up  your  heart,   lift   up  your  voice, 
Rejoice,  again  I  say,  rejoice. 


ii8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Humanity  doth  give  to  each  his  right, 
While  those  in  darkness  find  restored  the 

T?  ITTTD  A  TXT 


Jesus  the  Savior  reigns, 

The  God  of  truth  and  love; 
When  He  had  purged  our  stains, 
He  took  His  seat  above : 
Lift  up  your  heart,  Hft  up  your  voice, 
Rejoice,  again  I  say,   rejoice. 

His  kingdom  cannot  fail. 

He  rules  o'er  earth  and  heaven; 
The  keys  of  death  and  hell 
Are  to  our  Jesus  given; 
Lift  up  your  heart,  lift  up  your  voice. 
Rejoice,  again  I  say,   rejoice. 

He  all  His  foes  shall  quell, 
Shall  all  our  sins  destroy. 
And  every  bosom   swell 
With   pure   seraphic   joy: 
Lift  up  your  heart,  lift  up  your  voice. 
Rejoice,  again  I  say,   rejoice. 

Rejoice  in  glorious  hope; 

Jesus,  the  Judge,  shall  come, 
And  take  His  servants  up 
To  their  eternal  home : 
We    soon    shall    hear    the    archangel's    voice. 
The  trump  of  God  shall  sound.  Rejoice. 

Palm  Branches 

Tr.  by  Theodore  T.  Barker 

O'er  all  the  way  green  palms  and  flowers  gay 
Are  strewn  this  day  in  festal  preparation, 

Where  Jesus  comes  to  wipe  our  tears  away; 
E'en  now  the  throng  to  welcome  Him 
prepare. 

Refrain. 

Join  all  and  sing,  His  name  declare. 

Let  every  voice  resound  with  acclamation, 
Hosanna  !  Glory  to  God ! 
Praise  Him  who  cometh  to  bring  us  salva- 
tion ! 

I 
His  word  goes  forth,  and  peoples  by  its  might 
Once  more  regain  freedom  from  degrada- 
tion; 


light. 


Refrain. 


Sing  and   rejoice,   O  blest  Jerusalem, 

Of  all  thy   sons   sing  the  emancipation. 
Through  boundless  love;  the  Christ  of  Beth- 
lehem 
Bring  faith  and  hope  to  thee  forevermore. 
Refrain. 

The  Song  of  the  Seraphs 

By   Matthew   Bridges 

Crown  Him  with  many  crowns, 

The  Lamb  upon  His  throne : 
Hark,  how  the  heav'nly  anthem  drowns 

All  music  but  its  own ! 
With    His   most   most   precious   blood 

From  sin  He  set  us  free : 
We  hail  Him  as  our  matchless  King 

Through  all  eternity. 

Crown  Him  the  Lord  of  love : 

Behold  His  hands  and  side, 
Rich  wounds,  yet  visible  above 

In   beauty   glorified : 
No  angel  in  the  sky 

Can  fully  bear  that  sight. 
But  downward  bends  his  burning  eye 

At  mysteries   so  bright. 

Crown  Him  the  Lord  of  peace, 

Whose   power   a   scepter   sways. 
From    pole    to    pole,    that    wars    may    cease. 

And  all  be  prayer  and  praise : 
His  reign  shall  know  no  end. 

And  round  His  pierced  feet 
Fair  flowers  of  Paradise  extend 

Their  fragrance  ever  sweet. 

Crown  Him  the  Lord  of  Heaven, 

One  with  the  Father  known, 
One  with  the  Spirit  through  Him  given 

From  yonder  radiant  throne ! 
To  Thee  be  endless  praise, 

For  Thou  for  us  hast  died : 
Be  Thou,  O  Lord,  through  endless  days 

Adored  and  magnified. 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY  II9 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 

ALTHO  the  holy  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  instituted  on  Thursday 
evening  of  Passover  Week,  yet  it  is  almost  universally  celebrated  in  the 
churches  on  Sunday.  This  ordinance  is  also  called  the  Lord's  Supper,  because 
instituted  by  Him ;  and  the  Eucharist,  or  giving  thanks,  with  reference  to  Christ's 
giving  thanks  at  its  institution  and  His  ministers  giving  thanks  at  the  time  of  the 
distribution  of  the  bread  and  wine.  At  the  Communion  Christians  partake  of  the 
sacrament  as  a  memorial  of  Jesus  Christ,  especially  of  His  vicarious  sufferings 
and  death  on  the  cross.  The  Communion  is  as  old  as  Christianity  itself.  (Matt, 
xxvi:  26-2g;  Mark  xiv:  22-2^;  Luke  xxii:  i'j-20;  1  Cor.  xi:  2^-2^.) 

In  Exodus  xii:  1-36  we  have  an  account  of  the  institution  of  the  greatest  of 
the  three  annual  feasts  of  the  Jews,  the  Passover.  In  the  year  30,  a.  d.,  on 
Thursday  night  of  Passover  Week,  i.  e.,  on  the  14th  of  Nisan,  corresponding  with 
our  April  6,  Jesus  Christ  and  His  twelve  apostles  were  assembled  in  the  upper 
room  of  a  house  in  Jerusalem.  There  they  ate  the  Passover  Supper,  in  the 
course  of  which,  probably  after  Judas  had  gone  out,  our  Lord  took  a  portion  of 
the  unleavened  bread,  offered  a  prayer  over  it,  broke  it  and  distributed  it  among 
the  apostles,  saying:  "  Take,  eat;  this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken  for  you.  This 
do  in  remembrance  of  me."  In  like  manner,  after  they  had  supped,  He  took  the 
cup  of  wine,  which  it  was  the  custom  to  drink  at  the  Passover,  and  blessed  it 
and  gave  it  to  the  apostles,  saying:  "Drink  ye  all  of  it.  For  this  is  my  blood 
of  the  new  testament,  (or  covenant)  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission 
of  sins." 

With  these  words  and  actions  Christ  founded  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  There  is  nothing  in  the  account  to  indicate  clearly  where  and  how 
often  the  Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  observed,  and  by  whom  it  ought  to  be  admin- 
istered. Various  individual  Christians  and  denominations  of  Christians  have 
drawn  various  inferences  as  to  the  true  answers  to  these  questions.  So  the 
history  of  the  church  tells  of  the  many  ways  in  which  the  Lord's  Supper  has 
been  observed,  and  of  the  discussions,  sometimes  amounting  to  controversies,  as 
to  certain  features  of  this  sacrament.  Especially  have  opinions  differed  as  to 
the  meaning  of  our  Lord's  words,  "  This  is  my  body."  Very  early  in  the  history 
of  the  church  the  question  arose  as  to  whether  this  language  is  to  be  taken 
literally  or  figuratively.  The  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  churches  have  insisted 
on  the  literal  interpretation  of  the  words,  and  hold  that  at  the  communion,  the 
bread  and  wine  are  changed  into  the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  This 
doctrine  is  called  transubstantiation.  The  Lutheran  doctrine  is  called  consub- 
stantiation,  and  teaches  that  while  the  bread  and  wine  are  not  turned  into 
the  actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  yet  the  language  of  the  Lord  is  not 
figurative,  but  literal,  and  there  is,  when  the  Lord's  Supper  is  properly 
administered,  a  real  tho  mysterious,  union  of  Christ,  unio  sacramentalis,  and  the 
elements  used,  so  that  both  are  partaken  of  at  one  and  the  same  time.  The 
Reformed  view  is  that  the  language  is  not  Hteral,  but  Christ  meant,  "  This  broken 
bread  represents  my  broken  body,  and  the  wine  in  the  cup  represents  my  blood 


I20 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


which  was  poured  out  for  you."  The  Reformed  view  insists,  however,  that 
Christ  is  in  some  mysterious  but  real  way  present  in  a  peculiar  manner,  and  is 
partaken  of  spiritually  by  all  who  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  intelligently  and 
with  faith.  The  Westminster  Shorter  Catechism  (a.  d.  1647)  thus  answers  the 
question  "  What  is  the  Lord's  Supper?  "  (Q  96.)  It  is  "  a  sacrament,  wherein, 
by  giving  and  receiving  bread  and  wine,  according  to  Christ's  appointment,  His 
death  is  showed  forth;  and  the  worthy  receivers  are,  not  after  a  corporal  and 
carnal  manner,  but  by  faith,  made  partakers  of  His  body  and  blood,  with  all  His 
benefits,  to  their  spiritual  nourishment  and  growth  in  grace." 

For  a  detailed  account  of  the  theories  and  practices  relating  to  the  Lord's 
Supper,  see  the  articles  on  The  Lord's  Supper  in  the  various  encyclopedias  and 
dictionaries  of  Biblical  and  religious  knowledge,  especially  the  Schaff-Herzog 
Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowledge  (Funk  and  Wagnalls),  and  The  Inter- 
national Cyclopedia  (Dodd,  Mead  and  Co.) 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER 


By  Prof.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D. 


The 
Agape 


or 

Mass 


The  importance  of  its  history  in  four 
books  of  the  New  Testament  emphasizes  the 
importance  of  this  ordinance.  It  was  sol- 
emnly instituted  by  our  Lord  on 
the  night  before  His  passion.  It 
was  celebrated  by  His  disciples, 
at  first  daily  and  in  connection 
with  a  simple  social  meal,  called  the  agape, 
or  Feast  of  Love,  and  then  it  was  for  a  long 
period  observed  every  Lord's  Day,  but  only 
within  the  circle  of  the  Church. 

Immediately    after    the    conclusion    of    the 
homiletic  or  missionary  services,  in  which  the 
public  participated,  the  promiscuous  assernbly 
Mlssa       ^^^  dismissed   (the  word  missa, 
thus  used,  giving  its  name  after- 
ward  to   the   entire   sacramental 
service;  German,  missa;  English, 
Mass),  and  the  elements,  common  bread  and 
wine  mingled   with   water,   were  consecrated 
by  the  presiding  official  and  then  distributed 
by  the  deacons  to  the  congregation,  and  also 
to  the  sick  and  the  prisoners  who  were  pre- 
vented   from    being    present.      An  elaborate 
sacramental      liturgy,      comprising      suitable 
prayers,  doxologies,  and  responses,  which  be- 
came the  basis  of  r.U  subsequent  formularies 
of  this  kind,  developed  at  an  early  day  around 
the  solemn  rite,  and  it  has  been  commonly  re- 
garded throughout  the   Christian   Church,  as 
the  highest  and  holiest  part  of  divine  worship. 
Historians  are  unanimous  in  their  testimony 
that  from  the  beginning  this  sacrament  was 
viewed  as  a  great  mystery,  to  which  was  at- 
tached   profound    doctrinal    sig- 
The         nificance  and  the  highest  spirit- 
Mystery    ual    efficacy.     With    the    visible 
of  the      elements,    it   was   believed,   were 
Sacrament  mystically    the    body    and    blood 
of    the     Lord.     Those     who    in 
faith  partook  of  this  Supper  enjoyed  essential 
communion  with  Christ.     They  partook  of  a 


"  spiritual  food,  indispensable  to  eternal  life." 
The  first  Christian  theologians  were  not  given 
to  sharp  distinctions  between  the  outward 
sign  and  the  invisible  substance  which  it  rep- 
resents. "  The  real  and  the  symbolical  were 
so  blended,"  says  Hagenbach,  "  that  the  sym- 
bol did  not  supplant  the  fact,  nor  did  the  fact 
dislodge  the  symbol."  Yet  they  distinguished 
the  two  things  constituting  the  Supper  as 
tcrrena  et  coclesti.  In  some  places  they  speak 
distinctly  of  signs,  and  the  Alexandrians  are 
classed  with  those  holding  spiritualistic 
views ;  then  again  they  "  speak  openly  of  a 
real  participation  in  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,"  while  not  a  single  passage  in  the 
Fathers  asserts  the  elements  to  be  merely 
signs  or  symbols. 

Of  the  doctrine  of  a  total  change  of  the  ele- 
ments into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  not 
a  trace  is  found  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Church. 
Later,  many  of  the  Fathers  used 

Change  phraseology  which  seems  to  in- 
of  the      volve    the    doctrine    of    a    real 

Elements  change,  and  a  disposition  toward 
that  theory  is  apparent,  yet  ac- 
cording to  Baur  these  "  are  only  an  obscure 
and  exaggerated  identification  of  figure  and 
fact."  The  same  teachers  use  also  representa- 
tions which  exclude  a  change.  The  idea  of  a 
sacrifice  came  now  likewise  to  be  connected 
with  the  Sacrament,  at  first  only  in  the  sense 
of  a  celebration  of  the  one  Sacrifice  of  Christ, 
but  gradually  in  the  sense  of  an  unbloody  but 
actual  repetition  of  that  sacrifice.  The  ascrip- 
tion of  a  priestly  character  to  the  clerical 
office  contributed  largely  to  the  development 
of  this  notion.  As  late  as  the  ninth  century, 
a  treatise  maintaining  in  earnest  a  complete 
change  of  the  elements,  called  forth  an  ex- 
tensive and  violent  controversy,  altho  it 
doubtless  only  set  forth  in  definite  state- 
ments what  was  then  the  popular  belief.   Two 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


121 


centuries  later  the  denial  of  the  Change  of 
Substance  led  to  the  condemnation  of  Beren- 
gar  by  several  synods,  and  in  a.  d.  1215,  at 
the  Fourth  Lateran  Council,  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  was  pronounced  an  arti- 
cle of  faith  by  Pope  Innocent  III. 

The  Reformers  with  one  voice  repudiated 
both  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  and 
that  of  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  as  Wycliffe 
had  done  before.  When,  how- 
Tlie  ever,  they  came  to  formulate 
Reformers  the  positive  elements  of  the 
doctrine  for  the  Evangelical 
Church,  so  wide  a  difference  emerged  that 
the  unity  of  Protestantism  was  shattered 
upon  this  rock.  Luther  was  at  first  predis- 
posed to  a  symbolical  and  purely  subjective 
interpretation ;  but  he  felt  bound  by  the 
clear  word  of  Scripture  to  accept  the  doc- 
trine that,  along  with  the  elements  there  are 
present,  and  received,  sacramentally  and  su- 
pernaturally,  the  glorified  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  believers 
partake  of  to  their  spiritual  strength,  unbe- 
lievers to  their  judgment.  Exception  to  this 
view,  he  argued,  could  only  be  taken  on 
grounds  of  reason ;  and  if  reason  may  rule 
supremely  on  this  doctrine,  "  you  open  the 
way  for  it  to  sweep  away  every  doctrine." 

Zwingli   maintained   the  purely   symbolical, 
commemorative,   and   subjective  character  of 
the  Supper,  and  on  this  account  Luther  de- 
clined    Church-fellowship     with 
Other       him.     Calvin's  position  was  me- 
Views      diating  between   the  theories  of 
Luther    and    Zwingli.     He    also 
taught  clearly,  a  Real  Presence,  but  one  not 
mediated  through  the  bread  and  wine,  as  this 
would  conflict  with  the  doctrine  of  particular 


election,  which  limits  the  actual  offer  ot 
grace  to  believers.  "  The  believer,  by  means 
of  faith,  partakes  in  the  Sacrament,  only 
spiritually  but  yet  really,  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  the  Lord,  through  a  power  issuing 
from  the  glorified  body  of  Christ,  whereas 
the  unbeliever  receives  only  bread  and  wine." 
This  view  superseded  the  Zwinglian  in  the 
Confessions  of  Switzerland,  and  passed  into 
all  the  Reformed  Creeds  of  the  Continent, 
and  of  Great  Britain,  including  the  xxxix 
articles. 

The  dogma  developed  by  Luther  has  ever 

remained    the    distinguishing    feature    of   the 

Lutheran  system.     It  has  also  been  held  by 

many  in  the  Church  of  England, 

Luther  and  by  Episcopalians  in  this 
country.  The  Sacerdotal  view 
of  the  ministry  prevalent  in  the  latter  com- 
munion has  favored  both  the  doctrine  of  a 
change  of  substance  and  that  of  a  sacrifice — 
the  two  go  together,  apparently — errors  from 
which  the  Lutherans  have  escaped  by  their 
New  Testament  conception  of  the  ministerial 
office. 

While  all  the  Reformed  Confessions  of  the 

XVIth  century  contained  the  Calvinistic  view 

of  the  Lord's   Supper,   the   current  teaching 

and  popular  belief  in  all  but  Lu- 

Zwing-     theran   and    Episcopal    Churches 

lianism  has  long  been  that  of  Zwinglian- 
ism.  The  Supper  is  wont  to  be 
celebrated  as  a  solemn  spiritual  exercise,  re- 
calling the  atoning  death  of  our  Lord,  and 
indicating  the  union  of  His  followers.  A  re- 
action in  favor  of  higher  views  has  of  late 
appeared,  especially  among  Presbyterian  and 
Reformed  theologians. — H.  R. 


SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 

THE  LORD'S  SUPPER 

By  Rev.  Charles  A.  Savage 


The  proper  attitude  to  assume  with  relation 
to  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  golden  mean  be- 
tween  idolatry  and  indifference. 

Indifference  to  the  Sacrament  casts  con- 
tempt on  an  ordinance  instituted  by  our 
Savior  Himself,  and  one  that  is  full  of  holy 
meaning.  An  idolatrous  reverence  for  it  not 
only  violates  the  Second  Commandment,  but 
dishonors  Christ. 

This  indifference  may  be  overcome,  and 
this  superstitious  reverence  may  be  modified, 
by  a  proper  emphasis  on  the  following  con- 
siderations : 

I.  The  Lord's  Supper  should  be  regarded  as 
a  Festival,  and  not  as  a  Fast.  Our  chief 
thought  should  be  one  of  exultant  gratitude. 
The  cross  is  not  so  much  for  us  a  symbol  of 
sacrifice  as  of  victory.  It  does  not  stand  so 
much  for  shame  as  for  glory.  Our  eyes  have 
been  opened  to  see  not  so  much  guilt  there, 
or  punishment  there,  as  Atonement  and  rec- 


onciliation with  God.  A  proper  emphasis  of 
this  side  of  the  Atonement  exalts  Christ — 
kindles  anew  in  us  the  flame  of  love — stimu- 
lates devotion. 

II.  We  should  come  to  the  Lord's  Table 
with  the  confident  expectation  of  meeting 
Christ  there,  of  receiving  there  a  blessing. 

Unbelief  of  a  positive  promise  blocks  a 
blessing.  Our  doubt  as  to  His  willingness  to 
do  what  He  has  said  He  will  do,  while  it  does 
not  destroy  His  willingness  to  give,  weakens 
our  ability  to  receive.  Expecting  large  bless- 
ings from  God  insures  large  blessings,  not 
as  a'  reward  of  the  expectancy,  but  because 
the  capacity  of  the  aqueduct  which  taps  the 
infinite  reservoir  is  measured  by  the  faith 
that  builds  it. 

III.  This  expectation  of  meeting  Christ  at 
His  Table,  and  of  receiving  His  blessing,  will 
demand  and  insure  a  thoughtful,  prayerful 
preparation  for  it.     We  need  not  try  to  work 


122 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ourselves  up  to  any  prescribed  state  of  re- 
ligious feeling.  Real  communion  with  God 
does  not  imply  excited  emotions.  Christ  is 
not  transfigured  on  the  mountain  top  of 
ecstasy.  The  preparation  we  need  is  calm, 
candid  contemplation.  We  need  for  a  while 
"  to  sit  alone  with  our  conscience,  in  some 
silently  solemn  place."  We  need  to  look  in- 
ward as  a  preparation  for  looking  outward, — 
examine  our  hearts  that  so  we  may  see  the 
value  of  the  provision  made  to  make  them 
clean ;  question  our  deepest  longings,  to  en- 
able us  to  understand  the  royal  provision  to 
satisfy  them ;  give  attention  to  the  cry  of 
our  heart  loneliness;  that  we  may  under- 
stand what  communion  with  Christ  may 
mean. 

IV.  We  should  look  to  the  Sacrament  for  a 
special  revelation  of  Christ  and  His  truth. 
The  purpose  of  the  communion  service  is  to 
aflford  us  an  opportunity  to  take  into  our 
spiritual  natures  something  from  the  out- 
side. 

Some  spirit,  foreign  to  itself,  is  to  be  taken 
into  our  souls  and  assimilated  for  spiritual 
strength  and  growth.  That  spirit  is  the  living 
Christ.  Since  the  knowledge  of  Him  is 
eternal  life,  every  increase  of  that  knowledge 
is  an  increase  of  the  life  power  within  us. 

The  vitality  of  the  Sacrament  is  the  Christ 
in  it. — both  as  the  truth  and  the  life.  The 
Parable,  as  it  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus, 
and  the  Sacrament  as  instituted  by  Him,  are 
akin.  Both  are  disclosures,  through  some 
door  opening  into  some  common  material 
thing,  of  the  spiritual  reality  within  and  be- 
hind them.  The  Parable  opens  a  door  into 
the  mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, — 
the  Sacrament  into  the  hearts  of  the  King 
of  Heaven.  It  is  more  than  a  vision  that 
we  see.  It  is  an  eternal  reality.  The  plea 
then  is  for  a  true  spiritual  "  Elevation  of  the 
Host,"  a  revival  of  the  consciousness  of  the 
Real  Presence  of  Our  Lord  in  His  Sacra- 
ment. Not  the  Lateran  transubstantiation, 
or  the  consubstantiation  of  Luther,  but  an 
acceptance  of  Christ's  Real  Presence  is  a 
protest  against  the  conception  of  His  fic- 
titious presence.  The  Sacrament  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  scenic  display.  Its  pur- 
pose is  deeper  than  that  of  a  mere  memorial. 
Paul  speaks  of  its  observance,  wherein  there 
is  no  discernment  of  the  Lord's  Body,  as  a 
profanation.  Christ's  Body  to-day  is  a 
spiritual  body.  His  real  presence  is  a  spirit- 
ual presence.  The  bread  and  the  wine  are 
material  symbols,  but  the  spiritual  reality 
is  present  in  them,  for  these  symbols  were 
ordained  by  Christ  Himself  for  this  very  pur- 
pose, to  represent  Him. 

V.  The  Lord's  Supper  may  be  made  more 
profitable  for  us  if  we  emphasize  it  as  a 
bond  of  brotherhood.  A  communion  with 
Christ,  it  is  also  a  communion  with  each 
other,  and  not  only  among  the  few  gathered 
within  the  walls  of  a  single  sanctuary;  it  is 
the  fellowship  of  the  ages.  In  the  name  of 
our  common  Christ,  "  encompassed  by  so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,"  we  sit  with 
them  in  heavenly  places  whenever  we  come 
to  the  Communion  Table  of  our  Lord. 


There  is  inspiration  in  this  thought  of 
brotherhood.  As  the  vision  comes  to  us  of 
"  the  multitudes  whom  no  man  can  number 
out  of  every  kindred  and  nation  and  tribe 
and  tongue,  gathered  at  the  marriage  sup- 
per of  the  Lamb,"  as  we  recall  His  words, 
"  I  will  no  more  drink  of  the  fruit  of  the 
vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  new 
with  you  in  my  Father's  Kingdom,"  we  feel 
strong  in  the  wide  reaching  brotherhood 
begun  here,  to  be  consummated  in  the  many 
mansions. 

Then,  too,  the  Lord's  Table  offers  special 
opportunity  for  intercession  and  prayer. 
If  we  have  got  there  a  clearer  conception 
of  how  our  Father  "  spared  not  his  only-be- 
gotten Son,"  we  see  clearer,  too,  how  that 
"  with  him  he  is  ready,  also,  freely  to  give 
us  all  things."  So  the  vision  of  God's  love 
stimulates  our  love,  and  as  the  great  Augus- 
tine has  said:  "  Bv  loving,  not  by  traveling 
we  come  near  to  Him  who  is  everywhere." 
Loving  God  is  knowing  God,  and  knowing 
God  is  eternal  life ;  with  all  that  eternal  life 
m.eans.  A  better  acquaintance  with  our 
Heavenly  Father  thus  means  larger  measures 
of  His  beneficence.  The  light  of  His  smile, 
the  look  of  His  eye,  is  an  answer  to  every 
prayer. 

So  while  the  Lord's  Table  presents  a 
favorable  opportunity  for  special  supplica- 
tions on  our  own  behalf  and  for  a  re- 
newal of  our  consecration,  the  solemnity 
of  the  occasion,  the  peculiar  significance  of 
it,  the  atmosphere  of  prayer  pervading  it, 
all  combine  to  open  our  hearts  in  inter- 
cession for  others.  Prayer  for  the  extension 
of  Christ's  Kingdom  is  most  effective  when 
we  are  in  the  audience  chamber  of  the 
King. 

A  proper  emphasis  of  this  opportunity,  and 
the  suitably  availing  ourselves  of  it.  cannot 
fail  to  increase  the  profit  of  the  communion 
to  our  own  souls.  Not  the  blessing  that  we 
get,  but  the  one  that  we  share,  is  most  truly 
blessed. 

VI.  The  observance  of  the  Supper  is  not  a 
matter  of  moods,  but  of  duty  and  of  privilege. 
Our  emotions  are  not  always  under  our  con- 
trol. Our  feelings  are  not  altogether  trust- 
worthy indications  either  as  to  our  spiritual 
condition  or  our  spiritual  needs.  Efferves- 
cence in  the  spiritual  world  is  no  more  sub- 
stantial than  in  the  natural  world.  We  need 
spiritual  strength,  nourishment,  uplift.  We 
stand  in  special  need  along  these  lines  when 
our  love  is  cold,  when  our  faith  is  weak, 
when  our  Christian  purpose  is  wavering. 
Such  a  condition  of  heart  as  this,  so  far  from 
being  a  reason  for  staying  away  from  the 
Lord's  Supper,  is  the  strongest  reason  for 
attending  it. 

"  We  go  to  be  filled  with  Christ  and  emp- 
tied of  self,  to  warm  our  hearts  at  the  flame 
of  His  love,  to  stimulate  our  faith  by  the 
touch  of  His  life. 

"  If  our  covenant  with  Him  has  been 
broken,  we  have  double  need  to  avail  our- 
selves of  the  New  Covenant  in  His  blood, 
which  He  has  shed  for  many,  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins." — I. 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


123 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER:  A  EUCHARIST 

By  Rev.  David  Gregg,  D.D. 

Jesus  took  bread,  and  blessed,  and  brake  it.    .    .    .    And  he  took  the  cup,  and  when  he  had 
given  thanks,  he  gave  it  to  them. — Mark  xiv:  22,  23 


The  blessing  of  the  bread  and  the  giving 
of  thanks  over  the  cup,  in  the  Lord's  Supper, 
are  similar  acts.  This  is  evident  from  the 
words  of  Paul.  In  I  Corinthians  x:i6,  he 
calls  the  cup  over  which  thanksgiving  is 
offered,  "  the  cup  of  blessing  "  :  "  The  cup  of 
blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  com- 
munion of  the  blood  of  Christ?"  If  this  be 
true,  then  Jesus  offered  two  thanksgivings 
at  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper — one 
over  the  bread  and  one  over  the  cup.  In 
using  the  Passover  wine,  which  stood  as  the 
index  of  the  productiveness  of  the  land,  the 
Hebrews  were  vehement  and  prolonged  in 
their  expressions  of  gratitude  and  thanks- 
giving to  God.  Jesus,  in  building  up  the 
Lord's  Supper  out  of  the  Passover,  carried 
the  thanksgiving  of  the  old  ordinance  into 
the  new.  Because  of  His  emphatic  twofold 
thanksgiving,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  known 
to  the  early  Church  by  the  name  of  the 
Eucharist — i.  e.,  "  the  Thanksgiving."  The 
term  Eucharist,  which  means  "  thanksgiving." 
is  the  Greek  word  Anglicized.  As  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  a  vast  advance  upon  the  Pass- 
over, the  thanksgiving  of  Christ  was  a  great 
remove  beyond  the  thanksgiving  of  the  He- 
brews. He  saw  higher  things ;  He  saw 
grander  purposes  of  God.  They  saw  Canaan, 
He  saw  heaven.  They  saw  the  past.  He  saw 
the  future.  Let  us  not  forget  that  Christ 
gives  character  to  the  ordinances  which  He 
institutes,  and  through  which  He  communi- 
cates to  His  people  His  thoughts.  His  grace, 
His  hopes.  His  feelings,  His  spirit — Himself. 
Was  the  Lord's  Supper  a  thanksgiving  to 
Him?  Then  it  must  be  a  thanksgiving  to  His 
people  who  sit  down  with  Him  in  this  or- 
dinance and  receive  of  His  fullness. 

We  want  to  look  at  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  an  ordinance  of  thanksgiving,  that  we 
may  have  greater  desire  and  pleasure  and 
profit  in  its  celebration.  God  unfolds  to  us 
the  different  attributes  of  this  beautiful  or- 
dinance, that  we  may  be  attracted  to  it.  He 
means  every  attribute  to  be  a  persuasive  ar- 
gument enforcing  obedience  to  the  command : 
"  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me." 

I.  It  must  be  a  thanksgiving  ordinance 

IN     ORDER     TO     REPRESENT     ARIGHT     THE     FEAST 
WHICH   IT   SUPERSEDES. 

It  supersedes  the  Passover.  Why?  Not 
because  it  is  in  contrast  with  the  Passover: 
not  for  the  reason  that  one  man  is  made  to 
supersede  another  in  office,  because  his  pre- 
decessor was  wrong  and  an  opposite  policy 
must  be  followed.  The  Lord's  Supper  super- 
sedes the  Passover  because  it  is  in  the  same 
line  and  is  an  advance  in  the  same  direction. 
It  comes  in  under  the  necessity  of  growth, 
just  as  the  fruit  follows  the  blossom.  It  is 
not    without    design    that    the    Passover    cup 


and  bread  are  made  the  cup  and  bread  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  There  is  a  unity  in  the  two 
ordinances.  They  are  both  social  in  character, 
and  emblematical,  in  a  large  measure,  of  the 
same  doctrines.  They  are  both  commemora- 
tive. The  advance  in  the  execution  of  God's 
great  purposes,  and  the  entrance  of  man  upon 
the  grander  realities  of  an  accomplished  re- 
demption, require  an  enlargement  of  the  or- 
dinance, and  demand  that  the  typo-symbolical 
Passover  give  place  to  the  purely  symbolical 
Lord's  Supper.  It  is  evident  that  the  spirit 
of  the  old  ordinance  must  be  carried  into  the 
new,  developed  and  intensified. 

What  was  the  reigning  spirit  of  the  Pass- 
over? Joy  and  thanksgiving.  We  are  ac- 
customed to  look  upon  the  old  Jewish  re- 
ligion as  a  yoke,  and  we  have  Scripture  for 
this.  But  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  this  fact: 
It  was  a  yoke  that  drew  after  it  a  great  load 
of  blessings  and  of  prospects.  It  was  a  re- 
ligion of  feasts,  and  carried  with  it  only  one 
divinely-appointed  fast-day — the  day  of 
atonement.  The  sacred  times  were  joy 
times ;  and  these  returned  and  left,  came  and 
went,  until  the  Year  of  Jubilee  was  reached. 
Then  there  was  a  fresh  start  to  the  jubilees 
beyond.  The  services  demanded  by  this  re- 
ligion were  many;  but  the  spirit  which  God 
meant  to  reign  in  all  was  the  spirit  of  the 
feast-day.  Look  at  the  Sabbath  of  the  Jews, 
which  is  so  discounted  by  modern  public 
opinion :  it  is  regarded  as  severe,  and  grind- 
ing, and  enslaving.  If  one  judged  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  by  popular  estimation,  he  must  con- 
clude that  God  meant  to  afflict  the  Hebrews 
v/hen  He  put  them  under  the  Sabbath  ordi- 
nance. Bad  as  the  Sabbath  was  for  the  Jew, 
we  must  conclude  that  it  was  awful  for  the 
stranger  within  the  gates,  who  was  compelled 
to  honor  the  Sabbath  law.  But  what  saith 
the  Word?  It  gives  the  true  reason  for  the 
Sabbath :  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  work,  and  on 
the  seventh  thou  shalt  rest,  that  thine  ox 
and  thine  ass  may  rest,  and  the  stranger  may 
be  refresJicd." 

In  God's  sight,  the  Sabbath  meant  refresh- 
ment ;  and  hence  He  told  His  people  to  call 
it  "  a  delight."  The  Passover  was  not  an  ex- 
ception among  the  religious  appointments  of 
the  Jews.  It  was  full  of  thanksgiving  mem- 
ories. It  recalled  the  safety  of  the  Hebrews 
from  the  death-angel,  who  turned  Egypt  into 
a  house  of  mourning;  it  spoke  of  the  om- 
nipotent arm  made  bare ;  it  lifted  to  view  the 
origin  of  the  nation  and  the  source  of  national 
blessings;  and  it  spoke  of  the  Abrahamic 
covenant.  For  fifteen  centuries  it  made  the 
Israelites  feel  that  God's  goodness  to  their 
fathers  was  God's  goodness  to  them.  To 
them  it  made  the  difference  between  slavery 
and     freedom,     ignorance     and     knowledge, 


124 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Egj'pt  and  Canaan.  When  I  read  the  history 
of  the  Passover  I  do  not  wonder  that  it  was 
the  one  occasion  of  the  sacred  year  in  which 
the  people  of  God  sung  the  grand  Hallel  of 
the  Scripture  psalter.  It  was  a  praise  season, 
and  it  was  fitting  that  the  praise  psalms  should 
be  used. 

II.  The  Lord's  Supper  must  be  a  thanks- 
giving ORDINANCE  BECAUSE  OF  ITS  GROUPING 
OF  GREAT  FACTS. 

Men  often  take  the  facts  which  it  exalts, 
and  look  at  them,  and  place  them  out  of  the 
relations  in  which  the  Lord's  Supper  has 
placed  them.  The  result  is,  the  whole  nature 
of  the  institution  is  changed,  and  this  changed 
their  feelings  and  moods  and  expectations. 
They  substitute  for  joy  and  thanksgiving  the 
spirit  of  fear,  superstition,  legalism.  They 
claim  to  be  Scriptural,  because  the  facts  with 
which  they  deal  are  the  very  facts  exalted  by 
the  Lord's  Supper.  We  grant  that  the  facts 
with  which  they  deal  are  the  very  facts  ex- 
alted by  this  ordinance;  but  we  make  this 
emphatic :  they  have  been  wrung  from  their 
proper  relations  as  grouped  and  arranged  by 
the  Lord's  Supper.  A  fact  taken  out  of  its 
Scripture  grouping  and  wrongly  placed,  is 
like  the  safety  beacon  taken  from  the  harbor 
pier  and  run  up  over  the  rock  that  wrecks 
the  ship.  Truth,  out  of  God's  appointed 
place,  is  deceptive.  The  human  face,  as  God 
has  made  it,  possesses  a  wonderful  charm. 
It  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  and  a  joy.  It  courts 
study  and  scrutiny.  No  one  tires  of  looking 
into  a  beautiful  face.  The  reason  for  this  is, 
God  has  given  to  every  feature  and  organ  its 
proper  place,  and  the  setting  of  all  is  mutually 
helpful.  Separate  the  face  into  parts,  and  look 
at  it  in  a  dissected  state.  Take  the  human 
eye,  severed  from  the  countenance,  and  look 
at  it.  Dissection  is  its  disthronement.  Its 
fascinating  power  has  gone :  it  is  a  dull,  dead, 
repulsive  thing.  To  appreciate  the  human  eye 
you  must  see  it  reigning  in  the  midst  of  the 
beauty  of  the  human  face.  Like  the  features 
of  the  human  face,  the  facts  exalted  by  the 
Lord's  Supper  must  be  viewed  in  their  di- 
vinely-appointed associations. 

Let  us  remember  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is 
an  ordinance  given  to  the  friends  of  Jesus 
Christ  who  have  entered  upon  the  saved  life, 
and  intended  to  help  them  realize  their 
privileges.  The  Lord's  Supper  takes  the 
most  terrible  facts  of  history  and  experience, 
and  groups  them  with  the  grandest  of  realities 
in  such  a  way  that  our  souls  break  forth  into 
hallelujahs. 

There  are  no  more  terrible  facts  than  these  : 
— the  existence  of  sin ;  its  hold  upon  the 
human  heart ;  man's  deadness  by  nature  in 
trespasses  and  in  sins;  the  awful  wrath  of 
God  against  sin."  These  facts,  looked  at  alone 
standing  by  themselves,  fill  with  fear  and 
gloom  and  despair.  They  separate  us  from 
God  as  far  as  hell  is  separated  from  heaven. 
Now  all  these  facts  are  exalted  by  the  Lord's 
Supper,  but  they  are  not  exalted  alone.  This 
is  what  a  great  many  people  overlook.  '  These 
facts  are  linked  to  the  grandest  and  most 
glorious  realities  in  the  spiritual  realm.  The 
terrible  fact  of  the  existence  of  sin  is  linked 


with  the  fact  of  a  Savior  and  a  completed  re- 
demption. Have  we  not  in  this  ordinance 
bread  and  wine?  And  are  not  these  bloodless 
emblems?  The  bloody  emblems  of  the  former 
economy  spake  of  a  sacrificial  death  to  the 
accomplished ;  but  these  bloodless  emblems 
of  the  present  dispensation  speak  to  us  ot 
that  death  as  accomplished.  They  repeat  the 
victorious  shout  of  the  dying  Christ,  "  It  is 
finished." 

The  terrible  fact  of  our  sentence  of  death 
under  the  law  is  linked  with  Christ's  sub- 
stitution and  His  suffering  in  our  low  place — 
"  This  is  my  body  ivhich  is  broken  for  you." 
The  terrible  fact  of  our  deadness  by  nature  is 
linked  with  the  fact  that  we  "  take  and  eat," 
and  thus  allow  Christ  to  enter  into  us  and  live 
in  us.  This  is  the  grouping  of  facts  as  we 
have  them  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  ter- 
rible things  are  linked  to  glorious  things,  and 
the  glorious  things  are  first.  It  is  first  Jesus, 
then  the  sinner.  This  is  the  order  in  which 
we  are  to  read  the  facts :  The  Savior,  who 
has  delivered  us  from  our  sins ;  the  Savior, 
who  has  suffered  for  us;  tJie  Savior,  who 
has  completed  forever  our  redemption;  the 
Savior  sustaining  us  in  the  saved  life  and 
living  in  us.  It  is  your  privilege  to  lift  the 
voice  of  thanksgiving  and  shout,  "  There  is 
therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  who 
are  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Turn  to  the  grouping  of  other  facts  in  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  learn  the  same  lesson, 
viz. :  that  the  facts,  as  presented  by  the  Lord's 
Supper,  make  it  a  thanksgiving  ordinance.  It 
presents  the  fact  of  Christ  crucified,  but  it 
does  not  leave  this  sad  fact  to  stand  alone : 
it  joins  it  with  the  fact  of  Christ  risen.  We 
do  not  only  see  the  cross,  but  we  see  the 
empty  tomb,  and  the  empty  tomb  means  that 
the  crucifixion  has  accomplished  its  purpose. 
The  Lord's  Supper  brings  before  us  the  per- 
sonal absence  of  Jesus  from  the  world.  It 
recalls  the  separation  at  Olivet.  As  we  walk 
with  Jesus  and  His  disciples,  we  see  in  the 
distance  a  brightness  like  a  burning  star.  It 
draws  nearer,  and  the  splendor  enlarges  until 
it  fills  the  whole  dome  with  a  glory  beyond 
the  noon-day  sun.  What  is  this  wonder?  It 
is  the  majesty  of  the  holy  angels  whom  the 
Father  has  sent  to  take  Christ  to  His  reward. 
Encircling  Jesus,  they  bear  Him  up  through 
the  clear  atmosphere  and  away  from  His  dis- 
ciples. This  personal  absence  of  Jesus,  whom 
we  keep  in  remembrance  by  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, is  exalted  before  us  by  this  ordinance; 
but  it  is  exalted  in  connection  with  His  per- 
sonal coming  again.  "  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's 
death  till  he  come."  There  is  no  weightier 
fact  than  His  coming  again.  It  carries  in  it 
the  prepared  mansions,  the  fulfilment  of 
prophecy,  the  kingdom  of  glory,  the  meeting 
of  departed  friends,  and  the  glorious  reign  as 
kings  and  priests  unto  God.  The  grouping 
of  these  facts  can  mean  nothing  else  but  joy 
and  thanksgiving  to  those  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

III.  The     Lord's     Supper     must     be     a 

THANKSGIVING  ORDINANCE  BECAUSE  OF  ITS  RE- 
LATION TO  THE  COVENANT  OF  GRACE. 

It    is    a    seal    of    the    covenant    of    grace. 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


125 


Christ's  words  are,  "  This  cup  is  the  new 
testament  (or  covenant)  in  my  blood."  These 
words  are  a  parallel  with  those  He  utters 
when  He  puts  the  bread  into  our  hands, 
"  This  is  my  body  broken  for  you ;  "  i.  e., 
this  bread  is  a  symbol  speaking  to  you  and 
assuring  you  that  My  body  was  broken  for 
you.  This  cup  is  the  seal,  the  evidence,  the 
assurance  of  the  covenant  ratified  and  made 
effectual  by  jSIy  blood. 

What  are  we  to  understand  by  the  New 
Covenant?  Christ  represents  His  people  and 
undertakes  for  them.  He  does  this  because, 
having  violated  the  covenant  of  works,  they 
are  covenant-breakers  and  debtors  to  God, 
and  can  no  longer  enter  into  covenant  upon 
their  own  responsibility.  Christ,  in  putting 
the  cup  into  our  hands,  tells  us  that  He  is 
our  covenant,  and  that  true  covenanting  at 
His  table  is  the  taking  of  Him  and  the  hiding 
of  our  life  with  Christ  in  God.  Hence  the 
only  acts  which  He  prescribes  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  for  us,  in  our  relations  to  Him,  are 
these:  "Take  and  eat;"  "Take  and  drink." 
These  actions  indicate  that  at  the  Lord's 
table  we  are  to  be  receptive.  The  covenant- 
making  and  the  covenant-fulfilling,  these  Jesus 
does  Himself.  He  asks  us  only  to  accept 
of  Him  and  His  work.  This  view  brings 
before  us  and  keeps  before  us  the  teaching 
of  the  Gospel — that  God  can  do  nothing  but 
give,  and  we  can  do  nothing  but  take ;  that 
salvation  is  altogether  of  grace.  This  view 
strikes  a  killing  blow  at  that  spirit  of  legalism 
and  self-sufficiency  which  would  make  this 
feast  of  grace  a  place  of  bargaining  with  God 
and  a  medium  of  offering  Him  good  works 
at  a  premium. 

Let  us  awaken, to  the  truth  that  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  a  seal  of  the  covenant  of  grace. 


The  use  of  a  seal  is  to  confirm,  to  attest  the 
truth  and  value  and  reliability  of  that  to  which 
it  is  afiixed.  That  canceled  mortgage  which 
the  Father  keeps  and  shows  to  His  children 
is  a  seal,  a  witness  of  His  past  sacrifice  and 
labor  by  which  He  purchased  the  home  for 
His  loved  ones.  It  assures  them  of  His  fore- 
thought for  them.  It  is  an  assurance  that 
all  the  debt  is  paid.  Like  it,  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per speaks  to  us  of  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus 
Christ,  by  which  He  paid  the  price  of  our  re- 
demption. With  the  Eucharistic  character 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  before  us. 

1.  Let  us  celebrate  it  in  the  exercise  of 
faith.  It  is  "  by  faith  that  we  are  made  par- 
takers of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ." 
Faith  corresponds  to  the  bodily  acts  of  eating 
and  drinking.  Through  eating  and  drinking, 
food,  which  is  foreign  to  us,  becomes  part  of 
us.  It  beams  in  the  eye,  quivers  in  the  Ifp, 
throbs  in  the  heart,  enters  into  the  mysterious 
chambers  of  the  brain,  and  becomes  thought 
and  life.  Through  our  faith,  Christ,  with 
His  thoughts  and  purposes  and  spirit,  passes 
into  our  souls  and  lives  by  and  in  us.  Our 
cause  for  thanksgiving  is,  Christ  in  us  the 
hope  of  glory. 

2.  Let  us  celebrate  it  in  the  exercise  of  joy. 
The  apostle  teaches  us  that  there  is  "  joy 
and  peace  in  believing."  We  have  joy  when 
we  dwell  under  the  arch  of  the  rainbow,  and 
feel  our  safety  as  we  look  out  upon  the  re- 
treating storm  and  hear  the  mutterings  of  the 
distant  thunders.  We  recognize  the  bow  as 
the  token  of  God's  protecting  covenant,  and 
without  fear  and  hesitancy  we  go  out  to  enjoy 
it.  Like  freedom  from  fear  should  char- 
acterize our  dealings  with  the  Lord's  Supper. 
It  is  the  bow  of  the  New  Covenant. — H.  R. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER  A  DECLARATORY  RITE 


By  Alexander  Maclaren,  D.D. 
Ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come. — /  Cor.  xi:  26 


These  words  occur  in  the  course  of  the 
oldest  narrative  of  the  institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  Apostle  declares  that  he 
received  his  information  directly  from  Jesus 
Christ.  So  that  we  have  here  an  independent 
witness  to  the  facts.  The  testimony  carries 
us  back  beyond  the  date  of  the  earliest  of  our 
existing  gospels,  and  brings  us  within  five- 
and-twenty  years  of  the  Crucifixion.  By  that 
early  period,  then,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  uni- 
versally observed ;  and  not  only  so,  but  it  had 
been  in  existence  long  enough  to  have  been 
corrupted.  The  corruptions  are  instructive, 
as  is  also  the  apostolic  method  of  dealing  with 
them. 

The  abuses  to  which  the  Apostle  refers, 
and  which  are  his  sole  reason  for  mentioning 
the  Lord's  Supper  at  all,  are  mainly  two,  both 
of  which  cast  great  light  on  the  earliest  form 
of  the  ordinance.  Some  Corinthians  were 
accustomed  to  make  it  an  occasion  for  glut- 


tony and  intoxication,  and  some  were  ac- 
customed to  eat,  as  the  Apostle  says,  "  their 
own  supper."  so  breaking  the  unity  which  the 
rite  was  in  part  intended  to  express. 

How  would  it  have  been  possible  for  abuses 
of  that  sort  to  arise  unless  the  first  form  of 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  had 
been  associated  with  a  common  meal,  and  the 
domestic  aspect  been  prominent  in  it?  And 
how  would  individual  hurry  in  partaking  each 
one  of  his  own  supper  have  been  possible  if 
there  had  been  present  an  officiating  priest  to 
do  his  magic  ere  the  rite  could  be  observed? 
It  is  a  strange  picture,  to  our  eyes,  which 
necessarily  arises  from  the  consideration  of 
these  two  abuses.  And  it  is  a  long  road  from 
the  upper  room  where  the  Corinthian  Church 
met  to  the  "  tremendous  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass." 

The  Apostle's  way  of  dealing  with  the 
abuses  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  the  abuses 


126 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


themselves,  and  quite  as  illuminative  of  the 
true  significance  and  sacredness  of  this  ordi- 
nance. I  simply  take  the  words  before  us  as 
they  lie,  noting  the  three  points  which  he  em- 
phasizes in  order  to  enforce  his  doctrine  of 
the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  is  a 
proclamation.  It  is  a  proclamation  of  the 
death  of  Christ.  It  is  a  proclamation  perpet- 
ually "  till  he  come."  That  is  all,  and  He 
thinks  it  is  enough. 

Now,  then,  let  us  deal  with  these  three 
things. 

I.  First,  this  great  thought  that  the  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  this  ordinance  is  that  it 
is  a  declaration. 

What  it  declares  we  shall  have  to  speak 
about  presently.  It  is  its  nature,  not  its 
theme,  that  I  first  note.  The  word  rendered 
"  show  forth  "  means  fully  to  proclaim  aloud 
by  word  of  mouth,  and  it  is  generally  em- 
ployed in  reference  to  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel,  or  of  the  Word  of  God.  Plainly, 
then,  the  Apostle  wishes  to  parallel  the  two 
/  things,  the  oral  declaration  of  the  Gospel, 
and  the  symbolical  declaration  of  the  same 
^  verities,  as  standing  on  precisely  the  same 
ground,  and  differing  only  in  regard  of  the 
method  which  is  adopted  for  their  proc- 
lamation, and  the  senses  to  which  they  are 
directed.  A  parable  is  a  spoken  symbol ;  a 
symbol  is  an  acted  parable.  The  one  and  the 
other  lay  hold  upon  the  material,  and  bend  it, 
flexible  as  it  is,  to  become  the  illustration  and 
partial  embodiment  of  the  spiritual.  Such  is, 
as  the  Apostle  says,  the  nature  of  this  rite. 
It  stands  on  the  same  level  as  any  other 
method  of  declaring  the  truths  which  it  de- 
clares, and  its  only  distinction  lies  in  the 
peculiarities  of  the  method  adopted,  which 
is  a  symbolical  presentation  to  the  eye  of  the 
facts  which  are  given  to  the  ear  in  what  we 
ordinarily  call  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel. 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  I  am  not  forcing  too 
much  meaning  into  a  single  expression,  be- 
cause, throughout  this  whole  context,  there 
is  not  a  single  word  that  goes  beyond  such  a 
conception  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  is  a  me- 
morial, and,  as  the  Apostle  says  in  my  text, 
the  reason  why  it  is  a  memorial  is  because  it 
i^  a  proclamation.  Or,  to  put  it  into  other 
words,  by  the  rite  we  declare  to  ourselves  and 
to  others  the  Christian  facts,  and  the  declara- 
tion helps  us  to  bring  them  to  mind,  and  to 
feed  upon  Him  whom  they  reveal  to  us. 

Nothing  beyond  that  lies  in  this  context. 
And  the  omission  of  any  reference  to  any- 
thing unique,  mystical — still  more,  super- 
natural— in  the  rite,  is  all  the  more  remark- 
able if  you  remember  the  purpose  that  induced 
the  Apostle  to  speak  about  it  at  all,  viz., 
to  rebuke  irreverence,  and  to  elevate  the  no- 
tions of  the  Corinthian  Christians  as  to  the 
sanctity  of  the  ordinance.  If  he  had  shared 
the  ideas  of  the  people  who  call  themselves 
his  "  successors,"  how  could  he  have  re- 
frained from  using  that  conclusive  argument, 
when  his  purpose  was  to  enforce  the  sacred- 
ness of  the  rite?  The  only  reason  why  he 
did  not  use  it  was  because  he  never  dreamed 
of  it,  nor  had  it  ever  entered  into  the  horizon 
of   the    Christian    consciousness    of   his    day. 


The  sacredness  lies  in  the  proclamation  which 
it  makes,  and  that  is  sacredness  enough. 

But  then,  brethren,  as  every  king's  crown 
and  every  wedding  ring  bear  witness,  all 
symbols  are  apt  to  run  to  seed,  and  there 
gathers  round  them,  by  swift  accretion,  al- 
most necessarily,  at  all  events  generally, 
something  that  is  far  more  than  symbolical, 
even  a  superstitious  use  of  them.  Therefore 
our  Lord,  recognizing  the  needs  of  sense, 
has  made  concession  to  sense  in  the  two  or- 
dinances of  His  Church ;  and  recognizing  the 
dangers  of  symbol,  has  rightly  limited  the 
symbols  to  the  two  appointed  by  Himself. 
But  men  have  not  lived  at  that  lofty  elevation. 
And  paganism,  when  it  came  into  the  Church, 
grasped  at  the  symbols,  and  translated  them 
as  it  had  translated  those  belonging  to  the 
system  of  idolatrous  worship  which  in  name 
was  rejected  and  in  spirit  too  often  retained. 
All  that  is  vulgar,  and  all  that  is  sensuous, 
and  all  that  is  weak  in  humanity,  clings  to  the 
outward  rite,  and  transforms  it  into  a  power. 
And  so  we  find  that  the  baleful  shadow  of 
priestcraft  is  creeping  over  England  again 
to-day,  and  that  the  center  of  gravity  of 
Christianity  is  being  shifted  from  personal 
union  by  faith  with  Jesus  Christ  to  participa- 
tion in  an  outward  form  which  brings  the 
benefits  of  union  with  Him. 

And  I  for  my  part  believe — tho  it  may 
sound,  in  these  days  of  esthetic  worship  and 
growing  regard  for  ceremonial,  extremely 
and  archaically  Puritan  and  narrow — I  believe 
that  there  is  no  logical  standing-ground  be- 
tween these  two  conceptions  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  "  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death,"  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  extreme  Roman  Cath- 
olic view,  to  which  so  many  people  to-day 
seem  to  be  so  rapidly  drifting.  You  non- 
conformists used  to  understand  the  limits  of 
ritual  and  the  place  of  ordinance.  Some  of 
us,  I  am  afraid,  are  beginning  to  falter  in  our 
repetition  of  the  ancient  witness  which  our 
fathers  have  borne. 

II.  Notice  here  the  theme  of  the  proc- 
lamation. 

"  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death."  Now  I 
need  not  remind  you,  I  suppose,  that  there  is 
perhaps  no  better  evidence  of  an  historical 
fact  than  the  almost  contemporaneous  origin, 
and  continuous  duration,  of  some  commemo- 
rative symbolical  act,  as  the  history  of  all 
nations  may  tell  us.  And  it  should  be  taken 
fairly  into  account,  in  estimating  the  historical 
evidence  for  the  veracity  of  the  Gospel  nar- 
ratives, that  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
events  which  they  profess  to  record  there 
sprang  up,  and  there  has  continued  to  exist 
ever  since,  this  rite.  The  book  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  shows  us  that  immediately 
after  Pentecost  the  disciples  "  continued 
steadfastly  in  the  breaking  of  bread  "  ;  and 
that  at  a  later  period  they  were  in  the  habit 
of  assembling  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  for 
the  same  purpose.  So  I  clairn  this  long-prac- 
tised rite,  which  can  be  traced  up  almost  to  the 
open  grave  of  the  Master,  as  a  very  strong 
attestation  of  the  historical  veracity  of  the 
Gospel  narratives.  Thus,  in  the  lowest  sense, 
we  do  proclaim  the  Lord's  death. 


I 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


127 


But  the  torce  ot  the  words  goes  far  beyond 
that.  Note,  then,  and  give  to  it  due  import- 
ance in  your  conception  of  what  the  Gospel 
truth  and  Christ's  teachings  are,  the  fact  that 
He  Himself  chose  out  from  all  His  history 
His  death  as  the  thing  which  day  by  day  lov- 
ing hearts  were  to  remember,  and  hungry 
--  souls  were  to  feed  on.  Why  was  that?  Why 
was  it  that  He  passed  by  all  the  rest  and 
fixed  on  that?  It  seems  to  me  that  the  ordi- 
1^  nance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  ought  to  exercise 
^  the  influence  of  a  barrier  against  all  attempts 
to  minimize  or  to  diminish  the  significance 
and  the  importance  of  Christ's  death.  What 
do  Churches  which  have  ceased  to  proclaim 
the  full  doctrine  that  the  death  of  Christ  is 
the  life  of  the  world  do  with  that  rite? 
Neglect  it.  Let  it  drop  into  desuetude.  Ex- 
plain it  away  by  all  sorts  of  obviously  insuffi- 
cient explanations.  But  there  it  stands.  Not 
His  words  of  gentleness ;  not  His  deeds  of 
power;  not  His  teachings  of  wisdom  and  of 
truth ;  not  His  revelation  of  God  by  the 
beauty  of  a  perfected  humanity  and  the  pa- 
tience of  inexhaustible  tenderness,  are  what 
He  desires  to  be  remembered  by ;  but  that 
death  upon  the  cross.  Surely,  surely,  that  in- 
dicates a  unique  influence  and  power  as  re- 
siding there. 

And  that  same  conviction  is  enforced  if  we 
remember  that  the  showing  of  the  Lord's 
death,  which  is  accomplished  in  this  rite, 
shows  it  under  very  distinct  conditions,  ex- 
planatory of  its  meaning  and  power.  For  the 
duplication  of  the  memorials  into  the  bread 
and  the  wine  taken  apart  indicates  a  death 
by  violence ;  and  the  language  of  the  institu- 
tion points  us  to  deep  mysteries — the  body 
"  broken "  or  given  "  for  you,"  and  the 
"  blood  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins."  The 
same  death  is  conveyed  by  the  associations 
which  our  Lord  was  careful  to  establish  be- 
tween this  feast  of  the  Christian  Church  and 
the  Passover  feast  of  the  Jewish.  He  swept 
aside  the  sacrifice  that  was  made  for  the  re- 
demption of  Israel  from  the  captivity  of 
Egypt,  and  He  said,  "  Forget  the  shadow 
and  remember  the  substance ;  forget  the  sac- 
rifice that  was  made  of  the  Lamb,  unbroken 
in  bone,  and  remember  the  other  of  Him 
whose  body  was  given  for  you,  the  Lamb  of 
God,  the  Passover  for  the  sins  of  the  world." 

The  same  declaration  of  redeeming  power, 
as  lying  in  the  death  of  Christ,  is  enforced 
by  the  other  reference,  which  our  Lord  Him- 
self has  bid  us  see,  to  the  new  covenant  in 
His  blood,  the  covenant  of  which  the  articles 
are  remission  of  sins,  the  mutual  possession 
of  God  by  the  redeemed  soul,  and  of  that  soul 
by  God,  the  direct  knowledge  of  Him,  and  the 
continual  inscribing  of  His  law  upon  the 
heart. 

And  so,  brethren,  we  have  not  to  look  back 
to  that  death  as  simply  the  touching  martyr- 
dom of  the  purest  soul  that  ever  lived.  We 
have  not  to  look  back  to  Christ's  work  as 
having  been  done  as  they  who  reject  His 
propitiatory  death  are  forced  to  regard  it — 
chiefly  in  His  life  of  gentleness,  in  His  words 
of  teaching,  in  His  deeds  of  power  and  of 
piety;  but  we  have  to  recognize  this  unique 


fact  that  His  death  is  the  center  of  His  work, 
and  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  fountain  of  salva- 
tion for  us  all.  "  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's 
death." 

And  "  ye  do  show,"  too,  the  conditions  of  1 
our  partaking  of  it,  viz.,  that  we  should  feed  [ 
upon  Him ;  the  heart  on  His  love,  the  will  on  i 
His  commandments,  the  understanding  on  1 
His  word,  and  the  whole  sinful  man  upon 
His  atoning  death.  "  He  that  eateth  my  flesh 
and  drinketh  my  blood  hath  eternal  life." 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  perpetual  duration  and 
prophetic  aspect  of  the  proclamation. 

"  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death  till  he 
come."  Now,  I  suppose  I  do  not  need  to 
dwell  upon  the  thought  that  that  distinctly 
implies  that  all  through  the  ages  of  the 
Church  the  Apostle  contemplated  the  contin- 
uance of  this  rite  of  witnessing,  but  I  rather 
desire  to  suggest  to  you  how,  in  the  very  rite 
itself,  there  can  be  distinguished,  not  only  a 
commemorative  aspect  or  a  backward  look, 
but  a  prophetic  aspect,  and  a  symbol  of  that 
which  is  to  come. 

"  Till,  he  come."  All  symbolical  worship 
carries  ia  itself  the  witness  of  its  own  cessa-  ^ 
tion,  and  points  onward  to  the  time  when  it 
shall  not  be  needed.  It  is,  as  I  said,  a  con- 
cession to  sense  ;  it  is  a  confession  of  weak- 
ness. It  is,  if  not  inconsistent  with,  at  least 
in  some  measure  incongruous  with,  the  high- 
est genius  of  the  Christian  dispensation.  That 
is  no  reason  for  precipitate  dispensing  with 
external  form.  No  man  can  judge  another 
in  regard  of  that  matter.  There  is  need  for 
a  great  deal  more  charity,  both  on  the  side  of 
those  who  incline  to  the  Quaker  freedom 
from  all  ritual,  and  of  those  who  incline,  by 
natural  disposition,  to  the  other  side,  than  is 
usually  practised.  It  is  no  proof  of  spiritual 
maturity  to  try  to  do  without  the  help  of  ex- 
ternal rites.  It  is  no  proof  of  spiritual  imma- 
turity to  cleave  to  them,  if  only  it  be  dis- 
tinctly understood  that  the  whole  value  of 
them  lies,  not  in  what  they  are,  but  in  what 
they  signify.  But  still  the  existence  of  sym- 
bolical worship  is  a  prophecy  of  its  own  ces- 
sation. It  digs  its  own  grave,  as  it  were; 
and  just  because  here  we  need  the  bread  and 
the  wine  to  help  us  to  remember  the  death, 
the  taking  of  these  in  compliance  with  the 
temporary  necessity  itself  carries  our 
thoughts,  or  ought  to  carry  them,  onward  to 
the  time  when,  Christ  Himself  being  present 
with  His  Church,  and  they  sitting  at  His  table 
in  His  Kingdom,  the  symbols  shall  be  no 
more  needed.  "  I  saw  no  temple  therein." 
"  Ye  do  show     .     .     .     till  he  come." 

Again,  the  memory  of  His  death  is  fitted, 
and  intended,  to  quicken  the  hopes  of  His  ^ 
return.  For  the  two  belong  to  one  another, 
and  are  bolted  together,  if  I  might  so  say, 
like  the  two  stars  revolving  round  a  common 
center.  He  being  what  He  is,  the  cross  and 
the  open  sepulcher  cannot  be  the  last  that  the 
world  is  to  see  of  Him.  The  death  demands 
the  throne,  and  the  throne  certifies  the  return. 
So  the  memory  of  the  past  brightens  into 
hopes  for  the  future ;  and  the  radiance  be- 
hind us  flings  its  reflection  forward  on  to  the 
darkness  before,  and  illuminates  that  with  a 


128 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


sister  luster.  He  has  come  and  died,  there- 
fore He  will  come  and  reign. 

And  then,  still  further,  hope  is  inextricably 
intertwined  with  memory ;  because,  in  this 
domestic  rite,  we  see  the  symbol  that  the 
Master  Himself  has  given  us  of  the  calm 
felicities  of  that  life  beyond.  He  Himself 
said,  on  that  last  night  when  He  sat  at  the 
table,  "  I  appoint  unto  you  a  Kingdom,  that 
ye  may  sit  at  my  table  in  my  Kingdom,  " ; 
feeding  on  Christ  then  in  reality,  as  we  now 
do  in  symbol  and  imperfectly  by  faith ;  com- 
panioned by  Christ  according  to  His  gracious 
promise,  "  I  will  sup  with  him  and  he  with 
me,"  as  in  the  depths  of  spiritual  communion 
we  now  partially  do ;  reknit  to  those  whose 
empty  places  at  this  board  below  make  some 
of  us  always  solitary  and  often  sad ;  and 
having  the  Master  Himself  to  bless  the  feast 
and  to  part  the  viands. 

"  They  shall  go  no  more  out."  From  the 
Supper-Room  Christ  went  to  His  cross ;  the 
traitor  to  his  gibbet ;  the  beloved  Apostle  to 
his  denial;  the  rest  to  forsake  and  to  fly. 
But  from  that  feast  there  will  be  no  going 


forth,  and  the  the  loftier  service  of  heaven 
shall  not  interrupt  participation  in  Jesus,  for 
His  servants  shall  serve  Him  and  see  His 
face. 

Brethren,  the  one  question  for  us  all  is, 
"Do  I  feed  upon  Jesus  Christ?  Do  I  dis- 
cern that  body  as  broken  for  and  given  to 
me  ?  Do  I  know  that  my  sins  are  remitted 
by  the  shedding  of  His  blood?  "  No  partici- 
pation in  outward  rites  will  bring  or  sustain 
the  spiritual  life.  Partaking  of  Jesus  Christ 
alone  can  do  that,  and  rites  help  to  partake 
of  Him  in  the  measure  in  which  they  bring 
His  death  to  heart  and  mind,  and  so  help  faith 
to  grasp  it  as  the  means  of  our  salvation.  His 
solemn  words.  "  Whoso  eaieth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  blood  hath  eternal  life,"  are  de- 
graded when  they  are  understood  as  referring 
to  the  external  ordinance.  In  the  same  con- 
versation He  Himself  interpreted  them  when 
He  said,  "  He  that  believeth  on  me  hath 
everlasting  life." 

"  Believe,  and  thou  hast  eaten,"  said  Au- 
gustine. "  Eat,  and  ye  shall  live  forever," 
says  Jesus  Christ. — H.  R. 


AT  THE  COMMUNION  TABLE 


By  H.  Lyman 


And  he  took  the  cup  and  gave  thanks. — Matt,  xxvi:  27 


The  symbolism  of  the  text — its  power. 

First  "  The  Cup."  The  cup  presents  two 
aspects:  (i)  As  viewed  by  Jesus — the  Savior. 
(2)  As  viewed  by  man — the  sinner. 

1.  Man  sees  in  the  cup  (a)  forgiveness  (h) 
reconciliation,  (c)  freedom  from  sin,  (d) 
eternal  life.  No  wrath  foams  upon  the  sur- 
face, no  bitter  dregs  beneath. 

2.  What  did  Christ  see  in  the  cup?  (a) 
His  death  as  a  felon,  (h)  The  hiding  of  the 
Father's  countenance,  (c)  Himself  as  bear- 
ing the  guilt  of  sin. 

Second:  "Gave  thanks."  Jesus  shrank 
from  that  cup,  yet  took  it  and  gave  thanks. 
"  Father,  I  thank  Thee  for  this  opportunity 
to  magnify  Thy  great  law.    I  thank  Thee  for 


the  millions  whom  by  this  act  I  shall  redeem, 
and  that  I  am  thus  permitted  to  give  testi- 
mony of  My  great  love  to  man.  I  thank 
Thee  that  in  this  very  triumph  of  Satan  his 
downfall  is  sealed."  Then,  with  the  serenity  of 
unspeakable  grace.  He  drank  the  cup,  drain- 
ing it  to  its  dregs,  and  in  that  act  He  tasted 
death  for  every  man,  and  finished  the  sacrifice 
impending  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

Infinite  benevolence  and  infinite  foresight 
were  necessary  to  inspire  this  thankfulness  io 
Jesus. 

Remark :  If  Jesus  the  Savior  could  take 
the  cup  that  symbolized  His  death  and  give 
thanks,  how  thankfully  should  man  take  the 
cup  that  symbolizes  his  salvation, — H.  R. 


CHRIST  AND  THE  COMMUNION 


By  J.  CuLRoss 

And  as  they  did  eat,  Jesus  took  bread,  and  blessed,  and  brake  it,  and  gave  to  them,  and  said. 
Take,  eat:    this  is  my  body,  etc. — Mark  xiv:  22-25 


I.  This  service  carries  us  back  over  dim 
tracks  of  time  to  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel. 
We  think  of  scattered  bands  of  our  ancient 
brethren,  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  hea- 
thenism, gathering  as  we  do  now  around  the 
Table  of  our  Lord.  They  regarded  the  cruci- 
fied Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Savior 
of  the  world.  It  is  not  altogether  difficult  to 
place  ourselves  in  the  position  of  those  an- 
cient saints,  and  to  enter  into  their  state  of 


heart  as  they  gathered  round  the  Lord's 
Table.  There  was  an  unconscious  recogni- 
tion— all  the  more  profound  and  joyful  that 
it  was  unconscious — of  their  being  one  through 
the  love  that  embraced  them  all.  It  was  not, 
however,  that  their  minds  were  occupied  about 
one  another.  It  was  the  Lord  Himself  whom 
they  thought  upon ;  His  holy  form  it  was  that 
rose  up  before  the  eye  of  faith ;  the  festival 
was    one    of   love,    and    memory,    and    hope. 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


129 


bringing  up  to  faith  the  sacred  Person  of  the 
Lord,  and  kindling  all  blissful  emotions.  In 
such  experiences  believing  men  may  share 
to-day,  to  the  same  extent  as  believing  men 
of  the  first  century. 

II.  What  is  this  communion  to  our  Savior? 
What  was  in  His  heart  when  He  established 
this  ordinance?  The  answer  rises  to  our  lips 
at  once,  (i)  There  was  undying  love  to  His 
own.  That  love  is  the  abiding  mystery  of  the 
Gospel.  Never  before  did  it  get  such  utter- 
ance ;  never  before  did  it  appear  so  tender 
and  intense,  so  full  and  overflowing.  (2) 
There  is  another  thing  beyond  even  this.  It 
tells  out  His  desire  for  fellowship  with  His 
own — just  as  when  He  took  Peter  and  James 
and  John  with  Him  into  the  garden,  and  said, 


"  My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrowful  even  unto 
death ;  tarry  ye  here  and  watch  with  me." 
There  is  unfathomable  mystery  here — that 
He,  so  to  speak,  should  lean  on  us,  but  it  is 
a  part  of  the  blessed  mystery  of  His  brother- 
hood. Brotherhood  is  no  mere  name  with 
Him ;  but  a  blissful  verity.  In  all,  save  sin, 
His  heart  was  like  our  own;  and  just  as  we 
have  pleasure  in  the  love  that  our  friends 
bear  toward  us,  and  in  knowing  that  we  live 
in  their  memory,  so  does  He  delight  in  the 
love  with  which  saved  men  love  Him.  It  is 
part  of  the  reward  of  His  sorrows,  part  of  the 
joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  for  which  He 
endured  the  Cross,  despising  the  shame. — 
S.  B.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  357. 


PREPARATION  FOR  THE  LAST  SUPPER 

Outlines  of  a  sermon  by  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  Sr.,  D.D. 

Then  came  the  day  of  unleavened  bread,  when  the  passover  must  be  killed,  etc. — Luke  xxii: 

7-20 


Jesus  was  in  Bethany,  near  Jerusalem,  pre- 
paring for  His  great  trial.  It  was  Thursday 
morning.  The  passover  is  just  at  hand.  It  is 
a  day  of  preparation,  the  Lamb  to  be  offered  is 
Himself.  Go,  said  He  to  His  disciples,  and 
prepare — get  ready — for  Me ;  let  it  be  heart 
preparation. 

1.  This  preparation  was  general.  Its  out- 
ward nature  we  do  not  know ;  where  it  was 
to  be  was  the  first  question  of  the  disciples. 
A  vast  preparation  had  been  going  on  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  the  work 
was  now  to  be  finished.  All  the  Old  Testa- 
ment teachings,  histories,  prophecies,  and 
events  were  a  preparation  for  the  death  on 
the  cross.  "  Go,  prepare  to  me:t  Me  around 
that  table."  It  was  as  much  my  table  as  it 
was  Peter's,  and  I  have  just  as  much  right  to 
lay  my  head  on  Jesus'  bosom,  then,  as  had  the 
beloved  John. 

2.  When,  or  at  what  time,  concerned  the 
disciples.  Your  time  to  prepare  is  now.  The 
time  has  come ;  childhood  is  all  gone,  and  the 
heart  is  unchanged,  now  prepare  to  meet  Him. 
It  youth  has  passed,  now  is  your  time,  before 
manhood  is  gone. 

3.  The  character  of  this  command.  It  is 
imperative — "  Go  "  now.  Grotius,  who  lived  to 
be  fifty  before  he  made  this  preparation,  said, 
"  I  have  passed  the  whole  of  my  life  labor- 
iously doing  nothing."     Cast  away  your  sins, 


your  prayerlessness.  "  I  have  lost  ten  years ; 
I  give  the  rest  to  Jesus,"  should  be  the  resc 
lution  of  youth.  It  was  three  miles  to  Jeru- 
salem. It  required  a  start  at  once,  and  then. 
He  would  show  them  how  to  prepare.  Are- 
there  clouds  or  doubts  as  to  duty?  Christ 
will  make  all  right.  No  hour  for  this  prepa- 
ration is  too  early.  No  matter  how  young, 
prepare.  Go  into  the  city,  and  you  will  meet 
a  man  bearing  a  pitcher  of  water.  Go  where 
he  goes,  and  there  I  will  eat  the  passover. 
By  the  water  and  the  blood  of  the  impending, 
sacrifice  you  will  be  saved.  The  pitcher  isi 
the  sign  of  the  water  in  baptism — the  prepara- 
tion. Last  Sabbath  I  sat  where  seventy  years 
I  before  my  mother  offered  me  in  baptism. 

Oh,  if  you  have  not  accepted,  you  have  re- 
fused this  feast. 

Lastly.  You  will  need  to  carry  nothing  in 
there.     The  feast  is  prepared. 

"  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea." 

This  perfect  obedience  supplies  everything. 
All  that  we  want  is  the  free  gift  already  fur- 
nished. This  was  the  last  of  Christ's  pil- 
grimage, the  journey  from  Bethany  to  Jeru- 
salem. The  Sunday  following  He  rose  from 
the  dead,  prepared  for  His  kingdom  of  glory. 

The  preparation  I  urge  upon  you  is,  that 
you  may  be  ready  to  enter  that  Kingdom. — 
H.  R. 


DESIRE  FOR  COMMUNION 

By  T.  D.  Witherspoon,  D.D. 
With  desire  have  I  desired  to  eat  this  passover  with  you  before  I  suffer. — Luke  xxii:  37 

The  passage  from  Judaism  to  Christianity  feet  day.     There  was  no  flourish  of  trumpets  ; 

was  as  noiseless  and  unostentatious  as  the  un-  no  great  convocation  of  ecclesiastical  leaders ; 

folding  of  the  bud  into  the  full  flower,  or  the  no    blazonry   of   public    proclamation   to    the 

development  of  the  gray  dawn  into  the  per-  world ;   but  in  the  little  upper  chamber,  where 


I30 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


the  Master  and  His  twelve  disciples  were 
seated  about  the  board,  the  passover  was 
merged  into  the  Lord's  Supper ;  the  prefigur- 
ative  gave  way  to  the  commemorative ;  the 
old  dispensation  joined  hands  with  the  new; 
and  as,  shortly  before,  circumcision  had 
yielded  its  place  to  baptism,  the  Church  of 
God,  with  its  changed  seals  of  an  unchang- 
ing covenant,  came  forth  to  enter  upon  its  new 
and  worldwide  career. 

It  is  this  relation  of  the  Passover  to  the 
Lord's  Supper  which  gives  to  the  words  of 
the  text  a  peculiar  significance  for  us,  and 
should  cause  a  lively  response  in  every  heart 
to  the  intense  desire  with  which  He  desired  to 
partake  of  the  feast  with  His  disciples.  This 
desire  arose,  no  doubt,  out  of  various  consid- 
erations connected  with  the  feast  which  He 
was  about  to  observe. 

I.  It  was  to  Him  what  the  Lord's  Supper 
is  to  us,  an  ordinance,  the  observance  of  which 
was  enjoined  with  peculiar  solemnity,  and  He, 
desired  to  keep  it  as  the  expression  of  His 
filial  obedience.  He  would  give  one  more 
evidence  that  His  meat  and  His  drink  was  to 
do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Him. 

II.  The  relation  of  this  Passover  to  His 
great  mediatorial  work  now  just  about  to  be 
accomplished  inspired  His  desire  that  it 
should  be  celebrated.  He  was  the  true  "  Pas- 
chal lamb."  The  blood  sprinkled  upon  the 
door-posts  and  lintels  was  symbolic  of  His 


blood;  the  flesh  eaten  with  bitter  herbs,  of 
His  flesh,  which  He  would  give  for  the  life  of 
the  world.  And  as  the  Lord's  supper  has 
the  same  significance,  we  should  desire  it 
that  the  same  great  spiritual  realities  may  be 
exhibited  and  sealed  to  our  faith. 

III.  In  the  companionship  of  the  disciples 
at  the  table  He  could  see  even  in  advance 
the  first  fruits  of  the  salvation  He  had  come 
to  secure.  And  in  the  faces  of  Peter,  James, 
and  John  He  could  see  the  earnest  pledge  of 
that  great  multitude  whom  no  man  could 
number,  who  would  sit  down  at  the  ten  thou- 
sand times  ten  thousand  communion  tables  of 
all  ages  and  climes.  Therefore  He  said  to 
them,  and  through  them  to  us,  "  I  have  de- 
sired to  eat  this  passover  with  you." 

Finally,  the  words,  "  before  I  suffer,"  indi- 
cate His  expectation  to  receive  in  this  corn- 
munion  with  His  disciples  and  with  His 
Father  at  the  table  strength  for  the  baptism 
of  suffering  that  was  to  follow.  He  was  man, 
with  all  human  sensibilities  and  all  sinless 
infirmities.  He  needed  strength  and  support 
and  sought  it  here,  as  He  did  afterward  in 
the  garden,  when  He  said :  "  What,  could  ye 
not  watch  with  me  one  hour?"  If  the  Sin- 
less One  felt  this  need  of  strength  through 
God's  appointed  feast,  let  us  come  with  the 
assurance  that  we  also  may  be  strengthened 
for  whatever  conflicts,  temptations,  and  trials 
may  lie  along  our  path. — P.  T. 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SACRAMENT 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,   D.D.,   LL.D. 


I  Cor.  xi:  24 


The  Sacrament  a  monument  requested  by 
Jesus;  twenty-five  years  after  Paul  reminded 
the  Church  in  Corinth  of  its  institution. 

In  remembrance  of  Christ: 

I.  All  who  believe  that  there  is  such  a  beau- 
tiful, good,  holy,  loving  being  as  Christ  in 
the  universe. 

II.  That  He  has  done  so  much  for  us. 

1.  Loved  J  (a)   When  we  did  not  love  Him. 

us.     }  (b)  When  we  were  unlovely. 
„        TT-        ir  r  S  Voluntary  love. 

2.  Gave  Himself  for  us.  -j  Self-sacrificing. 

III.  Then  He  is  still  doing  something  for  us. 


1.  Managing  our  providences. 

2.  Preparing  our  homes. 

3.  Interceding  for  us. 

IV.  That  He  was  an  innocent  sufferer. — If 
an  impostor  He  would  not  have  instituted 
this  supper. — All  who  believe  Him  innocent 
ought  to  observe  this  Sacrament. 

V.  Tliat  He  lias  risen. — He  knew  His  dis- 
ciples could  not  keep  one  without  the  other. — 
Keep  the  monument  over  His  grave  adorned 
with  fresh  flowers  and  wet  with  fresh  tears : 

(a)  It  will  make  you  better  and  happier. 

(b)  It  will  impress  the  world. 


THE  SACRAMENTAL  CUP 


Outlines  of  a  sei-mon  by  Rev.  T.  A.  Nelson,  D.D. 

This  cup  is  the  new  testament  in  my  blood:   tliis  do  ye,  as  oft  as  ye  drink  it,  in  remembrance 

of  me. — I  Cor.  xi:  25 


In  individual,  family,  and  national  life,  etc., 
we  have  our  seasons  of  commemoration,  to 
keep  alive  the  memory  of  notable  days  or 
deeds.     These     seasons    are    observed    with 


festive  jov  or  a  fast  of  the  Spirit.  So.  too, 
Christianity  has  its  memorial-day — not  ush- 
ered in  by  the  noise  of  cannon  or  blare  of 
trumpets ;    not  to  be  observed  with  gorgeous 


COMMUNION   SUNDAY 


131 


pageantry  or  imposing  ritual,  but  rather  a?  a 
holy  resting  time — a  feast  to  be  kept  with 
solemn  gladness  of  heart. 

The  institution  of  this  feast  was  the  in- 
stinct of  love.  We  delight  in  being  remem- 
bered by  those  who  share  our  affection ;  so 
Christ  desires  to  be  remembered  by  those  who 
love  Him,  and  the  thought  of  Him  is  to  per- 
vade the  whole  life. 

But  this  remembrance  has  a  wise  purpose 
in  relation  to  ourselves. 

I.  Remembr.\nce  begets  humiliation,  by 
revealing  the  measure  of  our  guilt.  The  cup 
brings  before  us  the  Cross,  and  the  Cross  re- 
calls our  sin.  We  judge  of  the  curse  of  slav- 
ery by  what  it  cost  us  to  blot  it  out — enor- 
mous expenditure  of  treasure  ;  a  million  of 
graves  furrowing  the  land ;  tens  of  thousands 
of  hearts  and  homes  desolated  forever.  We 
are  prone  to  look  upon  sin  lightly;  but  when 
we  touch  the  cup  to  our  lips  it  brings  the  vi- 
sion of  the  Cross ;  we  see  the  blood ;  we  hear 
the  groans  of  the  broken  heart  of  Jesus.  The 
sun  darkens ;  the  earth  quivers  in  sympathy 
with  the  dissolution  of  its  Lord ;  and  in  the 
awful  horror  of  that  scene  we  read  our  sin, 
fathom  its  turpitude ;  then,  bowing  our  heads, 
cry:  "God  be  merciful  to  us  sinners!" 

n.  It  quickens  hope.  The  day  not  only 
recalls  our  sin,  but  also  our  sacrifice.  Through 
it  we  see  "  help  laid  on  One  mighty  to  save." 
It  is  at  once  the  expression  of  God's  wrath 
toward  sin  and  His  love  toward  the  sinner. 
It  not  only  speaks  of  our  disobedience,  but  re- 


minds us  of  One  who  for  us  fulfilled  the  law 
and  became  obedient  unto  the  death.  So 
we  touch  the  cup  to  our  lips  and  hope  springs 
afresh. 

III.  It  inspires  to  new  activity  through 
GRATITUDE. — Having  been  forgiven  much,  we 
love  much,  and  love  prompts  to  sacrifice  and 
service.  We  feel  with  Paul  the  constraining 
power  of  this  love. 

It  is  this  vision  of  the  Holy  Grail  which 
sustained  the  martyr  at  the  stake,  and  which 
to-day  leads  men  over  the  seas  and  into  the 
heart  of  unexplored  lands,  that  they  may 
carry  thither  the  sweet  message  of  the  Gos- 
pel. We  touch  the  cup  to  our  lips  at  once 
as  the  inspiration  and  pledge  of  grateful  serv- 
ice. 

IV.  It  lifts  OUR  longings  heavenward. 
Every  heart  and  every  household  has  its  treas- 
ured souvenirs  of  those  who  once  were  with 
us  but  are  not,  for  God  has  taken  them.     How 
sacred  such  relics !     To  view  them  is  to 

"  Sigh  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand. 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 

So,  when  reverently  we  press  the  cup  to  our 
lips,  memory  is  busy  with  the  past  and  im- 
agination with  the  future,  we  do  desire  "  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ."  Thought  springs 
upward  from  the  cross  to  the  crown,  and  we 
long  to  be  with  Him — "  to  see  the  King  in 
his  beauty  and  to  behold  the  land  that  is 
very  far  off." — H.  R. 


SUGGESTIVE  THOUGHTS  AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ATONEMENT,  The  Infinite.— /.y.  i:  18. 
You  see  the  Thames  as  it  goes  sluggishly 
down  to  the  arches,  carrying  with  it  endless 
impurity  and  corruption.  You  watch  the 
inky  stream  as  it  pours  along  day  and  night, 
and  you  think  it  will  pollute  the  world.  But 
you  have  just  been  down  to  the  seashore,  and 
you  have  looked  on  the  great  deep,  and  it 
has  not  left  a  stain  on  the  Atlantic.  No,  it 
has  been  running  down  a  good  many  years, 
and  carried  a  world  of  impurity  with  it,  but 
when  you  go  to  the  Atlantic  there  is  not  a 
speck  on  it.  As  to  the  ocean,  it  knows  noth- 
ing about  it.  It  is  full  of  majestic  music. 
So  the  smoke  of  London  goes  up ;  and  has 
been  going  up  for  a  thousand  years.  One 
would  have  thought  that  it  would  have  spoiled 
the  scenery  by  now ;  but  you  get  a  look  at  it 
sometimes.  There  is  the  great  blue  sky 
which  has  swallowed  up  the  smoke  and  gloom 
of  a  thousand  years,  and  its  azure  splendor  is 
unspoiled.  It  is  wonderful  how  the  ocean 
has  kept  its  purity,  and  how  the  sky  has  taken 
the  breath  of  the  millions  and  the  smoke  of 
the  furnaces,  and  yet  it  is  as  pure  as  the  day 
God  made  it.  It  is  beautiful  to  think  that 
these  are  only  images  of  God's  great  pity  for 
the  race. — C.  Up. 


BREAD,  The  Living.— /o^«  vi:  51.  Jesus 
had  said  that  He  was  "  the  bread  of  life,"  and 
now  He  says :  "  I  am  the  living  bread." 
There  is  a  difference.  "  Bread  of  life  "  puts 
emphasis  on  the  effect,  "  living  bread  "  on  the 
cause.  "  As  '  living  water  '  is  running  from  a 
fountain  in  perpetual  stream,  and  not  a  meas- 
ured quantity  in  a  tank,  so  '  living  bread  '  is 
bread  which  renews  itself  in  proportion  to  all 
needs  like  the  bread  of  the  miracle." — Bruce. 
Whoever  eats  this  living  bread  feels  the 
quickening  power  of  an  endless  life. — C.  G. 

CHRIST,  On  the  body  of.— When  Thou 
wert  in  the  world,  dear  Master,  Thou  didst 
dwell  in  a  body,  like  men.  Now  Thou  hast 
gone  from  the  world  Thou  hast  no  other 
body  than  those  of  Thy  children  on  the  earth. 
But  Thou  hast  bidden  me  to  be  Thy  body. 
me  and  all  the  host  of  those  that  love  and 
serve  Thee.  When  Thou  wert  on  the  earth, 
what  wonderful  things  Thy  body  did  !  Thy 
lips  that  kissed  the  little  ones  and  stilled  the 
tempest.  Thine  eyes,  that  looked  upon  Peter, 
and  saw  Nathanael  under  the  fig-tree.  Thy 
hand,  that  touched  the  blind  to  sight  and 
lifted  the  dead  into  life  again.  Thy  feet, 
that    bore    Thee    up    and    down    among    the 


132 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


homes  of  the  poor,  and  sick,  and  sinful.  Thine 
ears,  that  never  were  closed  to  a  cry  of  need. 
Thy  tongue,  that  uttered  the  wisest  words  of 
all  the  earth.  Thy  heart,  that  broke  upon  the 
cross.  And  whatsoever  things  Thy  body  did 
for  Thee  upon  the  earth  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago,  the  church.  Thy  body, — I,  and  the 
other  men  and  women  that  love  Thee  and 
serve  Thee, — must  do  now.  We  must  walk 
upon  Thine  errands,  and  speak  Thy  words, 
and  look  Thy  glances,  and  stretch  out  Thy 
hands  of  loving  sympathy,  and  rebuke  for 
Thee,  and  heal  for  Thee,  and  daily  die  for 
Thee  upon  our  smaller  crosses.  What  can 
I  say,  wliat  can  I  say,  before  this  great 
duty,  this  awful  responsibility?  I  will  re- 
member that  I  am  not  all  Thy  body.  Thou 
didst  not  ask  Thy  hand  to  do  the  work  of 
Thy  mouth,  or  Thy  feet  to  do  the  work  of 
Thine  eyes.  Neither  wilt  Thou  ask  me  to  do 
the  work  of  any  other  part  of  Thy  body,  but 
just  my  own  work,  and  I  am  only  a  very  small 
part  of  Thy  great  body,  the  Church.  And  I 
will  remember,  too, — above  all,  I  will  remem- 
ber,— that  Thou  art  in  Thy  body.  The  hand 
does  not  move  by  its  own  might,  nor  the 
tongue  speak  with  its  own  wisdom ;  and  if 
Thou  wilt  move  me,  I  can  easily  be  hand  for 
Thee;  and  if  Thou  wilt  inspire  me,  I  can 
easily  be  voice  for  Thee.  O  may  this  thought 
be  with  me  continually,  "  /  must  not  speak, 
/  dare  not  act ;  I  am  Christ's  body,  and  it  is 
His  to  use  me  as  He  will."  And  thus,  dear 
Lord,  wilt   Thou  come  and  abide  in  me. — G.  R. 

COMMUNION,  Conditions  of  Acceptable. 

— "  This  psalm  (xv.)  is  no  mirror  for  the 
self-righteous  to  see  themselves  in."  When 
we  come  to  the  Lord's  table  we  ought  to 
search  our  hearts  and  see  what  earth-stains 
still  cleave  to  us.  For  holiness  becometh 
God's  house.  The  pure  in  heart  shall  see 
God.  The  guest-friends  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
ought  to  be  eminent  for  practical  holiness. 
Psalm  XV.  may  well  become  the  communi- 
cant's companion.  Perowne  says  of  it :  "  Such 
is  the  figure  of  stainless  honor  drawn  by  the 
pen  of  a  Jewish  poet.  Christian  chivalry  has 
not  dreamed  of  a  brighter.  We  have  need 
often  and  seriously  to  ponder  it.  For  it  shows 
us  that  faith  in  God  and  spotless  integrity 
may  not  be  sundered ;  that  religion  does  not 
veil  or  excuse  petty  dishonesties ;  that  love 
to  God  is  only  then  worthy  the  name  when 
it  is  the  life  and  bond  of  every  social  virtue. 
Each  line  is,  as  it  were,  a  touchstone  to  which 
we  should  bring  ourselves.  To  speak  truth 
in  the  heart — to  take  up  no  reproach  against  a 
neighbor — would  not  the  Christian  man  be 
perfect  ( reX-etoi  )  of  whom  this  could  be 
said?  And  that  other  trait  in  this  divine 
character, — "  who  honoreth  them  that  fear 
the  Lord." — is  there  a  surer  test  of  our 
spiritual  condition  than  this,  that  we  love  and 
honor  men  because  they  love  Christ?"" — C.  G. 

COMMUNION,  Divine.— How  many  beau- 
tiful expressions  suggest  sweet  thoughts  as 
to  the  believer's  near  communion  with  God : 
Abiding  before  God.  Ps.  lxi:7;  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Almighty.  Ps.  xci :  i ;  in  the 
light,  I  John  ii:  lo;   in  the  love  of  Jesus,  John 


XV :  4,  id;  as  the  branch  in  the  vine,  John 
XV :  4,  5 ;  the  beautiful  emblems  of  con- 
stant nourishment,  calm  security,  and  uphold- 
ing trust.  Dwelling  in  the  secret  place  of  the 
Most  High,  Ps.  xci:  i;  in  God,  i  John  iv : 
i6;  implying  the  ideas  of  refuge  and  rest, 
delighting  in  the  Lord,  Ps.  xxxvii :  4  Isa. 
Iviii :  14 — "  If  desire  be  love  in  motion  like 
a  bird  on  the  wing ;  delight  may  be  compared 
to  love  at  rest,  rejoicing  in  its  own  happiness." 
Drazving  near,  Ps.  Ixxiii :  28 ;  as  with  Abra- 
ham's reverence  and  confidence.  Gen.  xviii : 
2^.  Entering  into  the  holiest,  Heb.  x :  19. 
Fellowship,  i  Cor.  i :  9 ;  i  John  i :  3  ;  symbol- 
ized by  eating  and  drinking  together,  as  in  the 
ancient  sacrifices,  and  now  in  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. Sitting  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ 
Jesus,  Eph.  ii :  6.  our  heart  and  hope  being 
there  already. — Bowes. 

COMMUNION,  Sacramental.— Especially 
in  acts  of  sacramental  communion  with  his 
Lord  does  the  Christian  gather  up  and  con- 
secrate the  powers  of  his  life-long  commun- 
ion with  heaven.  Then  it  is  that  he  has  most 
vivid  impressions  of  the  nearness  of  God  to 
his  soul,  a  most  comfortable  assurance  of 
strength  for  his  need. — Mackarness. 

COMMUNION,  Spirit  and  Substance  of. 

— Matt,  xxvi:  26.  I  heard  a  Christian  Jew 
say,  detailing  the  present  Jewish  method  of 
keeping  the  passover,  that  always,  through  the 
centuries  back  and  now,  on  every  paschal 
table  there  have  been,  and  are,  set  a  plate  and 
a  cup  for  the  coming  One.  And  that  Jesus 
broke  the  bread  into  this  plate,  and  took  the 
cup  waiting  for  the  coming  One,  and  so  de- 
clared Himself  the  coming  One,  as  He  gave 
bread  from  the  plate  for  the  coming  One,  and 
wine  from  the  cup  for  the  coming  One,  to  His 
disciples.  I  think  this  wonderfully  beautiful 
and  significant.  Christ  is  the  long  promised 
coming  One.  He  has  come.  Also,  this  Chris- 
tian Jew  said  the  bread  and  the  wine  were 
simply  symbolic  and  memorial.  Yonder  hangs 
a  photograph  of  your  friend.  "  There  is  my 
friend,"  you  say.  You  say  it  truly,  but  you 
mean  that  picture  simply  represents  your 
friend.  So  the  broken  bread  and  the  poured 
wine  are  symbols  of,  represent,  the  atoning 
Christ.  Do  not  wait  upon  and  hang  your 
thought  about  the  symbols.  Press  beyond 
them  to  the  Christ  they  represent.  Yield 
yourself  in  faith  and  love  to  Him,  not  to  them, 
when  in  obedience  to  His  command,  you  eat 
the  bread  and  drink  the  wine  in  remembrance 
of  Him.— S.  S.  T. 

LORD'S    SUPPER,    Above.— Ma//,  xxvi: 

2g.  Supposing  for  one  moment  that  the 
divine  Son  of  God  was  limited  by  the  flesh 
more  than  the  church  formerly  thought ;  sup- 
pose Jesus  did  expect  to  return  at  an  early 
day,  as  per  Mark  xiv :  25  (Dr.  McGiffert)  ; 
and  grant  even  that  which  I  do  not  grant,  that 
the  Savior  did  not  institute  the  Supper  in 
the  sense  in  which  the  apostle  Paul  and  the 
Church  Militant  have  ever  observed  it, — what 
then?  If  you  take  away  every  foundation 
for  the  use  of  this  Sacrament,  out  into  the 
future  we  go,  we  shall  prophesy  that  whereas 


COMMUNION   SUNDAY 


133 


"  Years  have  past ;  in  every  clime, 
Changing  with  the  changing  time, 
Torn  by  factions,  rock'd  by  storms, 
Still  the  sacred  table  spread 
Flowing  cup  and  broken  bread 
With  that  parting  word  agree, 

'  Drink  and  eat.     Remember  me ;'  " 

and  whereas  for  hundreds  of  years  back,  and 
we  know  not  how  many  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  years  in  the  future,  the  disciples  of 
the  Lord  have  kept  up  and  will  keep  up  this 
precious  service  in  memory  of  Him,  and  as 
a  symbol  of  feeding  upon  Him,  be  it  resolved 
that  it  is  the  sense  of  every  Christian  that  He 
will  unquestionably  celebrate  the  eating  of  the 
bread  and  the  drinking  of  the  wine  with  the 
Church  triumphant.— C.  J.  Tuthill,  D.D. 

LOBD'S    SUPPER,    Import    of    the.— A 

Malay  youth,  who  was  being  educated  in 
Scotland,  as  he  came  out  of  church  one  Sun- 
day, was  asked,  "  What  have  you  seen  in 
church  to-day?  "  He  answered,  "  I  see  people 
take  bread  and  wine."  "  And  what  does  that 
mean?"  "The  body  and  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ."  "  Is  it  really  the  body  and  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ?"  "  O,  no,"  said  he,  "not 
all  same ;  it  keep  in  mind — keep  in  mind  His 
body  and  blood — He  die  for  sinners." — F.  II. 

LORD'S  SUPPER,  Memorial.— The 
Lord's  Supper  comes  to  us  like  a  ring  plucked 
cfi  from  Christ's  finger,  or  a  bracelet  from 
His  arm ;  or  rather  like  His  picture  from 
His  breast,  delivered  to  us  with  such  words  as 
these,  "  As  oft  as  you  look  on  this,  remember 
me," — John  Flavel. 

LORD'S  SUPPER,  Real  Presence  in  the. 
Rev.  Dr.  Cumming,  of  London,  says  that  in 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland  he  once  met  a  lady 
of  noble  birth,  who  asked  him  if  he  believed 
in  the  "  real  presence."  "  Certainly  I  do," 
he  said;  "  I  am  very  glad,"  she  replied,  "  but 
you  are  the  first  Protestant  clergyman  I  ever 
met  with  who  did."  "  We  attach  dififerent 
meanings  to  the  same  words,"  said  Dr.  Cum- 
ming. "  I  believe  in  the  real  presence  of  our 
Lord  wherever  two  or  three  are  gathered  to- 
gether in  His  name.  I  cannot  believe  as  you 
do  about  the  real  presence,  when  I  consider 
the  words  '  In  remembrance  of  me.'  Memory 
has  to  do  with  the  past,  with  an  absent  friend. 
To  eat  and  drink  in  remembrance  of  one  who 
is  actually  present  before  one's  eyes  is  an 
absurdity." — F.  II. 

LORD'S  SUPPER,  Title  in  the.— The 
Lord's  Supper  being  an  evident  proof  that  the 
New  Testament  is  in  full  force,  (it  being  the 
cup  of  the  New  Testament  in  His  blood,  Matt. 
xxvi:28),  it  tends  much  to  our  satisfaction, 
as  the  legal  execution  of  the  deed  by  which 
we  hold  and  enjoy  our  estate.  So  that  when 
He  saith,  "  Take,  eat,"  it  is  as  much  as  if 
God  should  stand  before  you  at  the  table  with 
Christ,  with  all  the  promises  in  His  hand; 


and  say,  "  I  deliver  this  to  thee  as  My  deed." 
— John  Flavel. 

LORD'S  SUPPER,  Typical.— When  the 
miner  in  the  American  prairie  sinks  a  shaft 
to  strike  the  coal  formation,  he  finds,  far 
below,  the  images  of  beautiful  plants,  lying 
like  lacework  .^^pread  out  upon  tables  of 
ebony  ;  images  of  ferns,  and  leaves,  and  flowers, 
which,  millions  of  years  ago,  perhaps  ceased, 
from  some  change  of  climate,  to  open  in  the 
cold  spring-time,  and  hence  to  fall  into 
autumn.  There  these  pictures  lie,  telling  us 
where  was  the  summer-time,  where  the  drift- 
ing snows  fell.  Yet  as  these  dimly  shadow 
forth  more  perfect  adaptations  in  nature  and 
nature's  growth,  so  do  these  humble  memor- 
ials, the  bread  and  wine,  shadow  forth  dimly 
— the  bread  of  which  if  a  man  eat  he  will 
never  hunger,  and  the  wme  which  we  shall 
drink  new  in  the  kingdom. — Selected. 

REMEMBRANCE  of  Me,  In,—/  Cor. 
xi:  34.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  more  than  a 
memorial.  But  its  memorial  significance 
should  not  be  ignored.  The  Paschal  supper 
commemorated  an  event ;  the  Lord's  Supper 
commemorates  a  person.  Salvation  is  due 
not  simply  to  what  Jesus  did,  but  to  what 
He  was  and  is  and  evermore  shall  be.  Be- 
lievers are  to  remember  Him  as  crucified, 
risen,  exalted,  glorified,  and  ruling  over  all 
for  their  salvation. — C.  G. 

SACRAMENT,  Reconciliation  Before 
the. — George  IV.  desired  the  sacrament  and 
sent  for  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  to  admin- 
ister it.  He  became  angry  with  the  messen- 
ger he  sent,  because  of  what  he  considered 
unnecessary  delay.  He  reprimanded  the  serv- 
ant, discharged  him,  and  immediately  re- 
quested the  bishop  to  proceed.  This  the 
bishop  refused  while  any  anger  remained  in 
the  king's  mind  toward  any  fellow-creature. 
The  king,  recollecting  himself  said,  "  My  lord, 
you  are  right."  He  then  sent  for  the  offend- 
ing servant,  became  reconciled  to  him  and  re- 
stored him  to  his  place,  after  which  the  sac- 
rament was  duly  administered. — F.  II. 

SALVATION,  The  Cup  of.— Psalm 
cxvi:  12-14.  The  Psalmist  recalls  the  time 
when  Jehovah  mercifully  delivered  him  from 
death.  How  shall  he  repay  the  kindness? 
There  is  but  one  way.  He  will  take  the  cup 
of  salvation  and  publicly  acknowledge  Jeho- 
vah as  his  helper.  The  "  cup  of  salvation  " 
formed  part  of  the  sacrificial  meal  connected 
with  the  thank-offering.  The  Lord's  Supper 
h  a  feast  of  joy.  It  brings  sweet  reminder 
of  the  Friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a 
brother ;  a  love  that  is  stronger  than  death  ; 
of  a  salvation  unspeakably  glorious,  for  which 
the  only  return  believers  can  make  is  to  ac- 
cept it  with  humble  gratitude,  and  acknowl- 
edge before  the  world  that  Jesus  has  sole 
right  to  their  love  and  fealty. — C.  G. 


134 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


POETRY 


Bread  of  Heaven 

By  Josiah  Conder 

Bread  of  Heaven,   on   Thee   I   feed, 
For  Thy  flesh  is  meat  indeed ; 
Ever  may  my  soul  be  fed 
With  this  true  and  living  bread; 
Day  by  day  with  strength  supplied, 
Through  the  life  of  Him  who  died. 

Vine  of  Heaven,  Thy  blood  supplies 
This  blest  cup  of  sacrifice ; 
'Tis  Thy  wounds  my  healing  give; 
To  Thy  cross  I  look  and  live. 
Thou  my  Life,  O  let  me  be 
Rooted,  grafted,  built  on  Thee. 

Bread  of  the  World 

By  Reginald  Heber 

Bread  of  the  world,  in  mercy  broken, 
Wine  of  the  soul,  in  mercy  shed. 

By  whom  the  words  of  life  were  spoken, 
And  in  whose  death  our  sins  are  dead : 

Look  on  the  heart  by  sorrow  broken. 
Look  on  the  tears  by  sinners  shed; 

And  be  Thy  feast  to  us  the  token 
That  by  Thy  grace  our  souls  are  fed. 

Closer  than  a  Brother 

By  J.  Newton 

One  there  is,  above  all  others. 

Well  deserves  the  name  of  Friend; 

His  is  love  beyond  a  brother's. 
Costly,  free,  and  knows  no  end. 

Which  of  all  our  friends,  to  save  us, 
Could  or  would  have  shed  his  blood? 

But  our  Jesus  died  to  have  us 
Reconciled  in  Him  to  God. 

When  He  lived  on  earth  abased, 
Friend  of  sinners  was  His  name; 

Now  above  all  glory  raised. 
He  rejoices  in  the  same. 

Oh,  for  grace  our  hearts  to  soften ! 

Teach  us,  Lord,  at  length,  to  love ; 
We,  alas  !    forget  too  often 

What  a  Friend  we  have  above. 

Till  He  Come 

By  E.  H.  Bickersteth 

"  Till  He  come :  "  oh,  let  the  words 
Linger  on  the  trembling  chords : 
Let  the  little  while  between 
In  their  golden  light  be  seen ; 
Let  us  think  how  heaven  and  home 
Lie  beyond  that — "  Till  He  come." 


When  the  weary  ones  we  love 
Enter  on  their  rest  above, 
Seems  the  earth  so  poor  and  vast, 
All  our  life  joy  overcast? 
Hush,  be  every  murmur  dumb; 
It  is  only — "  Till  He  come." 

See,  the  feast  of  love  is  spread, 
Drink  the  wine,  and  break  the  bread; 
Sweet   memorials, — till  the   Lord 
Call  us  round  His  heavenly  board; 
Some  from  earth,  from  glory  some. 
Severed  only — "  Till  He  come." 

Communion  Hymn 

By  Johann  Frank  (1650) 

Tr.  by  Catherine  Winkworth 

Deck  thyself,  my  soul,  with  gladness; 
Leave  the  gloomy  haunts  of  saaness. 
Come  into  the  daylight's  splendor ; 
There  with  joy  thy  praises  render 
Unto  Him,  whose  boundless  grace 
Grants  thee  at  His  feast  a  place. 
He  whom  all  the  heavens  obey 
Deigns  to  dwell  in  thee  to-day. 

Hasten  as  a  bride  to  meet  Him, 

And   with    loving   reverence   greet    Him, 

Who  with  words  of  life  immortal 

Now  is  knocking  on  the  portal ; 

Haste  to  make  for  Him  a  way, 

Cast  thee  at  His  feet,  and  say : 

"  Since,   O   Lord !     Thou   com'st   to   me, 

Never  will  I  turn  from  Thee." 

"  Ah,  how  hungers  all  my  spirit, 
For  the  love  I  do  not  merit ! 
Ah,  how  oft  with  sighs  fast  thronging 
For  this  food  have  I  been  longing ! 
How  have  thirsted  in  the  strife 
For  this  draught,  O  Prince  of  Life ! 
Wished,  O  Friend  of  man !  to  be 
Ever  one  with  God  through  Thee  J 

"  Here  I  sink  before  Thee,  lowly, 
Filled  with  joy  most  deep  and  holy. 
As   with  trembling  awe  and  wonder 
On  Thy  mighty  works  I  ponder; 
On  this  banquet's  mystery. 
On  the  depths  we  cannot  see; 
Far  beyond  all  mortal  sight 
Lie  the  secrets  of  Thy  might. 

"  Sun,  who  all  my  life  does  brighten. 
Light,  who  dost  my  soul  enlighten, 
Joy,  the  sweetest  man  e'er  knoweth. 
Fount,  whence  all  my  being  floweth ! 
Here  I  fall  before  Thy  feet : 
Grant  me  worthily  to  eat 
Of  this  lilessed  heavenly  food. 
To  Thy  praise  and  to  my  good. 

"  Jesus.  Bread  of  life  from  heaven, 
Never  be  Thou  vainly  given. 
Nor  I  to  my  hurt  invited 
Be  Thy  love  with  love  requited; 


COMMUNION   SUNDAY 


135 


Let  me  learn  its  depths  indeed. 
While  on  Thee  my  soul  doth  feed; 
Let  me  here,  so  richly  blest, 
Be  hereafter,  too,  Thy  guest." 

Before  the  Cross 

By  J.  Allen 

Sweet  the  moments,  rich  in  blessing, 
Which  before  the  cross  we  spend  ; 

Life,  and  health,  and  peace  possessing, 
From  the  sinner's  dying  Friend, 

Truly  blessed  is  this  station, 
Low  before  His  Cross  to  lie, 

While  we  see  divine  compassion, 
Beaming  in    His  gracious  eye. 

Love  and  grief  our  hearts  dividing, 
With  our  tears  His  feet  we  bathe; 

Constant  still,  in  faith  abiding. 
Life  deriving  from  His  death. 

For  Thy  sorrows  we  adore  Thee, 

For  the  pains  that  wrought  our  peace. 

Gracious  Savior !  we  implore  Thee 
In  our  souls   Thy  love   increase. 

Here  we  feel  our  sins  forgiven, 
While  upon  the  Lamb  we  gaze; 

And  our  thoughts  are  all  of  heaven. 
And  our  lips  o'erflow  with  praise. 

Still  in  ceaseless  contemplation. 
Fix  our  hearts  and  eyes  on  Thee, 

Till  we  taste  Thy  full  salvation, 
And,  unvailed,  Thy  glories  see. 

Take  My  Heart 

Anonymous 

Take  my  heart,  O  Father !  take  it ; 

Make  and  keep  it  all  Thine  own; 
Let  Thy  Spirit  melt  and  break  it — 

This  proud  heart  of  sin  and  stone. 

Father,  make  me  pure  and  lowly, 
Fond  of  peace  and  far  from  strife; 

Turning  from  the  paths  unholy 
Of  this  vain  and  sinful  life. 

Ever  let  Thy  grace  surround  me, 
Strengthen  me  with  power  divine. 

Till  Thy  cords  of  love  have  bound  me : 
Make  me  to  be  wholly  Thine. 

May  the  blood  of  Jesus  heal  me, 
And  my  sins  be  all  forgiven ; 

Holy  Spirit,  take  and  seal  me, 
Guide  me  in  the  path  to  heaven. 

Jesus  All  in  All 

By  Ray  Palmer 

Jesus,  Thou  Joy  of  loving  hearts. 

Thou  Fount  of  life !  Thou  light  of  men ! 

From  the  best  bliss  that  earth  imparts. 
We  turn  unfilled  to  Thee  again. 


Thy  truth  unchanged  hath  ever  stood ; 

Thou  savest  those  that  on  Thee  call ; 
To  them  that  seek  Thee  Thou  art  good. 

To  them  that  find  Thee,  All  in  All. 

We  taste  Thee,  O  thou  Living  Bread, 
And  long  to  feast  upon  Thee  still ; 

We  drink  of  Thee,  the  Fountain  Head, 
And  thirst  our  souls  from  Thee  to  fill ! 

Our  restless  spirits  yearn  for  Thee, 
Where'er  our  changeful  lot  is  cast ; 

Glad,  when  Thy  gracious  smile  we  see, 
Blest,  when  our  faith  can  hold  Thee  fast 

O  Jesus,  ever  with  us  stay ; 

Make  all  our  moments  calm  and  bright; 
Chase  the  dark  night  of  sin  away. 

Shed  o'er  the  world  Thy  holy  light! 

The  Lamb's  High  Feast 

By  Robert  Campbell 

At  the  Lamb's  high  feast  we  sing 
Praise  to  our  victorious  King, 
Who  hath  washed  us  in  the  tide. 
Flowing  From  His  pierced  side. 

Praise  we  Him,  whose  love  divine 
Gives  His  sacred  blood  for  wine. 
Gives  His  body  for  the  feast : 
Christ  the  victim,  Christ  the  priest. 

Where  the  paschal  blood  is  poured. 
Death's  dark  angel  sheathes  his  sword ; 
Israel's   hosts  triumphant  go 
Through  the  wave  that  drowns  the  foe. 

Praise  we  Christ,  whose  blood  was  shed, 
Paschal   victim,   paschal   bread; 
With  sincerity  and  love. 
Eat  we  manna  from  above. 

Mighty  victim  from  the  sky, 
Hell's  fierce  powers  beneath  Thee  lie; 
Thou  hast  conquered  in  the  fight. 
Thou  hast  brought  us  life  and  light." 

Hymns  of  glory  and  of  praise, 
Risen  Lord,  to  Thee  we  raise; 
Holy  Father,  praise  to  Thee, 
With  the  Spirit,  ever  be ! 

Grateful  and  Tender  Remembrance 

By  Rev.  Gerard  Thomas  Noel 

If  human  kindness  meets  return. 

And  owns  the  grateful  tie ; 
If  tender  thoughts  within  us  burn. 

To  feel  a  friend  is  nigh; 

O  shall  not  warmer  accents  tell 

The  gratitude  we  owe 
To  Him,  who  died,  our  fears  to  quell, 

Our  more  than  orphan's  wo? 

While  yet  His  anguished  soul  surveyed 
Those  pangs  He  would  not  flee, 

What   love    His   latest    words    displayed, 
"  Meet,  and  remember  Me." 


136 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Remember  Thee,  Thy  death,  Thy  shame, 

Our  sinful  hearts  to  share ! 
O  memory,  leave  no  other  name 

But  His  recorded  there. 

The  Sacrament 

By  Arthur  Cleveland   Coxe 

Body  of  Jesus,  O  sweet  food ! 
Blood  of  my  Savior,  precious  blood ! 
On  these  Thy  gifts.  Eternal  Priest, 
Grant  Thou  my  soul  in  faith  to  feast. 

Weary  and  faint,  I  thirst  and  pine,  _ 
For  Thee  my  bread,  for  Thee  my  wine, 
Till  strengthened,  as  Elijah  trod, 
I  journey  to  the  mount  of  God. 

There  clad  in  white,  with  crown  and  palm, 
At  the  great  supper  of  the  Lamb, 
Be  mine  with  all  Thy  saints  to  rest. 
Like  him  that  leaned  upon  Thy  breast. 

Savior,  till  then  I  fain  would  know 
That  feast  above  by  this  below. 
This  bread  of  life,  this  wondrous  food. 
Thy  body  and  Thy  precious  blood. 

Hymn  of  the  Last  Supper 

By  John  Pierpont 

The  winds  are  hushed ;    the  peaceful  moon 

Looks  down  on  Zion's  hill ; 
The  city  sleeps;    'tis  night's  calm  noon, 

And  all  the  streets  are  still ; 

Save  when,  along  the  shaded  walks, 

We  hear  the  watchman's  call, 
Or  the  guard's  footsteps,  as  he  stalks 

In  moonlight  on  the  wall. 

How  soft,  how  holy  is  this  light! 

And  hark  !  a  mournful  song, 
As  gentle  as  the  dews  of  night, 

Floats  on  the  air  along. 

Affection's  wish,  devotion's  prayer. 

Are  in  that  holy  strain ; 
'Tis  resignation,  not  despair, 

'Tis  triumph,  tho  'tis  pain. 

*Tis  Jesus  and  His  faithful  few 

That  pour  that  hymn  of  love ; 
O  God !  may  we  the  song  renew 

Around  Thy  board  above  ! 

The  Last  Supper 

By  Robert  Hall  Baynes, 

Calm  lay  the  city  in  its  double  sleep, 

Beneath    the   paschal    moon's    cold    silvery 
light 
That   flung  broad   shadows  o'er  the  rugged 
steep 
Of  Olivet  that  night. 

But  soon  the  calm  was  broken,  and  the  sound 
Of  strains  all  sweet  and  plaintive  filled  the 
air; 

And  deep-toned  voices  echoing  all  around 
Made  music  everywhere. 


The  holy  rite  is  o'er ;  the  blessed  sign 

Is  given  to  cheer  us  in  this  earthly  strife ; 

The  bread  is  broken  and  out  poured  the  wine. 
Symbols  of  better  life. 

The  bitter  cup  of  wrath  before  Him  lies 
And  yet  as  up  the  steep  they  pass  along. 

The  mighty  victim  to  the  sacrifice, 
They  cheer  the  way  with  song. 

We  ne'er  can  know  such  sorrow  as  that  night 
Pierced  to  the  heart  the  suffering  Son  of 
God; 

And  every  earthly  sadness  is  but  light 
To  that  dark  path  He  trod. 

And  yet,  how  faint  and  feeble  rise  our  songs ; 

How  oft  we  linger  'mid  the  shadows  dim ; 
Nor  give  the  glory  that  to  Him  belongs 

In  eucharistic  hymn. 

Oh  for  an  echo  of  that  chant  of  praise ; 

Oh  for  a  voice  to  sing  His  mighty  love ; 
Oh  for  a  refrain  of  the  hymns  they  raise 

In  the  bright  home  above. 

Touch  Thou  our  wayward  hearts  and  let 
them  be 

In  stronger  faith  to  Thy  glad  service  given. 
Till  o'er  the  margin  of  time's  surging  sea 

We  sing  the  song  of  heaven. 

The  Supper  Instituted 
By  Isaac  Watts 

'Twas  on  that  dark,  that  doleful  night. 
When  pow'rs  of  earth  and  hell  arose 

Against  the  Son  of  God's  delight, 
And  friends  betrayed  Him  to  His  foes. 

Before  the  mournful  scene  began. 

He  took  the  bread,  and  blessed,  and  brake: 
What  love  through  all  His  actions  ran. 

What  wondrous  words  of  grace  He  spake! 

'■  This  is  My  body,  broke  for  sin ; 

Receive  and  eat  the  living  food :  " 
Then  took  the  cup,  and  blessed  the  wine, 

"  Tis  the  new  covenant  in  My  blood." 

"  Do  this,"  He  cried,  "  till  time  shall  end. 
In  memory  of  your  dying  Friend; 

Meet  at  My  table,  and  record 
The  love  of  your  departed  Lord." 

Jesus,  Thy  feast  we  celebrate ; 

We  show  Thy  death,  we  sing  Thy  Name, 
Till  Thou  return,  and  we  shall  eat 

The  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb. 

At  the  Table 
By  Isaac  Watts 

How  sweet  and  awful  is  the  place. 

With,   Christ  within  the  doors. 
While  everlasting  love  displays 

The  choicest  of  her  stores. 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


137 


While  our  hearts,  and  all  our  songs, 

Join  to  admire  the  feast, 
Each  of  us  cry,  with  thankful  tongues, 

"  Lord,  why  was  I  a  guest  ?  " 

'■  Why  was  I  made  to  hear  Thy  voice, 

And  enter  while  there's  room, 
When    thousands    make    a    wretched    choice, 

And  rather  starve  than  come  ?  " 

'Twas  the  same  love  that  spread  the  feast, 

That  sweetly  forced  us  in ; 
Else  we  had  still  refused  to  taste. 

And  perished  in  our  sin. 

Pity  the  nations,  O  our  God; 

Constrain  the  earth  to  come; 
Send  Thy  victorious  word  abroad. 

And  bring  the  strangers  home. 

The   Supper   of  Thanksgiving 

By  Horatius  Bonar 

For  the  bread  and  for  the  wine. 
For  the  pledge  that  seals  Him  mine. 
For  the  words  of  love  divine, 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  body  and  the  blood, 
For  the  more  than  angel's  food, 
For  the  boundless  grace  of  God, 
We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  chalice  whence  we  sip 
Moisture  for  the  parched  lip. 
For  the  board  of  fellowship, 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  feast  of  love  and  peace. 
Bidding  all  our  sorrows  cease, 
Earnest  of  the  kingdom's  bliss. 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 


For  the  heavenly  presence-bread. 
On  the  golden  table  laid,, 
Blessed  banquet  for  us  made, 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  paschal  lamb  here  given. 
For  the  loaf  without  the  leaven, 
For  the  manna  dropped  from  heaven, 
We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

Only  bread  and  only  wine. 
Yet  to  faith  the  solemn  sign 
Of  the  heavenly  and  divine ! 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  words  that  turn  our  eye 
To  the  cross  of  Calvary, 
Bidding  us  in  faith  draw  nigh, 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  words  that  fragrance  breathe. 
These  poor  symbols  underneath, 
Words  that  His  own  peace  bequeath, 
We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  the  words  that  tell  of  home, 
Pointing  us  beyond  the  tomb, 
"  Do  ye  this  until  I  come  ", 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

Till  He  come  to  take  the  bread, 
Type  of  Him  on  whom  we  feed. 
Him  who  liveth  and  was  dead ! 
We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

Till  He  come  we  take  the  cup. 
As  we  at  His  table  sup. 
Eye  and  heart  are  lifted  up ! 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 

For  that  coming,  here  foreshown. 
For  that  day  to  man  unknown, 
For  the  glory  and  the  throne. 

We  give  Thee  thanks,  O  Lord. 


138  HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


GOOD  FRIDAY 

GOOD  FRIDAY  is  the  sixth  day  of  Holy  Week,  and  the  culmination  of 
that  week  as  well  as  of  the  lenten  season.  It  is  the  anniversary  of  the 
death  of  our  Lord,  and  is  meant  to  emphasize  the  truths  connected  with  His 
crucifixion.  Because  He  by  His  death  obtained  for  humanity  the  highest  good, 
it  is  called  Good  Friday. 

The  events  of  that  first  Good  Friday,  which  the  Church  celebrates  annually, 
were  as  follows :  Early  in  the  morning  Jesus  was  brought  before  the  High 
Priest  and  the  Sanhedrin,  where  He  declared  Himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  and 
was  condemned  and  mocked.  (Matt,  xxvi:  ^p-68;  Mark  xw:  §^-6^;  Luke  xxii: 
6j-/i;  John  xviii:  ip-24.)  Next  the  chief  priests  and  rulers  took  Him  before 
Pilate,  to  obtain  His  crucifixion.  (Matt,  xxvii:  i,  2  and  11-14;  Mark  xv:  1-6; 
Luke  xxiii:  i-^;  John  xviii:  28-^8.)  Pilate  declared  His  innocence,  but  sent  Him 
to  Herod,  who  sent  Him  back  to  Pilate.  (Luke  xxiii:  6-12.)  Jesus  was  scourged, 
mocked,  and  bore  His  cross  to  Calvary,  where  He  was  crucified.  (Matt,  xxvii: 
13-34;  Mark  XV :  6-32;  Luke  xxiii:  13-43;  John  xviii:  3p,  to  xix:  1-27.)  Jesus 
died  on  the  cross,  supernatural  signs  accompanying  His  death,  and  the  centurion 
gave  his  testimony.  (Matt,  xxvii:  45-56;  Mark  xv:  33-41 ;  Luke  xxvii:  44-49; 
John  xix:  28-30.)  Finally  the  body  of  Jesus  was  taken  down  from  the  cross, 
embalmed  and  buried.  (Matt,  xvii:  57-61;  Mark  xv:  42-47;  Luke  xxiii:  55,  56; 
John  xix:  31-42.) 

In  the  very  early  life  of  the  ancient  church,  the  day  began  to  be  observed 
as  a  strict  fast,  in  preparation  for  Easter,  and  was  called  the  "  Festival  of  the 
Crucifixion  "    (Trao-xa  oTavpoioiixov  ) ,  the  "  Day  of  Salvation,"  etc. 

Constantine  forbade  the  holding  of  courts,  markets,  etc.,  on  Good  Friday. 
(Eusebius,  Vita.  1-4.)  In  the  early  centuries,  on  Good  Friday  "the  customary 
acclamations  and  doxologies  were  omitted,  and  no  music  was  allowed  but  of  the 
most  plaintive  description.  No  bell  was  rung  for  divine  worship  on  that  day. 
None  bowed  the  knee  in  prayer,  because  by  this  ceremony  the  Jews  reviled  Jesus. 
Neither  was  the  kiss  of  charity  used  on  this  day,  because  with  a  kiss  Judas 
betrayed  his  Lord.  The  sacramental  elements  were  not  consecrated  on  Good 
Friday,  but  a  portion  for  the  use  of  the  priest  was  reserved  from  the  day  before ; 
the  altars  were  divested  of  their  ornaments,  and  black  veils  and  draperies  were 
used  to  cover  them ;  and  the  gospel  of  John  was  read,  because  he  was  a  witness 
of  our  Lord's  passion."  * 

To  this  day  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  observe  Good  Friday  with  severe 
solemnity.  The  altar  lights  are  extinguished,  the  altar  furniture  is  covered,  the 
usual  communion  is  omitted  and  the  bells  in  the  church  towers  remain  silent. 

Good  Friday  is  observed  with  increasing  interest  by  the  Church  of  England, 
and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  And  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  a  marked  increase  in  the  observance  of  Holy  Week,  especially  Good  Fri- 
day, is  observable  in  the  non-ritualistic  churches. 

*  Dictionary   of  Religious   Knowledge,   Abbott  and  Conant,  p.   398.     (New   York, 
Harper  &  Bros.) 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


139 


Of  course,  the  supreme  thought  of  the  day  is  the  atonement  which  was 
accompHshed  by  the  vicarious  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  on  the  cross, 
where  "  He  suffered  for  our  sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring 
us  to  God,  being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  in  the  Spirit." 
(i  Peter  Hi:  18.) 


THE  CRUCIFIED  ONE 


The  Christian  Church  does  not  abate  a 
whit  of  its  early  passion  of  loyalty  for  Him 
who  died  on  the  cross.  To  the  cross  they 
had  followed  Him,  too  far  off,  in  their  first 
disappointment  and  fear ;  but  never  again 
did  they  make  that  cross  anything  less  than 
their  glory  and  boast.  His  resurrection  and 
ascension  lifted  their  allegiance  to  a  sublim- 
ity in  fervor  in  which  they  suffered  martyr- 
dom with  joy.  Nothing  was  too  much  which 
they  could  do  for  Him.  That  they  might 
only  know  Him,  they  prayed  for  the  privilege 
of  filling  up  what  was  behind  of  His  suffer- 
ings, and  were  willing  to  be  made  conform- 
able to  His  death.  They  sang  His  name ; 
they  took  His  name ;  they  carried  His  name 
throughout  the  world. 

No  less  loyal  to  the  Crucified  Christ  is  the 
Church  of  this  youngest  century.  Human  in- 
vestigation has  reached  no  results  in  religion 
or  morals  higher  than  were  taught  by  the 
Peasant  of  Galilee.  After  our  furthest  ex- 
cursions into  the  realms  of  loftiest  scholar- 
ship, we  come  back  to  the  same  cross  before 
which  Peter  and  John  bowed,  and  there  we 
too  bow,  and  there  we  too  ask  and  receive 
the  pardon  of  our  sins  and  gain  the  impulse 
which  carries  us  to  a  better  life ;  and  with 
the  two  Apostles  we  proclaim  and  boast  the 
name  once  despised  but  now  honored :  "  Be 
it  known  unto  you  all,  and  to  all  the  people 
of  Israel,  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Nazareth,  whom  God  raised  from  the  dead, 
even  in  him  doth  this  man  stand  before  you 
whole." 


Within  the  last  year  (1893)  the  religions 
of  the  world  have  put  themselves  on  exhibi- 
tion in  Chicago,  and  asked  us  to  compare 
them  with  the  religion  of  Christ.  What  won- 
der if  some  looked  to  see  whether,  in  the 
far  East,  Buddhas  and  sages  might  not  have 
discovered,  and  taught  under  another  inspira- 
tion, an  ethics  and  a  religion  as  pure  as  those 
of  Jesus?  But  the  search  has  been  made, 
and  we  find  that  there  is  none  other  name 
under  heaven,  given  among  men,  equal  to 
His.  W^e  find  that  it  is  the  religion  of  Jesus, 
with  its  definiteness,  its  purity,  its  authority, 
which  is  replacing  the  teachings  of  Con- 
fucius and  Gautama.  Egypt,  Assyria,  Persia, 
India,  China,  Arabia,  have  opened  their  sa- 
cred books  to  this  generation,  and  they  have 
shown  to  us  platitudes  and  beauties,  puerili- 
ties and  truths,  coarse  polytheisms  and  fine 
phrasings  of  storms  and  seasons ;  but  no- 
where do  we  find  the  firm,  sure,  simple, 
lofty,  satisfying  truth  of  God,  as  in  the 
Gosples  which  tell  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men.     In  His  light,  and  His  only,  would 
we  walk.     Still  the  Church  sings  the  old  and 
faithful  saying  of  its  earliest  liturgy : 
"  If  we  died  with  Him,  we  shall  also  live  with 
Him: 
If  we  endure,  we  shall  also  reign  with  Him : 
If  we  shall  deny  Him,  He  also  will  deny  us  : 
If  we  are  faithless.  He  abideth  faithful : 
For  He  cannot  deny  Himself." — I. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  CROSS 


The  Cross  is  to  us  an  emblem  of  glory; 
to  the  Romans  and  Jews  of  our  Lord's  time 
it  was  an  emblem  of  guilt.  We  venerate  it ; 
they  thought  of  it  as  a  curse.  We  bow  to 
it :  they  turned  from  it  as  the  accursed  tree 
which  bore  felons  as  its  awful  fruit.  We 
wear  beautiful  ivory  and  gold  crosses  and 
adorn  our  churches  with  them  as  precious 
symbols ;  they  shuddered  with  a  feeling  of 
dread  revulsion  as  they  passed  the  great 
wooden  instruments  of  death. 

The  Cross  is  precious  to  us,  not  for  what 
it  is  in  itself;  not  for  its  beauty,  or  its  his- 
tory, not  even  because  our  Lord  died  upon 
it ;  but  because  it  illustrates,  as  no  other 
object  could,  the  love  of  Christ.  It  was  not 
that  He  suffered  as  an  innocent  man.  many 
in  the  history  of  the  world  have  been  un- 
righteously condemned ;    it  was  not  that  He 


died  praying  for  His  executioners,  tho  few, 
or  none,  have  had  this  grace ;  it  was  not  that 
He  died  for  friends,  some  have  even  dared 
to  do  as  much ;  but  Christ  the  God-man 
commended  His  love  in  that  He  died  for  a 
world  of  sinners.  Men  have  been  found 
brave  enough  and  good  enough  to  sacrifice 
themselves  for  a  righteous  person,  or  a 
righteous  cause,  and  thus  have  made  them- 
selves immortal.  Christ  died  for  a  race  in 
rebellion  against  His  Father's  laws  and  His 
Father's  rule,  and  for  all  the  race,  as  much 
for  those  who  reviled,  persecuted  and  exe- 
cuted the  Son  of  God,  as  for  His  own  dis- 
ciples. His  mother  and  His  brethren. 

In  what,  then,  do  we  rejoice?  In  His 
death  ?  Nay,  that  was  cruel  and  ignominious. 
Peter  denounced  it  fiercely  as  the  work  of 
wicked  hands.     It  is  revolting  to  us  because 


I40 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


it  was  an  outrage  on  justice  to  take  the  life  of 
one  in  whom  the  judge  declared  he  found  no 
fault.  It  was  the  love  of  Christ  for  us,  as 
shown  in  His  willingness  to  suffer  the  death 
of  the  cross,  that  reaches  our  hearts  and 
warms  our  nature  into  a  life  of  love  and  de- 
votion. It  was  necessary  to  God's  plan  of 
salvation  that  Christ  should  die,  and  so  He 
who  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with 
God,  humbled  Himself  and  became  obedient 
unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross. 

The  cross  had  terrors  for  our  Lord.  We 
know  this  by  His  night  of  agony  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Gethsemane,  when  He  prayed  earnestly 
that  if  it  were  possible  the  cup  that  was  even 
then  being  pressed  to  His  lips  might  be  taken 
away.  But  it  was  not  possible.  The  loving 
Father  would  have  saved  Him  from  that  hour 
and  the  terrible  hours  which  were  to  follow ; 
but  we  must  believe  that  He  could  not  save 
the  Only  Begotten  without  sacrificing  the 
world,  nor  save  the  world  without  sacrificing 
the  Christ.  And  so  in  humble  obedience  the 
Savior  submitted  Himself  to  the  ordeal.  And 
lie  was  glorified  in  the  obedience  of  His  suf- 
ferings. His  glorification  lay  in  the  way  of 
the  cross,  and  He  was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the 
slaughter,  offering  no  resistance,  and  expiat- 
ing no  sin  of  His  own. 

His  example  has  been  the  inspiration  of 
many  who  have  suffered  for  principle.  While 
John  Brown  was  in  the  Charleston  (Va.) 
jail,  awaiting  the  day  of  execution,  he  wrote 
in  this  triumphant  strain  to  his  sister : 

"  Oh,  my  friend,  can  you  deem  it  possible 


that  that  scaffold  has  no  terrors  for  your  | 
poor,  old,  unworthy  brother?  I  thank  God,  1 
through  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord,  it  is  even  so. 
I  am  now  shedding  tears,  but  they  are  not 
tears  of  grief  of  sorrow;  I  trust  I  am  nearly 
done  with  those.  I  am  weeping  with  joy  and 
gratitude  I  can  in  no  other  way  express.  .  .  . 
I  am  waiting  cheerfully  the  days  of  my  ap- 
pointed time,  fully  believing  that  for  me  now 
to  die  will  be  to  me  of  infinite  gain  and  of  un- 
told benefit  to  the  cause  we  love." 

The  scaffold  had  no  terrors  for  him.  He  was 
but  to  suffer  what  the  guiltless  Jesus  had  suf- 
fered before  him  and  for  him.  Death  is  not 
to  us  what  it  would  have  been  if  there  had 
been  no  Christ  to  triumph  over  it.  He  went 
down  to  death,  but  He  also  came  up  out  of  it, 
that  He  "  might  destroy  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,"  and  "  deliver  them  who 
through  fear  of  death  were  all  their  lifetime 
subject  to  bondage." 

If,  then,  we  sing  with  great  gladness, 

"  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory," 

we  do  not  rejoice  in  the  instrument  of  tor- 
ture, nor  in  the  cruel  death  thereon,  nor  in 
the  terrors  which  our  Lord  suffered ;  but  be- 
cause in  these  extreme  sufferings,  from  which 
His  sensitive  and  innocent  soul  revolted,  He 
showed  us  the  quality  of  His  love  for  sinful 
creatures,  and  how  to  obey  and  to  make  sac- 
rifice, and  even  to  die.  For  we  know  by  His 
example  that  through  Him  we  die  that  we 
may  enter  upon  eternal  life. — I. 


EXALT  THE  CROSS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

By  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.D. 


A  certain  creed  has  recently  been  promul- 
gated by  an  eminent  and  genial  minister  who 
is  more  distinguished  for  his  brilliant  and 
fascinating  Scotch  stories  than  for  the  depth 
and  clearness  of  his  theology.  This  amor- 
phous production  is  presented  as  an  ethical 
creed  for  the  promotion  of  Christian  living ; 
it  is  very  good  as  far  as  it  goes ;  but  its  au- 
thor should  bear  in  mind  that  true  Christian 
living  comes  from  a  Christian  heart  that  has 
been  renewed  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  While  his 
new  creed  affirms  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  it 
utterly  ignores  the  divinity  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  does  not  even  mention  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  worst  of  all,  it  maintains  a  deadly 
silence  in  regard  to  the  glorious  central  truth 
of  revelation,  the  cross  of  Calvary!  Brief  as 
is  the  so-called  "  Apostles'  Creed,"  it  is  dear 
to  all  Christendom,  because  it  contains  the 
core-truths  which  this  new  formula  strangely 
ignores. 

The  New  Testament  does  present  a  beauti- 
ful and  sublime  system  of  ethics,  it  also  pre- 
sents a  beautiful  and  heaven-born  fabric  of 
theology ;  and  they  are  interdependent.  The 
Christ  is  a  perfect  model  for  pure  and  holy 
living ;  He  is  the  divine  Teacher  who  reveals 
the  thoughts  of  God  to  us.     But  He  is  more 


than  our  model.  He  is  more  than  our  Master. 
He  is  our  Savior.  "  Thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus,  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from 
their  sins."  He  came  to  earth  to  seek  and  to 
save  the  lost,  and  this  only  could  be  accom- 
plished by  the  Cross  of  Calvary.  No  example 
that  He  has  set  for  us,  however  faultless,  no 
teachings  that  fall  from  His  lips,  however 
sublime,  could  save  the  meanest  soul  that  lies 
under  the  condemnation  of  sin.  As  I  am  a 
sinner,  I  must  suffer  as  a  sinner  the  punish- 
ment due  to  my  guilt.  But  my  compassionate 
Savior — all  glory  to  His  name !  took  my 
place,  and  suffered  for  me.  He  was  bruised 
for  my  iniquities.  He  satisfied  the  claims  of 
God's  broken  law.  He  made  it  possible  that 
God  might  be  just,  and  yet  justify  us  when 
we  lay  our  hands  in  faith  on  the  head  of  our 
atoning  Redeemer,  and  there  confess  our  sins. 
He  made  it  certain  that  we  can  be  saved  when 
our  guilt  is  hidden  in  His  wounds,  and  our 
souls  are  cleansed  by  His  blood.  The  creed 
of  all  true  Christians,  of  whatever  name,  was 
condensed  by  our  own  Dr.  Ray  Palmer  into 
just  three  lines: 

"  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, 
Thou  Lamb  of  Calvary 
Savior  divine !  " 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


141 


Good  Christianity  means  cross-bearing  for 
our  Master ;  good  preaching  means  cross- 
lifting  before  the  eyes  of  all  men.  "  And  I," 
said  the  loving  Redeemer,  "  if  I  be  lifted  up 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  This  does  not 
refer  to  His  final  exaltation  in  Heaven,  but 
to  His  sacrificial  death  on  Calvary.  When  He 
told  Nicodemus  that  the  Son  of  Man  must 
be  lifted  up.  He  predicted  His  own  crucifix- 
ion, and  defined  the  great  single  purpose  of  it 
to  be  this:  "Whosoever  believeth  on  him 
shall  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 
How  unwarranted  is  the  assertion  that  Jesus 
preached  chiefly  a  divine  system  of  ethics,  but 
did  not  make  prominent  the  Atonement,  or 
the  salvation  of  sinners  by  His  Cross !  From 
the  manger  of  Bethlehem,  every  footstep  of 
Jesus  moves  straight  toward  that  Cross ;  His 
whole  earthly  mission  converges  there.  After 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  the  only  gospel  that  was  preached 
was  the  gospel  of  atoning  blood.  It  was  the 
keynote  of  the  mightiest  human  preacher  that 
ever  trod  our  globe.  Whatever  else  Paul 
omitted,  he  never  omitted  the  "  faithful  say- 
ing that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to 
save  sinners."  When  recalling  his  ministry 
among  the  Corinthians  he  reminded  them  that 
he  was  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  them  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him 
crucified.  In  an  ecstasy  of  self-forgetful 
adoration  he  cries  out :  "  God  forbid  that  I 
should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified 
into  me,  and  I  unto  the  world !  "  Toward 
that  Cross  his  finger  constantly  pointed ;  be- 
side it  he  loved  to  linger.  And  the  central 
theme  of  the  great  Apostle  has  been  the  cen- 
tral theme  of  the  greatest  preachers  the  world 
has  ever  known.  No  story  has  such  power  to 
move  and  melt  and  change  the  hearts  of  men 
as  the  story  of  the  Cross.  "  No  mother  ever 
sang  it  over  the  pillow  of  her  babe  without 
tenderness ;  no  child  ever  read  it  without  a 
throbbing  heart ;  no  living  man  can  peruse  it 
with  utter  indifference ;  and  no  dying  man 
ever  listened  to  it  without  emotion.  The 
Cross  will  be  remembered  when  everything 
else  in  the  history  of  this  earth  is  forgotten." 
My  dear  reader,  in  that  solemn  hour  when 
you  and  I  stand  between  two  worlds,  and 
when  we  reach  that  unseen  and  eternal  world, 
no  object  in  the  universe  will  be  of  such 
infinite  importance  to  us  as  the  Cross  of  our 
Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ. 

Good  old  Gilbert  Tennent — a  preacher  once 
famous  in  New  Jersey — was  missed  on  a  cer- 
tain Sabbath  morning  after  the  close  of  the 
Church  service.    His  family  went  in  search 


of  him.  They  found  him  in  a  woods  near  the 
Church,  lying  on  the  ground,  and  weeping 
like  a  child.  They  inquired  the  cause  of  his 
emotion.  He  told  them  that  after  preaching 
on  the  love  of  his  crucified  Savior,  he  had 
gone  out  in  the  woods  to  meditate.  He  had 
got  such  views  of  the  wondrous  love  of  God 
in  sending  His  Son  into  the  world  to  die  for 
sinners  that  he  was  completely  overwhelmed. 
The  glory  of  the  Cross  seemed  to  smite  him 
down,  and  to  break  his  very  heart  as  it  had 
melted  the  heart  of  Paul.  He  saw  no  one 
save  Jesus  only.  A  clear,  distinct  look  at 
Jesus  is  what  every  sinner  also  needs  to  con- 
vict him  of  guilt,  and  to  break  him  down. 
The  preaching  which  melts  hard  hearts  is 
Christ  preaching — Cross  preaching — it  wounds 
and  it  heals ;  it  kills  sin,  and  brings  to  the 
penitent  soul  new  life.  No  other  preaching 
so  surely  commands  the  blessing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  We  ministers  should  find  our  highest 
duty  and  our  holiest  delight  in  simply  lifting 
up  the  atoning  Lamb  of  God  before  the  eyes 
of  our  congregations.  And  nothing  else  can 
touch  and  fire  the  true  believer  like  the  vis- 
ion of  his  crucified  Savior. 

This  was  the  favorite  theme  of  my  beloved 
old  friend  Spurgeon,  who  was  the  most  suc- 
cessful preacher  of  our  times.  In  his  racy 
and  pungent  way  he  once  said  to  his  divinity 
students :  "  When  you  see  a  preacher  mak- 
ing the  gospel  of  the  Cross  small  by  degrees, 
and  miserably  less  until  there  is  not  enough 
of  it  left  to  make  soup  for  a  sick  grasshopper 
— get  you  gone !  As  for  me  I  believe  in  the 
colossal — a  need  as  deep  as  Hell,  and  a  grace 
as  high  as  Heaven.  •  I  believe  in  an  infinite 
God,  and  an  infinite  atonement — in  an  infinite 
love  and  mercy — and  in  an  everlasting  cove- 
nant ordered  in  all  things  and  sure,  of  which 
the  substance  and  reality  is  an  infinite  Christ." 

I  am  also  fully  persuaded  that  the  most 
effectual  antidote  to  the  current  skepticism,  is 
to  present  the  incarnate  Son  of  God,  and  with 
the  omnipotence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  press 
,  His  claims.  The  crucified  Savior  is  the  only 
cure  for  infidelity.  Brethren  in  the  ministry ! 
cut  that  truth  as  with  the  pen  of  a  diamond 
on  your  heart,  and  on  your  sermons.  No 
skeptic  can  out-general  you  on  that  ground. 
If  you  can  get  him  there,  and  hold  him  there, 
the  Cross  of  Christ  may  conquer  him.  Exalt 
the  Cross!  God  has  hung  the  destiny  of  the 
race  upon  it.  Other  things  we  may  do  in  the 
realm  of  ethics,  and  on  the  lines  of  philan- 
thropic reforms ;  but  our  main  duty  con- 
verges into  setting  that  one  glorious  beacon 
of  salvation,  Calvary's  Cross,  before  the  gaze 
of  every  immortal  soul. — I. 


THE  CROSS 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


How  must  the  cross  have  seemed  to  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  who  hovered  about  the  out- 
skirts of  the  crowd,  or  cowered,  broken- 
hearted, in  lonely  chambers  in  the  city?     O 


what  a  dire  disappointment  it  was  to  their 
hearts !  O  what  a  tight  puzzle  it  was  to 
their  brains !  O  what  a  sore  trial  it  was  to 
their  faith  !     Was  not  this  the  Prophet  of  God  ? 


142 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Had  He  not  made  displays  of  power  that  were 
credentials  of  His  Divine  mission?  And 
would  God  send  out  so  spotless  a  man  to  die 
ignominiously? 

For  we  must  strive  to  recollect  what  the 
cross  was.  We  have  wrought  it  in  gold  and 
wreathed  it  with  flowers,  and  worn  it  as  an 
ornament,  and  placed  it  at  the  head  of  all 
human  symbolisms,  until  we  have  transfig- 
ured it.  It  had  none  of  these  associations 
originally.  It  was  the  meanest  of  all  the  en- 
gines of  torture.  The  guillotine  has  some- 
thing respectable  in  it,  as  it  was  for  the  de- 
capitation of  princes  as  well  as  robbers.  The 
gallows  is  not  so  mean  as  the  cross ;  for, 
when  there  was  slavery  among  us,  and  a  mas- 
ter and  his  slave  were  convicted  of  a  capital 
crime,  they  perished  on  the  same  scaffold. 
But  the  cross  was  reserved  for  the  lowest 
and  vilest  malefactors.  It  added  deepest  ig- 
nominy to  death.  Tacitus  called  crucifixion 
the  torture  of  slaves. 

Now,  when  they  saw  their  Master  hanging 
there,  it  was  indescribably  puzzling  as  well 
as  painful.  He  had  been  so  good,  so  sweet, 
so  pure,  so  what  all  men's  ideal  of  the  perfect 
man  has  ever  been !  He  had  shown  such 
power,  stilling  the  winds,  multiplying  bread, 
opening  deaf  ears  and  blind  eyes,  cleansing 
lepers  and  raising  the  dead,  doing  all  those 


things  that  they  had  been  taught  to  believe 
belonged  only  unto  God  to  do.  How  could 
He  let  Himself  be  crucified?  How  could  the 
great  eternal  God  allow  this  model  of  good- 
ness and  beauty  to  be  crushed  out  of  the 
world?  The  cross  gave  them  a  disappoint- 
ment sadder  than  ever  had  fallen  on  men 
before,  sadder  than  any  since.  It  was  the  bit- 
terest blighting  of  hopes  recorded  in  the  his- 
tory of  humanity. 

But  Jesus — how  did  it  all  seem  to  Him?  He 
knew  what  was  in  Pilate's  mind,  and  what  in 
the  minds  of  the  chief-priests  and  the  Jewish 
rabble,  and  the  Roman  centurion  and  the 
brutal  soldiery,  and  His  fainting  mother,  and 
His  disheartened,  disappointed  friends.  He 
knew  that  they  felt  that  they  were  parting 
from  Him  forever.  He  heard  the  gibes  and 
jeers  of  the  mocking  crowd,  the  roar  of  the 
unfeeling  mob,  the  groans  and  cries  of  the 
blessed  Virgin,  and  the  frightful  noise  where- 
with the  earthquake  burst  open  the  tombs  and 
ripped  the  Temple's  veil  from  top  to  bottom. 
He  saw  the  darkness  coming  on  Temple  and 
Tower  and  Calvary,  and  on  His  own  soul, 
like  the  shadow  of  hell.  But  through  it  all 
He  beheld  a  vision  of  glory.  But  above  it 
all  He  heard  a  shout  of  triumph  I  And  He 
died  satisfied! — C.  W. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

THE  VOICE   OF  THE  CROSS 


By  Amory  H.  Bradford,  D.D. 

There  they  crucified  him. — Luke  xxiii:  33 


These  words  describe  an  event  by  no  means 
uncommon  in  that  cruel  age.  In  themselves 
they  are  not  unique  enough  to  attract  atten- 
tion ;  as  a  part  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
Christ  they  have  relations  to  all  ages  and 
climes.  The  death  of  Christ  was  not  so  pain- 
ful as  that  of  the  two  thieves  who  hung  by 
His  side.  Considered  simply  as  a  historic 
fact,  it  was  the  death  of  one  who  by  legal 
process  had  been  adjudged  to  be  a  criminal. 
It  has  been  called  a  sacrifice,  but  there  was 
no  altar,  no  fire,  no  priest.  There  has  always 
been  a  tendency  to  surround  the  cross  with 
artificial  scenery.  In  it  the  dramatic  instinct 
has  found  a  fruitful  subject.  Artists  have 
followed  the  example  of  theologians,  so  far 
as  their  art  would  allow  them.  I  have  always 
considered  Gerome's  painting  of  "  The  Cruci- 
fixion "  peculiarly  noble  because  it  shows  only 
the  three  crosses,  and  stretching  from  their 
feet  the  shadows  of  those  hanging  upon  them. 
The  attempt  to  put  infinite  agony  into  a  hu- 
man face  always  fails.  Ethical  and  spiritual 
sensibility  defy  the  painter's  brush  even  more 
than  the  logician's  formula  or  the  theologi- 
an's system.  If  the  crucifixion  in  itself  was 
not  more  tragic  than  thousands  of  other 
events,  in  what  do  we  find  the  great  and  vital 


mystery  of  Calvary?  Because  of  its  relations 
to  humanity,  because  it  has  been  a  fountain 
of  moral  regeneration,  because  it  has  been  a 
source  of  salvation  and  new  life,  we  are  led 
to  ask  concerning  the  personality  of  Him 
who  died  that  death.  The  cross  alone  proves 
nothing  concerning  Christ  or  His  mission, 
but  what  followed  shows  that  no  ordinary 
mortal  there  poured  out  His  soul  in  death, 
and  that  the  life  which  then  culminated  was 
not  like  that  of  other  men.  You  cannot  begin 
with  the  cross  as  a  fact  in  history  and  reach 
any  adequate  conclusion  concerning  the  Man; 
but  beginning  with  the  work  of  Christ  you 
are  led  by  a  process  swift  and  irresistible  to 
something  like  the  faith  of  Peter — "  Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

Concerning  the  relation  of  the  death  of 
Christ  to  the  Deity  and  the  moral  order, 
speculation  has  been  common  and  useless. 
Salvation  is  as  mysterious  as  the  action  of 
the  elemental  forces.  How  gravitation  oper- 
ates no  one  knows ;  how  the  energy  in  a 
sunbeam  is  communicated  to  a  flower  no  one 
imderstands  ;  how  electricity  can  be  manipu- 
lated so  that  a  man  may  hold  a  pen  in  Chi- 
cago and  write  his  signature  in  New  York, 
baffles  imagination ;    and  until  such  facts  are 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


143 


explained,  no  one  need  be  dazed  at  the  mys- 
tery of  spiritual  life.  The  cross  in  its  rela- 
tion to  man  is  what  claims  our  attention.  If 
that  cross  were  still  standing,  endowed  with 
life  and  power  of  speech,  what  do  you  think 
w^ould  be  its  message  to  us  in  these  latter 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century?  We  speak 
of  the  ■'  Voice  of  the  Cross."  By  that  we 
mean  the  motive  which  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  every  man  to  cooperate  with  those  di- 
vine forces  which  found  expression  on  the 
cross.  And  by  the  cross  we  do  not  mean 
simply  Calvary  and  the  wood  that  was  there 
raised,  but  that  suffering  and  sacrifice  which 
were  the  symbol  of  the  eternal  love  of  God. 
If  Christ  was  only  a  man,  then  the  appeal  is 
no  greater  than  that  which  comes  from  any 
heroic  death.  But  the  cross  reveals  at  the 
same  time  the  love  of  God  and  the  ideal  life 
of  man.  Its  call  runs  throughout  the  earth, 
as  that  of  the  sunshine  and  the  rain.  Every 
sunbeam  seems  to  have  a  voice  for  the  farmer, 
telling  him  that  winter  is  past,  and  the  time 
for  the  sowing  of  seed  has  come.  The  rain- 
drops and  the  sunbeams  call  those  who  till 
the  soil  to  cooperate  with  unseen  forces  for 
the  realization  of  the  harvest.  No  farmer 
understands  how  the  ground  is  made  ready 
for  the  seed,  and  as  little  how  the  seed  grows 
after  it  is  sown.  And  yet  he  may  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  forces  in  nature,  and  compel 
the  earth  to  bring  forth  harvests.  Even  the 
dullest  savage  may  cooperate  with  the  uni- 
verse, they  two  working  together  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  life  of  man.  As  rain-drops  and 
sunbeams  appeal  to  the  farmer,  so  the  cross 
on  which  the  divine  love  broke  into  expres- 
sion appeals  to  all,  telling  them  that  no  man 
is  left  to  himself;  that,  so  to  speak,  redemp- 
tion is  in  the  nature  of  things ;  that  God 
works  with  all  who  will  work  with  Him ; 
that  the  divine  invitation,  "  Whosoever  will, 
let  him  come,"  has  in  it  a  deep  and  sublime 
philosophy ;  that  it  is  literally  true  that  there 
is  not  a  human  being  so  humble  or  oppressed 
that  he  may  not  link  his  puny  self  to  the  great 
love  of  God,  and  by  it  be  led  into  the  fulness 
of  the  divine  life.  I  have  sometimes  imagined 
the  cross  to  be  a  living  being,  with  a  voice 
which,  ringing  down  the  centuries  and 
throughout  all  lands,  carries  ever  this  mes- 
sage :  The  true  life  of  man  is  that  which 
culminated  when  our  Master  died. 

To  what  does  the  Cross  call  men? 

It  calls  to  personal  holiness.  The  teaching 
and  mission  of  our  Lord  point  toward  the 
impartation  to  man  of  the  very  life  of  God. 
All  have  that  life  in  the  sense  that  they  have 
existence,  but  all  have  not  the  nature  of  God, 
which  is  holiness.  What  is  meant  by  holi- 
ness? Perfect  goodness.  Goodness  is  a  word 
which  every  one  understands.  There  have  at 
different  times  been  different  moral  ideals. 
In  one  age,  the  bravest  have  been  considered 
the  best ;  in  another,  the  shrewdest ;  but  holi- 
ness, in  the  sense  of  unalloyed  goodness,  has 
always  been  recognized  as  the  finest  flower 
of  human  character.  In  its  Biblical  usage, 
holiness  comes  from  the  sacrificial  system,  in 
which  only  animals  perfectly  sound  were  of- 
ferred  to  God.     That  perfection  was   in  our 


Master.  Holiness  is  a  state  of  moral  purity. 
Some  words  need  no  definition.  Pure  as  the 
air  !  Pure  as  the  light !  Pure  as  Christ !  To 
think  of  an  unholy  imagination  or  an  un- 
worthy desire  in  the  whiteness  of  His  nature 
is  blasphemous.  But  holiness  is  not  only  per- 
fect health  and  purity ;  it  is  also  something 
set  apart  for  the  service  of  God.  A  man  with 
not  one  thrill  of  passion,  not  one  desire  for 
personal  aggrandizement,  but  with  ambition 
to  be  great  for  the  sake  of  at  last  giving  all 
to  God,  suggests  what  holy  character  is.  It 
is  not  weakness ;  it  has  no  kinship  with 
merely  sentimental,  piety.  It  is  a  positive 
quality — the  sum  of  all  virtues.  A  holy  man 
cultivates  every  faculty  to  the  utmost,  ac- 
quires every  possible  art,  disciplines  his  mind, 
trains  his  thought,  acquires  grace  of  action 
and  expression,  completes  his  manhood,  in 
order  that  at  last  he  may  offer  a  finished  and 
beautiful  sacrifice  to  Him  whom  he  delights 
to  honor.  Patience,  temperance,  love,  have 
been  called  weak ;  and  yet  patience  requires 
more  strength  than  passion ;  temperance, 
more  resolution  than  audacity ;  and  love,  both 
bravery  and  endurance.  In  the  old  time 
Cssar  was  the  hero;  in  the  new  time,  Jesus 
upon  the  cross,  dying  that  He  may  heal  the 
woes  of  humanity,  is  the  hero.  To  what  does 
the  cross  call  ?  To  Christlike  holiness ;  to 
the  realization  that  every  gift  and  grace,  every 
faculty  and  energy,  every  motive  and  thought, 
belong  to  God.  Pure  as  the  water  without  a 
taint!  as  a  diamond  without  a  flaw!  as  the 
light  that  bathes  the  world  in  splendor ! 
What  were  men  intended  to  be?  What  Christ 
was.  What  word  condenses  His  character 
better  than  any  other?  Holiness.  No  thought 
of  self!  no  plan  for  self!  everything  for 
humanity !  So  pure  in  heart  that  He  could 
see  God !  To  that  all  are  called — to  the  very 
character  of  Him  who  hung  upon  the  cross. 
Is  the  ideal  high?  It  cannot  be  too  high.  Is 
it  an  impossible  ideal?  When  Robert  Morri- 
son started  for  China,  an  incredulous  Amer- 
ican said  to  him :  "  Mr.  Morrison,  do  you 
think  you  can  make  any  impression  on  the 
Chinese?"  "No,"  was  the  reply;  "but  I 
thmk  the  Lord  can."  That  ideal  of  perfect, 
flawless,  stainless  purity,  can  it  ever  be  real- 
ized by  such  things  as  ourselves,  stained  l)y 
unholy  memories  and  polluted  by  foul 
thoughts?  Is  not  that  a  height  beyond  our 
reach?  I  fancy  that  I  hear  some  incredulous 
man  say,  as  he  looks  out  over  the  fields  loaded 
with  snow :  "  The  idea  that  a  harvest  will 
ever  grow  in  these  cold  and  icy  fields  is  ab- 
surd? It  is  absurd  to  you  and  me,  but  not 
to  Him  who  can  send  His  sun  to  melt  the 
snow  and  His  rain  to  nurse  the  seeds  that 
were  sown  before  the  snow  had  fallen.  To 
the  very  life  of  God  we  are  called.  It  is  im- 
possible to  us,  but  not  impossible  to  Him. 

The  Cross  appeals  to  all  to  fill  their  lives 
until  service  and  sacrifice.  On  the  cross  was 
the  noblest  example  of  self-sacrifice  for  the 
s?ke  of  those  who  have  nothing  to  return 
that  this  earth  has  seen.  "  Let  this  mind  be 
in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus."  He 
"  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  min- 
ister."    Service  and  sacrifice  are  the  natural 


144 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


language  of  love.  Other  men  may  have  am- 
bition for  themselves,  but  a  Christian  must  do 
as  his  Master  did — make  the  most  of  himself 
for  the  sake  of  humanity.  The  life  that  ended 
on  the  cross,  how  little  it  is  understood!  We 
bear  the  sacred  name ;  rear  buildings  for  His 
worship;  wear  the  symbol  of  sacrifice  in 
jewels  on  our  persons;  talk  about  the  cross; 
but  how  many  know  that  there  is  but  one 
material  of  which  a  cross  can  be  made?  There 
was  never  yet  one  cross  of  gold  or  silver  or 
precious  stones ;  the  only  material  that  can 
get  into  that  shape  is  love ;  and  love  must 
manifest  itself  in  service  which  will  not 
shrink  from  sacrifice.  Love  without  service 
is  like  a  sunbeam  without  light.  The  mother 
must  minister  to  her  child.  A  friend  must 
seek  to  be  helpful  to  his  friend.  The  first  re- 
corded word  of  Christ  was:  "Wist  ye  not 
that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business?  " 
and  His  last :  "  It  is  finished."  What  lies 
between  these  words?  Constant  ministry. 
When  He  said,  "  Let  him  that  is  chiefest 
among  you  be  servant  of  all,"  He  outlined  the 
form  that  the  Christ-life  must  take.  The 
voice  of  the  cross  calls  to  what  the  cross  sym- 
bolized. "  Ah,  but,"  you  say,  "  that  was  all 
very  well  for  Him  who  came  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  special  work,  but  it  has  no 
meaning  to  us."  No  meaning  for  us?  Are 
there  not  as  great  evils  to-day  as  when  He 
came?  Do  not  millions  bend  beneath  inde- 
scribable sorrow  ?  Have  all  men  even  yet  the 
truth?  Do  all  know  that  they  are  children  of 
God?  Have  the  doors  between  this  and  the 
spirit  life  been  thrown  open?  The  very  work 
which  faced  the  Master  still  remains.  He 
began  that  which  His  followers  must  com- 
plete.    Take  two  or  three  illustrations. 

The  poverty  of  the  world  is  not  so  great  as 
when  the  Christ  was  here,  but  it  is  still  ap- 
palling beyond  description.  Think  of  95,000 
families  in  one  city  with  only  one  room  to  a 
familv !  Think  of  210,000  human  beings  in 
New  York  this  year  on  the  verge  of  starva- 
tion !  Think  of  little  children  in  factories 
when  they  ought  to  be  in  school !  Think  of 
women  with  children  to  support  making  shirts 
at  ten  cents  apiece ;  finding  their  thread,  pay- 
ing their  rent,  fuel,  light,  clothing,  every- 
thing, out  of  that  wage !  Think  of  the 
wretchedness  and  poverty  that  surge  even  to 
the  curbs  of  the  palaces  of  the  rich  !  Lazarus 
and  Dives  touch  elbows.  Why  do  thousands 
of  men  cheer  the  name  of  Jesus  and  hiss  the 
mention  of  the  Church?  Because  deep  in  their 
hearts  they  recognize  that  the  cross  stands 
for  brotherhood,  for  helpfulness,  for  a  real 
gospel  to  the  poor,  while  they  believe  that 
those  who  bear  the  name  of  Jesus  have  for- 
gotten the  message  that  He  spoke.  A  young 
student  from  Oxford,  a  resident  of  Mansfield 
House  in .  East  London,  with  thrilling  and 
pathetic  earnestness  said  not  long  ago : 
"  Some  of  us  have  sworn  that  we  will  take 
no  rest  until  the-se  terrible  conditions  are 
done  away."  Such  utterances  have  been  heard 
before.  That  splendid  enthusiasm  will  wear 
itself  out,  and  that  young  man,  if  he  persists, 
will  sink  into  an  untimely  grave.  He  may 
live  to  the  age  of  his  Master,  but  he  will  hang 


upon  his  cross  long  before  the  work  is  com- 
pleted. The  cry  of  humanity  is  bitter  and 
terrible.  "  The  cry  of  the  children,"  rings  in 
the  ears  of  those  who  heap  up  gold.  Into 
this  confusion  rises  the  clear,  sweet  voice  of 
Him  who  hung  upon  the  cross :  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 

Poverty  is  not  nearly  so  common  as  sor- 
sow.  Many  suffer  hunger ;  all  sooner  or 
later  feel  sorrow.  Who  can  speak  wisely  of 
the  disappointments  that  embitter?  of  the 
losses  that  make  us  wonder  if  there  is  love 
anywhere?  of  the  disease  that  consumes  those 
who  are  dearer  to  us  than  our  lives?  Who 
can  tell  what  death — that  strangest  of  mys- 
teries in  a  world  of  life — means?  Death  ob- 
trudes his  hideous  face  into  all  happy  asso- 
ciations, until  sometimes  it  seems  as  if  the 
sunlight  were  only  a  mockery  and  the  very 
air  poison.  The  work  of  Christ  complete ! 
He  who  came  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted 
— His  work  complete !  Why,  it  seems  as  if 
it  had  hardly  begun.  The  Apostle  said: 
"  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ."  Enter  into  each 
other's  life.  Be  helpful.  Let  those  who 
have  joy  minister  to  those  who  are  without 
it.  From  that  cross  I  seem  to  hear  a  voice 
which  comes  straight  to  us,  saying :  "  Thou 
shalt  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you." 
That  means,  you  should  enter  into  one 
another's  life  and  bear  one  another's  bur- 
dens, as  I  have  entered  into  your  life  and 
borne  your  burdens.  Over  against  sorrow 
and  suffering  the  Master  has  put  Fatherhood 
and  immortality.  "  Our  light  affliction, 
which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a 
far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory."  "  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for 
they  shall  be  comforted."  Ring  out  the  mes- 
sage wherever  hearts  are  breaking  and  eyes 
are  filled  with  tears !  All  things  are  in  the 
Father's  hands;  not  one  is  utterly  alone; 
no  life  is  without  purpose,  and  all  things 
are  moving  upward. 

The  desolation  of  poverty  and  sorrow  are 
as  nothing  when  compared  zuith  the  desola- 
tion of  sin.  The  same  selfishness  that  nailed 
Jesus  to  the  cross  still  stalks  through  the 
earth.  The  same  forces  of  evil  are  at  work 
now  as  of  old.  In  the  morning  multitudes 
go  out  pure  as  the  light — in  the  evening  they 
return  beaten  down,  defeated,  despairing. 
There  is  poverty  because  men  choose  evil 
rather  than  good.  There  is  sorrow  because 
men  forget  to  love  one  another.  Our  Master 
had  one  mission  above  all  others — by  service 
and  sacrifice  to  bring  men  from  the  sway  of 
sin  and  sorrow  into  the  life  and  love  of  God. 
His  life  was  given  to  humanity.  Study  His 
career,  and  see  if  you  can  get  anything  out 
of  it  except  ceaseless  effort  to  destroy  poverty, 
to  break  the  clouds  of  sorrow,  to  find  the 
secret  places  in  which  lurk  the  powers  which 
work  evil  among  men.  All  for  man,  and 
nothing  for  Himself.  To  that  His  followers 
are  called.  Wherever  His  story  goes,  there 
also  goes  the  mute  appeal  that  men  should 
be  as  He  was.  Oh,  what  a  world  this  would 
be  if  competition  could  go  out,  cooperation 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


145 


come  in  and  prevail !  How  much  of  sorrow 
would  go  if  all  would  help  one  another,  and 
never  in  any  way  hinder ;  if  all  would  work 
together  to  overcome  sin  and  destroy  evil ! 
I  seem  to  hear  a  voice  calling  to  you  and  to 
me,  saying :  "  You  believe  in  me  ?  then  fol- 
low me.  You  believe  in  the  cross?  then  live 
the  life  of  the  cross.  You  believe  in  the 
love  of  God?  the  love  of  God  can  manifest 
itself  only  in  the  love  of  man."  Let  us  dare 
to  be  singular  !  dare  to  go  against  traditions 
and  theories !  dare  to  do  anything  that  is 
not  wrong,  if  thereby  we  may  help  a  little  to 
do  away  with  poverty,  and  cause  rifts  in  the 
clouds  through  which  the  light  of  God's  love 
may  shine  into  the  broken  hearts  of  brother 
men.  Into  the  midst  of  the  controversies 
concerning  the  mysteries  of  time  and  eter- 
nity; into  the  midst  of  competitions  among 
the  Churches ;  into  the  midst  of  those  who 
use  wealth  as  if  there  were  no  judgment; 
close  beside  those  who  are  ungenerous  and 
unkind,  that  living  cross  moves,  with  the 
streaming  hands  and  the  pierced  side,  and 
everywhere  sound  with  thrilling  pathos  the 
words — "  As  thou  hast  sent  me  into  the 
world,  even  so  send  I  them  into  the  world." 

The  voice  of  the  cross  reaches  to  all  men. 
It  entreats  us  to  fight  against  every  usage 
or  custom  which  is  at  variance  with  love.  It 
summons  us  to  war  against  every  theory 
which  confuses  a  man  with  a  thing.  It  in- 
sists that  all  shall  have  the  opportunity  of 
growing  into  the  divine  likeness.  It  would 
have  us  go  into  business  houses  with  a 
scourge  of  small  cords,  and  drive  out  those 
who  pay  wages  which  necessitate  starvation 
or  sin.  It  summons  the  faithful  to  enter 
Churches  which  make  discriminations  based 
on  wealth,  and  lift  high  the  Gospel  which 
cannot  be  bought  with  a  price.  It  calls  us  to 
be  brothers ;  to  put  our  hearts  at  the  dis- 
posal of  those  whose  hearts  are  broken,  and, 
in  some  way  and  at  any  cost,  to  find  all  who 
are  without  God  and  without  hope,  and  then 
to  be  willing  even  to  die  that  they  may  be 
brought  to  the  Father's  house  and  the  Fa- 
ther's love. 

Many  other  messages  come  from  that 
cross.  It  asks,  "  Can  you  question  the  final 
outcome  of  the  conflict  between  evil  and 
good?  Can  you  doubt  that  what  has  been 
begun  at  so  great  cost  will  be  surely  com- 
pleted ? "  You  have  sometimes  been  at  sea 
in  the  midst  of  the  wild,  black  night.  Not  a 
star  is  visible.  The  rush  and  roar  of  the 
waters  is  in  your  ears.  The  desolate,  awful 
ocean  is  around,  and  blackness  of  darkness 


above  and  beneath.  Thus  do  we  sometimes 
picture  the  world  in  which  we  live — evil 
around,  evil  within,  evil  behind,  and  an  abyss 
before  us !  But  that  is  not  a  true  picture. 
Nature  is  not  heartless.  The  elemental 
forces  are  beneficent.  All  things  work  for 
good.  When  despondency  concerning  the 
final  victory  comes,  the  cross  seems  to  move 
nearer,  the  very  wounds  in  the  hands  and 
feet,  and  the  spear-print  in  the  side,  to  find 
voices  which  ask,  Can  you  believe  that  the 
work  which  the  Savior  began  can  be  de- 
feated? The  call  of  the  cross  is  to  holiness, 
to  service  and  sacrifice,  to  faith  in  the  final 
triumph  of  good ;  it  calls  all  who  bear  the 
Christian  name  to  realize  that  they  arc  in 
fellowship  with  the  Son  of  God  in  saving 
the  world.  The  cross  utters  its  voice  in  our 
ears.  It  seems  to  say :  "  You  are  blest  with 
all  that  you  need ;  you  have  friends  and 
love ;  I  bring  to  you  the  greatest  of  all  pos- 
sible privileges.  Power  will  cease,  wealth 
will  go,  friendships  must  end;  I  offer  to 
you  fellowship  with  me  in  the  work  of  bring- 
ing all  men  into  actual  brotherhood,  and  into 
the  realization,  not  only  of  Fatherhood,  but 
of  immortality."  Two  voices  sound  from 
that  living  cross  which  has  moved  down  the 
ages  and  stands  by  our  sides  to-day.  One 
speaks  to  those  who  have  taken  the  Christian 
name,  saying :  "  Rise  to  your  privilege !  the 
servant  is  to  be  as  his  Lord !  My  work  is 
your  work !  where  I  went  you  are  to  go ! 
what  I  did  you  are  to  do !  those  who  were 
dear  to  Me  should  be  dear  to  you  !  the  more 
you  have  the  more  you  should  give !  the 
more  nearly  perfect  you  make  your  life  the 
richer  will  be  its  achievement  for  God  and 
humanity !  "     Are   we  heeding  that  voice  ? 

Yet  once  more  that  cross  moves  closer, 
and  yet  more  intensely  and  eagerly  He  who 
hangs  upon  it  seems  to  speak  to  us,  and  the 
burden  of  His  words  is :  "I  bring  to  you 
that  which  is  highest  and  best  for  time  and 
eternity ;  I  bring  to  you  the  assurance  that 
there  is  no  grief  and  no  sorrow  that  is  not 
always  in  the  Father's  sight  and  may  not 
be  turned  into  blessing.  I  bring  to  you  a 
power  by  which  evil  thoughts  and  tendencies 
may  be  destroyed.  I  bring  to  you  whose 
memories  are  full  of  sad  and  bad  recollec- 
tions the  assurance  that  no  life  can  have 
been  so  wicked,  no  past  so  foul,  no  strength 
so  far  gone,  as  to  cut  off  from  the  love  of 
God  and  His  willingness  to  save."  Are  you 
willing  to  hear  that  voice  and  to  respond  to 
its  invitation? — O. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION 

By  F.  W.  Farrar,  D.D.,  D.C.L. 

There  they  crucified  him,  and  the  malefactors,  one  on  the  right  hand,  and  the  other  on  the 

left. — Luke  xxiii:  33 

On  these  great  solemn  days  of  the  church  Sunday  of  the  year  helps  to  explain  and  to 

sermons  are  the  least  needful.     The  day  itself  emphasize  the  lessons  of  those  great  facts  of 

preaches  to  us.     Its   lessons,   its  services,   its  which    Christmas    Day,     Good    Friday,    and 

memories  are  so  many  sermons;    and  every  Easter  Day  are  special  memorials.     Eighteen 


146 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


and  a  half  centuries  have  flowed  back  into  the 
dark  abyss  of  time  since  that  first  Good 
Friday,  yet  how  fully  does  the  fourfold  nar- 
rative of  the  Gospels  enable  us  to  call  up  the 
most  memorable  event  in  the  world's  his- 
tory! A  turbulent  afternoon  in  spring,  an 
execution,  a  surging  crowd,  the  eve  of  a  great 
annual  festival  which  has  brought  thousands 
to  Jerusalem,  the  dim,  unconscious  sense  of 
some  great  crisis  and  tragedy,  rocks  tremu- 
lous with  earthquake,  a  sky  darkening  with 
preternatural  eclipse!  Stand  amid  that  vile, 
promiscuous  crowd;  what  is  the  spectacle 
which  has  summoned  them  together?  There 
are  three  crosses  on  Golgotha ;  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left  are  two  robbers,  cruci- 
fied for  murder  and  rebellion ;  on  the  central 
cross,  with  its  mocking  title  of  scorn  over 
His  head  in  three  languages,  "  This  is  the 
King  of  the  Jews,"  with  women  weeping  at 
His  feet  as  tho  their  hearts  would  break, 
hangs  a  sinless  Sufferer.  One  who  had  lived 
as  never  man  lived,  One  who  spake  as  never 
man  spake.  One  who  had  loved  His  brethren 
as  never  man  had  loved  before !  Guilt  and 
innocence  are  alike  nailed  upon  those  crosses ; 
redeeming  Godhead  and  ruined  humanity 
hang  tortured  there ;  and  that  Sufferer  was 
the  Savior  of  mankind. 

Now,  those  three  crosses  symbolize  two  op- 
posite, two  eternal,  conflicting  facts — they  are 
the  signs  of  an  awful  defeat,  and  of  an  un- 
utterable victory ;  they  are  the  proof  of  an 
appalling  misery  and  of  an  irresistible,  trium- 
phant hope. 
L  The  awful  defeat. 

Gaze  at  which  cross  you  will,  you  will  see 
in  it  the  fall,  the  degradation,  the  utter  cor- 
ruption of  humanity,  the  acme,  the  zenith, 
the  triumph — and  at  this  moment  it  might 
have  seemed  the  final  triumph — of  the  enemy 
of  souls.  Death  itself,  death  at  the  best,  is 
full  of  awe ;  death  even  when  the  mute,  be- 
seeching appeal  of  every  glance  is  anticipated 
by  love,  when  every  pang  is  soothed,  when 
every  tear  is  wiped  away  with  the  touch  of 
consummate  tenderness;  death  even  when 
prayers  and  hymns  are  uttered  softly  by  the 
dying  bed,  and  children's  faces  look  upon  it, 
and  every  eye  is  wet  with  tears ! 

But  death  like  this !  Death  in  the  crudest 
and  vilest  form  which  has  ever  been  invented, 
even  by  the  base  and  cruel  East ;  a  death  of 
ghastly  and  lingering  torture,  which  even 
cruel  nations,  brutalized  by  despotism,  and 
inured  to  blood,  regarded  as  the  supreme  form 
of  all  that  was  miserable  and  execrable  I  And 
this  death,  inflicted  in  slow,  horrible  agonies, 
and  the  devilish  inventiveness  of  torture  by 
man  upon  his  brother  man  when  he  is  in  the 
full  flush  and  prime  of  his  life !  Death  when 
the  living  man,  who  was  made  to  be  "  but 
little  lower  than  the  angels,"  in  the  supreme 
moment  of  his  destiny  is  loaded  with  name- 
less insult,  and  hounded  out  of  the  world 
with  fiendish  execration  I  Does  not  the  mind 
shudder  at  it?  Does  it  not  look  like  the  en- 
thronement of  the  most  hideous  and  malig- 
nant of  the  principalities  of  evil  as  lord  over 
the  life  of  man?  From  what  other  source 
could    spring   these    frightful    insults   against 


.the  majesty  of  manhood,  against  the  awful- 
ness  of  death?  Said  not  our  Lord  Himself, 
"  This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of  dark- 
ness "? 

And  does  not  the  voiceless  horror  become 
yet  more  horrible  when  we  think  that  on  those 
three  crosses  hang  those  who  represent  alike 
the  loftiest  and  the  lowest  humanity — repre- 
sent manhood  taken  up  into  Godhead,  and 
manhood  degraded  into  demonhood — repre- 
sent guilt,  innocence,  repentance,  ending  their 
lives  in  the  same  dire  anguish,  under  that 
darkening  sky,  in  the  common  horror  of  the 
tragedy  of  apparent  failure  too  awful  for  any 
human  imagination  to  conceive? 

I.  For  guilt  was  there,  and  guilt  is  the 
darkest  problem  which  this  world  knows. 

That  impenitent  robber,  perhaps  a  follower 
of  Barabbas,  familiar  with  who  knows  what 
scenes  of  blood  and  plunder,  with  who  can 
tell  what  scenes  riding  like  a  nightmare  on 
his  breast,  does  he  not  represent  the  horror  of 
the  doom  of  finished  crime?  Yes,  he  was  a 
criminal ;  but  no  criminal  was  always  a 
criminal ;  no  man  is  made  in  a  moment  a  vo- 
tary of  vice.  The  child  is  innocent.  The  first 
step  toward  the  ruined  man  is  nothing  worse 
than  inconstancy  of  mind  and  lack  of  faith  in 
God.  "  First  cometh  to  the  mind  a  bare 
thought  of  the  evil,  then  the  strong  imagina- 
tion of  it,  then  delight  and  evil  motion  and 
full  consent ;  and  so,  little  by  little,  our 
wicked  enemy  getteth  complete  entrance  for 
that  he   is   not   resisted   in  the  beginning." 

That  wretch,  that  impenitent  murderer,  in 
his  agony,  was  once  a  prattling  and  innocent 
child,  and  some  proud  young  Hebrew  mother 
had  bent  over  his  cradle,  and  parted  his  dark 
hair,  and  guided  his  pattering  footsteps,  and 
folded  his  little  hands  to  pray.  Little  by 
little,  through  slow,  invisible  gradations  of 
degeneracy,  inch  by  inch,  step  by  step,  from 
carelessness  to  vice,  from  vice  to  sin,  from 
sin  to  crime,  he  had  sunk  to  this.  Sin  had 
triumphed  in  his  mortal  body  and  over  his 
immortal.  The  powers  which  war  against 
man's  soul  had  gained  over  that  man  so  dread 
a  mastery  that  even  here  and  now,  on  the 
cross,  he  can  blaspheme  and  perish  in  his  evil 
courses,  and  go  to  his  own  place.  The  death 
of  an  impenitent  criminal  by  the  hands  of 
his  brother  man  on  the  cross,  or  on  the  scaf- 
fold, is  the  grimmest  and  ghastliest  of  grim 
and  ghastly  tragedy.  Let  us  drop  the  curtain 
over  it.  No  ray  of  light  can  pierce  that  mid- 
night, save  such  as  shines  unseen  by  us  be- 
hind the  veil. 

And  that  other  robber,  the  penitent,  what 
good  there  must  have  been  once  in  him  if 
his  faith  could  leap  like  a  dying  flame  out  of 
these  white  embers  of  his  life !  We  know  not 
whether  the  legend  of  him  be  true,  that  in 
youth,  when  he  was  a  robber,  he  had  spared 
the  Virgin  Mother  and  her  Child  in  the  flight 
to  Egypt ;  but  in  him.  even  more  than  in  the 
other,  we  see  the  shipwreck  of  fair  hopes,  the 
ruin  of  faculties  created  for  heavenly  ends, 
the  growth  of  sins  unresisted,  the  rushing 
avalanche  of  final  ruin  which  overwhelms 
those  sins !  The  remission  of  sins  is  not  the 
remission  of  their  consequences ;  the  penalty 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


147 


of  violated  law  must  be  paid  even  by  the  peni- 
tent, and  paid  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 

2.  And  between  those  two  hangs  on  the 
cross  the  Perfect  Man,  the  Sinless  Sufferer. 
On  the  white  robes  of  His  divine  humanity- 
there  had  never  been  a  stain ;  over  the  blue 
heaven  of  His  holiness  there  had  never  floated 
even  the  shadow  of  a  cloud.  He  had  been 
all  love,  all  wisdom,  all  innocence.  He  had 
been  the  Word  become  flesh,  He  who  clothed 
Himself  "  with  light  as  with  a  garment,  and 
spreadeth  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain " 
had  been  content  to  dwell  in  a  tent  like  our- 
selves, and  of  the  same  material — had  come 
down  from  the  starry  heights  of  heaven,  amid 
angels'  songs,  to  live  through  a  sweet  infancy, 
a  gracious  boyhood,  and  a  winning  youth  of 
humble  obscurity — to  us  a  divine  example 
to  show  us  the  Father,  the  All-purity,  All-ten- 
derness, All-compassion,  to  heal  the  leper,  to 
open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  to  go  about  doing 
good,  to  release  the  tortured  soul  of  the  de- 
moniac, to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  to 
undo  the  heavy  burden,  and  let  the  oppressed 
go  free. 

And  thus  He  had  lived,  and  thus  the  world 
rewarded  Him !  For  lies  and  baseness,  for 
selfish  greed  and  destructive  ambition,  for 
guilty  wealth  and  mean  compliance,  the  world 
has  a  diadem ;  for  perfect  holiness  it  has  the 
cross  1  The  darkness  quenched  the  Light, 
His  own  disowned  Him.  They  had  repaid 
by  hatred  that  life  of  love ;  envy,  malice 
slander,  calumny,  false  witness,  had  done  its 
work.  Jesus  had  been  excommunicated, 
hunted  as  a  fugitive,  with  a  price  upon  His 
head,  buffeted,  insulted,  spit  upon,  mocked, 
scourged,  crowned  with  thorns — thus  had  the 
world  shown  its  gratitude  to  its  Redeemer; 
and  the  end  was  here !  After  thirty  hours  of 
sleepless  agony  Jesus  was  hanging  upon  the 
cross.  Infinite  malignity !  Could  there  be 
any  greater  proof  of  man's  ruin  than  the  fact 
that  this  was  the  sole  reward  which  was  re- 
quited to  immeasurable  love? 

3.  And  the  mass  of  mankind,  too,  the  mass 
of  ordinary,  average  humanity  at  its  lowest, 
was  represented  in  that  scene — the  common 
herd  and  scum,  and  low,  coarse,  average  of 
humanity  in  all  ranks.  The  stream  of  hu- 
manity in  its  muddiest  vileness  was  flowing 
under  those  kingly  and  closing  eyes.  I  think 
an  ignorant,  obscene  mob  of  godless  men, 
mere  fevers  of  lust,  and  leprosies  of  unclean- 
liness,  and  ferocities  of  brutal  rage,  is  of  all 
sights  the  one  which  makes  one  shudder  most. 
It  is  a  multitudinous  infamy  of  baseness,  stu- 
pidity, and  savagery.  This  crowd  was  a  sink 
of  the  dregs  of  many  nations.  The  Roman 
soldier  was  there,  coarse  and  cruel  and  igno- 
rant and  corrupt ;  drinking,  gambling,  swear- 
ing at  the  foot  of  the  cross ;  the  Jew  of  many 
nations  was  there,  narrow,  fanatical,  a  chaos 
of  relentless  hatreds ;  the  supple,  unclean 
Greek  was  there,  from  all  the  corrupted  shores 
and  cities  of  Asia  and  Africa ;  and  the  hoarse 
murmur  of  their  jeers  and  blaspheniies,  in 
which  even  the  crucified  wretches  beside  Him 
joined,  mingled  themselves  with  the  sobs  of 
those  poor  Galilean  peasant  women  in  His 
dying  ears!     The   King  of  men:   and  this  is 


what  manhood  had  become !  And  yet  the  di- 
vine love  can  still  love  on  unashamed  in  the 
face  of  the  enormities  which  wronged  it. 

4.  And,  saddest  of  all,  there  was  religion 
there — what  called  itself  religion,  believed  it- 
self to  be  religion,  was  taken  for  religion  by 
the  world;  and  the  corruption  and  perversion 
of  religion  is  almost  viler  and  more  perilous 
than  godlessness  when  religion  has  sunk  into 
mere  callous  conventionalism  and  mere  ir- 
religious hypocrisy.  A  city  which  they  called 
the  Holy  City  lay  before  Him,  white,  beauti- 
ful, vocal  with  religious  songs,  busy  with  fes- 
tive preparation,  but  its  heart  defiled  with 
blood,  and  a  band  of  invincible  darkness  lying 
across  its  radiant  sunlight.  The  elders,  who 
should  have  taught  the  people,  had  been  the 
deadliest  in  their  yells  of  "  Not  this  man,  but 
Barabbas ! "  The  Pharisees,  who  made  the 
greatest  pretense  of  being  the  sole  representa- 
tives of  the  Orthodox  Church,  passed  by  Him, 
a  band  of  self-deceivers,  wagging  their  heads, 
and  taunting  with  jeers  His  awful  agony. 
The  priests,  who  slew  the  victims,  who  burnt 
the  incense,  who  trod  the  golden  Temple 
courts,  they  had  been  the  worst  of  His  ene- 
mies, the  most  active  of  His  murderers  I 
What  shall  be  done  in  the  world  when  its  very 
religion  has  become  irreligious,  when  its  very 
baptisms  need  baptizing,  when  it  has  sunk  into 
a  mass  of  usurping  ambition,  human  ordi- 
nances, deceiving  illusions,  and  historic  lies? 
Guilt  itself  is  a  less  hopeless  spectacle  than 
religion  which  has  no  love  and  no  truth  in 
it.  What  shall  we  think  of  priest  and  Phar- 
isees who  crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory?  Yet 
the  most  dreadful  fact  of  all  history  is  that 
the  church,  or  what  calls  itself  the  church, 
what  taunteth  itself  as  the  only  church,  and 
anathematized  and  excommunicated  all  other 
religious  bodies,  has  ever  been  at  deadlier  en- 
mity with  God's  prophets  even  than  the  world, 
and  has  chanted  its  loudest  hallelujahs  over 
St.  Bartholomew  massacres  and  the  ashes  of 
slaughtered    saints. 

And  now  the  Holy  City  was  using  the  secu- 
lar arm  of  heathen  Rome,  and  religion  was 
firmer  even  than  irreligion  in  murdering  the 
Son  of  God.  Well  might  earth  groan  and 
tremble  and  fiends  rejoice!  "It  was  their 
hour  and  the  power  of  darkness." 

Thou  palsied  earth,  with  noon-day  night  all 

spread ; 
Thou  sickening  sun,  so  dim,  so  dark,  so  red ; 
Ye  hovering  ghosts  that  throng  the  starless 

air. 
Why  shakes  the  earth,  why  fades  the  light? 

Declare 
Are  those  His  limbs,  with  ruthless  scourges 

torn? 
His    brows    all    bleeding    with    the    twisted 

thorn  ? 
His  the  pale  form,  the  meek,  forgiving  eye, 
Raised  from  the  cross  in  patient  agony? 
Be    dark,    thou    sun ;    thou    noon-day    night, 

arise 
And  hide:  oh,  hide!  that  dreadful  sacrifice! 

II.  The  unutterable  victory. 

And  so  came  the  end.  Seven  times  only  in 
brief   sentences    He   had   broken   His    kingly 


148 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


silence — once  to  pray  for  His  murderers ;  once 
to  promise  Paradise  to  true  repentance ;  once 
in  human  tenderness  to  His  mother ;  one  brief 
cry  of  spiritual  desolation ;  one  single  word, 
the  only  word  recorded  in  the  four  Gospels, 
the  one  word  of  physical  anguish,  ^iipw,  "  I 
thirst ;  "  one  loving,  trustful  prayer ;  then  the 
one  victorious,  triumphant,  divinely-exultant 
word,  TEreXe6tai  "  It  is  finished."  Finished 
was  His  holy  life;  with  His  life,  His  struggle; 
with  His  struggle.  His  work;  with  His  work, 
the  redemption ;  with  the  redemption,  the 
foundations  of  the  new  world.  Over  the 
world,  rulers  of  this  darkness,  here  intensified, 
here  concentrated,  Christ  had  triumphed  for 
ever   and   ever   more. 

For,  thank  God,  there  is  the  other  side  of 
this  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord. 

I.  H  it  was  the  hour  and  power  of  darkness, 
it  was  also  the  hour  and  power  of  infinite  de- 
liverance. H  it  was  the  proof  of  an  appalling' 
ruin,  it  was  also  the  pledge  of  an  illimitable 
hope,  for  we  know  that  the  cross,  which 
looked  like  the  uttermost  victory  of  Satan, 
bruised  the  head  of  Satan,  and  that  the  seem.- 
ing  victory  of  death  was  the  rending  from 
death  of  its  shameful  sting. 

Nothing  is  further  from  the  way  in  which 
Christ's  apostles  and  Christ  Himself  teach 
us  to  regard  the  cross  than  the  morbid,  ef- 
feminate, gloating  luxury  of  self-stimulated 
emotion.  The  unnatural  self-torture  of  the 
flagellant,  the  hysterics  of  the  convulsionary, 
the  iron  courage  of  the  mistaken  penitents, 
are  manifestly  out  of  place  in  contemplating 
that  cross,  which  is  the  symbol  of  sin  defeated, 
of  sorrow  transmuted,  of  effort  victorious, 
which  is  the  pledge  of  God's  peace  with  man, 
and  man's  peace  with  God,  which  is  the  com- 
fort of  the  penitent,  which  is  the  inspiration 
of  the  philanthropist,  which  is  the  symbol  of 
divine  charity  on  fields  of  slaughter,  which 
was  the  banner  in  the  van  of  every  battle 
which  good  has  waged  with  ill !  The  cross 
does  not  mean  whipping,  anguish,  morbid 
wailing,  morose  despair ;  it  means  joy,  it 
means  peace,  it  means  exultation,  it  means  the 
atonement,  it  means  the  redemption,  it  means 
the  liberty  of  humanity,  it  means  the  advance 
of  holiness,  it  means  the  remission  of  sins ! 

Nothing  is  more  futile  than  to  merge  our- 
selves in  a  sort  of  luxury  of  imaginative  and 
artificial  wo  over  the  physical  sufferings  of 
Christ.  There  is  not  one  word  in  the  whole 
New  Testament  to  encourage  such  worship. 
Christ  is  not  suffering  now  ;  He  is  not  now 
upon  the  cross;  He  is  among  heaven's  eternal 
glories  and  infinite  beatitudes.  He  is  not 
now  the  crucified ;  He  is  not  now  the  dead, 
not  now  the  absent,  not  now  the  humiliated; 
but,  as  has  been  truly  said.  He  is  the  Incar- 
nate, the  Present,  the  Living,  the  Prince  of 
Peace  on  earth,  the  everlasting  King  in 
Heaven !  What  His  life  is,  what  His  com- 
mandments are,  what  His  judgments  will  be, 
these  He  impresses  on  us — not  only  what  He 
once  did.  or  what  He  once  suffered.  And 
what  He  now  requires  of  us  is  what  He  is 
now  doing;  that  is.  the  pure,  joyful,  beau- 
tiful practise  of  primitive  and  unperverted 
Christianity.     And  the   fall   from  that   faith. 


and  all  the  corruptions  of  its  abortive  practise, 
may  be  summed  up  briefly  as  habitual  and 
too  exclusive  contemplation  of  Christ's  death 
instead  of  His  life,  and  the  substitution  of 
His  past  sufferings  for  our  present  duty. 

2.  It  was  a  tremendous  sacrifice ;  never  let 
us  forget  that !  Let  it  bring  home  to  our 
hearts,  with  infinite  sense  of  shame,  the  ex- 
ceeding sinfulness  of  sin.  It  is  for  that,  and 
not  for  Christ,  that  we  are  called  upon  to 
mourn.  Better  even  the  crude  fanaticism  of 
the  Jogi  or  the  Dervish,  better  the  self-im- 
molating rapture  of  the  wretches  who  flung 
themselves  under  the  car  of  Juggernaut,  than 
the  insolent  self-satisfaction  of  liars  and  adul- 
terers and  slanderers  who  yet  dare  to  be  ter- 
ribly at  ease  in  Zion !  Let  us  never  forget 
how  much  it  cost  to  redeem  our  souls,  how 
exceeding  must  have  been  the  sinfulness  of 
that  sin  which  needed  such  a  sacrifice  ;  yet  let 
us,  at  the  same  time,  bless  God  beside  the 
cross  that  if  no  plummet  can  sound  the  abyss 
of.  human  degradation,  neither  is  there  any  in- 
strument which  can  measure  the  altitude  of 
God's  love !  "  I  saw,"  said  George  Fox, 
"  that  there  was  an  ocean  of  death  and  dark- 
ness, but  an  infinite  ocean  of  light  and  love 
flowed  over  the  ocean  of  darkness,  and  in  that 
I  saw  the  infinite  love  of  God." 

For  he  must  be  blind,  indeed,  who  does  not 
recognize  what  the  cross  has  done.  You  may 
judge  of  its  effects  by  this,  that  when  Christ 
died  He  left  but  a  timid  and  miserable  hand- 
ful of  disappointed  Galilean  followers,  terri- 
fied, helpless,  infinitely  discouraged — and  that 
now,  nearly  nineteen  centuries  after  His 
death,  we  see  the  two  immense  proofs  of  His 
divinity,  historically  in  all  that  we  mean 
by  Christianity  and  in  all  that  we  mean  by 
Christendom,  and  individually  in  the  blessed 
belief  that  there  is  forgiveness  in  God ;  so 
that  "  if  any  man  sinneth  we  have  an  ad- 
vocate with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the 
righteous,  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world." 

3.  Nor,  lastly,  is  this  all.  If  one  arm  of  the 
cross  points,  as  it  were,  to  infinite  forgive- 
ness, the  other  points  to  illimitable  hope. 
Truly,  we  need  it  still !  Life  is  still  a  dark 
and  stormy  sea,  strewn  with  innumerable 
shipwrecks,  and  its  restless  water  still  casts 
up  mire  and  dirt.  .  .  .  As  far  as  the 
world  is  concerned  God's  saints  may  still 
have  cause  to  cry  in  age  after  age,  "  How 
long,  O  Lord,  how  long?"  but  as  far  as  each 
human  soul  is  concerned,  it  may,  in  Christ, 
escape  from  evil  and  doubt  and  misery  and 
death,  "  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the 
fowler,"  and  find  by  experience  the  fruition 
of  the  eternal  promise,  "  Thou  shalt  keep 
him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on 
thee."  For  because  Christ  died,  and  liveth 
forevermore,  access  is  ever  open  to  the  foot 
of  the  Throne  of  Grace,  mercy  is  unfailing 
to  the  cry  of  penitence,  grace  is  inexhaustible 
to  the  servant  who  offers  himself  wholly  for 
the  Master's  use. 

Darkness  and  earthquake,  the  shame  and 
anguish  of  Good  Friday,  are  but  the  prelude 
to  the  bursting  dawn  and  glorious  spring  of 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


149 


Easter !  By  the  cross  we,  too,  are  crucified 
with  Christ ;  but  alive  in  Christ.  We  are  no 
more  rebels,  but  servants ;  no  more  servants, 
but  sons !  "  Let  it  be  counted  folly,"  says 
Hooker,  "  or  fury,  or  frenzy,  or  whatever 
else;   it  is  our  wisdom  and  our  comfort.     We 


care  for  no  knowledge  in  the  world  but 
this,  that  man  hath  sinned,  and  that  God  hath 
suffered;  that  God  has  made  Himself  the 
Son  of  Man,  and  that  men  are  made  the 
righteousness  of  God  I  " — H.  R. 


THE  FIRST  GOOD  FRIDAY 

By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 

Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own    body  on  the  tree,  that  we,  being  dead  to  sins, 
should  live  unto  righteousness;  by  ivhose  stripes  ye   were   healed. — /  Peter  ii:  24 

St.  Peter  is  speaking  of  the  crucifixion  of 
our  Lord.  The  first  Good  Friday  had  passed 
av/ay  years  before ;  and  already  there  had 
come  into  the  disciples'  hearts  a  deep  under- 
standing of  that  which  took  place  on  that  first 
Good  Friday.  The  comprehension  of  Christ's 
death,  the  variety  and  richness  of  its  mean- 
ing, the  way  in  which  it  should  be  looked  at 
— all  this  had  become  clear  to  the  disciples 
before  these  epistles  were  written  to  describe 
for  the  Christian  world,  through  all  the  Chris- 
tian centuries,  the  meaning  of  the  great  sac- 
rifice. And  yet  it  had  all  really  been  there 
oh  the  afternoon  of  the  first  Good  Friday. 
When  the  last  breath  was  breathed  by  the 
suffering  Savior  there  was  taken  into  the  dis- 
ciples' souls,  in  its  potentness,  all  the  mean- 
ing of  the  work  which  His  death  wrought,  as 
that  meaning  came  afterward  to  them  more 
consciously  when  they  used  it  in  their  teach- 
ing. 

Let  us  think,  on  this  Good  Friday  after- 
noon, of  what  His  death  accomplished  in  the 
world.  We  may  not  attempt  to  tell  the  whole 
of  the  rich  story.  Many  men  in  many  ways 
have  told  it.  And  sometimes  they  have  taken 
views  which  seem  contradictory,  but  which 
simply  indicate  the  richness  of  that  event, 
whose  multiplied  meaning  no  man  can  com- 
pletely comprehend.  Let  us  not  think  that 
we  can  tell  it  all ;  but  let  us  try  to  see  what 
a  change  had  entered  into  human  life  when 
Christ  died,  when  His  death  was  complete  on 
that  first  Good  Friday  afternoon. 

L  It  was  the  change  which  comes  when 
any  soul,  even  a  soul  that  has  seemed  to  lay 
least  hold  upon  humanity,  passes  away. 

Think  for  a  moment.  Suppose  such  a 
death  were  the  only  death  that  had  ever  taken 
place.  We  should  know  that  this  soul  had 
gone  to  be  nearer  to  God,  to  have  more  clear 
manifestations  of  His  presence  and  His  love. 
We  should  know  that  he  had  carried  this 
humanity  of  ours  into  some  strange  experi- 
ences, which  yet  must  be  forever  the  same 
experiences  that  have  been  passed  through 
in  this  world.  The  multitudes  of  human 
creatures  for  whom  there  has  been  no  death 
have  stood  upon  the  beach  and  watched  this 
one  soul  pass  out  into  the  sea. 

Think  what  a  change  must  have  happened 
in  the  death  of  this  one  dying  soul,  the  only 
soul  that  had  ever  passed  from  life  into  death. 
There  must  have  been  a  certain  change  in  the 
balance  of  all  life,  when  the  double  life,  with 


its  two  hemispheres,  had  been  transported 
from  one  side  to  another  of  its  existence.  In- 
deed, we  should  feel  that  the  whole  great 
balance  of  God's  universe  had  changed;  that 
there  was  a  difference  which  must  be  felt  to 
the  farthest  bounds  of  God's  universe.  There 
must  have  been  a  sense  as  if  something  had 
happened  to  the  universe :  something  whose 
influence  we  could  not  begin  to  understand, 
but  which  we  must  feel,  as  this  first  life 
passed  out  from  our  sight  into  the  other 
world,  and  we  knew  it  had  gone  to  God.  It 
would  seem  as  if  that  soul  had  gathered 
everything  up  that  had  happened  to  it  here, 
and  deposited  it,  and  left  it  as  its  contribu- 
tion to  the  world  out  of  which  it  had  passed. 
Other  men  would  be  continually  adding  to 
their  lives.  There  would  be  for  them  no 
solemn  summing  up  of  life,  no  leaving  of  a 
man's  career  as  a  bequest  behind  him.  But 
this  man  would  seem  to  have  left  behind  him 
the  distinct  meaning  of  his  existence,  differ- 
ent from  the  meaning  of  any  other  existence 
that  had  ever  taken  place,  as  a  finished  and 
final  contribution  to  all  the  life  the  world 
was  to  live  henceforth. 

Then  comes  the  thought  of  that  man's  own 
experience ;  of  how  it  must  have  opened  and 
enlarged ;  how  those  things  which  lay  as  un- 
conscious germs  in  his  nature  must  there 
have  opened  and  unveiled  themselves.  As  we 
watched  him  going,  we  could  almost  see  in 
his  face  the  anticipation  of  the  change  ;  the 
development  in  his  own  soul  of  that  toward 
which  he  was  looking  forward  in  the  world 
where  he  was  soon  to  live.  Now  all  these 
things  belong,  it  seems  to  me,  to  any  death. 
There  is  a  change  in  the  soul  itself,  a  change 
in  the  world  it  leaves  behind,  a  change  in 
the  world  to  which  it  goes.  Heaven  and 
earth  and  a  human  soul,  all  of  them,  are 
made  different  by  the  transfer  from  this  side 
of  death  to  the  other  side  of  death.  This 
applies  to  any  soul  that  dies — to  that  soul 
which  died  this  morning  in  some  unknown 
chamber  in  our  city. 

II.  But  li-t  us  think  how  much  greater  the 
change  must  have  been  to  Him  who  passed 
from  life  to  death  on  that  first  Good  Friday. 

The  fulfilment  of  the  Savior's  life,  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  purposes  which  had  been 
forever  in  the  soul  of  God ;  and  those  new 
inspirations  and  impulses  and  joys  and  hopes 
and  judgments  which  have  been  in  this  world 
of  ours  from  the  time  that  Jesus  died — all  of 


I50 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


these  came  and  took  their  place  among  the 
facts  of  the  universe  when  Jesus  passed  out 
of  this  world  with  the  cry,  "  It  is  finished !  " 

Yet  it  is  possible  to  state  it  much  more  sim- 
ply. We  may  say  that  on  the  first  Good 
Friday  afternoon  was  completed  that  great 
act  by  which  light  conquered  darkness  and 
goodness  conquered  sin.  That  is  tlie  wonder 
of  our  Savior's  crucifixion.  There  have  been 
victories  all  over  the  world,  but  wherever  we 
look  for  the  victor  we  expect  to  find  him  with 
his  heel  upon  the  neck  of  the  vanquished. 
The  wonder  of  Good  Friday  is  that  the  victor 
lies  vanquished  by  the  vanquished  one.  We 
have  to  look  deeper  into  the  very  heart  and 
essence  of  things  before  we  can  see  how  real 
the  victory  is  that  thus  hides  itself  under  the 
guise  of  defeat. 

Think  how  it  was  with  the  friends  of  the 
victor  and  the  friends  of  the  vanquished  on 
the  evening  of  that  Good  Friday.  The  friends 
of  the  victor,  who  were  they?  A  few  women 
with  broken  hearts,  cowering  under  the  great 
horror  through  which  they  had  just  passed, 
and  a  few  souls  besides  who  had  been  won 
so  that  they  could  not  help  giving  themselves 
to  Jesus  as  their  Lord  and  Master,  and  who 
now  had  seen  Jesus,  their  Master  and  Lord, 
perish.  Yet,  as  we  read  the  story  to-day, 
there  is  something  so  subtle  which  comes 
forth  from  it  to  us !  We  find  still  remaining 
underneath  all  their  sorrow  a  deep  suspicion 
that  their  Master  had  conquered,  after  all. 
What  does  it  mean,  this  unbroken  faith  in 
Jesus,  in  so  much  that  they  still  rejoiced  to 
call  themselves  by  His  name ;  that  they  clung 
to  one  another,  wanting  to  be  in  the  company 
of  those  who  loved  Him ;  that  they  had  noth- 
ing to  talk  about  a  day  or  two  afterward  as 
they  journeyed,  but  their  hopes  of  Him;  so 
that  they  could  say,  "  It  is  all  over  and  has 
failed,"  while  still  in  their  hearts  lay  the  in- 
extinguishable hope  which  told  them  that  this 
defeat  was  a  victory,  after  all? 

On  the  other  hand,  who  were  the  friends 
of  the  vanquished  that  day?  They  were  the 
Pharisees,  shouting  their  triumph,  going  to 
one  another  and  congratulating  one  another 
upon  the  work  they  have  done,  saying,  "  We 
have  killed  Him  at  last.  Did  you  hear  His 
expiring  groan?  Did  you  see  Him  hanging 
on  the  cross?"  And  yet,  in  the  souls  of 
those  same  Pharisees  there  was  a  fear  and  a 
doubt ;  so  that  they  went  to  Pilate,  saying, 
"  Let  us  have  a  guard,  that  there  may  not  be 
any  possibility  of  His  escaping  from  the 
tomb."  It  is  the  power  of  evil  all  through 
the  ages,  triumphant  in  what  it  thinks  its 
victory,  yet  with  a  suspicion  at  heart  that  it 
has  been  beaten,  and  is  being  beaten  all  the 
time  by  righteousness.  Is  not  this  the  mean- 
ing of  Good  Friday?  That  which  seems  to 
have  conquered  has  been  conauered,  and  that 
which  seems  to  have  been  conquered  has  con- 
quered. Evil  has  been  trampled  under  foot, 
tho  it  boasts  itself  to  be  master  of  the  world. 
Good  has  smitten  evil,  altho  good  seems  to 
have  been  trodden  under  foot  by  sin.  Victory 
has  come  by  defeat.  Overcoming  has  been 
attained  by  undergoing. 

It   is  that  which   is  going  on  everywhere 


to-day.  Evil  seems  to  be  everywhere  conquer- 
ing good,  and  yet  good  is  everywhere  con- 
quering evil.  Oh,  let  us  believe  it !  Before 
the  cross  of  Jesus,  let  us  believe  it ;  so  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  rejoice  in  the  good  which 
seems  to  be  broken  down  and  defeated,  know- 
ing all  the  time  in  our  souls  that  it  really  is 
the  conqueror,  and  must  be  declared  the  con- 
queror some  day.  So  shall  we  join  the  dis- 
ciples of  our  Lord,  keeping  faith  in  Him  in 
spite  of  the  crucifixion,  and  making  ready,  by 
our  loyalty  to  Him  in  the  days  of  His  dark- 
ness for  the  time  when  we  shall  enter  into 
His  triumph  in  the  days  of  His  light.  And 
the  beauty  of  it  is  that  the  same  method  runs 
throughout  the  disciples'  work  which  ran 
through  His  work.  Christ's  method  is  re- 
peating itself  in  the  work  of  His  disciples 
forever  and  ever.  As  He  who  first  gained 
the  great  victory  overcame  by  undergoing 
the  power  of  evil,  shall  we  be  surprised  if 
that  is  the  sort  of  victory  that  God  calls  upon 
us  to  gain?  It  is  the  victory  which  it  is 
always  the  best  to  gain,  which  makes  the 
richest  victory  for  any  soul. 

III.  Think  how  it  is  everywhere.  Every- 
where, men  who  are  ready  to  undergo,  in 
humiliation  and  patience  and  faith,  by  and 
by  find  out  that  they  have  overcome,  just  as 
Jesus  did. 

You  are  poor  and  distressed,  and  in  want 
of  things  that  belong  to  this  daily  life.  Every 
day  the  sun  rises  upon  you  and  finds  you  in 
poverty.  Every  day  the  sun  sets  upon  you 
and  leaves  you  in  poverty  still.  Oh  !  in  pa- 
tiently bearing  that  poverty,  learn  continually 
to  trust  the  riches  of  the  great  God ;  and  in 
the  course  of  years  you  will  know  that  you 
have  overcome  by  undergoing,  that  your  soul 
has  grown  rich,  and  that  you  have  echoed  the 
greater  victory  of  Christ. 

You  are  shut  out  from  knowledge  that  you 
would  like  to  gain.  You  would  like  to  give 
your  days  to  study,  to  drink  deep  of  the  foun- 
tains out  of  which  flows  the  wisdom  that  men 
find  everywhere  hidden  in  the  midst  of  this 
wondrous  world.  But  you  cannot,  for  you 
are  driven  to  do  some  drudging  work.  You 
go  and  take  that  work  and  do  it,  full  of  trust 
and  loving  obedience.  What  is  the  result? 
There  grows  in  you  a  wisdom  such  as  books 
cannot  give.  Submitting  to  ignorance  you 
conquer  ignorance. 

You  want  to  help  your  fellow  men.  You 
have  to  set  yourself  against  the  prejudices 
and  dispositions  of  your  fellow  men,  and  so 
you  win  their  disesteem.  You  wish  that  they 
would  praise  you.  You  long  for  their  appro- 
bation and  do  not  get  it.  You  sacrifice  it. 
But  out  of  your  surrender  there  comes  an 
opportunity  of  saving  and  helping  your  fel- 
low men  such  as  come  to  no  popular  idol ; 
and  you,  the  despised  man,  have  within  your 
soul  the  rich  knowledge  that  God  has  given 
you  that  privilege.  Once  more,  have  you  not 
overcome  by  undergoing? 

And  so  of  our  life  in  general.  Life  seems 
too  much  for  you,  too  great  a  burden  and  too 
great  a  task ;  yet,  if  you  are  patient,  brave, 
and  cheerful,  by  and  by  you  will  find  that 
you  have  conquered  life  and  are  its  lord.     It 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


151 


seems  to  beat  you  down  with  every  blow ;  but 
at  last,  there  you  stand,  with  your  feet  upon 
it,  and  are  victor  over  it,  and  have  gained  out 
of  it  that  which  God  gives  to  souls  that  do 
conquer  life — character  and  strength  and  faith 
and  love  ;  and  the  wish  to  help  and  the  power 
to  help  your  brethren ;  to  teach  the  souls  that 
are  being  beaten  and  bruised  and  conquered 
by  life  the  way  to  conquer  it  and  compel  it  to 
give  them  the  tokens  of  victory. 

These  are  the  ways  in  which  each  day  is  to 
be  to  us  Good  Friday.  We  are  to  be  sacri- 
ficed to  evil,  and  by  sacrificing  ourselves  to 
evil  become  victors  over  evil. 

It  is  easy  to  distort  the  truth.  But  we  have 
only  to  turn  to  the  helpfulness  of  Jesus 
in  order  to  see  that  there  is  no  truth 
in  such  doctrines  as  men  have  run  after  in 
their  fantastic  efforts  to  overcome  the  world. 
The  essence  of  that  by  which  Jesus  overcame 
the  world  was  not  suffering  but  obedience. 
Yes,  men  may  puzzle  themselves  and  their 
hearers  over  the  question  where  the  power  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  and  the  death  of  Jesus  lay; 


but  the  soul  of  the  Christian  always  knows 
that  it  lay  in  the  obedience  of  Christ.  He  was 
determined  at  every  sacrifice  to  do  His  Fa- 
ther's will.  Let  us  remember  that,  and  the 
power  of  Christ's  sacrifice  may  enter  into  us, 
and  some  little  share  of  the  redemption  of  the 
world  may  come  through  us  as  the  great 
work  came  through  Him. 

Let  us  stop  there.  Good  Friday  brings  to 
us  these  inspirations.  And  Good  Friday  and 
the  days  to  come  bring  duties  into  which  these 
aspirations  may  be  borne.  God  grant  us  so 
to  have  entered  into  the  spirit  of  this  day,  as 
that  we  shall  go  forth  to  the  days  that  yet 
remain  to  us  in  this  world  impelled  by  one 
consuming  wish,  the  wish  that  we  may  be  fit 
instruments,  in  true  consecration  and  entire 
obedience,  for  doing  some  little  fragment  of 
the  will  of  God  upon  earth.  So  we  shall  have 
entered  into  that  victory  over  life  which,  tho 
it  came  by  death,  did  surely  come  to  Jesus 
and  shall  surely  come  to  those  who  are  sacri- 
ficed with  Him. — H.  R. 


THE  ATONEMENT 

By  Dwight  L.  Moody 


Be  ready  always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that  asketh  you  a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is 
in  you,  with  meekness  and  fear. — i  Peter  Hi:  15 


I  was  a  partaker  of  the  Gospel  many  years 
before  I  was  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
hope  that  was  within  me,  but  now  I  think  I 
am  prepared  not  only  to  give  a  reason,  but 
to  give  it  in  meekness  and  temerity.  Es- 
pecially ought  we  to  be  able  to  speak  about 
the  Atonement. 

The  Urst  glimpse  that  we  get  of  the  Atone- 
ment is  there  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis, 
where  it  says  that  the  seed  of  the  woman 
shall  crush  the  serpent's  head.  Well,  you 
know  there  couldn't  be  any  bruising  without 
blood.  But  the  first  actual  shedding  of  blood 
was  there  in  the  twenty-first  verse,  where  we 
read  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  provided  with 
coats  of  skins.  Of  course,  animals  had  to  be 
killed,  and  that  was  the  beginning  of  the 
shedding  of  the  blood  of  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty.  Even  as  Adam  and  Eve  went  out  of 
Paradise  they  must  have  said  to  themselves 
that  God  loved  them  very  dearly,  altho  He 
was  punishing  them  for  their  sin. 

Then  we  find  that  Abel's  sacrifice  was  more 
esteemed  by  God  than  the  sacrifice  of  his 
brother  Cain.  Away  back  there  in  the  morn- 
ing of  creation  God  had  marked  out  a  way  of 
atonement  for  sin,  and  because  Abel  followed 
that  way  God  loved  him.  Cain  probably  said 
to  himself,  that  he  did  not  like  the  shedding 
of  blood.  The  offering  of  golden  grain  and 
luscious  fruits  seemed  to  him  a  more  reason- 
able sacrifice.  These  two  boys  were  the  same, 
with  this  difference.  Every  man  that  has  a 
religion  of  his  own  to-day  is  a  follower  of 
Cain  and.  like  him,  discards  the  atonement  by 
Hood.     But  Abel  reached  Heaven  by  Cain's 


murderous  act;  and  as  he  was  the  iirsf 
mortal  that  ever  entered  heaven,  there  must 
have  been  a  solo  sung  there  once.  He  was 
the  first  to  sing  the  song  of  redemption, 
which  has  since  swelled  into  such  a  tremen- 
dous chorus. 

Just  as  we  find  the  first  dispensation  com- 
menced with  blood,  so  we  find  the  second 
dispensation  commenced  in  like  manner.  The 
first  thing  Noah  did  after  he  came  out  of  the 
ark  was  to  offer  up  sacrifices  of  clean  animals 
and  put  blood  between  him  and  God.  Abra- 
ham, the  friend  of  God,  walked  in  the  self- 
same way,  and  on  Mount  Moriah  was  willing 
to  offer  up  his  only  son,  Isaac,  in  whom  was 
all  his  expectation.  God  interposed  for  him, 
but  not  for  His  own  Son,  who  died  for  you 
and  me  on  Calvary  in  sight  of  that  self-same 
Mount  Moriah. 

Perhaps  as  Abraham  stood  there  the  veil 
was  lifted,  and  looking  down  the  vista  of 
time  he  saw  Christ  carrying  His  cross  up  the 
side  of  Calvary.  Then  comes  the  time  of 
Moses  and  the  sacrifices  of  the  paschal  lamb. 

Altho  there  were  a  quarter  of  a  million 
lambs  offered  up  by  the  Jews,  yet  we  always 
find  them  referred  to  as  "  the  lamb."  Some 
say  we  ought  to  preach  up  Christ's  life  and 
not  His  death.  Well,  these  Jews  did  not  tie 
the  live  lambs  in  their  front  yards.  If  they 
had,  none  of  them  would  have  escaped  when 
death  came  to  every  first-born  that  night. 
They  killed  the  lamb,  and  put  the  blood  as  a 
token  upon  each  door-post.  Mind  you,  they 
did  not  put  it  on  the  step,  where  it  would  be 
trodden  under  foot,  but  on  the  posts. 


152 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


A  good  many  of  us,  I  fear,  are  trampling 
the  blood  of  Christ  under  foot.  Moses  was 
not  safer  that  night  than  a  child  six  years 
old.  A  good  many  of  you  are  saying 
you  wish  you  were  as  good  as  Dr.  Backus, 
or  some  other  holy  man  of  God;  but  if  you 
are  behind  the  Blood  you  are  as  safe  as  Dr. 
Backus  or  anybody  else.  Of  course,  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  growth  in  grace,  and  we  will 
talk  about  that  by  and  by ;  but  what  we  want 
to  think  about  now  is  the  first  principle  of 
Christianity. 

The  Israelites  were  not  only  to  have  the 
token  of  the  blood,  but  they  were  to  eat  the 
lamb  as  well.  Why?  Because  they  had  a 
perilous  journey  before  them,  and  it  was  nec- 
essary that  they  should  be  strong.  So  you 
must  feed  on  Christ  as  well  as  accept  His 
atoning  blood  if  you  want  to  succeed  in  walk- 
ing faithfully  the  Christian's  pilgrimage  on 
earth.  You  have  a  good  many  large  families 
down  here,  but  Christ  is  enough  for  every 
family.  By  and  by,  however,  the  Israelites, 
when  they  insisted  upon  having  a  king,  liter- 
ally, if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression,  voted 
God  out,  and  then  they  began  to  feel  God's 
judgment.  There  are  tzvo  classes  of  persons 
I  find — those  who  believe  in  all  judgment  and 
no  mercy,  and  those  who  believe  in  all  mercy 


and  no  judgment.  These  must  go  hand-in- 
hand — mercy  and  justice  must  kiss  each  other. 

Then  came  Christ,  the  very  Lamb  of  God 
Himself,  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
If  Christ  had  committed  one  sin  Himself  He 
would  have  had  to  die  for  that  Himself,  but 
as  He  was  sinless,  He  became  a  substitute 
for  each  of  us.  The  story  is  told  of  a  man 
who  was  conscripted  under  Napoleon,  who 
furnished  a  substitute,  who  was  killed.  It 
happened  that  the  man  was  conscripted  again, 
but  he  took  the  ground  that  he  was  tech- 
nically dead,  as  the  substitute  had  died  in  his 
place.  When  an  appeal  was  taken  to  Napo- 
leon the  Emperor  decided  that  in  the  law  the 
man  was  exempt. 

This  may  be  true  or  it  may  not,  but  of  one 
thing  I  am  certain,  and  that  is,  Jesus  Christ 
died  in  your  stead  and  mine  for  our  sins,  and 
we  are  now  exempt  from  the  law  if  we  have 
faith  to  accept  the  substitution  that  has  been 
made.  If  God  has  accepted  it  we  ought  to  be 
able  to.  Now,  if  He  has  died  for  us,  oughtn't 
we  to  live  for  Him.  Who  now  will  lift  their 
voice  against  Jesus  Christ,  the  Redeemer  of 
their  souls  ?  Oh,  how  ungrateful  we  are  !  It 
isn't  manly,  it  isn't  noble,  for  us  to  doubt  or 
to  be  raising  our  voices  in  resistance  to  the 
Son  of  God.— C.  H. 


THE  LONELINESS  IN  DEATH 

By  C.  J.  Vaughan 


Isaiah  Ixiii:  3 


There  is  a  loneliness  in  death  for  all  men. 
There  is  a  mysterious  something  which  makes 
the  bystanders  feel  that  before  the  last  breath 
the  embarkation  has  begun.  There  is  a  si- 
lence of  the  soul  to  earth  and  earth's  thoughts 
which  seems  to  enter  its  protest  alike  against 
sobs  and  words — seems  to  bespeak  the  for- 
bearance of  the  surviving  towards  the  solemn, 
the  mysterious  act  of  stepping  across  the 
threshold  of  sense,  into  the  very  presence  of 
the  invisible  God.  There  was  this  loneliness 
then,  as  of  course,  in  the  death  of  our  Lord. 
In  Him  it  was  deepened  and  aggravated  by 
the  foregoing  loneliness  of  His  life.  But  we 
have  not  reached  the  loneliness  yet.  The 
context  will  give  us  one  clue. 

I.  "  I  have  trodden  the  winepress  alone ; 
and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me." 
There  could  not  be.  "  I  looked,  and  there 
was  none  to  help."  If  there  had  been,  this 
particular  death  had  not  been  died.  Christ 
was  doing  something  in  which  He  could  have 
no  assistance.  His  was  a  death  not  with 
sinners,    but    for    sin;     a    death,    therefore, 


which  none  else  could  die,  in  that  which 
made  it  what  it  was  in  its  truth  and  in  its 
essence. 

II.  The  divinity,  the  deity  of  Christ  was 
another  cause  of  the  loneliness.  Deity  is 
loneliness,  not  in  heaven,  but  on  earth.  If 
Christ  was  very  God,  He  must  live  alone 
and  He  must  die  alone  upon  earth.  It  ac- 
counts for  everything.  His  Divine  Spirit, 
His  soul  indwelt  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  must 
have  been  a  solitude. 

III.  Loneliness  often  is  isolation.  Lonely 
men  and  women — lonely  by  circumstance  or 
by  disposition  or  by  choice — are  commonly 
selfish.  Neither  atonement  nor  deity  made  a 
solitary,  in  this  sense,  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
died  that  we  might  never  be  lonely — no,  not 
in  death.  Tho  He  trod  the  winepress  alone, 
yet  He  was  not  alone  in  this  sense.  He  trod 
it  for  us.  The  loneliness  was  His  ;  the  sym- 
pathy is  ours.  The  cross  was  His  desola- 
tion ;  it  is  our  comfort ;  it  is  our  ornament ; 
it  is  our  "  joy  and  hope  and  crown  of  rejoic- 
ing."— S.  B.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  197. 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


153 


GROUPS  AT    THE    CROSS  AND    WHY   THEY    WERE 

THERE 


By  Rev,  William  N.  Pile 

And  they  crucified  him,  and  parted  his  garments,  casting  lots;    that  it  might  be  fulfilled,  etc. 

— Matt,  xxvii:  35-43 


The  assembling  of  the  groups  at  the  cross 
of  Christ  was  but  the  work  of  an  hour,  but 
the  causes  reached  back  to  centuries.  There 
are  many  kinds  of  heredity — family,  class, 
communal,  national,  racial.  We  inherit  the 
tendencies  of  our  ancestors  in  all  these  rela- 
tions, and  they  are  fostered  by  tradition,  until 
we  fill  up  the  logical  sequence  of  their  feel- 
ings and  doings,  and  thus  ally  ourselves  with 
them  in  spirit ;  unless  we  discover  that  they 
were  wrong,  and  by  a  new  impulse  repudiate 
them  and  bend  our  energies  to  counteracting 
them.  It  was  these  inherited  tendencies  that 
brought  these  groups  to  the  cross. 

The  soldiers  represented  Rome,  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world,  who  had  inherited  the 
spirit  of  conquest  and  worldliness  from  Baby- 
lon, Medo-Persia,  and  Greece.  She  embodied 
the  heathenism  of  centuries,  and  stood  up 
against  the  Prince  of  princes  because  there 
was  in  his  claims  implied  opposition  to  her 
power. 

Another  group  was  composed  of  rulers, 
elders,  and  scribes — representatives  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  They  embodied  the  formal- 
ism and  hypocrisy  of  centuries  of  apostasy 


from  God,  and  hence  clamored  for  the  blood 
of  their  own  Messiah.  As  the  prophet  has 
declared,  they  joined  hands  with  the  Romans 
against  the  Lord's  anointed. 

The  third  group  contained  Mary,  the  mother 
of  Jesus,  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  and  other 
believers — representatives  of  the  true  Church, 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  devout, 
faithful  among  the  faithless,  neither  afraid 
nor  ashamed  of  the  cross. 

Lastly,  there  was  the  outer  group  of  indif- 
ferent or  curious  ones,  of  all  nations — repre- 
sentative of  the  world,  of  the  unsaved,  to 
which  the  gospel  of  the  cross  was  to  go. 

We  may  draw  two  lessons  from  these 
groups  at  the  cross. 

The  first  lesson  is  that  we  should  be  very 
careful  to  know  what  tendencies  we  have  in- 
herited, and  to  judge  of  them  by  the  word  of 
God.  We  cannot  throw  the  blame  of  our 
misdeeds  upon  our  ancestors,  for  God  has  not 
made  them,  but  His  word,  the  standard  of 
judgment. 

The  second  lesson  is  that  our  characters 
and  destinies  will  be  determined  at  last  by 
our  attitude  toward  the  cross. — H.  R. 


MAN'S  UNBELIEF 


By  H.  Bonar,  D.D. 
They  cried,  saying.  Crucify  Iiim,  crucify  him! — Luke  xxiii:  21 


The  Cross  the  expression  of  man's  unbe- 
lief. Crucifixion  was  the  death  of  the  outcast 
only, — the  Gentile  outcast.  "  Crucify  him," 
then,  meant.  "  Let  Him  die  the  worst  of 
deaths,  the  Gentile  death,  the  death  that  is  so 
specially  connected  with  the  curse ;  the  death 
that  proclaims  Him  to  be  not  merely  an  out- 
cast from  Israel,  an  outcast  from  Jerusalem, 
but  an  outcast  from  the  Gentiles,  an  outcast 
from  the  race." 

I.  It  was  thus  that  man  rejected  Christ — 
civilized  man,  educated  man,  religious  man  ! 
It  was  thus  that  the  natural  heart  spoke  out, 
and  showed  the  depths  of  its  enmity  and 
atheism — the  extent  of  its  desperate  unbelief. 
All  unbelief  is  rejection  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Whatever  be  its  evasions  and  subterfuges,  and 
excuses,  and  fair  pretences,  this  is  its  essence 
— rejection  of  the  Christ  of  God. 

II.  And  why  this  desperate  rejection ;    this 


feeling  of  man  toward  the  Christ?  For  many 
reasons; -but  chiefly  for  this,  that  God's  re- 
ligion, of  which  Christ  is  the  beginning  and 
the  ending  is  so  thoroughly  opposed  to  man's 
religion,  or  man's  ideas  of  religion,  that  to  ac- 
cept Jesus  of  Nazareth  would  be  a  total  sur- 
render of  self,  a  confession  of  the  utter  ab- 
•sence  of  all  goodness,  an  overturning  of  every 
religious  idea  or  principle  which  the  flesh  had 
cherished  and  rested  on.  Man's  alternative 
is — the  denial  of  self,  or  the  denial  of  Christ; 
the  rejection  of  his  own  claims  to  be  his  own 
Savior,  or  the  rejection  of  the  claims  of 
Christ;  the  crucifixion  of  the  flesh,  or  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ.  Allow  unbelief  to  take 
its  own  way  and,  run  its  course,  and  it  will 
end  in  the  crucifixion  of  the  Lord  of  glory. 
It  will  prefer  self,  the  flesh,  the  devil,  the 
worst  of  criminals  to  Christ.  "  Not  this  man, 
but  Barabbas !  " — S.  B.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  326. 


154 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


THE  LIFTING  UP  OF  JESUS 


John  xii:  32 


Introduce  subject  by  sketch  of  previous  in- 
cidents from  V.  20. 

I.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  "  lift- 
ing UP?  " — V.  a  explains  it — of  His  death. — 
In  this  sense,  understood  by  the  people,  v.  34. 
— But  it  may  be  Scripturally  understood  in 
other  senses,  for  instance,  to  preach  the 
gospel  is  to  lift  up  Jesus. — His  exaltation  into 
heaven  is  a  "  lifting  up"  Acts  v:  31. — So  the 
double  meaning  of  the  word  in  Genesis  xl : 
13  and  19. — So  Jesus  lifted  up  both  to  shame 
and  glory. — Confine  our  attention  now  to 
former  sense. — Evident  allusion  to  type  of 
brazen  serpent.  John  iii :  14. — It  was  "  lifted 
up  "  that  no  perishing  Israelite  might  fail  to 
see  it. — So  Jesus  was  "  lifted  up." — Believer 
not  removed  from  midst  of  temptations,  but 
"  kept  from  the  evil." — He  has  a  refuge  con- 
tinually open  to  him.  i  John  ii :  i. — This  type 
proves  the  Divine  predetermination. — In 
events  connected  with  death  of  Christ,  an  en- 
tire absence  of  accident.  So  Acts  ii :  23. — The 
salvation  of  man  occupied  mind  of  God  be- 
ginning.— Law  and  prophets  testified  that  a 
plan  had  been  devised. — Jesus  must  die  but 
die  a  peculiar  kind  of  death. — John  xviii.  31, 
a  fulfilment  of  the  text. — The  so-called 
blasphemer  not  "stoned"  but  "lifted  up" 
on  cross. — This  testifies  to  extent  of  His 
humiliation. — A  punishment  reserved  only  for 
slaves,  and  vilest  criminals. — But  in  Christ's 
case,  tenfold  more  degrading. — His  claims 
to  be  the  Messiah  denied. — A  murderer's  re- 
lease demanded  instead  of  His. — His  kingly 
claim  derided  by  the  Roman  soldiers. — Cruci- 
fied between  two  thieves. — Mocked  in  His 
dying  agony  by  the  spectators. — Well  might 
He  say,  Lament,  i :  12. — Well  might  the  sun 
be  darkened. — "  Lifted  up  "  with  His  crown 
of  thorns,  the  fruit  of  an  accursed  earth. — 
Well  may  we  now  bow  our  heads  with  shame. 
— But  was  He  not  then  "  lifted  up  "  to  glory 
also? — Yes,  then  made  the  first  successful 
charge  on  Satan's  host. — As  "  second  Adam 
condemned    sin    in    the    flesh." — His    blood 


b'otted  out  handwriting.  Col.  11:14,  15. — 
\  len  He  was  crucified,  sin  and  death  were 
alse  crucified. — The  enemy  was  slain — the 
gulf  bridged  over.— Once  more  His  "  lifting 
up  "  roves  that  the  shame  of  His  Cross  was 
not  tended  to  be  concealed. — "  This  thing 
was  m  t  done  in  a  corner."  Acts  xxvi :  26. — 
Crowds  of  Jews  then  in  Jerusalem. — Every- 
thing CO  ibined  to  attract  attention  to  His 
crucifixion.  Luke  xxiv :  18. — Apostles  claimed 
that  their  Master  died  a  malefactor's  death. — 
"  Christ  crucified  "  preached  by  every  faith- 
ful minister. — In  doing  so,  there  is  still  the 
same  strange  mingling  of  humiliation  and 
triumph. — As  Ezra  iii :  12,  13,  so  now  in  rais- 
ing Christ's  spiritual  temple. — Our  duty,  to 
speed  forth  the  message. 

II.  What  is  the  effect  produced  by  it? — 
But  all  men  are  not  so  drawn  to  Him. — But 
only  a  general  statement  setting  forth  its 
natural  tendency. — We  must  understand  it  is 
in  some  sense  as  we  understand.  Gal.  iii :  24. 
—Appeal  to  history  of  Church. — This  doc- 
trine powerful  to  human  sympathies. — It 
forced  its  way  against  Jewish  prejudices,  etc. 
— It  has  established  its  influence  over  every 
European  nation. — In  vain  do  infidels  adduce 
Mohammedanism  as  a  parallel. — Mohammed- 
anism was  propagated  by  very  diff^erent  means 
— Growth  of  Christianity  an  illustration  of 
Zech.  iv :  6. — "  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me," 
but  how?  John  xviii:  36;  i  Cor.  i:  17;  Gal. 
V :  24. — Not  by  force  of  arms,  etc. — Its  attrac- 
tion consists  in  power  of  God's  love  mani- 
fested by  it. — It  produces  "  Godly  sorrow  for 
sin." — It  animates  our  faith. — It  assures  us 
of  the  Divine  liberality,  Rom.  viii :  32. — It 
kindles  a  flame  of  love  in  our  hearts. — On 
that  accursed  tree  is  fulfilled.  Cant,  i :  3. — He 
was  "  lifted  up  "  as  a  standard  around  which 
soldiers  rally.  Is.  xi :  10. — The  cross  sparkles 
with  glory  to  the  eye  of  faith. — What  attrac- 
tion does  the  Cross  present  to  you? — H.  A. 
C.  Y. 


THE  TITLE  ON  THE  CROSS 


John  xix:  10 


Every  detail  of  the  crucifixion  ordained  and 
foretold.  Acts  iv :  27-28. — In  the  hour  of  His 
deepest  humiliation  proclaimed  King. — Finger 
of  God  guided  Pilate's  hand. — Tells  out  His 
royalty  to  Greeks,  Romans,  and  Jews. — Vin- 
dicates justice  of  His  sentence  by  publishing 
the  crime  of  the  sufferer. — Also  expresses  His 
contempt  for  the  Jews. — But  compelled  by  a 
higher  power  to  be  a  witness  for  the  truth. — 
Draw  near  to  the  cross  and  consider. 

I.  A  reproachful  title. — A  pretender  to 
power  who  fails,  is  exposed  to  contempt. — 


The  murderer  by  wholesale  is  applauded  as  a 
conqueror. — On  this  basis  the  Roman  Empire 
was  founded. — Pilate's  idea  of  "  a  King  "  was 
that  of  a  rebel  seized  with  arms  in  his  hands. 
— Hordes  of  robbers  at  this  time  defying  the 
Imperial  government. — The  leader  of  such  a 
band  would  have  inspired  Pilate  with  respect. 
— But  to  Jesus  he  says :  "  Art  thou  the  King 
of  the  Jews?" — Surely,  Caesar  has  nothing 
to  fear  from  such  a  pitiful  rival. — Such  the 
king  who  must  be  enthroned  in  our  hearts. 
— Are   you   willing  to   confess   this   rejected 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


155 


malefactor? — If  you  doubt  He  is  your  King 
read  the  prophecy.  Ps.  xxii:  16,  17;  Is.  liii : 
3.  5- — With  light  from  such  passages,  again 
read  title,  text. 

II.  A  VINDICATING  TITLE. — His  enemies 
brought  many  charges  against  Him. — Pilate 
by  this  title  vindicates  His  innocence. — By  tb" 
Roman  governor's  confession,  Jesus  is  a  Kin-^ '' 
— The  cross  His  throne. — For  His  redeeni4d 
ones  He  hangs  there. — Where  now  the  ^.'ar 
of  Pilate  when  threatened?  v.  12. — As  Ch'  t's 
innocence  vindicated  so  His  people's. '''Ps. 
xxvii :  56. — How  often  have  names  of  saints 
been  covered  with  reproach,  yet  brought  out 
triumphantly.  ' 

"  Detraction's  a  bold  monster,  and  fears  not 

To  wound  the  fame  of  princes,  if  it  find 

But  any  blemish  in  their  lives  to  work  on." 

But  none  in  His.  yet  defamed. — Heed  not  re- 
proaches, but  look  at  dying  Lord,  i  Peter  iv : 
14. — God  changed  His  cross  into  a  throne,  on 
which  read  text. 

III.  A  PROPHETICAL  TITLE. — Declares  His 
right  to  enter  all  Kingdoms  by  His  Gospel. — 


Written  in  three  languages  as  if  to  predict 
universality  of  His  sway. — Signifies  that  the 
powerful,  the  wise,  and  the  worshipers  of 
God  are  His  subjects. — So  Caiaphas.  John 
xi:5i,  52. — "Not  for  that  nation  only" — a 
wider  design.  Ps.  xcvi :  10. — God  bringing  to 
pass  His  promise.  Ps.  ii.  8. — He  lays  founda- 
tion of  His  kingdom  on  the  cross. — Not  when 
preaching  on  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes. — Not 
when  lighting  up  the  meaning  of  ancient 
oracles. — Not  when  stilling  the  tempest,  etc. — 
Not  when  greeted  with  rapturous  hosannahs. 
— If  this  were  all,  He  would  have  been  with- 
out a  Kingdom. — No  Jerusalem  would  have 
heen  built;  no  banner  of  liberty  waved;  no 
longings  for  a  better  land  excited. — The  city 
had  to  be  founded  in  the  blood  of  the  cove- 
nant.— John  xii :  32.  and  we  may  ask  Is.  Ix: 
8 — Yes,  that  title  remains  the  same  till 
prophecy  fulfilled.  Habak.  ii :  14. — On  this 
solemn  anniversary  be  humbled. — Seek  for 
faith  to  behold  our  King. — May  He  govern 
our  spirits  and  hearts. — Let  us  swear  alle- 
giance to  His  sacred  standard. — H.  A.  C.  Y. 


PRE-EMINENT  GLORY  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST 


Gal.  vi:  14 


Tho  the  cross  is  a  stumbling-block  and 
foolishness  to  the  unsaved,  it  is  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  God  to  the  saved.  This  plan 
of  redemption  came  forth  from  the  glory  of 
the  eternal  world,  becomes  the  chief  glory  of 
all  revelation,  is  lifted  into  the  highest  glory 
of  the  eternal  world  of  the  redeemed.  Paul 
knew  this  glory  of  the  cross  by  the  Spirit  in 
his  experience  and  preaching  in  a  two-fold 
way: 

I.  The  power  of  the  cross  to  crucify  the 
WORLD  UNTO  THE  BELIEVER. — (i)  By  reveal- 
ing the  surpassing  glory  of  the  eternal  and 
spiritual  above  the  temporal  and  material.  2 
Cor.  iv:i8.  (2)  By  revealing  the  dignity 
and  destiny  of  man  as  a  son  of  God  and  an 
heir  of  glory.     Rom.  viii:  15-39-     (3)   By  re- 


vealing the  only  power  that  can  create  the 
new  heavens  and  new  earth  in  which  dwelleth 
righteousness.  Heb.  i:8;  Heb.  ii:7-io;  2 
Pet.  iii :  13. 

II.  The  power  of  the  cross  to  crucify 
THE  BELIEVER  TO  THE  WORLD. — (i)  By  reveal- 
ing the  perfection  and  glory  of  the  divine 
character  and  law  in  condemning  sin.  Self- 
righteousness  and  self-will  can  no  more  live 
in  the  Spirit's  blaze  of  the  holiness  of  God 
than  paper  can  retain  its  whiteness  in  the 
glowing  flames.  (2)  By  revealing  the  mar- 
velous suffering  love  of  God  in  atoning  for 
sin  and  forgiving  the  penitent  sinner.  (3) 
By  proving  an  inspired  safeguard  against  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the 
pride  of  life. — C.  G. 


THE  LAMB  OF  GOD 


By  John  Hall 

Rev.  v:  6 


I.  Notice  the  descripition  that  is  given  of 
Christ :  a  Lamb.  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God, 
which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
That  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  You  cannot 
read  the  Old  Testament  without  understand- 
ing the  same  thing  clearly ;  "  He  is  led  as  a 
lamb  to  the  slaughter."  That  also  is  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  There  is  a  fitness  in  His.  bemg 
presented  as  a  Lamb  in  His  own  personal 
character.  Morning  sacrifices,  passover  lambs 
—these  and  kindred  institutions  of  the  Old 
Testament  all  point  in  the  same  direction. 


II.  This  Lamb  slain  even  yonder  in  heaven 
to  the  vision  of  the  Apostle  bears  traces  of 
having  been  slain.  God  deals  with  angels  one 
by  one.  The  angels  are  not  a  race.  Like  the 
trees  of  the  forest,  each  one  stands  upon  his 
own  root.  I  feel  thankful  that  we  belong  to 
a  race.  Christ  took  not  on  Him  the  nature  of 
angels.  We  are  a  race,  and  are  dealt  with  as 
a  community.  We  stood  in  the  first  Adam, 
and  he  sinned ;  Christ  is  the  second  Adam, 
and  we  can  stand  in  Him,  and  be  saved ;  and 
there   is  the  philosophy  of  the   Lamb   slain. 


156 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


He  came  that  He  might  undo  what  the  first 
representative  did.  He  came  that  He  might 
stand  for  His  people,  that  He  might  be  in 
their  room.  He  is  slain,  for  the  wages  of  sin 
is  death ;  He  is  slain,  for  the  law  was  broken, 
and  He  magnifies  it;  He  is  slain,  because 
there  was  a  penalty,  and  before  angels,  and 
principalities,  and  powers  God  is  to  be  seen 
as  forgiving  for  a  cause,  and  that  cause  is  the 
atoning  death  of  the  Lamb  of  God ;  "  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only-be- 
gotten Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
might  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life." 
That  is  a  familiar  text.  Look  into  the  mean- 
ing of  it,  and  below  the  surface.  The  world 
is  like  a  great  house,  with  vessels  to  honor 
and  vessels  to  dishonor ;  He  loves  it  as  His 
great  house,  but  let  it  be  our  care  that  we  be 
not  the  vessels  to  dishonor. 

HL  The  Lamb  slain  is  on  the  throne.     In 
one  breath  the  preacher  tells  us  about  Christ 


as  a  Victim,  Christ  as  a  Priest ;  in  the  next 
breath  he  tells  us  about  this  same  Crucified 
One  as  on  the  throne.  Yes,  it  is  a  strange 
combination.  Man  never  could  have  made 
it ;  human  intellect  never  could  have  origi- 
nated it. 

IV.  The  Lamb  slain  is  standing  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne.  Fourteen  or  fifteen  times  in 
the  Scriptures  Christ  is  connected  in  this 
way  with  the  throne ;  but  this  picture,  stand- 
ing, is  peculiar.  It  is  here  and  in  one  other 
place,  here  very  fitly  standing  is  the  attitude 
of  activity.  The  man  on  duty,  the  man  who 
has  to  do  things,  the  man  who  has  to  put  his 
strength  into  things,  stands  up.  Christ  is 
Mediator,  He  is  High-priest  still :  He  ever 
liveth  to  make  intercession ;  He  is  Prophet 
still ;  He  is  teaching  all  His  people ;  He  is 
King;  He  is  standing,  and  nothing  escapes 
His  vision. — S.  B.,  vol.  xii.,  p.  296. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ATONEMENT,  Accepting  the.— When  a 
sacrifice  under  the  law  was  brought  to  be 
slain,  he  that  brought  it  was  to  put  his  hand 
upon  the  head  of  the  sacrifice,  and  so  it  was 
accepted  for  him,  to  make  an  atonement  (Lev. 
i:4),  not  only  to  signify  that  now  it  was  no 
more  his  but  God's,  the  property  being  trans- 
ferred by  a  kind  of  manumission,  nor  yet 
merely  that  he  voluntarily  gave  it  to  the 
Lord  as  his  own  free  act ;  but  principally  it 
signified  the  putting  off  his  sins,  and  the 
penalty  due  for  them,  upon  the  head  of  the 
sacrifice ;  and  so  it  implied  in  it  an  execration 
as  if  he  had  said,  "  Upon  thy  head  be  the 
evil."  So  the  learned  observe,  the  ancient 
Egyptians  were  wont  expressly  to  imprecate 
when  they  sacrificed,  "If  any  evil  be  coming 
upon  us  or  upon  Egypt,  let  it  turn  and  rest 
upon  his  head,"  laying  their  hand,  at  these 
words,  on  the  sacrifice's  head.  And  upon 
that  ground,  says  Herodotus,  the  historian, 
none  of  them  would  eat  of  the  head  of  any 
living  creature.  You  must  also  lay  the  hand 
of  faith  upon  Christ  your  sacrifice,  not  to 
imprecate,  but  to  apply  and  appropriate  Him 
to  your  own  souls.  He  having  been  made  a 
curse  for  you. — John  Flavel. 

ATONEMENT,      Appropriating     the. — 

Now  we  may  say,  "  Lord,  the  condemnation 
was  Thine,  that  the  justification  might  be 
mine ;  the  agony  Thine,  that  the  victory  might 
be  mine ;  the  pain  was  Thine,  and  the  ease  is 
mine ;  the  stripes  Thine,  and  the  healing  balm 
issuing  from  them  mine ;  the  vinegar  and  the 
gall  were  Thine,  that  the  honey  and  sweet 
might  be  mine  ;  the  curse  was  Thine,  that  the 
blessing  might  be  mine ;  the  crown  of  thorns 
was  Thine,  that  the  crown  of  glory  might  be 
mine ;  Thou  paidst  the  price,  that  I  might 
enjoy  the  inheritance." — John  Flavel. 


ATONEMENT  BY  THE  CROSS.— Let  us 

no  more  admire  the  enormous  moats  and 
bridges  of  Caligula  across  to  Baise.  or  Tra- 
jan's bridge  over  the  Danube  (stupendous 
work  of  stone  and  marble)  to  the  adverse 
shores,  whilst  our  timber  and  our  trees,  mak- 
ing us  bridges  to  the  furthest  Indies  and  anti- 
podes, lead  us  into  new  worlds.  In  a  word 
(and  to  speak  a  bold  and  noble  truth),  trees 
and  woods  have  twice  saved  the  whole  world ; 
first  by  the  ark,  then  by  the  cross;  making 
full  amends  for  the  evil  fruit  of  the  tree  in 
paradise,  by  that  which  was  borne  on  the 
tree  in  Golgotha. — Evelyn. 

ATONEMENT,  Effects  of  the.— It  is  said 
of  Zeleucus,  a  king  of  the  ancient  Locri,  that 
he  enacted  a  law,  the  penalty  of  which  was 
that  the  offender  should  lose  both  his  eyes. 
One  of  his  sons  became  a  transgressor  of  that 
law.  The  father  had  his  attachment  to  his 
son,  and  the  law  he  himself  had  promulgated 
as  righteous  in  its  requirements  and  in  its 
penalty.  The  lawgiver,  it  is  said,  ordered  his 
son  into  his  presence,  and  required  that  one 
of  his  eyes  should  be  taken  out ;  and  then,  in 
order  to  show  mercy  to  his  son,  and  at  the 
same  time  maintain  the  penalty  of  the  law, 
he  sacrificed  one  of  his  own  eyes  as  a  ransom 
for  the  remaining  eye  of  his  child.  The 
king  was  the  lawgiver ;  he  therefore  had  the 
power  to  pardon  his  son,  without  inflicting  the 
penalty  upon  him,  and  without  enduring  any 
sacrifice  himself.  Every  mind,  therefore, 
would  feel  that  it  was  a  voluntary  act  on  the 
part  of  the  king ;  and  such  an  exhibition  of 
justice  and  mercy,  maintaining  the  law  and 
saving  his  son  by  his  own  sacrifice,  would 
impress  all  minds  with  the  deepest  reverence 
for  the  character  of  the  lawgiver,  and  for  the 
sacredness   of  the   law.     But    another   effect. 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


157 


deep  and  lasting  in  its  character,  would  be 
produced  upon  the  son  who  had  transgressed 
the  law.  Every  time  that  he  looked  upon  his 
father,  or  remembered  what  he  had  suffered 
for  his  transgression,  it  would  increase  his 
love  for  him.  increase  his  reverence  for  the 
law,  and  cause  an  abhorrence  of  his  crime  to 
rise  in  his  soul.  His  feelings  would  be  more 
kind  towards  his  sire,  more  submissive  to  the 
law,  and  more  averse  to  transgression.  Now, 
this  is  precisely  the  effect  necessary  to  be 
produced,  in  order  that  pardon  may  be  ex- 
tended to  transgressors,  and  yet  just  and 
righteous  government  be  maintained. — 
Walker. 

ATONEMENT,  Idea  of.— The  experience 
of  poor  Jack,  a  deaf-mute,  is  thus  given  by 
Charlotte  Elizabeth : — 

His  sublime  idea  of  the  Red  Hand  was 
ever  present.  He  had  told  me,  some  years 
before,  that,  when  he  had  laid  a  good  while 
in  the  grave,  God  would  call  aloud,  "  Jack !  " 
and  he  would  start  and  say,  "  Yes,  me  Jack." 
Then  he  would  rise  and  see  multitudes  stand- 
ing together,  and  God  sitting  on  a  cloud,  with 
a  very  large  book  in  His  hand  (he  called  it 
"Bible-book"),  and  would  beckon  him  to 
stand  before  Him,  while  He  opened  the  book 
and  looked  at  the  top  of  the  pages,  till  he 
came  to  the  name  of  John  B.  In  that  page, 
he  told  me  God  had  written  all  his  "  bads," 
every  sin  he  had  ever  done ;  and  the  page  was 
full.  So  God  would  look,  and  strive  to  read 
it,  and  hold  it  to  the  sun  for  light ;  but  it 
was  all  "  no,  no  nothing,  none."  I  asked 
him,  in  some  alarm,  if  he  had  done  no  bad. 
He  said  yes,  much  bads ;  but,  when  he  first 
prayed  to  Jesus  Christ,  He  had  taken  the  book 
out  of  God's  hand,  found  that  page,  and, 
pulling  from  His  palm  something  which  he 
described  as  filling  up  the  hole  made  by  the 
nail,  had  allowed  the  wound  to  bleed  a  little, 
passing  His  hand  down  the  page,  so  that,  as 
he  beautifully  said.  "  God  could  see  none  of 
Jack's  bads,  only  Jesus  Christ's  blood."  Noth- 
ing being  thus  found  against  him,  God  would 
shut  the  book,  and  there  he  would  remain 
standing  before  Him,  till  the  Lord  Jesus  came, 
and  saying  to  God,  "  My  Jack,"  would  put 
His  arm  around  him,  draw  him  aside,  and 
bid  him  stand  with  the  angels  until  the  rest 
were  judged. — F.  I. 

ATONEMENT,  Illustrating  the.— A  deaf 
and  dumb  boy  was  taught  by  a  kind  friend. 
This  kind  lady  could  speak  to  him  only  by 
signs  and  pictures.  She  drew  upon  a  paper 
a  picture  of  a  great  crowd  of  people,  old  and 
young,  standing  near  a  wide,  deep  pit,  out 
of  which  smoke  and  flames  were  issuing. 
She  then  drew  the  figure  of  One  who  came 
down  from  heaven,  and  this  was  to  represent 
Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  God.  She  explained 
to  the  boy  that  when  this  person  came,  He 
asked  God  not  to  throw  the  people  into  the 
pit,  if  He  Himself  agreed  to  be  nailed  to  a 
cross  for  them,  and  how,  as  soon  as  He 
bowed  His  head  on  the  cross  and  died,  the 
pit  was  shut  up  and  the  people  saved.  The 
deaf  and  dumb  boy  wondered  much,  but  he 
made  signs  that  the  person  who  died  on  the 


cross  was  but  one,  and  the  crowd  very  many. 
How  could  God  be  contented  to  take  one  for 
so  many?  The  lady  took  off  her  gold  ring 
and  put  it  beside  a  great  heap  of  withered 
leaves  of  flowers,  and  asked  the  boy  which 
was  the  best,  the  one  gold  ring,  or  the  many, 
many  dry  leaves.  The  boy  clapped  his  hands 
with  delight,  and  spelled  the  "One!  one!" 
And  then  to  show  that  he  knew  what  this 
meant,  and  that  Jesus  was  the  one  who  was 
worth  all  the  rest,  he  ran  and  got  his  letters, 
and  looking  up,  spelled  the  words,  "  Good, 
good  One !  "  He  had  learned  that  day  that 
Jesus  alone  had  saved  the  crowd  of  people,  or 
sinners,  and  he  stood  wondering  at  His  love. 

— A.    A.    BONAR. 

ATONEMENT,  Jewish  Custom  of.— The 
following  is  a  report  made  by  a  committee  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  of  their  observations 
among  the  Jews :  "  We  spread  our  mats  on 
the  clay  floor  at  Jassy,  and  attempted  to  sleep, 
but  in  vain.  We  cared  less  for  this,  however, 
because  it  was  the  night  preceding  the  day  of 
atonement,  and  we  had  thus  an  opportunity 
of  seeing  the  curious  ceremony  which  then 
takes  place.  On  the  eve  of  that  solemn  day 
it  is  the  custom  of  the  Jews  to  kill  a  cock  for 
every  man,  and  a  hen  for  every  woman. 
During  the  repetition  of  a  certain  form  of 
prayer,  Jews  or  Jewesses  move  the  living  fowl 
round  their  heads  three  times,  then  they  lay 
their  hands  on  it,  as  the  hands  used  to  be 
laid  on  the  sacrifices,  and  immediately  after 
give  it  to  be  slaughtered.  We  rose  before  one 
in  the  morning,  and  saw  the  Jewish  Shochet 
or  '  slayer  '  going  round  to  the  Jewish  houses, 
waking  each  family,  and  giving  them  a  light 
fiom  his  lantern,  in  order  that  they  might 
rise  and  bring  out  their  '  Chipporah '  or 
'  atonement,'  namely,  the  appointed  cock  and 
hen.  We  walked  about  the  streets;  every- 
where the  sound  of  the  imprisoned  fowls  was 
to  be  heard,  and  light  seen  in  all  the  dwellings 
of  Israel.  In  two  houses  the  fowls  were  al- 
ready dead  and  plucked.  In  another  we  came 
to  the  window,  and  saw  distinctly  what  was 
going  on  within.  A  little  boy  was  reading  the 
prayers  and  his  widowed  mother  standing 
over  him,  with  a  white  hen  in  her  hands. 
When  he  came  to  a  certain  place  in  the 
prayer,  the  mother  lifted  up  the  struggling 
fowl,  and  waved  it  round  her  head,  repeating 
these  words,  '  This  be  my  substitute,  this  be 
my  exchange ;  this  fowl  shall  go  to  death, 
and  I  to  a  blessed  life.'  This  was  done  three 
times  over,  and  then  the  door  of  the  house 
opened,  and  out  ran  the  boy  carrying  the  fowl 
to  the  Shochet,  to  be  killed  by  him  in  the 
proper  manner." — F.  II. 

ATONEMENT,  Need  of.— A  man  on  the 

Malabar  coast  had  long  been  uneasy  about 
his  spiritual  state,  and  had  inquired  of  sev- 
eral devotees  and  priests  how  he  might  make 
atonement  for  his  sins  ;  and  he  was  directed  to 
drive  iron  spikes,  sufficiently  blunted,  through 
his  sandals,  and  on  these  spikes  to  walk  a 
distance  of  about  four  hundred  and  eighty 
miles.  He  undertook  the  journey,  and 
traveled  a  long  way,  but  could  obtain  no 
peace.     One    day,    he   halted    under   a    large. 


158 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


shady  tree,  where  the  gospel  was  sometimes 
preached ;  and,  while  he  was  there,  one  of  the 
missionaries  came,  and  preached  from  the 
words,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  While  he  was 
preaching,  the  poor  man's  attention  was  ex- 
cited, and  his  heart  was  drawn ;  and,  rising 
up,  he  threw  off  his  torturing  sandals,  and 
cried  out  aloud,  "  This  is  what  I  want!  "  and 
became  henceforward  a  witness  of  the  healing 
efficacy  of  the  Savior's  blood. — F.  H. 

ATONEMENT,   Objection  to   the.—"  He 

tasted  death  for  every  man."  "  He  gave  him- 
self a  ransom  for  all."  "  He  is  a  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  That  all 
are  not  saved  is  no  objection.  It  is  suggested 
by  a  popular  expositor,  that,  in  material  na- 
ture, much  goodness  seems  wasted.  Rain  and 
dew  descends  upon  flinty  rocks  and  sterile 
sands ;  floods  of  genial  light  come  tiding 
down  every  morning  from  the  sun  on  scenes 
where  no  human  foot  has  trod ;  flowers  bloom 
in  beauty,  and  emit  their  fragrance,  trees  rise 
in  majesty,  and  throw  away  their  clustering 
fruit,  on  spots  where  as  yet  there  has  never 
been  a  man ;  wealth  sufficient  to  enrich  whole 
nations  is  buried  beneath  the  mountains  and 
the  seas,  while  millions  are  in  want;  medicine 
for  half  the  ills  of  life  is  shut  up  in  minerals 
and  plants,  while  generations  die  without 
knowing  of  the  remedy  which  Nature  has 
provided;  it  is  no  objection,  therefore,  to  the 
universality  of  the  atonement,  that  all  are  not 
benefited  by  it.  Its  benefits  one  day  will  be 
universally  enjoyed.  There  are  men  coming 
after  us  who  shall  live  in  those  solitary 
wastes,  enjoy  the  beauty  and  the  light  which 
now  seem  wasted,  appropriate  the  fruits,  the 
wealth,  and  the  medicine  which  for  ages  have 
been  of  no  avail.  It  will  be  even  so  with  the 
death  of  Christ.  There  are  men  coming  after 
us  that  shall  participate  of  the  blessings  of 
that  atonement,  which  generations  have  either 
ignorantly  rejected  or  wickedly  despised. — 
Dr.  Thomas. 

ATONEMENT,  Pagan.— There  is  a  record 
of  an  ancient  Hindoo  custom,  in  which  the 
offender  brought  a  horse  to  a  priest,  and  con- 
fessed his  sins  over  the  head  of  the  animal, 
with  certain  religious  rites.  The  horse  was 
then  turned  into  the  wilderness  and  supposed 
to  bear  away  the  sins  of  the  offender.  This 
custom  was  similar  to  the  scapegoat  of  the 
Israelites. — F.  II. 

ATONEMENT,    Volvmtary A    sacrifice 

that  struggled,  and  came  not  without  force  to 
the  altar,  was  reckoned  ominous  and  unlucky 
by  the  heathen ;  our  sacrifice  dedicated  Him- 
self. He  died  out  of  choice,  and  was  a  free-will 
offering. — John  Flavel. 

BLOOD,  Accusing.— Abel's  blood,  and  so 
Christ's,  cry  unto  God,  as  the  hire  of  the 
laborers  unjustly  detained,  James  v:4;  or  as 
the  whole  creation,  which  is  in  bondage 
through  our  sins,  is  said  to  cry  and  groan  in 
the  ears  of  the  Lord,  Rom.  viii :  22,  not  vo- 
cally but  efficaciously.  How  sad  is  the  case  of 
those  that  have  no  interest  in  Christ's  blood; 
but  instead  of  pleading  for  them,  it  cries  to 


God  against  them,  as  its  despisers  and  abus- 
ers !  Every  unbeliever  despises  it ;  the  apostate 
treads  it  under  foot.  To  be  guilty  of  a  man's 
blood  is  sad ;  but  to  have  the  blood  of  Jesus 
accusing  and  crying  to  God  against  a  soul, 
is  unspeakably  terrible. — John  Flavel. 

BLOOD,  Cleansing.— A  poor  tempted 
Scotchman  in  great  distress  of  mind  proceeded 
to  put  himself  in  order  for  church,  and  while 
washing  his  hands,  no  one  by,  he  heard  a 
voice  say,  "  Cannot  I  in  my  blood  as  easily 
wash  your  soul  as  that  water  does  your 
hands?"  "Now,  Minister,"  he  said,  in  tell- 
ing me  this,  "  I  do  not  say  there  was  a  real 
voice,  yet  I  heard  it  distinctly,  word  for 
word,  as  you  now  hear  me.  I  felt  a  load  off 
my  mind,  and  went  to  the  table  and  sat  under 
Christ's  shadow  with  great  delight." — Dr. 
Guthrie. 

BLOOD,   Custom  of  Purifying  by.—  A 

custom  of  purifying  by  blood,  practised  in 
ancient  Phrygia,  is  thus  explained:  "  When  a 
person  desired  to  be  purified,  he  was  placed 
by  the  priests  in  a  pit  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose, which  was  covered  by  a  platform.  This 
platform  was  perforated  with  many  small 
holes ;  then  a  beast  for  sacrifice  was  brought 
and  slain  on  this  platform,  so  that  its  blood 
might  flow  through  these  perforations  upon 
the  person  beneath.  As  the  blood  came  down 
upon  the  head,  the  hands,  the  feet,  the  limbs, 
and  the  whole  person,  he  was  considered 
purified." — F.  II. 

BLOOD    OF     CHRIST,    a    Mystery.— A 

reader  of  the  Bible  was  assailed  by  an  infidel 
with  such  expressions  as  these:  "That  the 
blood  of  Christ  can  wash  away  sin  is  foolish- 
ness; I  don't  understand  or  believe  it."  The 
Bible  student  remarked.  "  You  and  Paul 
agree  exactly."  "How?"  "Turn  to  the 
first  chapter  of  Corinthians  and  read  the 
eighteenth  verse :  '  For  the  preaching  of  the 
Cross  is  to  them  that  perish  foolishness;  but 
unto  us  which  are  saved,  it  is  the  power  of 
God.'  "— F.  II. 

BLOOD  OE  CHRIST,  Comfort  from 
the. — The  commentator  Bengel,  during  an 
illness,  sent  for  a  theological  student  and  re- 
quested him  to  give  him  a  word  of  consola- 
tion. The  youth  replied,  "  Sir,  I  am  but  a 
pupil,  a  mere  learner;  I  don't  know  what  to 
say  to  a  teacher  like  you."  "  What !  "  said 
Bengel,  "  a  divinity  student,  and  not  able  to 
communicate  a  word  of  scriptural  comfort !  " 
The  student,  abashed,  contrived  to  utter  the 
text,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  "  That  is 
the  very  word  I  want,"  said  Bengel,  "  It  is 
quite  enough,"  and  taking  him  affectionately 
by  the  hand,  dismissed  him. — F.  II. 

BLOOD  OF  CHRIST,  Equality  of  the.— 
Just  before  the  civil  war  came  on,  during  the 
days  of  slavery,  I  was  in  Boston.  They  were 
very  exciting  times  there  then,  and  Dr.  Kirk 
was  preaching  on  the  subject  of  the  cross.  It 
was  during  the  great  strife,  when  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  hatred  and  suspicion  against 
foreigners  then  in  our  country.  It  was  in  the 
time  of  the  Know-Nothing  party,  and  there 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


159 


wns  a  great  deal  of  feeling  against  the  blacks, 
and  a  great  deal  of  feeling  against  the  Irish. 
Dr.  Kirk  said  when  he  came  up  to  the  cross 
to  get  salvation,  he  found  a  poor  black  man 
on  the  right  and  an  Irishman  on  the  left,  and 
the  blood  came  trickling  down  from  the 
wounded  side  of  the  Son  of  God  and  made 
them  all  brothers,  and  all  alike,  and  equal. 
That  is  what  the  blood  does.  It  makes  us  all 
one  kindred,  and  brings  us  all  into  the  family 
of  God. — Moody. 

BLOOD  OF  CHRIST,  Experience  of 
the. — During  the  civil  war  a  New  York  min- 
ister went  among  the  soldiers  in  the  hospital, 
and  preached  to  them  the  way  to  Christ.  He 
found  one  man  whose  eyes  were  closed  and 
who  was  muttering  something  about  "  blood, 
blood,"  and  the  old  doctor  thought  he  was 
thinking  of  the  carnage  of  the  battle-field  and 
the  blood  he  had  seen  there,  and  going  to 
him,  he  tried  to  divert  his  mind ;  but  the 
young  man  looked  up  and  said,  "  Oh,  Doctor, 
it  was  not  that  that  I  was  thinking  of ;  I  was 
thinking  how  precious  the  blood  of  Christ  is 
to  me  now  that  I  am  dying.  It  covers  all  my 
sins." — F.  II. 

BLOOD  OF  CHRIST,  Hope  in  the.— Rev. 
J.  Brown,  of  Haddington,  on  his  death-bed 
said  :  "  The  Gospel  is  the  only  source  of  my 
comfort,  and  every  sinner  is  as  welcome  as  I. 
How  pleasant  that  neither  great  sins  nor  great 
troubles  can  alter  these  consolations.  Ever 
since  God  dealt  savingly  with  my  heart  I 
have  never  had  any  comfort  in  the  thought 
that  my  sins  were  small,  but  in  the  belief  that 
the  blood  of  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin." — 
F.  II. 

BLOOD   OF  CHRIST,   Meditating  upon 

the. — Five  persons  were  studying  what  were 
best  means  to  mortify  sin.  One  said,  to 
meditate  on  death ;  the  second,  to  meditate  on 
judgment;  the  third,  to  meditate  on  the  joys 
of  heaven ;  the  fourth,  to  meditate  on  the  tor- 
ment of  hell ;  the  fifth,  to  meditate  on  the 
blood  and  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
certainly  the  last  is  the  choicest  and  strongest 
motive  of  all.  If  ever  we  would  cast  off  our 
despairing  thoughts,  we  must  dwell  and  muse 
much  upon,  and  apply  this  precious  blood  to 
our  own  souls;  so  shall  sorrow  and  mourning 
flee  away. — Brooks. 

BLOOD   OF   CHRIST,   Preached.— I   was 

in  a  city  in  Europe,  and  a  young  minister 
came  to  me  and  said,  "  Moody,  what  makes 
the  difference  between  your  success  in  preach- 
ing and  mine  ?  Either  you  are  right  and  I 
am  wrong,  or  I  am  right  and  you  are  wrong." 
Said  I,  "  I  don't  know  what  the  difference  is, 
for  you  have  heard  me  and  I  have  never 
heard  you  preach.  What  is  the  difference?" 
Said  he,  "  You  make  a  good  deal  out  of  the 
death  of  Christ,  and  I  don't  make  anything 
out  of  it.  I  don't  think  it  has  anything  to 
do  with  it.  I  preach  the  life."  Said  I, 
"  What  do  you  do  with  this  :  '  He  hath  borne 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree '  ? " 
Said  he,  "  I  never  preached  that."  Said  I, 
"  What  do  you  do  with  this :  '  He  was 
wounded    for    our    transgressions ;     he    was 


bruised  for  our  iniquities,  and  with  his 
stripes  we  are  healed  '  ?  "  Said  he,  "  I  never 
preached  that."  "  Well,"  said  I  again, 
"  what  do  you  do  with  this — '  without  the 
shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission '  ?  " 
Said  he,  "  I  never  preached  that."  I  asked 
him,  "What  do  you  preach?"  "Well,"  he 
says,  "  I  preach  a  moral  essay."  Said  I,  "  My 
friend,  if  you  take  the  blood  out  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  all  a  myth  to  me."  Said  he,  "  I  think  the 
whole  thing  is  a  sham."  "  Then,"  said  I,  "  I 
advise  you  to  get  out  of  the  ministry  very 
quick,  I  would  not  preach  a  sham.  If  the 
Bible  is  untrue,  let  us  stop  preaching,  and 
come  out  at  once  like  men,  and  fight  against 
it  if  it  is  a  sham  and  untrue;  but  if  these 
things  are  true  and  Jesus  Christ  left  heaven 
and  came  into  this  world  to  shed  His  blood 
and  save  sinners,  then  let  us  lay  hold  of  it 
and  preach  it,  in  season  and  out  of  season." 
In  the  college  at  Princeton  this  last  year, 
when  the  students  were  ready  to  go  forth  into 
the  world,  the  old  man,  their  instructor, 
would  stand  up  there  and  say,  "  Young  men, 
make  much  of  the  blood.  Young  men,  make 
much  of  the  blood !  "  I  have  learned  this, 
that  a  minister  who  makes  much  of  the  blood, 
and  makes  much  of  substitution,  and  holds 
Christ  up  as  the  sinner's  only  hope,  God 
blesses  his  preaching.  And  if  the  Apostles 
didn't  preach  that,  what  did  they  preach? 
You  take  the  great  doctrine  of  substitu- 
tion out  of  the  preaching  of  Paul,  Peter, 
John,  James,  and  Philip  and  of  all  those  holy 
men,  and  you  take  out  all  that  they  preached. 
And  so,  my  friends,  there  don't  seem  to  be 
one  ray  of  hope  for  the  man  that  ignores  the 
blessed,  blessed  subject  of  the  blood.  "  With- 
out the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remis- 
sion."— Moody. 

BLOOD  OF  CHRIST,  Relying  on  the.— 
An  old  herdsman  in  Dartmoor,  England,  was 
taken  to  a  London  hospital  to  die.  There  his 
grandchild  used  to  visit  and  read  to  him. 
One  day,  she  was  reading  to  him  the  first 
chapter  of  the  first  epistle  of  John,  when 
she  reached  the  seventh  verse,  "  And  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  cleanseth  us 
from  all  sin,"  the  old  man  raised  himself  and 
stopped  the  little  girl,  saying  with  great 
earnestness:  "Is  that  there,  my  dear?" 
"  Yes,  grandpa."  "  Then  read  it  to  me  again ; 
I  never  heard  the  like  before."  The  little  girl 
read  again:  "  And  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
his  Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  "  You 
are  quite  sure  that  is  there?"  "Yes,  quite 
sure."  "  Then  take  my  hand  and  lay  my 
finger  on  the  passage,  for  I  should  like  to  feel 
it."  So  she  took  the  old  blind  man's  hand 
and  placed  his  bony  finger  on  the  verse,  when 
he  said,  "  Now  read  it  to  me  again."  The 
little  girl  read,  with  her  soft,  sweet  voice : 
"  And  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son, 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  "  You  are  quite 
sure  that  is  there?"  "Yes,  quite  sure." 
"  Then  if  any  one  should  ask  how  I  died,  tell 
them  I  died  in  the  faith  of  these  words :  '  And 
the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin.'  "  And  with  that,  the  old 
man  withdrew  his  hand,  his  head  fell  softly 


i6o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


back  on  the  pillow,  and  he  silently  passed 
into  the  presence  of  Him  whose  "  blood 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." — F.  IL 

CHRIST,  Death  of. — The  death  of  Soc- 
rates, peacefully  philosophizing  with  his 
friends,  appears  the  most  agreeable  that  could 
be  wished  for  ;  that  of  Jesus,  expiring  in  the 
midst  of  agonizing  pains,  abused,  insulted, 
and  accused  by  a  whole  nation,  is  the  most 
horrible  that  could  be  feared.  Socrates,  in 
receiving  the  cup  of  poison,  blessed  the  weep- 
ing executioner  who  administered  it ;  but 
Jesus,  in  the  midst  of  His  tortures,  prayed  for 
His  merciless  tormentors.  Yes !  if  the  life 
and  death  of  Socrates  were  those  of  a  sage, 
the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  were  those  of  a 
God. — Rousseau. 

CROSS,  Apparition  of  the.  Constantine 
saw  in  mid-heaven,  above  the  brightness  of 
the  sun  at  noon-day,  a  cross  of  wondrous 
shape,  and  on  it  read  the  legend,  "In  this 
sign  conquer !  "  The  army  also  saw  it.  Be- 
fore the  battle  of  the  Milvian  bridge,  he  put 
the  cross,  with  the  name  of  Christ  upon  it.  in 
place  of  the  Roman  eagle  on  his  standards. 
His  soldiers  hailed  it  as  a  symbol  of  divine 
protection  and  pledge  of  victory.  This  oc- 
curred in  312.  When  Julian  the  Apostate 
came  to  the  throne,  he  caused  the  removal  of 
the  cross  from  the  standards,  and  substituted 
for  it  the  images  of  his  heathen  gods.  Chris- 
tian soldiers  in  his  army  often  refused  to  bear 
them,  and  on  this  account  suffered  martyr- 
dom. Such  were  Bonosus  and  Maximilian, 
who  refused  to  carry  images  of  Jove  and 
Hercules  on  their  standards,  and  after  ex- 
cruciating torture  with  loaded  thongs,  and 
then  upon  the  rack,  steadfastly  affirmed,  "  We 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  your  standards 
loaded  with  idols !  "  Rather  than  handle  the 
idols,  they  went  to  their  death  a.  d.  363. — 
F.  II. 

CROSS,  Christ  on  the. — 7  Cor.  ii:  2. 
There  is  no  more  efficacious  method  of  con- 
quering all  temptations,  there  is  no  more 
compendious  way  of  gaining  all  the  virtues, 
than  perpetually  to  contemplate,  affectionately 
to  consider,  diligently  to  wait  upon,  Christ 
hanging  on  the  cross.  I  suppose  that  the 
especial  cross  from  which  we  are  at  this  mo- 
ment suffering  always  seems  the  very  one 
from  which  we  should  most  have  shrunk.  If, 
therefore,  it  needs  the  more  courage  and 
patience,  then  we  may  be  sure  it  is  the  truer 
and  better  friend  to  us. 

The  traitor  was  gone  (John  xiii:  31).  His 
presence  had  been  a  restraint,  and  now  that 
that  spot  in  their  feast  of  charity  had  disap- 
peared, the  Master  felt  at  ease ;  and  like  some 
stream  out  of  the  bed  of  which  a  black  rock 
has  been  taken,  His  words  flowed  more 
freely :  "  Therefore,  when  he  was  gone  out, 
Jesus  said." 

Like  the  pellucid  waters  of  the  Rhine  and 
the  turbid  stream  of  the  Moselle,  that  flow 
side  by  side  over  a  long  space,  neither  of  them 
blending  discernibly  with  the  other,  so  the 
shrinking  from  the  cross  and  the  desire  were 
contemporaneous  in  Christ's  mind. 

The   New   Testament   generally   represents 


the  cross  as  the  very  lowest  point  of  Christ's 
degradation;  St.  John's  Gospel  always  rep- 
resents it  as  the  very  highest  point  of  His 
glory.  And  the  two  things  are  both  true ; 
just  as  the  zenith  of  our  sky  is  the  nadir  of 
the  sky  for  those  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world. 

As  the  sun  behind  a  cloud,  which  hides  it 
from  us,  is  still  pouring  out  its  rays  on  far- 
off  lands,  so  Christ,  veiled  in  dark  sunset 
clouds  of  Calvary,  sent  the  energy  of  His 
passion  and  cross  into  the  unseen  world,  and 
made  it  possible  that  we  should  enter  there. 

As  one  who  precedes  a  mighty  host,  pro- 
vides and  prepares  rest  for  their  weariness, 
and  food  for  their  hunger,  in  some  city  on 
their  line  of  march,  and  having  made  all 
things  ready,  is  at  the  gates  to  welcome  their 
travel-stained  ranks  when  they  arrive,  and 
guide  them  to  their  repose ;  so  Christ  has 
gone  before,  our  Forerunner,  to  order  all 
things  for  us  there. 

All  His  life  long  Christ  had  been  revealing 
His  heart,  through  the  narrow  rifts  of  deeds, 
like  some  slender  lancet  windows ;  but  in 
His  death  all  the  barriers  are  thrown  down 
and  the  brightness  blazes  out  upon  nien. 

All  through  His  life  He  had  been  trying  to 
communicate  the  box  of  ointment  exceeding 
precious,  but  when  the  box  was  broken,  the 
house  was  filled  with  the  odor. 

There  blends,  in  that  last  act  of  our  Lord's 
— for  His  death  was  His  act — in  strange  fash- 
ion, the  two  contradictory  ideas  of  glory  and 
shame,  like  some  sky,  all  full  of  dark  thun- 
der-clouds, and  yet  between  them  the  bright- 
est blue  and  the  blazing  sunshine. 

All  His  life  long  Christ  was  the  light  of 
the  world,  but  the  very  noontide  hour  of  His 
glory  was  that  hour  when  the  shadow  of 
eclipse  lay  over  all  the  land,  and  He  hung 
on  the  Cross  dying  in  the  dark.  At  His 
eventide  "  it  was  light,"  and  "  He  endured  the 
Cross,  despising  the  shame  "  ;  and,  lo  !  the 
shame  flashed  up  into  the  very  brightness  of 
glory,  and  the  very  ignominy  and  the  suf- 
fering were  the  jewels  of  His  crown. — A.  P. 
L. 

CROSS,  Clinging  to  the. — A  great  cruci- 
fix stood  up  at  the  outskirts  of  Noyon,  France, 
and  there  at  midnight  the  moonlight  showed 
a  woman  kneeling,  with  her  arms  thrown 
around  the  tree,  and  her  head  bent  to  the 
ground ;  and  I  could  not  but  hope  that  she 
was  a  true  penitent,  in  error,  but  still  clinging 
with  her  heart  to  Christ  as  she  clung  with 
her  arms  to  the  cross ;  anyway,  at  that  mid- 
night hour,  in  that  lonely  spot,  a  woman 
bowed  by  some  secret  grief  to  the  earth,  and 
seeking  relief  in  prayer  under  the  shadow  of 
that  lofty  cross  and  its  divine  burden,  was  a 
solemn  and  touching  sight. — Guthrie. 

CROSS,  Glory  of  the.— Its  glory  produces 
powerful  effects  wherever  it  shines.  They 
who  behold  this  glory  are  transformed  into 
the  same  image,  2  Cor.  iii :  18.  An  Ethiopian 
may  look  long  enough  to  the  visible  sun  be- 
fore it  changes  his  black  color ;  but  this  does 
it.  It  melts  cold  and  frozen  hearts ;  it  breaks 
stony  hearts ;   it  pierces   adamants ;   it  pene- 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


l6l 


trates  through  thick  darkness.  How  justly 
it  is  called  marvelous  light !  i  Pet.  ii :  9.  It 
gives  eyes  to  the  blind  to  look  to  itself;  and 
not  only  to  the  blind  but  to  the  dead  !  It  is 
the  light  of  life ;  a  powerful  light.  Its  energy 
is  beyond  the  force  of  thunder ;  and  it  is 
more  mild  than  the  dew  on  the  tender  grass. 
It  communicates  a  glory  to  all  other  objects, 
according  as  they  have  any  relation  to  it.  It 
adorns  the  universe ;  it  gives  a  luster  to  na- 
ture, and  to  Providence ;  it  is  the  greatest 
glory  of  the  lower  world  that  its  Creator 
was  for  a  while  its  inhabitant.  A  poor  land- 
lord thinks  it  a  lasting  honor  to  his  cottage 
that  he  has  once  lodged  a  prince  or  emperor ; 
with  how  much  more  reason  may  our  poor 
cottage,  this  earth,  be  proud  of  it,  that  the 
Lord  of  glory  was  its  tenant  from  His  birth 
to  His  death?  Yea,  that  He  rejoiced  in  the 
habitable  parts  of  it,  before  it  had  a  begin- 
ning, even  from  everlasting!  Prov.  viii:3i. — 
M'Laurin. 

CROSS,  Glory  of  the.— Gal.  vi:  14.  To- 
day men  mount  the  ensign  of  the  cross  on 
their  banners,  blazon  it  on  the  baldric  of 
knighthood,  and  lift  it  high  on  their  spires 
above  the  smokestacks  of  their  workshops,  as 
if  they  would  elevate  it  above  the  smoke  of 
toil,  the  mist  and  malaria  of  earth,  into  the 
realm  of  perpetual  calm  and  ceaseless  sun- 
shine and  starshine,  a  silent,  golden  finger 
ever  pointing  to  the  heaven  of  their  hopes. 
Notaries  impress  it  on  the  seals  of  courts, 
art  glorifies  it  upon  the  canvas,  music  sings 
its  praises,  beauty  weaves  it  as  an  amulet 
on  its  alabaster  bosom,  and  grief  carves  it  as 
an  epitaph  of  wounded  love  and  resurrection 
hope  upon  the  marble  door  of  the  tomb. 

"  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory. 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time, 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 

Gathers   round   its   head   sublime." 

—P.  H. 

CROSS,  Index  of  the.— It  is  related  of  the 
celebrated  scholar,  Humboldt,  that  when  he 
was  traveling  in  tropical  America,  going 
chiefly  by  night  to  avoid  the  heat  of  the  day, 
that  his  superstitious  guides  greatly  rever- 
enced the  constellation  of  the  Southern  Cross, 
and  directed  their  course  by  it.  At  that  time 
this  constellation  reached  the  mid-heavens 
just  before  the  break  of  day,  so  that  its  pas- 
sage over  the  meridian  was  an  indication  that 
morning  was  approaching.  He  says  frequently, 
when  he  was  following  after  his  train,  and 
wearied  by  a  night-long  tramp,  he  could  hear 
the  guides  shout,  "  Courage,  comrades,  the 
Cross  begins  to  bend."  So  may  the  Christian 
soldier  hear  and  regard  this  voice  in  the  hour 
of  his  trials.  In  the  darkness,  and  the  weari- 
ness of  life-long  labor,  it  is  enough  to  know 
that  the  cross  bends  at  the  earnest  pleading  of 
faith  and  uplifted  prayer  to  God.  You  know 
where  your  strength  lies,  where  you  may 
burnish  your  weapons,  where  you  may,  in- 
deed, stand  forth  renewed  perpetually  in  the 
strength  of  grace.  The  cross  of  Christ  is 
with  us,  and  the  power  of  that  cross  is  effi- 
cacious to  save  to  the  uttermost. — Dr  Curry. 


CROSS,  Legend  of  the. — A  procession  of 
Christians,  singing  hymns,  having  a  cross  car- 
ried at  their  head,  come  to  a  place  called  Te- 
tramphodos,  where  stood  a  statue  of  Venus 
and  a  marble  altar.  As  the  cross  was  borne 
along  the  idol  fell  down  of  itself,  and  was 
broken  in  pieces. — F.  II. 

CROSS,  Might  of  the. — The  cross  was  two 
pieces  of  dead  wood ;  and  a  helpless,  unre- 
sisting Man  was  nailed  to  it;  yet  it  was 
mightier  than  the  world,  and  triumphed,  and 
will  ever  triumph  over  it. — Hare. 

CROSS,   Our  Only  Hope  in  the. — On  a 

rude  cross  by  the  side  of  an  Italian  highway 
is  the  motto  Spes  unica.  The  cross  is  the 
altar  upon  which  the  atonement  for  our  sins 
was  made. — F.  II. 

CROSS,  Our  Sins  on  the. — We  must  nail 
our  sins  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  force  them  be- 
fore the  tree  on  which  He  suffered ;  it  is  such 
a  sight  as  sin  cannot  abide.  It  will  begin  to 
die  within  a  man  upon  the  sight  of  Christ  on 
the  cross,  for  the  cross  of  Christ  accuseth  sin, 
shames  sin,  and  by  a  secret  virtue  feeds  upon 
the  very  heart  of  sin.  We  must  use  sin  as 
Christ  was  used  when  He  was  made  sin  for 
us ;  we  must  lift  it  up,  and  make  it  naked  by 
confession  of  it  to  God ;  we  must  pierce  the 
hands  and  feet,  the  heart  of  it  by  godly  sor- 
row, and  application  of  threatenings  against, 
it,  and  by  spiritual  revenge  upon  it. — Byfield.. 

CROSS,  Power  of  the.— There  is  an  Irish 
fable  to  the  effect  that  Forannan,  abbot  of 
Waulsor,  felt  called  to  leave  his  native  isle.. 
He  went  to  the  sea  shore  with  twelve  com- 
panions, and  not  being  able  to  procure  a 
boat,  they  made  a  huge  wooden  cross,  and 
casting  it  into  the  sea,  and  standing  on  it 
were  wafted  to  the  Flemish  shore.  Probably 
a  raft  of  timbers  laid  crosswise  had  grown 
into  a  cross. — F.  II. 

CROSS,  Power  of  the,—/  Cor.  i:  24.  The 
most  imperial  preacher  of  this  century  was 
Thomas  Chalmers.  During  the  earliest  years 
of  his  ministry  his  preaching  was  mainly 
ethical ;  his  Gospel  was  a  Gospel  of  moral- 
ity. He  aimed  to  reform  his  hearers  from 
such  vices  as  dishonesty,  profanity,  false- 
hood, licentiousness,  and  cruelty.  After  a 
few  years  new  light  burst  upon  him,  and 
his  ministry  became  intenselj'^  evangelical. 
His  testimony  is  very  remarkable.  He  de- 
clared that  while  he  was  simply  trying  to  re- 
form men  of  their  vices,  he  "  never  heard  of 
any  such  reformation  having  been  effected ! 
If  there  were  such  cases,  they  never  came  to 
my  knowledge.  It  was  not  until  the  free 
offer  of  forgiveness  of  sin  through  the  aton- 
ing blood  of  Christ  was  urged  upon  men  that 
I  ever  heard  of  any  of  these  subordinate  ref- 
ormations."— Selected. 

CROSS,  Predominance  of  the. — Describ- 
ing the  artistic  glories  of  the  Church  of  St. 
Mark  at  Venice,  Mr.  Ruskin  says :  "  Here 
are  all  the  successions  of  crowded  imagery 
showing  the  passions  and  the  pleasures  of 
human  life  symbolized  together,  and  the  mys- 
tery of  its  redemption;    for  the  maze  of  in- 


l62 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


terwoven  lines  and  changeful  pictures  lead 
always  at  last  to  the  Cross,  lifted  and  carved 
in  every  place  and  upon  every  stone ;  some- 
times with  the  serpent  of  eternity  wrapped 
round  it,  sometimes  with  doves  beneath  its 
arms  and  sweet  herbage  growing  forth  from 
its  feet ;  but  conspicuous  most  of  all  on  the 
great  rood  that  crosses  the  Church  before  the 
altar,  raised  in  bright  blazonry  against  the 
shadow  of  the  apse.  It  is  the  Cross  that  is 
first  seen  and  always  burning  in  the  center 
of  the  temple;  and  every  dome  and  hollow 
of  its  roof  has  the  figure  of  Christ  in  the 
utmost  height  of  it,  raised  in  power,  or  re- 
turning in  judgment. — A.  P.  L. 

CB,OSS,  Refuge  of  the. — A  popular  alle- 
gorical picture  represents  a  huge  cross  hewn 
out  of  the  rock  standing  upon  the  rugged 
shore  of  a  stormy  sea.  A  half-drowned 
female  clings  to  it  as  her  only  hope,  while 
another  clutches  her  garments  in  that  des- 
perate struggle  for  safety.  That  sea  is  life 
and  that  cross  is  Christ. — F.  II. 

CBOSS,  Resting  upon  the. — Often  does 
the  wanderer,  'mid  American  forests,  lay  his 
head  upon  a  rude  log,  while  above  it  is  the 
abyss  of  stars;  so  the  weary,  heavy-laden, 
dying  Christian  leans  upon  the  rugged  and 
narrow  cross,  but  looks  up  the  while  to  the 
beaming  canopy,  of  immortal  life — to  "those 
things  which  are  above." — G.  Gilfillan. 

CROSS,  Soldiers  of  the. — A  brave  warrior 
of  old  time  being  delayed,  prayed  to  the  gods 
that  the  battle  might  not  be  ended  before  his 
arrival.  The  true  soldier  loves  the  warfare, 
despises  its  perils,  and  glories  in  its  hard- 
ships. .The  Christian's  Leader  bore  His  own 
cross,  and  perished  upon  it.  To  follow  His 
steps  must  be  our  pleasure. — F.  II. 

CROSS,  Taking  up  the. — The  old  crusa- 
ders used  to  wear  a  cross  upon  their 
shoulders.  This  was  their  badge  of  service. 
Peter  the  hermit  tore  up  his  gown  and  dis- 
tributed the  pieces  among  the  enthusiastic 
volunteers.  It  was  then  the  fashionable  and 
honorable  thing.  So  to-day  a  profession  of 
religion  and  pew  in  some  church  is  the  pass- 
port to  respectability.  The  cross  is  the  orna- 
ment of  pride  or  adornment  of  beauty,  with 
no  thought  of  its  sacred  import  and  responsi- 
bility, "  a  cheap  substitute  for  a  struggle 
never  made,  and  a  crown  never  striven  for." 
— F.   II. 

CROSS,  The — The  most  consummate  wis- 
dom made  choice  of  the  cross,  of  poverty, 
and  meanness. — Selected. 

CROSS,  The  Key  of  Paradise. — We  do 
not  sail  to  glory  in  the  salt  sea  of  our  own 
tears  but  in  the  red  sea  of  a  Redeemer's  blood. 
We  owe  the  life  of  our  souls  to  the  death  of 
our  Savior.  It  was  His  going  into  the  furnace 
which  keeps  us  from  the  flames.  Man  lives 
by  death ;  his  natural  life  is  preserved  by 
the  death  of  the  Creature,  and  his  spiritual 
life  by  the  death  of  the  Redeemer. — Secke. 

CROSS,  The  Pathos  of  the.— If  Jesus  had 
been  an  infinite  hater,  who  had  incarnated 
himself   for   a   mission   of   mischief,   and   we 


could  have  caught  Him  and  nailed  Him  to 
the  cross,  of  course  it  would  have  been  an 
impotent  thing.  We  should  not  have  extin- 
guished hate  in  the  infinite  heart.  We  should, 
however,  have  made  the  feeble  protest  of 
our  race  against  hatred. 

But  when  He  loves  us  and  comes  to  us 
with  a  yearning  heart  and  a  wooing  way,  and 
seeks  to  win  our  love  by  all  the  sweetest  ad- 
vances of  holy  and  loftiest  affection,  and 
when  we,  with  wicked,  unloving  hands,  do 
murder  Him,  we  cannot  quench  His  love. 
He  sends  down  from  the  cross  such  inde- 
scribably sweet  looks  of  love,  as  if  He  were 
saying  in  His  heart,  "  Oh,  I  would  rather 
have  these  tearing  nails  and  piercing  thorns 
from  your  dear  hands  than  take  the  softest 
and  brightest  crown  from  the  hands  of  any 
other  beings." 

This  is  the  supreme  glory  of  love.  There 
never  was  anything  like  it  in  all  the  universe 
before.  The  angels  that  had  worshiped  Him 
had  never  seen  such  love.  He  had  never  so 
revealed  Himself  to  them.  They  knew  He 
was  good.  They  knew  that  He  delighted  in 
the  happiness  of  His  children  and  of  His 
creatures,  but  they  had  never  seen  divine  love 
put  to  such  trial  before  and  rise  to  such  radi- 
ance. Then  they  saw  the  glory  of  God,  the 
glory  of  His  power,  the  glory  of  His  wis- 
dom, the  glory  of  His  truth,  and  the  glory 
of  His  love,  shining  in  the  face  of  Jesus.  It 
streamed  down  all  time  and  through  all  the 
universe.  No  world  He  ever  made,  no 
throne  He  ever  erected,  no  rank  of  angels 
He  ever  created,  so  reflects  His  glory  as  the 
Cross. — Charles  F.  Deems. 

CROSS,  Traces  of  the.— Thor  the  thun- 
derer,  Scandinavian  hero  god,  was  always 
represented  with  a  hammer  in  his  hand. 
With  this  hammer  he  crushed  the  head  of  the 
great  Midgard  serpent,  destroyed  the  giants, 
and  restored  to  life  the  dead  goats  which 
drew  his  car,  and  consecrated  the  pyre  of 
Baldur.  Thor's  hammer  was  a  cross.  As 
such  it  appears  on  old  Scandinavian  coins. 
So  says  Baring-Gould  in  his  "Legend  of  the 
Cross."  The  sign  of  the  cross  was  made  by 
the  Scandinavians,  and  may  have  been  copied 
by  the  Christians  from  them.  On  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple  of  Serapium  in  Egypt, 
A.  D.  389,  a  sign  resembling  the  cross  was 
found  engraved  upon  the  stones.  It  was  in- 
terpreted to  mean,  "  The  life  to  come."  The 
heathen  claimed  it  as  a  symbol  of  their  God 
Serapis.  Sozomen,  Socrates,  and  Rufinus  re- 
late this.  Rufinus  says.  "  The  Egyptians  are 
said  to  have  the  sign  of  the  Lord's  cross 
among  those  letters  which  are  called  sacer- 
dotal, of  which  letter  or  figure  this  they  say 
is  the  interpretation,  '  The  life  to  come.' " 
Baring-Gould  says  that  the  cross  was  a  re- 
ligious symbol  to  the  lake-dwellers,  that  be- 
neath it  they  laid  their  dead  to  rest,  and 
trusted  in  it  to  guard  and  revive  the  loved 
ones  whom  they  committed  to  the  dust.  Alor- 
tilett,  who  investigated  the  tombs  of  the  lake- 
dwellers  in  Italy,  concludes  that  the  cross 
was  a  religious  emblem,  of  frequent  use,  a 
thousand  years  before  Christ. — F.  II. 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


163 


CROSS,  Use  of  the — God's  scholars  have 
learned  to  think  of  the  cross  that  it  is  the 
frame-house  in  the  which  God  frameth  His 
children  like  to  His  Son  Christ ;  the  furnace 
that  fineth  God's  gold;  the  highway  to 
heaven;  the  suit  and  livery  that  God's  serv- 
ants are  served  withal ;  and  the  earnest  and 
beginning  of  all  consolation  and  glory. — 
Bradford. 

CROSS,  Victory  of  the — This  is  the 
weapon  that  has  won  victories  over  hearts  of 
every  kind,  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
Greenlanders,  Africans,  South-Sea  Islanders, 
Hindus,  Chinese,  all  have  alike  felt  its  power. 
Just  as  that  huge  iron  tube,  which  crosses  the 
Menai  Straits,  is  more  affected  and  bent  by 
half  an  hour's  sunshine  than  by  all  the  dead 
weight  that  can  be  placed  in  it,  so  in  like 
manner  the  hearts  of  savages  have  melted 
before  the  cross  when  every  other  argument 
seemed  to  move  them  no  more  than  stones. 
"  Brethren,"  said  a  North  American  Indian 
after  his  conversion,  "  I  have  been  a  heathen  ; 
I  know  how  heathens  think.  Once  a  preacher 
came  and  began  to  explain  to  us  that  there 
was  a  God ;  but  we  told  him  to  return  to 
the  place  from  whence  he  came.  Another 
preacher  came  and  told  us  not  to  lie,  nor 
steal,  nor  drink;  but  we  did  not  heed  him. 
At  last,  another  came  into  my  hut  one  day, 
and  said.  '  I  am  come  to  you,  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  He  sends  to 
let  you  know  that  He  will  make  you  happy, 
and  deliver  you  from  misery.  For  this  end 
He  became  man,  gave  His  life  a  ransom,  shed 
His  blood  for  sinners.'  I  could  not  forget  his 
words.  I  told  them  to  the  other  Indians, 
and  an  awakening  begun  among  us.  I  say, 
therefore,  preach  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Christ  our  Savior  if  you  wish  your  words  to 
gain  entrance  among  the  heathens."  Never 
did  the  devil  triumph  so  thoroughly  as  when 
he  persuaded  the  Jesuit  missionaries  in  China 
to  keep  back  the  story  of  the  cross. — Ryle. 

CRUCIFIXION,    Application    of    the.— 

An  irreligious  German  minister  sat  opposite 
a  picture  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  under  which 
was  the  inscription,  "I  did  this  for  thee; 
what  hast  thou  done  for  Me  ?  "  It  was  fas- 
tened by  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  his  conscience. 
In  his  thoughts  by  day  and  dreams  by  night 
the  one  question  was,  "  What  hast  thou  done 
for  Me?"  He  felt  the  burden  removed  and 
rejoiced.  He  died  not  long  after  triumphing 
in  redeeming  love. — F.  II.  , 

CRUCIFIXION,   Cruelty  of Of  all  the 

devices  of  a  cruel  imagination,  crucifixion  is 
the  masterpiece.  Other  pains  are  sharper  for 
a  time,  but  none  are  at  once  so  agonizing  and 
so  long.  One  aggravation,  however,  was 
wanting,  which,  owing  to  the  want  of  knowl- 
edge in  painters,  is  still,  we  believe,  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  belonged  to  the  pun- 
ishment. The  weight  of  the  body  was  borne 
by  a  ledge  which  projected  from  the  middle 
of  the  upright  beam,  and  not  by  the  hands 
and  feet,  which  were  probably  found  unequal 
to  the   strain.     The    frailtv    of   man's   frame 


comes  at  last  to  be  its  own  defence ;  but 
enough  remained  to  preserve  the  pre-eminence 
of  torture  to  the  cross.  The  process  of  nail- 
ing was  exquisite  torment,  and  yet  worse  in 
what  ensued  than  in  the  actual  infliction.  The 
spikes  rankled,  the  wounds  inflamed,  the 
local  injury  produced  a  general  fever,  the 
fever  a  most  intolerable  thirst ;  but  the  mis- 
ery of  miseries  to  the  sufferer  was,  while 
racked  with  agony,  to  be  fastened  in  a  posi- 
tion which  did  not  permit  him  even  to  writhe. 
Every  attempt  to  relieve  the  muscles,  every 
instinctive  movement  of  anguish,  only  served 
to  drag  the  lacerated  flesh,  and  wake  up  new 
and  acuter  pangs,  and  this  torture,  which 
must  have  been  continually  aggravated  until 
advancing  death  began  to  lay  it  to  sleep, 
lasted  on  an  average  two   or  three   days. — 

FONTENELLE. 

CRUCIFIXION,  Impressing  the.— A  lit- 
tle girl  asked  her  mother,  who  had  a  with- 
ered hand,  how  it  became  so  deformed.  Her 
mother  told  her  that  her  crib  took  fire  and  in 
rescuing  her  she  had  burned  herself.  "  It 
v/as  for  you  my  child,  that  this  poor  hand 
suffered."  But  for  this  loving  interposition 
the  child  would  have  been  burned  up.  Then 
the  mother  told  her  of  the  exposure  of  her 
soul  to  sin  and  death  and  that  Christ  came 
to  her  rescue.  She  added  that  when  we  get 
to  heaven  and  behold  the  wounds  of  Christ, 
and  ask,  what  are  these  wounds?  He  will 
reply  "  I  was  wounded  for  your  transgres- 
sions; I  was  bruised  for  your  iniquities." — 
F.  II. 

CRUCIFIXION,  Pre-eminence  of  the.— 

If  you  have  not  yet  found  out  that  Christ 
crucified  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole  vol- 
ume, you  have  read  your  Bible  hitherto  to 
very  little  profit.  Your  religion  is  a  heaven 
without  a  sun,  an  arch  without  a  keystone,  a 
compass  without  a  needle,  a  clock  without 
spring  or  weights,  a  lamp  without  oil.  It 
will  not  comfort  you.  It  will  not  deliver  your 
soul  from  hell. — Ryle. 

DEATH  PROPHESIED,  The.— /no.  xii: 
32-33.  I.  The  important  event  the  text  an- 
ticipates. Our  Lord  here  refers  to  the  cruci- 
fixion. The  exaltation  of  Christ  in  the  min- 
istry of  the  Gospel  comprehends:  (i)  The 
recital  of  the  manner  of  the  Redeemer's 
death.  (2)  The  declaration  of  the  great  de- 
sign of  His  death.  (3)  The  proclamation 
of  His  power  to  save,  with  the  terms  on 
which  He  saves. 

II.  The  grand  purpose  the  text  reveals : 
(i)  The  point  to  which  He  attracts. — "unto 
me."  (2)  The  manner  in  which  He  attracts 
— the  view  of  the  Divine  character  presented 
by  the  lifting  up  of  Christ  on  the  Cross  is 
eminently  attractive.  (3)  The  scale  on  which 
He  attracts — "  all   men." — J.  Rawlinson. 

FLOWERS,  Never  Withering.  _H^&.  x: 
23.  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary  of  Eng- 
land, a  man  named  Palmer  was  condemned 
to  die.  Before  his  death  he  was  earnestly 
persuaded  to  recant,  and  among  other  things. 


1 64 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


a  friend  said  to  him,  "  Take  pity  on  thy 
golden  years  and  pleasant  flowers  of  youth 
before  it  is  too  late."  His  beautiful  reply 
was,  "  Sir,  I  long  for  those  springing  flowers 
which  shall  never  fade  away."  When  in  the 
midst  of  the  flame,  he  exhorted  his  com- 
panions to  constancy,  saying,  "  We  shall  not 
end  our  lives  in  the  fire,  but  make  a  change 
for  a  better  life;  yea,  for  coals  we  shall  re- 
ceive pearls." — A.  P.  L. 

GETHSEMANE  IS  AS  PARADISE.— 
When  God's  children  pass  under  the  shadow 
of  the  cross  of  Calvary,  they  know  that 
through  that  shadow  lies  their  passage  to  the 
great  white  throne.  For  them  Gethsemane  is  as 
paradise.  God  fills  it  with  sacred  presences; 
its  solemn  silence  is  broken  by  the  music  of 
tender  promises,  its  awful  darkness  softened 
and  brightened  by  the  sunlight  of  Heavenly 
faces  and  the  music  of  angel  wings. — Dean 
Fakrar. 

GUILT,  Transfer  of — For  a  long  time 
before  the  conversion  of  the  Rev.  C.  Simeon, 
he  had  been  in  the  deepest  distress,  envying 
even  the  dogs  that  passed  under  his  window. 
In  Passion  week  he  met  with  the  expression 
in  Bishop  Wilson  on  the  Lord's  Supper 
"  that  the  Jews  knew  what  they  did  when  they 
transferred  their  sins  to  the  head  of  their 
offering."  "  The  thought  rushed  into  my 
mind,"  says  he,  "What!  may  I  transfer  all 
my  guilt  to  another?  Has  God  provided  an 
offering  for  me,  that  I  may  lay  my  sins  on 
His  head?  Then,  God  willing,  I  will  not 
bear  them  one  moment  longer.  Accordingly 
I  sought  to  lay  my  sins  upon  the  sacred  head 
of  Jesus,  and  on  the  Wednesday  began  to 
have  a  hope  of  mercy ;  on  the  Thursday  that 
hope  increased,  and  on  Friday  and  Saturday 
it  became  more  strong;  and  on  the  Sunday 
morning  (Easter  Day)  I  awoke  early,  with 
these  words  upon  my  heart  and  lips : 

"  '  Jesus   Christ  .is   risen   to-day ! 
Hallelujah!     Hallelujah!'" 

From  that  hour  he  had  peace. — F.  II. 

JESUS,  Blood  of. — Poets  have  loved  the 
music  of  the  mountain  stream,  as  it  tinkled 
down  the  hills  amidst  the  stones,  or  mur- 
mured under  leafy  shades.  Scripture  speaks 
of  the  voice  of  God  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters.  So  it  is  with  the  precious  blood  of 
Jesus;  It  has  a  voice  which  hears,  speaking 
better  things  than  the  blood  of  Abel,  more 
than  restoring  to  Him  again  the  lost  music 
of  His  primeval   creation. — Faber. 

REDEMPTION,  Light  of. — Suppose  you 
are  standing  over  against  some  palace,  and 
it  is  near  midnight.  Forth  from  that  palace 
gate  there  comes  a  procession :  the  prince 
has  come  forth,  attended  by  many  of  his  train. 
He  has  not  gone  far,  however,  before  you 
hear  that  he  has  dropped  a  beautiful  gem. 
He  is  anxious  about  that  gem,  not  simply  for 
its  intrinsic  value,  but  it  was  the  gift  of  one 
he  loved.  He  calls  for  lights.  You  never 
saw  the  prince  in  your  life,  and  in  that  dim 
darkness  you  have  not  been  able  to  see  much. 


except  a  very  imperfect  outline  of  him.  But 
now  a  lamp  has  come,  and  the  prince,  in  his 
anxiety  to  find  his  gem,  takes  the  lamp  in  his 
own  hand,  and  there  he  is  looking  for  the 
lost  gem.  Now  the  light  which  falls  on  the 
road  where  that  gem  is  lying  goes  up  into 
the  face  of  the  prince ;  and  while  he  finds  the 
gem,  you  see  him  as  you  never  would  have 
seen  him  but  for  that  loss.  Now  it  is  like 
that  with  the  revelation  of  God.  When  He 
came  forth  from  the  retirement  of  eternity 
for  the  salvation  of  souls,  there  was  light 
which,  while  it  was  thrown  on  the  poor  lost 
sinner,  that  he  might  be  found,  was  thrown 
upon  the  face  of  God,  who  came  to  seek  him 
and  to  save  him. — Coley. 

REDEMPTION,  Ownership  by. — A  be- 
nevolent gentleman  went  South  many  years 
ago  and  purchased  a  slave.  When  he  re- 
turned to  the  North,  he  said  to  the  man, 
"  You  are  now  free,  you  can  go  where  you 
please."  "  But,"  said  the  slave,  "  I  will  stay 
with  you."  Supposing  he  was  not  under- 
stood, he  again  said,  "  You  are  free  to  go 
wherever  you  please."  The  man  replied,  "  I 
will  stay  with  you;  you  bought  me,  and  paid 
the  price  with  your  money,  and  I  shall  stay 
and  serve  you :  I  do  not  wish  to  go  anywhere 
else."  So  it  is  with  me;  I  have  been  bought 
at  a  great  price,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  serve 
any  one  but  Jesus. — Wm.  McAllister. 

REDEMPTION,  Prefigured.— Nature  is 
full  of  indications  of  divine  attributes.  Nat- 
ural law,  through  all  time,  and  round  the 
world,  conveys  hints  and  germs  of  heaven,  of 
hell,  of  vicarious  suffering,  and  of  remedial 
mercy.  It  teaches  these  four  things.  Dis- 
obey and  suffer,  obey  and  enjoy;  these  are 
it.>  first  and  fundamental  lessons,  which  are 
the  rude  seed-forms  of  those  higher  truths, 
purity  and  heaven,  impurity  and  hell.  Then 
throughout  the  world  we  see  illustrations  of 
the  fact  that  one  man  can  suffer  for  another. 
In  the  mother's  suffering,  and  in  the  father's 
watch  and  care,  the  child  grows  out  of  im- 
purity and  rudeness  into  purity  and  gentle- 
ness. Vicarious  suffering  is  a  law  of  the 
household  and  of  society.  Remedial  mercy 
is  also  a  truth  which  nature  hints.  It  is  one 
of  the  eternal  truths  of  God's  nature.  In  the 
natural  world,  within  certain  bounds,  a  man's 
wrong-doing  may  be  repaired,  if  he  turn 
from  his  transgression  and  repent.  There  is 
provision  for  every  bone  to  knit  together 
again  when  fractured,  for  every  muscle  to 
heal  when  lacerated,  and  for  every  nerve 
when  shattered  and  diseased  to  return  again 
to  health.  Thus  in  nature  we  see  prefigured 
the  great  scheme  of  redemption.  Purity 
gives  heaven ;  impurity  eternal  wail  and  wo. 
But  there  is  vicarious  suffering  to  bring  men 
from  the  one  to  the  other.  If  through  Christ 
there  be  repentance  and  turning  from  evil, 
there  is  also  health  and  restoration.  And 
these  things  are  indicated  in  nature — when 
we  know  how  to  see  them  there — but  are 
authoritatively  taught  only  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. In  nature  they  are  as  twilight,  while 
in  the  gospel  they  glow  with  noonday  bright- 
ness.— Beecher. 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


165 


POETRY 


Atonement  and  Death 

By  Archibald  Lampman 

Col.  i:  21,  22 

Along  the  hills  and  by  the  sleeping  stream 
A  warning  falls,  and  all  the  glorious  trees — 
Vestures  of  gold  and  grand  embroideries — 
Stand  mute  as  in  a  sad  and  beautiful  dream, 
Brooding  on  death  and  nature's  vast  undoing; 
And  spring  that  came  an  age  ago  and  fled, 
On  summer's  glory,  long  since  drawn  to  red, 
And  now  the  fall  and  all  the  slow  soft  ruin, 
And  soon,  some  day,  sweeps  by  the  pillaging 

wind. 
The  winter's  wild  outrider,  with  harsh  roar, 
And  leaves  the  meadows  sacked  and  waste 

and  thinned, 
And  strips  the  forest  of  its  golden  store, 
Till  the  grim  tyrant  comes,  and  then  they  sow 
The  silent  wreckage,  not  with  salt,  but  snow, 

— S. 
Calvary 

By  F.  p.  p. 

Under  the  Eastern  sky, 
Amid  a  rabble's  cry, 
A  Man  went  forth  to  die 
For  me. 

Thorn-crowned  His  blessed  head, 
Blood-stained    His    every   tread, 
Cross-laden,  on  He  sped. 
For  me. 

Pierced  glow  His  hands  and  feet. 
Three  hours  o'er  Him  beat 
Fierce  rays  of  noontide  heat 
For  me. 

Thus  wert  Thou  made  all  mine; 
Lord,  make  me  wholly  Thine; 
Grant  grace  and  strength  divine 
To  me. 

In  thought  and  word  and  deed 
Thy  will  to  do.    Oh,  lead 
My  soul,  e'en  tho  it  bleed. 
To  Thee  !— E.  T. 

Calvary 
By  Mrs.  C.  F.  Alexander 

There  is  a  green  hill  far  away. 

Without  a  city  wall, 
Where  the  dear  Lord  was  crucified, 

Who  died  to  save  us  all. 
We  may  not  know,  we  cannot  tell 

What  pains  He  had  to  bear ; 
But  we  believe  it  was  for  us 

He  hung  and  suffered  there. 

He  died  that  we  might  be  forgiven, 

He  died  to  make  us  good, 
That  we  might  go  at  last  to  heaven, 

Saved  by  His  precious  blood. 


There  was  no  other  good  enough 

To  pay  the  price  of  sin; 
He  only  could  unlock  the  gate 

Of  heaven,  and  let  us  in. 

Oh,  dearly,  dearly  has  He  loved, 

And  we  must  love  Him  too. 
And  trust  in  His  redeeming  blood, 

And  try  His  works  to  do. 
For  there's  a  green  hill  far  away. 

Without  a  city  wall. 
Where  the  dear  Lord  was  crucified. 

Who  died  to  save  us  all. 

Cross  and  Crown 

Anonymous 

The  cross  for  only  a  day. 
The  crown   forever  and  aye; 
The  one  for  a  night  that  will  soon  be  gone. 
And  one  for  eternity's  glorious  morn. 

The  cross  then  I'll  cheerfully  bear, 
Nor  sorrow  for  loss  or  care ; 
For  a  moment  only  the  pain  and  the  strife, 
But  through  endless  ages  the  crown  of  life. 

The  cross  till  the  conflict's  done, 
The  crown  when  the  victory's  won; 
My  cross  never  more   remembered  above, 
While  wearing  the  crown  of  His  matchless 
love. 

His  cross  I'll  never  forget. 
For  marks  on  His  brow  are  set; 
On  His  precious  hands,  His  feet  and  side, 
To  tell  what  He  bore  for  the  church,   His 
bride. 

My  cross  I'll  think  of  no  more. 
But  strive  for  the  crown  set  before; 
That  ever  through  ages  my  song  may  be 
Oi  His  cross  that  purchased  my  crown  for 
me. 

The  work  of  redemption  done, 
His  cross  and  His  crown  are  one ; 
The  crimson  and  gold  will  forever  blend, 
In  the  crown  of  Jesus,  the  sinner's  friend. 

— C.  P. 
Under  the  Cross 

By  Horatius  Bonar 

Oppressed    with    noonday's    scorching    heat. 

To  yonder  cross  I  flee ; 
Beneath  its  shelter  take  my  seat; 

No  shade  like  this  for  me ! 

Beneath  that  cross  clear  waters  burst, 

A  fountain  sparkling  free; 
And  there  I  quench  my  desert  thirst; 

No  spring  like  this  for  me ! 

A  stranger  here,  I  pitch  my  tent 

Beneath  this  spreading  tree ; 
Here  shall  my  pilgrim  life  be  spent; 
No  home  like  this  for  me! 


i66 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


For  burdened  ones  a  resting-place 

Beside  that  cross  I  see; 
Here  I  cast  off  my  weariness; 

No  rest  like  this  for  me ! — 

Agony  of  the  Crucifixion 

By  C.  P.  La  YARD 

Suspended  on  the  cross !     On  His  pale  brow 
Hang  the  cold  drops  of  death;  through  ev'ry 

limb 
The  piercing  torture  rages;  ev'ry  nerve,  , 
Stretched  with  excess  of  pain,  trembles  con- 
vulsed. 
Now   look   beneath,    and   view   the    senseless 

crowd ; 
How   they   deride   His   sufferings,   how  they 

shake 
Their   heads   contemptuous,   while  the  bitter 

taunt, 
More  bitter  than  the  gall  they  gave,  insults 
The  agony  of  Him  on  whom  they  gaze 
But  hark !  He  speaks,  and  the  still  hovering 

breath 
"Wafts     His     last     prayer     to     all-approving 

Heaven : 
"  Forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 

do!" 

Cause  of  the  Crucifixion 

By  James  Montgomery 

I  asked  the  heavens,  "  What  foe  to  God  hath 
done 
This    unexampled    deed?"      The    heavens 
exclaim ; 
"  'Twas  man ;  and  we  in  horror  snatched  the 
sun 
From  such  a  spectacle  of  guilt  and  shame." 
I  asked  the  sea — the  sea  in  fury  boil'd. 

And   answered    with   his   voice   of   storms, 
"  'Twas  man — 
My  waves  in  panic  at  his  crime  recoil'd, 
Disclosed  the  abyss,  and  from  the  center 
ran." 
I  asked  the  earth — the  earth  replied  aghast, 
"  'Twas  man — and  such  strange  pangs  my 
bosom  rent, 
That  still  I  groan  and  shudder  at  the  past." 
To  man,  gay,   smiling,   thoughtless  man   I 
went. 
And  asked  him  next;    He  turned  a  scornful 

eye. 
Shook  his  proud  head,  and  deigned  me  no 
reply. 

Miracles  at  the  Crucifixion 
By  Reginald  Heber 

Thou  palsied  earth,  with  noonday  night  o'er- 

spread ! 
Thou  sickening  sun,  so  dark,  so  deep,  so  red ! 
Ye  hovering  ghosts,  that  throng  the  starless 

air. 
Why  shakes  the  earth?     Why  fades  the  light? 

Declare ! 


Are  those  His  limbs,  with  ruthless  scourges 

torn? 
His    brow,    all    bleeding    with    the    twisted 

thorn  ? 
His  pale  form,  the  meek,  forgiving  eye, 
Raised  from  the  cross  in  patient  agony? 

Mystery  of  the  Crucifixion 

By  Ray  Palmer 

Wonder  of  wonders  !     On  the  cross  He  dies ! 
Man  of  the  ages,  David's  mighty  Son. 
The  Eternal  Word,  who  spake  and  it  was 

done. 
What  time,  of  old,   He  formed  the  earth 

and   skies. 

Abashed  be  all  the  wisdom  of  the  wise ! 
Let  the  wide  earth  through  all  her  king- 
doms know 
The  promised  Lamb  of  God,  whose  blood 

should  flow, — 
For  human  guilt  the  grand,  sole  sacrifice. 

No  more  need  altar  smoke,  nor  victim  bleed : 
'Tis  finished ! — the  great  mystery  of  love. 
Ye  sin-condemned,  by  this  blood,  'tis   de- 
creed. 

Ye  stand  absolved ;  behold  the  curse  removed ! 
O  Christ !  Thy  deadly  wounds.  Thy  mortal 

strife 
Crush  death  and  hell,  and  give  immortal 

life! 

The  Crucifixion 
By  John  G.  Whittier 

Sunlight  upon  Judea's  hills ! 

And  on  the  waves  of  Galilee, 
On  Jordan's  stream,  and  on  the  rills 

That  feed  the  dead  and  sleeping  sea. 
Most    freshly    from    the    greenwood    springs 
The  light  breeze  on  its  scented  wings; 
And  gaily  quiver  in  the  sun 
The  cedar  tops  of  Lebanon ! 

A  few  more  hours,  a  change  hath  comel 

The  sky  is  dark,  without  a  cloud ! 
The  shouts  of  wrath  and  joy  are  dumb. 

And  proud  knees  unto  earth  are  bowed. 
A  change  is  on  the  hill  of  Death, 
The  helmed  watchers  pant  for  breath, 
And  turn  with  wild  and  maniac  eyes, 
From  the  dark  scene  of  sacrifice ! 

That  Sacrifice ! — the  death  of  Him, 

The  High  and  ever  Holy  One ! 
Well   may  the   conscious   Heaven  grow  dim 

And  blacken  the  beholding  sun. 
The  wonted  light  hath  fled  away. 
Night  settles  on  the  middle  day. 
And  earthquake  from  his  caverned  bed 
Is  walking  with  a  thrill  of  dread ! 

The  dead  are  waking  underneath ! 

Their  prison  door  is  rent  away! 
And,  ghastly  with  the  seal  of  death. 

They  wander  in  the  eye  of  day; 


GOOD  FRIDAY 


167 


The  temple  of  the  cherubim, 
The  house  of  God  is  cold  and  dim; 
A  curse  is  on  its  trembling  walls, 
Its  mighty  veil  asunder  falls ! 

Well  may  the  cavern-depths  of  earth 
Be  shaken  and  her  mountains  nod; 

Well  may  the  sheeted  dead  come  forth 
To  gaze  upon  a  suffering  God ! 

Well  may  the  temple-shrine  grow  dim, 

And  shadows  veil  the  cherubim, 

When  He,  the  chosen  one  of  Heaven, 

A  sacrifice  for  guilt  is  given ! 

And  shall  the  sinful  heart  alone 
Behold  unmoved  the  atoning  hour. 

When  Nature  trembles  on  her  throne. 
And  Death  resigns  his  iron  power? 

Oh,  shall  the  heart,  whose  sinfulness 

Gave  keenness  to  His  sore  distress, 

And  added  to  His  tears  of  blood. 

Refuse  its  trembling  gratitude  ! 

Gethsemane 

By  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox 

In  golden  youth  when  seems  the  earth 
A  summer-land  of  singing  mirth, 
When  souls  are  glad  and  hearts  are  light. 
And  not  a  shadow  lurks  in  sight, 
We  do  not  know  it,  but  there  lies 
Somewhere  veiled  under  evening  skies 
A  garden  which  we  all  must  see — 
The  garden  of  Gethsemane. 

With  joyous  steps  we  go  our  ways. 
Love  lends  a  halo  to  our  days ; 
Light  sorrows  sail  like  clouds  afar. 
We  laugh,  and  say  how  strong  we  are, 
We  hurry  on ;  and  hurrying,  go 
Close  to  the  borderland  of  wo. 
That  waits  for  you,  and  waits  for  me — 
Forever  waits  Gethsemane. 

Down  shadowy  lanes,  across  strange  streams. 

Bridged  over  by  our  broken   dreams; 

Behind  the  misty  capes  of  years, 

Beyond  the  great  salt  fount  of  tears. 

The  garden  lies.     Strive  as  you  may. 

You  cannot  miss  it  in  your  way. 

All  paths  that  have  been,  or  shall  be, 

Pass  somewhere  through  Gethsemane. 

All  those  who  journey,  soon  or  late, 
Must  pass  within  the  garden's  gate; 
Must  kneel  alone  in  darkness  there. 
And  battle  with  some  fierce  despair. 
God  pity  those  who  cannot  say, 
"  Not  mine,  but  Thine ;  "  who  only  pray 
"  Let  this  cup  pass,"  and  cannot  see 
The  purpose  in  Gethsemane. — *F.  I. 

Gethsemane 
By  John  B.  Douglas 

Where  Olivet  casts  its  grateful  shade. 
O'er  Kedron's  limpid  stream, 

Down  where  the  olive's  drooping  leaves 
Repel  the  sun's  fierce  beams. 


The  spot  where  my  poor,  trembling  soul, 

In  love  and  faith  draw  near. 
And  on  its  consecrated  soil 

Oft  drops  the  silent  tear. 

And  when  the  evening  star  hangs  low. 

O'er  Olivet's  wooded  crest. 
In  faith  I  wander  through  its  groves, 

And  feel  my  soul  is  blest. 

O,  holy  spot,  in  my  poor  heart. 

Thou  art  alone  supreme — 
The  mecca  of  my  soul's  desires. 

The  acme  of  my  dreams ! — P.  J. 

A  Hymn  for  Good  Friday 

Anonymous 

When  the  Christ,  my  Lord  hung  dying. 

Dying  on  the  shameful  tree, 
Men  in  all  their  madness  mocked  Him; 

Yet  no  word  at  all  said  He. 
But  when  at  His  side  a  sinner. 

Hanging  there  in  shame  to  die. 
Pleading,  sought  His  loving  favor. 

Swiftly  came   love's  glad  reply. 

"  When  thou  comest  to  Thy  kingdom. 

Lord,"  he  cried,  "  remember  me." 
"  Aye,  to-day,  with  Me  in  glory," 

Jesus  answered,   "  thou   shalt  be." 
Was  not  this  most  wondrous  pity, 

So  to  bless  a  dying  thief; 
E'en  amid  His  own  deep  anguish. 

Thus  to  give  a  soul  relief? 

Still  He  hears  the  needy  pleading, 

Still  He  hears  when  sinners  pray. 
Answers   every  plea  in   mercy, 

Sends  no  soul  unblessed  away. 
Guilty,  weary,  sin-stained,  laden. 

Fear  not  now  on  Him  to  call ; 
Tho  your  sins  be  without  number, 

Freely  He'll  forgive  them  all. 

Tell  it  in  the  highest  heaven. 

Tell  it  in  the  depths  below. 
Tell  it  to  the  lost  and  outcast. 

Tell  it  in  the  haunts  of  wo; 
To  the  very  chief  of  sinners 

Let  the  blessed  tidings  go : 
He  who  asks  to  be  forgiven, 

Shall  the  Savior's  mercy  know. — B.  W. 

Who  is  He 

By  Henry  Hart  Millman 

Bound  upon  th'  accursed  tree. 

Dread  and  awful,  who  is  He? 

By  the  prayer  for  them  that  slew — 

"  Lord,  they  know  not  what  they  do  I  " 

By  the  spoiled  and  empty  grave; 

By  the  souls  He  died  to  save; 

By  the  conquest  He  hath  won ; 

By  the  saints  before  His  throne; 

By  the  rainbow  round  His  brow; 

Son  of  God,  'tis  Thou  !  'tis  Thou  I 


1 68 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


EASTER 

EASTER  is  the  festival  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
joyous  days  observed  by  the  church.  It  corresponds  with  the  Passover  of 
the  Jews,  and  in  the  early  church  pascha  designated  the  festival  of  Christ's  cruci- 
fixion ;  later,  it  meant  both  the  festival  of  the  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection, 
and  after  the  fourth  century  it  was  limited  to  the  latter  feast.  The  term  Easter 
was  first  used  when  Christianity  was  introduced  among  the  Saxons,  and  Bede 
traces  it  to  Eostre,  a  Saxon  goddess,  whose  festival  was  celebrated  annually  in 
the  spring. 

Great  ecclesiastical  controversies  raged  around  the  question  of  the  actual  day 
to  be  celebrated,  and  were  finally  settled  only  by  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 
Nicaea,  325  a.  d.  By  that  decree  it  was  fixed  on  the  Sunday  immediately  following 
the  fourteenth  day  of  the  Paschal  moon,  which  happens  at,  or  on  the  first  Sunday 
after,  the  vernal  equinox.  In  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  elaborate  rites  are  still 
observed,  and  only  to  a  less  extent  in  the  Lutheran  and  Episcopal  bodies,  while 
throughout  all  Protestant  churches  the  festival  is  being  celebrated  more  and  more. 

The  key  to  the  observance  of  Easter  is  set  in  the  joyous  assurance  of  the 
statements  and  predictions  of  the  gospels  and  the  epistles,  in  the  exultant  strain 
of  St.  Paul,  I  Thess.  iv:  13-18,  and  in  the  glorious  hymn  of  the  Resurrection,  I 
Cor.  XV :  20-58. 


EASTER  IN  THE  EARLY  CHURCH 


When  the  morning  of  the  Festival  of  the 
Resurrection  dawned,  the  early  Christians 
gave  signs  of  universal  joy.  The  Risen  One 
was  present  to  the  eye  of  faith ;  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  served  to  believers  as  a 
sure  pledge  of  their  own  resurrection  to 
eternal  life.  This  transition  from  death  unto 
life  was  placed  before  their  eyes,  by  the  great 
number  of  the  baptized,  who,  on  Easter  Eve, 
were  admitted  by  thousands,  and  who,  on 
Easter  Morn,  clad  in  their  white  garments, 
as  signs  of  purity,  united  for  the  first  time 
with  the  assemblage  of  believers  at  the  Holy 
Supper.  In  order  to  call  forth  universal 
joy  they  sang  Psalm  cxxviii:24:  "This  is 
the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made ;  we  ^yill 
be  glad  and  rejoice  in  it."  It  is  in  allusion 
to  this  circumstance  that  Chrysostom  (a.  d. 
345-407),  golden  mouthed  preacher  of  Con- 
stantinople, in  an  Easter  sermon,  remarked: 
"  Death  is  now  only  a  sleep.  Death  which 
before  Christ's  resurrection  had  a  fearful  as- 
pect is  now  an  object  to  be  despised.  On  this 
day  Christ  freed  human  nature  from  the  do- 


minion of  human  nature  and  brought  it  back 
to  its  original  dignity.  Let  no  one  be  de- 
jected to-day  on  account  of  his  poverty,  for 
this  is  a  spiritual  Feast ;  let  no  man  pride 
himself  on  his  riches,  for  he  cannot  contribute 
to  this  feast  with  his  wealth.  Here  all  dis- 
tinctions are  taken  away.  There  is  one  table 
for  the  rich  and  poor.  For  the  bond  and  free 
Divine  Grace  knows  no  respect  of  persons." 

Augustine,  the  great  Bishop  of  Hippo  (a. 
D.  395-430),  says:  "Since  our  existence  is 
divided  into  two  sections,  the  one  under  the 
temptations  and  sufferings  of  this  present  life, 
and  the  other  that  which  is  attained  in  the 
security  and  joy  of  eternity  through  Christ, 
so  the  circle  of  the  Easter  Festival  is  divided 
into  two  sections,  the  time  before  and  after 
Easter.  The  time  before  Easter  points  us  to 
the  conflict  of  this  present  life,  the  time  after 
Easter  to  the  blessedness  which  we  can  obtain 
through  Christ.  The  Lord's  Passion  shows 
us  the  present  life  of  suffering.  The  Resur- 
rection and  glorification  of  the  Lord  shows 
the  life  which  we  shall  receive." — C.  A.  W. 


EASTER  IN  THE  EARLY  CHURCH 


Very  great  indeed  was  the  honor  paid  to 
this  "  Feast  of  the  Resurrection  "  by  the  early 
Christians.  We  read  that  it  was  regarded  by 
them  as  "  the  crown  and  head  of  all  festivals," 


altho  as  a  religious  observance,  Easter  Day 
was  not  distinguished  from  other  Sundays  ex- 
cept by  "  the  vastness  of  its  congregation, 
and  the  dignity  of  its  services." 


EASTER 


169 


Gregory,  who  was  Bishop  of  Nyssa,  of 
Cappadocia,  in  a.  d.  380,  draws  a  very  vivid 
picture  of  the  joyous  crowds,  who,  by  their 
dress  and  their  devout  attendance  at  Church, 
sought  to  do  honor  to  the  festival.  He  says, 
'■  all  labor  ceased,  all  trades  were  suspended; 
the  husbandman  threw  down  his  spade  and 
plow  and  put  on  his  holiday  attire,  and  the 
very  tavern  keepers  left  their  gain  in  order  to 
be  present  at  the  Easter  service.  The  roads 
were  empty  of  travelers,  and  the  sea  of  sailors, 
for  all  tried  to  be  home  on  this  great  day. 


All  Christians  assembled  everywhere  as  mem- 
bers of  one  family.  The  poor  man  dressed 
like  the  rich,  and  the  rich  wore  his  gayest 
and  brightest  attire  whilst  those  who  had 
no  good  clothes  of  their  own  borrowed  of 
their  neighbors.  Even  the  little  children  put 
on  their  new  clothes  and  were  bright  and 
happy."  We  would  therefore  remark  that  it 
is  evident  that  the  present  custom  of  wear- 
ing new  and  bright  clothes  on  Easter  is  at 
least  fifteen  centuries  old ! — Selected, 


AN  EASTER  IN  JERUSALEM 

By  J.  L.  Leeper,  D.D. 


Of  all  times  to  be  in  Jerusalem  Easter  is  ac- 
counted the  most  desirable.     Men  anticipate 
an  inspiration  in  standing  by  the  tomb  of  our 
Lord   at   that   season   when   His 
To-ward      resurrection   is   thought  to  have 
Jerusalem    taken  place.     They  have  a  curios- 
ity also  to  witness  those  august 
ceremonies,    those    pious    frauds 
and  orgies  which,  strange  to  say,  have  gath- 
ered around  the  tomb  of  the  Savior  during 
Passion  week.     So  tho  expecting  to  find  the 
old  town,  "  ram-jam  full  "  they  push  onward 
in   haste    to   Jerusalem    for   the    Greek   Eas- 
ter.   Thus  did  we.    My  friend  and  I  had  trav- 
eled extensively  in  eastern  Europe  and  had 
"  done  "  Egypt,  but  all  the  time  we  were  "  go- 
ing up  to  Jerusalem  at  the  season  of  the  Pass- 
over."     The    nearer    we    drew    the    more    it 
seemed  as   if  the   world  was  headed   in  the 
same  direction.     Those  who  understand  the 
meager  accommodations  for  such  a  multitude 
are  likely  to  engage  quarters  beforehand.     We 
had  done  so.     Through  the  kindness  of  my 
friend,    the    Rev.    Edwin    S.    Wallace,    then 
United  States  consul  at  Jerusalem  accommo- 
dations had  been  secured  at  Pension  Hughes. 
Ordinarily  Jerusalem  is  "  insufferably  dull." 
But  once  a  year  it  shakes  off  its  lethargy  and 
bestirs  itself  into  a  new  life  that  attracts  from 
the   four  quarters   of  the   earth. 
Tlie         As  every  one  knows,  its  atmos- 
"  Religious  phere    is    proverbially    religious. 
Hub "       It   is,   in   fact,   as    I    shall   know 
of  the       later,    the    habitation    of    cranks 
Universe    and  fanatics.     Hither  queer  peo- 
ple religiously  flock.     It  is  more 
even  than  of  old  the  religious  metropolis  of 
the    world-     There   are   other    religious   cen- 
ters for  races,  nations,  and  sects ;  but  Jerusa- 
lem is  the  "  religious  hub  "  of  the  universe. 
All  sects  and  creeds  say,  "  If  I  forget  thee, 
O  Jerusalem — ."     All  this  is  best  illustrated 
at  the  Easter  season,  the  most  important  ec- 
clesiastical week  in  the  year.     Then  the  pil- 
grims are  coming,   coming  from  the   North, 
South,    East,   and   West.     The  Jews,   to   ob- 
serve the  Passover,  to  weep  over  the  desola- 
tions of  Zion,  are  coming  from  Persia,  Arabia, 
Africa,    and    from    every    part    of    Europe. 


Christians,  of  every  sect,  Greeks,  Latins,  Ar- 
menians, Syrians,  Copts ;  of  every  color,  black, 
brown,  and  white,  are  coming  to  commemo- 
rate the  events  of  Passion  Week.  Moslems 
from  India,  Arabia,  Persia,  Afghanistan  and 
every  part  of  the  Turkish  Empire  are  coming 
at  this  season,  for  to  them  the  Temple  Area 
is  second  in  sacredness  only  to  the  Kaaba  at 
Mecca.  The  peasants  and  swarthy  Bedouins 
flock  from  the  desert  and  hill  country  to  filch 
their  share  of  the  shekels  coming  from  afar. 
We  would  deem  it  a  great  privilege  to  be 
translated  to  the  days  of  the  Apostles  and 
witness  the  Passover  Week  at  Jerusalem ;  but 
here  we  have  an  assemblage  in  some  respects 
on  a  vaster  scale,  for  not  only  are  the  hills 
and  valleys  dotted  with  tents  as  in  olden  time 
and  the  narrow  streets  full  of  all  manner  of 
men  in  every  variety  of  costume,  but  now 
Gentiles  join  the  throng  that  were  then  never 
heard  of. 

The  great  event  opens  with  Palm  Sunday. 
In  those  to  whom  seeing  only  is  believing, 
let  us  hope  that  the  inventions  and  fakes  of 

Holy  Week  may  awaken  the  true 

Religious     spirit  of  devotion.     It  is  doubtful 

Represent-  whether  any  more  profane  orgies 

ations        were  ever  enacted   in  a  heathen 

temple  than  the  monkish  shows 
performed  around  the  reputed  sepulcher  of 
our  Lord.  On  Palm  Sunday  His  triumphal 
entry  is  commemorated.  In  the  days  of  the 
Crusaders  it  was  represented  in  detail ;  a 
priest  riding  upon  an  ass  over  the  traditional 
route  impersonated  Jesus,  and  a  crowd  went 
before  and  after  bearing  palm-branches  and 
crying,  "  Hosanna."  Now,  however,  the 
spirit  of  devotion  finds  vent  in  protracted  pro- 
cessions around  the  sepulcher,  in  which  pic- 
tures and  candles,  vestments  and  jewels,  figure 
largely.  The  burning  incense,  the  flashing 
lights,  the  gorgeous  robes  and  bejeweled 
crown  (of  really  great  value)  of  the  Greek 
patriarch  awaken  a  superstitious  awe  in  the 
peasant  pilgrim  from  the  steppes  of  Russia, 
the  mountains  of  Syria,  and  the  deserts  of 
Arabia  and  Abyssinia,  who  has  never  before 
witnessed  such  a  display  of  princely  magnifi- 
cence.   On  Thursday  there  is  another  dress 


i7o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


parade,  another  unholy  exhibition  of  feet 
washing  on  an  elevated  platform  in  the  Court 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  designed  to  illustrate 
the  solemn  occasion  in  the  "  upper  room " 
when  Jesus  to  teach  the  lesson  of  humility 
deigned  to  wash  the  disciples'  feet.  This  is 
followed  by  another  profanation  representing 
the  agony  in  the  Garden.  Each  succeeding 
day  has  its  round  of  ceremonies  culminating 
in  the  miracle  of  Holy  Fire  scheduled  to  take 
place  on  Saturday  afternoon,  in  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher. 

Before  entering  upon  a  detailed  account  of 

this    shameful    superstition    let    me    take    the 

reader  hurriedly  through  this  "  holiest  shrine 

of     the     Christian     world,"     the 

The  Church  of  the   Holy   Sepulcher. 

Church        ■'■'•    consists    of    a    tattered    and 

of    the 


incongruous    mass    of   buildings, 


Holy 
Sepulcher 


embracing  convents,  chapels, 
shrines,  caves,  and  natural  eleva- 
tions, now  far  within  the  walls 
of  the  present  city.  Its  location 
was  determined  by  St.  Helena,  the  mother  of 
the  first  Christian  emperor  and  the  mother  of 
church  traditions  and  superstitions,  with  the 
aid  of  a  miracle  which  enabled  her  to  discover 
the  true  cross  as  well  as  locate  the  Holy 
Sepulcher.  As  to  the  merits  of  the  discovery 
and  the  correctness  of  the  site  I  shall  say 
nothing  now  except  that  I  have  no  faith  in 
either.  At  another  time  I  shall  be  pleased  to 
discuss  the  question  and  give  illustrations  of 
what  I  believe  and  what  many  Protestants  be- 
lieve is  the  real  Calvary  and  the  veritable 
sepulcher  of  our  Lord.  St.  Helena  erected  a 
church  upon  the  site  of  her  find.  Of  this 
basilica,  which  was  more  than  once  demolished 
by  war  and  devastated  by  fire  only  a  few 
fragments  remain.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century  the  Crusaders  erected  a  large 
church  which  embraced  not  only  the  site  of 
the  sepulcher,  but  of  all  the  events  connected 
with  the  last  days  of  our  Lord  upon  earth, 
and  all  the  Biblical  events  that  could  with  any 
probability  be  located  in  Jerusalem.  Of  this 
the  sites  remain  identified,  and  many  traces 
of  the  structure,  but  it  has  been  several  times 
restored.  Architecturally  it  has  no  beauty. 
Two  domes  rise  from  the  mass,  one  covering 
the  site  of  the  sepulcher  and  the  other  the 
Greek  possessions.  Its  original  portals,  one 
of  which  has  been  walled  up,  are  approached 
through  an  open  court  perhaps  a  hundred  feet 
square,  in  which  venders  are  squatted  ex- 
posing for  sale  their  relics,  rosaries,  curios, 
and  trinkets  of  all  kinds  in  discordant  and 
multitudinous  tongues.  This  court  is  en- 
tered through  two  small  doorways  from 
streets  on  either  side  which  are  constantly 
guarded  by  Moslem  soldiers  and  through 
which  no  Jew  is  permitted  to  enter  upon  the 
pain  of  death.  The  Christian  hates  the  Jew 
because  he  crucified  the  Savior,  the  Moslem 
because  he  killed  a  great  prophet.  As  we 
enter  the  one  open  portal  we  have  a  suggestion 
of  the  mass  of  superstition  to  which  we  are 
to  be  treated  within.  Three  marble  columns 
flank  the  sides,  in  one  of  which  there  is  a 
flaw.  Through  this  crack  we  are  informed 
the  fire  is  to  leap  forth  at  the  last  judgment 


which  is  to  destroy  the  world.  Passing 
within  we  find  a  sacred  medieval  museum. 
Here  every  church  of  pre-reformation  days 
has  possessions  and  an  altar.  Their  cere- 
m.onies  and  forms  of  worship  are  still  punc- 
tiliously observed.  Greeks,  Romanists,  Sy- 
rians, Copts,  and  Armenians  all  have  a  corner 
and  are  contending  for  more  space,  the  chief 
conflict  being  between  the  descendants  of  the 
Crusaders  supported  by  France  and  Spain  and 
the  descendants  of  the  original  Greek  occu- 
pants supported  by  Russia.  It  is  a  perpetua- 
tion of  the  old  conflict  between  the  church 
East  and  West.  This  contest  for  prestige  in 
the  Holy  Sepulcher  and  for  other  sacred  sites 
was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  Crimean 
war  which  cost  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  lives  and  many  millions  of  money. 
The  first  shrine  we  approach  after  passing 
the  portal  is  the  "  Stone  of  the  Anointing," 
whereon  the  body  of  Jesus  was  laid  to  be 
prepared  for  burial.  It  is  per- 
The  Stone  haps  six  feet  by  two,  and  ele- 
of  the  vated  two  feet.  It  is  flanked  by 
Anointing'  a  step  convenient  to  kneel  upon. 
As  tourists  threatened  to  carry 
ofif  the  original  in  small  bits  it  was  found 
necessary  to  protect  it  by  another  so  that  the 
stone  exposed  is  not  the  real  one.  This 
stone,  like  every  similar  one  in  the  cathedral 
is  worn  smooth  as  glass  by  the  kisses  of 
myriads  of  pilgrim  devotees  through  the 
centuries.  It  was  necessary  for  my  friend 
and  dragoman  and  Moslem  guard  to  ward 
them  off  while  I  took  a  picture  in  which 
half  a  dozen  persons  were  grouped  await- 
ing the  conclusion  of  my  nefarious  deed. 
Near  to  this  and  in  the  center  of  the  rotunda 
is  the  sepulcher,  a  marble  building  twenty- 
six  feet  long  and  eighteen  feet  wide.  I  ap- 
proached it  with  a  feeling  of  awe  seldom 
experienced^  and  what  wonder?  For  fifteen 
hundred  years  it  has  been  accepted  by  the 
Christian  world  as  the  site  of  the  burial  of 
our  Lord.  A  desire  for  its  possession  gave 
birth  to  one  of  the  greatest  movements  in 
history — the  Crusades.  For  its  acquisition 
the  blood  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
was  shed.  On  July  15,  1099,  the  victorious 
Crusaders  approached  it  with  unsandaled  feet 
singing  songs  of  praise.  When  I  desired  to 
enter  it  I  took  my  place  in  a  line  of  pilgrims 
which  also  quickly  formed  behind  me.  By 
several  severe  thumps  I  received  upon  my 
head  I  am  reminded  of  the  low,  narrow  pas- 
sage way  into  the  Sepulcher.  At  the  other 
end  I  found  myself  in  a  very  small  compart- 
ment with  barely  room  for  the  guardian  priest 
and  myself  to  turn  around  in.  To  the  right 
was  a  marble  slab,  worn  smooth  by  the  kisses 
of  millions,  which  covers  the  rock  couch  on 
which  the  body  of  our  Lord  is  said  to  have 
been  laid.  The  place  was  ablaze  with  forty- 
three  lamps,  the  property  of  the  contending 
sects.  As  the  air  was  heavy  and  impure  and 
others  impatiently  followed  I  tarried  but  a 
moment  and  returned  to  the  rotunda  with  a 
mingled  feeling  of  sorrow  and  disgust,  with 
not  less  reverence  for  my  adorable  Lord  but 
with  a  stronger  antipathy  for  the  miserable 
avarice  which  has  fastened  lie  upon  lie  on  the 


EASTER 


171 


credulous  to  answer  its  own  mercenary  ends- 
Space  will  not  permit  me  to  even  enumerate 
the  shrines  included  within  this  sacred  ex- 
position building.  There  is  the  altar  of  Mel- 
chisedec  and  that  on  which  Abraham  offered 
Isaac.  There  are  the  spots  where  our  Lord 
was  mocked  and  scourged,  with  the  fragment 
of  the  column  to  which  He  was  bound ;  there 
is  the  hole  in  the  rock  in  which  the  true  cross 
stood  and  the  stone  which  the  angel  rolled 
away  from  the  sepulcher  and  on  which  He 
sat.  There  are  a  score  of  other  sites  none 
of  which  perhaps  are  so  correct  as  that  of  the 
navel  of  earth  for  any  point  on  a  sphere  is 
a  center.  It  will  require  further 
Within  demonstration,  however,  to  prove 
the  that  from  this  spot  the  clay  was 

Temple  taken  with  which  to  create  Father 
Adam.  Each  and  all  of  these 
sites  are  attired  as  a  characteristic  holy  place, 
the  receipt  for  makins:  which  would  seem  to 
be  first  to  locate  at  the  most  convenient  place, 
then  to  shut  out  the  light,  then  to  vitiate  the 
air  with  smoking  tallow  lamps,  then  to  ac- 
cumulate lace  and  tinsel  and  tawdry  finery 
and  then  open  the  show  at  a  bishleck  a  head. 
Before  these  shrines  dirty  priests  in  semi- 
female  attire  are  marching  and  counter- 
marching, kneeling  and  kissing,  and  making 
the  gloomy  caverns  and  arches  resound  with 
their  vain  repetitions,  as  if  they  thought  they 
would  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking,  while 
at  every  corner  a  Moslem  custodian  stands 
with  drawn  saber  to  prevent  the  diverse  sects 
from  flying  at  each  others'  throats.  With 
these  so-called  Christians  as  witnesses,  how 
long  will  it  take  to  convince  the  Moslems 
that  Jesus  was  not  only  a  great  prophet  but 
the  Prince  of  Peace  ? 

The  last  scene  in  this  drama  of  idolatrous 

performances  was  an  effort  to  reproduce  the 

descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  tongues  of  fire 

upon  the  great  day  of  Pentecost. 

The  So  gross  is  this   imposture  that 

Descent      the  Latins  long  ago  gave  it  up. 

of    the       The  priests  of  other  sects  which 

Holy       participate,    tho    they    may    dis- 

Ghost       claim    its    miraculous    character, 

cannot  wash  their  hands  of  the 

fact  that  the  people  before  whom  they  pose  as 

leaders  and  teachers  do  believe  that  it  comes 

from  heaven,  and  they  refrain  from  removing 

the  delusion. 

It  was  Saturday  noon  when  we  with  others 
assembled  at  the  United  States  consulate  to 
be  conducted  in  safety  through  the  rabble  to 
this    greatest    of    all    spectacular 
The         performances   in  the   Holy   City. 
Cavas        Among    the    number    was    Mr. 
Fleming    H.    Revell,    the    well- 
known  publisher  of  Chicago,  and  his  family. 
His  Honor,  the  consul,  had  secured  us  stand- 
ing room  in  a  small  alcove  in  an  upper  gallery, 
for  eight  francs,  or  two  dollars  apiece ;  but 
not    even    he    assumed    the    responsibility    of 
conducting    us    thither    through    the    motley 
crowd.    His  cavas  performed  that  duty.    This 
is  the  attendant  of  an  officer  who,   like  the 
ancient  Roman  lictor,  goes  before  and  clears 
the  way.     He  is  a  sort  of  body-guard  and  in 
appearance  much  more  imposing  than  his  mas- 


ter. He  is  fitted  out  in  splendid  costume  with 
bag:gy  pants,  and  waistcoat  covered  with  gold 
braid,  rosettes,  and  shining  buckles,  and  car- 
ries in  his  hand  a  loaded  truncheon  which 
answers  the  double  purpose  of  staff  and  club. 
As  he  advances,  he  strikes  it  upon  the  ground 
and  the  clanging  sound  it  gives  forth  is  a 
warning  that  somebody  is  approaching  for 
whorn  "  nobodies  "  must  clear  the  way.  In 
this  instance  either  for  increased  safety  or 
out  of  regard  for  the  dignity  of  his  company, 
or  because  these  fellows  needed  a  job.  His 
Honor  provided  two  such  majestic  creatures 
to  precede  us.  On  and  on  they  led  us,  strik- 
ing their  gong  and  raising  their  voice  of 
warning,  through  the  crowded  bazaars, 
through  the  wicket  gate  into  the  outer  court. 
Now  the  living  mass  of  every  nation  under 
heaven  with  a  Babel  chatter  rolled  aside  like 
billows  before  the  giant  vessel.  Then  into 
the  cathedral  we  went,  up  stairways,  through 
corridors,  into  "  fat  men's  miseries  "  to  our 
appointed  station. 

The  scene  that  now  ensued  has  been  often 
described  but  never  adequately  portrayed. 
Nor  can  it  be  adequately  depicted  by  my  pen. 
In  front  and  beneath  us  stretched 
A  Motley  a  sea  of  humanity,  filling  the 
Audience  rotunda,  galleries,  chapels,  and 
winding  passages  of  the  great 
cathedral.  From  the  living  mass  yells,  wild 
howls,  and  shrieks  arose  as  from  demons  in 
the  bottomless  abyss.  Some  were  cries  of 
religious  exultation  as  "  This  is  the  tomb  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  frantically  repeated,  but  in 
an  unknown  tongue;  others  were  execra- 
tions of  a  hated  sect,  as,  "  We  are  happy, 
the  Jews  are  miserable."  While  giving  ex- 
pression to  religious  joy,  their  mouth  was  full 
of  cursing  and  bitterness.  Amid  the  tumult 
the  Moslem  guard  was  heard,  "  God  save  the 
Sultan."  Now  and  then  there  was  a  melee 
in  which  whips  and  the  butts  of  muskets  and 
sabers  were  freely  used.  Sometimes  the 
slightest  provocation,  as  an  Armenian  mis- 
takingly  blowing  out  the  lamp  of  a  Greek,  has 
prolonged  the  strife  and  arrested  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Fire.  Often  heads  are  bruised, 
blood  is  shed,  and  in  one  instance  as  many  as 
three  hundred  were  slain.  In  the  swaying 
mass  men  and  women  are  crushed  or  trampled 
under  foot. 

At  length  lines  of  soldiers  form  around  the 
sepulcher  between  which  processions,  first  of 
the  Greeks,  then  of  the  Armenians  and  Copts, 
careful  not  to  impinge,  are  conducted.    They 
bear  embroidered  banners,  in  absence  of  im- 
ages, which  they  dare  not  display  in  the  Mos- 
lems' presence.     The  idea  is  that  the  fire  will 
not  descend  until  a  certain  num- 
The        ber   of   rounds    have   been   corn- 
Holy       pleted.     The   processions   having 
Flame      concluded,  that  there  may  be  no 
possibility  of  imposture,  yet  that 
the  imposture  may  be  more  complete,  the  hun- 
dreds of  lights  within  and  without  the  sepul- 
cher are  extinguish'^d.    The  heavenly  flame  is 
now  soon  expected  'to  flash   forth   from  the 
port-hole  like  openings  on  either  side  of  the 
sepulcher,  one  for  the  Greeks  and  the  other 
for  the  Armenians,  to  rekindle  the  holy  can- 


172 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


dies.  The  strain  now  becomes  intense,  the  cries 
unearthly,  and  the  struggle  frantic.  Men  in 
their  eagerness  to  get  nearer  the  apertures 
leap  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  swaying  mul- 
titude and  walking  over  their  heads  wedge 
themselves  into  the  compact  mass  at  a  nearer 
point.  And  what  wonder?  They  have  come 
thousands  of  miles,  they  have  anticipated  it 
with  a  life-long  expectancy,  they  have  stood 
the  night  through  and  the  day  through  with- 
out food  and  drink  that  they  might  touch 
their  lips  with  a  live  coal  off  Heaven's  altar. 
Two  stand  close  to  the  opening  with  ex- 
tended hands  clenching  it  within.  This  priv- 
ilege to  first  catch  the  heavenly  flame  they 
have  purchased  beforehand  at  auction  at  a 
great  price.  Would  they  pay  three  hundred 
dollars,  relatively  to  them  much  more,  for  a 
spark  from  a  lucifer  match?  They  would 
plunge  a  dagger  into  the  heart  of  a  man 
vyho  would  be  guilty  of  so  base  an  insinua- 
tion. At  length  on  schedule  time  the  fire 
invisible  descends;  it  flashes  forth.  Ten 
thousand  arms  are  outstretched  to  catch  the 
flame  as  it  leaps  from  taper  to  taper  beneath 


the  lofty  dome,  up  stairways,  through  galler- 
ies, into  innermost  passages  and  recesses, 
and  all  so  quickly  as  to  appear  almost  in- 
stantaneous. Runners  are  waiting  without 
with  hooded  torches  to  bear  the  fire  from 
Heaven  to  the  sacred  shrines  at  Bethlehem, 
Nazareth  and  every  altar  throughout  the 
land.  The  officiating  priest,  overcome  with 
the  heavenly  glory  within  is  snatched  from 
the  sepulcher  and  borne  away  in  his  princely 
robes  to  repent  of  what  he  knows  and  what 
Dean  Stanley  says  is  "  probably  the  most  of- 
fensive imposture  to  be  found  in  the  world." 
I  turned  away  from  the  church  of  Basil 
and  Chrysostom,  thankful  that  my  religion 
did  not  consist  in  an  unseemly  contest  about 
an  empty  tomb,  less  precious  even  were  its 
identification  correct,  than  the  tomb  of  St. 
Stephen  and  St.  Paul,  or  any  grave  contain- 
ing the  ashes  of  the  holy  dead,  but  in  the  ad- 
oration of  the  Lord  of  Life,  who,  having 
risen  triumphant  from  His  sepulchral  tene- 
ment, sits,  the  great  Intercessor,  on  the  right 
hand  of  His  Majesty  on  high. — In. 


EASTER  AND  THE  GREEK  CHURCH  IN  ST.  PETERS- 
BURG * 


By  Gideon  Draper,  D.D. 


A  wide  contrast  with  the  metropolis  of  the 
British  Empire  is  presented  by  the  capital  of 
the  Russian  Kingdom.  Four  days  and  nights 
of  travel  sweep  one  over  che  intervening  dis- 
tance of  1,500  miles,  across  the  Channel, 
through  Holland  and  Germany,  via  Berlin 
and  Konigsburg,  famous  for  the  residence 
and  life-long  teachings  of  Kant.  The  home 
he  occupied  has  disappeared,  a  monument  has 
been  erected  to  his  memory,  and  the  Uni- 
versity, to  which  he  attracted  so  many 
students,  to-day  numbers  900,  in  a  city  of 
16,000  t   inhabitants. 

The  approach  of  St.  Petersburg  is  mo- 
notonously uninteresting,  but  the  entrance 
into  the  city  is  reassuring.  Many  novelties 
await  the  stranger,  and  there  is  much  to 
impress  his  attention  favorably. 
St.  Peters-  English  correspondents  affect 
burg  not  to  see  the  latter;  the  old- 
time  rivalry  of  the  two  nations 
forbidding  just  appreciation.  The  wide 
streets,  spacious  squares,  and  colossal  build- 
ings evince  great  enterprise  and  vast  expen- 
diture of  money  in  this  modern  capital  of 
860,000  X  population.  The  noble  Neva,  most 
majestic  of  rivers,  courses  through  the  middle 
of  the  town,  with  its  pure  and  rapidly-flowing 
waters,  source  of  wealth,  health,  and  ever- 
new  delight.  On  its  quays  are  many  of  the 
finest    public    and    private    buildings    of    the 


metropolis,  and  drives  and  promenades  that 
scarcely  any  other  city  can  equal.  But  the 
centers  of  attraction  to  the  new-comer  are 
the  Greek  churches,  foremost  of  which,  in 
all  the  empire,  is  St.  Isaac's,  in  close  prox- 
imity to  the  temporary  home  of  your  London 
(?)  correspondent.  Its  immense  proportions, 
massive  columns,  golden  dome  surmounted 
by  a  gigantic  silver  cross,  make  it  an  object 
of  beauty  far  and  near,  while  the  incalculable 
riches  of  its  interior  invite  protracted  study. 
In  Russia  the  Greek  Church  is  seen  in  its 
glory.  Since  the  year  1589  it  has  had  its 
Patriarch  independent  of  Constantinople,  and 
in  the  next  century  the  nominal 
tribute  was  abrogated  and  the 
necessity  of  applying,  on  the  part 
of  Moscow,  to  Constantinople 
for  the  confirmation  and  conse- 
cration of  its  ecclesiastical  head.  Peter  the 
Great,  who  introduced  Western  civilization 
into  a  hitherto  semi-barbaric  empire,  did 
not  assail  the  Greek  religion,  but  made 
especial  effort  for  its  enlightenment  through 
reason  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  to 
dispel  ignorance  and  superstition  from  its 
priests  and  people.  To  this  end  he  became 
patron  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  invited 
learned  men  from  various  lands  into  the 
country,  established  schools  and  abolished 
persecution.     He    granted    to    all    Christian 


The 
Greek 
Church 


•  Written  in  1886. 
t  The  latest  reports  give  the  population  of  Konigsburg  as  161,666. 

t  The  population  of  St.  Petersburg  at  present  is  about  1,500,000.    In  1897,  the  official  report  was-  for  the 
city,  1,132,677;  for  the  suburbs,  134,346— total  1,297,023.  ^  ^^^ 


EASTER 


173 


sects,  dissenting  from  the  Greek  religion, 
full  liberty.  The  Emperor  suppressed  the 
high  office  of  Primate,  lest  it  should  be 
prejudicial  to  his  own  authority,  and  made 
himself  in  a  limited  sense,  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff and  head  of  the  Russian  Church.  The 
Holy  Synod  was  established,  at  whose  head, 
however,  is  a  layman,  representative  of  the 
Czar,  who  has  a  negative  on  all  its  reso- 
lutions until  they  are  presented  to  the  Em- 
peror. This  nobleman  is  minister  of  the 
crown  for  the  department  of  religion.  The 
office  is  now  filled  by  one  who  was  tutor  '.o 
the  present  ruler,  Nicholas  II.,  a  son  of  a 
priest,  and  not  distinguished  for  the  tolera- 
tion that  characterized  his  predecessors. 

The  Greek  Church  vigilantly  preserves  its 
orthodoxy.  The  motto  of  the  university  in 
St.  Petersburg  is  characteristically  Russian : 
"  Orthodoxy,  autocracy,  nationality."  Ortho- 
doxy is  everywhere  and  always  supreme. 
The  slightest  approach  to  heresy  is  resented, 
and  proselytism  continues  to  be  prohibited. 
The  Holy  Synod  exercises  a  sharp  censor- 
ship over  books  and  journals.  The  publica- 
tion and  circulation  of  tracts,  formerly  per- 
missible, is  now  under  ban. 

The  Greek  churches  and  chapels  in  the 
northern  capital,  numbering  nearly  two  hun- 
dred, are  well  attended.  Multitudes  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  of  every  walk  in  life, 
are  continually  coming  and  going,  and  with 
the  external  appearance  of  great  devoutness 
and  sincerity.  That  the  many  crossings  and 
genuflections  touch  the  real  character  in  most 
cases  may  be  questioned.  Many  are  the  in- 
stances of  crime  committed,  either  immed- 
iately after  or  before  the  most  punctilious  re- 
ligious rites. 

The  Greek  Church,  while  rejecting  statues, 
retains  pictures,  mosaics,  bas-reliefs,  all  that 
can  be  represented  on  a  flat  surface,  holding 
that  this  is  not  a  violation  of  the  command, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven 
image." 

Among  the  four  great  fasts,  that  of  Lent 
comes  first,  and  is  most  rigidly  observed  for 
the  seven  weeks  between  Carnival  and  Easter. 
As    the    latter    approaches,    the 
The         Church  services  multiply.     Upon 
Tasts       the    preceding    Thursday    is    the 
elaborate  ceremony  of  the  "Wash- 
ing of  feet." 

Through  especial  favor  your  correspondent 
passed  through  the  priest's,  or  private  door 
in  the  great  Cathedral,  and  even  obtained  a 
chair,  amid  the  standing,  crowding  thousands. 
No  seats  are  provided  for  the  worshipers. 
The  exercises  continued  three  hours.  St. 
Isaac's  Cathedral  ranks  first  in  all  the  King- 
dom. It  is  an  immense  and  imposing  struc- 
ture, with  four  large  porches  ornamented  and 
supported  by  colossal  granite  pillars ;  the 
great  dome,  covered  with  resplendent  gold, 
and  surmounted  by  a  solid  silver  cross,  seven- 
teen feet  in  height.  The  interior  is  incon- 
ceivably rich  in  pillars,  mosaics,  pictures, 
precious  stones,  and  gold.  Lighted  with  myr- 
iads of  tapers,  it  presented  a  weird  ap- 
pearance. 


The  music  was  quite  incomparable.  The 
soprano  voices  of  thoroughly  trained  boys 
mingle  with  the  profoundest  bass  to  which 
one  ever  listened,  and  produce  a  magic  effect. 
The  enforced  absence  of  instruments  is  un- 
noticed. The  human  voice  is  made  to  imitate 
the  sweetest  notes  of  softest  sounds.  Chant- 
ing, singing,  reading  prayers,  with  continual 
bodily  contortions,  constituted  the  service. 
There  was  no  instruction  from 
The  the  Word,  and  no  part  for  the 
Service  gazing  multitudes.  They  were 
simply  idle  spectators,  but  with 
many  crossings  and  kneelings.  The  Church 
service  is  rapidly  read  by  the  priests  in  the 
ancient  Slavonic,  so  that  the  people  cannot 
understand.  They  are  each  provided  with  a 
taper,  symbol  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  rev- 
enue from  the  enormous  sale  of  which,  well- 
nigh  defrays  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the 
church.  But  upon  this  memorable  occasion, 
the  processions  of  the  magnificently-robed 
priests  and  bishops,  the  prolonged  ceremonies 
culminating  in  the  "  Washing  of  the  feet "  on 
a  raised  platform  in  the  middle  of  the  Cathe- 
dral, was  of  intense  interest  and  held  rapt  at- 
tention to  the  end.  As  a  spectacle,  it  was  one 
of  the  finest  ever  witnessed  by  the  writer. 
One  easily  sees  the  hold  of  the  Church  and 
Church  Service  on  the  ignorant,  untaught 
masses.  They  are  indeed  sheep,  with  many 
priests,  but  no  shepherd. 

On  Good  Friday  Christ's  image  lies  in 
state  and  throughout  Saturday,  thousands 
kiss  His  hands  and  feet,  and  drop  coins  in 
the  church  treasury.  On  Easter 
Easter  eve  the  climax  is  reached.  The 
Eve  people  are  exhausted  with  pro- 
longed fasting.  At  midnight  the 
priests  make  the  circuit  of  the  church  in  elab- 
orate procession,  searching  for  the  dead 
Christ ;  re-entering  the  church,  after  a  two 
hours'  service,  the  golden  doors  of  the  Holy 
of  Holies  are  thrown  open,  and  the  metropoli- 
tan advances,  holding  the  cross  in  his  hands, 
and  announces,  "  Christ  is  risen."  "  He  is 
risen  "  is  caught  up  by  the  people,  and  re- 
sounds amid  universal  kisses  and  embraces, 
the  bells  sending  out  a  merry  peal,  the  cannon 
firing,  and  all  the  city  aflame  with  lights  and 
holy  joy.  Then  follows  the  blessing  of  the 
food  brought  for  the  purpose ;  oddly-shaped 
loaves  of  bread,  towers  of  white  cheese,  red- 
colored  eggs,  sugar,  honey,  fruit,  etc.,  at 
three  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  the  hungry,  fainting 
multitudes  disperse  for  feasting,  riding,  and 
in  many  cases,  drunkenness.  And  for  the 
ensuing  three  or  four  days,  the  festivities  and 
debauchery  continue. 

In  contrast^  how  striking,  increasedly  ap- 
preciated and  loved,  the  simple  religious  serv- 
ice in  the  "  British  and  American  Church," 
with  the  varied  nationalities,  including  Rus- 
sians, hungering  for  the  Word,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  day,  four  penitent  ones  arising 
and  declaring  "  Jesus,  my  new  Master,  Thee 
I  call." 

The  orthodoxy  of  the  great  Eastern  Church, 
as  of  some  Western  churches,  has  sore  need 
of  being  set  on  fire  from  Heaven. — P.  T. 


174 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  CHRIST  A  FUNDAMENTAL 

DOCTRINE 

By  Benjamin  B.  Warfield,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


It  has  been  customary  in  the  past  to  look 
upon  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  the  very 
citadel  of  the  Christian  position.  Friend  and 
foe  have  been  at  one  in  so  regarding  it. 
Upon  it  as  his  Gibraltar,  the  Christian  man 
has  entrenched  himself.  It  has  seemed  to 
him  to  be  the  rock  on  which  he  could  securely 
build  the  house  of  his  faith,  and  upon  which 
the  rain  may  descend  and  the  floods  come  and 
the  winds  blow  without  effect.  Similarly  it 
has  seemed  to  the  assailants  of  Christianity, 
that  so  long  as  this  rock  stood  unconquered 
all  their  enginery  was  in  vain. 

It  appears  now  that  all  this  is  a  mistake. 
The  importance  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
we  are  told,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated! 
It  is  not  denied  that  from  the  beginning 
Christians  have  looked  to  it  as  their  support 
and  stay.  It  is  not  denied  that  it  has  been 
their  enthusiastic  conviction  of  its  reality  that 
has  from  the  first  enheartened  them  in  their 
Christian  living,  and  given  force  to  their 
proclamation  of  the  Gospel.  Professor  Har- 
nack,  for  example,  allows  that  "  the  firm  con- 
fidence of  the  disciples  in  Jesus  was  rooted  in 
the  belief  that  He  did  not  abide  in  death,  but 
was  raised  by  God,"  and  that  their  conviction 
of  His  resurrection,  because  it  was  "  the 
pledge  of  the  resurrection  of  all  believers," 
became  "  the  mightiest  power  through  which 
the  Gospel  has  won  humanity."  But  he  thinks 
it  a  matter  of  profound  indifference  to  us 
whether  this  conviction  was  sound  or  a  de- 
lusion. "  The  conviction  of  having  seen  the 
Lord,"  he  tells  us,  "  was  no  doubt  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  the  disciples  and 
m.ade  them  evangelists;  but  what  they  saw 
cannot  immediately  help  us."  "  To  believe  on 
the  ground  of  appearances  that  others  have 
had  is  a  frivolity  which  will  always  revenge 
itself  through  rising  doubts."  It  can,  indeed, 
never  be  necessary  "  to  have  faith  in  a  fact:  " 
religious  belief  must  not  hang  on  history  and 
must  be  independent  of  all  facts,  "  which 
would  hold  good  apart  from  that  belief." 
Whether  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  cannot, 
therefore,  be  of  moment  to  the  Christian ;  all 
that  is  of  any  significance  is  the  religious  con- 
viction that  He  was  "  not  swallowed  up  in 
death,  but  passed  through  suffering  and  death 
to  glory,  that  is,  to  life,  power,  and  honor." 
"  Faith  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  knowledge 
and  the  form  in  which  Jesus  lives,  but  only 
with  ^the  conviction  that  He  is  the  living 
Lord."  And  in  the  case  of  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  this  detachment  from  history  is 
especially  well  for  Christianity.  For  there  is 
really  no  sound  reason  for  believing  that 
Jesiis  rose  from  the  dead  in  the  literal  sense 
which  has  been  attached  to  those  words. 
"  The  mere  fact  that  friends  and  adherents 

'A.  Harnack,  "  History  and  Dogma,"  E-T    vol  i 
History,"  p.  54.  •   " 


of  Jesus  were  convinced  that  they  had  seen 
Him  .  .  .  gives  to  those  who  are  in 
earnest  about  fixing  historical  facts  not  the 
least  ground  for  the  assumption  that  Jesus 
did  not  continue  in  the  grave."  The  candid 
historian  will  indeed  feel  bound  to  surrender 
the  fact  of  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Christ 
to  the  assaults  of  recent  criticism.* 

The  effect  of  this  new  attitude  toward  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  if  it  could  be  justified, 
would  obviously  be  to  turn  the  flank  of  the 
Christian  position.  Christianity  has  concen- 
trated her  defense  at  this  impregnable  point, 
and  feels  herself  safe  until  it  be  captured. 
The  new  foeman  bows  politely  and  declares 
that  he  prefers  to  enter  the  Christian  domain 
by  some  other  road ;  the  so-called  Gibraltar, 
if  it  be  rock  at  all,  and  not  a  mere  stage 
construction  of  laths  and  brown  cloth,  holds 
no  key-position  and  may  best  be  simply  neg- 
lected. Christianity  is  not  built  on  the  rock 
of  fact  in  any  case,  he  tells  us ;  it  is  a  castle 
in  the  air,  adjusting  itself  readily,  as  it  floats 
over  the  rough  surface  and  solid  earth,  to  all 
sorts  of  inequalities  and  changes  of  ground, 
and  is  best  entered  by  disengaging  ourselves 
from  the  soil  and  soaring  lightly  into  its 
higher  precincts.  No  doubt  the  professed 
purpose  of  this  new  determination  of  the  re- 
lation of  Christianity  to  fact  is  to  render 
Christianity  forever  unassailable  from  the 
point  of  view  of  historical  science ;  if  it  is 
independent  of  all  details  of  history  it  cannot 
be  wounded  through  the  critical  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  historical  events  which  accom- 
panied its  origin.  But  the  obvious  actual 
effect  of  it  is  to  destroy  altogether  all  that 
has  hitherto  been  known  as  Christianity;  the 
entire  detachment  of  Christianity  from  the 
realm  of  fact  simply  dismisses  it  into  the 
realm  of  unreality.  Men  may  still  call  by  the 
name  of  "  Christianity"  the  possible  "  irides- 
cent "  dream  which  still  remains  to  them, 
but  a  "  Christianity  "  which  stands  out  of 
relation  to  historical  facts  is  plainly  a  very 
different  thing  from  the  old  Christianity,  all 
of  whose  doctrines  are  facts,  and  which  was, 
above  all  things,  rooted  in  historical  occur- 
rences. And  this  is  particularly  apparent 
with  regard  to  the  facts  of  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus.  If  Christianity  is  entirely  indif- 
ferent to  the  reality  of  this  fact,  then 
"  Christianity  "  is  something  wholly  different 
from  what  it  was  conceived  to  be  by  its 
founders,  and  from  what  it  is  still  believed  to 
be  by  its  adherents. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  neither  Pro- 
fessor Harnack,  nor  the  more  radical  mem- 
bers of  the  school  he  so  brilliantly  represents, 
ventures  to  deny  that  the  conviction  of  the 
reality  of  Christ's  bodily  resurrection  formed 
pp.  8s,  86;  compare  the  later  tract,  "  Christianity  and 


EASTER 


175 


the  center  of  the  faith  of  the  founders  of 
Christianity.  It  would  certainly  be  difficult 
for  any  candid  mind  to  doubt  a  fact  so  broadly 
spread  upon  the  surface  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment record.  Our  Lord  Himself  deliberately 
staked  His  whole  claim  upon  His  resurrec- 
tion. When  asked  for  a  sign,  He  repeatedly 
pointed  to  this  sign  as  His  single  and  suffi- 
cient credential  (John  ii:i9;  Matt.  xii:4o). 
The  earliest  proclaimers  of  the  Gospel  con- 
ceived witnessing  to  the  resurrection  of  their 
Master  as  their  primary  function  (Acts  i:  22; 
ii:32;  iv:33;  x:4i;  xvii:i8).  The  lively 
hope  and  steadfast  faith  that  sprang  up  within 
them  they  ascribed  to  its  power  (i  Peter  i :  3 ; 
i :  21 ;  iii:2i).  Paul's  whole  gospel  was  the 
gospel  of  the  risen  Savior ;  to  His  call  he 
ascribes  his  own  apostleship,  and  to  His 
working  all  the  elements  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  life.  There  are  in  particular  two 
passages  in  his  epistles  which  in  an  almost 
startling  way  reveal  the  supreme  place  which 
was  then  ascribed  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ.  In  a  context  of  very  special  power 
he  declares  roundly  that  "  if  Christ  hath  not 
been  raised  "  the  Apostolic  preaching  and  the 
Christian  faith  are  alike  vanity,  and  those 
who  have  believed  in  Christ  lie  yet  unrelieved 
of  their  sins  (i  Cor.  xv:  14-17).*  His  mean- 
ing is  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ  oc- 
cupied the  center  of  the  Gospel  that  was 
preached  by  him  and  all  the  Apostles  and 
that  had  been  received  by  all  Christians ; 
so  that  if  this  resurrection  should  prove  to 
be  not  a  real  occurrence,  the  preachers  are 
convicted  of  being  false  witnesses  of  God,  the 
faith  founded  on  their  preaching  is  proved  an 
empty  thing,  and  the  hopes  conceived  on  its 
basis  are  rendered  void.  Here  Paul  impli- 
cates with  himself  the  whole  Christian  com- 
munity, teachers  and  taught  alike,  as  sus- 
pending Christianity  on  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  as  its  fundamental  fact.  And  so  con- 
fident is  he  of  universal  accord  on  the  indis- 
pensableness  of  this  fact  to  the  very  existence 
of  Christianity,  that  he  uses  it  as  his  sole 
fulcrum  for  prying  back  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  believers  into  its  proper  place 
in  the  faith  and  hearts  of  his  skeptical  read- 
ers. "  If  dead  men  are  not  raised,  neither 
hath  Christ  been  raised,"  is  his  one  argu- 
ment, and  he  plies  it  as  one  who  knows  full 
well  that  none  will  deny  the  one  if  it  be  seen 
to  involve  the  denial  of  the  other.  In  some 
respects  even  more  striking  are  the  implica- 
tions of  such  phraseology  as  one  meets  in  a 
passage  like  Phil,  iii :  10.  Here  the  apostle 
is  contrasting  all  the  "  gains "  of  the  flesh 
with  the  one  "  gain  "  of  the  Spirit,  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord.  As  over  against  "  the  ex- 
cellency of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
his  Lord,"  he  declares  that  he  esteems  "  all 
things,"  as  but  refuse,  the  heap  of  leavings 
from  the  feast  that  is  swept  from  the  table 
for  the  dogs,  if  only  he  may  "  gain  Christ 
and  be  found  in  him;  "  "  if  only,"  he  repeats, 
he  "  may  know  him  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection  and  the  fellowship  of  his  suf- 
ferings, becoming  conformed  to  his  death ; 
if  by  any  means  he  may  attain  unto  the  resur- 


rection from  the  dead."  The  structure  of  the 
passage  represents  the  very  essence  of  the 
saving  knowledge  of  Christ  to  reside  in 
knowing  "  the  power  of  his  resurrection." 
That  is  to  say,  Paul  finds  the  center  of 
gravity  of  the  Christian  life  no  less  than  of 
the  Christian  faith  in  the  fact  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ. 

It  would  seem,  then,  as  if  it  would  not  be 
easy  for  Christians  of  to-day  to  ascribe  to  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  a  place  more  funda- 
mental to  Christianity  than  was  given  it  by 
the  first  preachers  and  authoritative  found- 
ers of  Christianity.  We  are  possibly  more 
apt  to  fail  to  apprehend  the  variety  of  the 
aspects  in  which  it  presented  itself  to  them 
as  lying  at  the  very  roots  of  their  Christian 
faith.  It  will,  therefore,  doubtless  repay  us 
to  remind  ourselves  cursorily  of  some  of  the 
various  ways  in  which  the  resurrection  of 
our  Lord  evinces  itself  as  fundamental  to 
the    Christian    religion. 

It  is  natural  to  think,  first  of  all,  of  the 
place  of  this  great  fact  in  Christian  apolo- 
getics. It  is  quite  obvious  that  it  is  the 
fundamental  fact  of  Christianity  from  this 
point  of  view.  Opinions  may  conceivably  dif- 
fer as  to  whether,  as  a  mere  abstract  propo- 
sition, it  would  have  been  possible  to  be- 
lieve in  Christianity  as  a  supernaturally  given 
religion,  had  Christ  remained  holden  of  the 
grave.  But  it  is  scarcely  disputable  that,  in 
the  actual  circumstances,  His  failure  to  rise 
again  would  have  thrown  the  gravest  doubt 
on  the  validity  of  His  claims.  And  it  ad- 
mits of  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  fact  that 
He  did  rise  again,  being  once  established, 
supplies  an  irrefragable  demonstration  of  the 
supernatural  origin  of  Christianity,  of  the 
validity  of  Christ's  claim  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  and  of  the  trustworthiness  of  His  teach- 
ing as  a  Messenger  from  God  to  man.  In  the 
light  of  this  stupendous  miracle,  all  hesita- 
tion as  to  the  supernatural  accompaniments 
of  the  life  that  preceded  it,  or  of  the  succeed- 
ing estalilishment  of  the  religion  to  which 
its  seal  had  been  set, — nay,  of  the  whole 
preparation  for  the  coming  of  the  Messen- 
ger of  God  who  was  to  live  and  die  and 
rise  again,  becomes  unreasonable  and  absurd. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  stamped  at  once 
from  heaven  as  divine,  and  all  marks  of 
divinity  in  its  preparation,  accompaniments, 
and  sequence  become  at  once  congruous  and 
natural.  And  as  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
is  (despite  Professor  Harnack's  scoffs)  "  the 
most  certain  fact  in  the  history  of  the  world," 
— attested  as  it  is  by  evangelists  and  apos- 
tles, by  Paul  himself,  and  the  five  hundred 
brethren  whom  he  summons  as  co-witnesses 
with  him ;  by  the  course  of  events  itself 
which  otherwise  would  remain  inexplicable, 
by  the  monument  of  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
persisting  as  its  witness  through  all  ages, 
by  the  visible  power  of  God  sealing  the 
testimony  of  His  servants  through  His 
efficient  working  in  the  hearts  and  before 
the  eyes  of  many,  and  by  the  divine  success 
and  progress  of  the  gospel  and  the  resur- 
rection   in    the    first    age    and    through    all 


♦Compare  R.  M.  Edgar,  "The  Gospel  of  a  Risen  Savior,"  p.  27,  and  the  passages  there  adduced. 


176 


HOLV-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


subsequent  pges — so  no  fact  can  be  conceived 
of  more  power  to  break  down  opposition  to 
the  strange  doctrines  of  Christianity  and  to 
vanquish   the   world   before   its   dfvine   Lord. 
From  the  empty  grave  of  Jesus  the  enemies 
of  the  cross  turn  away  in  unconcealable  dis- 
may.   Those  whom  the  force  of  no  logic  can 
convince,    and    whose     hearts     are     steeled 
against  the  appeal  of  almighty  love  from  the 
cross    itself,    quail     before     the     irresistible 
power  of  this  simple  fact.     Christ  has  risen 
from  the  dead !     After  two  thousand  years  of 
the    most    determined   assault   upon   the   evi- 
dence which  demonstrates  it,  that  fact  stands. 
And   so   long  as   it   stands   Christianity,   too, 
must  stand  as  the  one  supernatural  religion. 
But  the  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection  holds 
no    more    fundamental    place    in    Christian 
apologetics  than  it  does  in  the  revelation  of 
life  and  immortality  which  Christianity  brings 
to  a  dying  world.     By  it  the  veil  of  sense 
was   lifted   and   men   were  permitted  to  ex- 
perience the   reality  of  that   other  world  to 
which    we    are    all    journeying.     We    cannot 
begin  to  estimate  the  value  to  those  first  dis- 
ciples who  were  to  live  in  the  world  as  part 
of  it  while  they  held  their  real  citizenship  in 
heaven — to    become    fellows    with    Christ    in 
His  sufferings  and  be  made  conformable  to 
His  death— -of  the  visible  and  tangible  proof 
which  was  given  them  by  the  presence  of  the 
resurrected   Lord   with  them   for  forty  days, 
of  the   reality  of  the   life  beyond  the   grave. 
This  association  with  one  who  had  died  and 
yet    lived — lived    not    through    a    return    to 
earthly  life  like  Lazarus,  but  in  the  power  of 
His  endless  life — could  not  but  revolutionize 
their  consciousness,  and  enable  them  to  en- 
dure as  those  who  had  actually  seen  the  in- 
visible.    No  wonder  that  thereafter  it  seemed 
as  if  death  had  no  terrors  for  these  men.    If 
they  had  not  all,  like  Paul,  been  caught  up  to 
the  seventh  heaven,  heaven  had  been  brought 
down  to  them  and  had  been  made  to  enter 
into  their  most  intimate  experiences.     They 
knew   that  there   was   life  on   the   other   side 
of  death,  that  the  grave  was  but  a  sojourn- 
ing place,  that,  tho  their  earthly  dust-dwell- 
ing were  dissolved,   they  had  a  building  of 
God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal 
in  the  heavens.     And  those  of  us,  who  come 
later   may    see    with   their    eyes,    and    handle 
with  their  hands,  the  Word  of  life.     We  can 
no  longer  speak  of  a  bourne  from  which  no 
traveler   e'er    returns.      The   middle    wall    of 
partition    has    been    broken    down    and    the 
boundary  become  but  an  invisible  line  by  the 
resurrection   of   Christ-     That   He   who   died 
has  been  raised   again  and  ever  lives  in  the 
form  of  a  complete  humanity,  is  the  funda- 
mental fact  in  the  revelation  of  the  Christian 
doctrine   of   immortality. 

Equally  fundamental  is  the  place  which 
Christ's  resurrection  occupies  relatively  to  our 
confidence  in  His  claims.  His  teachings,  and 
His  promises.  By  it  the  seal  was  set  to  all 
the  instructions  which  He  gave  and  to  all 
the  hopes  which  He  awakened.  He  Himself 
staked,  as  we  have  seen. — His  credit  on  His 
rising  again.  He  declared  that  no  sign  should 
be  given  that  adulterous  generation  but  the 


sign  of  Jonah,  and  that  He  would  restore  in 
three  days  the  destroyed  temple  of  His  body. 
Had  the  sign  failed  all  His  claims  would 
have  fallen  with  it.  And  as  the  sign  did  not 
fail,  but  after  three  days  He  returned  from 
the  bowels  of  the  earth  according  to  His 
word.  He  has  evinced  His  ability  to  perform 
all  His  words.  It  is  He  that  had  power 
to  lay  down  His  life  and  take  it  up  again ; 
who  has  said,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest ;  "  who  has  promised  to  be  with  those 
that  serve  Him  "  alway  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world ;  "  who  has  announced  to  them 
the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  It  is  another 
instance  of  the  challenge,  "  Whether  is  it 
easier  to  say.  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,  or  to 
say.  Arise  and  walk?"  That  He  could  not 
be  holden  of  death,  but  arose  in  the  power  of 
His  deathless  life,  gives  us  to  know  that  "  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins.'  And  the  fulfilment  of  these  explicit 
predictions  do  but  point  us  to  a  deeper  fact. 
The  Lord  of  life  could  not  succumb  to  death. 
Had  Christ  not  risen  we  could  not  believe 
Him  to  be  what  He  declared  Himself  when 
Ho  "  made  himself  equal  with  God."  But 
He  has  risen  in  the  confirmation  of  all  His 
claims.  By  it  alone,  but  by  it  thoroughly,  is 
He  manifested  as  the  very  Son  of  God  wha 
has  come  into  the  world  to  reconcile  the 
world  to  Himself.  It  is  the  fundamental 
fact  in  the  Christian's  unwavering  confi- 
dence in  "  all  the  words  of  this  life." 

There  is  even  a  deeper  truth  than  this. 
The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  fundamental  to 
the  Christian's  assurance  that  Christ's  work 
is  complete  and  redemption  is  accomplished. 
Our  stripes  were  laid  upon  Him  and  He 
bowed  His  head  and  died.  And  is  that  all? 
Is  it  enough  to  say  that  He  "  was  delivered 
up  for  our  trespasses?"  Or  must  we  not 
be  able  to  add  that  "  He  was  raised  for  our 
justification?"  Else  what  would  assure  us 
that  He  was  able  to  pay  the  penalty  and  de- 
liver those  who  were  bound  ?  That  He  died 
manifests  His  love,  and  His  willingness  to 
save.  That  He  rose  again  manifests  His 
power,  and  His  ability  to  save.  We  are  not 
saved  by  a  dead  Christ  who  undertook  but 
could  not  perform,  and  who  lies  there  still, 
under  the  Syrian  sky,  another  martyr  of  im- 
potent love.  If  we  are  to  be  saved  at  all, 
it  must  be  by  one  who  did  not  merely  pass 
to  death  in  our  behalf,  but  who  passed 
through  death.  If  the  penalty  was  fully  paid 
by  Him,  it  cannot  have  broken  Him,  it  must 
needs  have  broken  upon  Him.  Had  He  not 
emerged  from  the  tomb,  all  our  hopes,  all 
our  salvation  would  be  lying  dead  with  Him 
unto  this  day.  But  as  we  see  Him  issue 
from  the  grave  we  see  ourselves  issue  with 
Him  in  newness  of  life.  Now  we  know  that 
His  shoulders  were  strong  enough  to  bear  the 
burden  that  was  laid  upon  them,  and  that  He 
is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come 
unto  God  through  Him.  The  resurrection  of 
Christ  is  thus  the  indispensable  evidence  of 
His  completed  work.  His  accomplished  re- 
demption. It  is  just  because  He  rose  again 
that  we  know  that  the  full  penalty  was  paid, 


EASTER 


177 


the  ransom  was  sufficient,  the  work  was  done, 
the  sacrifice  was  accepted,  and  we  have  been 
bought  with  a  price  and  are  His  purchased 
possession  forever.  Because  Christ  has  risen, 
we  no  more  judge  that  "  if  one  died  for  all, 
then  all  died,"  that  "  the  body  of  sin  might 
be  done  away,''  that  we  know  that  having 
died  with  Him,  "  we  shall  also  live  with 
Him  " — with  Him  who  "  being  raised  from 
the  dead,  dieth  no  more."  In  one  word,  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  is  fundamental  to  the 
Christian  hope  and  to  the  Christian  confi- 
dence. All  our  assurance  of  salvation  is 
suspended  on  this  fact. 

It  is  but  to  concentrate  our  views  upon  one 
element  of  this  hope  when  we  note  specifically 
that  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  fundamental 
to  our  expectation  of  ourselves  rising  from 
the  dead.  That  He  rose  from  the  dead  mani- 
fests the  salvation  which  He  brings  to  man 
as  one  which  works  through  supernatural 
power  and  produces  supernatural  effects.  And 
we  have  not  exhausted  the  scriptural  view 
of  the  power  of  His  resurrection  until  we 
perceive  that  His  resurrection  drags  ours  in 
its  train.  When  He  arose,  men  saw  the  great 
spectacle  of  the  conquest  of  death,  the  re- 
versal of  the  curse  pronounced  on  man's 
sin,  the  presentation  to  God  of  the  first  fruits 
from  the  grave.  When  He  arose,  it  was  not 
merely  as  an  individual  who  had  burst  the 
bonds  of  death ;  as  Paul's  language  suggests, 
"  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  "  had  come 
(Rom.  i:  4) — it  was  the  beginnings  of  a  great 
harvest.  In  Christ's  resurrection,  therefore, 
the  Christian  man  sees  the  earnest  and 
pledge  of  his  own  resurrection ;  and  by  it 
he  is  enheartened  as  he  lays  away  the 
bodies  of  those  dear  to  him,  not  sorrow- 
ing "  as  the  rest  that  have  no  hope,"  but 
with  hearts  swelling  with  glad  anticipations 
of  the  day  when  they  shall  rise  to  meet 
their  Lord.  "  For  if  we  believe  that  Jesus 
died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  that 
are  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus  will  he  bring  with 
him."  Had  Christ  not  risen  from  the  dead, 
could  we  nourish  so  great  a  hope — that  what 
is  sown  in  corruption  shall  be  raised  in 
incorruption,  what  is  sown  in  dishonor 
shall  be  raised  in  glory,  what  is  sown  in 
weakness  shall  be  raised  in  power,  what 
is   sown  a  body   under  the  dominance  of  a 


sinful  self  shall  be  raised  a  body  wholly 
the  servant  of  the  Spirit  of  God?  Is  it 
not  evident  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
is  fundamental  to  the  Christian's  hope  that 
the  dead  in  Christ  "  shall  be  raised  incor- 
ruptible? " 

We  have  touched  only  on  some  of  the  out- 
standing aspects  of  the  bearing  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  on  our  Christian  faith  and 
life.  But  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that 
we  have  in  it  a  decisive  proof  of  the  divine 
origin  of  Christianity ;  a  revolutionary  reve- 
lation of  the  reality  of  immortality,  a  dem- 
onstration of  the  truth  of  all  Christ's  claims 
and  the  trustworthiness  of  all  His  promises, 
an  assurance  of  the  perfection  of  His  saving 
work,  and  a  pledge  of  our  own  resurrection. 
Are  these  things  not  fundamental  to  Chris- 
tianity? If  we  can  be  content  with  a  Chris- 
tianity without  them,  we  may  satisfy  our- 
selves with  a  "  Christianity "  to  which  it  is 
indifferent  whether  Christ  actually  rose  from 
the  dead.  A  "  Christianity  "  which  can  dis- 
pense with  the  immediately  supernatural,  to 
which  the  preexistence  and  the  proper  Deity 
of  Christ  are  unknown,  which  discards  the 
expiatory  work  of  Christ,  and  which  looks 
for  no  resurrection  of  the  body — may  readily 
enough  do  without  the  fact  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ.  But  when  it  comes  to  that, 
m.ay  we  not  also  do  very  well  without  such 
a  "Christianity?"  What  has  it  to  offer  to 
the  sin-stricken  human  soul?  What  is  it  to 
him  to  be  assured  that  One  lived  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  the  aroma  of  whose  holy 
life  shines  through  all  the  rust  of  the  ages 
and  impresses  the  observer  of  it  with  the 
conviction  that  He  must  have  found  a  God 
of  love  with  whom  He  could  walk  in  the 
midst  of  this  world  of  thorns?  Here  and 
now,  in  his  own  heart  he  finds  a  God  of 
justice,  where  wrath  is  inextinguishably  re- 
vealed against  all  unrighteousness.  Enough 
for  us  that  for  a  Christianity  which  will 
meet  the  needs  of  sinful  man,  a  Christianity 
which  does  not  offer  to  him  merely  the  im- 
pression of  a  holy  life,  but  provides  him  with 
salvation  by  a  divine  Redeemer,  a  resurrected 
Lord  is  indispensable.  The  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  is,  in  a  word,  certainly 
fundamental  to  a  Christianity  that  saves. — 
H.  R. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

EASTER 

By  S.  S.  Mitchell,  D.D. 


This  much,  at  least,  will  the  mind  possess- 
ing the  minimum  of  religious  faith  be  will- 
ing to  admit,  that  on  the  subject  of  the  resur- 
rection and  the  future  life,  no  book  promises 
more  to  the  student  than  the  one  which  we 
call  the  Bible.  Let  us  then,  this  morning, 
turn  to  it,  and  in  it,  to  the  fifteenth  chapter 
of  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  for  a 
brief  studv  of  its  teachings,  endeavoring,  so 


far  as  may  be,  to  read  and  to  ponder  its 
words  as  if  we  had  never  read  or  heard  them 
before. 

But  first,  two  or  three  general  thoughts. 
Our  world  has  a  measureless  interest  in  the 
great  doctrine  set  within  the  Easter  Day, 
unto  which  God,  in  His  good  providence, 
again  has  brought  us.  When  I  was  making 
one  o£  the  celebrated  passes  of  the  Alps,  with 


178 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


a  few  steps  out  of  the  throng  and  excitement 
of  the  living  tourist,  I  was  in  a  little  chapel, 
the  walls  of  which  were  lined  with  human 
bones  and  the  skeletons  of  the  human  frame. 
O !  what  a  change  was  that.  From  the  ex- 
citement and  joy  of  the  Alpine  tourists,  unto 
the  quiet  of  the  little  room,  where  other  hu- 
man forms,  their  earth  journeyings  forever 
over,  were  moldering  silently  into  dust. 
And  as  I  sat  there,  the  thought  came  into 
my  mind,  "  What,  and  if  all  the  skeletons  of 
those  who  have  wearied  with  their  earth 
travel  were  so  exposed,  so  massed !  "  Then 
whole  houses,  then  whole  blocks,  then  whole 
cities,  then  city  after  city,  would  be  full  of 
these  unmoving  forms.  Then  through  alleys, 
then  through  avenues,  then  through  great 
cities,  then  through  mighty  kingdoms,  one 
might  walk  through  one  continuous  museum 
packed  with  the  rigid  and  unbreathing  forms 
of  those  once  quick  with  life  and  human 
power.  And  this  is  earth's  interest  in  the 
doctrine  accentuated  by  this  Easter  morning. 
Its  crust  is  rich  with  the  ashes  of  that  which 
was  once  a  human  form,  instinct  with  life, 
and  thrilling  with  the  hopes  and  fears  and 
passions  of  a  sentient  soul.  Thirty  millions 
of  human  bodies,  with  every  great  revolu- 
tion of  the  heavens,  are  thus  added  to  the 
dust  of  Earth. 

"  All    that    tread 
The  globe   are  but   a   handful   to  the  tribes 
That  slumber  in  its  bosom.     The  hills 
Rock-ribbed  and  ancient  as  the  Sun,  the  vales 
Stretching  in  pensive  quietness  between — 
The  venerable  woods — rivers  that  move 
In  majesty,  and  the  complaining  brooks 
That  make  the  meadow's  green ;  and,  poured 
Round  all  old  Ocean's  gray  and  melancholy 

waste. 
Are   but   the   solemn   decorations   all 
Of  the  great  tomb  of  man." 

Ah !  in  his  case,  reason  must  have  suicided, 
or  fled  to  brutish  beasts,  if  a  man  cannot 
think  seriously  and  feel  deeply  upon  the 
problem  of  this   Easter  morning. 

And  then  our  personal  interest  in  this  truth, 
how  great  and  solemn  is  this.  Forms  have 
fallen  from  our  very  side  into  the  darkness 
and  stillness  of  the  grave.  Out  of  our  arms 
which  held  them  in  the  embrace  of  passionate 
love,  death  has  torn  human  lives.  To  some 
of  us  the  sun  will  never  again  shine  so 
brightly;  this  life  never  be  so  full  of  joy  and 
hope ;  our  hearts  never  cease  their  ache  and 
pain  until  they  lose  all  feeling,  in  the  numb- 
ness and  torpor  of  their  own  decay.  That 
which  was  most  and  sweetest  to  us — which 
was  life's  crown  and  every  day's  delight — 
that  has  grown  pale,  rigid,  repulsive  before 
our  very  eyes,  and  we  have  buried  it  in  the 
cold  and  unfeeling  earth.  The  forrn  which 
was  all  beautv  in  our  sight,  which  we 
embraced — kissed — caressed — which  was  the 
light  of  our  life — that  along  a  loathsome  path, 
is  finding  its  dark  way  back  unto  formless- 
ness and  nothingness  and  void.  And  this  is 
the  measure  of  our  personal  interest  in  the 
truth   which   this   morning's   sun   illumines — 


this  question,  "  Shall  I  see  and  know  the 
loved  form  again?  "  To  the  thoughtful  mind, 
to  the  sore  heart,  language  cannot  frame  a 
question,  in  deep,  pathetic  interest,  compar- 
able to  this  one  of  future  recognition  and 
future  repossession.  And  even  this  is  not  the 
full  measure  of  our  interest  in  this  great 
matter.  The  shadows  darken  over  our  own 
pathway.  We  also  move  toward  weakness, 
toward  decay — unto  sickness,  the  last  shiver- 
ing moan,  the  last  awful  gasp — into  the  dark 
grave  and  corruption  and  nothingness.  O ! 
cover  it  from  my  sight,  for  I  see  every  living 
form  before  me,  laid  out  in  the  pallid  mock- 
ery of  death !  Shut  away  the  vision,  for  I  be- 
hold a  long  row  of  black  and  hollow  graves 
yawning  for  the  warm  and  loving  human 
hearts  before  me !  O  !  hide  it  from  my  eyes, 
for  I  see  foul  and  loathsome  corruption  crawl- 
ing over,  eating  into  the  life  and  beauty  of  a 
thousand  human  faces. 

Such,  my  hearers,  is  your  interest  in  the 
doctrine  framed  by  this  Easter  morning.  If 
there  is  a  book  in  this  world  which  has  any- 
thing of  credible  value  upon  the  subject,  then 
ought  you  thankfully  and  gladly  to  open 
that  book  this  morning.  If  from  earth  or 
heaven,  there  is  any  voice  of  light  or  truth, 
any  whisper  of  hope  or  consolation,  then 
ought  you,  in  this  hour  to  strain  your  ears 
to  catch  its  every  syllable.  And  to  help  you 
here  I  open  the  Bible  to  the  chapter  which 
I  have  named,  as  to  the  most  definite  and  au- 
thentic message  which  our  world  has  ever 
received  upon  the  measureless  theme — the 
words  of  which  as  plentiful  as  the  tears  of 
human  sorrow,  and  through  all  the  ages  of 
Earth's  sin  and  of  Earth's  death,  have  fallen 
upon  the  closed  casket  and  into  the  hollow 
grave. 

The  inspired  teacher  begins  upon  his  great 
subject  by  the  assertion  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  '"  For  I  delivered  unto 
you,  that  which  I  also  received,  how  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  that  he  was  buried,  and  that 
he  rose  again  the  third  day." 

Endeavor,  I  pray  you,  my  hearers,  to  bring 
before  you,  as  clearly  as  possible  the  condi- 
tion of  the  world  unto  which  the  Apostle 
spake.  For  forty  centuries,  it  had  been  dig- 
ging the  human  grave,  and  burying  its  hu- 
man dead.  For  forty  centuries,  in  one  un- 
broken column,  the  race  of  man  had  been 
marching  into  the  shadows.  And  of  all  the 
millions  who  had  descended  into  the 
shadowed  valley,  not  one  had  ever  returned. 
No  dead  human  form  through  all  the  cen- 
turies had  risen  up  into  a  post-mortem  life. 
There  was  in  all  Earth's  area  not  one  empty 
grave.  No  human  heart  believed,  no  human 
voice  declared  that  there  was  such  a  grave — 
a  grave  robbed  by  the  power  of  a  victor 
stronger  than  man's  great  enemy,  death.  It 
was  therefore  a  new  and  wonderful  message 
which  the  Apostle  communicated,  when  unto 
the  dying  race  of  man  he  lifted  up  his  voice 
in  the  words :  "  One  human  form  has  risen 
from  the  dead ;  one  grave  of  earth  is  empty ; 
the  man  Christ  Jesus  who  was  dead,  is  alive 
again."     Ah !    these   were   new   and    strange 


EASTER 


179 


words  for  earth  to  hear — that  earth  which 
was  so  full  of  human  graves.  They  were  the 
bringing  in  of  a  new  hope.  They  formed  a 
creed  which  was  revolutionary — they  were 
a  revelation.  Of  course  such  a  new  and 
startling  declaration  demanded  proof,  and  the 
Apostle  proceeds  to  give  it :  "  He  was  seen 
of  Peter,  then  of  the  twelve ;  after  that  he 
was  seen  of  above  five  hundred  at  once,  of 
whom  the  greater  part  are  yet  alive.  After 
that  he  was  seen  of  James ;  then  of  all  the 
Apostles ;  and  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of 
me  also." 

Here  are  six  separate  appearances  of  the 
risen  Jesus.  Peter  saw  Him;  the  twelve 
saw  Him ;  five  hundred  at  one  time  saw 
Him ;  James  saw  Him,  and  Paul,  the  writer, 
saw  Him.  My  hearers,  if  this  testimony  is 
insufficient  to  prove  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
then  it  could  not  be  proved  by  any  evidence 
addressed  to  the  human  senses.  Take  a 
parallel  case  in  our  day.  Suppose  that  one 
of  his  late  Cabinet  affirmed  that  he  had 
seen  him,  that  our  late  martyr  President  *  had 
been  raised  from  the  dead ;  add  now  to  this 
the  testimony  of  all  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet:  strengthen  this  evidence  by  the  af- 
firmation of  all  the  heads  of  department  at 
Washington ;  add  to  this  the  eye-witness  of 
half  a  thousand  men ;  and  then  upon  all  this 
place  the  testimony  of  a  cautious,  educated 
and  most  eminent  man  outside  altogether  the 
circles  of  the  preceding  witnesses,  and  you 
have  evidence  of  weight  corresponding  to 
that  which  the  Apostle  adduces.  And  in 
view  of  it,  may  I  not  say  this,  that  such  an 
accumulation  of  personal  testimony  would  be 
sufficient  to  prove  any  event,  to  convince  any 
mind. 

But  further  consider.  The  disciples  did  not 
expect  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  Listen  to 
the  mournful  and  hopeless  strain  as  it  breaks 
forth  from  the  conversation  of  the  two 
disciples  on  their  way  to  Emmaus.  "  We 
trusted  that  it  had  been  he  who  should  have 
redeemed  Israel."  We  trusted,  but  our  faith 
was  a  delusion.  We  fondly  hoped,  but  our 
hopes  have  been  Hasted.  All  is  lost :  all  is 
lost.  So  all  the  disciples  thought.  They  all 
forsook  Jesus,  all  abandoned  His  cause — 
turned  from  the  life  and  mission  unto  which 
He  had  called  them.  One  by  one,  and  by 
the  personal  appearance  of  the  Savior,  had 
they  to  be  convinced  of  Jesus'  resurrection, 
in  the  face  of,  and  against  their  firm  convic- 
tion that  He  was  dead.  Recall  how  long 
Thomas  held  out. 

Then  again.  The  disciples,  thus  incredu- 
lous, were  all  convinced.  Not  one  of  them 
held  out  against  the  proof  furnished  them. 
From  the  over-sanguine  Cephas  to  the  doubt- 
ing Thomas,  all  at  length  gave  in,  all  believed. 
And  more  than  this  even.  They  staked  their 
lives  upon  the  truth  so  proven  to  them.  One 
by  one,  each  of  the  eleven,  save  it  may  be 
John,  went  to  a  martyr's  death,  believing, 
affirming,  proclaiming,  the  fact  of  Jesus' 
resurrection.  Now,  men  do  not  stake  their 
earthly  all  upon  a  baseless  fancy ;  they  do 
not  die  for  a  dream. 


But  more  than  this  even.  Paul  was  out- 
side the  circle  of  the  twelve,  an  educated 
dialectician,  an  adroit  and  able  man,  a  promi- 
nent unbeliever  in,  and  persecutor  of,  Chris- 
tianity— and  he,  too,  was  convinced,  and 
through  a  life  of  great  toil  and  suffering  went 
unto  a  violent  death,  joyfully,  triumphantly 
preaching  a  risen  Jesus.  Such,  my  hearers, 
is  the  first  word  of  this  wonderful  chapter 
upon  the  subject  of  the  resurrection.  Its 
declaration  is,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  arisen 
from  the  dead.  And  now  from  this  fact  so 
stated  and  proven  its  writer  takes  a  step  for- 
ward, asking  this  question :  "  How  say  some 
among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of 
the  dead  ?  "  That  is,  how  can  you  say  so. 
How  can  you  continue  to  say  so,  when  Jesus 
has  risen  from  the  dead?  Many  had  so  said. 
The  Sadducees  denied  the  resurrection  alto- 
gether. Athenian  philosophy  laughed  at  it. 
All  the  Gnostic  sects  of  the  East  had  re- 
garded it  as  wholly  undesirable.  Rationalism 
through  all  the  centuries  has  proclaimed  it  as 
incredible. 

But  how  can  you  call  it  incredible,  says  the 
Apostle?  What  has  taken  place  certainly 
may  again  occur.  If  a  dead  human  form  has 
once  risen  from  the  grave,  walking  before 
men  in  the  body  which  died,  then  other  hu- 
man forms  may  rise  from  the  slumber  of  the 
tomb.  The  resurrection  which  has  once  taken 
place,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  however  won- 
derful, however  mysterious  and  incompre- 
hensible, is  not  incredible.  It  may  be  believed. 
And  this,  too,  was  a  wonderful  word  to  a 
world  full  then,  as  now,  of  "  farewells  to  the 
dying  and  of  mourning  for  the  dead."  Over 
all  Earth's  scarred  and  grave-ridged  surface 
it  kindled  the  light  of  this  great  hope :  These 
moldering  ashes  may  live  again  in  human 
form.  By  the  testimony  of  the  senses  Jesus 
is  alive  from  the  dead,  and  by  the  empti- 
ness of  Joseph's  sepulcher,  by  Mary's  risen 
Son,  the  resurrection  is  not  incredible.  Be- 
reaved hearts  may  wrap  themselves  around 
with  its  sweet  hope ;  human  graves  may  be 
made  vocal  with  its  promise !  the  dying  race 
of  man  come  unto  victory  through  faith. 

But  to  advance  with  our  study.  Beyond  the 
credibility  of  the  resurrection,  our  teacher 
now  goes,  and  boldly  declares  its  certainty. 
In  this  shape,  Jesus  Christ  as  the  new  man, 
the  Lord  from  heaven,  has  come  into  the 
world  to  destroy  all  man's  enemies,  and  to 
lead  the  human  race  forward  into  a  new 
order  of  being,  in  which  death  shall  be  swal- 
lowed up  of  life.  This  is  the  teaching  in 
the  Apostle's  own  words :  "  For  since  by  man 
came  death,  by  man  shall  also  come  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die, 
so  also  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  For 
he  must  reign,  till  he  has  put  all  his  enemies 
under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that  shall 
be  abolished  is  death.  And  when  all  things 
have  been  subjected  unto  him,  then  shall 
the  Son  also  himself  be  subjected  unto  him 
that  did  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God 
may  be  all  in  all."  That  is,  the  present  age 
of  human  history  is  a  redemptive  and  tem- 
porary one.     Sin  having  disarranged  the  fair 


♦  President  James  A.  Garfield. 


i8o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


order  of  the  first  creation,  the  Son  of  God  has 
undertaken  the  restoration,  or  restitution  of 
all  things.  This  includes  the  utter  destruc- 
tion of  these  enemies  of  the  human  race  which 
through  the  long  and  weary  years  of  Earth's 
sin  have  preyed  upon  the  hopes  and  the  hap- 
piness of  men.  Primary  and  foremost  among 
these  enemies — their  chief  indeed — is  Death. 
And  is  he  not  an  enemy?  Behold  the  fair 
form  of  the  human  body;  how  it  writhes  in 
pain— how  it  burns  with  the  fateful  fever 
fire — how  tissue  once  velvety  in  its  softness 
turns  into  crisp  and  a  foulness  which  runs 
with  a  thousand  sores.  See  the  human  eye — 
love  and  intelligence  are  dying  out  of  it ! 
Look  upon  the  human  form — in  a  helpless- 
ness worse  than  that  of  infancy  it  cannot  lift 
its  hand.  Behold  the  human  form  divine, 
once  all  strength  and  beauty,  a  joy  to  look 
upon,  now  helpless,  now  marble-cold,  and 
now,  in  its  corruption  turning  away  the  dear- 
est gaze  of  human  affection.  An  enemy  to 
the  human  heart  also,  is  Death.  Behold  fa- 
ther and  mother  clasping  their  dear  one  but 
all  too  weak  to  resist  the  violence  of  the  dark 
angel.  Behold  the  mourners  as  they  go  about 
the  streets — their  hearts  are  under  the  cofifin 
lid.  See  the  tears  as  they  chase  each  other 
down  the  cheek  of  human  sorrow — it  is 
Rachel  weeping  for  her  children  with  eyes 
which  this  world  will  never  see  dried. 

O !  death !  death !  How  men  hate  thee ! 
How  the  living  fear  thee !  Thou  art  the 
Damoclean  sword  suspended  over  the  head  of 
human  joy:  thou  art  the  worm  gnawing  at 
the  root  of  human  peace ;  thou  art  the  dread 
enemy  who  upon  the  pale  horse  dost  drive 
through  happy  homes  and  over  loving  hearts, 
evermore  tearing  a  path  of  ruin  and  of  an- 
guish through  the  world  of  human  life.  Sin's 
ravage — sin's  victory  art  thou — the  arch- 
enemy of  God  the  living,  and  of  man  the 
dying  one. 

And  this  enemy,  says  the  Apostle,  Jesus 
Christ  shall  destroy.  Not  at  once,  not 
quickly,  as  men  count  time.  The  great  enemy 
shall  die  hard — shall  be  the  last  to  contest 
the  onward  sweep  of  the  great  Redeemer's 
power.  Slavery  shall  cease  from  earth,  but 
death  shall  remain.  Despotism  shall  perish 
from  the  way  of  the  advancing  King,  but 
death  shall  continue.  Ignorance  and  super- 
stition shall  flee  as  shadows  before  the  rising 
sun,  but  death  shall  still  hold  his  ground 
and  swallow  down  his  prey.  Still,  but  not 
always.  Forward  and  still  forward  s\veeps 
the  conquering  Redeemer — God's  mighty 
Son.  Backward  and  still  backward  are 
pushed  the  ranks  of  the  great  enemy.  Farther 
and  still  farther  into  earth's  darkness  reaches 
the  light  of  redeeming  mercy.  Now  the  world 
seems  to  grow  fair,  as  if  in  near  approach 
to  her  promised  deliverance.  Creation's 
groans  begin  now  and  then  to  sweep  upward 
into  a  strain  of  hope  and  joy — when  suddenly 
the  everlasting  doors  fly  open  wide,  and  with 
the  re-appearance  of  the  Lord  from  Heaven 
— Humanity's  second  head  and  man's  Al- 
mighty Deliverer — rolling  over  all  Earth's 
scarred  surface,  echoing  in  her  every  hollow 
grave  and  lifting  itself  up  to  highest  heaven, 


rises  the  shout   "  Death  is   swallowed  up  in 
victory — its   sting  plucked   out   by   the   hand 
which    bears    the    prints    of    the    nails — its 
victory    turned    into    everlasting    defeat    and 
shame   by    Him,   who,   in   dying,   did   abolish 
death.''     So    does    the    Apostle    teach    that 
the    divine    Son,    who    has    undertaken    for 
earth   and   man,    shall   exercise   His   redeem- 
ing power  until  the  last  enemy  shall  be  de- 
stroyed, and,  as  proof  of  this.   He  points  to 
Jesus'  risen  body  as  the  earnest  of  the  com- 
ing victory.     "  Christ   the   first   fruits,   after- 
ward them  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming." 
The  Redeemer's  resurrection,  the  single  sheaf 
— pattern  and  pledge  of  the  glorious  harvest 
which  shall  yet  wave  over  all  "  God's  acre." 
But  to  proceed  with  our  study.    Beyond  the 
assertion   of  the   credibility   of  the   resurrec- 
tion,  beyond  the  declaration  of  its  certainty 
even,  the  Apostle  now  passes  to  a  brief  ex- 
position   of    the    nature    of   the    resurrection 
body.    He  hears  the  voice  of  an  objector  say- 
ing, "With  what  body  do  they  come?     You 
speak   of    a    resurrection,    but    where    is    the 
body  to  be  raised?     Death  is  the  end  of  the 
human  organism — its  atoms  dispersed,  rejoin 
the  unorganized  material  universe — the  earth, 
the  air,  the  water  claiming  each   its  share — 
so   the   human   body   is   dissolved,   is   annihi- 
lated.    Resurrection  !     What  shall  be  raised  ? 
Where  is   there    any   body   to    raise?      With 
what  body  do  they  come?  "    Thus  the  objec- 
tor.    And   to   him   the   Apostle   thus   replies : 
"  Thou  foolish  one !     Before  your  eyes  con- 
tinually is  the  spectacle  of  life  springing  up 
out  of  death.     '  TJiat  zvliicli   thou  sozvcst  is 
not  quickened  except  it  die.'  "    The  very  con- 
dition of  its  new  and  risen  life  is  the  death 
of   which   you   speak.     Take   any   one   of  the 
seeds  which  with  every  spring,   fall  into  the 
soil    of    earth.      Its    dissolution    takes    place. 
The  earth  acting  upon  the  substance  of  the 
seed    deorganizes    it — dispersing    its    atoms — 
utterly  annihilating   its  form.     And  yet  not- 
withstanding  this    death,    yea !    in    virtue    of 
this  very  process  of  dissolution  there  comes 
forth  the  new  and  beautiful  life  of  the  waving 
stalk.     The  seed  of  wheat  dies,  but  the  blade 
of    living    green    starts    up    from    its    ashes, 
waves  above  its  tomb.     The  corn-kernel  falls 
into    dissolution    and    nothingness,    but    the 
stalk   of   corn   lifts   up   the   shout   of   victory 
from  this  grave  of  defeat.     So  of  every  seed. 
"  Except  a  corn  of  zvlieat  fall  into  the  ground 
and  die,  it  abideth  alone."    Death  is  the  con- 
dition of  its  new  and  higher  life.     So  also  is 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead.     It  is  sown  in 
corruption — it  is  raised  in  incorruption.    Out 
of    its    death    comes    forth,    at    the    word    of 
Creator's  power,   the   body   of    a    new    and 
glorious    life.      It    is    quickened    because    it 
dies. 

And  further  the  Apostle.  The  new  life 
which  thus  springs  up  out  of  the  ashes  of 
death  shall  be  very  different  from  the  old 
life.  There  is  a  natural  body  and  there  is 
a  spiritual  body,  and  these  two  are  widely 
unlike.  "  That  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sow- 
est  not  that  body  which  shall  be.  but  a  bare 
grain,  it  may  chance  of  wheat,  or  of  some 
other  grain." 


EASTER 


l8l 


And  how  true  this  is,  how  common  is  its 
illustration.  The  farmer  does  not  sow  the 
living  grass  blade,  but  the  tiny  grass  seed. 
He  sows  not  the  waving  stalk  of  corn,  but 
the  bare  grain — the  corn-kernel.  So  also  in 
the  ilower  garden.  The  hyacinths  of  spring, 
the  roses  and  the  carnations  of  summer  were 
not  sown  as  such.  Nay,  but  a  tiny  seed  was 
dropped  in  the  earth — or  a  bulb  was  planted. 
And  what  a  difference  between  these  two, 
the  flower  seed  and  the  flower.  Exquisite 
form,  matchless  coloring,  sweetest  odor,  all 
the  qualities  of  high  and  beautiful  life  array 
the  latter.  A  bare  seed  is  the  former.  Look 
into  the  wheat  bin.  There  lie  the  bare  seeds 
— the  natural  bodies — but  no  artist  would 
think  of  sitting  down  before  them.  Now 
turn  your  eyes  upon  the  field  of  living  grain 
as  the  winds  of  summer  billow  its  surface. 
What  beauty — what  a  glory !  The  bare  grains 
have  risen  from  death  in  a  body  of  living 
green,  matchless  in  the  splendor  of  a  new 
and  a  higher  material  body-  So  is  the  resur- 
rection of  the  human  form.  It  is  sown  cor- 
ruptible— it  is  raised  incorruptible ;  it  is 
sown  in  weakness — -it  is  raised  in  power;  a 
low,  inferior,  imperfect  body  is  sown — one  of 
glorious  perfection  rises  up  from  this,  as 
from  a  seed.  There  is  a  natural  body  and 
there  is  a  spiritual  body,  and  the  former 
comes  first — is  the  seed  of  the  latter?  As  we 
have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthly,  so  also 
shall  we  bare  the  image  of  the  heavenly. 
Flesh  and  Mood,  the  present  material  or- 
ganism of  the  human  _body,  cannot  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God.  No !  but  we  shall  all 
be  changed.  This  corruptible  shall  put  on 
incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  put  on  im- 
mortality ;  and  so  a  new,  a  perfect,  a  glori- 
ously beautiful  human  form  shall  step  forth 
upon  the  plane  of  the  endless  life.  And  this 
new  human  body,  still  further  says  the  in- 
spired teacher,  which  is  to  spring  up  out  of 
what  we  call  death,  and  which  is  to  be  so 
superior  and  glorious,  shall  nevertheless  con- 
tinue the  individuality  and  identity  of  the 
present  body.  "  Thou  sowest  a  bare  grain, 
but  God  giveth  it  a  body,  even  as  it  pleased 
Him  and  to  every  seed  its  own  body." 

Thus  to  the  dying  kernel  of  corn  is  given 
its  own  body ;  so  to  the  dying  grain  of  wheat ; 
so  to  all  the  countless  seeds  which  with  every 
revolving  year  die  within  the  bosom  of 
Mother  Earth.  Each  of  these  comes 
forth  with  its  own  body.  The  wheat  never 
springs  up  into  the  corn ;  from  the  ashes  of 
the  corn-kernel  there  never  grows  up  the 
stalk  of  wheat.  There  is  no  power  beneath 
the  throne  of  the  Creator  which  can  change 
the  calla  lily  into  the  rose.  To  all  eternity 
these  two  have  each  their  "  own  body."  So 
of  every  flower  seed.  It  comes  forth  ever- 
more with  its  own  body,  that  is  with  its  own 
peculiar  form,  and  odor,  and  color — with  its 
own  inalienable  individuality  of  life  and 
beauty.  So  untransmutable  is  the  God-given 
individuality  of  the  particular  life.  Upon  a 
subject  about  which  we  know  little,  this 
much  we  can  say  surely.  The  identity  of  the 
human  body  consists  not  in  the  sameness  of 
material    particles.     These    are    alike    in    all 


bodies.     Besides,  too,  they  are  in  a  constant 

flux.  The  particles  which  form  your  body 
to-day,  have  in  time  past  been  parts  of  many 
other  human  bodies.  Yet  when  they  come 
unto  you,  when  they  were  laid  hold  of  by  the 
principle  of  your  life,  they  formed  you,  the 
same  body  which  you  always  have  and  always 
shall  possess.  So  through  all  the  changes 
and  inter-changes  of  material  particles  in  this 
world  the  one  and  the  self-same  body  is  con- 
tinued, and  so  out  of  all  the  wounds,  and  the 
weakness,  and  deformity,  and  imperfection  of 
the  present  body,  shall  be  lifted  up  the  spirit- 
ual body — gloriously  unlike  to  that  out  of 
which  it  came,  and  yet  the  continuation  of  its 
individuality,  the  undisputed  succe^^sor  to  its 
identity.  Thus  in  this  world  and  before  our 
eyes,  out  of  sickness  and  weakness  and  decay, 
which  left  but  a  mere  skeleton  of  the  human 
form,  the  man  rises  up  into  new  health  and 
strength,  walking  before  human  sight  in  the 
grace  and  beauty  of  a  new  life,  and  yet  with 
the  same  body  which  lay  upon  the  bed, 
wasted,  deformed,  repulsive.  So  out  of  the 
greater  malformation  of  death,  out  of  the 
emaciation,  out  of  the  disfigurement,  out  of 
the  corruption  which  we  lay  in  the  earth, 
shall  arise,  I  know  not  when,  perhaps  in  the 
very  death  hour,  the  same  form,  the  identical 
body,  revivified,  incorruptible,  surprisingly 
glorious. 

"  Immortal  form  shall  still  divide 
The  unmortal  soul  from  all  beside 
And  I  shall  know  Him  when  we  meet." 

Such,  in  brief,  my  Christian  hearers,  is  the 
teaching  of  the  Apostle  upon  the  subject  of 
the  resurrection. 

First:  The  body  of  Jesus  rose  from  the 
dead,  rendering  credible  the  resurrection. 

Secondly:  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  the 
Redeemer  of  the  human  race,  is  prophetic  of, 
and  leads  surely  and  gloriously  unto  the  gen- 
eral resurrection. 

Thirdly:  The  future  and  permanent  body 
shall  be  from  and  out  of  the  death  of  the 
present  one,  and  tho  greatly  different  from  it, 
shall  yet  continue  and  perpetuate  its  identity. 

And  now,  says  any  one  of  you,  "  This  is  a 
hard  saying — who  can  hear  it?  "  Not  harder 
I  say  in  reply,  than  any  other  of  the  funda- 
mental truths  of  the  Christian  religion ;  not 
harder  than  soul  existence  or  soul  immortal- 
ity ;  not  harder  than  the  incarnation ;  not 
harder  than  self-existent  being.  In  truth  all 
these  doctrines  of  our  religion  are  the  utter- 
ance of  a  revelation,  and  are  in  no  wise  dis- 
coverable by  or  demonstrable  by  reason. 
Now,  if  you  say,  speaking  out  of  the  atmos- 
phere of  rationalism  which  in  our  day  pours 
itself  through  home,  and  school,  and  Church, 
that  you  cannot  receive  that  which  you  are 
not  able  to  understand,  my  reply  is,  then  you 
can  have  no  creed — for  life  is  an  insoluble 
mystery;  and  so  is  death,  and  so  is  the  uni- 
verse, and  so  is  sin,  and  so  is  the  Christ,  and 
so  is  God.  And  to  these  the  resurrection  only 
adds  another  mystery.  To  reject  it  on  ra- 
tionalistic grounds  is  therefore  as  inconsistent 
as   it   is    unchristian — it    is   in   the   words   of 


I»2 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Jesus,  greatly  to  err,  since  the  doctrine  itself 
is  written  in  the  Scriptures,  and  underwritten 
by  the  power  of  the  Almighty  God. 

But  I  bring  not  to  you,  this  morning,  the 
resurrection  as  a  dogma  to  be  forced  upon 
your  mind,  but  as  a  sweet  hope  to  be  min- 
istered unto  your  heart.  If  you  say,  "  I  can- 
not receive  it,"  I  have  for  you  no  word  of 
reproach,  but  only  a  sentiment  of  deep  regret, 
that  you,  in  your  little,  troubled,  sorrowing, 
dying  life,  cannot  this  morning  reach  unto 
the  comfort  and  inspiration  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. It  is  my  heart  which  at  this  hour  more 
than  my  head  speaks  unto  you.  I  feel  the 
sorrow  drops  as  yet  undried  upon  my  cheek, 
and  the  pain  yet  sharp  in  my  heart,  with 
every  waking  hour.  That  which  was  to  me 
Earth's  fairest  life-blossom — that  in  which  I 
saw  most  of  the  beauty  of  life  and  of  the 
superior  beauty  and  glory  of  God  the  life- 
giver — this  have  I  seen  sicken  and  wither  and 
fall  into  the  human  grave.  And  now,  this 
morning,  standing  almost  within  sight  of  the 
fading  flower  and  the  dissolving  beauty,  I 
listen  and  no  voice  comforts,  save  the  voice 


of  the  risen  Savior,  and  no  hope  is  counted 
worthy  of  admittance  by  my  heart  and  myself 
save  the  hope  of  the  resurrection.  To  His 
voice,  who  has  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light,  my  bewildered  mind  listens  gladly, 
tho  it  understands  but  poorly ;  and  with  the 
hope  which  He  brought  in  through  His  mighty 
victory,  with  this  my  sore  and  weary  heart 
eagerly  assays  to  wrap  itself  around,  if  so  be 
that  it  may  benumb  its  pain,  and  bring  a  sense 
of  warmth  into  its  cold  and  cheerless  habita- 
tion. And  so  upheld,  so  inspired,  all  the  days 
of  my  appointed  time  shall  I  wait  in  hope, 
and  at  the  last,  along  the  returnless  path, 
shall  go  in  most  willing  quest  of  that  which 
was  Earth's  whitest  light  and  sweetest  joy, 
and  which,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  heavenly 
home,  I  believe  is  forever  mine  through  Jesus 
Christ  my  Lord.  And  so  I  hope  and  pray  it 
may  be  with  all  of  you.  For  every  earth  hour 
of  weakness  and  sorrow  may  the  faith  of 
Jesus  bring  you  strength  and  inspiration ; 
and  at  the  last,  through  the  faith  of  Jesus, 
and  the  resurrection,  may  you  be  able  calmly 
and  hopefully  to  die. — P.  I. 


HAS  CHRIST  RISEN? 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  Liddon,  D.D. 
It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness  —  /  John  v:  6 


On  Easter  Day  we  were  considering  St. 
Paul's  argument  that  without  faith  in  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  serious  Chris- 
tianity is  impossible ;  that,  when  the  resurrec- 
tion is  denied  apostolic  doctrine,  and  Chris- 
tian faith  are  alike  empty  of  their  vital  force, 
or,  as  the  apostle  says,  "  are  vain ;  "  a  Christ 
who  died  and  never  rose  from  death  is  not 
the  Christ  of  the  New  Testament.  He  is  not 
the  Christ  of  Christendom;  a  Christ  such  as 
this  would  never  have  converted  the  world, 
and  the  Christianity,  so  to  call  it,  which  cen- 
ters in  such  a  Christ  as  this  will  not  long 
even  interest  it.  A  Christ  who  dies,  but  who 
never  has  conquered  death,  is  plainly  an  in- 
tellectual makeshift.  He  is  a  creation  and 
the  toy  of  souls  who  are  passing,  whether 
consciously  or  not,  from  the  faith  of  their 
fathers  to  infidelity.  If  it  can  be  shown 
that  Christ  did  not  really  rise  from  His  grave, 
Christianity  sinks  at  once  to  the  level  of  a 
purely  human  theory  of  life  and  conduct 
whose  author  altogether  failed  to  make  good 
His  language  to  Himself.  Certainly  His  re- 
ligion has  played  too  great  a  part  in  human 
affairs  to  be  forgotten  by  history.  But  it 
would,  in  the  event  contemplated,  have  for- 
feited all  right  to  obtrude  itself  any  longer 
on  the  attention  of  mankind  as  God's  last 
and  greatest  revelation  of  Himself  to  His 
rational  creatures.  It  is  natural  to  ask 
What  is  the  evidence  that  Christ  really 
did  rise  from  the  dead?  And  here,  as  St. 
John  says  in  this  epistle,  "  It  is  the  Spirit 
that  beareth  witness."  St.  John,  indeed,  is 
speaking    immediately    of   that    faith    in    our 


Lord's  eternal  Sonship  which  overcomes  the 
world ;  but  then  since  the  resurrection  is  the 
main  proof  of  our  Lord's  divinity,  since  He 
was  declared  to  be  "  the  Son  of  God  with 
power "  as  regards  His  higher,  holy  nature 
by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  it  follows 
that  the  Spirit  must  also  bear  witness,  in 
some  sense  of  the  word,  to  the  resurrection. 

And  He  does  this  in  two  ways.  It  is  His 
work  that  the  historic  proofs  of  the  resurrec- 
tion which  have  come  down  to  us,  and  which 
have  addressed  themselves  directly  to  our 
natural  reasoning  faculties  have  been  mar- 
shaled, recognized,  preserved,  transmitted  in 
the  Church  of  Christ.  The  Spirit,  as  we 
Christians  believe,  bears  witness  in  the  sacred 
pages  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus ;  but  He  also  bears  another 
witness,  as  we  shall  presently  see  in  His  ac- 
tion, not  so  much  on  the  intelligence  as  on 
the  will  of  a  Christian  believer. 

Let  us  ask  ourselves,  first  of  all,  what  is 
the  evidence  with  which  we  are  supplied  on 
the  subject  of  the  resurrection — what  is  there 
to  be  said  on  the  subject  to  a  person  who 
believes — I  will  not  say  in  the  supernatural 
inspiration,  but  in  the  general  trustworthiness 
of  the  writings  of  the  first  Christians.  In 
order  to  know  that  our  Lord  did  really  rise 
from  the  dead  we  have  to  satisfy  ourselves 
that  three  distinct  questions  may  be  answered. 
Of  these  the  first  is  this  :  Did  Jesus  Christ 
really  die  upon  the  cross?  For,  if  He  merely 
fainted  or  swooned  away,  then  there  was  no 
resurrection  from  death ;  then  He  merely  re- 
covered consciousness  after  an  interval.    The 


EASTER 


183 


Evangelists,  each  one  of  them,  say  expressly 
that  He  did  die ;  and  the  wonder  is,  not  that 
He  died  when  He  did  after  the  three  hours' 
agony  on  the  cross,  but  with  all  His  suf- 
ferings at  the  hands  of  the  soldiers  and  of 
the  populace  before  His  crucifixion — with  all 
these  sufferings  He  should  have  lived  so 
long.  But  suppose  that  what  looked  like 
death  on  the  cross  was  merely  a  fainting  fit, 
would  He  have  survived  the  wounds  in  His 
side  inflicted  by  the  soldier's  lance,  through 
which  the  blood  yet  remaining  in  His  heart 
escaped?  We  are  expressly  told  that  the  sol- 
diers did  not  break  His  limbs  and  that  He 
was  already  dead,  and  before  Pilate  would 
allow  His  body  to  be  taken  down  from  the 
cross  he  ascertained  from  the  centurions  in 
the  land  that  He  was  already  dead. 

But,  suppose  again,  against  all  this  evi- 
dence, that  when  He  was  taken  down  from 
the  cross  He  was  living,  then  He  must  have 
been  suffocated  by  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  and 
Nicodemus  when  they  embalmed  Him.  They 
rubbed  a  hundred  pounds  weight  of  myrrh 
and  aloes  over  the  surface  of  His  body,  and 
then  they  bound  bandages  tightly  around 
each  of  His  limbs,  and  His  head,  and  His 
body  before  they  laid  Him  in  the  grave.  The 
Jews  carefully  inspected  and  sealed  the  tomb ; 
they  had  sentinels  placed  there ;  they  were 
satisfied  that  the  work  was  thoroughly  done. 
To  do  them  justice,  the  Jews  have  never  de- 
nied the  reality  of  our  Lord's  death ;  it  is 
impossible  to  do  so  without  a  paradox.  The 
second  question  is  this :  did  the  disciples 
take  our  Lord's  dead  body  out  of  the  sepul- 
cher?  They  would  not  have  wished  to  do  it; 
why  should  they?  What  could  have  been 
their  motive?  Imagine  yourselves,  my  breth- 
ren, in  the  position  of  the  disciples  when  con- 
vinced of  the  reality  of  our  Savior's  death. 
They  either  believed  in  His  approaching  res- 
urrection, or  they  did  not.  If  they  did  be- 
lieve it,  they  would  have  shrunk  from  dis- 
turbing His  grave  as  an  act  not  less  unneces- 
sary than  profane ;  if  they  did  not  believe  in 
it,  and,  instead  of  abandoning  themselves  to 
unreflecting  grief,  allowed  themselves  to 
think  steadily,  what  must  have  been  their  es- 
timate of  their  dead  Master?  They  must 
now  have  thought  of  Him  as  of  one  who  had 
deceived  them,  or  was  Himself  deceived.  If 
He  was  not  a  clever  impostor  who  had  failed, 
he  was  a  sincere  but  feeble  character,  who 
had  Himself  been  the  victim  of  a  religious 
delusion. 

On  either  supposition,  why  should  they 
arouse  the  anger  of  the  Jews  and  incur  the 
danger  of  swift  and  heavy  punishment? 
What  would  have  been  gained  for  good  and 
simple-minded  men  by  persuading  the  Jews 
under  those  circumstances  that  He  had  risen, 
or  that  He  was  the  Messiah,  or  that  His  an- 
ticipations had  come  to  pass,  if  all  the  while 
they  themselves  knew  that  He  was  dead  and 
that  His  body  had  only  been  shifted  by  them- 
selves from  one  resting-place  to  another?  If 
they  were  religious  adventurers,  they  could 
not  have  hoped  to  succeed.  The  attempt 
would  have  been  no  less  fruitless  than  alj- 
surd.     The  world,  after  all,  is  not  converted 


to  a  new  religion  by  sleight  of  hand ;    and  in 
order  to  believe  that  the  apostles  would  not 
have    wished    to    remove    our    Lord's    body 
from  the   sepulcher,   it   is  only  necessary  to 
credit    them    with    ordinary    common    sense. 
But  had  they  wished  they  surely  could  not 
have  dared  it.     Until  Pentecost  they  were,  by 
their  own  account,  timid  men.     When  Jesus 
was  arrested  all  the  disciples   "  forsook  him 
and  fled."     St.   Peter  denied   Him;    only   St. 
John  ventured  to  follow  Christ  to  Calvary,  to 
stand  near  the  cross.     For  some  days  after 
the   great   catastrophe   the  disciples   did   not 
presume   to    show   themselves    in   public   for 
fear  of  the  Jews.     When  our  Lord  stood  in 
the  midst  of  the  council  chamber  they  took 
Him  for  a  phantom ;    they  were  seized  with 
terror.     Were  these  the  men  to  risk  a  desper- 
ate struggle  with  the  guard  of  soldiers  and 
to  take  a  dead  body  out  of  its  tomb  at  the 
dead  of  night?     Even  if  one  or  two  of  the 
disciples    would   have    ventured    on    such   an 
enterprise,   could  they   have  counted   on   the 
cooperation  of  the  others?     Would  not  they 
have  dreaded  betrayal  by  some  one  of  their 
companions,     who     might     have     denounced 
them,    whether    from    motives    of   rivalry    or 
motives  of  honesty  to  the  Jewish  authorities? 
And,    once    more,    had    they    desired    and 
dared  to  remove  our  Lord's  body   from  its 
grave,  such  a  feat  was  obviously  beyond  their 
power?     The  tomb  was  guarded  by  soldiers j 
every  precaution  had  been  taken  by  the  Jews 
to  make  it   secure.     The   great  stone   at  the 
entrance    could   not    have    been    rolled    away 
without  much   disturbance,   even   if  the  body 
could  have  been   removed  without  attracting 
attention.     The  character  of  the  guards  them- 
selves was  at  stake.     Had  they  countenanced 
or  permitted  any  such  crime  their  almost  in- 
evitable detection  would  have  been  followed 
by    severe   punishment.     In    after   years,    you 
will  remember,   St.  Peter  was  released  from 
prison   by  an  angel,   and  the   sentinels  were 
punished  by  death.     Certainly,   the  guard  at 
the  sepulcher  was  largely  bribed  by  the  lead- 
ing Jews  to  say  that  the  body  of  Jesus  had 
been  taken  away  by  the  disciples  while  they 
slept.     Whatever   the    eagerness    of   the    sol- 
diers might  have  been  to  touch  the  money, 
they  would  have  been  cautious  in  circulating 
such  a  report  as  this,  and  the  Jews  could  not 
have  ventured  to  treat  it  as  practically  true. 
When    they    imprisoned    and    scourged    St. 
Peter  and  the  other  apostles,  when  they  per- 
secuted to   death   first    St.    Stephen   and   the 
other  servants  of  Christ,  they  did  not  accuse 
their  victims  in   any  one  instance  of  having 
stolen    Christ's    body    from    His    grave    and 
then  circulating  a   false  report  of  His  resur- 
rection.    The   charge   was    merely   that    they 
had   preached   the   resurrection   after   having 
been  ordered  to  be  silent. 

And  a  third  question  is  the  following: 
What  is  the  positive  testimony  that  goes  to 
show  that  Jesus  Christ  did  rise  from  the 
dead?  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  witness  of 
all  the  apostles.  They  affirmed  publicly  that 
during  forty  days  they  saw  Jesus  Christ  alive ; 
that  they  had  conversed  with  Him ;  that  they 
ate  and  drank  with  Him;    that  they  touched 


i»4 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Him.  They  gave  their  lives  in  attestation  of 
this  fact.  Their  conduct  after  the  day  of 
Pentecost  is  that  of  men  whose  trustworthi- 
ness and  sincerity  of  purpose  are  beyond  dis- 
pute. You  and  L  my  brethren,  unless  we 
were  strengthened  by  Divine  grace,  might, 
too,  probably,  hesitate  to  give  our  lives  for 
what  we  knew  to  be  undoubted  religious 
truth ;  but,  at  least,  we  should  not — I  will 
not  say  die — we  should  not,  you  and  I,  make 
any  considerable  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  im- 
pressing the  world  with  the  truth  of  an  oc- 
currence which  we  believed  in  our  hearts  to 
be  very  doubtful. 

Next,  there  is  the  testimony  of  a  large 
number  of  persons  besides  the  apostles.  Take 
the  case  of  the  three  thousand  converts  of 
St.  Peter's  first  sermon  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost. Here  were  three  thousand  people  pro- 
fessing belief  in  the  resurrection  fifty  days 
after  the  date  of  the  occurrence.  They  had 
every  means  of  verifying  its  truth  or  false- 
hood. They  were  on  the  spot ;  they  could 
decide  the  time ;  they  could  collect  and  in- 
vestigate the  current  stories ;  they  could  take 
them  from  the  Jews ;  they  could  cross-ques- 
tion the  guards ;  they  could  compare ;  they 
could  analyze  the  conflicting  opinions  flitting 
around  them  ;  they  had  unrivaled  opportuni- 
ties of  satisfying  themselves  as  to  its  truth 
or  falsehood,  and  at  the  risk  of  comfort,  nay, 
of  life,  they  publicly  professed  their  belief  in 
its  truth.  They  could  not  be  Christians  with- 
out making  this  profession ;  they  had  no 
hesitation  about  making  it. 

Or,  consider  the  case  of  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  or  more  persons  still  living  when 
St.  Paul  wrote  his  first  Epistle  to  the  Cor- 
inthians— persons  who  had  seen  the  risen 
Jesus.  On  one  single  occasion  during  the 
forty  days  after  that  He  was  seen  of  about 
"  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  of  whom  the 
greater  part  remain  until  this  present,  but  some 
are  fallen  asleep."  There  is  no  doubt  about  the 
document  containing  this  assertion.  The  most 
destructive  of  the  negative  schools  of  modern 
criticism  ranks  this  first  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians among  the  four  books  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament whose  genuineness  and  authenticity  it 
still  holds  to  be  beyond  dispute.  There  is  no 
reason  for  questioning  the  accuracy  of  the 
apostle's  information ;  and  the  significance 
of  the  statement  in  history  could  not  be  ex- 
aggerated. Five  hundred  persons  could  not 
be  simultaneously  deceived.  Their  testimony 
would  be  considered  decisive  as  to  any  ordi- 
nary occurrence,  when  men  wished  only  to 
ascertain  this  simple  truth. 

And  the  force  of  this  flood  of  testimony  is 
not  really  weakened  by  objections  which  did 
not,  you  will  observe,  directly  challenge  it ; 
bitt  which  turn  on  accessory  or  subordinate 
points.  For  instance,  it  is  said  that  the  evan- 
gelical accounts  of  the  resurrection  itself,  and 
of  our  Lord's  subsequent  appearance,  are  diffi- 
cult to  reconcile  with  each  other.  At  first 
sight  they  are.  but  only  on  first  sight.  In 
order  to  reconcile  them,  two  things  are  neces- 
sary ;  first,  patience ;  and,  secondly,  deter- 
mination to  exclude  everything  from  the  nar- 
rative which  does  not  lie  in  the  texts  of  the 


Gospels.  Two-thirds  of  the  supposed  diffi- 
culties are  created  by  the  riotous  imagination 
of  the  negative  commentators.  Left  to  them- 
selves, the  evangelists  do  not,  indeed,  tell  us 
a  great  deal  that  we  should  really  like  to 
know,  but,  at  least,  they  do  not  contradict 
each  other.  If  they  had  forged  the  whole 
story,  and  had  written  with  any  degree  of 
concert,  they  would  have  been  at  once  more 
explicit  and  less  careless  about  appearances 
than  they  are ;  they  would  have  described 
Jesus  bursting  forth  visibly  from  the  grave 
in  a  blaze  of  splendor,  terrifying  His  guards, 
welcoming  His  faithful  followers,  who  would 
have  been  collected  on  the  spot.  They  would 
have  written  just  as  the  painters  have  painted, 
without  any  admission  of  ignorance,  without 
any  reserve,  without  permitting  any  suspicion 
of  difficulties.  As  it  is,  these  are  just  what 
might  be  expected  in  four  narratives  of  the 
same  event,  written  at  different  periods,  by 
different  authors,  who  had  distinct  sources  of 
information  at  command.  Each  says  what 
he  has  to  say  with  blunt  and  simple  direct- 
ness, without  an  eye  to  the  statement  of  the 
others,  or  to  the  possible  comments  of  the 
hostile  critics. 

To  show  their  agreement  in  detail  would, 
of  course,  carry  me  far  beyond  our  limit ; 
suffice  it  now  to  say,  that  in  describing  the 
resurrection,  as  elsewhere,  so  here.  Scripture 
takes  no  precautions  against  hostile  judges. 
Scripture  speaks  as  might  a  perfectly  truthful 
child  in  a  court  of  justice,  conscious  only 
of  its  integrity,  and  leaving  the  test,  whether 
criticism  or  apology,  of  what  it  says,  en- 
tirely to  others.  It  proceeds  on  the  strong 
conviction  that  in  the  end,  in  this,  as  in  other 
matters,  wisdom  is  justified  of  her  true  chil- 
dren. 

It  is  further  objected,  that  the  resurrection 
was  not  sufficiently  public.  Jesus^  it  appears, 
ought  to  have  left  His  grave  in  the  sight  of  a 
crowd  of  lookers-on,  and  when  risen.  He 
ought  to  have  hastened  to  show  Himself  to 
the  persons  least  likely  to  believe  in  His 
resurrection — to  the  Jews  at  large,  to  the 
high  priests,  to  Pilate,  to  His  executioners ; 
even,  it  is  of  late  hinted,  to  a  scientific  com- 
mission of  some  kind,  which  might  have  first 
investigated,  and  then  drawn  up  a  report 
upon  the  subject. 

Here,  it  is  obvious,  first  of  all,  that  the 
guards  may  very  well  have  seen  our  Lord 
leave  His  tomb.  Scripture,  at  least,  says 
nothing  on  the  point ;  but  the  guards  were 
terrified  to  the  verge  of  death  from  horror  at 
the  sight  merely  of  an  angel  at  the  sepulcher ; 
and  any  number  of  witnesses  who  would 
have  been  present  would,  in  all  probability, 
have  been  as  frightened  as  the  guards.  Our 
Lord's  object  was  not  to  strike  terror,  but  to 
convince,  to  reassure,  to  console.  It  was  not 
easy  to  do  this  when  the  disciples  first  saw 
Him  after  He  had  risen.  But  nothing  would 
have  been  gained  by  their  seeing  Him  leave 
His  tomb.  They  knew  that  He  had  1  een  laid 
in  it  dead  ;  they  saw  Him  alive  before  their 
eyes,  and  they  put  the  two  facts  together. 
Nor  is  the  old  objection  of  Celsus,  that  Jesus 
Christ  ought  to  have  shown  Himself  to  the 


EASTER 


185 


Jews  and  to  His  judges  in  order  to  rebuke 
their  unbelief,  one  whit  more  reasonable. 
Had  He  appeared  to  the  Jews,  would  they, 
think  you,  have  believed  Him  ?  Would  they 
not  have  denied  His  identity,  or  else  argued 
that  a  devil  had  taken  His  form  before  their 
eyes,  just  as  before  they  had  dared  to  ascribe 
His  miracles  to  Beelzebub? 

There  was  no  greater  reason  for  our  Lord 
showing  Himself  to  the  unbelievers  of  that 
day  than  for  His  showing  Himself  to  the  un- 
believers of  each  succeeding  century  from 
then  until  now.  He  gives  evidence  to  all  of  us 
to  make  faith  easy  and  reasonable ;  but  He 
does  not  give,  except  in  very  rare  instances, 
such  as  that  of  St.  Thomas,  that  particular 
kind  of  evidence  which  captious  belief  may, 
from  time  to  time,  demand,  possibly  for  no 
other  reason  than  because  it  says  that  such 
evidence  will  not  be  given.  They  who  cried 
on  the  day  of  Calvary,  "  Let  him  come  down 
from  the  cross  and  we  will  believe  him," 
would  not  really  have  believed  Him  if  He 
had  taken  them  at  their  word.  Unbelief  is 
the  product  of  a  particular  state  of  heart  and 
mind :  much  more  than  that,  it  is  the  prod- 
uct of  an  absence  of  a  particular  sort  of  evi- 
dence. The  Jews  had  ample  opportunity  of 
ascertaining  that  the  resurrection  was  a  fact 
if  they  had  desired  to  do  so ;  but,  as  it  was, 
they  were  not  in  a  mood  to  be  convinced  even 
by  the  evidence  of  their  senses.  It  was  with 
them  as  with  the  brethren  of  the  rich  man  in 
the  parable — "  H  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead."  If  the  tes- 
timony of  the  apostles  and  of  so  many  other 
persons  was  insufficient,  the  appearance  of 
the  risen  Lord  Himself  would  not  have  done 
more  than  add  to  the  list  of  their  rejected 
opportunities,  and  so  add  to  their  condemna- 
tion. 

Far  deeper  than  these  objections  is  that 
which  lies  against  all  miracles  whatever  as 
being  at  variance  with  that  conception  of  a 
rigid  uniformity  in  the  processes  of  nature 
which  is  one  of  the  intellectual  fashions  of 
our  time ;  suffice  it  to  say  that  any  idea  of 
natural  law  which  is  held  to  make  a  miracle 
impossible  is  also  inconsistent  with  intelligent 
belief  in  the  existence  of  God.  When  a  be- 
liever in  God  talks  of  a  law  of  nature  he  can 
never  mean  more  than  God's  uniform  mode 
of  working  in  a  particular  instance.  He  can- 
not mean  anything  that  is  independent  of 
God,  any  force  or  impact,  which,  if  originally 
coming  from  God,  has  now  acquired  a  right 
to  maintain  itself  in  spite  of  Him,  or  is,  at 
any  rate,  somehow  out  of  His  reach.  To 
hold  this  idea  of  the  law  of  nature  is  to  hold 
that  God  is  not  Master  of  the  universe — in 
other  words,  that  He  is  not  Himself.  That 
He  does  work  uniformly  is  matter  of  ob- 
servation, and  He  is  only  what  we  should  an- 
ticipate from  that  law  of  order  which  is  an 
attribute  of  His  eternal  being.  Without  such 
general  uniformity  in  the  background  of  the 
miracle  there  will  be  nothing  striking  in  the 
miracle;  but  if  God  is  omnipotent,  so  that 
His  eternal  moral  attributes  alone  can  limit 
His  powers  of  action,  then  it  cannot  be  de- 


nied that  miracle  is  always  possible,  and  if 
God  be  a  moral  Being  who,  as  such,  desires 
the  interest  of  His  moral  creatures,  and 
deems  it  higher  than  that  of  the  inanimate 
and  irrational  beings  around  Him,  then  mira- 
cle, at  least  in  great  crises  in  human  moral 
history,  is  to  be  expected. 

The  only  real  question  for  the  serious  be- 
liever in  God  is  whether  the  producible  evi- 
dence for  an  alleged  miracle  is  sufficient. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case  it  is  impossible, 
my  brethren,  to  give  more  than  a  scanty  and 
imperfect  outline  of  a  great  subject  like  the 
evidence  of  the  resurrection  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  sermon;  but  it  is  to  be  wished,  in 
these  days  especially,  that  Christians  would 
make  themselves  better  acquainted  with  the 
grounds  of  their  faith  than  too  many  of  us 
are.  Some  old-fashioned  but  useful  books 
as  Sherlock's  "  Trial  of  the  Witnesses/'  in 
which  the  evidence  of  the  resurrection  is 
discussed  conformably  with  the  rules  of  the 
English  bar,  would  do  a  great  deal  of  good  if 
they  were  better  known.  Undoubtedly  new 
points  have  been  raised  since  Sherlock's  time, 
and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  controversy  has 
shifted  its  ground;  but,  in  the  main,  his 
method  of  presenting  the  case  is  of  lasting 
value,  and  it  is  better  suited  to  our  national 
[English]  tastes  and  temper  than  the  works 
of  some  more  recent  and  more  ambitious 
apologists. 

Here,  then,  we  are  coming  round  to  the 
point  from  which  we  started ;  for  it  is  natu- 
ral to  ask,  "  Well,  why,  if  the  resurrection 
can  be  proved  by  evidence  so  generally  suffi- 
cient, was  it  at  the  time,  and  is  it  still,  rejected 
by  a  great  many  intelligent  men?"  The  an- 
swer to  this  natural  and  legitimate  question 
will  be  of  practical  importance  to  all  of  us. 
There  can,  I  apprehend,  my  dear  brethren, 
be  no  sort  of  doubt  that,  if  an  ordinary  his- 
torical occurrence,  such  as  the  death  of  Julius 
Cffisar,  is  attested  as  clearly  as  the  resurrec- 
tion of  our  Lord — not,  we  will  suppose,  more 
clearly  nor  less — as  having  taken  place  nine- 
teen centuries  ago,  all  the  world  would  be- 
lieve it  as  a  matter  of  course.  Nay,  more :  if 
an  extraordinary  occurrence  traversing  the 
usual  operations  of  God  in  nature  were  simi- 
larly tested,  it  would  be  easily  believed  if 
only  it  stood  alone  as  an  isolated  wonder 
connected  with  no  religious  claims,  implying 
no  religious  duties,  appealing  only  to  the  bare 
understanding,  and  having  no  bearing,  how- 
ever remote,  upon  the  will.  The  reason  why 
the  resurrection  was  not  always  believed 
upon  the  evidence  of  those  who  were  witness 
to  it  was  because  to  believe  means  for  a  con- 
sistent and  thoughtful  man  to  believe  in  and 
accept  practically  a  great  deal  else.  To  be- 
lieve the  resurrection  is  to  believe  implicitly 
in  the  Christian  faith.  The  divine  Person  of 
our  Lord,  the  atoning  work  of  our  Lord,  the 
teaching  authority  of  our  Lord,  the  efficacy 
of  His  perpetual  intercession  in  heaven,  and 
of  the  great  means  of  grace  He  has  given  us 
on  earth,  depend  on  and  are  bound  up  with 
His  resurrection.  It  is  no  more  a  speculative 
question  whether  Jesus  Christ  did  or  did  not 
rise  from  the  dead ;    it  is  an  eminently  prac- 


i86 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


tical  question.  The  intellect  is  not  more  in- 
terested in  it  than  the  will ;  perhaps  it  is 
even  less  interested.  If  the  intellect  alone 
could  have  the  decision  of  the  question  in  its 
keeping,  the  number  of  unbelievers  would  be 
comparatively  small.  The  real  difficulties  of 
belief  lie,  generally  speaking,  with  the  will ; 
and  nothing  is  more  certain — I  may  add 
nothing  is  more  alarming — than  the  power  of 
the  will  to  shape,  to  check,  to  promote,  to 
control  conviction.  For  the  will,  too,  has 
reasoning  power,  so  to  call  it,  of  its  own ; 
the  will  is,  in  a  sense,  a  second  rea?on  within 
us.  It  looks  ahead,  does  the  will ;  it  watches 
the  proceedings  of  the  understanding  with 
jealous  scrutiny;  it  watches,  and,  if  need  be, 
it  interferes.  It  sees  the  understanding  on 
the  point  of  embracing  a  conviction ;  which 
means  it  knows  very  much  more  than  specu- 
lative assent ;  which  means  action  or  suffer- 
ing, that  is  to  say,  something  entirely  within 
its  own  province — the  province  of  the  will. 
Ii  sees  the  conviction  all  but  accepted ;  it  sees 
the  understanding  stretching  out  its  arms,  as 
it  were,  to  welcome  the  advancing  truth,  and 
it  mutters  to  itself,  "  This  must  not  be,  or  I 
shall  be  compromised ;  I  shall  have  to  do  or 
to  endure  what  I  do  not  like."  And  such  is 
the  power  of  the  will,  the  sovereign  faculty 
in  the  human  soul,  that  it  can  give  effect  to 
this  decision.  It  can  baulk  and  thwart  the 
straightforward  action  of  the  intellect ;  it 
can  give  it  a  perverse  twist ;  it  can  even  set 
it  thinking  actively  how  best  to  discredit  and 
refute  the  truth  which  but  now  it  was  on  the 
point  of  accepting. 

And  this  is  what  happened  to  the  Jews  of 
the  Pentecost  period.  Those  Jews  had  no 
prejudices  against  miracles;  on  the  contrary, 
they  expected  miracles  to  occur  from  time  to 
time.  They  entirely  believed  in  the  astonish- 
ing miracles  in  their  own  past  history,  altho 
many  of  these  miracles  rest  upon  evidence 
far  less  cogent  than  that  which  could  be  pro- 
duced for  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Had  it  been  for  them  only  a  speculative  ques- 
tion, they  would  have  believed  in  the  resur- 
rection, too ;  but,  so  far  from  being  a  specu- 
lative question  only,  it  was  charged  with 
practical  consequences.  The  will  of  the  Jew 
instinctively  suggested  to  him,  "  If  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  rose  from  His  grave,  then  a  great 
deal  will  follow  for  which  I  am  not  pre- 
pared. Then  He  is  the  Messiah,  then  the 
present  order  of  things  will  be  seriously 
changed  ;  new  duties,  new  sacrifices,  will  be 
expected  of  me  and  mine.  I  must  see  if  His 
resurrection  is  so  very  certain,  if  there  is  not 
some  natural  explanation  of  it  to  be  found, 
if  it  is  not  due  to  a  trick  or  to  a  hallucina- 
tion ;  anyhow,  it  must  not  and  it  cannot  be 
accepted  as  true.  It  may  triumph  at  the  bar 
of  probable  evidence.  Granted ;  but  com- 
mon-sense, as  I  understand  common-sense, 
it  against  it."  This  is  something  like  what 
the  Jew  would  have  thought  to  himself,  and 
his  will  would  have  carried  the  day  against 
his  understanding.  And  thus  we  may  un- 
derstand what  it  is  that  the  Spirit  does  to 
produce  faith.  He  does  not  set  aside  or  ex- 
tinguish the  operations  of  the  natural  reason. 


Reason,  too,  is  a  guide  to  truth  which  our 
God  has  given  us ;  but  He  does  change  by 
His  merciful  and  wonder-working  touch  the 
temper,  the  direction  of  the  will ;  and  thus 
He  sets  the  reason  free  to  do  some  sort  of 
justice  to  the  evidence  before  it.  It  is  thus 
within  us  that  the  "  Spirit  beareth  witness." 
The  evidence  of  the  resurrection  is  of  such 
a  character  that  an  unspiritual  man  with  no 
more  than  average  powers  to  understand  the 
value  of  a  probable,  as  distinct  from  a  mathe- 
matical argument,  can  at  once  see  its  strength 
and  force.  But  this  perception  is  useless  un- 
less the  will  be  ready  to  do  its  part,  or,  at 
least,  not  to  interfere  with  the  verdict  of  the 
intellect.  And  it  is  the  Spirit  which  secures 
this. 

The  evidence  for  the  resurrection  was  not 
stronger  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  itself  than 
it  was  on  the  day  before ;  but  the  descent  of 
the  Spirit  made  all  the  difference — made  it 
possible  for  the  three  thousand  converts  to 
do  the  evidence  some  sort  of  justite.  And 
we  can  see,  too,  why  it  is  that  St.  Paul  makes 
so  much  of  faith,  especially  faith  in  a  living 
Christ,  in  all  his  great  epistles.  Faith  is 
for  him  not  merely  the  assent  of  the  under- 
standing; it  is  also  the  assent  of  the  will.  It 
is  even  less  an  intellectual  than  a  moral  act, 
and  thus  it  is  a  test  and  criterion,  not  only 
or  chiefly  of  the  worth  of  a  man's  headpiece, 
but  pre-eminently  of  the  rectitude  of  his  dis- 
positions, of  the  goodness  of  his  heart.  This 
is  one  reason  why  it  justifies.  In  a  true  act 
of  faith  the  whole  moral  nature  of  man  con- 
curs in  the  justifying  assent  that  is  given  to 
the  revealed  truth.  If  the  understanding 
were  alone  concerned,  there  would  be  no 
more  reason  for  our  being  justified  by  faith 
in  a  crucified  and  living  Christ  than  for  our 
being  justified  by  faith  in  the  conclusions  of 
a  problem  in  Euclid.  It  is  because  the  will 
must  endorse  the  verdict  of  the  understand- 
ing, and  so  must  mean  obedience  as  well  as 
mental  assent,  that  "  by  grace  ye  are  saved, 
and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the  gift  of 
God." 

At  the  close  of  Easter-week  let  us  remem- 
ber this.  Pray,  dear  brethren,  for  the  divine 
and  eternal  Spirit,  who  witnesses  to  the  res- 
urrection, as  in  the  sacred  books  of  scrip- 
ture, so  by  His  action  upon  hearts  and  wills 
of  men.  Remember  there  is  no  man  can 
say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord  but  by  the  Ho'y 
Ghost ;  so  no  man  can  profess,  to  any  pur- 
pose, faith  in  Christ's  resurrection  but  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  "  It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth 
witness  "  now,  as  nineteen  centuries  ago,  by 
that  influence  on  the  will  of  man  which  leaves 
the  intellect  at  liberty  to  do  justice  to  the  evi- 
dence before  it.  Pray  that  most  blessed 
Spirit  so  to  teach  your  hearts  and  wills  that 
you  may,  at  least,  have  no  reason  for  wishing 
the  resurrection  to  be  untrue.  Pray  Him  for 
His  gracious  assistance  that  you  may  recover 
or  may  strengthen  the  great  grace  of  faith 
and  have  your  part  in  the  blessed  promise  of  N 
the  apostle:  "  If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy 
mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in 
thy  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the 
dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved." — H.  R. 


EASTER 


187 


AN  UNRISEN  CHRIST 

By  Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.D. 
And  if  Christ  be  not  risen. — /  Cor.  xv:  14 


It  is  an  appalling  supposition :  we  almost 
stand  aghast  before  it  as  presented  to  us  by 
an  inspired  apostle.  There  are  some  supposi- 
tions which  we  are  angry  to  have  made 
when  they  concern  even  the  things  of  present 
worth.  If  any  one  say  to  us,  Suppose  it 
turns  out  that  all  of  your  coins  and  bars  of 
gold  are  nothing  but  brass  and  gilded  lead ; 
that  all  of  your  title-deeds  to  property  are 
worthless ;  that  your  nearest  friend,  most 
intimate  in  your  life,  is  merely  a  crafty  im- 
postor ;  that  with  all  the  appearances  of 
health  which  you  have  there  is  in  you  a  dis- 
ease before  which  death  is  imminent — we  do 
not  wish  such  suppositions  made  to  us,  and 
we  are  offended  and  angry  when  they  are ; 
and  yet  they  concern  only  the  earth  and  our 
earthly  experience.  But  this  supposition  of 
Paul  goes  farther  and  reaches  higher.  If 
Christ  be  not  risen,  what  He  affirms  as  the 
consequence  is  palpably  true;  then  is  our 
preaching  unmeaning ;  then  is  your  faith 
empty  of  power  and  purifying  knowledge. 
But  there  are  other  consequences  than  these 
which  he  did  not  mention,  and  perhaps  could 
not  bear  to  particularize,  on  which  it  is  meet 
for  us  to  dwell. 

If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  death  has 
absolute  power  in  the  world.  If  the  cross 
of  mankind  kills,  so  that  there  can  be  no  fu- 
ture making  alive,  then  Christ  Himself  be- 
comes the  greatest  witness  to  this  fact ;  the 
wisest  and  most  powerful  and  purest  of  men 
having  no  defense  against  death  and  no  power 
afterward  of  returning  into  life.  That  is 
true  if  Christ  be  not  risen ;  and  every  grave 
is  sealed  forever,  and  death  is  the  signal  of 
eternal  sleep.  Then  all  the  prophecies  which 
went  before  concerning  the  Messiah  are 
superfluous,  extravagant,  and  false.  When 
Simon  spoke  to  Him  as  the  Son  of  God  on 
earth,  the  Lord  of  Glory,  before  whom  the 
beautiful  gates  were  opened ;  when  Hosea 
and  Daniel  and  all  the  others  pointed  to  this 
mighty  King  of  Israel  and  King  of  the  world 
— it  was  not  an  utterance  inspired  from  on 
high,  and  full  of  truth  and  authority,  it  was 
simply  the  fancy  of  their  own  mistaken  minds. 
It  cannot  be  that  all  this  line  of  prophecy  was 
intended  to  terminate  upon  the  life  of  a 
young  man  dying  at  thirty-three,  hardly 
known  at  all  outside  of  a  small  section  of 
country,  and  whose  remembrance  and  influ- 
ence naturally  closed  with  His  death.  We 
might  as  well  suppose  one  of  the  ancient  aque- 
ducts, built  with  its  mighty  arches  spanning 
the  Campagna,  league  after  league,  and  reach- 
ing back  into  the  five  hills,  was  constructed 
by  imperial  enterprise  and  ambition  in  order 
to  bring  to  the  city  a  few  trickling  drops  of 
water  that  should  close  their  flow  after  the 
first  hour  had  passed. 


And  then  there  goes  back  a  dismal  doubt 
to  us,  to  say  the  least,  over  all  the  miracles 
which  are  recorded  as  having  been  wrought 
by  the  Master— back  to  the  divine.  It  is  not 
credible  that  the  swell  of  harps  in  the 
heavens,  of  angelic  instruments,  should  have 
celebrated  the  coming  to  earth  of  a  human 
being;  yes.  and  after  a  little  to  have  His 
life  crushed  out  in  bloody  destruction  by  the 
rage  of  the  Jews  and  by  the  Roman  nails  and 
spears.  We  doubt  everything  in  the  miracle 
if  this  last  miracle  is  not  maintained,  "  if 
Christ  be  not  risen,"  as  says  the  apostle. 
And  then  He  is  not  the  unique  and  holy  Son 
of  God.  There  is  no  other  authority,  no 
other  significance,  in  His  declaration  of  truth 
and  duty,  than  belongs  to  a  wise  and  in- 
structed man.  He  is  not  declaring  to  us 
the  thought  of  the  Almighty,  He  is  not  giving 
us  the  revelation  as  He  sees  it,  and  the  dis- 
covery in  the  way  of  life  as  it  lies  before  His 
divine  mind;  but  He  is  giving  us  theories 
such  as  other  men  give,  out  of  the  Christian 
world  as  well  as  within  it;  there  is  no  au- 
thority in  what  He  says.  If  He  be  merely 
the  man  Jesus,  crushed  on  the  cross  and  not 
rising  after  it,  then  there  was  not  a  volun- 
tary element  in  His  death.  He  was  killed 
because  He  could  not  help  it.  He  was  killed 
because  the  spearhead  of  the  Roman  pierced 
the  flesh  and  divided  the  heart.  He  was 
killed  because  those  around  Him  determined 
that  He  should  be,  and  He  had  no  power  of 
resistance,  no  power  of  rising  again.  And 
so  there  is  in  His  death  no  voluntary  ele- 
ment and  there  is  no  remission  of  sin.  for 
that  comes  with  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  the 
Master  on  behalf  of  those  who  are  sinners — 
as  He  said  Himself,  "  My  blood  shed  for 
many,  for  the  remission  of  sins ;  "  "  My  life, 
which  I  give  for  the  life  of  the  world."  Then 
there  is  no  present  Lord  in  whom  we  may 
trust,  to  whom  we  may  consecrate  ourselves, 
on  whom  we  may  depend,  praying  to  Him 
for  life  and  succor  and  all  that  we  need; 
and  there  is  no  living  Lord  in  His  kingdom 
OP  the  earth,  and  there  is  nothing  to  come 
except  confusion  and  disaster,  such  as  was 
before  His  disciples ;  nothing  at  the  end  of  it 
but  destruction,  as  there  was  nothing  for  His 
life  on  the  earth,  lofty  and  lovely  as  it  was, 
except  final  death,  from  which  there  was  no 
return. 

There  is  no  Gospel— it  is  literally  true — 
there  is  no  Gospel  "  if  Christ  be  not  risen ;  " 
no  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  to  be  proclaimed 
to  the  world ;  no  mighty  announcement  of 
life  beyond  the  grave;  His  words  concerning 
that  are  merely  human  words  and  uncertain. 
He  had  no  power  to  open  to  us  the  horizons 
of  life  out  beyond  the  grave,  closing  on  earth. 
We    cannot   know   that    anything   which    He 


iSS 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


said  of  the  future  is  certainly  true,  if  He  did 
not  illustrate  and  exemplify  what  He  said 
in  His  own  actual  resurrection ;  otherwise 
His  words  are  mere  day-dreams  in  the  air. 
Then  the  Bible  is  rent  in  every  part ;  the 
prophecies,  songs,  gospels,  acts,  epistles,  and 
revelations  too,  torn  into  strips.  There  is  no 
authority  for  the  Scripture  and  no  truth  in 
it ;  no  Son  of  God  dying  by  His  own  consent, 
and  rising  again  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  welfare  of  man. 

Now,  these  are  not  suppositions  which  are 
drawn  out  extravagantly  in  order  to  show 
the  value  of  that  superstition,  ''  if  Christ  be 
not  risen."  These  are  the  things  which  men 
affirm  who  deny  the  resurrection.  They  say 
frankly,  "  Christ  was  a  human  person,  like 
any  one  else,  only  better  in  character  and 
perhaps  with  a  subtler  intuition  of  truth,  but 
He  died  and  was  buried,  and  that  was  the 
end ;  and  the  ancient  prophecies  have  no 
authority  for  it ;  and  the  testimony  of  gos- 
pels and  of  the  apostles  in  their  epistles  has 
no  authority ;  and  we  deny  the  divine  nature 
and  supremacy  of  the  Master  on  earth." 

These  are  the  results :  "  if  Christ  be  not 
risen,"  then  is  our  preaching  unmeaning; 
then  your  faith  is  empty  and  vain.  But  also 
these  consequences  follow  in  this  epistle  be- 
fore us :  that  death  is  the  triumphant  con- 
queror of  the  world,  and  there  is  no  escape 
or  hope  of  anything  afterward ;  and  that  the 
prophecies  are  vain  and  fictitious,  and  mir- 
acles are  legendary  and  fanciful  and  poetic. 
There  is  no  unique  Son  of  God  in  the  world, 
and  His  death  was  not  voluntary,  and  there- 
fore not  for  the  remission  of  sin  any  more 
than  the  death  of  any  martyr ;  and  what  He 
told  us  of  the  life  beyond  the  grave  was  al- 
together a  human  suggestion.  He  did  not 
illustrate  it  in  His  own  experience,  and  He 
is  not  the  living  Lord  whom  we  can  trust ; 
not  a  living  Lord  to  carry  His  kingdom  in 
the  world,  and  the  Bible  is  wrong  and  there 
is  no  Gospel.  Death  is  more  terrible,  and 
the  world  is  gloomier,  and  the  grave  is  more 
appalling,  ana  the  future  more  awful  than 
if  there  had  not  shot  over  the  earth  a  gleam 
of  apparent  illumination  from  the  coming  of 
the  Christ  and  the  rising  of  the  Lord. 

You  have  seen  the  landscape  on  a  dull  and 
murky  day,  how,  with  a  sudden  shock  of 
light  shot  upon  it,  it  seemed  all  illumined, 
and  the  clouds  closed  again,  and  the  land- 
scape was  darker  and  gloomier  than  before 
by  reason  of  the  contrast  with  that  solitary 
and  fleeting  gleam  of  splendor.  So  it  is  with 
the  world.  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen,"  as  the 
apostle  presents  the  supposition,  then  is  the 
world  lonelier  and  darker  than  ever  before 
He  came. 

It  seems  as  if  Paul's  hand  must  have  trem- 
bled as  he  wrote  the  word ;  that  his  voice 
must  have  trembled  as  he  dictated  it  to 
another ;  and  so  he  seems  to  hurry  on  to  the 
sublime  affirmation  which  stands  only  a  few 
verses  after,  in  the  20th  verse,  "  But  now  is 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the 
first  fruits  of  them  that  slept."  That  dismal 
and  dreary  supposition  which  I  made  a  mo- 
ment ago,  "  if  Christ  be  not  risen,"  was  only 


a  rumor  against  it  that  it  might  illuminate 
this  majestic  fact,  "  but  now  is  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead  and  become  the  first  fruits  of 
them  that  sleep." 

Think  of  the  consequences  reversing  the 
others  which  followed  from  the  admission  of 
that  transcendent  act ;  to  him  so  marvelous ; 
to  him  so  full  of  glory  and  promise,  and  to 
us,  I  trust,  as  well.  Christ  is  risen  from  the 
dead ;  then  all  this  prophecy  in  the  earlier 
time  is  true  and  has  been  fulfilled,  and  all 
the  miracles  related  of  Him  take  versimili- 
tude,  become  probable  beforehand,  as  we  look 
back  from  the  resurrection,  sublimest  of  them 
all,  in  which  they  all  come  to  their  climax 
and  consummation,  which  irradiates  all  that 
went  before,  walking  on  the  sea,  and  breaking 
bread  for  the  multitude,  and  turning  water 
into  wine,  and  opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind 
and  the  ears  of  the  deaf,  and  lifting  the  dead 
into  life  again.  He  could  do  it  all ;  in  Him 
was  power  to  lift  Himself  into  life  after 
death  and  break  the  gates  of  the  sepulcher. 
All  this :  and  then  we  have  this  Son  of  God 
in  the  world,  and  we  can  listen  to  His  words, 
tender  as  those  of  human  friends  and  authori- 
tative as  those  of  God  Himself,  speaking 
within,  and  hear  every  gracious  invitation 
and  promise,  and  know  that  underneath  it 
and  behind  it  is  divine  wisdom  and  life  and 
eternal  being. 

Then  His  death  was  voluntary.  He  arose 
from  the  dead  after  death ;  then  all  the  world 
combined  could  not  have  taken  His  life,  even 
to  dim  it  in  its  luster,  unless  He  consented. 
It  was  a  voluntary  death.  He  walked  to- 
ward it,  knowing  what  was  coming.  He  took 
it  upon  Himself.  It  was  for  a  sufficient  pur- 
pose, that  He  might  make  redemption  for 
man,  atonement  for  the  sin  of  the  world, 
blotting  out  our  transgression  from  the  book 
of  God's  remembrance.  Then  He  is  with  us, 
and  we  may  trust  Him,  and  He  is  with  His 
kingdom,  carrying  it  forward,  and  the  gates 
of  hell  shall  never  prevail  against  it.  Then 
what  He  said  of  the  other  life  is  true.  He 
showed  it  in  His  example  and  life ;  and  we 
ought  to  obey  His  word,  to  be  His  disciples 
when  the  time  comes,  and  should  glory  in 
the  expectation.  Then  we  have  the  old  Bible 
back;  that  which  has  been  the  foundation  of 
civilization  in  every  land  which  has  possessed 
it ;  that  which  God  makes  the  Book  for  the 
world.  We  do  not  strike  out  one  part  or 
another  part  of  the  prophecy  on  record ;  we 
have  the  whole  compacted  together  by  this 
mighty  keystone  in  the  arch,  the  resurrection 
of  the  Son  of  God  and  the  glorious  mani- 
festation given  by  Him  as  the  divine  repre- 
sentative and  Son  in  the  world.  Then  the 
world  is  beautiful ;  it  is  not  a  place  of  graves ; 
it  is  a  place  of  graves  that  are  to  be  opened. 
It  is  not  the  city  of  the  dead.  They  who  are 
dead  to  human  view  are  living  unto  God.  It 
is  a  portal  of  paradise  instead  of  a  place  of 
graves,  and  there  is  light  upon  it  every  Easter 
m.orning  such  as  never  was  before  on  sea  or 
shore  until  the  Master  had  risen  from  the 
grave. 

These  are  the  consequences  of  that  great 
affirmation  of  the  apostle,  "  But  now  is  Christ"" 


EASTER 


189 


risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the  first 
fruits  of  them  that  sleep."  It  is  almost  as 
if  he  said.  Pardon  me  for  the  supposition, 
dismal  and  dreary,  involving  the  world  in 
gloom  and  overshadowing  your  hearts  with 
fear,  anxiety,  and  dread,  "  if  Christ  be  not 
risen."  Oh,  let  the  thought  go,  for  "  now  is 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead,"  and  through 
Him  the  horizons  of  life  are  widened  and  the 
heavens  are  opened  and  the  glory  comes  into 
view. 

There  are  two  thoughts  which  I  will  sug- 
gest briefly,  which  we  may  well  consider  in 
view  of  this ;  and  the  first,  of  course,  is,  what 
reason  we  have  for  gratitude  to  God,  pro- 
found and  constant,  that  He  has  given  us 
proof  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  so  ample, 
so  full  of  meaning,  so  absolute  in  its  power 
to  produce  conviction  on  any  reasonable  man. 
He  might  have  left  a  mere  verbal  statement 
of  it,  and  then  the  aspiring  and  believing 
spirit  might  have  accepted  it.  But  He  has 
given  us  such  testimony  to  it  as  cannot  be 
brought  to  the  establishment  of  any  other 
historical  fact  in  the  world.  It  is  certain  that 
the  death  of  the  Master  was  complete.  It 
was  not  His  friends  merely  who  saw  that 
death,  tho  they  saw  it  and  were  overwhelmed 
with  sadness  and  grief  in  view  of  it.  They 
heard  His  last  words ;  they  could  almost  see 
the  spirit  passing  out  from  the  closing  lips. 
They  knew  He  was  dead.  The  soldiers  knew 
it — they  who  had,  with  determined  and  stolid 
rage,  carried  Him  to  His  death — and  they 
were  proficient  in  the  signs  of  death.  Many 
things  they  did  not  know.  They  knew  the 
phenomena  of  death  as  well  as  any  surgeon 
in  the  world  to-day  knows  it,  and  they  pro- 
nounced Him  dead.  And  the  Jews,  raging 
against  Him,  knew  that  He  was  dead.  They 
had  seen  it  and  they  heard  the  testimony  of 
the  soldiers  and  the  testimony  of  those  who 
loved  Him.  They  were  triumphant  in  their 
knowledge  that  at  last  they  had  killed  Him 
and  He  was  out  of  their  way  forevermore, 
this  falsely-pretending  Messiah,  as  they  held 
Him  to  be.  And  modern  surgical  science  has 
even  demonstrated  the  physical  occasion  of 
His  death  in  the  legend  of  the  heart.  It  was 
death,  public,  not  private ;  then  there  might 
have  been  a  simulation.  It  was  a  death  the 
result  of  a  judicial  process,  a  death  inflicted 
by  anger  and  by  brutal  power.  It  was  not  a 
death  the  result  of  disease ;  it  was  a  death 
the  result  of  determined  violence,  which  was 
to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  the  accom- 
plished purpose. 

Certainly  He  was  dead ;  if  testimony  can 
prove  anything,  that  was  proved.  And  it  is 
■  as  certain  that  He  was  seen  again  in  life,  and 
seen  by  many.  Testimony  to  that  is  as  ab- 
solute. It  is  the  testimony  of  His  friends, 
who  knew  Him  personally  and  could  not  be 
deceived  as  to  His  identity — friends  who 
were  not  expecting  the  event,  by  which  their 
minds,  as  it  were,  were  almost  overwhelmed, 
as  if  they  had  seen  a  spirit.  It  was  the  testi- 
mony of  those  who  could  not  understand 
what  they  saw,  but  it  was  before  their  eyes. 
And  they  were  incredulous  to  the  last,  like 
Thomas,    "  Except   I    see   the   hand   and   the 


side,  I  will  not  believe."  They  could  not 
believe  and  would  not ;  and  yet  they  testified 
that  they  saw  Him  again,  and  they  could  not 
be  deceived  in  regard  to  it.  It  was  not  the 
testimony  of  those  who  saw  Him  for  a  mo- 
ment in  a  passing  glimpse,  but  of  those  who 
saw  Him  repeatedly  at  intervals,  here,  there, 
and  elsewhere,  during  a  period  of  forty  days. 
It  was  the  testimony  given  by  those  who  were 
ready  to  seal  their  witness  by  their  blood, 
and  who  did  it  against  the  rod  of  the  Jew, 
against  the  proud  malice  and  hate  of  the 
Roman.  They  testified  to  this  fact  that  they 
had  seen  Him — 500  of  them  at  once ;  many  of 
whom,  Paul  says,  were  living  at  the  time 
when  he  was  writing  to  the  Corinthians, 
twenty-two  or  twenty-five  years  afterward. 
If  any  testimony  can  prove  any  fact,  this  fact 
of  the  reappearance  of  Christ  after  His  com- 
pleted death  is  established.  Unless  all  judi- 
cial processes  of  inquiry  into  alleged  facts  are 
mere  confusion  and  bewilderment,  this  fact 
is  established  certainly,  upon  constant  evi- 
dence, by  a  sufficient  number  of  unimpeach- 
able witnesses. 

You  have  heard  the  vision  of  heaven  which 
came  unto  Stephen  in  the  agony  of  his  death, 
and  that  given  to  Paul  on  the  way  to  Damas- 
cus ;  and  the  evidence  of  that  testimony  of 
St.  Paul  cannot  be  overstated.  In  blinding 
glory  he  saw  the  Lord  and  heard  His  voice. 
The  persecutor  became  the  apostle,  and  he 
who  hunted  Christians  to  the  death  preached 
the  Lord  to  all  whom  he  could  reach. 

It  is  an  event,  this  of  the  resurrection, 
which  is  demonstrated  by  the  efifect  of  it  on 
the  spirit  of  the  apostles.  Take  Peter,  for 
example.  Here  he  is  before  the  Master  has 
come  to  the  cross  in  the  early  hours  of  that 
Friday  morning.  Frightened  by  circum- 
stances, he  denies  three  times  that  he  knows 
the  Man  at  all.  His  whole  spirit  has  gone 
into  a  collapse  of  utter  fear.  The  Master  is 
taken  and  carried  to  the  cross ;  it  seems  to 
make  this  appear  more  complete,  if  possible, 
and  a  permanent  impression  in  Peter's  life. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  met  the  Jews  and  de- 
clares to  them  this  risen  Christ,  preaches  to 
them  with  power  and  earnestness  which  they 
cannot  withstand.  "  This  Jesus,  whom  you, 
with  wicked  hands,  have  crucified  and  slain^ 
has  God  raised  from  the  dead,  whereof  ye 
are  witnesses ;  therefore  repent,  every  one  of 
you."  This  was  the  man  who  was  frightened 
almost  to  death  by  the  question  of  the  servant 
in  the  house.  There  is  some  element  there 
which  you  must  concede,  in  order  to  account 
for  the  collapse  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
consummation  on  the  other — the  utter  tim- 
idity and  the  absolute  courage;  and  the  only 
way  to  explain  it  is  this  fact  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ :  that  explains  everything. 

Think  of  that  early  Church,  with  me- 
chanics and  slaves,  tinkers  and  weavers,  as  a 
philosopher  of  the  time  said,  thinking  to 
withstand  the  Roman  power.  You  might  as 
well  set  an  eggshell  to  withstand  the  stroke 
of  a  ball  from  a  mighty  gun.  Something  held 
them  together ;  gave  them  continual  inspira- 
tion; something  told  them  that  the  Church 
was  to  live  and  be  triumphant ;   and  in  the 


I90 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


entire  development  of  Christians  afterward 
the  same  spirit  went  on  in  them.  Christen- 
dom never  came  from  an  unbroken  grave.  It 
would  have  been  buried  in  that  grave,  as 
Judas  thought  it  was  going  to  be,  and  as  the 
Jews  thought  it  was  going  to  be,  except  there 
had  been  a  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Then 
you  can  explain  Christendom,  Churches,  and 
literatures,  if  Christ  rose  again ;  but  other- 
wise they  cannot  be  explained  at  all.  Our 
whole  civilization  rests  on  the  broken  Cross 
of  the  Master,  and  it  is  incredible  that  a 
civilization  like  this,  in  a  world  advancing 
steadily  for  eighteen  centuries,  has  been 
founded  on  a  lie.  You  impeach  the  sanity  of 
the  race  in  that  statement.  No,  it  is  founded 
upon  a  rock,  the  faith  of  the  Christian.  It  is 
founded  upon  his  own  present  experiences. 
We  see  Christ  clear  to  us  in  our  hour  of 
extreme  need,  when  we  come  to  Him  in 
prayer  and  rise  to  Him  in  praise ;  and  we 
see  Him  in  His  kingdom,  turning  difficulties 
into  instruments  of  advance,  overcoming  ob- 
stacles by  means  unperceived  beforehand,  and 
converting  disaster  itself  into  victory. 

Yes,  these  are  the  consequences  of  the  fact 
;iffirmed  by  the  apostle,  and  blessed  be  God 
that  He  has  not  left  it  to  a  written  statement ; 
that  He  has  built  the  truth  of  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  into  the  history  of  mankind.  He 
has  made  it  as  certain  as  if  it  were  written 
on  the  arch  of  heaven.  That  is  the  reason 
for  gratitude.  With  what  joy  should  we 
welcome  the  coming  of  the  day  which  re- 
minds us  of  this  stupendous  fact  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world — the  Cross  of  Christ  and 
the  resurrection  that  followed ;  redemption 
and  heaven  side  by  side!  Every  Lord's  day 
should   bring   its   note   of   triumph   into   our 


life.  It  is  not  for  meditation  only  on  philo- 
sophical or  theological  themes ;  it  is  not  for 
grief  only  tho  that  is  appropriate  as  we 
meditate  on  our  sin ;  but  every  Lord's  day 
should  give  noble  impulse  to  our  spiritual 
life,  lift  us  to  higher  elevations  of  thought 
and  aspiration  and  expectation,  and  send  us 
forth  equipped  better  than  before  for  life's 
struggle,  conquerors  of  the  world.  That  is 
the  usefulness,  privilege,  and  glory  of  the 
Lord's  day,  and  every  service  ought  to  have 
that  note  of  triumph  in  it.  The  grave  is 
broken ;  that  is  the  meaning  and  suggestion 
of  every  service  of  the  Lord's  house.  Most 
of  all,  when  the  very  anniversary  comes  and 
we  are  carried  back  to  the  cross  and  to  the 
sepulcher  from  which  the  Master  came, 
should  this  note  of  triumph  be  in  our  hearts 
or  on  our  lips :  songs  of  triumphant  praise 
should  sound  from  organ  and  voice.  When 
we  go  home,  it  should  be  with  a  feeling  that 
the  world  is  consecrated,  the  sepulcher  has 
been  broken,  and  that  life  is  lovelier  than 
ever,  and  duty  more  beautiful,  and  death  not 
terrible.  So  we  should  walk  with  an  elastic 
step,  with  a  light  shining  over  our  faces  and 
in  our  eyes,  and  with  music  on  our  lips  as 
we  go  to  our  homes ;  and  if  any  one  ask. 
Whence  came  this  new  expression?  Whence 
came  this  sweeter  and  more  victorious  tone? 
we  should  be  able  to  say  to  them,  It  is 
natural,  for  to-day  I  have  walked  with  the 
risen  Christ ;  to-day  I  have  walked  as  con- 
queror of  the  Cross  with  Him  who  conquered 
it ;  to-day  I  have  walked  near  the  gates 
which  He  entered  who  broke  the  bars  of  the 
?epulcher  and  ascended  in  glory  to  heaven. — 
H.  R. 


CONSIDER  THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD 

By  Charles  Kingsley 


Matt,  vi:  26,  28,  29 


I.  What  has  this  text  to  do  with  Easter 
Day?  Let  us  think  a  while.  Life  and  death; 
the  battle  between  life  and  death ;  life  con- 
quered by  death ;  and  death  conquered  again 
by  life.  Those  were  the  mysteries  over  which 
the  men  of  old  time  thought,  often  till  their 
hearts  were  sad.  And  because  our  fore- 
fathers were  a  sad  and  earnest  folk ;  because 
they  lived  in  a  sad  and  dreary  climate,  where 
winter  was  far  longer  and  more  bitter  than  it 
is,  thank  God,  now :  therefore  all  their 
thoughts  about  winter  and  spring  were  sad ; 
and  they  grew  to  despair,  at  last,  of  life  ever 
conquering  death,  or  light  conquering  dark- 
ness. All  living  things  would  die.  The  very 
gods  would  die,  fighting  to  the  last  against 
the  powers  of  evil,  till  the  sun  should  sink 
for  ever,  and  the  world  be  a  heap  of  ashes. 
And  then — so  strangely  does  God's  gift  of 
hope  linger  in  the  hearts  of  men — they  saw, 
beyond  all  that,  a  dim  dream  of  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new   earth,    in    which    should    dwell 


righteousness ;  and  of  a  new  sun,  more  beau- 
tiful than  ours ;  of  a  woman  called  "  Life," 
hid  safe,  while  all  the  world  around  her  was 
destroyed,  fed  on  the  morning  dew,  pre- 
served to  be  the  mother  of  a  new  and  happier 
race  of  men.  And  so  to  them,  heathens  as 
they  were,  God  whispered  that  Christ  should 
some  day  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
II.  "  So  it  pleased  the  Father,"  says  St. 
Paul,  "  to  gather  together  in  Christ  all  things, 
whether  in  heaven  or  in  earth."  In  Him  were 
fulfilled,  and  more  than  fulfilled,  the  dim 
longings,  the  childlike  dreams,  of  heathen 
poets  and  sages,  and  of  our  own  ancestors 
from  whom  we  spring.  He  is  the  Desire  of 
all  nations,  for  whom  all  were  longing,  tho 
they  knew  it  not.  And  now  we  may  see,  it 
seems  to  me,  what  the  text  has  to  do  with 
Easter  Day.  Be  not  anxious,  says  our  Lord, 
for  your  life.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat? 
There  is  an  eternal  life  which  depends  not 
on  earthly  food,  but  on  the  will  and  word 


EASTER 


191 


of  God  your  Father ;  and  that  life  in  you  will 
conquer  death.  Consider  the  lilies  of  the 
field.  All  the  winter  they  are  dead,  un- 
sightly roots,  hidden  in  the  earth.  What  can 
come  of  them?     But  no  sooner  does  the  sun 


of  spring  shine  on  their  graves  than  they  rise 
into  sudden  life  and  beauty  as  it  pleases  God, 
and  every  seed  takes  its  own  peculiar  body. 
Even  so  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. — 
Discipline  and  Other  Sermons. 


CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION  THE  TYPE  OF  OURS 


By  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer 

Like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also  should 

walk  in  newness  of  life. — Rom.  vi:  4 


The  sons  of  Zarephath,  Shunem,  and  Nain 
were  brought  back  from  the  dead,  as  were 
Lazarus  and  Eutychus,  but  these  did  not 
share  in  the  resurrection.  Their  bodies  were 
not  changed  from  corruptible  to  incorruptible, 
from  mortal  to  immortal ;  they  were  still 
death's  prisoners  on  parole.  But  over  the 
risen  body  of  Christ  or  His  disciple,  death 
has  no  power.  Enoch  and  Elijah  were 
"  translated,"  "  changed,"  like  those  who  are 
alive  at  Christ's  coming  again ;  mortality 
was  swallowed  up  of  life. 

Christ  is  the  first-born  of  the  dead ;  and 
His  resurrection  shows  the  law  and  method 
of  ours.  The  points  of  resemblance  we  may 
indicate. 

I.  He  rose,  as  we  shall,  by  the  power 
OF  the  Holy  Spirit. — In  each  period  of  His 
life  He  was  dependent  upon  the  Spirit;  and 
the  same  Spirit  who  had  nestled  to  His  heart 
in  His  baptism  hovered  over  the  grave  in 
Joseph's  garden ;  and  on  the  third  day  loosed 
the  pains  of  death,  because  it  was  not  possible 
He  should  be  holden  of  it.  The  Holy  Spirit 
forgets  no  body  which  has  been  made  His 
temple.  He  shall  "  quicken  our  mortal 
bodies." 

H.  His  resurrection  was  unobtrusive, 
like  all   divine  work;   like  the  unfolding  of 


flowers.  The  doors  of  our  tombs  will  open 
on  noiseless  hinges ;  the  fetters  will  drop 
lightly  from  our  hands ;  our  bodies  will  rise 
into  immortal  beauty  like  a  dream. 

HI.  His  resurrection  was  leisurely. — 
The  burial-clothes  were  folded  and  laid  aside, 
as  Christ  without  haste  rose  in  majesty- 
God's  children  shall  not  go  out  by  flight,  for 
the  Lord  has  gone  before  them,  and  His 
glory  shall  be  their  rereward. 

IV.  His  resurrection  was  irresistible. — 
When  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  left  Him  in  the 
tomb,  the  guards  tried  to  hold  Him  fast.  But 
God  said,  and  will  say  for  us :  "  Let  my 
people  go." 

V.  His  risen  body  was  like  His  mortal 
BODY. — As  in  the  buried  seed,  the  principle  of 
vitality  was  unchanged.  His  glorious  body 
was  different  from  the  body  of  His  humilia- 
tion, yet  it  was  the  same.  He  could  vanish 
and  pass  through  doors,  yet  they  knew  Him 
the  same.  So  those  that  sleep  in  Jesus  be- 
come fairer,  stronger,  swifter,  more  apt  for 
servicej  yet  wake  with  the  endeared  features, 
familiar  tones,   and   happy  companionship. 

VI.  What  Christ  does  in  renewing  our 
souls  He  will  yet  do  in  renewing  our 
bodies. — This  will  be  the  top-stone  in  the 
edifice  of  redemption. — H.  R. 


CHRIST'S     RESURRECTION      THE     PROMISE     AND 
PROPHECY    OF    OUR    OWN 


By  T.  DeWitt  Talmage,  D.D. 

But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the  tirsf  fruits  of  them  that  slept.- 

XV. ■  20 


■I  Cor. 


On  this  glorious  morn,  amid  these  flowers, 
I  give  you  an  Easter  greeting.  This  morn- 
ing Russians  meeting  Russians  greet  each 
other  with,  "  Christ  is  risen !  "  and  the  re- 
ply, "  Christ  is  risen,  indeed !  "  In  Ireland, 
and  parts  of  England,  the  superstitious  be- 
lief is  still  held  that  the  sun  dances  on 
Easter  morn.  We  forgive  the  superstition 
in  the  thought  that  the  material  world  is  in 
sympathy  with  grace. 

I  find  in  the  text  a  prophecy  of  our  own 
resurrection.     Before  I  finish  I  hope  to  pass 


through  every  cemetery  and  drop  a  flower 
of  hope  on  the  tombs  of  all  who  have  died  in 
Christ.  Rejoicing  in  Christ's  resurrection  we 
rejoice  in  the  resurrection  of  all  the  good. 

The  greatest  of  all  conquerors  is  not 
Alexander,  or  Csesar,  or  Napoleon,  but  death. 
His  throne  is  in  the  sepulcher.  But  his  scep- 
ter shall  be  broken,  for  the  dead  in  Christ 
shall  arise. 

There  are  mysteries  around  this  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  which  I  can't  explain.  Who 
can  unravel  the  mysteries  of  nature?     Who 


192 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


can  explain  how  this  vast  variety  of  flowers 
have  come  from  seeds  which  look  so  nearly 
alike  ?  Tell  me  how  God  can  turn  the  chariot 
of  His  omnipotence  on  a  rose  leaf?  Mystery 
meets  us  at  every  turn. 

Objects  one:  The  body  may  be  scattered — 
an  arm  in  Africa,  a  leg  in  Europe,  the  rest 
of  the  body  here.  How  will  it  be  gathered  on 
the   resurrection   morn? 

Another  objects :  The  body  changes  every 
seven  years.  It  is  perishing  continually. 
The  blood-vessels  are  canals  along  which  the 
breadstuff  is  conveyed  to  the  wasted  and 
hungry  parts  of  our  bodies.  Says  another : 
A  man  dies ;  plants  take  up  parts  of  the  body ; 
animals  eat  the  plants,  and  other  men  eat  the 


animals.  Now,  to  which  body  will  belong 
these  particles  of  matter? 

Are  these  all  the  questions  you  can  ask? 
If  not,  ask  on.  I  do  not  pretend  to  answer 
them.  I  fall  back  on  these  words,  "  All  that 
are  in  their  graves  shall  come  forth." 

There  are  some  things,  however,  we  do 
know  about  the  resurrected  body. 

1.  It  will  be  a  glorious  body.  The  body,  as 
we  now  see  it,  is  but  a  skeleton  to  what  it 
would  have  been  were  it  not  marred  by  sin. 

2.  It  will  be  an  immortal  body. 

3.  A  powerful  body — unconquerable  for 
evermore — never  tired. 

May  God  fill  you  to-day  with  glorious  an- 
ticipations !     Oh,  blessed  hooe  ! — H.  R. 


RESURRECTION  THOUGHTS  AND   OUTLINES 


Personal      Questions. — i.    How     is    our 

resurrection  possible  f  i  Cor.  xv:  35.  "  With 
what  body  do  they  come?" 

One  of  Faraday's  workmen  by  accident 
dropped  a  valuable  silver  cup  into  a  strong 
acid  bath,  in  which  it  was  presently  dissolved- 
Faraday  cast  in  another  acid  which  precipi- 
tated the  silver,  tho  in  a  shapeless  mass,  but 
in  a  few  days  a  silversmith  had  refashioned 
it  and  made  it  more  beautiful  than  before. 
God's  chemistry  is  as  perfect  as  Faraday's. — 
Rev.  George  F.  Pentecost. 

2.  Hozv  can  we  make  the  resurrection  our 
own?  Rom.  vi:  4.  "  Like  as  Christ  was 
raised  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the 
Father,  even  so  we  also  should  walk  in  new- 
ness of  life." 

(a)  In  heaven.  Many  of  our  dear  ones 
are  there ;  some  starred  names  in  every  family 
record.  Toward  them  we  look.  "  One 
family  we  dwell  in  him." 

{b)  In  our  children.  Froebel's  motto, 
carved  on  his  tomb,  is :  "  Let  us  live  for 
our  children."  Make  your  investment  in 
them,  and  five  years  will  show  you  the  re- 
turn of  manhood  and  womanhood  for  child- 
hood. 

(c)  By  personal  reformation.  The  Chris- 
tian's privilege  is  to  forget  the  things  that 
are  behind  and  reach  toward  those  that  are 
before. 

Naaman's  flesh  came  again  "  as  the  flesh 
of  a  little  child."  You  may  have  renewal  by 
grace. 

The  Uplifting  Power  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion.— " //  ye  then  be  risen  withChrist,  seek 
those  things  which  are  above."     Col.  Hi:  i. 

(a)  Christ  is  ascended  to  heaven,  and 
draws  our  thoughts  and  hopes  heavenward. 

(b)  In  Christ's  death  for  sin  we  died  to 
sin. 

(c)  Our  true  life  now  is  unseen  and  re- 
ligious. 

(rf)  The  future  will  reveal  Christ  and  true 
Christians. 

Conclusion.  Give  then  to  death  (mortify) 
the  things  that  should  be  dead,  and  rise  with 
the  risen  Lord  into  the  higher  life. 


New  Life  for  the  Twentieth  Century. — 

Rom.  vi:  4.  "  Newness  of  life."  In  these 
early  days  of  the  new  twentieth  century,  we 
ask  how  we  can  enter  into  the  new  life. 

I.  The  new  time  offers  great  opportunities, 
(a)   It  offers  cooperation  with  great  move- 
ments now  in  progress. 

{b)  In  Christ  it  offers  a  strong  drawing 
heavenward. 

II.  We  need  to  seize  the  opportunities, 
(a)   The  heathen  Greek  said:  "Know  the 

opportunity." 

{b)  Christ  said:  "If  thou  hadst  known, 
even  in  this  thy  day !  " 

(c)  The  Holy  Spirit  says:  "To-day,  if  ye 
will  hear  his  voice !  "' 

Conclusion.  Believe  in  the  great  move- 
ments of  the  time,  and  in  the  part  God  has 
given  you  in  them. 

The  Resurrection  of  a  Church. — Like  as 
Christ  zvas  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the 
glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  zve  also  should 
walk  in  nezvness  of  life. — Rom.  vi:  4. 

The  collective  words  of  the  Apostle  show 
that  he  thought  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
church. 

I.  This  is  a  fact  accomplished: 

(a)  In  heaven.  This  has  been  attained  by 
many  members  of  this  Church.  Count  up  the 
starred  names  on  your  roll,  and  look  up  at 
the  stars.  Among  them  God  has  set  some 
whom  you  have  not  recorded. 

In  Chinese  ancestor-worship  there  is  an 
element  of  beauty  and  truth. 

"  One    family    we   dwell    in    Him : 
One  Church,  above,  beneath." 

(b)  In  our  children.  The  Church  might 
adopt  Froebel's  motto :  "  Let  us  live  for  our 
children."  "  Children's  Day  "  will  soon  show 
the  Easter  promise  fulfilled.  The  startling 
prominence  of  children  shows  our  knowl- 
edge of  their  quick  succession  to  us.  In  work 
for  them  "  He  that  soweth  and  he  that 
reapeth  may  rejoice  together." 

II.  It  is  our  duty  to  discern  and  Christianise 
these  facts. 

(a)   Discern  Christ  in  them  all. 


EASTER 


193 


(b)  Have  Christian  faith  in  good  move- 
ments. 

(c)  Take  them  to  heart  with  patience  and 
Christian   resolution. 

Christ's  Resurrection  Proves  the  Real- 
ity of  the  Supernatural. — //  Christ  be  not 
raised  your  faith  is  vain. — /  Cor.  xv:  17. 

Whether  the  supernatural  be  a  reality,  was 
a  vital  question  to  Paul,  and  is  to  us.  It  is 
fundamental  to  all  religion,  and  to  all  right 
and  joyful  thought. 

I.  What  proof  of  the  supernatural  may  we 
expect? 

(a)  Not  proof  that  compels  belief.  Such 
demonstration  belongs  to  mathematical, .  but 
not  to  vital,  truths,  which  move  our  hearts. 

(b)  Not  proof  equally  convincing  to  all. 
Men  will  believe  more  or  less  readily  accord- 
ing to  their  ideas  of  (i)   God,  or   (2)   sin. 

(c)  We  may  expect  reasonable  evidence, 
adequate  to  satisfy  (i)  keen  reason,  or  (2) 
plain  candor. 

II.  What  evidence  of  the  resurrection  do 
we  find? 

(a)  Concurrent  writings  by  six  independ- 
ent witnesses. 

(b)  Writings  which  were  first  given  out 
challenging  living  witnesses  and  a  skeptical 
age. 

(c)  Accordant   behavior  in   the   church: 
(i)   The  courage  of  their  convictions. 

(2)  The  practise  of  corroborative  ordi- 
nances. 

These  proofs  are  definite  and  reasonable 
beyond  any  comparison  with  Indian  myths, 
Islam,  Mormonism,  etc.  The  supernatural  is 
proved. 

III.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  accords  with 
the  feelings  of  good  and  wise  men: 

(a)  As  to  death. 

(b)  As  to  the  new  spiritual  life. 
Conclusibn. —  (i)   Religion  rests  on  a  basis 

of  fact,  not  on  our  moods.     (2)  Religion  con- 


tains an  element  of  success  and  triumph. 
On  Easter  it  was  thought  meet  always  to 
pray  standing  erect.  (3)  Religion  centers  in 
Christ. 

Death  Swallowed  Up  in  Victory. — Death 
is  stvallowcd  up  in  victory. — /  Cor.  xv:  54. 

There  are  two  evils  in  death :  the  personal 
fear  of  it,  and  unconsoled  bereavement.  Ex- 
perience of  both  these  is  world-wide,  and  we 
need  deliverance  from  both.  He  who  is 
free  from  heartbreak  at  the  death  of  others 
is  apt  to  blench  when  he  himself  looks  death 
in  the  face ;  and  the  brave  soul  who  is  not 
afraid  to  die  trembles  and  agonizes  at  the 
death  of  those  he  loves. 

God,  therefore,  early  began  to  speak  to  men 
about  this,  and  we  find  the  accumulated  wis- 
dom of  such  in  Job's  friends,  and  Balaam, 
and  sometimes  the  higher  strains  of  Isaiah's 
poetry  and  Paul's  lofty  prose. 

Paul  makes  the  following  points : 

I.  Death  makes  no  break  in  normal  Chris- 
tian progress. 

See  I  Cor.  xv :  46-50. 

"  There   is   no   Death !     What    seems   so   is 
transition. 
This  life  of  mortal  breath 
Is  but  a  suburb  of  the  life  elysian, 
Whose  portals  we  call  Death." 

Longfellow, 

II.  The  change  is  necessary  to  progress. 
Home  is  not  destroyed  by  sending  children 

away  to  school.  The  painfulness  is  in  our 
faulty  condition.     See  i  Cor.  xv :  50-54. 

III.  The  meaning  of  the  change  appears 
when  we  see  Christ. 

What  we  need  is  a  renewal  of  character. 
This  comes  in  the  new  birth,  and  the  new 
birth  is  the  apprehension  of  Christ. 

Conclusion. — Are  you  in  the  true  line  of 
progress?  Is  this  your  hope  for  your  chil- 
dren?   Is  it  your  own  hope? — H.  R. 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  RESURRECTION 


By  a  Physician 

But  some  man  will  say,  How  are  the  dead  raised  up?   and  with  what  body  do  they  come? 
Thou  fool,  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened,  except  it  die. — i  Cor.  xv:  35,  36 


The  chapter  from  which  these  words  are 
taken  is  full  of  sound  reasoning,  based  upon 
scientific  facts.  St.  Paul  seems  to  compre- 
hend clearly  the  doubts  and  fears  possessed 
by  his  hearers  respecting  the  possibility  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  Therefore,  in  order 
to  set  their  minds  at  rest  and  give  them  faith, 
he  reasons  with  them,  plainly,  clearly,  and 
simply,  taking  as  an  illustration  the  well- 
known  process  of  germination,  that  is,  the 
process  by  which  the  embryo  seed  leaves  its 
state  of  torpidity  and  becomes  developed  into 
a  living  plant.  The  seed  is,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  dead ;  but  it  is  not  so,  for  if 
placed  in  the  ground,  and  warmth  and  air 
being  supplied  in  due  proportion,  the  seed 
which  before  appeared  to  be  dead  is  gradually 


changed  into  a  living  plant.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  seeds  of  plants  retain  their  vitality 
for  many  years  if  carefully  stored  away  and 
kept  from  those  influences  essential  to  their 
growth.  Dudley,  a  noted  specialist  on  the 
subject,  mentions  a  case  in  which  young 
plants  were  raised  from  seeds  found  in  an 
ancient  urn  with  some  coins  of  the  Emperor 
Hadrian.  Another  writer  gives  an  instance 
of  seeds  capable  of  germination  which  were 
discovered  in  a  Roman  tomb  supposed  to  be 
fifteen  or  sixteen  centuries  old. 

Now,  we  know  that  when  all  things  an- 
swerable for  germination  are  supplied,  the 
seed,  by  absorption  of  moisture,  is  softened 
and  swollen.  It  then  undergoes  certain 
chemical  changes.    The  changes  consist  partly 


194 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


in  the  converting  of  the  starch  into  sugar, 
and  are  accompanied  by  the  evolution  and 
production  of  heat  as  the  fluid  matters  are 
absorbed  by  the  embryo  plant.  The  seed  con- 
tinues to  increase  in  size  until  it  bursts 
through  the  softened  outer  covering  and 
arises  an  independent  living  plant ;  and  yet 
this  independent  plant  is  not  composed  of  a 
single  atom  that  can  be  recognized  as  the 
substance  of  the  seed.  There  has  been  a 
gradual  but  marvelous  change ;  nothing  has 
been  destroyed,  but  all  has  been  changed. 

Priestly,  by  his  discovery  of  the  gas  called 
oxygen,  has  taught  us  that  there  can  be  no 
destruction,  and  likewise  no  creation,  that 
disappearance  really  means  change,  and  not 
annihilation.  We  cannot  create,  neither  can 
we  destroy  anything ;  therefore  the  total  sum 
of  energy  in  the  world  to-day  is  the  same  as 
it  was  in  the  beginning — no  more,  no  less, 
only  changed,  but  still  here  in  essential,  tho 
not  in  the  same  form.  St.  Paul  when  he 
uttered  these  words  about  the  seed,  using 
them  as  an  argument  and  testimony  in  favor 
of  the  resurrection,  must  have  known  some- 
thing about  the  indestructibility  of  matter, 
altho  his  knowledge  may  not  have  been  so 


definite  and  perfect  as  ours  is  at  the  present 
time. 

St.  Paul,  in  choosing  the  subject  of  the 
seed,  does  so  in  order  to  enlarge  the  boun- 
daries of  our  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead ;  and  science,  if  we  understand  it  aright, 
does  much  to  assist  us  in  confirming  that 
faith.  Therefore  the  more  carefully  and  mi- 
nutely we  examine  the  facts  which  science 
has  taught  us  and  compare  those  facts  with 
the  Bible  truths,  the  more  shall  we  have  cause 
to  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Science  and  religion  work  hand  in  hand. 
The  more  complete  the  one  the  more  firmly 
shall  we  believe  in  the  other,  and  shall  ex- 
claim in  adoration  and  wonder,  as  the  Psalm- 
ist of  old,  "  O  Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy 
works,  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all, 
the  earth  is  full  of  thy  riches."  The  faith 
St.  Paul  wishes  to  instill  into  the  minds  of  his 
hearers  is  the  heavenly  faith,  a  faith  which 
rests  neither  on  the  Church  councils  nor  au- 
thority of  any  kind  here,  but  on  the  words  of 
God  himself,  who  distinctly  states  in  these 
words  that  He  is  the  resurrection  and  the 
life :  "  he  that  believeth  on  me,  tho  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live." — Selected.     P.  M. 


IMMORTALITY 

By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D, 


/  Cor.  XV. •  41 


This  is  part  of  St.  Paul's  great  argument 
for  immortality.  The  reasoning  is  quite  clear. 
He  speaks  of  the  splendor  of  heavenly  things. 
He  has  been  claiming  man's  resurrection  on 
the  strength  of  Christ's  resurrection.  Christ 
has  risen  and  entered  into  His  glory;  man 
because  he  too  has  a  human  nature  like 
Christ's,  must  rise. 

L  St.  Paul  bases  the  argument  for  immor- 
tality on  the  richness  and  splendor  of  this 
mortal  life.  Because  this  world  is  so  great 
and  beautiful,  therefore  there  must  be  an- 
other greater  and  still  more  beautiful.  St. 
Paul  makes  heaven  not  a  compensation,  but 
a  development.  His  doctrine  seems  to  teach 
that  immortality  is  not  a  truth  to  be  distinctly 
striven  for  as  an  end,  but  a  truth  which  will 
hold  itself  around  the  man  who  deeply  real- 
izes the  meaning  of  life,  the  man  who  real- 
izes living,  how  identity  and  variety  blend 
and  unite  to  make  the  richness  and  solemnity 
of  living.  To  quicken  identity  with  variety, 
to  steady  variety  with  identity,  is  to  make  a 
man  always  keep  himself  and  yet  always  feel 
the  power  of  new  conditions  around  him. 

n.  Consider  the  consequences  of  this  truth 
of  identity  and  variety,  (i)  It  will  produce 
self-respect.  If  you  can  only  know  two 
thing;^ — first,  that  you  are  a  different  crea- 
ture from  any  that  the  world  has  ever  seen 
since  Adam,  and,  secondly,  that  you  are  a 
branch  of  the  tree  of  life  from  which  sprang 
Isaiah  and  St.  John— there  must  come  self- 
respect  from  both  these  truths  when  they 
are  really  wrought  and  kneaded  into  the  sub- 


stance of  the  human  nature.  "  There  is  one 
glory  of  the  sun,  and  another  glory  of  the 
moon,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars." 
There  is  the  ground  of  self-respect.  (2) 
Then  see  how  inevitably  respect  for  others 
is  bound  up  in  such  self-respect  as  this.  The 
absorbing  character  of  great  enthusiasm  is  a 
matter  of  the  commonest  observation.  He 
who  cares  very  earnestly  for  anything  is  apt 
to  care  very  little  for  other  things,  and  to  be 
indignant  that  other  people  do  not  care  as 
much  as  he  does  for  the  thing  he  cares  for. 
But  surely  it  must  be  possible  for  men  to  be 
profoundly  devoted  to  their  own  work  and 
yet  profoundly  thankful  for  the  work  which 
other  men  are  doing,  work  which  they  can- 
not do,  and  whose  details  and  methods  it  is 
not  in  their  nature  to  understand !  "  All 
things  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's,  and 
Christ  is  God's."  That  every  thing  should 
reach  its  best,  that  every  man  should  do  his 
best  in  his  own  place,  in  his  own  line,  that 
every  star  should  shine  brightly  in  its  own 
sphere,  comes  to  be  the  wish  and  prayer  and 
purpose  of  my  life.  (3)  To  Paul  this  truth 
was  a  proof  of  immortality.  We  want  the 
life  of  earth  now,  the  life  of  heaven  by 
and  by,  and  all  clear  with  its  own  glory, 
and  our  humanity  capable  of  them  both,  capa- 
ble of  sharp  timely  duty  here  and  now, 
capable  also  of  the  supernal,  transcendental 
splendor  of  the  invisible  world  when  the  time 
shall  come;  the  glory  of  the  star  first,  the 
glory  of  the  sun  at  last. — S.  B.,  vol.  ix.,  p, 
378. 


EASTER 


195 


A  RESURRECTION  STUDY 


He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that  ascended  up  far  above  all  heavens,  that  he  might  fill 

all  tilings. — Eph.  iv:  10 


I  read  sculptured  on  the  grave  of  Shakes- 
peare the  quaint  inscription : 

"  Good  friend,  for  Jesus'  sake  forbear 
To  dig  the  dust  enclosed  here. 
Blest  be  the  man  that  spares  these  stones, 
And  curst  be  he  that  moves  my  bones." 

The  dust  and  the  bones  the  grave  there 
holds  are  all  the  world  now  has  of  what  was 
Shakespeare.  That  which  he  has  done  re- 
mains indeed  a  truest  treasure,  a  mighty, 
pervasive,  victorious  force  and  influence. 
But  to  that  which  he  has  done,  nothing  he  is 
now  doing  can  be  added.  Shakespeare's  self 
went  yonder,  long  ago,  into  the  eternities. 
Of  Shakespeare's  self  the  world  is  bereaved. 

When  the  great  Napoleon  was  resplendent 
in  Berlin,  a  conqueror,  he  went  to  the 
Church  in  Potsdam,  a  little  distant  from 
Berlin,  where  Frederick  the  Great  is  buried. 
At  the  solemn  hour  of  midnight,  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly,  he  descended  to  the  vault  be- 
neath the  Church,  bade  that  the  coffin  of  the 
mighty  Prussian  king  and  warrior  be 
opened ;  amid  the  flickering  light  of  torches, 
he  gazed  long  and  earnestly  upon  the  shriv- 
eled dust  the  cofiin  held,  and  bore  away  as 
trophy  the  mighty  warrior's  sword.  But  it 
was  not  the  great  Frederick  whom  Napoleon 
saw ;  it  was  but  the  dust  of  him.  No  glimpse 
of  Frederick's  self  could  any  mortal  man  get 
vision  of. 

But  in  how  marked  contrast  to  the  stern 
truth  about  all  others,  stands  out  the  truth 
concerning  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

He  is  dead.  The  grimmest  death  captured 
Him  on  the  cross.  He  is  buried.  The  tomb 
is  sealed.  Will  it  be  with  Him  as  with  all 
others?  The  disciples  fear  so.  The  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  hope  so,  believe  so.  But  then  fol- 
lows— glorious  Resurrection  and  Ascension. 

He  is  different  from  all  others.  Notice 
the  difference. 


All  others  pass  into  Death  and  disappear. 
Christ  reappears. 

All  others  pass  into  Death  and  leave  the 
zcorld.     Christ  comes  back  to  the  world. 

All  others  leaving  the  world  in  Death,  as 
far  as  we  know,  have  nothing  more  to  do 
with  it. 

Christ  out  of  death  comes  back  to  the 
world  to  tell  it  that  tho  He  ascends  to  the 
Father,  He  tvill  be  still  in  the  world  a  power 
and  a  presence. 

First.  Who  thus  arose  from  the  dead  and 
ascended  ?  Our  Scripture  replies  the  Same. 
He  descends  into  birth  in  my  human  nature, 
into  temptation,  weariness,  suffering,  death. 
And  now  the  nadir-point  is  reached.  The 
descent  begins  to  change  into  ascent — resur- 
rection, ascension.  And  He  is  the  Same 
still.  He  does  not  slough  off  my  nature. 
He  does  not  cease  brotherhood  with  me. 
He   who   rises   and   ascends   is — the    Same. 

Second.  To  what  purpose  did  this  Christ 
who  is  the  Same  ascend?  Heb.  vi:24;  i 
John  ii:i.     For  Intercession  and  Advocacy. 

Third.  For  what  further  purpose  did  this 
Christ  who  is  the  Same  arise  from  the  dead 
and  ascend?  That  He  might  dispense  the 
Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  omnipresent  Christ, 
for  presence  with  me  and  help  for  me. 

"  No  fable  old,  nor  mystic  lore. 
Nor  dream  of  bards  and  seers, 
No  dead  fact  stranded  on  the  shore 
Of  the  oblivious  years ; — 

"  But  warm,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 
A  present  help  is  He ; 
And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet 
And  love  its  Galilee. 

"  The  healing  of  His  seamless  dress 
Is  by  our  beds  of  pain; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press, 
And  we  are  whole  again." — H.  R. 


THE  RISEN  LIFE 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  F.  D.  Huntington,  D.D. 

//  ye  then  he  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things  which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the 

right  hand  of  God. — Col.  Hi:  i 


I.  There  are  two  kinds  of  death :  the 
failure  of  the  vital  force,  which  we  dread  of 
all  things :  and  the  cessation  of  that  dis- 
ordered, diseased  condition  of  the  soul  which 
makes  our  life  all  wrong,  and  sometimes 
ruins  it.  This  may  be  called  the  death  of 
death ;  and  from  it  we  rise  into  a  new  and 
worthy  life. 

II.  This  risen  life  we  may  have  here  and 
now,  as  multitudes  do,  making  their  course 
true,   pure,    noble,    more    glorious;     keeping 


their  senses  chaste  and  clean,  their  affections 
sweet,  their  conscience  healthy.  The  breath 
of  this  new  life  is  prayer.  It  is  a  present 
heaven  which  all  who  are  Christ's  may  have. 

III.  Its  practical  attainment  is  in  seeking 
"  those  things  which  are  above."  We  seek 
things  "  above  "  what  is  low,  mean,  impure, 
false,  cruel,  profane. 

IV.  To  attain  this,  establishes  the  King- 
dom of  God,  the  better  social  state,  as  a 
present  fact. — H.  R. 


196 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ANESTHETIC,  Death  an.— 7  Cor.  xv: 
55.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that,  as  far 
as  a  divine  act  can  be  illustrated  by  one  that 
is  human,  the  wondrous  transformation  of 
death  into  a  ministry  of  life  is  foreshadowed 
by  the  surgeon's  inventive  skill,  in  superin- 
ducing the  semblance  of  death  by  an  anes- 
thetic when  a  critical  operation  is  to  be  per- 
formed. The  flesh  is  laid  open  by  an  inci- 
sion of  the  knife,  but  not  a  nerve  quivers, 
and  the  patient  revives,  unconscious  of  pain. 
The  drugs  used  for  this  purpose  are  of  such 
a  deadly  character  that  in  some  instances  a 
breath  too  much  would  prove  fatal,  and  they 
are  handled  with  the  utmost  caution  and 
dread  under  ordinary  circumstances ;  but, 
under  the  surgeon's  skill,  they  are  made  to 
perform  this  helpful  ministry. 

So  God  takes  this  dreaded  thing  we  call 
death,  and  makes  of  it  an  anesthetic  (for 
does  not  Paul  speak  of  the  death  of  the  be- 
liever as  a  sleep?),  and,  under  its  soothing 
ministry,  the  change  is  wrought  in  the  child 
of  God  which  fits  him  for  immortality.  1 
have  heard  patients,  after  the  severest  opera- 
tions, assert,  with  all  the  assurance  of  con- 
scious satisfaction:  "I  felt  no  pain!"  And 
so  the  Christian  cries  triumphantly :  "  O 
t  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  " — C.  G. 

CHRIST,  Resurrection  of.  —  Biblical 
types  and  Illustrations.  Isaac  received  back 
from  the  dead.  Gen.  xxi:  10-14;^  Heb.  xi : 
19,  "he  received  him  in  a  figure"  (or  for  a 
type).  Joseph  raised  from  the  prison  to  the 
throne,  Gen.  xxxix :  20 ;  xli :  39-45-  Jonah 
restored,  after  three  days  and  three  nights  in 
the  whale's  belly,  Matt,  xii :  40.  Eliakim 
signifies  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  Isa. 
xxii:20;  see  ver.  21-24.  The  ark  resting 
after  the  flood  on  Mount  Ararat,  on  the 
seventeenth  day  of  the  seventh  month;  the 
very  day  Christ  rose,  as  some  think.  Gen. 
viii :  4. — Jukes  on  Offerings.  Aaron's  rod 
that  budded, — life  springing  out  of  death. 
"  Just  as  Aaron  was  declared  to  be  the  man 
of  God's  choice  in  the  matter  of  the  priest- 
hood, by  the  signs  of  resurrection  life  in  his 
rod,  which  budded  while  all  the  other  rods 
remained  dead;  so  is  Jesus  declared  to  be 
the  chosen  one  of  God— His  great  high  priest, 
the  antitype  of  Aaron,  by  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead;  or,  as  it  might  have  been 
rendered,  "  from  among  the  dead  ones." — 
A.  L.  Newton.  The  first-fruits  offered  as  a 
pledge  of  the  harvest,  the  morrow  after  the 
passover  Sabbath.  Lev.  xxiii :  9-14-  See  i 
Cor.  xv:20,  "Christ  the  first-fruits."  The 
first-born,  having  the  pre-eminence — the  be- 
ginning of  strength  and  highest  in  rank;  see 
Col.  i :  18,  Christ  "  the  first-born  from  the 
dead ;  "  Rev.  i :  6,  "  The  first-begotten  of  the 
dead."  The  living  bird  let  loose  at  the 
cleansing  of  the  leper,  Lev.  xiv :  53-  The 
scapegoat  probably,   Lev.  xvi.     The   corn   of 


wheat — first  dying,  then  rising  into  life,  John 
xii :  24.  The  temple  destroyed  and  raised, 
John  ii :  19.  The  time  of  Christ's  resurrec- 
tion is  variously  counted.  The  first  day,  the 
early  morning,  Luke  xxiv:i.  As  we  now 
count  the  days,  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
was,  as  it  were,  a  new  starting-point  of  time. 
TJie  third  day  from  his  death,  according  to 
the  Hebrew  mode  of  reckoning.  "  It  is  ten 
times  expressly  said  that  our  Lord  rose,  or 
was  to  rise  again,  on  the  third  day." — Bowes. 

CHRIST,  Risen  with.— Seek  the  things 
above.  That  is  the  first  thing.  It  is  your 
privilege,  your  possibility  and  your  duty  to 
reach  the  highest,  holiest,  and  happiest  life 
that  divine  grace  can  impart  to  you.  Just 
what  happened  to  the  disciples  when  they 
sought  and  obtained  the  "  power  from  on 
high,"  may  in  no  small  measure  be  your  ex- 
perience if  you  will  seek  a  fresh  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  make  a  fresh  and  full 
surrender  of  yourself  to  Christ.  That  will 
be  a  re-conversion.  What  a  different  man 
Peter  is  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  from  the  crude,  inconstant  Peter  in 
the  Book  of  John !  No  more  vain  boastings 
and  cowardly  lies  now !  Peter  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost  is  as  superior  to  Peter  in  Pi- 
late's courtyard,  as  a  stalwart  man  is  to  a 
puny,  stumbling  child.  He  had  risen  with 
Christ  and  into  Christ.  He  had  been  bap- 
tized into  a  clearer  illumination,  and  lifted 
into  a  close,  vital,  and  victorious  union  with 
his  Lord.  It  was  a  prodigious  push  that 
carried  the  sleeper  in  Gethsemane  and  the 
coward  in  Pilate's  yard  up  to  the  heroic  . 
thunderer  whose  sermon  converted  three 
thousand  souls. 

Something  similar  to  this  in  kind — the  not 
in  degree — has  happened  to  thousands  of 
God's  people.  They  have  awakened  to  their 
low  condition.  Instead  of  quenching  the 
Holy  Spirit  they  have  come  to  Jesus  on  their 
knees  in  honest  confession,  and  have  sought 
a  new  baptism.  They  have  begun  to  clear 
out  the  sins  that  have  monopolized  most  of 
the  house  room  in  their  hearts.  They  have 
sought  a  re-conversion,  a  fresh  quickening 
from  on  high.     New  light  has  burst  in.  new  1 

strength    has    been    imparted,    new    joy    has         I 
been  kindled.    They  have  flung  off  the  grave-         ' 
clothes  and  "  put  on  Christ."     Now  they  can 
sing  with  Charles  Wesley : 

Thou,    O    Christ,    art    all    I    want — 
More  than  all  in  Thee  I  find. 

— T.   L.    CUYLER. 

EAR-MONTH,  The.— The  Jewish  year 
began  with  Abib,  the  ear-month,  when  the 
early  corn  was  in  the  ear,  in  point  of  time 
and  meaning  nearly  equal  to  our  April,  the 
opening  month,  and  in  the  order  of  nature 
the  first  month  of  the  year.  Life  starts  anew 
with   Abib,   with   April.     The   sun   ascending 


EASTER 


197 


from  the  east,  the  Easter  sun,  has  then  con- 
quered the  frozen  soil  and  gently  compelled 
its  countless  germs  to  reveal  themselves. 
Surrexit  is  then  everywhere  the  word.  Thus, 
from  Joseph's  new  tomb  He  has  come  forth 
whose  mission  it  is  to  give  life  to  the  world. 
The  Church,  that  is,  life  in  its  highest  and 
most  enduring  form,  is  coeval  with  the  first 
Easter.    Resurrexit! — C.  G. 

EASTEB. — The  word  itself  reveals  its 
origin  and  meaning.  It  is  an  Eastern  word 
and  means  something  from  the  East.  The 
sun  has  returned  from  his  northern  resort 
and  shines  again  from  the  east,  bringing 
warmth  and  revival  in  his  rays,  "  The  win- 
ter is  past,  the  rain  is  over  and  gone,  the 
flowers  appear  on  earth,  and  the  time  of  the 
singing  birds  is  come."  Who  has  done  this? 
Easter  has  done  it.  But  who  is  Easter? 
Why,  Easter  is  the  beautiful  goddess  who 
has  wiled  Sol  or  Jupiter  from  his  northern 
heme  to  come  away  with  her.  Easter  is  the 
fair  goddess  of  spring,  whom  our  pagan 
Saxon  forefathers  were  wont  to  worship  be- 
fore they  ever  heard  of  Jesus.  And  this  is 
whence  she  came. — C.  G. 

EASTEBi. — We  see  in  Easter  not  merely  a 
memorial  of  a  long-gone  past,  but  a  witness 
to  the  truth  that  the  grave  is  always  empty ; 
that  the  living  are  never  to  be  sought  among 
the  dead,  and  that  a  divine  presence  ever 
walks  the  earth,  the  companion  now  as  then 
of  those  whose  eager  questioning  needs  an- 
swer, and  whose  earnest  but  perhaps  almost 
despairing  hope  needs  inspiration  which  only 
He  can  give.  .  .  .  Death  is  the  separation 
of  spirit  and  body.  Science  can  define  neither 
life  nor  death.  We  only  know  that  this 
spirit  withdraws  and  leaves  the  dwelling  un- 
tenanted ;  the  musician  stops  playing,  locks 
his  instrument  and  goes  away ;  the  king  ab- 
dicates his  sovereignty  over  his  earthly  do- 
main and  departs  and  presently  the  kingdom 
with  no  king  on  the  throne,  dissolves ;  the 
organ,  with  no  organist  to  play  upon  it, 
falls  in  pieces ;  the  tent,  abandoned  by  its 
tenants,  drops  in  hopeless  ruin  on  the  ground. 
But  this  affords  no  slightest  reason  for 
thinking  that  the  king  is  dead,  the  organist 
is  extinguished,  the  tenant  has  ceased  to  be. 
— Lyman    Abbott. 

EASTER,  Glorious.— One  real,  thorough- 
ly authenticated  resurrection  lightens  all  the 
darkness  of  the  world.  Men  had  been  going 
down  into  death  by  the  million  and  no  one 
coming  back.  The  mighty  chasm  of  the 
grave  had  devoured  the  nations  and  races 
for  thousands  of  years,  but  no  one  had  given 
a  look  or  waved  a  hand  to  tell  the  effects  on 
the  soul.  The  most  horrible  fancies  and 
fears  filled  the  mind  as  it  was  being  forced 
step  by  step  and  hastening  breath  by  breath 
toward  the  bottomless  grave.  But  there  was 
no  hope  or  light,  or  reprieve  and  men  went 
shuddering  or  shrieking  into  the  dread  un- 
known. 

But  when  the  ideal  man  went  into  the 
grave  and  came  back  at  will  unchanged,  a 
crushing  burden  was  lifted  off  every  heart. 
Moses,  Martha,  and  their  people  believed  in 


a  resurrection,  but  it  had  no  definiteness. 
Jesus  came  out  of  the  bonds  of  death  be- 
cause it  was  not  possible  that  He  should  be 
held  of  it. 

In  Him  we  study  the  effects  of  death,  (a) 
He  was  the  same  in  purposes,  loves,  and  de- 
votion to  ends  previously  dear  to  Him.  He 
went  right  on  with  the  same  work,  rallying 
and  reviving  His  disciples  and  showing  how 
His  previous  work  was  to  be  carried  on  by 
them.  Hence  we  should  say  that  death  had 
no  effect  whatever  on  mind  and  affection 
more  than  a  night's  sleep,  (b)  Death  had 
no  effect  on  the  body.  It  was  the  same  on 
the  resurrection  morning  as  at  life's  even- 
ing. It  had  no  power  to  prevent  its  possible 
and  speedy  glorification.  Resurrection  power 
must  be  vastly  greater  than  the  power  of 
death.  This  last  cannot  even  destroy.  It 
only  takes  away  the  sustaining  power  of  the 
spirit  and  leaves  natural  processes  to  work 
in  their  own  way.  Death  is  the  highest 
power  of  nature,  but  it  is  nothing  to  the 
power  of  life.  Transfiguration  was  only  a 
natural  flourishing  of  the  forces  of  life. 
Ascension  and  glorification  were  only  the 
natural  fruit  of  such  blossoming. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  some  of  the  best 
poetry  that  has  sprung  out  of  jubilant  human 
hearts  has  had  the  Easter  for  its  theme. — 
Bishop  Warren. 

EASTER,  The  Coming,— Easter  always 
falls  on  the  Sunday  after  the  full  moon,  next 
after  March  21st.'  The  idea  in  fixing  it  by 
this  standard,  was  that  Easter  might  always 
occur  at  the  Spring  full  moon,  at  which 
time  the  first  Easter,  or  our  Lord's  Resur- 
rection, took  place.  Easter  is  the  great  fes- 
tival of  the  Church,  and  well  it  may  be  since 
the  triumphant  words :  "  He  is  Risen," 
were  the  seal  and  climax,  and  crown,  of 
Christ's  whole  incarnation  and  work  as  Re- 
deemer.— S.  J.  M. 

EGGS,  The  Origin  of  Easter.— There  fell 
from  heaven  one  day,  long,  long  ago,  an  egg 
of  immense  size ;  it  rested  on  the  Euphrates, 
where  doves  descended  and  hatched  it,  when 
out  from  it  arose  in  splendid  beauty  Easter, 
or  Venus ;  and  that  explains  why  eggs  are  a 
favorite  food  during  the  festival  of  this 
lovely  deity.  When  the  early  Christians 
came  to  our  Saxon  lands,  conquering  for 
Christ,  they  preserved  this  feast,  but  changed 
its  application.  "  We  will  maintain  your 
celebration,"  they  said,  "  but  it  shall  hence- 
forth mean  the  resurrection  of  Christ."  And 
that  explains  why  it  is  that  this  joyous 
Christian  festival  bears  an  old  heathen  name. 
Similarly  with  the  egg;  it  was  retained,  and 
since  from  its  shelly  sepulcher  there  issued 
a  new  and  winged  thing  of  life  and  beauty ; 
it  was  easily  made  to  fit  in  finely  with  the 
Christian  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead. — C.  G. 

GRAVE,  The  Three  Days  in  the.— In  the 
Jewish  reckoning  of  days  everv  part  of  a 
day  is  counted.  The  body  of  Jesus  was  laid 
in  Joseph's  rock-hewn  tomb  in  the  suburban 
garden  near  Golgotha  on  Friday  night,  and 
remained    in    it    all    Saturday    and    Saturday 


198 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


night — three  days  therefore.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  third  day  He  rose  from  the  grave. 
This  was  the  first  glad  Easter,  and  it  teaches 
us  that  as  Jesus  rose  from  the  grave  with 
His  1  ody,  so  shall  we  rise  with  our  body. 
There  are  in  Rome  some  very  old  burying 
places  called  the  catacombs,  and  on  the  walls 
there  are  many  epitaphs  to  Christians  buried 
there,  some  very  beautiful.  One  of  these 
epitaphs  is  this :  Tentianus  vivit — that  is, 
"  Tentianus  lives."  That  seems  a  strange 
thing  to  put  on  a  grave,  yet  it  is  perfectly 
true.  The  love  of  that  Christian  is  alive, 
and  his  body  will  rise  again.  But  sometimes 
we  see  a  long  epitaph  on  a  tomb,  all  about 
death.  The  people  who  write  these  gloomy 
epitaphs  have  forgotten  the  resurrection. 
There  was  a  great  painter  once  called  Albert 
Durer.  He  lies  buried  in  his  native  city  of 
Nuremberg,  in  Germany,  and  on  his  tomb- 
stone they  have  put  the  word  Emigravit — 
he  has  gone  to  another  country. 

Where  was  the  soul  of  Jesus  during  the 
three  days  between  the  crucifixion  and  the 
resurrection  ?  In  the  place  of  departed  spirits. 
When  the  third  day  came,  the  soul  came 
back  into  the  body  again.  So  it  will  be  with 
us ;  our  bodies  will  be  laid  in  a  grave  in  the 
cemetery  (which  means  a  sleeping-place), 
and  our  souls  will  be  in  the  place  of  departed 
spirits,  and  when  the  great  day  of  our  res- 
uirection  comes,  we  shall  have  bodies  into 
which  our  souls  will  come  again.  God,  who 
made  the  first  man  out  of  the  dust,  can  make 
our  bodies  again  out  of  the  dust.  One  of 
the  old  saints,  St.  Chrysostom,  explains  this 
very  well.  He  says  that  when  we  pull  down 
a  house  in  order  to  rebuild  it,  or  repair  its 
ruins,  we  take  the  inhabitants  out  of  it  lest 
they  should  be  injured  by  the  rubbish,  and 
we  find  them  some  other  dwelling  till  the 
house  is  rebuilt  and  beautified.  So  when 
God  perceives  our  worn-out  body,  all  fall- 
ing to  pieces  from  sickness  and  old  age.  He 
calls  out  our  soul  for  a  time,  and  takes  it 
to  some  part  of  His  great  kingdom ;  and 
when  the  time  comes.  He  will  place  our  soul 
back  again  in  a  restored  and  beautified  body. 
We  all  know  something  of  death,  for  it  comes 
to  all  houses  sooner  or  later.  But  I  want  you 
to  feel  that  altho  death  comes  to  all  our 
bodies,  we  are  just  as  much  alive  five  min- 
utes after  death  as  we  were  five  minutes  be- 
fore. The  soul  has  just  gone  from  one  kind 
of  life  to  another.  "  I  am  the  Life,"  that 
was  a  name  Jesus  called  Himself.  He  is  the 
Giver  of  life  to  our  souls  when  they  are  dead 
in  sins,  and  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  live 
forever.— P.    M. 

HOPE,  Prisoners  of. — Zech.  ix:  ii,  12. 
When  I  stand  by  the  grave  side,  and  see  four 
men  lower  the  casket  into  its  resting  place, 
the  scene  is  not  unlike  that  of  another,  where 
four  men  from  the  roof  of  a  house  in  Ca- 
pernaum let  down  their  friend  out  of  sight, 
but  into  the  immediate  presence  of  Christ. 
They  cover  up  the  roof,  which  is  only  part  of 
their  faith's  work,  assured  that  their  friend 
is  all  right  and  will  walk  out  another  way 
liberated  and  with  new  life.  So  cover  up 
the  grave.     Your  dear  ones  are  in  the  pres- 


ence of  the  Risen  Christ.  Fear  not !  By 
His  mighty  power  they  will  walk  out  another 
way  liberated  and  glorified  in  the  heavenly 
life.— J.  E.  HoLDEN,  D.D. 

IBIDESCENCE  OF  DECAY.— 7  Cor. 
xv:  4S,  44.  It  is  said  that  the  beautiful  iri- 
descence found  on  ancient  vases,  buried  for 
long  centuries,  was  not  put  upon  them  by  the 
master  hands  that  made  them,  but  is  the  re- 
sult of  decay.  By  some  chemical  change  in 
the  darkness  they  held  secret  commerce  with 
sunlight  and  rainbows. 

If  this  apparent  destruction  of  man's  han- 
diwork can  bring  beauty  above  his  skill,  what 
shall  not  we  say  of  the  utter  impotency  of 
death  to  hurt  or  destroy  any  human  beauty 
of  person  or  character,  in  which  each  is  co- 
worker with  God.  How  blessed  to  read 
even  of  our  dying  bodies.  "  It  is  sown  in 
dishonor ;  it  is  raised  in  glory :  it  is  sown 
iiT  weakness ;  it  is  raised  in  power :  it  is 
sown  a  natural  body ;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual 
body."  "  We  shall  bear  the  image  of  the 
heavenly" — "fashioned  like  unto  his  glori- 
ous body."      (Phil.  iii:2i.) — Pallete.     C.  G. 

JESUS  CHRIST,   Resurrection  Life  of. 

— It  is  said  that  a  century  ago  an  infidel 
German  princess,  on  her  death-bed,  ordered 
that  her  grave  be  covered  with  a  great  gran- 
ite slab,  and  that  around  it  should  be  placed 
solid  blocks  of  stone,  and  the  whole  be  fas- 
tened together  with  clamps  of  iron :  and 
that  on  the  stone  should  be  cut  these  words : 
— "  This  burial  place,  purchased  to  all  eter- 
nity, must  never  be  opened."  Thus  she 
meant  publicly  to  proclaim  that  her  grave 
would  never  be  opened — never.  It  happened 
that  a  little  seed  was  buried  with  the  prin- 
cess, a  single  acorn.  It  sprouted  under  the 
covering.  Its  tiny  shoot,  soft  and  pliable  at 
first,  found  its  way  through  the  crevice  be- 
tween two  of  the  slabs.  And  there  it  grew 
slowly  but  surely,  and  there  it  gathered 
strength  until  it  burst  the  iron  clamps  asun- 
der, and  lifted  the  immense  blocks  and  turned 
the  whole  structure  into  an  irregular  mass  of 
upheaved  rocks.  Up  and  up  through  this 
mass  of  disordered  stones  grew  the  giant 
oak,  which  had  thus  broken  the  bars  of  the 
sepulcher.  That  oak  grows  there  to-day  a 
veritable  tree  of  life. 

In  every  grave  on  earth's  green  sward  is  a 
tiny  seed  of  the  resurrection  life  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  seed  cannot  perish.  It  will 
germinate  when  the  warm  south-wind  of 
Christ's  return  brings  back  the  spring-tide 
to  this  cold  sin-cursed  earth  of  ours ;  and 
then  they  that  are  in  their  graves,  and  we 
who  shall  lie  down  in  ours,  will  feel  in  our 
mortal  bodies  the  power  of  His  resurrection 
and  will  come  forth  to  life  immortal. — Dr. 
David  Gregg. 

JESTTS,  The  Resurrection  of.— A  German 
journal  quotes  in  favor  of  this  resurrection 
two  thinkers  who  are  not  usually  appealed  to 
in  favor  of  the  miraculous  elements  of 
Christianity,  namely,  Lessing  and  Schleier- 
macher.  Lessing  said :  "  The  witnesses  of 
the  resurrection,  through  the  testimony  of 
the  resurrection,  established  Christianity,  and 


EASTER 


199 


by  means  of  its  individual  and  its  historic 
effects,  this  rehgion  has  authenticated  itself 
as  a  miraculous  religion.  The  witnesses, 
however,  were  the  only  ones  who  had  be- 
fore them  the  foundation  on  which  they 
could  venture  with  perfect  assurance  to  rear 
a  great  superstructure.  We  see  this  super- 
structure before  us.  What  fool  will  dig  with 
curiosity  at  the  foundation  of  this  house 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  him- 
self of  the  excellence  of  the  foundation?  I 
now  know  better  that  the  foundation  is  good 
because  it  has  stood  so  long  that  those  could 
know  it  who  saw  that  foundation  laid." 
Schleiermacher's  testimony  is :  "  Whoever, 
for  the  sake  of  rejecting  the  miraculous,  re- 
fuses to  believe  in  the  literal  resurrection  of 
Christ,  and  prefers  to  suppose  that  the  dis- 
ciples were  deceived,  and  took  inner  vision 
for  outward  fact,  attributes  such  great  men- 
tal weakness  to  the  disciples  that  he  not  only 
destroys  all  their  testimony  respecting  Christ, 
but  also  implies  that  when  Jesus  chose  such 
disciples  He  did  not  know  what  was  in 
them."— H.  R. 

RESURRECTION,     Figures     of     the.— 

Awakening  out  of  sleep  (Isa.  xxviiig). 
Morning  after  night  (Ps.  xlix :  14).  A  tree 
cut  down  and  sprouting  again  (Job  xiv:7). 
A  corn  of  wheat  rising  through  death  (John 
xii:24).  Israel's  deliverance  (Ex.  xii:  37). 
Moses  at  the  bush  (Luke  xx-.^y).  The  seed 
sown   (i   Cor.  xv.^y). 

"  Paul  saw  our  grave  in  the  furrow  of  the 
plow,  our  burial  in  the  corn  dropped  into  the 
soil,  our  decay  in  the  change  undergone  by 
the  seed,  our  resurrection  when,  bursting  its 
sheath,  it  rises  green  and  beautiful  above  the 
ground  that  was  once  its  grave." — Guthrie. 

RESURRECTION-FLOWER,  The.— 

There  is  a  plant  found  in  sandy  deserts  and 
arid  wastes  called  Anastatica,  or  the  Resur- 
rection-Flower, from  a  remarkable  power  of 
recovery  which  it  has.  When  it  has  flowered, 
its  leaves  drop  off,  its  branches  become  hard 
and  dry,  and  the  plant,  in  a  little  while  is 
seemingly  dead.  But  so  soon  as  it  touches 
water  again,  it  gradually  expands,  its  leaves 
unfold,  and  life  returns.  It  is  a  parable.  If 
in  its  death-like  state  it  is  a  figure  of  the 
backslider,  its  resurrection  figures  the  above 
source  of  revival ;  the  backslider  must  get 
back  to  the  Fountain  of  Living  Water  again. 
—A.  P.  L. 

RESURRECTION    OF     CHRIST.— Rom. 

iv :  25.  Without  His  Resurrection,  the  death 
of  Christ  would  be  of  no  avail,  and  His 
grave  would  be  the  grave  of  all  our  hopes 
(I  Cor.  XV :  17).  A  Gospel  of  a  dead  Savior 
would  be  a  miserable  failure  and  delusion. 
The  Resurrection  is  the  victory  of  righteous- 
ness and  life  over  sin  and  death. — A.  P.  L. 

RESURRECTION,  The.— The  under- 
standing has  its  joys  no  less  than  the  heart 
and  a  keen  sense  of  intellectual  joy  is  ex- 
perienced when  we  perceive  the  truth,  or  any 
part  of  it,  resting  on  a  secure  basis.  A  man 
is  happy  when  he  has  attained  to  know  the 
causes  of  things.    The  chemist,  the  historian, 


the  mathematician,  the  anatomist,  are  ex- 
amples. Christ's  resurrection  is  such  a  fact 
to  the  Christian.  It  is  the  foundation  on 
which  the  Christian  creed  rests.  This  was 
the  reason  it  had  such  a  prominent  place  in 
apostolic  preaching. — Canon   Liddon. 

RESURRECTION,  The — A  curious  su- 
perstition leads  the  custodians  of  one  of  the 
temples  in  Japan  to  renew  the  whole  of  the 
structure  every  ten  years.  The  work  of  re- 
newal is  always  going  on,  a  little  at  a  time. 
Every  new  part  is  an  exact  facsimile  of  the 
part  it  is  made  to  replace ;  and  in  this  way 
the  identity  of  the  first  structure  is  main- 
tained. And  this  has  never  ceased  for  a 
thousand  years.  The  temple  of  the  body  is 
always  being  renewed  after  the  same  fashion. 
In  the  resurrection  it  will  be  renewed  at 
once  rather  than  part  by  part. — Selby. 

RESURRECTION,   The.- It  was  for  the 

glory  that  was  set  before  Him  that  Christ 
endured  the  humiliation  and  suffering  of  the 
cross.  Let  us  keep  our  eyes  fixed  steadily  on 
the  crown  immortal,  and  then  our  sacrifices 
and  services,  and  sufferings  for  Christ's  cause, 
will  seem  light  and  trivial  in  comparison.  .  .  . 
The  seal  of  the  Sanhedrim,  a  regiment  of 
soldiers  from  the  town,  a  floor  of  rock,  a 
roof  of  rock,  a  wall  of  rock,  a  niche  of  rock, 
cannot  keep  Christ  in  the  crypt.  Tho  you 
pile  upon  us  all  the  boulders  of  the  moun- 
tains, you  cannot  keep  us  down.  The  door 
of  the  tomb  will  be  lifted  from  its  hinges  and 
flung    flat   in   the    dust. — Talmage. 

RESURRECTION,  The.— Epitaph  on  the 
late  Charles   Reade,  written  by  himself. 

Here  lie, 

By  the  Side  of  his  Beloved  Friend, 

the  Mortal  Remains  of 

Charles  Reade, 

Dramatist,   Novelist,  and  Journalist, 

His  last  Words  to  Mankind  are  on  this 

Stone. 

I  hope  for  a  resurrection,  not  from  any 
power  in  nature,  but  from  the  will  of  the 
Lord  God  Omnipotent,  who  made  nature  and 
me.  He  created  man  out  of  nothing  which 
nature  could  not.  He  can  restore  man  from 
the  dust ;  which  nature  cannot.  And  I  hope 
for  holiness  and  happiness  in  a  future  life, 
not  for  anything  I  have  said  or  done  in  this 
body,  but  from  the  merits  and  mediation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  has  promised  His  inter- 
cession to  all  who  seek  it,  and  He  will  not 
break  His  word ;  that  intercession,  once 
granted,  cannot  be  rejected ;  for  He  is  God, 
and  His  merits  infinite :  a  man's  sins  are  but 
human  and  finite.  "  Him  that  cometh  to  me, 
I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  "  If  any  man 
sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father, 
Jesus  Christ  the  Righteous,  and  he  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins." — A.  P.  L. 

RESURRECTION,  The  Christian  Risen 

with  Christ — And  now,  how  am  I  conform- 
able to  Thee  if  when  Thou  art  risen,  I  lie 
still  in  the  grave  of  my  corruptions?  How 
am  I  a  limb  of  Thy  body ;  if,  while  Thou 
hast  that  perfect  dominion  over  death,  death 


200 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


hath  dominion  over  me;  if,  while  Thou  art 
ahve  and  glorious;  I  lie  rotting  in  the  dust 
of  death  ?  I  know  the  locomotive  faculty  is 
in  the  head ;  by  the  power  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  Thee  our  Head,  all  we  Thy  members 
cannot  but  be  raised.  As  the  earth  cannot 
hold  my  body  from  Thee  in  the  day  of  the 
second  Resurrection,  so  cannot  sin  withhold 
my  soul  from  Thee  in  the  first.  How  am  I 
Thine,  if  I  be  not  risen?  and  if  I  be  risen 
with  Thee,  why  do  I  not  seek  the  things 
above,  where  Thou  sittest  at  the  right  hand 
of  God?— A.  P.  L. 

SELECTIONS,  Various. 

Death.— -Death  is  not  a  thing  to  be  dreaded 
by  the  believer :  it  is  "  a  sleep."  Tired,  we 
lay  our  heads  on  Jesus'  bosom,  and  awake  in 
heaven ! — Selected. 

Future,  The. — There  is,  I  know  not  how, 
in  the  minds  of  men,  a  certain  presage,  as  it 
were,  of  a  future  existence;  and  this  takes 
the  deepest  root,  and  is  most  discoverable, 
in  the  greatest  geniuses  and  most  exalted 
souls. — Cicero. 

Grave,  The. — Paul  saw  our  grave  in  the 
furrow  of  the  plow;  our  burial  in  the  corn 
dropped  in  the  soil ;  and  our  resurrection 
in  the  grain  bursting  its  sheath  to  wave  its 
head  in  the  summer  sunshint.— Selected. 

Grave,  The. — The  grave  is  the  apparent 
doorway  through  which  we  pass  to  heaven; 
but  the  true  doorway  is  not  so  large — it  is 
closely  fitting  to  each  man. — Selected. 


Immortality. — In  vain  do  individuals  hope 
for  immortality,  or  any  patent  from  ob.ivion, 
in  preservations  below  the  moon;  men  have 
been  deceived  even  in  their  flatteries,  above 
the  sun,  and  studied  conceits  to  perpetuate 
their  names  in  heaven. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne — Hydriotaphia. 

Ch.  V. 

Immortality. — There    is    nothing    strictly 
immortal,    but   immortality.     Whatever    hath 
no  beginning  may  be  confident  of  no  end. 
Sir  Thomas  Browne — Hydriotaphia. 

Ch.  V. 

Immortality. — Immortality  is  the  glorious 
discovery  of  Christianity. 

Channing — Immortality. 

Past,  Present,  Future. — I  came  from  God, 
and  I'm  going  back  to  God,  and  I  won't  have 
any  gaps     f  death  in  the  middle  of  my  life. 
Geo.    e  MacDonald — Mary  Marston. 
Ch.  LVII. 

SEPUIyCHER,   Woman  at   the.— Was  it 

not  most  meet  that  a  woman  should  first 
see  the  risen  Savior?  She  was  first  in  the 
transgression;  let  her  be  first  in  the  justifi- 
cation. In  yon  garden  she  was  first  to 
work  our  wo ;  let  her  in  that  other  garden  be 
the  first  to  see  Him  who  works  our  weal. 
She  takes  first  the  apple  of  that  bitter  tree 
which  brings  us  all  our  sorrow ;  let  her  be 
the  first  to  see  the  Mighty  Gardener,  who  has 
planted  a  tree  which  brings  forth  fruit  unto 
everlasting  life. — Spurgeon. 


POETRY 


Bird,  Like  a 

Let  us  be  like  a  bird  for  a  moment  perched 
On  a  frail  branch  where  he  sings ;  ' 
Tho  he  feels  it  bend  he  continues  his  song, 
For  he  knows  that  he  has  wings. 

Victor  Hugo. 
Easter  Answer,   The 

Said  Death  to  Life, 

"The  world  is  mine;" 
Said  Life  to  Death, 
"And    thou   art   thine!" 

W.  F.  Warren. 
Easter  Lilies,  Like 

Like  Easter  lilies,  pure  and  white. 

Make   Thou   our   hearts,   O   Lord  of  Light ! 

Like  Easter  lilies,  let  them  be 

Sweet  chalices  of  love  to  Thee  ! 

Emma  C.  Dowd. 
Easter  Morn 

O  chime  of  sweet  Saint  Charity, 
Peal  soon  that  Easter  morn 
When  Christ  for  all  shall  risen  be. 

And  in  all  hearts  new  born ! 
That    Pentecost    when    utterance   clear 

To  all  men  shall  be  given, 
When  all  can  say  My  Brother  here, 
And  hear  My  Son  in  heaven ! 

J.  R.  Lowell. 


Immortality 

No.  no !     The  energy  of  life  may  be 
Kept  in  after  the  grave,  but  not  begun; 
And  he  who  flagg'd  not  in  the  earthly  strife. 
From    strength   to    strength   advancing— only 

he ; 
His  soul   well-knit,  and  all  his  battles  won, 
Mounts,  and  that  hardly,  to  eternal  life. 

Matthew  Arnold — Immortality.     St.  4. 

Immortality 

Nothing  lovely  ever  dies. 
But  passes  into  other  loveliness. 
Star  dust  or  sea  foam,  flower  or  winged  air : 
If  this  befall  our  poor  unworthy  flesh — 
Think  thee !  what  destiny  awaits  the  soul ! 

Ano7t. 
Immortality 

Immortality 
Alone   could  teach  this   mortal   how  to  die. 
D.  M.  Mvlock— Looking  Death  in  the 

Face. 
Last,  At 

But  all  lost  things  are  in  the  angels'  keeping. 

Love ; 
No  past  is  dead  for  us,  but  only  sleeping, 

Love; 


EASTER 


20 1 


The  years   of   heaven    will    all    earth's    little 
pain 

Make  good, 
Together  there  we  can  begin  again 
In  babyhood. 

Helen  Hunt — At  Last.    St.  6. 

Han,  The  Good 

When  the   good   man  yields   his  breath 
(For  the  good  man  never  dies.) 

Montgomery — The  Wanderer  of 
Switzerland..     Pt.  V. 
Hesurrection 

One  short  sleep  past,  we  wake  eternally; 
And   death    shall    be   no   more;    death,    thou 
shalt  die. 

Donne. — Sonnet. 
Resurrection,  Man's 

Shall  man  alone,  for  whom  all  els*;  revives. 
No  resurrection  know?     Shall  m?     alone, 
Imperial  man!  be  sown  in  barrel-  "ground 
Less    privileged    than    grain,     on    which    he 

feeds  ? 

Young — Night   Thoughts.     Night    IV. 

Line    704. 

The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust : 

Thou    madest    man,    he    knows    not    why; 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 

And  Thou  hast  made  him;  Thou  art  just. 
Tennyson — In  Memoriam. 

Risen  with  Christ        ; 

By  Emily  Huntington  Miller 

O  soul  of  mine,  to  life's  new  rapture  born. 
Canst  thou  forget  the  splendor  of  that  morn, 
When,  through  the  chill  and  silence  of  thy 

night. 
Stole  the  warm  radiance  of  the  Easter  light? 

Did  not  thy  Lord,  before  the  dawn  of  day, 
Unseal  thy  tomb  and  bid  thee  come  away? 
And  in  that  sacred  garden,  cool  and  dim, 
Amid    the    lilies   didst    thou    not    walk    with 
Him? 

Then  why  shouldst  thou,  all  trembling  and 

afraid, 
Still   bring  thy  spices  where  thy  Lord  was 

laid? 
Unto  the  heavens  lift  up  thy  downcast  eyes ; 
Thy  Lord  is  risen,  and  thou  with  Him  didst 

rise. 

Not  for  the  trump  of  doom  and  judgment 

hour 
Waits,  through  slow  years,  the  resurrection 

power. 
To-day  He  lives;  to-day  His  life  may  be 
Eternal  life  begun,  O  Soul,  in  thee. — I. 

Easter 
By  George  T.  Packard 

The   flowers   by   the  garden   tomb 
Each  lent  to  each  its  sweet. 

And  made  a  fragrant  pathway 
For  the  coming  of  His  feet. 


Glad   Easter  unto  Easter 

Its  own  blest  radiance  gives. 
And   shining  ranks   of  festivals 
Repeat  the  cry,  He  lives ! — Y.  C. 

Easter 

By  Mary  Clarke  Huntington 

That  Easter  when  the  stone  was  rolled  away. 

The  world  was  dewy  fresh  and  morning 

fair; 

The  birds  sang  matins  to  the  dawning  day; 

Shy  flowers  shed  perfume  on  the  windless 

air; 

And  those  who  came  with  spices  where  He 

lay 
Found  angel  vision — and  the  stone  away! 

That  Easter  when  the  stone  was  rolled  away ! 

How  many  centuries  have  passed  between 

Our  first  glad  Easter  and  this  later  day! 

How  much  of  sin  and  grief  the  world  has 

seen! 

Yet  those  of  us  who  come  with  hearts  to 

pray 
Find  angel  vision — and  the  stone  away. 

C.  E.  W. 
Easter 

By  Mrs.  E.  C.  Whitney 

What  rapturous  joy  thrills  the  pulse  of  the 
morning? 
What  meaneth  this  swelling  of  timbrel  and 
choir  ? 
This  incense  of  lilies,  before  the  red  dawn- 
ing 
Has  quenched  in  the  meadow  its  crystals 
of  fire? 

Oh,  say!  dost  thou  hear  it?     Of  ill  recks  it 
warning? 
This    deep,     surging    echo    of    past    holy 
strains? 
They  break  on  my  faint  heart  as  on  that  dim 
morning 
When  Judah's  bright  star  rose  o'er  Beth- 
lehem's plains. 

In  the  night's  desolation,  the  cliffs  and  the 
vales 
Voiced  with  wild  acclamation  the  earth's 
dreadful  throes; 
While   from    her   bosom,   quaking,   ascended 
the  wails 
Of  the  weepers  in  Israel,  for  Olivet's  woes. 

Not  the  chaotic  clashing  of  supernal  forces, 
Not  the  sobs  of  Golgotha  that  now  greet 
mine  ear, — 
"  Deo  Jubilate,  Gloria  in  Excelsis  !  " 
'Tis    the    song   of   the   angels !      My    soul, 
dost  thou  hear? 

From  the  hills  of  Moriah  to  Pisgah's  lone 
crest 
Throbs  the  psalm  of  Redemption.     O  Is- 
rael, hear ! 
Awake,  thou  that  sleepest,  go,  speed  thee  in 
quest 
Of  these  strains  so  prophetic  that  ravish 
the  ear. 


202 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Go,    hush   thee    in    Zion    the     dirge   of   the 
weeper ; 
Bestrew   not   His  grave   with   thy   cypress 
and  rue, 
Nor  with  aloes  and  myrrh  enfold  Calvary's 
lone  sleeper, 
For   the    day-star   has   risen!      Strike    the 
anthem   anew ! 

In  the   hush    of    the    dawn,    in   the  morn's 
saffron  glow, 
The    day's    golden    splendor,    He    comes. 
Savior,  King ! 
The  holy  Shechinah  illumines  His  brow. 
His  footsteps  are  led  by  cherubim's  wing. 

His  tender  feet  press  the  brown  mold  of  the 
vale. 
And    it     blooms     with     the     fragrance    of 
Sharon's  sweet  rose; 
The    withered    heath    sings,    and    the   thicket 
and  dale 
In    life's    resurrection    with    fresh   verdure 
glows. 

He  speaks, — and  the  morning  stars  gather  to 
listen ; 
He    smiles, — and   the    flocks    upon    Carmel 
rejoice; 
"  Rabboni !  "  oh,  well  may  human  eyes  glis- 
ten 
At    sound    of    that    tender,    compassionate 
Voice ! 

Bring  hither  the  ivy,  the  myrtle  and  palm. 
And  fill  thy  white  censers  with  rarest  per- 
fume; 
Bring  chalice  of  spikenard  and  sweet  Mecca's 
balm. 
For  the  dear  feet  of  Him  Who  brings  life 
from  the  tomb. 

Fling  wide  your  great  portals,  ye  hills  of  the 
blessed, 
That   He  Who  without  your  proud  walls 
trod  for  men 
The   wine-press,   may   enter.     Shout,   oh,   ye 
oppressed ! 
"  In  the  highest  be  glory !  "    "  Amen  and 
Amen."— Y.   C. 

An  Easter  Awakening 
By  J.  L.  S. 

Time  was  when  all  my  senses  shrank 

At  sight  of  death. 
The  face,   expressionless  and  blank, 

And   truant   breath, — 
The  narrow  tufted  bed  and  scent 

Of  drooping  rose. 
Were  all  a  grim  admonishment 

Of  future  woes. 
I  thought  of  horrors  to  be  passed 

Upon  the  way. 
My  soul  with  trembling  stood  aghast, — 

Too  late  to  pray. 

But  when  I  saw  her  lying  there 

So  calm  and  sweet ; 
With  roses  in  her  wavy  hair, 

And  at  her  feet; 


With  lilies  of  the  valley  spread 

Upon  her  breast, — 
I  quite  forgot  that  she  were  dead, — 

Such  peaceful   rest. 
Then    came    this    hallowed    thought :    If   she 

Could  start  so  glad 
Upon  a  journey,  that  for  me 

All  terrors  had, — 
Could  I  not  seek  that  self-same  way 

O'er  down  and  fell. 
And  travel  on  without  dismay, 

And  smile  farewell? 


I  trusted  in  I  knew  not  what. 

Perhaps  in  pelf; 
She  trusted  God  in  all,  and  not 

In  pain-racked  self. 
And  when  I   found  that  Christ  had  died,- 

Lay  cold  and  still ; 
And  rose,  a  body  glorified. 

By  His  own  will, — 
This  thought,  like  brightest  sunshine,  fell 

On  me  astray, 
That   Christ  had  come  on  earth  to  dwell. 

To  show  the  way 
Thro'  vale  and  shadow — where  He  led 

She  followed  on. 
And  felt  secure  as  in  her  bed. 

To  rise  at  dawn. 
And  I — well,  I  have  grasped  the  truth 

Their  lives  have  taught. 
And    whether    called    in    fading   youth 

Or  age  is  naught ; 
For  with  a  smile  I'll  kindly  greet 

The  coming  dawn ; 
And  where  He  leads,  with  eager  feet 

I'll    follow   on. 

P.J. 
A  White   Easter 

By  Jessie  F.  O'Donnell 

Oh,  the  wondrous,  glistening  Easter, 
Shining  in  the  morning  light ! 

Silently  the  world  had  blossomed 
Like  a  white  rose  in  the  night ; 

Softly  smiled  the  winter  landscape 
To  the  sunbeams'  glances  bright. 

Then  I  knew  the  wild  ice  Spirit 

Swift  this  marvel  great  had  wrought; 

Crystal   robes   for  trees   and  bushes 
In  the  darkness  he  had  brought. 

With  the  rainbow's  gorgeous  colors 
In  their  diamonded  fringes  caught. 

Every  tree  wore  jeweled  flowers. 
Flashing   like  a  monarch's  crown. 

All  the  tiny  twigs  and  branches 
With  a  weight  of  gems  bent  down; 

Every  stump  and  post  unshapely 
Had  a  crystal  column  grown. 

"  He  is  risen !  "  cried  the  maples 
To  our  listening  hearts  beneath. 

Pointing   fingers    white    to    Heaven, 
"  He    has   conquered    even    Death." 

"  He  is  risen  !  "  soft  the  crystals 
Echoed  in  their  frosty  breath. 


EASTER 


203 


And  if  ever  speech  were  silver 
Then  it  was  as  clear  and  sweet, 

"He  is  risen!"  all  the  ice-sprays 
Seemed  to  tenderly  repeat, 

While  they  swayed  in  Easter  sunlight, 
And  dropped  jewels  at  our  feet. 

"  He   is   risen !  "   cried   our   own   hearts, 
"  Death's  mysterious  veil  unrolls. 

And  forever  Death's  dark  kingdom 
He  has   conquered  and   controls ;  " 

And   were   ever   silence  golden, 
'Twas  the  stillness  in  our  souls. 

W.  C.  M. 

Beautiful  Easter 

By  Harriet  McEwen  Kimball 

Day   of   the    Crucified    Lord's    Resurrection; 

Day  that   the   Lord  by   His   triumph   hath 
made ; 
Day  of  Redemption's   seal   of  perfection; 

Day  of  the  Crown  of  His  power  displayed; 
Beautiful  Easter,  dazzlingly  bright ; 
Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light! 

Queen  of  all  festivals;  glad  culmination 
Of  the  bright  feasts  that  encircle  the  year; 

Glimpsing  the  Life,  in  a  transfiguration. 
That  shall  at  length  in  its  glory  appear. 

Beautiful  Easter ;  day  in  its  height ; 

Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light ! 

Banish    the    gloom     in    the    house    of    the 
mourner 

Keeping  the  vigil  that  sorrow  compels; 
Melt  the  cold  walls  of  that  prison  forlorner 

Where  unbelief  in  its  solitude  dwells; 
Beautiful   Easter,  dazzlingly  bright ; 
Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light ! 

Pierce  with  thy  rays  those  saddest  of  places 
Hearts  that  are  darkened  by  sin  or  despair; 
Stream    o'er    the    earth's     most    desert-like 
spaces 
Making    them    blossom    than    Eden    more 
fair; 
Beautiful   Easter,  dazzlingly  bright ; 
Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light ! 

Day  of  the  hope  that  is  almost  fruition ; 
Day   of   Christ's   message   of   "  Peace "   to 
His  own; 
Day  of  the  pledge  that  His  creatures'   con- 
dition 
He  will  transform  to  a  glory  unknown; 
Beautiful   Easter,  dazzlingly  bright ; 
Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light ! 

He  who  redeemeth,  consoleth,  forgiveth; 
Who   His   own   body   raised   up    from   the 
dead, 
Holdeth  all  evil  in  bondage  and  liveth, 
Source   of  all  blessing,   our  Life  and  our 
Head. 
It  is  His  Glory  that  maketh  thee  bright, 
Sun-Day  that  filleth  all  Sundays  with  light ! 

Y.  C. 


Easter  Day 

By  John  Keble 

Oh  !    day  of  days  !    shall  hearts  set  free 
No  "minstrel  rapture"  find  for  thee? 
Thou  art  the  Sun  of  other  days, 
They  shine  by  giving  back  thy  rays. 

Enthroned  in  thy  sovereign  sphere 
Thou  shedd'st  the  light  on  all  the  year: 
Sundays  by  thee  more  glorious  break, 
An  Easter  Day  in  every  week : 

And  week-days,  following  in  their  train, 
The  fulness  of  thy  blessing  gain. 
Till  all,   both   resting  and  employ, 
Be  one  Lord's  day  of  holy  joy. 

Then   wake   my   soul   to  high   desires, 
And   earlier   light   thine   altar   fires ; 
The  world  some  hours  is  on  her  way, 
Nor  thinks  on  thee,  thou  blessed  day: 

Or,  if  she  thinks,  it  is  in  scorn : 

The  vernal  light  of  Easter  morn 

To  her  dark  gaze  no  brighter  seems 

Than  Reason's  or  the  Law's  pale  beams. 

"Where  is  your  Lord?"  she  scornful  asks: 
"  Where  is  His  hire  ?  we  know  His  tasks ;  ' 
Sons  of  a  King  ye  boast  to  be ; 
Let  us  your  crowns  and  treasures  see." 

We  in  the  words  of  Truth  reply, 
(An  angel  brought  them  from  the  sky), 
"  Our  crown,  our  treasure  is  not  here, 
'Tis  stored  above  the  highest  sphere : 

"  Methinks  your  wisdom  guides  amiss. 
To  seek  on  earth  a  Christian's  bliss; 
We  watch  not  now  the  lifeless  stone; 
Our  only  Lord  is  risen  and  gone." 

Yet  even  the  lifeless  stone  is  dear 
For  thoughts  of  Him  who  late  lay  here; 
And  the  base  world,  now  Christ  hath  died, 
Ennobled  is  and  glorified. 

No  more  a  charnel-house,  to  fence 

The  relics  of  lost  innocence, 

A  vault  of  ruin  and  decay; — 

The  imprisoning  stone  is   rolled  away. 

'Tis  now  a  cell,  where  angels  use 

To  come  and  go  with  heavenly  news, 

And  in  the  ears  of  mourners  say, 

"  Come,  see  the  place  where  Jesus  lay." 

'Tis  now  a  fane,  where  love  can  find 
Christ  everywhere  embalmed  and  shrined; 
Ay  gathering  up  memorials  sweet, 
Where'er  she  sets  her  duteous  feet. 

Easter  Flowers 

With  gentle  home-work  doing  all  for  love. 
Making  some  life  the  better  for  our  own; 

Smoothing  some  path  for  other  feet  to  tread. 
Cheering  some  heart  that  has  to  work 
alone. 


204 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


So  shall  we  live  the  nearer  to  our  Lord, 
So  shall  we  labor  through  these  holy  hours; 

Till  Easter  suns  shall  hail  the  Golden  Day, 
And  joyful  hands  shall  wreath  the  Easter 
flowers.— O.  C.  W. 

Easter  Hymn  of  Athens 
By  Hezekiah  Butterworth 

They  stood  in  the  shadows,  the  Court   and 

the  people. 
And  waited  the  midnight,  the  priests  chant- 
ing low. 
Each  hand  clasped  a  torch,  in  the  darkness, 

unlighted, 
In  the  palpitate  air  but  one  Light  rose  aglo^y. 
The   thin  moon    sank    golden    o'er   Salamis 

waters, 
The   lambent    stars    burned    o'er   Hymettus, 

and  white 
The  Acropolis  lifted  its  blossoming  marbles 
Theseus's  ghost  'mid  pale  columns  of  night. 
"  He  will  rise!     He  will  rise!  "  breathed  the 

Patriarch  lowly ; 
"  He    will    rise !      He    will    rise !  "    said    the 

people,  and  still 
The  priests  chanted  on,  the  one  Christ-light 

above  them. 
And  faded  the  moon  from  the  Capitol  Hill ! 
• 
A  sound  rends  the  sky,  the  deep  voice  of  the 

cannon, 
And    Christ  OS    ancsti!    ascends    from    each 

tongue. 
From  the   Christ-flame  in  air  has  the  King 

his  torch  kindled. 
And   the    flame   is   fast   speeding  the  people 

among. 
Each  jubilant  torch  swiftly  kindles  another. 
The  One  Flame  is  filling  the  city  with  light ; 
The    noble    the     shepherd    boy    hails    as    a 

brother, 
And  the  shout  of  "  Anesti !  "  leads  onward 

the  night. 
They  are  shouting,  the  temples  of  Pan  and 

Apollo, 
They  are  singing,  the  shrines  of  the  Muses 

again, 
From  Pelion's  pines  to  the  groves  of  Ilissos, 
From  the  gardens   of   Plato,  to   Marathon's 

plain ! 
The     old     shrines     are     shouting     "  Anesti  I 

Anesti !  " 
Minerva  is  vanished,  and  Delphi  is  dumb. 
And     Theseus's     columns     are     empty     and 

broken. 
But  the  Zeus  long  unknown  to  his  altar  has 

come ! 

Haste !  haste  to  Mars'  Hill,  where  once  stood 

the  Apostle, 
'Mid   the    close-crowding   temples   of  Victor 

and  seer; 
The  priests  in  the  night  the  sweet  canon  are 

singing. 
Haste,  haste  ye  the  glorious  anthem  to  hear ! 
The  hymn  of  St.  John  of  Damascus  is  thrill- 

The  heart  of  the  watchers  with  rapture  di- 


The  moon  has  gone  down  but  over  Hymet- 
tus. 

The  stars  of  the  morning  like  vestal  lamps 
shine. 

"  Hail,  morn  of  Resurrection ! 

To  earth  proclaim  the  word ! 
Now  comes  to  hope  immortal 

The  passover  of  God; 
Lord,  shrive  our  hearts  from  evil 

And  give  our  spirits  sight. 
That  we  may  hail  with  gladness 

The  Resurrection  light ! 

"  All  hail !    said  Jesus  risen, 

All  hail !    our  lips  shall  say. 
Ye  heavens,  be  bright  and  joyful 

This  Resurrection  day ! 
Lord,  shrive  our  hearts  from  evil, 

And  give  our  spirits  sight. 
That  we  may  hail  with  gladness 

The  Resurrection  light ! 

"  Let  people  unto  people 

Proclaim  the  joy  abroad, 
Our  Christ  has  died  and  risen 

The  Passover  of  God, 
Lord,  shrive  our  hearts  from  evil. 

And  give  our  spirits  sight, 
That  we  may  hail  with  gladness 

The  Resurrection  light !  " 

'Tis   morning   in   Athens,    the   broad   sun   is 

shining 
On  lone  Caryatids,  through  Propylons  dumb. 
But  the  cross  gleams  above  the  dead  shrines 

of  the  city. 
The   Zeus    long   unknown   to   his   altars  has 

come. 
The  white  palace  sleeps  in  the  shade  of  the 

mountain. 
The  west  wind  breathes  balm,  and  the  silver 

chimes  cease, 
And  Peace  leads  the  hours  for  the  Lord  has 

arisen. 
And  blesses  the  earth  with  the  gladness  of 

peace !  Y.   C. 

Easter  Lilies 
By  Mary  A.  Denison 

0  lilies,  pure  and  splendid ! 
O  lilies,  holy  and  white ! 

1  greet  with  a  Christian's  greeting 
Your  lessons  of  love  and  light. 

You  bring  to  my  mind  a  picture 
Of  One  who  was  spotless  too, 

Who  took  for  His  world-read  lesson 
A  sermon  of  faith  from  you. 

O  lilies,  joyous  and  stately ! 

With  never  a  thought  of  pride. 
What  treasures  of  trust  and  sweetness, 

Come  with  you  at  Easter  Tide! 

What  zest  for  a  holy  living ! 

What  hope  in  a  Christian's  death ! 
What  gentleness,  charity,  beauty. 

You  teach  with  each  fragrant  breath! 


EASTER 


205 


Do  you  know  that  the  dear  Lord  Jesus, 

Rose  in  His  kingly  might? 
That  the  world  is  His  royal  capture, 

And  Heaven  His  throne  of  Light? 

Glad  may  ye  be,  and  singing, 
Like  me,  to  the  Christ  above, 

For  blessings  on  those  who  give  you, 
As  tokens  of  Easter  love! 

Y.  C. 

Easter  Lilies 
By  Mabel  Earle 

More  holy  than  stole  or  mitre 
They  stood  in  the  holy  place. 

The  altar  candles  were  brighter 
Burning  above  their  grace — 

Spirits  of  love,  grown  whiter 
From  looking  into  His  face. 

One  of  the  three  was  swaying 
To  music  we  could  not  hear 

And  one  of  them  leaned  down,  saying 
His  name  in  the  silence  clear. 

And  one  smiled  upward,  praying 
As  if  He  were  very  near. 

Y.  C 

Easter  Morning 

By   Phillips   Brooks 

Tomb,  thou  shalt  not  hold  Him  longer; 
Death  is  strong,  but  life  is  stronger; 
Stronger  than  the  dark,  the  light ; 
Stronger  than  the  wrong,  the  right; 
Faith  and  hope  triumphant  say, 
"  Christ   will   rise   on   Easter   day !  " 

While  the  patient  earth  lies  waking 
Till  the  morning  shall  be  breaking. 
Shuddering  'neath  the  burden  dread 
Of  her  Master,  cold  and  dead. 
Hark !    she  hears  the  angels  say, 
"  Christ  will  rise  on  Easter  day !  " 

And  when  sunrise  smites  the  mountains, 
Pouring  light  from  heavenly  fountains, 
Then  the  earth  blooms  out  to  greet 
Once  again  the  blessed  feet; 
And  her  countless  voices  say : 
"  Christ  has  risen  on  Easter  day !  " 

C.  G. 

Eor  Easter  Morning 

By  Louise  Chandler  Moulton 

The  glad  dawn  sets  his  fires  upon  the  hills, 
Then    floods    the   valleys    with    his   golden 

light, 
And  triumphing  o'er  all  the  hosts  of  night 
The   waiting   world   with   new-born   rapture 

fills: 
And,   hark!    I   seem  to  hear  a   song  which 
thrills 
The  trembling  air  of  Earth  with  Heaven's 

delight, 
And  straight  uplifts  with  its  Celestial  might 
Souls   faint   with  longing,   compassed   round 
with  ills. 


"  Christ,  Christ  is  risen !  "    The  unseen  sing- 
ers sing — 
"  Christ,    Christ    is    risen !  "     The    echoing 
hosts  reply — 
The  whist    wind    knows    a    passing  seraph's 
wing. 
And  holds  its  breath  while  shining  ones  go 
by: 
"  Christ,   Christ  is  risen !  "  loud  let  the  an- 
them ring — 
"  He  lives — He  loves — He  saves — we  need 
not  die." — Y.  C. 

Easter  Thanksgiving 

By  Margaret  E.  Sangster 

Thank  God  for  the  dear  ones  safe  to-day. 

Safe  at  home  on  the  happy  shore. 
Where  the  smile  of  the  Father  beams  for  ay. 

And  the  shadow  of  pain  shall  fall  no  more. 
Thank  God  for  the  hearts  that  have  done  with 
sin, 

For  the  eyes  that  shall  never  be  blind  with 
tears, 
Thank  God  for  the  beautiful,  entered  in 

To  the  perfect  rest  of  the  deathless  years. 

Thank  God  to-day  for  the  pilgrim  feet 

Which  have  trodden  the  last  of  the  toilsome 
way. 
For  the  strong,  for  the  frail,  for  the  babes  so 
sweet. 
Who  have  left  forever  this  crumbling  clay; 
Who  have  changed  earth's  trial  and  loss  and 
moan 
For   the    victor's    palm    and    the    voice    of 
praise. 
Who  dwell  in  the  light  of  the  great  white 
Throne, 
And  join  in  the  songs  which  the  ransomed 
raise. 

Thank  God  to-day  for  the  hope  sublime 

Which  fills  our  souls  in  the  darkest  hours; 
Thank  God  that  the  transient  cares  of  time 
Are    wreathed     in     the    glory    of   fadeless 
flowers ; 
Thank  God  for  the  rift  in  the  desolate  grave; 
'Tis  the  soldier's  couch,  not  the  captive's 
prison ; 
He  hallowed  its  portal,  who  died  to  save, 
And  we  write  o'er  its  arch,  "  The  Lord  is 
risen !  " 

C.  G. 

Cato's  Soliloquy  on  Immortality 

By  Joseph  Addison 

It  must  be  so — Plato,  thou  reasonest  well ! 

Else,  whence  this  pleasing  hope,  this  fond  de- 
sire. 

This  longing  after  immortality? 

Or,  whence  this  secret  dread  and  inward 
horror 

Of  falling  into  nought?  Why  shrinks  the 
soul 

Back  on  herself,  and  startles  at  destruction? 

'Tis  the  divinity  that  stirs  within  us : 

'Tis  heaven  itself  that  points  out  an  hereafter, 

And  intimates  eternity  to  man. 


206 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Eternity!  thou  pleasing,  dreadful  thought! 
Through  what  variety  of  untried  being, 
Through  what  new  scenes  and  changes  must 

we  pass? 
The  wide,  unbounded  prospect  lies  before  me ; 
But  shadows,  clouds,  and  darkness  rest  upon 

it. 
Here  will  I  hold.     If  the-e's  a  Power  above 

us — 
And  that  there  is,  all  Nature  cries  aloud 
Through  all  her  works— //e-  must  delight  in 

virtue, 
And  that  which  He  delights  in  must  be  happy. 
But  when?   or  where?    This  world  was  made 

for  Caesar. 

I'm    weary    of    conjectures — this    must    end 

them. 
Thus  am  I  doubly  armed.    My  death  and  life, 
My  bane  and  antidote,   are  both  before  me. 
This,  in  a  moment,  brings  me  to  an  end ; 
But  this  informs  me  I  shall  never  die. 
The  soul,  secured  in  her  existence,  smiles 
At  the  drawn  dagger  and  defies  its  point. 
The   stars   shall   fade  away,   the   sun  himself 
Grow  dim  with  age,  and  Nature  sink  in  years ; 
But  thou  shalt  flourish  in  immortal  youth. 
Unhurt  amidst  the  war  of  elements, 
The   wrecks    of    matter,   and    the    crush  of 

worlds. — From  Cato. 

Joy  Cometh  in  the  Morning 

By  Annie  L.  Muzzey 

'Tis  in  your  heart,  beloved,  that  the  Easter 
morning  breaks, 
Your    slumbering    consciousness    of    Love 
with  thrilling  joy  awakes; 
Your  thought  goes  out  a  minister  of  good  to 
heal  and  bless 
The  suffering  and  desolate  who  need  your 
tenderness. 

'Tis  in  your  heart,  beloved,  that  the  Easter 
lilies  bloom, 
The  sweet  flowers  of  affection  whose  in- 
cense cheers  the  gloom ; 
Go  forth  and  spill  their  fragrance,  whatever 
wind  may  blow. 
The  lilies  of  Ascension  thro'  all  the  years 
must  grow. 

'Tis  from  your  heart,  beloved,  that  the  stone 
is  rolled  away, 
The  Life  for  all  men  given  pulses  in  your 
life  To-day ; 
The  banners  of  Love's  marching  hosts  are  to 
the  breeze  unfurled, 
And  the    dawn-light    of    the    Kingdom  is 
streaming  down  the  world. 

Ring  out  the  bells,  beloved,  the  joyous  Easter 

bells, 
Celestial  harmony  along  their  cadence  rolls 

and  swells. 
The  blessed  Christ  is  risen  in  the  hearts  that 

throb  and  thrill 
.     Responsive  to  Love's  law  wherein  we  may 

all  laws  fulfil.— Y.  C. 


Joy  Cometh  in  the  Morning 

By  Ada  Melville  Shaw 

I  buried  my  bulbs  in  the  garden, 

'Twas  night  of  the  year ; 
The  sky  was  o'ershadowed  with  weeping, 

The  garden  was  drear ; 
I  gave  the  brown  bulbs  to  earth's  keeping, 
And  left  them  there  somberly  sleeping 

Till  day  should  appear. 

The  cold  rain  beat  down  on  my  garden; 

Ah,  pitiless  rain ! 
My  bulbs — would  they  perish  ere  waking, 

My  planting  in  vain? 
The  tempest  swept  on  without  breaking; 
My  faith  for  fair  flowers  was  shaking; 

I  wept  in  my  pain. 

Gray  dawn  slowly  crept  o'er  my  garden; 

I  sought  it  with  sighs. 
Lo!    there  through  the  soft  mold  appearing, 

Glad  sight  for  sad  eyes. 
Green  life  to  the  daylight  uprearing, 
O  foolish  heart,  what  of  thy  fearing, 

Thy  faithless  surmise? 

When  springtime  was  warm  in  my  garden, 

What  splendor  was  there  I 
White  chalices  heavenward  turning, 

O,  royal  cups  fair  I 
Tall  lilies,  in  golden  hearts  burning. 
Beneath  the  glad  sunbeams'  fond  yearning, 

Their  sweet  incense  rare. 

Weep  not  o'er  the  tomb  in  thy  garden, 

O  soul  sore  bereft ! 
Tho  sorrow  thy  spirit  is  shaking, 

Strong  comfort  is  left ; 
The  seals  of  the  dread  tomb  are  breaking, 
Behind  their  grim  guard  life  is  waking, 

The  darkness  is  cleft. 

Eternity  lighteth  thy  garden ; 

Look  up,  tear-dimmed  eyes ! 
Forget  the  lone  night  of  thy  weeping 

In  morn's  sweet  surprise ; 
Thy  dear  ones  thou  hast  'from  their  sleeping; 
Death  held  them  delayed  in  his  keeping; 

Lo,  none  but  Death  dies ! — C.  E.  W. 

The  Holy  Mom 

By  Edwin  Forrest  Hallenbeck 

'Tis  the  Lord's  day,  day  of  resurrection! 
Gloom  of  night  and  mist  of  early  dawn  have 
Fled.      With    glory-light    the    sun    looks    out 

upon 
A  reverent  world.     Nature's  mighty  chorus 
Shouts  its  halleluiahs   unto  God.     The   hills 
With  humble  mien  approach  Jehovah's  throne. 
The  trees   with   dew-be-diamonded   robes   of 

green 
Draw  near.    Meadow  and  hillside  bring  from 

out 
Their  blossom'd  wealth  garlands  for  the  altar 
Of  their  king.     Streamlets  lisp  a  dreamy  note 
Of  praise.     Golden  grain-fields  bend  into  the 


EASTER 


207 


Attitude  of  prayer;  orchards  humbly  bow 
While    morning    winds    put    worship's    voice 

into 
Their  lips.    And  as  the  day  goes  on  apace, 
Adoration  at  the  shrine  of  nature's 
God  becomes  intense ;  choirs  of  singing  birds 
Bring  melodies  of  joy  to  Him  who  gave 
Them  breath,  until  the  voice  of  forest  sings 
Refrain  to  field,  and  peak  responds  to  peak, 
And  every  note  in  glad  creation's  scale 
Has  fervent  part  in  holy  gratitude, 
And  admonition  to  the  sons  of  men ; 
"  Pay  homage  to  the  God  who  reigns  above ; 
With  humble   spirit  worship  at   His  throne, 
'Tis  the   Lord's   day,   day  of  resurrection !  " 

— E. 

Resurrection 

By   M.   a.   De  Wolf   Howe,  Jr. 

Through  the  length  of  the  year  the  grave 
must  take, 

'Tis  the  Easter  earth  that  can  only  give; 
Then  bury  the  meaner  self,  and  wake 

To  the  life  that  the  nobler  self  may  live. 

Before  the  dawn  of  the  Easter  sun 
Hide  deep  in  the  mold  the  dearest  sin. 

The  unnoted  lie  or  the  wrong  begun ; 
Let  the  shadeless  right  once  more  begin. 

Bury  the  pride  that  has  sprung  from  naught, 
The  envy  and  hate  of  a  blackened  hour ; 

Arise  to  the  Christ-life  purely  fraught 
With  love  as  white  as  the  Easter  flower. 

— Y.  C. 

The  Resurrection 

By  H.  L.  L. 

Breezes  of  spring,  all  earth  to  life  awaking ; 
Birds    swiftly   soaring   through   the    sunny 
sky  ; 
The  butterfly  its  lonely  prison  breaking: 
The  seed  upspringing  which  had  seemed  to 
die. 

Types   such   as   these  a   word   of  hope  have 
spoken. 
Have    shed   a   gleam    of    light   around   the 
tomb ; 
But  weary  hearts  longed  for  a  surer  token, 
A  clearer  ray,  to  dissipate  its  gloom. 

And   this   was   granted !      See   the   Lord   as- 
cending, 
On  crimson  clouds  of  evening  calmly  borne, 
With  hands  outstretched,  and  looks  of  love 
still  bending 
On   His    bereaved    ones,    who    no   longer 
mourn. 

"  I  am  the  Resurrection,"  hear  Him  saying, 
"  I  am  the  Life:    he  who  believes  in  Me 

Shall  never  die ;  the  souls  My  call  obeying. 
Soon  where  I  am  for  evermore  shall  be." 

Sing  Hallelujah  !  light  from  heaven  appearing 
The  mystery  of  life  and  death  is  plain ; 

Now  to  the  grave  we  can  descend  unfearing, 
In  sure  and  certain  hope  to  rise  again ! — E. 
From  the  German. 


Outside  and  In 

In  Memoriam,  S.  M.  B. 
By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D. 

I  stood  beside  a  swinging  gate 

The  two  great  worlds  dividing. 
Outside  poor  sinners  weep  and  wait. 

Inside  are  saints  abiding. 

How  grim  and  dark  and  dread  is  seen 

The  outside  of  that  portal 
Whose  inside's  glorious  golden  sheen 

Streams  on  the  eyes  immortal ! 

Outside,  the  winds  of  winter  shriek 

With  howl  and  lamentation ; 
Inside,  melodious  accents  speak 

Of  spring's  regeneration. 

Outside  I  saw  the  snow-clad  grave 
Of  a  babe  who  had  just  been  dying; 

Inside,  his  feet,  winged  and  fleet. 
O'er  fields  of  light  were  flying. 

Outside  I  heard  a  father's  plaint, 
And  a  mother's  cry  outbreaking; 

Inside  there  shouted  many  a  saint 
At  the  babe's  new  saintly  waking. 

Outside,  bereaved  children  wept, 

O'er  little  steps  retreating; 
Inside,  the  cherubs  harp-strings  swept. 

The  new-born  cherub  greeting. 

Outside  were  war,  and  want,  and  wo. 
Graves    and    homes    melancholy ; 

Inside,  the  landscape  stood  aglow 
In  soft  light,  still  and  holy. 

Outside,  upon  a  cross  of  blood. 
Hung  God's  great  Victim  dying; 

Inside  on  throne  He  radiant  shone 
And  angels  heard  Him  crying — 

"  Outside,  O  men,  are  Death  and  Sin; 

Inside,  the  Life  Immortal ; 
Fear  not  to  let  your  loved  ones  in 

To    Life   thro    Death's    dark   portal !  " 

The  Riddle 

From  the  French  of  Louise  Bertin 
By  Louise  Imogen  Guiney 

If  death  be  all,  why  on  our  hopeless  travel. 
Laughs  the  young  green  of  beauty's  April 
tree? 

And  when  the  frost  the  woven  leaves  unravel. 
What  need  for  us  to  sadden  as  we  see? 

Or  why,  if  life  be  all,  shards  in  the  grasses. 

And  ever  in  the  wayside  rose  a  spite? 
Why   must   we   pay,   yea,    soul   by   soul   that 
passes. 
Blood  for  man's  zeal,  and  tears  for  man's 
delight  ?— I. 


208 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Tired 

By  Newell  Lovejoy 

We  are  so  tired,  my  heart  and  I, 
Sweet  is  the  swell  of  the  poet's  sigh; 
Sweet  is  the  ring  of  the  minor  chords; 
Sweet  is  the  chime  of  the  measured  words. 
But,  oh !  when  life  is  so  hard  and  dull, 
We  miss  the  joy  of  the  beautiful, 
And  echo  it  back  like  a  bitter  cry — 
"  We  are  so  tired,  my  heart  and  L" 

Tired  of  sowing  the  barren  grains, 
Tired  of  taking  the  useless  pains 
Of  the  futile  faith,  the  unheeded  word. 
And  the  weary  sickness  of  hope  deferred; 
While  the  counted  sands  drop  fast  away. 
Through  the  feverish  night  and  the  restless 
day. 


And  the  reeds  we  lean  on  break,  one  by  one, 
And  the  sad,  ungranted  prayers  go  on. 

The  winds  sweep  over  the  cowering  plain, 
Through  the  creeping  mist  sobs  the  ceaseless 

rain; 
The  chill  and  heaviness  all  around, 
Like  a  chain  the  aching  temples  bound; 
Dream,  fancy,  sacrifice — what  is  it  all? 
Climbing,  struggling,  slip  and  fall, 
Over  the  sea  hangs  the  dull  gray  sky: — 
We  are  so  tired,  my  heart  and  L 

Break  through  the  clouds,  O  Easter  light! 
Wake  up,  brave  sense  of  truth  and  right; 
Lay  on  the  shrine  of  our  risen  Lord 
The  useless  talent,  the  broken  sword ; 
Lay  there  doubts,  griefs,  and  wants  and  cares. 
And  the  erring  darlings  of  many  prayers ; 
From  the  cross  on  earth  to  the  crown  on  high. 
Let  us  look  together,  my  heart  and  I. — Y.  C. 


SUNDAY  209 


SUNDAY 

SL'NDAY.  (AS.  sunnan  daeg;  sunnan,  gen.  of  sunne,  sun;  daeg,  day.)  "  The 
first  day  of  the  week,  observed  by  Christians  in  honor  of  the  resurrection 
of  Christ,  as  a  day  of  rest  from  secular  occupations  and  devoted  to  the  worship 
of  God;  the  Lord's  day;  the  Christian  Sabbath."* 

The  old  Testament  Sabbath  and  the  New  Testament  Sunday,  or  Lord's  Day, 
being  essentially  the  same,  the  history  of  the  day  dates  from  the  creation  of 
man.  In  Gen.  ii :  1-3,  we  read:  "  Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished 
and  all  the  host  of  them.  And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which 
he  had  made;  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had 
made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it:  because  that  in  it 
he  had  rested  from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made."  Many  scholars 
find  a  reference  to  Sabbath  observance  in  Gen.  iv :  3,  "  And  in  process  of  time 
(literally,  at  the  end  of  days)  it  came  to  pass  that  Cain  brought  of  the  fruit 
of  the  ground  an  offering  unto  the  Lord."  Many  also  find  a  reference  to  the 
Sabbath  in  the  account  of  the  flood,  wherein  we  are  told  that  Noah  twice  sent 
out  the  dove  to  seek  dry  land  on  the  seventh  day.  (Gen.  viii:  6-12.)  The  six- 
teenth chapter  of  Exodus  (Ex.  xvi:  5,  22,  2^)  distinctly  shows  Sabbath  observ- 
ance in  connection  with  the  gathering  of  the  manna,  before  the  moral  law  was 
given  at  Mt.  Sinai.  The  fourth  commandment,  in  the  Decalogue,  is  devoted 
to  reminding  men  that  after  six  days  of  work  the  next,  the  seventh  day,  must 
be  devoted  to  rest  and  to  God.  In  subsequent  Old  Testament  history  and  proph- 
ecy the  Sabbath  is  not  referred  to  very  frequently,  but  often  enough  to  show  its 
continuity  of  obligation  and  observance,  (i  Chron.  ix:  2^;  Nch.  xiii:  15-21; 
Ezek.  xl:  i ;  Is.  hi:  2;  Amos  viii:  5.) 

When  Christ  came.  He  found  the  Sabbath  covered  with  the  barnacles  of 
tradition  and  man-made  regulations,  many  of  which  were  as  absurd  as  they 
were  burdensome.  These  He  removed  with  unsparing  hand.  He  claimed  that 
"  The  Son  of  man  is  Lord  also  of  the  Sabbath."  (Mark  ii:  28.)  He  observed 
it  carefully  as  He  did  all  the  moral  and  ceremonial  law  of  the  Old  Testament 
Church.  Faithfully  He  attended  the  services  of  the  temple  and  of  the  syna- 
gog.     The  apostles  also  honored  the  Sabbath. 

Since  our  Lord's  resurrection,  the  day  of  the  week  on  which  the  Sabbath 
(Heb.  Shabath,  rest  from  labor)  has  been  observed  has  been  changed  by  almost 
all  Christians  from  Saturday  to  Sunday.  In  the  apostolic  age  of  the  Church, 
both  Saturday  and  Sunday  were  observed  by  Christians,  out  of  consideration  of 
the  conscience  of  the  Jewish  converts ;  but  gradually  the  observance  of  Saturday 
became  almost  obsolete.  A  small  fraction  of  Christians,  however,  seem  all  along 
conscientiously  to  have  believed  that  God  means  that  Saturday  only  is  the  true 
Sabbath.  In  our  day,  the  Seventh  Day  Baptists  are  the  principal,  if  not  the 
only  denomination  of  Christians  adhering  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  or  Saturday. 

The  author  of  Eight  Studies  of  the  Lord's  Day  thus  summarizes  the  facts 
and  events  which  led  to  the  transition  of  the  observance  of  Sabbath  from  Sat- 
urday to  Sunday,  from  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  to  the  first  day : 

*  Standard  Dictionary. 


2IO  HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 

"  In  the  various  books  of  the  New  Testament,  a  number  of  passages  refer 
to  the  meetings  of  Christians,  but  only  a  portion  of  them  connect  these  meetings 
explicitly  with  the  Lord's  Day.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  Divine  Inspirer  of 
the  Scriptures  had  permitted  only  these  glimpses  to  appear  in  this  part  of  the 
Sacred  Canon,  in  order  that  at  the  proper  time  men  might  see  that  while  the 
day  might  in  them  be  traced  to  a  distinct  source,  the  true  conception  of  its 
character  was  to  be  drawn  from  a  larger  view.  These  glimpses  are  sufficient, 
but  no  more  than  sufficient.  They  present  before  us  the  first  week  of  the  new 
era,  showing  how  our  Lord  emphasized  the  first  day  of  the  week,  not  only  by 
His  resurrection  and  His  visits  to  His  disciples,  but  also  by  His  abstention  from 
them  until  the  next  first  day.  Then  the  seventh  return  of  the  first  day  is  pre- 
sented, showing  by  visible  manifestation  the  entry  of  the  Divine  Being  upon  a 
new  discipline  of  mankind  through  the  Church.  Then,  after  about  twenty  years, 
a  view  is  presented  of  a  European  Church  holding  its  regular  assemblies  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  and,  by  apostolic  directions,  regularly  gathering  the  alms 
of  its  members  on  that  day.  After  perhaps  another  year,  there  is  a  view  of  a 
Church  in  Asia  Minor  likewise  assembling  regularly  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week  for  preaching  and  the  Eucharistic  Supper;  while  an  apostle,  whose  tardy 
vessel  brought  him  into  their  harbor  just  too  late  for  one  of  these  meetings, 
tarried  a  week,  tho  pressed  for  time,  in  order  to  attend  the  next.      (Acts  xx:  i6.) 

"  Five  and  twenty  years,  perhaps,  later,  a  scene  appears  in  whose  fore- 
ground is  an  aged  apostle,  the  last  survivor  of  the  original  college,  refreshing 
his  solitude  at  Patmos  by  lofty  communings  with  Heaven  on  the  Lord's  Day. 
In  the  distance  is  a  circle  of  churches  to  whom  the  divine  messages  and  the 
Apocalypse  are  being  transmitted,  who  also  have  learned  the  expressiveness 
of  this  short  title  for  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  understand  the  appropriate- 
ness to  the  Lord's  Day  of  peculiar  religious  privileges  and  enjoyments  in  the 
special  and  spiritual  worship  of  the  Lord. 

"  Within  the  next  half  century,  Pliny  and  Justin — heathen  and  Christian, 
persecutor  and  martyr — wrote,  with  many  others,  their  testimony  to  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Day  by  Christians  in  general, — and  the  secular  history  of  the 
day  begins." 

Of  all  holy  days  none  is  more  worthy  of  the  epithet  than  the  Sabbath.  Its 
antiquity,  its  rest  for  body,  mind,  and  spirit,  its  worship  of  God  and  study  of 
His  word  and  works,  the  great  events  of  which  it  reminds  us,  God's  resting 
after  creating  the  universe  and  man,  and  Christ's  resurrection  from  the  dead,  with 
all  the  significance  of  that  august  event,  combine  to  make  it  the  sweetest  and 
holiest  of  all  the  holy  days. 

Longfellow  says  "  Sunday  is  the  golden  clasp  that  binds  together  the  volume 

of  the  week." 

THE  DEFENSE  OF  THE  SABBATH 

By  John  Hall,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


We  stand  up  for  this  day  of  rest  because 
it  takes  us  back  to  the  origin  of  the  race  and 
comes  from  the  hand  of  our  Creator.  "  Oh, 
yes,"   says   somebody,   "  now  he  is  going  to 


the  Old  Testament;  have  we  not  had  enough 
of  that?  We  are  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  under  the  New  Testament."  I  do  not 
want  you  to  think  meanly,   dear  friends,   of 


SUNDAY 


211 


the  Old  Testament.  It  is  not  obsolete.  Take 
all  the  great  institutions  that  you  have,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  elements  of  them  are  in 
that  Old  Testament  and  presented  in  such  a 
way  as  to  prepare  us  for  receiving  and  in- 
telligently accepting  them.  The  family,  the 
state,  the  nation,  marriage,  the  rights  of 
property,  the  Church,  the  oflficers  of  the 
Church,  these  and  very  many  other  institu- 
tions of  the  like  kind  that  we  have  among  us 
have  their  germs  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
that  man  mistakes  his  Bible  gravely  who  sup- 
poses he  can  understand  the  New  if  he  ignores 
the  Old. 

"God  rested  the  seventh  day."  "Why?" 
says  somebody,  "  was  He  weary,  was  He 
tired?"  The  strongest  human  minds  do  not 
rest  only  because  they  are  tired.  What  is 
contemplation?  What  is  reflection?  What 
makes  the  strongest  men  reflective?  What 
is  reflection?  Bending  the  mind  back  upon 
the  past.  So  He  rested  for  an  example  to 
you  and  me  and  for  the  framing  of  an  insti- 
tution that  would  be  good  for  His  creatures, 
not  the  intelligent  only,  but  the  unintelligent 
creation  that  He  had  called  into  being.  He 
rested  on  that  day  from  all  His  work,  and 
there  are  a  good  many  things  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race  outside  of  the  Mosaic  nar- 
rative that  go  to  corroborate  the  impression 
we  have  touching  that  matter. 

What  a  curious  thing  it  is  that  the  number 
seven,  for  example,  should  be  so  generally  a 
significant  number  as  it  has  become.  I  could 
understand  the  number  five  becoming  a  typi- 
cal number;  we  have  five  fingers,  ten  fingers, 
five  toes,  ten  toes,  but  as  to  the  number  seven 
there  is  nothing  of  that  suggestive  nature 
about  it.  We  have  the  Seven  Ages  and  the 
Seven  Heavens  and  the  Seven  Wise  Men  and 
the  Seven  Wonders  of  the  world.  We  have 
a  great  number  of  these  sevens  spread  by 
tradition  all  over  the  race  wherever  it  has 
gone,  just  as  we  have  the  week.  Tradition 
gives  unconscious  but  mighty  corroborative 
arguments  in  favor  of  that  simple  narrative 
that  we  have  in  the  opening  book  of  Genesis. 
Nor  are  we  left  to  those  strong  probabilities. 
Somebody  may  say,  "  Ah  that  resting  and 
that  suggestion  of  a  day  of  rest  for  me — that 
is  due  altogether  to  Moses,  and  is  not  to  be 
found  anywhere  until  you  come  to  Sinai,  and 
the  ages  after  Sinai."  History  does  not  bear 
that  out.  Scholars  will  tell  you  about  the 
Nineveh  Calendar,  and  if  you  take  such  men 
as  Sayce  and  Le  Normande  and  the  greatest 
and  most  accurate  antiquarians,  they  will  tell 
you,  on  the  authority  of  that  Nineveh  Calen- 
dar, that  six  hundred  years  before  the  days 
of  Moses  the  week  was  a  well  understood  in- 
stitution, and  the  very  name  that  the  Syrians 
had  for  the  day  of  rest  was  "  Sabbatu,"  the 
very  word  that  we  get  in  and  from  our  He- 
brew Scriptures. 

We  stand  for  this  day,  then,  because  it  is 
coeval  with  the  history  of  the  race,  and  it 
comes  to  us  with  the  stamp  and  appointment 
of  our  Creator.  Then  we  come  down  a 
little  further  and  we  get  to  what  men  know 
as  the  Decalog,  and  all  that  are  here  recollect 
the   words    which   we   learned,    many   of   us, 


from  the  lips  of  our  mothers  or  our  fathers, 
"  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 
Six  days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy 
work,  but  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord,  thy  God."  Now,  of  course,  you  know 
very  well  that  efforts  have  been  made  to 
break  the  force  of  that  remembrance.  No 
wonder  that  men  made  these  efforts.  Tell 
me  to  remember  a  thing  and  that  implies 
that  it  has  been  present  to  me  before.  "  Re- 
member the  Sabbath,"  implies,  it  has  been 
argued  truly,  that  it  has  been  before  the  mind 
already.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  break 
the  force  of  that,  but  they  have  been  made,  I 
venture  to  say,  absolutely  in  vain,  and  that 
they  are  in  vain  is  made  the  clearer  when 
you  take  into  account  the  concluding  part  of 
that  one  of  the  Commandments,  "  For  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth," 
and  so  on.  What  would  be  the  meaning,  what 
the  sense,  what  the  fitness,  and  what  the 
propriety,  of  giving  this  reason  annexed  if  it 
were  not  a  thing  already  understood  and  in 
relation  to  which  it  was  proper  to  say  strictly, 
"Remember"  this  old  institution;  "Remem- 
ber this  day  to  keep  it  holy?  " 

One  may  say,  "  Ah,  but  the  Decalog  was  a 
comparatively  new  thing,  and  it  made  a  set 
of  moral  rules  for  a  dispensation  that  was  to 
pass  away."  All  Christendom  rejects  that 
theory.  All  Christendom  stands  for  the 
Decalog.  All  Christendom  accepts  the  Deca- 
log as  something  permanent  in  its  nature, 
and  no  man  believes  that  it  for  the  first  time 
made  sin.  It  did  not  need  the  Sixth  Com- 
mandment to  make  Cain  a  murderer,  it  did 
not  need  the  Fifth  Commandment  to  make 
him  a  dishonorer  of  his  father.  These  com- 
mandments did  not  create  virtues  and  vices. 
They  defined  them,  they  stated  them,  they  put 
them  in  such  a  way  that  the  human  judg- 
ment might  be  able  to  distinguish  clearly  be- 
tween the  right  and  wrong,  between  what 
God  demands  and  what  God  will  condemn. 

Then  we  come  to  the  third  consideration, 
namely,  the  resurrection  of  our  blessed 
Savior.  A  threefold  cord  is  not  easily 
broken ;  here  we  have  creation,  divine  legisla- 
tion, our  Lord's  resurrection,  giving  a  new 
turn  altogether  to  the  attitude  in  which  men 
are  to  stand  toward  God  and  bringing  the 
face  into  a  fulness  of  light  that  was  not  en- 
joyed before.  Now  here  it  is  that  I  want 
you  especially  to  give  me  attention  and  to  ex- 
ercise your  judgments  upon  the  statements 
I  want  to  make  to  you.  "  But,"  says  some 
one  in  speaking  of  this  matter,  "  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  founder  of  our  Christian  sys- 
tem, does  not  tell  people  anywhere  that  they 
are  to  give  over  keeping  the  day  that  they 
have  been  keeping  and  that  they  are  to  take 
another."  Now  I  want  you  to  keep  in  mind 
that  that  is  but  a  secondary  consideration  in 
the  matter.  Where  the  day  shall  come, 
whether  at  the  beginning  of  the  week  or  at 
the  end  of  the  week,  is  a  secondary  matter. 
The  great  thing  is  that  there  should  be  a 
seventh  portion  of  the  time  given  to  rest. 
That  is  the  great  thing.  Where  it  comes  is 
a  matter  of  detail,  as  we  shall  show  by  and 
by. 


212 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Now  touching  that  statement — "  the  Lord 
Himself  here  on  earth  did  not  make  the 
change  of  the  day."  Think  for  a  moment, 
most  of  those  to  whom  I  speak  are  in  the 
habit  of  going  to  Church  and  joining  in  the 
services  and  hearing  the  precious  Word.  You 
can  comprehend  then  what  is  put  before  you. 
Our  blessed  Lord  did  not  in  person  found 
any  of  the  institutions  that  we  have  now. 
He  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons  left  that 
to  be  done  by  those  who  came  after  Him. 
He  trained  His  Apostles,  He  invested  them 
with  authority,  He  promised  them  touching 
the  Holy  Spirit,  He  departed,  and  that  Spirit 
came  when  He  had  departed,  and  they,  carry- 
ing out  His  will  and  under  the  influence  of 
His  Divine  Spirit,  framed  the  institutions 
that  we  have  now.  Christ  Jesus  never  built 
a  church  edifice,  Christ  Jesus  never  gathered 
a  Christian  congregation,  Christ  Jesus  never 
presided  in  a  Christian  meeting,  Christ  Jesus 
never  established  the  institutions;  He  sowed 
the  seed,  and  He  gave  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit  to  His  Apostles,  and  He  endued  them 
with  the  power,  so  that  men  in  His  name 
and  by  His  authority  gave  the  world  the  in- 
stitutions in  which  we  rejoice  as  Christian  in- 
stitutions, and  all  that  was  done  according 
to  a  fixed  and  definite  plan  which  theolo- 
gians can  explain  to  you  if  you  take  the 
trouble  to  look  into  their  arguments  upon  that 
subject. 

Then  the  question  is,  What  did  these  men, 
endued  with  the  Spirit  and  doing  the  things 
that  would  glorify  Him  that  He  might  glorify 
the  Father,  do?  Now  I  recall  to  your  knowl- 
edge what  you  already  have  seen  in  your 
Bibles.  On  the  first  day  of  the  week  these 
men  were  in  the  habit  of  meeting  together, 
meeting  together  to  remember  and  rejoice  in 
the  resurrection,  meeting  together  to  worship 
God  and  receive  instruction,  meeting  together 
as  the  followers  of  the  risen  Savior.  It  was 
not  what  they  were  used  to.  Those  of  them 
that  were  Hebrews  did  indeed  for  long  con- 
tinue to  keep  the  Hebrew  Sabbath  and  to 
keep  it  concurrently  with  the  observance  of 


the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  as  long  as  that 
remained  simply  a  matter  of  venerable  usage, 
the  Apostles  had  nothing  to  say  against  it; 
but  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  perpetuate 
these  features  of  Judaism  as  against  Chris- 
tianity, then,  as  you  can  see  in  your  Bibles, 
they  spoke  out  against  those  things.  They, 
on  the  other  hand,  did  not  keep  as  a  day  holy 
the  day  of  their  Lord's  entombment,  the  day 
when  He  was  lying  in  the  grave,  the  day 
when  they  were  in  the  deepe.'^t  sadness  and 
sorrow.  They  did  not  keep  that,  but  they 
kept  the  day  when  He  rose,  when  their  sad- 
ness disappeared,  when  their  burden  was 
lifted  from  their  shoulders,  and  when  they 
met  again  to  rejoice,  as  they  got  understand- 
ing of  His  character,  in  a  risen  Redeemer 
who  had  conquered  death  and  the  grave. 

It  is  a  rather  curious  thing,  a  coincidence 
probably,  that  we  have  in  the  narrative  to 
which  I  allude  five  times  the  meeting  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week  mentioned  in  the  New 
Testament  story.  Five  times  exactly  in  the 
narrative  of  Genesis  we  have  an  allusion  to 
the  week.  A  curious  coincidence,  it  will  be 
said,  between  the  two  things,  and  yet  not  so 
strange  probably,  after  all.  The  finished 
work  of  the  Creator  was  marked  by  the  day 
of  rest,  and  the  finished  work  of  the  new 
Creator,  who  came  to  redeem  and  make  all 
things  new,  was  worthily  commemorated  in 
the  same  fashion,  and  the  usage  started  with 
absolute  uniformity  on  the  part  of  the  early 
Church,  on  the  part  of  the  Apostles  as  a 
whole,  on  the  part  of  Paul  himself  in  relation 
to  "  the  collection,"  and  other  things ;  all 
these  indicated  that  the  clear,  definite,  and 
established  usage  by  men  who  had  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit,  and  who  were  to  put  in  shape 
what  Christ  taught  them,  as  the  germs  of 
truth — their  uniform  usage  was  to  keep  that 
day,  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  is  now 
to  us  the  Christian  Sabbath.  If,  therefore,  an 
argument  is  needed  upon  that  matter,  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  set  up  an  argument  to 
which  there  is  no  adequate  and  conclusive 
rejoinder. — P.  T.  VII. 


HOW  SHALL  WE  SPEND  THE  SABBATH  ? 

By  Dwight  L.  Moody 


This  is  a  serious  question  for  young  and 
old.  When  I  was  a  boy,  the  Sabbath  lasted 
from  sundown  on  Saturday  to  sundown  on 
Sunday,  and  I  remember  how  we  boys  used 
to  shout  when  the  Sabbath  was  over.  It 
was  the  worst  day  in  the  week  to  us.  I 
believe  it  can  be  made  the  brightest  day  in 
the  week.  Every  child  ought  to  be  reared  so 
that  he  shall  be  able  to  say,  with  a  friend, 
that  he  would  rather  have  the  other  six  days 
weeded  out  of  his  memory  than  the  Sabbath 
of  his  childhood. 

"  Sabbath  "  means  "  rest,"  and  the  meaning 
of  the  word  gives  a  hint  as  to  the  true  way 
to  observe  the  day.  God  rested  after  creation, 
and  ordained  the  Sabbath  as  a  rest  for  man. 


"  Remember  the  rest-day  to  keep  it  holy."  It 
is  the  day  when  the  body  may  be  refreshed 
and  strengthened  after  six  days  of  labor,  and 
the  soul  drawn  into  closer  fellowship  with  its 
Maker. 

Suppose  some  gentleman  gave  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  new 
Church ;  what  would  be  said  if  the  gift  was 
applied  to  build  stores  or  some  other  build- 
ing? Yet  we  are  distinctly  told  that  the 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  hence  it 
was  intended  that  man  should  use  it  as  a 
Sabbath ;  but  how  often  it  is  used  for  other 
purposes ! 

Suppose,  again,  that  one  man  was  met  on 
a  road  by  another  man  to  whom  he  gave  six 


SUNDAY 


213 


dollars,  and  kept  onlj^  one  dollar  for  himself, 
to  pay  his  expenses  to  the  end  of  the  journey. 
Suppose  the  other  turned  on  him,  knocked 
him  down,  and  took  away  the  one  dollar, 
would  not  his  ingratitude  arouse  our  indig- 
nation? Yet  God  ordained  the  Sabbath  that 
men  might  have  time  to  worship  Him;  but 
how  often  do  we  rob  God  of  the  day ! 

True  observance  of  the  Sabbath  may  be 
considered  under  two  general  heads  :  cessa- 
tion from  work,  and  religious  exercises. 

A  man  ought  to  turn  aside  from  his  or- 
dinary employment  one  day  in  seven.  There 
are  many  whose  occupation  will  not  permit 
them  to  observe  Sunday,  but  they  should 
observe  some  other  day  as  a  Sabbath. 

Ministers  and  missionaries  often  tell  me 
that  they  take  no  rest-day ;  they  do  not  need 
it  because  they  are  in  the  Lord's  work.  That 
is  a  mistake.  When  God  was  giving  Moses 
instructions  about  the  building  of  the  taber- 
nacle. He  referred  especially  to  the  Sabbath, 
and  gave  injunctions  for  its  strict  observ- 
ance; and  later,  when  Moses  was  conveying 
the  words  of  the  Lord  to  the  children  of 
Israel,  he  interpreted  them  by  saying  that  not 
even  were  sticks  to  be  gathered  on  the  Sab- 
bath to  kindle  fires  for  smelting  or  other 
purpose.  In  spite  of  their  zeal  and  haste  to 
erect  the  tabernacle,  the  workmen  were  to 
have  their  day  of  rest.  The  command  applies 
to  ministers  and  others  engaged  in  Christian 
work  to-day  as  much  as  to  these  Israelite 
workmen  of  old. 

All  merely  secular  work  ought  to  be 
avoided.  An  infidel  was  introduced  by  a 
gentleman  to  a  minister  with  the  remark, 
"  He  never  attends  public  worship." 

"  I  hope  you  are  mistaken,"  said  the  min- 
ister. 

"  By  no  means,"  said  the  stranger.  "  I 
always  spend  Sunday  in  settling  my  ac- 
counts." 

"  Then,  sir,"  was  the  solemn  reply,  "  you 
will  find  that  the  judgment-day  will  be  spent 
in  the  same  way." 

A  woman  forgot  to  send  home  some  wash- 
ing on  Saturday.  The  next  morning  she  told 
a  little  girl  that  lived  with  her  to  take  the 
bundle  under  her  shawl  to  the  lady.  "  No- 
body will  see  it,"  she  said. 

"  But  isn't  it  Sunday  under  my  shawl, 
auntie?"  asked  the  child. 

In  judging  whether  any  work  may  or  may 
not  be  lawfully  done  on  the  Sabbath,  find  out 
the  reason  and  object  for  doing  it.  Excep- 
tions are  to  be  made  for  works  of  necessity 
and  works  of  emergency.  By  "  works  of  ne- 
cessity "  I  mean  those  acts  that  Christ  justi- 
fied when  He  approved  of  leading  one's  ox 
or  ass  to  water.  Watchmen,  police,  stokers 
on  board  steamers,  and  many  others,  have 
engagements  that  necessitate  their  working  on 
Sunday.  By  "  works  of  emergency  "  I  mean 
those  referred  to  by  Christ  when  He  approved 
of  pulling  an  ox  or  an  ass  out  of  a  pit  on 
the  Sabbath  day.  In  case  of  fire  or  sickness 
a  man  is  often  called  to  do  things  that  would 
not  otherwise  be  justifiable. 

A  Christian  man  was  once  urged  by  his 
employer   to   work  on   Sunday.     "  Does   not 


your  Bible  say  that  if  your  ass  falls  into  a 
pii  on  the  Sabbath,  you  may  piul  him  out?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  other ;  "  but,  if  the  ass 
had  a  habit  of  falling  into  the  same  pit  every 
Sabbath,  I  would  either  fill  up  the  pit  or  sell 
the  ass." 

The  good  effect  on  a  nation's  health  and 
happiness  produced  by  the  return  of  the  Sab- 
bath, with  its  cessation  from  work,  cannot  be 
overestimated.  Lord  Beaconsfield  said :  "  Of 
all  divine  institutions,  the  most  divine  is  that 
which  secures  a  day  of  rest  for  man.  I  hold 
it  to  be  the  most  valuable  blessing  conceded 
to  man.  It  is  the  cornerstone  of  civilization, 
and  its  removal  might  affect  even  the  health 
of  the  people."  Mr.  Gladstone  told  a  friend 
that  the  secret  of  his  long  life  is  that  amid 
all  the  pressure  of  public  cares  he  never  forgot 
the  Sabbath,  with  its  rest  for  the  body  and 
the  soul.  The  constitution  of  the  United 
States  protects  the  president  in  his  weekly 
day  of  rest.  He  has  ten  days,  "  Sundays  ex- 
cepted," in  which  to  consider  a  bill  that  has 
been  sent  to  him  for  signature.  Every  work- 
ing man  in  the  republic  ought  to  be  as  thor- 
oughly protected  as  the  president.  If  work- 
ing men  got  up  a  strike  for  no  work  on  Sun- 
day, they  would  have  the  sympathy  of  a 
good  many. 

But  "rest"  does  not  mean  idleness.  No 
man  enjoys  idleness  for  any  length  of  time. 
When  one  goes  on  a  vacation,  one  does  not 
lie  around  doing  nothing  all  the  time.  Hard 
work  at  tennis,  fishing,  and  other  pursuits 
fill  the  hours.  A  healthy  mind  must  find 
something  to  do. 

Hence  the  Sabbath  rest  does  not  mean  in- 
activity. "  Satan  finds  some  mischief  still 
for  idle  hands  to  do."  The  best  way  to  keep 
oft  bad  thoughts  and  to  avoid  temptation  is 
to  engage   in  active   religious   exercises. 

As  regards  these,  we  should  avoid  ex- 
tremes. On  the  one  hand  we  find  a  rigor  in 
Sabbath  observance  that  is  nowhere  com- 
manded in  Scripture,  and  that  reminds  one 
more  of  the  formalism  of  the  Pharisees  than 
of  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.  In  former  times  in 
Connecticut  they  had  laws  like  this  :  "  No  one 
shall  run  on  the  Sabbath,  or  walk  in  his  gar- 
den or  elsewhere,  except  reverently  to  and 
from  Church."  Such  strictness  does  more 
harm  than  good.  It  repels  people  and  makes 
the  Sabbath  a  burden. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  should  jealously 
guard  against  a  loose  way  of  keeping  the  Sab- 
bath. Already  in  many  cities  the  day  is  pro- 
faned openly.  Sunday  newspapers  are  issued 
wholesale,  not  only  turning  the  minds  of 
readers  away  from  godly  things,  and  thus 
acting  as  a  positive  barrier  in  the  way  of 
religion,  but  also  keeping  newsboys  away 
from  Sunday  school  to  sell  papers,  and  keep- 
ing trains  running  in  order  that  they  may  be 
distributed. 

Make  the  Sabbath  a  day  of  religious  ac- 
tivity. First  of  all,  of  course,  is  attendance 
at  public  worship.  "  There  is  a  discrepancy," 
says  John  McNeill,  "  between  our  creed  about 
the  Sabbath  day  and  our  actual  conduct.  In 
many  families  at  ten  o'clock  on  Sunday  at- 
tendance at  Church  is  still  an  open  question. 


214 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


There  is  no  open  question  on  Monday  morn- 
ing-^'John,  shall  you  go  to  work  to-day?'" 
A  minister  rebuked  a  farmer  for  not  attend- 
mg  Church,  and  said,  "  You  know,  John,  you 
are  never  absent  from  market."  "  O,"  was 
the  reply,  "  we  inust  go  to  market." 

Some  one  has  said  that  without  the  Sab- 
bath the  Church  of  Christ  could  not,  as  a 
visible  organization,  exist  on  earth. 

But  we  must  not  mistake  the  means  for  the 
end.  We  must  not  think  that  the  Sabbath 
is  just  for  the  sake  of  being  able  to  attend 
mcetmgs.  There  are  some  people  that  think 
they  must  spend  the  whole  day  at  meetings 
or  m  private  devotions.  The  result  is  tr.at 
at  nightfall  they  are  tired  out,  and  the  day  has 
brought  them  no  rest.  The  number  of  Church 
services  attended  ought  to  be  measured  by 
the  person's  ability  to  enjoy  them  and  get 
good  from  them,  without  being  wearied.  At- 
tending meetings  is  not  the  only  way  to  ob- 
serve the  Sabbath.  In  Lev.  xxiii :  3,  the  Is- 
raelites were  commanded  to  keep  it  in  their 
dwellings  as  well  as  in  holy  convocation. 
The  home,  that  center  of  so  great  influence 
over  the  life  and  character  of  people,  ought 
to  be  made  the  scene  of  true  Sabbath  observ- 
ance. 

Many  mothers  have  written  to  me  at  one 
time  or  another  to  know  what  to  do  to  en- 
tertain their  children  on  Sunday.  The  boys 
say,  "  I  do  wish  't  was  night,"  or,  "  I  do  hate 
Sunday,"  or,  "  I  do  wish  Sunday  was  over." 
It  ought  to  be  the  happiest  day  in  the  week  to 
them,  one  to  be  looked  forward  to  with 
pleasure.  In  order  to  this  end,  many  sug- 
gestions might  be  followed.  Make  family 
piayers  especially  attractive  by  having  the 
children  repeat  some  verse  or  story  from  the 
Bible.  Give  more  time  to  your  children  than 
you  can  give  on  week-days,  reading  to  them 
and  perhaps  taking  them  to  walk  in  the  after- 
noon or  evening.  Show  by  your  conduct  that 
the  Sabbath  is  a  delight,  and  they  will  soon 
catch  your   spirit.     Set  aside  some  time  for 


religious  instruction,  without  making  this  a 
task.  You  can  make  it  interesting  for  the 
children  by  telling  Bible  stories  and  asking 
them  to  guess  the  names  of  the  characters. 
Have  Sunday  games  for  the  younger  children. 
Picture-books,  puzzle-maps  of  Palestine,  etc., 
can  be  easily  obtained.  Sunday  albums  and 
Sunday  clocks  are  other  devices.  Set  aside 
attractive  books  for  Sunday,  not  letting  the 
children  have  these  during  the  week.  By  do- 
ing this,  and  by  having  extra  delicacies  at 
meals,  perhaps,  the  children  can  be  brought 
to  look  forward  to  the  day  with  eagerness 
and  pleasure. 

Apart  from  public  and  family  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  the  individual  ought  to  devote  a 
portion  of  the  time  to  his  own  edification. 
Prayer,  meditation,  reading,  ought  not  to  be 
forgotten.  Think  of  men  devoting  six  days  a 
week  to  their  body,  which  will  soon  pass 
away,  and  begrudging  one  day  to  the  soul, 
which  will  live  on  and  on  forever ! 

If  your  circumstances  permit,  engage  in 
some  definite  Christian  work, — such  as  teach- 
ing in  Sunday  school,  or  visiting  the  sick. 
Do  all  the  good  you  can.  Sin  keeps  no  Sab- 
bath, and  no  more  should  good  deeds.  There 
is  plenty  of  opportunity  in  this  fallen  world 
to  perform  works  of  mercy  and  of  religion. 
Make  your  Sabbath  down  here  a  foretaste  of 
the  eternal  Sabbath  that  is  in  store  for  believ- 
ers. 

"  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the  Sab- 
bath, from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy 
day;  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy 
of  the  Lord,  honorable,  and  shalt  honor  him, 
not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine 
own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own  words 
['  thine  own '  as  contrasted  with  what  God 
enjoins],  then  .=halt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the 
Lord;  and  I  will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the 
high  places  of  the  earth,  and  feed  thee  with 
the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father,  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it."— G.  R 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH 


When  De  Tocqueville,  the  celebrated  pub- 
licist of  France,  first  came  to  this  country,  he 
was  the  guest  of  the  Hon.  John  C.  Spencer, 
then  living  in  Canandaigua.  N.  Y.  The  vil- 
lage is  delightfully  located  in  the  heart  of  a 
rich  farming  country,  and  was  then  mainly 
on  one  broad,  beautiful  street,  on,  or  near 
which,  were  all  the  Churches  of  the  village. 
The  inhabitants  were  mostly  of  New  England 
origin,  and  were  a  remarkably  Church  going 
people.  De  Tocqueville  arrived  there  toward 
the  end  of  the  week ;  and  on  Saturday,  as  the 
country  people  came  in,  in  crowds,  to  make 
their  purchases  and  close  up  the  business  of 
the  week,  he  spoke  with  surprise  of  their 
numbers  and  of  their  comfortable  and  thrifty 
appearance. 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  a  bright,  cool, 
delightful  day,  as  he  looked  out  after  break- 
fast,  he  was  still  more  surprised  to  see  no 


one  in  the  streets,  and  that  all  was  as  quiet 
and  still  as  if  the  place  had  been  deserted. 
And  he  asked  Mr.  Spencer,  "  What  does 
this  mean?^"  "  Why,"  said  Mr.  Spencer,  "  it 
IS  Sunday."  But  this  was  no  satisfactory  ex- 
planation to  the  Frenchman  ;  and  when  asked 
still  further  as  to  its  meaning,  Mr.  Spencer 
replied,  "  Wait  until  the  bells  ring,  and  then 
you  will  see." 

At  half-past  ten  o'clock  the  bells  from  all 
the  churches  rang  out  their  call  to  divine 
worship,  and  soon  the  broad  walks  of  the 
street  were  crowded  with  people  neatly  and 
comfortably,  and  many  of  them  expensively 
dressed,  and  all  quietly  thronging  their  way 
to  the  churches.  And  again  De  Tocqueville 
asked  Mr.  Spencer  the  meaning  of  all  this  • 
he  was  told  in  reply  that  this  was  the  Amer- 
ican way  of  keeping  the  holy  Sabbath ;  and 
that  every   Sunday  the  great  masses  of  the 


SUNDAY 


215 


people  laid  aside  their  labor  and  all  secular 
occupations  and  went  up  to  the  house  of  God, 
there  to  be  instructed  in  truth,  and  directed 
in  duty,  both  for  this  world  and  the  next. 
And  as  De  Tocqueville  pondered  the  spec- 
tacle, and  heard  the  explanation,  he  raised  his 
hands,  and  with  deep  earnestness  said,  "  Mr. 
Spencer,  France  must  have  your  American 
Sabbath,  or  she  is  ruined !  " 

And  when  a  gentleman  asked  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Agassiz,  "  What  was  the  thing  above 
all  which  most  struck  you  in  coming  to  this 
country?"  the  great  naturalist  gave  as  his 
answer.  "  Your  American  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day." 

In  the  Prussian  Parlia'ment  petitions  were 
not  long  since  presented  asking  the  govern- 
ment "  to  secure  to  the  working  classes  their 
rest  day;  "  for  the  Sabbath,  which  they  took 
for  pleasure,  has  been  seized  by  Mammon  for 
work — as,  sooner  or  later,  it  always  will  be 
when  its  sacredness  is  broken  down — and  now 
the  working  men,  when  they  find  they  are 
compelled  by  their  employers  to  work  on  the 
Sabbath,  want  to  get  back  again  the  rest  and 
quiet  of  the  Sabbath  day.  And  in  answer  to 
their  petitions,  the  government  instructed  its 
agents  in  England  and  the  United  States,  to 
inquire  into  the  Sabbath  laws  and  customs 
of  these  two  countries,  with  a  view  to  adopt- 
ing them  in  Prussia. 

And  when  the  Japanese  are  giving  up  their 
six  resting  days  in  each  month  and  fixing  on 
four — the  first  days  of  the  weeks,  correspond- 
ing to  our   Sabbaths — as  their  rest  days,  it 


surely  is  not  for  us  to  break  down  the  rest 
and  sacredness  of  our  holy  day. 

"  In  giving  us  the  Sabbath,"  said  Coleridge, 
"  I  feel  as  if  God  had  given  us  fifty-two 
springs  in  every  year."  And  Count  Mon- 
talembert,  in  his  report  to  the  French  Par- 
liament, soon  after  the  overthrow  of  the 
French  Republic,  pleading  earnestly  for  the 
full  restoration  and  retention  of  the  Sabbath, 
says :  "  In  all  our  towns,  and  throughout  too 
large  a  portion  of  our  country  districts,  the 
Sabbath  rest  is  violated,  and  the  worship 
which  was  the  consequence  and  condition  o£ 
this  rest  is  abandoned.  At  the  same  time 
the  soul  is  deprived  of  its  nourishment  and 
the  body  of  its  repose.  The  poor  man  and 
the  workingman  are  delivered  up,  unpro- 
tected, to  the  every-day  increasing  influence 
of  error  and  evil.  Thus  the  profanation  of 
the  day  has  become  the  ruin  of  the  moral 
and  physical  health  of  the  people,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  the  ruin  of  the  family  and  of 
religious  liberty." 

True,  perfectly  true,  every  word  of  it.  The 
Sabbath  is,  emphatically,  the  poor  man's  and 
the  workingman's  day.  And  there  is  no  surer 
way  to  break  down  the  health,  as  well  as  the 
morals  and  religion  of  the  people,  than  to 
break  down  the  Sabbath.  To  say  nothing  of 
the  Divine  law,  on  mere  worldly  grounds  it 
is  plain  that  nothing  is  more  conducive  to  the 
health,  intelligence,  comfort,  and  independ- 
ence of  the  working  classes,  and  to  our  pros- 
perity as  a  people,  than  our  Christian  Ameri- 
can Sabbath.— A.  M. 


THE  SUNDAY  NEWSPAPER 


By  Herrick  Johnson,  D.D. 


Let  us  be  honest.  The  Sunday  newspaper 
is  not  the  Sunday  religious  or  semi-religious 
paper;  it  is  not  the  Sunday  moral  reform  or 
semi-moral  reform  paper;  it  is  the  Sunday 
newspaper.  Just  that  and  that  only;  only 
that  and  nothing  more.  It  is  not  the  news- 
paper in  partnership  with  Sunday  to  promote 
mutual  interests  and  to  share  the  profits.  The 
only  mutual  interests  that  are  promoted  are 
those  represented  by  that  maxim  of  the  boy 
in  tossing  up  the  penny :  "  Heads  I  win ; 
tails  you  lose."  The  profits  all  go  to  the 
newspaper,  and  Sunday  stands  all  the  losses. 
The  Sunday  paper  is  simply  the  daily  news- 
paper thrust  into  Sunday;  published  seven 
days  in  the  week  instead  of  six;  unchanged 
as  to  its  essential  character.  It  is  enlarged, 
indeed,  greatly  enlarged,  but  neither  revised 
nor  reformed,  and  certainly  not  sanctified  or 
glorified. 

When  the  newspaper  first  appeared  on 
Sunday  it  changed  its  clothes  a  little.  It 
was  padded  with  pious  homily  as  they  pad 
the  sacred  concerts  with  "  Sweet  By  and 
By  "  and  the  "  Doxology  in  long  meter ;  " 
but  the  wolf  soon  got  tired  of  trying  to  look 
like  a  sheep,  and  now  the  wolf  enters  Sunday, 
a  stark  wolf,  pure  and  simple,  with  scarcely  a 


bit  of  the  woolly  fleece  he  put  on  when  he  was 
keeping  up  appearances.  And  you  can  see  no 
difference  between  the  Sunday  and  the  Satur- 
day paper  save  as  to  magnitude.  It  is  a 
great  mosaic;  a  huge  conglomerate  of  all 
sorts  of  material  pertaining  to  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil.  It  is  a  vast  blanket  of 
information,  some  of  it — a  great  deal  of  it — 
not  inherently  unwholesome ;  but  all  of  it 
secular,  worldly,  of  the  earth  earthy;  and 
some  of  it — very  often  a  great  deal  of  it — vi- 
cious, pernicious  and  unclean.  It  is  just  such 
a  dish  as  we  have  served  to  us  every  other 
day  of  the  week,  except  as  to  size,  and  it  is 
seasoned  and  garnished  and  tricked  out  with 
every  possible  device  to  tempt  the  appetite 
and  to  gorge  the  social,  literary  and  sensa- 
tional stomach.  It  is  a  sheet  like  unto  the 
sheet  of  the  apostolic  vision ;  like  it  in  this, 
that  it  is  a  "  great  sheet  "  and  "  full  of  all 
manner  of  four-footed  beasts  and  creeping 
things,"  but  unlike  it  in  this,  that  it  was 
never  "  dropped  down  from  heaven,"  and  of 
its  contents  it  never  could  be  said,  "  What 
God  has  cleansed."  This  is  the  Sunday  news- 
paper. 

To  be  literally  exact  in  this  matter,  let  me 
cite  the  figures  published  not  long  since  by 


2l6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  New  York  Mail  and  Express.  These  fig- 
ures are  made  from  an  actual  measurement, 
inch  by  inch,  of  the  columns  of  the  leading 
New  York  Sunday  papers,  which  are  certainly 
on  a  par  with  any  Sunday  publishing  dailies 
in  the  country.  On  a  certain  Sunday,  of  po- 
litical, special,  sensational,  criminal,  and  gos- 
sipy matter,  the  Tribune  published  eighty- 
three  columns,  the  Herald  eighty-one  col- 
umns, the  World  one  hundred  and  twelve 
columns,  the  Sun  eighty-six  columns,  and  the 
Times  eighty-eight  columns.  What  a  mass 
of  stuff  that  is  to  begin  and  go  through  God's 
day  with  !  We  have  too  much  of  it  on  other 
days.  Does  not  the  better  nature  of  every 
one  of  us  cry  out :  "  Give  us  a  rest  at  least 
one  day  in  seven  from  this  unwholesome 
dumpage !  "  But  is  there  no  religious  read- 
ing in  these  Sunday  papers?  O  yes;  here 
are  the  bits  of  lamb-like  fleece,  by  exact 
m.athematical  measurement,  furnished  on  a 
subsequent  Sunday.  The  Tribune  published 
eighty-one  columns  of  political,  special,  sensa- 
tional, criminal  and  gossipy  matter,  and 
three-quarters  of  a  coluuin  devoted  to  re- 
ligion! The  Herald  eighty-four  columns, 
with  three-quarters  of  a  column  devoted  to 
religion !  The  World  ninety  columns,  with 
one-half  a  column  devoted  to  religion !  The 
Sun  ninety-seven  columns  with  one  and 
three-eighths  columns  devoted  to  religion ! 
The  Times  sixty-eight  columns,  with  one- 
eighth  of  a  column  devoted  to  religion  !  It 
would  be  difficult  to  imagine  what  possible 
effect  that  little  Jiomeopathic  pill  of  "  sweet- 
ness and  light  "  could  possibly  produce  along- 
side that  vast  dose  of  crime,  worldliness  and 
sensationalism. 

And  this  suggests  another  count  in  the  in- 
dictment against  the  Sunday  newspaper.  It 
is  tempting  hundreds  and  thousands  to  stay 
away  from  the  sanctuary,  and  making  it 
manifold  harder  for  the  truth  to  reach  those 
who  go.  Ruskin  says,  in  view  of  the  throng- 
ing activities  of  our  times,  the  rush  and  roar 
of  our  busy  life,  the  push  and  press  and  am- 
bitions of  trade,  a  minister  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing has  "  just  thirty  minutes  to  raise  the  dead 
in."  The  Sunday  newspaper  is  another  huge 
stone  laid  on  that  sepulcher  making  it  just  so 
much  harder  to  raise  the  dead.  Think  how 
the  appetite  must  be  whetted  for  the  word  of 
God  by  reading  column  after  column  of  such 
a  paper,  seasoned  by  the  most  adroit  repor- 
torial  caterers  for  the  special  delectation  of 
literary  and  sensational  stomachs. 

Another  count  I  bring  is,  that  not  content 
with  a  single  city,  the  Sunday  newspaper,  by 
"  thunder-ball  railroad  extras  "  and  "  light- 
ning flyers,"  is  invading  the  peaceful  Sab- 
bath observance  of  cities  and  towns  of  the 
country  for  miles  and  miles  away,  and 
going  with  "  banners  flying "  to  disturb  by 
"  crowds  "  and  "  cheers  "  and  "  mobs  of 
nov,sboys "  the  Sabbath  of  other  popula- 
tions. 

This  is  the  fearful  indictment  against  it — 
that  it  is  keeping  an  army  of  workmen  from 
the  day  of  rest  they  ought  to  have ;  it  is 
educating  an  army  of  newsboys  to  trample 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  so  counteracting  the  best 


influences  that  Christian  people  are  trying  to 
throw  around  them ;  it  is  thrusting  itself  into 
the  face  of  a  Sabbath-loving  people  as  no 
other  business  is  allowed  to  thrust  itself;  it 
is  assaulting  the  Sabbath  in  quarters  that  are 
not  reached  by  any  other  Sabbath-assaulting 
agency;  and  in  this  respect  it  is  a  most  in- 
sidious and  subtle  evil,  reaching  a  class  of 
our  community  that  the  Sunday  saloon  and 
Sunday  theater  and  the  Sunday  concert  never 
touch,  sweeping  through  the  very  best  ranks 
of  workingmen  and  even  into  the  homes  of 
religion ;  it  is  honey-combing  society  with 
false  notions  about  the  Sabbath,  and  it  is 
deadening  the  spiritual  sensibilities  even  of 
many  of  the  people  of  God.  The  indictment 
is  made,  the  evidence  presented,  the  case  sub- 
mitted; and  confident  appeal  is  made,  not 
only  to  Christian  conscience,  but  to  the  con- 
siderate judgment  of  manly  and  self-respect- 
ing labor,  and  to  that  broad  catholic  intelli- 
gence which  believes  that  the  best  interests  of 
society  and  the  State  are  wrapped  up  in  the 
preservation  of  the  American   Sabbath. 

Meanwhile,  what  are  the  friends  of  the 
Sabbath  going  to  do  about  it !  Well,  first  of 
all,  we  viust  get  and  keep  a  conscience,  into 
the  warp  and  woof  of  which  shall  be  woven 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath  law, 
"  Remember  the  Sabbath  to  keep  it  holy."  If 
we  base  the  Sabbath  on  mere  human  expedi- 
ency we  base  it  on  sand,  just  as  we  would 
found  honesty  if  we  adopted  it  simply  as  a 
"  policy."  This  is  no  basis  for  the  Sabbath, 
to  put  it  on  the  ground  of  mere  expediency. 
I  do  not  question  the  propriety  of  using  this 
argument  as  a  means  of  influencing  a  certain 
class  of  men.  Many  will  join  in  this  Sunday 
movement  and  work  heartily  in  the  defense 
of  Sunday  as  a  rest-day  in  the  interests  of 
health  and  morals  and  good  citizenship,  who 
will  not  come  to  the  higher  ground.  But  we 
can  never  permanently  keep  our  Sabbath  on 
a  basis  of  expediency.  The  gospel  of  the 
body  is  clear  and  unmistakable,  but  the  greed 
of  capital  will  overtask  labor  provided  always 
a  further  supply  is  ready  to  take  its  place. 
No,  the  anchorage  for  the  Sabbath  is  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  a  divine  institution. 

God  commands  its  observance.  There  it 
is,  in  the  bosom  of  His  law  as  given  in  the 
Decalog.  That  is  enough  for  anyone  who  be- 
lieves in  God.  As  God  appointed  it,  He  has 
told  us  how  to  keep  it.  We  must  not  divide 
it  up  by  giving  Him  a  part  only.  "  Remem- 
ber the  Sabbath  day."  Not  the  Sabbath 
morning,  leaving  the  afternoon  for  recreation 
and  desecration.  "  Remember  the  Sabbath 
day  to  keep  it  holy,"  not  simply  to  rest.  The 
Jews  had  loaded  the  day  with  traditions. 
Christ  simply  unloaded  it  of  these  justifying 
works  of  necessity  and  mercy.  We  hear  a 
good  deal  of  the  need  of  a  public  conscience. 
But  there  is  no  possible  public  conscience 
apart  from  individual  consciences.  What  we 
want  is  a  good  deal  more  of  the  individual 
conscience  and  I  venture  to  say,  ministerial 
conscience ;  a  conscience  in  the  ministry  that 
will  guard  sacredly  all  the  interests  of  this 
day,  and  that  will  see  to  it  that  even  the  hem 
of  the  garments  of  the  ministry  is  not  touched 


SUNDAY 


217 


with  the  taint  of  any  questionable  Sabbath 
indulgence,  so  that  month  in  and  month  out, 
year  in  and  year  out,  the  ministry  will  be  con- 
sistently and  unchallengeably  free  to  declare 
God's  words  concerning  this  matter. 

Let  us  be  rid  of  the  taint  I  say,  of  all  ques- 
tionable indulgence,  and  then  take  appeal 
from  God's  word  to  every  Christian  con- 
science, to  merchants  and  lawyers  and  legis- 
lators, who  acknowledge  the  obligations  of 
loyalty  to  Christ.  Let  us  righteously  rebuke 
the  profanation  of  the  day,  and  wakefully  see 
to  it  that,  while  legislation  establishing  any 
form  of  religion  is  scrupulously  guarded 
against,  legislation  hostile  to  God's  Sabbath 
laii'  is  unalterably  kept  otf  the  statute  books. 
With  a  sweet  reasonableness  and  with  a  firm 
conviction  of  the  rightfulness  of  our  cause,  I 


am  sure  that,  with  anything  like  a  Christian 
sentiment  and  a  united  Christian  effort  we 
can  carry  this  cause  and  preserve  our  Sab- 
bath. O  for  a  breath  of  the  old  Puritan! 
Doubtless  he  was  sometimes  too  austere. 
Doubtless  he  sometimes  looked  as  if  all  hope 
had  been  washed  out  of  his  face.  I  believe  his 
Sabbath  was  a  little  too  grim.  But  what 
men  it  made!  Men  of  the  martyr  spirit. 
Men  of  heroic  mold.  Men  of  the  stuff  that 
is  food  for  the  rack  and  the  stake.  Men  that 
had  an  almost  infinite  scorn  for  the  reign  of 
the  turtle  dove.  You  could  trust  them,  lean 
on  them,  depend  on  them.  They  were  great 
fearers  of  God,  but  they  feared  neither  man 
nor  devil.  With  Christ's  gentleness  wrapped 
around  this  unyieldingness  may  we  make  the 
Sabbath  fight,  and  win ! — In. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

WHY  THE  LORD'S  DAY  IS  KEPT  BY  CHRISTIANS 

By  Reese  F.  Alsop,  D.D. 
This  is  the  day  the  Lord  hath  made;    let  us  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it. — Ps.  cxviii:  24 


I  propose  to  apply  these  words  this  morn- 
ing to  the  Christian  Sunday,  or  Lord's  Day, 
and  try  to  show  why  we  keep  it  as  our  sacred 
day. 

First,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  a  con- 
trast. If  you  turn  to  the  fourth  chapter  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke  at  the  i6th 
verse,  you  may  read :  "  Jesus  entered,  as  his 
custom  was,  into  the  synagog  on  the  Sabbath 
day."  And  if  then  you  turn  to  the  20th  chap- 
ter of  the  Acts,  at  the  7th  verse,  you  may 
read :  "  And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
when  they  were  gathered  together  to  break 
bread  (that  is,  in  the  Holy  Communion), 
Paul  discoursed  with  them,  intending  to  de- 
part on  the  morrow."  Here  Jesus  keeps  the 
Jewish  Sabbath — that  is,  the  seventh  day. 
His  apostles,  after  His  ascension,  seem  to  be 
keeping  another  day. 


Now  the  two  passages  to  which  I  have 
just  asked  your  attention  show  us  that  away 
back  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles  this  contrast 
began.  Judaism  held  fast  to  her  own  old  day. 
Christianity  began  at  once  to  set  apart 
another  day.  Why  was  this?  What  is  our 
reason,  what  is  our  authority,  for  keeping 
the  first  day  instead  of  the  seventh? 

There  seem  to  be  very  strong  reasons  for 
the  seventh.  It  was  sanctified  by  the  long  usage 
of  the  old  Jewish  Church.  The  Fourth  Com- 
mandment says :  "  Remember  that  thou  keep 
holy  the  Sabbath  day.  Six  days  shalt  thou 
labor,  .  .  .  but  the  seventh  is  the  Sab- 
bath of  the  Lord  thy  God."  Times  without 
number  was  it  declared  to  Israel  that  Jehovah 
would  bless  or  forsake  them  precisely  as  they 
kept  or  profaned  His   Sabbath.     And  to  all 


this  add,  that  Jesus  Himself  revered  the 
seventh  day.  His  custom  was,  we  are  told, 
to  enter  into  the  synagog  on  the  seventh  day 
and  take  part  in  the  worship ;  nor  did  He 
say  one  word  or  do  anything  to  empty  the 
seventh  day  of  its  sacredness.  Its  abuses  and 
hard  restrictions  He  set  aside,  but  the  Sab- 
bath, as  made  for  man,  for  mercy,  for  healing 
and  blessing,  He  honored. 

How  came  we,  then,  to  have  made  the 
change?  A  Jew  might  say  to  us :  "  You  pro- 
fess to  honor  the  Old  Testament.  You  recite 
the  Fourth  Commandment  every  Sunday  in 
your  Church  worship.  You  own,  as  your 
founder  and  guide,  Jesus  Christ,  who  went 
into  the  synagog  for  worship  on  the  seventh 
day.  You  admit  that  He  kept  that  day.  You 
can  show  no  command  in  all  your  Scripture 
for  making  the  change.  And  yet  you  keep, 
not  the  seventh  day,  but  the  first.  What  have 
you  to  say  for  yourselves  ?  Are  you  not  in- 
consistent, recreant  to  your  own  sacred  wri- 
tings, disobedient  to  the  word  and  example 
of  your  Lord?"  The  arraignment,  you  see, 
is  a  strong  one.  The  accuser  is  not  easily  an- 
swered. Now,  in  answer  to  his  charge,  I 
propose  to  show  you  this  morning  that  in  the 
Old  Testament  there  was  a  remarkable  fore- 
shadowing of  the  coming  change ;  and  then  I 
propose  to  point  out  to  you  by  what  steps 
and  under  whose  authority  that  change,  thus 
foreshadowed,  was  brought  to  pass.  I  shall 
have  to  ask  your  very  close  attention. 

A  careful  reading  of  the  passages  bearing 
upon  the  subject  will  show  that  Moses  in- 
stituted not  only  a  Sabbath  day,  but  a  Sab- 
bath system.  This  system  has  in  it  five  mem- 
bers,-which  fall  into  two  groups — one  group 
of  three  and  another  group  of  two.    The  first 


2l8 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


three  clearly  affix  sanctity  to  the  last  in  a 
series  of  seven.  There  was  the  Sabbath  day, 
which  was  the  last  in  seven  days.  There  was 
the  seventh  month,  which  was  peculiarly  sa- 
cred as  having  in  it  the  great  day  of  atone- 
ment, and  three  or  four  extra  days  of  rest 
thrown  in.  Finally,  there  was  the  seventh 
year,  which  was  the  sabbatic  year,  when  all 
farm  land  was  to  lie  fallow,  and  Hebrew 
slaves  go  free.  Now  notice  that  in  each  of 
these  three,  making  the  first  group,  it  was 
the  seventh — the  seventh  day,  the  seventh 
month,  the  seventh  year — to  which  the  sanctity 
was  attached.  But  this  was  not  all  of  the 
system.  There  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  other 
group,  with  its  two  members.  There  were 
the  feast  of  Pentecost — of  Weeks,  as  it  used 
to  be  called  by  the  Jews — and  the  Year  of 
Jubilee.  That  these  were  a  part  of  the  sab- 
batic system  becomes  evident  upon  the 
slightest  examination.  Their  place  was  fixed 
by  the  count  of  weeks  multiplied  by  weeks ; 
that  is,  by  multiplying  seven  by  seven.  From 
the  Sabbath  (the  Jewish  Sabbath)  after  the 
Passover  feast,  seven  times  seven  were 
counted  to  bring  Pentecost.  The  same  was 
done,  of  years  instead  of  days,  to  bring  the 
year  of  Jubilee — a  week  of  years;  that  is, 
seven  years  multiplied  by  seven  made  forty- 
nine. 

But  now  there  comes  in  something  very  re- 
markable. Were  the  analogv  of  the  seventh 
day,  the  seventh  month,  the  seventh  year, 
carried  out,  Pentecost  would  fall  on  the  forty- 
ninth  day  after  the  Sabbath  following  the 
Passover,  and  the  Year  of  Jubilee  would  fall 
on  the  forty-ninth  year.  It  does,  in  either 
case,  nothing  of  the  kind.  Pentecost  falls  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week  following  the  forty- 
ninth  day.  And  so  in  the  count  to  the  Jubilee 
year,  that  wonderful  year  which  was  to  give 
liberty  to  the  captive,  the  opening  of  the 
prison  to  them  that  were  bound,  land  to  the 
landless,  freedom  to  the  debtor,  lifting  up  to 
them  that  were  down.  That  year  fell,  not 
on  the  last  day  of  a  series  of  seven  times 
seven  years,  but,  again,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
next  series.  The  fiftieth  day  was  Pentecost; 
^  the  fiftieth  year  was  Jubilee.  That  is,  in  each 
case,  the  series  of  days  or  years  were  al- 
lowed to  come  to  a  full  end,  and  then  the 
first  day,  the  first  year,  of  the  next  series,  was 
taken.  This  is  a  very  interesting  fact,  and 
one  which  until  recently  was  never  brought 
especially  to  my  own  notice ;  and  yet  it  bears 
most  strongly  upon  the  subject  we  have  before 
us  this  morning. 

And  in  this  connection  note  this :  that 
among  all  the  feasts  of  the  Jews,  Pentecost 
was  the  only  one  that  had  no  backward  look, 
but  only  a  forward  look.  The  Passover  com- 
memorated the  deliverance  from  Egypt.  The 
feast  of  Tabernacles  recalled  the  wilderness 
life.  Pentecost  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
past,  but  rejoiced  only  in  the  present  and  in 
the  future.  And,  again,  among  all  the  in- 
stitutions of  Moses,  there  was  not  one  which 
to  all  seemed  so  much  an  earnest  and  fore- 
taste of  better  things  to  come,  as  the  year  of 
Jubilee.  It  was  felt  to  be  an  anticipation  of 
a   veritable   kingdom    of   God.     It   came,    at 


last,  to  be  identified  with  the  coming  Messiah 
— as  if  Messiah,  when  He  came,  could  do 
no  better  thing  than  bring  to  earth  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  Jubilee  year.  And  so  it  came  to 
pass,  that  when  Jesus  preached  in  the  synagog 
of  Jerusalem,  and  read  a  passage  which  all 
who  heard  it  understood  to  apply  to  the  year 
of  Jubilee,  and  then  said,  "  This  day  is  the 
Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears,"  He  was 
understood  by  all  to  be  claiming  to  be  the 
Messiah. 

Here,  then,  was  a  subtle  intimation  of  a 
change  to  come.  The  one  feast  among  the 
Jews  which  looked  not  backward  but  for- 
ward, began  on  the  first  day  of  the  week. 
The  great  year  which  foreshadowed  the  bless- 
ings of  Messiah's  reign — that,  too,  fell  not  on 
a  seventh  year,  or  a  forty-ninth,  but  the 
fiftieth — that  is,  the  first  of  a  new  series.  If, 
then,  the  spirit  of  the  Jubilee  was  realized, 
as  Jesus  declared  it  was,  in  His  coming,  and 
if  the  highest  meaning  of  Penteco.'-t  was  real- 
ized in  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
then  need  we  wonder  to  find  the  new  dispen- 
sation adopting,  not  the  rule  of  the  seventh 
day,  the  seventh  month,  the  seventh  year,  but 
the  higher  rule  of  the  first  day  after  the 
series  of  sevens  has  been  completed.  That, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  such  rule  was  adopted; 
that  it  was  done,  if  not  with  the  direct  com- 
mand, yet  most  evidently  with  the  sanction 
of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Spirit,  a  study  of  the 
facts  shows.  Without  detaining  you,  I  can 
only  run  hastily  through  the  argument. 

The  first  Sunday  after  the  crucifixion  was 
the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection.  By  that 
resurrection,  the  apostle  tells  us,  Jesus  was 
declared  with  power  to  be  the  Son  of  God — 
that  is.  His  Lordship  was  affirmed  by  the 
direct  act  of  the  Almighty.  More  or  less  of 
what  happened  on  that  Sunday,  you  remem- 
ber. We  glanced  at  the  facts  last  Sunday 
evening.  Notice  one  thing.  We  read  the  ac- 
count in  the  Gospel  for  the  morning.  The 
disciples  were  gathered  together,  and  Jesus, 
now  risen,  appeared  to  them,  talked  with 
them,  blessed  them.  Then  He  disappeared. 
We  can  imagine,  in  spite  of  the  joy  which 
m.ust  have  throbbed  through  all  the  week  in 
their  souls,  how  they  wanted  to  see  Him 
again.  The  fact  was  so  stupendous,  so  hard 
to  realize,  that  it  dazed  and  must  have  half 
crazed  them  at  first.  To  quiet  their  appre- 
hension, to  fix  even  more  strongly  their  faith, 
to  make  them  sure  that,  after  all,  they  had 
not  been  deceived  by  a  now-vanished  form — 
yea,  to  convince  Thomas,  who  had  been  ab- 
sent, they  felt,  every  one  of  them^  we  may 
be  sure,  that  they  needeid  to  see  Him  again. 
They  doubtless  looked,  longed,  and  prayed  for 
it  with  an  intensity  of  desire.  But  day  after 
day  passed,  and  He  came  not.  In  spite  of 
their  gladness,  the  strain  upon  their  souls  and 
their  minds  must  have  been  almost  painful. 
Wednesday,  Thursday,  Friday,  and  still  no 
further  signs  of  their  risen  Lord.  Saturday 
came,  and  with  it,  perhaps,  kindling  antici- 
pation. On  this  day,  so  sacred  among  the 
Jews — this  day  on  which  He  was  wont  to 
worship  with  them  so  regularly  in  the  syna- 
gog,  this   day   made,    as   He  has  told  them. 


SUNDAY 


219 


for  man — on  this  day  surely  He  would  come ; 
He  would  distinguish  it  again  by  showing 
Himself  to  His  disciples.  No,  the  day  passed, 
and  He  left  them  still  unvisited. 

Then  came  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Gath- 
ered together  for  worship,  they  waited,  and 
lo.  He  came  again,  and  blessed  and  lightened 
them.  This  second  appearance  on  the  eighth 
day  of  the  new  era  must  have  started  their 
thought.  They  would  now  feel  that  His  ab- 
sence in  a  certain  way  implied  His  return ; 
that,  as  He  then  returned  on  the  octave  of  the 
resurrection,  they  might  perhaps  expect  Him 
on  the  next.  They  felt  that  thus  He  had 
emphasized  the  week,  and  already,  perhaps, 
they  realized  that  He  had  begun  to  honor  its 
first  day.  Whether  their  expectations  that 
He  would  appear  again  on  the  next  first  day 
were  realized,  we  cannot  positively  say. 
There  were  four  more  Sundays  before  the 
ascension,  and  at  least  four  times  more  He 
did  appear — once  to  the  apostles  (seven  of 
them)  on  the  shores  of  the  Lake  of  Tiberius; 
once  to  five  hundred  brethren  on  the  moun- 
tain in  Galilee,  once  to  James,  and  once  again 
to  all  the  apostles.  Those  appearances  may 
have  been  on  successive  Sundays.  There  is 
nothing  in  Scripture  inconsistent  with  the  sup- 
position. If  they  did  so  recur,  we  can  easily 
understand  that  before  the  fourth  had  come 
those  disciples  would  have  come  to  look  for- 
ward with  intense  anticipation  to  the  first  day 
of  the  week,  and  even  naturally  begun  to 
call  it  the  Lord's  Day.  After  the  ascension, 
following,  as  it  did,  after  the  sixth  Sunday, 
they  would  look  no  more  for  a  bodily  appear- 
ance. There  was,  however,  something  else  to 
look  for — the  promise  of  the  Father ;  power 
from  on  high  was  to  come ;  and  Jesus  had 
told  them  to  tarry  in  Jerusalem  until  it  did 
come. 

We  pass  now  over  one  Sunday,  and  come 
to  the  eighth  (counting  the  first).  This  eighth 
Sunday,  then,  is  the  fiftieth  day  after  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  when  Jesus  lay  in  the  tomb. 
It  is  the  Jewish  Pentecost.  Quite  early  in 
the  morning,  the  disciples  gather  together. 
It  is  not  to  keep  the  Jewish  feast,  for  those 
services  are  held  later,  in  the  temple.  It  is 
for  communion  and  worship.  Gathered  in 
that  upper  room,  they  pray,  and  as  they  pray 
the  gift  comes — the  rushing,  mighty  wind ; 
the  cloven  tongues,  as  of  fire ;  the  power 
which  makes  that  day  an  epoch  in  the 
Church's  history,  almost  as  great  as  the  resur- 
rection day.  And  remember  that  that  comes 
on  the  seventh  Sunday  after  the  first  Easter 
day — another  honor  put  upon  this  day,  an- 
other mark  to  set  it  apart  for  Christian 
thought,  from  all  other  days. 

That  the  day  thus  honored  by  our  Lord 
and  by  the  Holy  Spirit  found  a  hold  and  place 
in  the  reverence  of  the  Church,  is  plain. 
Some  twenty  years  after  this,  Paul  was  wri- 
ting to  the  Church  at  Corinth,  which  he  him- 
self had  established  two  or  three  years  be- 
fore. He  wished  to  give  them  some  direction 
as  to  the  gathering  of  benevolent  offerings, 
and  he  tells  them  that  the  best  thing  to  do 
is  to  take  their  collections  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  for  that  is  what  his  words  mean. 


His  direction,  you  see,  takes  it  for  granted 
that  a  regular  assembly  of  the  Christian  peo- 
ple of  Corinth  was  held  for  worship  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week. 

Now  take  another  intimation.  About  a 
year  after  that  letter  to  Corinth,  we  catch 
another  glimpse  of  this  observance.  Paul,  at 
the  end  of  his  third  missionary  tour,  had 
turned  his  face  back  toward  Jerusalem.  He 
left  Philippi  in  one  of  the  sailing  vessels 
which  coasted  along  the  shore,  and  he  was 
detained  some  six  days  coasting  across  the 
north  of  what  we  call  the  Archipelago,  and 
so  much  was  he  delayed  that  he  did  not  reach 
Troas  until  Monday.  At  Troas,  as  the  result 
of  former  labors,  there  was  a  church.  Now 
there  are  indications  that  Paul  felt  under 
great  pressure  to  get  to  Jerusalem  as  soon  as 
he  could.  Nevertheless,  he  abides  in  Troas 
seven  days.  Why?  we  wonder.  What  keeps 
him  in  that  little  place  for  seven  days,  when 
he  is  in  a  hurry  to  get  to  Jerusalem  ?  Simply 
this :  he  wanted  to  attend  the  full  meeting 
of  the  Church  on  the  next  Sunday.  His  slow 
passage  had  made  him  miss  one  Sunday,  and 
he  waits  for  the  next,  and  we  are  told  that 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  disci- 
ples came  together  to  break  their  sacramental 
bread,  Paul  preached  unto  them,  ready  to  de- 
part in  the  morning — feeling,  apparently,  that 
he  had  strained  a  point  even  to  stay  so  long. 
Here  we  find  that  the  Lord's  day  is  the  set 
occasion  for  the  Church's  assembling  for  wor- 
ship. 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
we  find  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  had 
then  (and  this  book  was  probably  written 
some  time  between  the  years  60  and  70)  its 
name,  which  was  generally  well  known. 
John,  an  exile  for  the  gospel  of  Christ  on 
the  Island  of  Patmos,  tells  in  rapt  vision  what 
the  Lord  showed  unto  him;  and  we  are  not 
surprised  to  find  that  it  was  on  the  Lord's 
Day  that  the  Lord  saw  fit  to  draw  aside  the 
veil  and  give  him  those  rare  glimpses  of  the 
world  to  come.  John  says,  "  I  was  in  the 
spirit  on  the  Lord's  Day." 

Put,  now,  all  these  intimations  together : 
the  strange  foreshadowing  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment of  a  change  to  come,  from  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week  to  the  first ;  the  honor  given 
to  the  first  day  by  the  resurrection,  and  then 
by  the  appearance  of  our  Lord  to  the  disciples 
on  the  next  first  day,  and  His  probable  ap- 
pearance on  four  more.  Add  to  this  the  out- 
pouring of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  first  day, 
and  the  evident  custom  of  the  Church's  as- 
sembling on  the  first  day  of  the  week  for  the 
purposes  of  worship ;  then  John's  vision  at 
Patmos  on  the  Lord's  day ;  and  are  you  not 
ready,  with  all  these  intimations,  to  take  the 
words  of  the  text,  and  say,  "  This  is  the  day 
the  Lord  hath  made;  we  will  rejoice  and  be 
glad  in  it." 

That  it  so  impressed  the  early  Church  is 
plain  from  the  two  extra-Scriptural  witnesses. 
We  have,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  104,  Pliny's 
letter,  in  which  he  described  to  the  Emperor 
what  the  Christians  were  wont  to  do.  He 
says  this :  "  On  a  stated  day  the  Christians 
meet  to  sing  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  God,  to  take 


2  20 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


an  oath  to  commit  no  theft,  adultery,  or  fraud, 
and  to  partake  together  of  food." 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  see  here  a  heathen 
description  of  a  Christian  Sunday  and  its 
worship.  What  the  set  day  was,  spoken  of 
by  Pliny,  is  shown  clearlyby  a  letter  of  Jus- 
tin Martyr,  written  some  thirty-five  years 
later,  who  declared  that  "  on  the  day  called 
Sunday  the  Christians  held  their  assemblies 
for  reading  the  Scriptures,  prayer  to  Christ, 
alms-giving,  and  the  Lord's  Supper." 

And  so  my  chain  of  proof  is  as  strong  as 
I  can  make  it.  That  a  day  thus  honored  by 
Christ  and  the  Spirit,  thus  sanctioned  and 
instituted  by  the  apostles,  thus  taken  for  its 
sacred  dav  of  worship  by  the  whole  Church 
of  the  first  century — that  such  a  day  should 
have  taken  the  place  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
and  held  that  place  through  all  the  Christian 
centuries,  is  not  surprising.  That  it  has  so 
done  is  a  simple  matter  of  fact.  About  other 
things  Christians  have  differed.  Other  usages 
have  changed  ;  modes  of  worship  have  varied 
from  age  to  age.  But  by  a  consent  that  is 
practically  universal.  Christians  always  and 
everywhere  have  consented  together  to  honor 
and  keep  the  first  day  of  the  week.  They 
have  now,  as  perhaps  they  have  always  had, 
differing  views  as  to  its  obligation,  differing 
opinions  as  to  the  way  in  which  it  ought  to 


be  kept,  differing  views  as  to  the  source  of 
its  sanctity.  None  the  less,  they  have  united 
in  the  feeling  that  it  ought  to  be  kept,  and 
kept  it  has  been,  from  the  resurrection-day 
down  through  all  the  ages  of  time,  through 
changes  moral,  political,  social — through  war 
and  peace,  through  adversity  and  prosperity, 
through  persecution  and  trial — Christian  men 
and  women  have  ever  held  the  first  day  of  the 
week  as  holy  to  their  Lord,  who  on  that  day 
broke  the  bars  of  the  grave  and  the  gates  of 
death.  Nor  is  the  unanimity  strange  when  we 
remember  the  heart  thought  of  the  day. 

The  Sabbath  was  to  the  Jew  the  token  of 
the  covenant  between  Jehovah  and  His  peo- 
ple, and  it  was  a  badge  of  loyalty  toward 
Jehovah.  That  .thought  the  Christian  Sun- 
day has  inherited.  It  is  the  Lord's  day,  the 
token  of  the  new  covenant  betwixt  our  Lord 
and  those  who  rejoice  to  call  him  Lord.  Yea, 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  the  badge 
of  loyalty  of  Christians  toward  their  Lord. 
That  is  its  meaning,  that  is  its  purpose,  that 
is  the  wrought-out  effect,  in  soul  and  life,  of 
its  right  keeping.  "  True  loyalty  to  Christ 
will  keep  it,  will  honor  it,  will  call  it  sacred, 
and,  as  it  keeps  it,  that  loyalty  will  grow 
warmer  and  deeper  and  fuller,  till  its  highest 
joy  is  to  serve,  and  at  last  to  see,  the  King 
in  His  beauty." — H,  R. 


THE  SABBATH 


By  Howard  Crosby,  D.D. 

//  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the  Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy  day, 
and  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honorable;  and  shalt  honor  him, 
not  doing  thine  ozvn  ways,  nor  finding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own  words; 
then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the  Lord,  and  I  will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high 
places  of  the  earth  and  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father;  for  the  mouth 
of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it. — Isaiah  Iviii:  is,  14 


The  only  correction  to  be  made  in  this  pas- 
sage from  the  Authorized  Version  is  "  and 
shalt  honor  it  (the  Sabbath)  by  not  doing 
thine  own  ways."  The  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah 
shows  us  the  Messiah  suffering  and  dying  for 
sinners.  The  54th  and  55th  chapters  show 
the  enlargement  of  God's  Church  that  follows, 
and  give  the  invitation  to  all  to  enter,  and 
then  come  four  chapters  (Ivi.,  Ivii.,  Iviii.,  and 
lix.),  showing  the  evils  which  the  church  in 
its  growth  would  have  to  contend  with.  In 
this  portion,  which  stands  between  the  invi- 
tation and  the  description  of  the  glorious 
Church,  embracing  the  Gentiles  (chapter  Ix, 
etc.),  note  the  peculiar  position  of  the  Sabbath 
commandment.  We  first  find  the  Sabbath 
observance  as  a  distinctive  mark  oi  the  faith- 
ful ones  who  form  the  germ  of  the  future 
developed  Church  in  its  glory.  In  chapter 
Ivi :  2,  the  Sabbath  keeper  is  the  blessed  one, 
and  in  verses  4  and  6  the  eunuchs  and  stran- 
gers (classes  excluded  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ritual)  are  invited  into  the  new  Church, 
and  in  each  case  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath 
is  made  a  seal  of  their  taking  hold  of  God's 


covenant  of  grace — "  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto 
the  eunuchs  that  keep  my  Sabbaths  and  choose 
the  things  that  please  me  and  take  hold  of 
my  covenant,"  etc, ;  "  also  the  sons  of  the 
stranger  .  .  .  every  one  that  keepeth  the 
Sabbath  from  polluting  it  and  taketh  hold  of 
my  covenant."  Then  afterward  comes  the 
declaration  "  for  mine  house  shall  be  called 
a  house  of  prayer  for  all  people." 

So  evidently  is  all  this  prophecy  a  view  of 
the  Messianic  church,  and  is  utterly  inap- 
plicable to  the  Jewish  Church.  Now  in  the 
very  heart  of  this  passage  (including  the  four 
chapters  above  indicated)  occurs  the  remark- 
able emphasis  of  the  Sabbath  with  which  we 
have  headed  this  article.  The  theme  is  still 
the  same.  It  is  the  renewed  Church  coming 
out  from  the  old  church,  which  had  become 
corrupt.  The  light  was  to  break  forth  as  the 
morning,  the  Church  was  to  become  like  a 
watered  garden,  the  waste  places  were  to  be 
built,  the  foundations  raised  up,  the  breach 
repaired  and  the  paths  restored.  It  is  right 
after  all  this,  and  shortly  before  the  clear 
picture  of  the  universal  Church  in  the  6oth 


SUNDAY 


221 


chapter,  that  we  have  this  exaltation  of  the 
Sabbath  as  a  distinguishing  mark  of  God's 
people.  The  conclusion  is  irresistible.  The 
Sabbath  is  no  circumscribed  Jewish  institu- 
tion. It  belongs  to  God's  Church  of  all  ages. 
It  is  a  holy  sacrament,  an  outward  and  visible 
sign  of  the  inward  and  invisible  grace  of 
the  Church.  It  stands  here  imbedded  in  the 
picture  of  the  Messianic  Church,  just  as  it 
stands  imbedded  in  the  Decalog,  which  also 
was  given,  not  to  the  Jewish  Church,  but  to 
the  universal  Church  of  God.  The  details 
of  the  pa -sage  we  have  given  show  that  it  is 
God's  day  ("my  holy  day")  in  which  man 
is  to  withdraw  from  his  accustomed  works, 
pleasures,  and  ways  to  find  his  delight  in 
holy  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  a  day  or- 
dained in  the  mercy  and  love  of  God  to  pre- 


vent man  from  being  carnalized  by  his  earthly 
occupations. 

We  see,  then,  how  unsound  and  pernicious 
is  the  flippant  relegation  of  the  Sabbath  to 
the  old  Jewish  Church,  and  understand  that 
the  only  Sabbath  observance  which  the  apos- 
tle condemned  was  the  false,  hypocritical,  for- 
mal, and  absurd  observance  practiced  by  the 
corrupt  Jews  of  his  day,  to  avoid  which 
abuse  of  the  holy  time,  the  Lord's  day,  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  the  day  of  our  Lord's 
resurrection  was  substituted  for  the  Jewish 
Sabbath,  and  became  the  Christian   Sabbath. 

The  Sabbath  is  ever  a  vital  element  in 
true  piety.  As  the  Sabbath  is  neglected,  re- 
ligion loses  its  purity  and  power.  Disregard 
of  the  Sabbath  is  a  sure  sign  of  a  low  state  of 
religious  life. — H.  R. 


SABBATH  DUTIES* 

By  G.  D.  Boardman 


Ex.  XX. ■  8- 1 1 


I.  The  duty  of  work. — This  is  man's  nor- 
mal condition,  (i)  For  the  soil's  sake.  Na- 
ture's capacities  are  latent  as  well  as  vast, 
and  need  the  quickening,  unfolding,  marshal- 
ing powers  of  a  tireless,  and  skilful  labor. 
(2)  For  man's  own  sake.  He  who  does  not 
use  his  faculties  is  as  tho  he  had  none.  In- 
dolence and  barbarism  go  hand  in  hand.  (3) 
For  God's  sake.     Stewardship. 

II.  The  duty  of  rest. — The  seventh  day 


is  to  be  a  day  of  rest  for  the  body,  jaded  with 
the  toils  of  the  week :  a  day  of  rest  for  the 
mind,  jaded  with  the  cares  of  the  week:  a 
day  of  rest  for  the  heart,  jaded  with  the  griefs 
of  the  week. 

III.  The  duty  of  worship. — "  Keep  it 
holy."  The  Sabbath,  if  I  may  so  say,  is 
God's  weekly  toll  on  mankind,  the  periodical 
tribute  which  He  demands  in  token  of  human 
fealty. 


THE  SABBATH 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Isaiah  Iviii:  13,  14 


I.  How  THE  Sabbath  is  to  be  sanctified. — 
Avoiding  everything  which  would  indicate 
want  of  high  respect  for  the  Sabbath. 
"  Turn  away  thy  foot,"  etc. 

II.  Our  language  must  show  our  respect 
FOR  it. — Call  the  Sabbath  "a  delight"  call 
the  holy  day  of  Jehovah  "  honorable."  Our 
language  must  show  that  we  do  not  con- 
sider it  a  useless  restraint.  We  must  honor 
those  that  honor  it.  Call  it  so,  (a)  to  God  in 
praising  Him  for  it.  (b)  Call  it  so  to  others, 
endeavoring  to  induce  them  to  enjoy  its  bless- 
ings, (c)  Call  it  so  to  our  own  hearts,  not 
desiring  to  have  the  blessed  hours  pass. 

III.  We  must  feel  that  in  honoring  the 
Sabbath  we  are  honoring  Him,  Jehovah. 
(i)  Not  to  do  our  own  ways.  (2)  Not  to 
find  our  own  pleasure.  (3)  Not  speaking  our 
own  words. 

Heaven  is  called  "  a  Sabbatism."  Hence 
we  may  learn  how  to  keep  the  Sabbath  on 
earth. 

*  Biblical  Museum 


IV.  The  fruits  of  this:  (i)  We  shall  de- 
light ourselves  in  it.  The  more  cheerfully  we 
engage  in  religious  duties  the  more  pleasure 
we  shall  find.  (2)  Honor.  Ride  upon  high 
places.  Washington  and  the  elder  John 
Adams.  (3)  Profit.  Feed  with  the  heritage 
of  our  Father.  Six  days  devotion  to  toil  will 
develop  the  resources  of  this  country. 

This  passage  seems  to  take  for  granted  that 
whoso  keepeth  the  fourth  commandment,  will 
keep  all  the  other  commandments  of  God. 
Show  that  this  general  principle  is  correct. 

He  who  violates  the  Sabbath  will  be  led  to 
other  sins.  Show  this  also.  The  abnormal 
state  of  body  and  mind  induces  a  desire  for 
stimulating  pleasures. 

A  Sabbath  breaker  is  a  God-robber.  His 
moral  principles  become  relaxed.  He  fails  to 
receive  the  religious  impressions  of  the  Sab- 
bath. Show  this  in  the  annals  of  crime.  A 
gentleman  for  twenty  years  visited  convicts; 

I  nearly  all  traced  their  ruin  to  neglect  of  the 

(J.  C.Gray),  p,  213. 


222 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Sabbath.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  executed, 
nine-tenths  neglected  the  Sabbath.  Auburn 
State  Prison.  Of  one  thousand  two  hundred 
and  thirty-two  convicts,  only  twenty-six  had 
been  observers  of  the  Sabbath.  We  never 
can    succeed    in    putting    down    the    Sabbath 


breaking  until  a  right  public  opinion  in  the 
Church  is  generated.  Is  it  any  worse  to  steal, 
to  commit  adultery  than  to  violate  the  Sab- 
bath? Picture  a  world  without  a  Sabbath. 
Picture  a  world  where  the  Sabbath  is  univer- 
sally observed. 


THE  SABBATH  QUESTION 

Christianity  has  given  us  the  Sabbath,  the  jubilee  of  the  zvhole  world,  whose  light  dawns 
welcome  alike  into  the  closet  of  the  philosopher,  into  the  garret  of  toil,  and  into  prison 
cells,  and  everywhere  suggests  even  to  the  vile,  the  dignity  of  spiritual  being. — Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson. 

The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man. — Mark  ii:  27 


It  is  manifest  to  the  careful  observer  that 
the  Sabbath  Question  is  to  be,  in  the  near 
future,  one  of  the  decisive  battlefields  between 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  Evangelical  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  to-day  even  a  graver  question 
than  any  which  excites  the  theological  world ; 
for  its  relations  are  world-wide ;  and  it  also 
interests  and  moves  the  masses,  especially  the 
working  class  and  pleasure  seekers,  as  no 
other  question  does.  Already  the  conflict  has 
begun.  Agencies,  forces,  influences,  of  all 
kinds  are  combining  and  drilling  their  forces 
for  a  grand  assault,  all  along  the  line,  on  the 
Puritan  Sabbath ;  and  tho  as  yet  there  has 
been  only  a  little  skirmishing  here  and  there, 
there  is  reason  for  serious  alarm  on  the  part 
of  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath. 

I.  Let  us  glance  at  what  is  doing  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  Sabbath:  (i)  The  greatest 
danger  of  all  is  the  laxity  wliich  prevails  in 
the  Family.  The  change  which  fifty  years 
have  wrought,  even  in  New  England  house- 
holds, is  a  sad  and  startling  one.  The  swing 
from  over-rigid  discipline  has  been  way  over 
to  extreme  laxity  or  liberalism,  in  its  observ- 
ance. You  see  it  in  the  custom  of  going  to 
Church  but  once  on  Sunday,  in  calling,  visit- 
ing, and  traveling  on  Sunday,  and  in  many 
other  ways,  even  on  the  part  of  members  of 
the  Church.  Here  tlie  work  of  reform  must 
begin.  (2)  The  inroad  of  foreigners  in  such 
great  numbers  is  a  standing  menace  to  us. 
They  bring  the  old  world  Sunday  with  them 
(a  day  of  pleasure),  and  everywhere,  in  city, 
and  country,  they  cast  their  influence  against 
the  American  Sunday.  (3)  Adverse  legisla- 
tion, and  the  pernicious  example  of  those  in 
authority  in  truckling  to  a  false  public  senti- 
ment. Every  year  legislation  is  sought  tend- 
ing to  destroy  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  and 
make  it  a  day  of  mere  pleasure  and  vicious 
indulgence,  and  the  clamor  of  politicians,  and 
the  foreign  element,  and  the  rum  interest,  and 
infidel  intolerance,  waxes  louder  and  louder. 
Hence  the  desperate  efforts  to  get  rid  of  our 
laivs  restraining  the  Sunday  traffic,  especially 
liquor  selling.  Hence  also  the  opening  of 
museums  and  libraries,  and  converting  our 
public  parks  into  places  of  Sunday  entertain- 


ment. (4)  And,  back  of  all  this  and  many 
other  active  hostile  agencies,  the  Great  Liquor 
Power  of  the  country,  with  its  money  and  its 
organized  forces,  is  the  deadly  enemy  of  the 
Sabbath.  It  would  fain  blot  out  the  day.  It 
interferes  with  its  accursed  trade  and  profits. 
It  would  have  all  restrictions  removed,  and 
free  and  full  scope  given  to  beastly  indul- 
gence. And  the  fact  is  notorious  that  its 
money  is  freely  given,  its  efforts  put  forth, 
to  defeat  all  legislation  and  all  other  attempts 
to  improve  the  observance  of  Sunday  on  the 
part  of  its  friends.  Rum  and  the  enemies  of 
the  Sabbath  are  leagued  together  for  its  over- 
throw. 

II.  In  view  of  such  a  condition  of  things  it 
is  imperative  that  all  who  reverence  the  Sab- 
bath and  desire  to  preserve  it,  must  sound 
the  alarm  and  rally  to  the  support  of  all  wise 
measures  to  defeat  the  designs  of  its  enemies 
and  create  a  right  public  sentiment.  The  true 
law  of  the  Sabbath  must  be  restored  in  the 
family.  The  Sunday-school  power  must  be 
enlisted  in  the  cause.  The  pulpit  of  the  land 
must  be  stirred  up  to  give  forth  a  mighty 
blast.  The  religious  press  must  give  out  no 
uncertain  sound.  As  far  as  possible  the  bet- 
ter class  of  our  secular  newspapers  must  be 
persuaded  to  lend  a  helping  hand,  when  our 
dearest  interests  as  a  nation  are  imperiled. 
Our  legislatures  must  be  jealously  watched, 
to  prevent  assault  from  such  a  source,  and 
wherever  practicable,  its  action  sought  in  de- 
fence of  this  great  bulwark  of  Christianity. 
Citizens'  Leagues  should  be  formed  in  every 
city  and  town  to  see  to  it  that  our  Sabbath 
laws  respecting  the  sale  of  liquor,  confection- 
ery, gambling,  and  the  like,  are  rigidly  en- 
forced. And  all  possible  aid  should  be  given 
to  those  who  are  seeking  to  enlighten  the 
public  mind  and  keep  the  sacred  day  from 
profanation.  A  book  published  in  New  York 
(1885),  called  "The  Sabbath  for  Man," 
contains  a  vast  amount  of  information  and 
facts,  statistics,  correspondence,  appeals,  ar- 
guments, etc.,  on  the  Sabbath  Question,  as  it 
stands  to-day  throughout  Christendom,  that 
sheds  much  light  on  the  matter,  and  we  wish 
it  might  obtain  universal  circulation. — H.  R. 


SUNDAY 


223 


THE  EARLY  SABBATH  :  A  TYPE  OF  THE  HEAVENLY 


By  John  Cairns,  D.D. 


Heb.  iv:  9 


Heaven  is  a  perpetual  Sabbath.  The  word 
translated  "  rest  "  means  "  the  keeping  of  a 
Sabbath."  This  is  proved  to  remain  to  the 
people  of  God  in  this  way.  In  the  95th  Psalm 
God  exhorts  Israel  to  hear  His  voice  lest  they 
should  be  excluded  from  His  rest.  This  could 
not  be  God's  creation  rest,  which  was  long 
over;  nor  the  rest  of  Israel  in  Canaan,  for 
Joshua  gave  them  this  rest  long  before  the 
Psalm  was  written.  There  was  therefore  a 
future  rest  which  would  be  fully  entered  on 
when  there  was  no  longer  any  cause  for  God 
to  swear,  "  They  shall  not  enter  into  My 
rest."  Tho  there  may  be  anticipation  of  this 
by  faith,  the  majority  of  interpreters  agree 
that  the  apostle  refers  more  to  the  rest  of 
glory  than  of  grace.  And  this  future  rest  is 
a  Sabbath  rest.  We  may  then  consider  the 
ideas  associated  with  the  Sabbath  below,  and 
transfer  them  to  the  heavenly  Sabbath. 

I.  Rest  is  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  Sab- 
bath ;  not  mere  physical  rest,  but  rest  in 
God,  and  from  all  that  would  hinder  rest  in 
Him.  It  is  partially  attained  by  the  believer 
even  here,  but  the  true  Sabbatism  will  only 
be  attained  in  Heaven,  both  in  its  negative 
and  positive  aspects.  The  negative  aspects 
include  rest  from  sin,  from  sorrow  and  pain, 
from  labor  and  fatigue,  and  these  hindrances 
are  only  removed  that  the  soul  may  find  its 
positive  and  satisfying  rest  in  God.  This  is 
its  true  end,  and  every  faculty  here  finds  its 
center.  The  mind  rests  in  the  knowledge  of 
God,  the  heart  in  reconciliation  with  Him,  the 
will  in  choice  and  possession  of  Him.  There 
is  nothing  better  to  long  for,  but  more  of  God, 


to  all  eternity,  and  as  the  object  infinitely 
exceeds  the  faculty,  there  is  room  for  an  ever- 
lasting Sabbath  of  complete  repose,  and  yet 
of  constant  progress  in  which  God  is  all,  and 
in  all. 

2.  Commemoration. — The  Sabbath  has  had 
from  the  beginning  a  memorial  character. 
The  Paradisaic  Sabbath  was  a  memorial  of 
creation,  the  Jewish  Sabbath  a  memorial  of 
deliverance  out  of  Egypt,  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath a  memorial  of  Christ's  rising  from  the 
dead.  The  heavenly  Sabbath  will  be  a  me- 
morial of  all  the  history,  the  deliverance,  and 
the  final  exodus  out  of  this  world  of  the  peo- 
ple of  God.  The  rest  of  Canaan  commem- 
orated the  gracious  Providence  of  the  old 
covenant,  the  rest  of  the  heavenly  Canaan  will 
consummate  and  commemorate  the  Provi- 
dence of  the  New. 

3.  Worship. — From  the  first  the  Sabbath 
has  been  associated  with  worship.  In  the 
heavenly  Sabbath,  worship  will  be  consum- 
mated. We  cannot  tell  whether  we  should 
take  literally  the  descriptions  of  the  worship 
in  the  New  Jerusalem,  but  we  may  be  sure 
it  will  contain  three  elements:  (i)  Gratitude, 
(2)   Sympathy,   (3)   Consecration. 

But  this  rest  is  only  for  the  people  of  God. 
They  that  believe  enter  into  rest.  Even  God 
cannot  bring  them  in  by  any  other  way.  It 
was  unfit  that  unbelieving  Israel  should  enter 
Canaan ;  with  regard  to  heaven  it  is  unfit  and 
impossible.  There  is  no  rest  out  of  God,  out 
of  Christ,  and  the  unbeliever  is  out  of  Both. 
— E.  Times,  vol.  xii.,  p.  273. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


BEEB,   The    Great    Sabbath   Breaker. — 

Every  other  enemy  to  Sabbath  observance 
succumbs  before  the  strong  influence  of  pub- 
lic opinion.  Even  the  directors  of  the  World's 
Fair  (1893),  backed  by  all  the  plausible  opin- 
ions of  some  good  men,  and  by  the  long,  and 
loud,  and  sordid  cry  for  "  liberty  "  by  An- 
archists who  have  little  regard  for  the  laws 
of  either  God  or  man,  and  by  others  who  fail 
to  see  what  concerns  their  own  best  interests 
both  for  this  world  and  the  next,  have  been 
obliged  to  yield  to  the  sanctified  common 
sense  and  influence  of  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  the  American  people.  But  beer — 
this  modern  Goliath  of  Gath,  continues  to 
defy  the  armies  of  the  living  God,  and  con- 
temptuously asks  questions,  as  the  big  Philis- 


tian  bully  of  old  did,  of  all  who  oppose  its 
progress,  and  curses  them  by  its  gods.  But 
the  doors  of  the  beer  saloons  will  yet  be 
closed  when  the  American  people  rise  in  their 
strength,  and  demand  that  God's  holy  day 
shall  be  observed  by  all  men  who  have  volun- 
tarily put  themselves  under  the  government 
of  American  laws,  and  who  claim  the  protec- 
tion of  the  American  flag.  The  victory  which 
has  just  been  won  in  shutting  the  gates  of 
the  great  Columbian  Exhibition  on  the  Lord's 
Day  should  encourage  all  Christian  people  to 
gird  on  their  armor  anew,  and  to  demand 
from  the  beer  desecrators  of  God's  Day  an 
observance  that  will  not  be  offensive  to  Amer- 
ican Christian  people.  This  sin  against  God, 
this   crime  against   man,   this    disgrace   to   a 


224 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Christian  nation,  this  curse  to  the  world 
should  be  immediately  wiped  out  by  an  out- 
raged Christian  puhVic.—S  dec  ted. 

DESECRATION,   Process  of  Sabbatli.— 

Official  investigations  made  in  recent  years 
by  the  German  government,  in  reply  to  the 
bitter  cry  of  Sunday  toilers,  showed  that  in 
Prussia  fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  factories — 
more  than  half — and  seventy-seven  per  cent, 
of  the  establishments  devoted  to  trade  and 
transportation — more  than  three-fourths — 
were  in  operation  on  the  so-called  holiday 
Sunday.  The  downward  steps  of  the  conti- 
nental Sunday  are  :  Holy  day,  holiday,  work- 
day, devil's  day,  despot's  da-'. — U.  L. 

LABOR     IN     AUSTRIA.— Rev.     C.     M. 

Sheldon:  I  have  just  found  what  seems  to 
me  the  best  Sabbath  news  from  Europe  for  a 
long  time ;  so  I  forward  it  straight  to  you,  as 
there  is  not  time  to  reach  you  via  Washing- 
ton. 

The  Swiss  Sonntagsfreund  of  Zurich  says : 
"  In  Austria  Sunday  rest  for  shop  assistants 
and  others  has  at  last  received  some  measure 
of  consideration  after  long  delay.  Shops 
other  than  those  for  the  sale  of  provisions, 
and  inclusive  of  pawn-brokers,  traveling  ped- 
lers,  and  others  are  to  have  complete  rest 
Sunday  from  June  i6th  to  September  30th. 
From  October  ist  to  June  15th  there  is  to  be 
a  permitted  sale  of  goods  till  11  a.  m.,  and 
the  sale  of  food  stuffs  is  to  be  allowed  from 
6  to  10  A.  M.  and  from  4  to  8  p.  m.  The 
rest  of  the  year  articles  of  food  can  be  sold 
from  5  to  10  A.  M.  All  other  labor  is  to  be 
prohibited.  The  employe  working  in  the 
evening  is  to  be  free  from  attendance  on  the 
next  Sunday,  or  to  be  allowed  half  a  day 
off  the  following  week.  Men  and  women  em- 
ployed in  factories  are  to  be  permitted  Sun- 
day abstinence  during  the  whole  year." — 
J.  B.  Davison. 

LABOR,  Sunday  Railroad. —  (By  a  rail- 
road employe.)  There  are  over  one  million 
slaves  in  the  United  States.  They  may  be 
found  on  the  railroads,  street  cars  and  with 
other  corporations.  I  charge  a  Christian 
people  to  be  indirectly  the  primary  cause  of 
the  beginning  and  the  continuation  of  such  a 
state  of  affairs.  We  are  slaves  of  what? 
Sabbath  desecration.  It  has  come  to  be. 
Violate  the  fourth  commandment  or  starve. 
How  is  the  Christian  responsible?  By  using 
and  countenancing  such  a  practice. 

But  a  short  time  ago,  a  minister  gave  over 
the  evening  service  into  the  hands  of  the 
Young  People's  Society,  that  he  might  start 
on  Sunday  evening  for  Chicago. 

In  order  for  that  train  to  arrive  at  the  place 
where  this  servant  of  God  resides,  on  Sunday 
evening,  it  must  necessarily  leave  its  terminus 
on  Sunday  morning.  Several  entire  train 
crews  are  ordered  into  service ;  telegraph 
operators  must  be  at  their  key  to  keep  track 
clear,  and  trains  apart ;  ticket  agents  must 
be  on  duty  to  sell  tickets ;  and  throughout 
the  entire  system  of  that  road  hundreds  of 
men  worked  on  Sunday  as  on  any  other  day 
to  carry  that  Christian  to  his  destination. 


I  hear  it  said,  the  train  would  have  been 
run  just  the  same.  This  is  the  lie  Satan  puts 
into  the  Christian's  mouth. 

You  and  I  know  trains,  street  cars,  etc., 
are  run  to  put  money  into  the  stockholders' 
pockets.  Did  not  professing  Christians  pat- 
ronize Sunday  trains  they  would  never  be 
run. 

What  is  the  cure?  Practical  Christianity. 
God's  people  may  pray  continuously  until  the 
breath  leaves  the  body,  but  still  the  shriek 
of  the  steam  car  whistle,  and  the  clanging  of 
the  street  car  bell  will  mingle  with  their 
prayers  on  Sunday. 

There  is  too  much  of  that  kind  of  religion 
new.  All  for  self!  "Oh,  Lord!  Save  me, 
and  my  wife,  and  my  children,  and  I  shall  be 
grateful  and  serve  Thee !  "  Don't  try  to 
dodge  it.  It's  true,  only  too  true.  Think  of 
others. 

Well,  what  is  the  cure?  Organized  Chris- 
tian work.  First,  public  sentiment  aroused 
from  the  pulpit,  awakening  the  people  out  of 
their  slumber  to  a  realization  that  God  will 
hold  them  responsible.  Second,  the  forming 
of  non-sectarian  organized  bodies,  pledging 
themselves  to  refrain  from  all  kinds  of  en- 
joyment or  convenience  that  deprives  a 
fellow  man  of  his  Sabbath,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  all  from  any  Sunday  breaking  cor- 
poration, and  the  bestowing  of  this  patronage 
upon  that  corporation  first  giving  positive 
proof  of  a  strict  Sabbath  observance. 

It  will  work,  for  God  will  make  it  a  suc- 
cess, and  a  million  men  will  be  freed  from 
the  soul  blighting  curse  of  Sunday  labor.  The 
secular  press  with  its  railway  advertising 
patronage,  and  passes,  does  not  dare  to  lift 
its  voice  against  this  flagrant  wrong ;  and 
unless  the  Christian  press  does  so  soon,  God 
will  blight  their  fair  prospects,  and  justly  too. 

This  may  seem  a  very  serious  charge  to 
bring  against  a  Christian  people,  but  it  is 
true. 

Again  I  reiterate,  the  Church  of  to-day  is 
partly  responsible  for  myself  and  a  million  of 
my  brothers  laboring  on  Sunday  at  the  risk  of 
our   souls'    salvation. — Selected. 

NE'WSPAPERS,  The  Bane  of  Sunday. — 
Keep  your  Sundays  free  for  earnest  reading. 
Burn  up  the  Sunday  newspaper.  It  is  an 
indefensible,  intolerabJe  curse.  It  exists  sim- 
ply and  solely  to  swell  the  income  of  wealthy 
and  greedy  newspaper  proprietors.  A  Chris- 
tian ought  to  be  ashamed  to  have  it  in  his 
house.  Is  not  a  man  sufficiently  secularized 
by  six  days'  contact  with  the  world  without 
dipping  his  mind  on  Sunday  morning  once 
more  into  the  muddy  stream  in  which  he  has 
dipped  himself  on  the  preceding  six  days? 
What  can  be  expected  of  a  Christian  in 
public  worship  who  comes  to  Church  with  a 
newspaper  stuffed  into  his  mind?  He  is  cold 
as  a  clod  to  the  touch  of  the  preacher  and 
lowers  the  spiritual  temperature  of  the  entire 
congregation. — C.  E.  Jefferson.     (C.) 

SABBATH  AND  FREEDOM,   The.— An 

eminent  United  States  jurist  has  declared 
that  "  where  there  is  no  Christian  Sabbatn 
there  is  no  Christian  morality;    and  without 


SUNDAY 


225 


this,  free  government  cannot  be  maintained." 
— Selected. 

SABBATH-BREAKER,  Fate  of  the.— A 

worldly  man.  living  on  the  shores  of  a  beauti- 
ful lake  built  a  yacht  for  pleasure  excursions. 
The  minister  called  upon  him,  and  expressed 
his  fears  that  it  would  demoralize  the  young 
people,  and  prove  a  Sabbath-breaker.  The 
man  said,  defiantly,  "  That  is  just  what  I'll 
name  my  boat.  She  shall  be  called  the  Sab- 
bath-Breaker." She  was  launched  upon  a 
Sunday,  and  her  trial  trip  was  made  also  on  a 
Sunday.  Many  were  invited  to  the  excur- 
sion. Her  ill-omened  name  floated  on  the 
flag,  and  caused  many  to  refuse  to  go  on 
board.  A  large  company  went,  and  mirth 
and  music  made  them  forget  their  fears. 
Suddenly,  a  squall  of  wind  struck  the  boat. 
She  capsized,  and  fifty  of  her  passengers  were 
drowned.  Just  above  the  water  floated  her 
name,  "  The  Sabbath-Breaker." — F.  II. 

SABBATH-BREAKER,  Heaven  of  the. 

— There  is  a  place  in  Paris,  called  the 
Champs-Elysees,  or  the  plain  of  heaven,  a 
beautiful  public  walk,  with  trees  and  gardens. 
It  is  the  chief  scene  of  the  Parisian's  Sabbath 
desecration,  and  an  awful  scene  it  is !  Oh, 
thought  I,  if  this  be  the  heaven  the  Parisian 
loves,  he  will  never  enjoy  the  pure  heaven 
that  is  above. — M'Cheyne. 

SABBATH  BREAKING,  Effects  of.— In 

New  Hampshire  there  were  two  neighbor- 
hoods—the one  of  six  families,  the  other  of 
five  families.  The  six  families  disregarded 
the  Sabbath.  In  time,  five  of  these  families 
were  broken  up  by  the  separation  of  husbands 
and  wives  ;  the  other  by  the  father  becoming 
a  thief.  Eight  or  nine  of  the  parents  became 
drunkards,  one  committed  suicide.,  and  all 
came  to  penury.  Of  some  forty  or  fifty  de- 
scendants, about  twenty  are  known  to  be 
diunkards  and  gamblers  and  dissolute.  Four 
or  five  have  been  in  State  prison.  One  fell  in 
a  duel.  Some  are  in  the  almshouse.  Only 
one  became  a  Christian,  and  he  after  first  hav- 
ing been  outrageously  dissipated.  The  other 
five  families  that  regarded  the  Sabbath  were 
all  prospered.  Eight  or  ten  of  the  children 
are  consistent  members  of  the  Church.  Some 
of  them  became  officers  in  the  Church ;  one 
is  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  one  is  a  mis- 
sionary to  China.  No  poverty  among  any  of 
them.  The  homestead  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
the  third  generation.  Those  who  have  died, 
have  died  in  the  peace  of  the  gospel.  Oh  !  is 
there  nothing  in  remembering  God's  holy  day? 
— Talmage. 

SABBATH-BREAKING,  Legend  of.— A 
German  legend  says  that  ages  ago  an  old  man 
went  into  the  forest  one  Sunday  morning  to 
cut  wood.  Having  gathered  a  bundle  of  sticks 
he  threw  it  over  his  shoulder  and  took  his 
way  homeward.  He  met  a  man  in  Sunday 
clothes,  going  towards  the  Church,  who  asked 
him,  "  Do  you  know  that  this  is  Sunday  on 
earth,  when  all  must  rest  from  their  labors?  " 
"  Sunday  on  earth  or  Monday  in  heaven,  it  is 
all  the  same  to  me,"  laughed  the  Sabbath- 
breaker.     "  Then  bear  your  bundle  for  ever," 


answered  the  stranger :  "  and  as  you  value 
not  Sunday  on  earth,  yours  shall  be  a  per- 
petual Monday  in  heaven ;  and  you  shall 
stand  for  eternity  in  the  moon,  a  warning  to 
all  Sabbath-breakers."  Thereupon  the  man 
was  caught  up  into  the  moon,  where  he  has 
stood  with  the  bundle  on  his  back  ever  since. 
— F.  II. 

SABBATH-DAY  SLOTH  AND  TRI- 
FLING.— God's  rest-day  is  for  man's  benefit 
physically  and  spiritually.  If  kept  in  such  a 
way  as  to  insure  benefit  in  both  ways,  there 
must  be  no  neglecting  of  the  proper  modes  of 
caring  for  the  body.  It  needs  rest  and  should 
have  it,  in  right  proportion  and  with  proper 
care.  But  slothfulness  will  not  secure  its 
refreshment,  nor  will  irregular  and  immoder- 
ate eating  or  drinking,  nor  will  slovenly  in- 
dulgence in  dress  assist  towards  it.  When 
proper  time  has  been  given  to  sleep,  and  suit- 
able ablutions  observed,  then  dress  should  not 
be  neglected,  but  attended  to  with  a  careful- 
ness suited  to  the  day,  and  sacred  reading  and 
devotions  observed,  and  the  sanctuary  visited 
with  reverence  for  holy  worship,  and  when 
the  remainder  of  the  day  is  spent  in  quiet 
restfulness,  if  not  in  active  religious  work, 
the  evening  will  come  with  a  holy  calm,  with 
a  spirit  of  satisfaction,  and  with  a  refresh- 
ment gained  to  both  body  and  soul,  that  the 
slothful  and  trifling  have  not  secured  by  all 
their  dawdling,  and  stupid  idling,  and  over 
eating  and  drinking,  and  excursioning.  In 
the  proper  keeping  of  this  fourth  command  of 
God  there  is  a  great  reward  both  for  the  body- 
and  soul. — P.  T. 

SABBATH  DESECRATION.— The  dese- 
cration of  the  Christian  Sunday  is  a  social 
danger  against  which  it  behooves  us  to  set 
our  face,  and  take  timely  precautions  before 
ir  assumes  proportions  too  formidable  to  be 
easily  eradicated.  A  close  observer  cannot 
fail  to  note  the  dangerous  inroads  that  have 
been  made  on  the  Lord's  Day  in  our  country 
within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  If  these 
encroachments  are  not  checked  in  time  the 
day  may  come  when  the  religious  quiet  now 
happily  reigning  in  our  well-ordered  cities 
will  be  changed  into  noise  and  turbulence; 
when  the  sound  of  the  Church  bell  will  be 
drowned  by  the  echo  of  the  hammer  and  the 
dray ;  when  the  Bible  and  the  Prayer-Book 
will  be  supplanted  by  the  newspaper  and  the 
magazine ;  when  the  votaries  of  the  theater 
will  outnumber  the  religious  worshipers,  and 
salutary  thoughts  of  God,  of  eternity,  and  of 
the  soul  will  be  checked  by  the  cares  of  busi- 
ness and  by  the  pleasures  and  dissipations  of 
the  world. — Cardinal  Gibbons.     (I.) 

SABBATH,  Desecration  of  the. — The  im- 
portance of  the  religious  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  is  seldom  sufficiently  estimated.  The 
violation  of  this  duty  by  the  young  is  one  of 
the  most  decided  marks  of  incipient  moral 
degeneracy.  Religious  restraint  is  fast  losing 
its  hold  upon  that  young  man,  who,  having 
been  educated  in  the  fear  of  God,  begins  to 
spend  the  Sabbath  in  idleness,  or  in  amuse- 
ment. And  so  also  of  communities.  The 
desecration  of  the   Sabbath   is  one  of  those 


226 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


evident  indications  of  that  criminal  reckless- 
ness, that  insane  love  of  pleasure,  and  that 
subjection  to  the  government  of  appetite  and 
passion,  which  forebodes  that  the  "  beginning 
of  the  end  "  of  social  happiness,  and  of  true 
national  prosperity,  has  arrived. — Wayland. 

SABBATH,  Emblem  of  the. — The  green 
oasis,  the  little  grassy  meadow  in  the  wilder- 
ness, where,  after  the  week-days'  journey, 
the  pilgrim  halts  for  refreshment  and  repose ; 
where  he  rests  beneath  the  shade  of  the  lofty 
palm-trees,  and  dips  his  vessel  in  the  waters 
of  the  calm,  clear  stream,  and  recovers  his 
strength  to  go  forth  again  upon  his  pilgrim- 
age in  the  desert  with  renewed  vigor  and 
cheerfulness. — Reade. 

SABBATH  IS  CHALLENGED  TO 
PROVE  ITS  VALUE,  The  American. — It 
it  well  for  those  engaged  in  the  Rescue  of  the 
Sabbath  to  understand  the  sources  from 
which  the  attacks  upon  the  sacred  day  are 
made.  Most  of  these  attacks  come  from 
money  considerations. 

The  railroads  that  are  desecrating  the  day 
do  it  for  money ;  the  Sunday  newspaper  pro- 
prietors issue  papers  not  for  philanthropy, 
but  to  make  money — and  so  all  along  the  line. 
We  have,  especially  among  the  foreigners 
who  have  recently  come  among  us,  a  class 
of  citizens  who  are  ignorant  of  the  value 
of  the  day.  They  know  but  little  of  the 
American  Sabbath,  and  what  little  they  hear 
of  it  through  prejudiced  channels  has  a 
tendency  to  make  them  dislike  it. 

These  foreigners  are  to  be  met  with  kind- 
ness and  with  reason.  If  they  challenge  you 
to  prove  to  them  the  value  of  the  American 
Sabbath,  be  prepared  to  give  them  reasons 
why  this  institution,  which  has  done  us  so 
much  good  for  the  last  hundred  years,  should 
be  continued.  Let  us  be  assured  that  unless 
the  reasons  are  forthcoming;  unless  God's 
people  become  aroused  to  a  higher  reverence 
and  affection  for  the  day;  and  unless  they 
pray  for  it,  speak  for  it,  and  work  for  it, 
the  legal  American  Sabbath  will  be  an  insti- 
tution of  the  past.  It  is  on  trial.  Its  ob- 
servance as  a  legal  rest  day  depends  upon  the 
votes  of  the  people. — Selected. 

SABBATH  IS,  Where  No. — Where  no 
Sabbath  is,  there  is  no  religion.  But  for  this 
day,  earthly  things  would  have  engrossed  all 
our  thoughts.  Honor,  wealth,  and  pleasure 
are  the  real  sirens  which  charm  mankind  to 
shipwreck  and  death.  To  their  songs  the 
ear  of  man  is  by  nature  attuned,  and  the  heart 
beats  in  regular  response.  But  for  the  Sab- 
bath, the  world  as  a  canker  would  rust,  cor- 
rupt, and  consume  all  disposition  to  piety,  and 
all  hope  of  Heaven.  The  soul  would  b^  be- 
numbed; religion  would  die;  God  would  be 
forgotten  ;  the  death  of  Christ  would  be  vain  ; 
mankind  would  cease  to  be  saved;  and 
Heaven  would  fail  of  her  destined  inhab- 
itants.—Dwight. 

SABBATH-KEEPING  NATIONS.— Wil- 
bur F.  Crafts,  Ph.D.,  superintendent  of  The 
Reform  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C.  has  said : 
"  The  supreme  fact  of  living  history  is  that 


the  Sabbath-keeping  nations  are  literally  ri- 
ding on  the  high  places  of  the  earth.  I  have 
not  read  in  a  year  a  news  item  so  significant 
as  the  statement  of  that  very  reliable  paper, 
the  Baltimore  Sun,  that  two-thirds  of  the 
world's  mail  is  in  the  English  language.  That 
means  that  one-fourteenth  of  the  world's 
population  sends  two-thirds  of  the  mail,  and 
that  means  a  corresponding  pre-eminence  in 
intelligence  and  wealth.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Sabbathless  and  Sabbath-breaking  nations 
are  poor — poor  physically — Italy  once,  and 
France  twice  in  ten  years  have  cut  down  their 
standard  for  soldiers ;  poor  mentally — they 
have  the  greatest  illiteracy;  poor  morally — 
they  have  the  most  vice ;  poor  financially — 
their  workmen,  despite  longer  hours  per  day 
and  one  more  work  day  in  the  week,  get  the 
lowest  wages ;  and  they  are  also  the  worst 
off  politically,  vibrating  between  the  extremes 
of  despotism  and  anarchy,  while  Sabbath- 
keeping  people  enjoy  the  golden  mean  of  lib- 
erty under  law." — U.  G.  N. 

SABBATH  KEEPING  PAYS.— Many 
persons  are  sceptical  as  to  the  advantages  of 
the  Sabbath  in  a  secular  aspect.  Here  is  a 
fact  from  Belfast,  Ireland.  The  Omnibus  Com- 
pany resolved  to  discontinue  running  their 
vehicles  on  the  Sunday.  They  did  this,  and 
the  result  was  that  they  saved  their  sharehold- 
ers 12  1-2  per  cent,  in  the  outlay  of  money 
for  horses  during  the  first  twelve  months. 
The  Divine  law  has  reference  to  horses  as 
well  as  men,  and  experience  shows  that  the 
need  of  one  day's  rest  in  seven  is  necessary 
for  the  beast  of  burden.  How  much  greater 
therefore  is  the  need  for  man,  whose  phy- 
sical and  mental  energies  render  the  day  of 
rest  doubly  necessary;  yea,  imperative. — Se- 
lected. 

SABBATH  NEWS.— Pennsylvania  leads 
her  sister  states  in  Sabbath  laws  and  in  their 
observance.  The  Sabbath  laws  of  Illinois  are 
very  weak.  There  is  no  law  for  the  closing 
of  theaters  or  other  places  of  amusement  or 
ball  games  on  Sunday.  Illinois  friends  of  the 
Sabbath  are  obliged  to  fall  back  on  the  gen- 
eral line  of  not  allowing  any  disturbance  or 
nuisance. — Selected. 

SABBATH  REST,  Saving.— Josh.  i:8. 
In  a  retired  valley  of  Joshu  in  India,  there  is 
a  little  hamlet  of  charcoal  burners.  A  few 
years  ago  their  manner  of  life  was  the  rudest 
possible.  There  seemed  no  glimmer  of  hope 
for  better  things. 

A  missionary,  in  passing  through  the  val- 
ley spoke  to  the  people.  Two  men  became 
interested  and  purchased  copies  of  the  New 
Testament.  Their  employers  soon  noticed  a 
change  in  the  grade  of  charcoal  from  these 
two  men — it  was  more  carefully  burned,  better 
packed,  and  free  from  stones  and  grass.  This 
charcoal  was  looked  upon  as  a  special  brand, 
and  brought  a  special  price.  On  Sunday 
work  was  suspended,  and  these  men,  with 
their  families,  gathered  for  religious  worship 
and  the  study  of  the  Bible. 

Shortly  after,  they  began  to  reclaim  the 
mountain  land  about  them,  to  plant  wheat  and 


SUNDAY 


227 


garden  stuff,  and  recently  one  has  become 
forehanded  enough  to  build  a  neat  frame 
house  in  place  of  his  old  hut.  His  employers 
say  he  is  the  most  efficient  and  trustworthy 
man  in  the  mountain.  He  himself  says  he 
owes  his  new  vigor  to  his  weekly  day  of  rest, 
and  that  without  it  and  his  Testament  he 
could  not  do  his  work. — C.  G. 

SABBATH  SUNSHINE.— But  on  the 
Sabbath  I  watch  the  earliest  sunshine  and 
fancy  that  a  holier  brightness  marks  the  day 
when  there  shall  be  no  buzz  of  voices  on 
the  exchange,  nor  traffic  in  the  shops,  nor 
crowd  nor  business  anywhere  but  at  church. 
Many  have  fancied  so.  For  my  own  part, 
whether  I  see  it  scattered  down  among  tangled 
woods,  or  beaming  broad  across  the  fields, 
or  hemmed  in  between  brick  buildings,  or 
tracing  out  the  figure  of  the  casement  on 
my  chamber  floor,  still  I  recognize  the  Sab- 
bath sunshine,  and  ever  let  me  recognize  it. 
Some  illusions- — and  this  among  them — are 
the  shadows  of  great  truths.  Doubts  may 
flit  around  me,  or  seem  to  close  their  evil 
wings  and  settle  down,  but  so  long  as  I 
imagine  that  the  earth  is  hallowed  and  the 
light  of  Heaven  retains  its  sanctity  on  the 
Sabbath — while  that  blessed  sunshine  lives 
within  me — never  can  my  soul  have  lost  the 
instinct  of  its  faith.  If  it  has  gone  astray,  it 
will  return  again. — Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 

SABBATH,  The.— The  apathy  of  many  of 
the  so-called  friends  of  the  Lord's  day  is  a 
danger  of  no  small  consideration.  There  are 
those  who  really  are  in  sympathy  with  the 
institution  of  the  Sabbath.  They  love  it  and 
enjoy  its  sacredness  and  blessings,  but  are 
careless  and  indifferent  in  regard  to  the  dan- 
gers that  beset  it.  They  sing  to  themselves 
a  requiem  of  security  and  peace  when  there 
is  no  peace  or  safety. 

They  need  to  be  aroused  from  their  slum- 
ber and  shown  the  real  situation.  If  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,  it  is  also  at 
this  moment  the  price  of  the  perpetuity  of 
this  God-given  institution — the  Christian  Sab- 
bath.—Rev.  G.  W.  M.  Rigor. 

SABBATH,  The  Last.— When  that  last 
Sahbath  comes — the  Sabbath  of  all  creation — 
the  heart,  wearied  with  its  tumultuous  beat- 
ings, shall  have  rest ;  the  soul,  fevered  with 
its  anxieties,  shall  enjoy  peace.  The  Sun  of 
that  Sabbath  will  never  set,  or  hide  his  splen- 
dors in  a  cloud.  The  flowers  that  grow  in  its 
light  will  never  fade.  Our  earthly  Sabbaths 
are  but  dim  reflections  of  the  heavenly  Sab- 
bath, cast  down  upon  the  earth,  dimmed  by 
the  transit  of  their  rays  from  so  great  a 
height  and  so  distant  a  world.  The  fairest 
landscapes,  or  combinations  of  scenery  upon 
earth,  are  but  the  outskirts  of  the  paradise  of 
God,  fore-earnests  and  intimations  of  that 
which  lies  beyond  them ;  and  the  happiest 
Sabbath-heart,  whose  very  pulse  is  a  Sabbath- 
bell,  hears  but  a  very  inadequate  echo  of  the 
chimes  and  harmonies  of  that  Sabbath,  that 
rest,  where  we  "  rest  not  day  and  night,"  in 
which  the  song  is  ever  new,  and  yet  ever 
sung. — Gumming. 


SILENCE. — Where  the  song's  gone  out  of 
your  life,  you  can't  start  another  while  it's 
a-ringing  in  your  ears;  it's  best  to  have  a  bit 
o'  silence,  and  out  o'  that,  maybe,  a  psalm 
will  come  by  and  by. — Edward  Garrett. 

SUNDAY,  Carrying.— I  had  a  friend  in 
Syracuse,  who  lived  to  be  one  hundred  years 
of  age.  He  said  to  me,  in  his  ninety-ninth 
year,  "  I  went  across  the  mountains  in  the 
early  history  of  this  country.  Sabbath  morn- 
ing came.  We  were  beyond  the  reach  of  civ- 
ilization. My  comrades  were  all  going  out 
for  an  excursion.  I  said,  '  No,  I  won't  go,  it 
is  Sunday.'  Why,  they  laughed.  They  said, 
'  We  haven't  any  Sunday  here.'  '  Oh !  yes,'  I 
said,  '  you  have.  I  brought  it  with  me  over 
the  mountains.'  " — Talmadge. 

SUNDAY,  The  Puritan.— The  Puritan 
Sunday  was  too  caste  in  its  rules ;  but,  in 
my  opinion,  better  for  the  interest  of  man  and 
beast  than  the  license  of  the  modern  Sunday 
in  our  great  cities.  England,  Scotland  and 
the  Canadian  provinces  are  in  advance  of  us 
in  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  Day.  We 
are  gradually,  but  certainly,  opening  the 
doors  of  traffic  and  amusement,  our  rail- 
roads being  the  leaders  in  these  regards. 
Laws  recognizing  the  Lord's  Day  as  one 
dedicated  to  worship,  to  works  of  charity,  and 
to  rest  from  labor  should  be  enforced. — Sena- 
tor Frye.     (I.) 

SUNDAY,  Typology  of.— The  eighth  day 
is  always  typical  of  resurrection.  The  eighth 
day,  the  day  after  the  seventh  or  Sabbath,  an- 
swers to  the  first  day  of  the  week  on  which 
Christ  rose ;  it  is,  however,  the  first  day  in 
reference  to  seven  having  gone  before.  Seven 
days  include  the  periods  proper  to  the  first 
creation.  The  eighth  day,  as  it  takes  us 
beyond  and  out  of  these — that  is,  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  old  creation — brings  us  in  type 
into  a  new  order  of  things  and  times — into 
the  new  creation  or  resurrection. — A.  Jukes. 

SUNDAY,  Using.— Make  the  Lord's 
day  the  market  for  thy  soul  ;  let  the  whole 
day  be  spent  in  prayer,  repetitions,  or  medita- 
tions. Lay  aside  the  affairs  of  the  other  parts 
of  the  week ;  let  the  sermon  thou  hast  heard 
be  converted  into  prayer.  Shall  God  allow 
thee  six  days,  and  wilt  thou  not  afford  Him 
one? — Bunyan. 

WAR  AND  SUNDAY.— Captain  Philip 
(U.  S.  N.)  always  spoke  about  the  war  with 
Spain,  and  reminded  us  that  the  side  that 
opened  fire  first  on  the  Sabbath  would  lose 
every  time ;  so  I  was  very  glad  last  Sabbath 
when  I  saw  the  Maria  Teresa  fire  the  first 
shot. 

On  another  occasion  he  was  called  on 
board  the  flagship,  together  with  the  com- 
manding officer  of  the  fleet,  for  a  council  of 
war,  and  went  on  board  at  half  past  nine  that 
Sunday  morning.  The  decision  was  reached 
to  bombard  the  forts  at  two  o'clock  that  af- 
ternoon, when  Captain  Philip  spoke  up  and 
said : 

"  Admiral,  this  is  Sunday,  I  do  not  think 
we  should  fight  to-day.     We  may  be  sorry  if 


228 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


we  do."  Whereupon  the  admiral  apologized 
for  even  calling  them  together  at  all  that 
day,  but  admitted  he  had  been  so  pressed  he 
had  entirely  lost  track  of  the  days,  so  the 
battle  was  deferred  until  the  next  morning, 
with  the  result  of  no  damage  to  us." — C.  G. 

WARNING,  A.— Why  do  many  Christians, 
including  pastors,  concentrate  all  their  ten 
commandment  law-breaking  on  the  command- 
ment requiring  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath 
day  holy?  Why  not  change  off  and  break 
some  of  the  other  commandments?  "  Thou 
shalt  not  steal,"  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  etc. 
Is  there  any  more  binding  force  in  these 
commandments?  Let  us  be  careful  not  to 
look  at  this  from  a  nineteenth  century  stand- 
ard of  loose  American  ways,  but  from  a 
Scriptural  standard. — Selected. 

WEEK,  The  Best  Day  of  The.— A  writer 
in  Harper's  Bazar  says  on  this  subject — and 
we    would    emphasize    the    remark    on    the 


church  service — ''  That  is  profound  philoso- 
phy which  counsels  parents  to  make  Sunday 
the  happiest  day  of  the  week.  And  the  chief 
requisite  to  this  is  that  they  give  themselves 
to  their  children — at  church  as  well  as  at 
home.  The  Sunday  school  must  not  be  al- 
lowed to  usurp  the  place  of  the  church 
service.  The  child  nestled  in  the  family  pew 
at  his  mother's  side,  holding  his  father's 
hand,  enters  naturally  from  the  shelter  of 
warm  human  love  into  the  mystery  of  divine 
love,  and  the  house  of  God  very  early  be- 
comes to  him  the  gate  of  heaven. 

■'  For  very  little  children  it  is  a  pretty  plan 
to  set  aside  for  Sabbath  use  the  most  at- 
tractive toys,  the  favorite  pictures  and  stories, 
the  sweetest  child  songs  and  hymns,  and  to 
join  with  them  more  than  ever  in  their  plays 
and  their  quiet  moods,  until,  when  they  wake 
Sunday  morning,  they  shall  exclaim,  with  a 
four-year-old  of  our  acquaintance,  '  Oh,  I'm 
so  glad  it's  Sunday ! '  " — E, 


POETRY 


Sunday  Morning  Bells 

By   Dinah    Maria   Mulock   Craik 

From  the  near  city  comes  the  clang  of  bells : 

Their  hundred  jarring  diverse  tones  combine 

In  one  faint  misty  harmony,  as  fine 

As  the  soft  note  yon   winter  robin  swells. 

What  if  to  Thee  in  thine  infinity 

These  multiform  and  many-colored  creeds 

Seem  but  the  robe  man  wraps  as  masquer's 

weeds 
Round  the  one  living  truth  thou  givest  him — 

Thee? 
What    if    these    varied    forms    that    worship 

prove, 
Being  heart-worship,  reach  Thy  perfect  ear 
But  as  a  monotone,  complete  and  clear, 
Of  which  the  music  is,  through  Christ's  name, 

love? 
Forever  rising  in  sublime  increase 
To  "  Glory  in  the  highest, — on  earth  peace?  " 

A   Nation's   Contrition 

By   Margaret   J.    Preston 

[These  lines  were  written  in  1893,  before 
the  decision  to  close  the  World's  Fair  on 
Sunday.] 

O  God !  beneath  whose  folded  hand 

So  long  was  hidden  away 
The  secret  of  the  wondrous  land 

We  glory  in  to-day. 

We  thank  Thee  that  with  faith  profound 

Our  sires  their  sails  unfurled, 
And  claimed  as  henceforth  hallowed  ground 

This    unsuspected    world. 

That  here  they  suffered,  toiled  and  bled, 

For  leave  to  keep  Thy  laws ; 
That  here  pure  martyr-blood  was  shed 

For  freedom's  holiest  cause; 


That  through  what  Christian  men  have  done, 
By  stress  of  conscience  driven, 

No  other  land  beneath  the  sun 
Owes  half  so  much  to  Heaven! 

Now  in  the  zenith  of  our  fame 

The  nations  come  at  call, 
To  learn  the  secret  that  we  claim 

Must  hold  the  world  in  thrall. 

What  is  it?    Not  our  armaments 

On  ocean  or  on  shore ; 
Not  vaunted  freedom's  proud  pretense. 

Not  gold's  uncounted  store. 

Our  faith  hath  made  us  what  we  are; 

Beneath  these  skies  so  broad. 
From  Southern  cross  to  Northern  star. 

Our  people   worship   God ! 

Our  statescraft  rests  on  His  commands. 

Divinely  given  to  men — 
The  creed  of  all  illumined  lands, 

Sinai's  engraven  Ten ! 

This  was  our  boast :  Alas,  too  late ! 

To-day  we  dare  defy 
Heaven's  ordered  law ;  we  hesitate, 

We  abrogate,   deny. 

O  Christian  people !  pour  your  prayers 
From  hearts  subdued  and  riven; 

Contrite,  that  thus  our  Nation  dares 
The  Majesty  of  Heaven  ! 

Kest 

By  Johann  Wolfgang  von  Goethb 

Rest  is  not  quitting^ 
The  busy  career ; 
Rest  is  the  fitting 
Of  self  to  one's  sphere. 


SUNDAY 


229 


'Tis  the  brook's  motion, 
Clear  without  strife, 
Fleeing  to  ocean 
After  this  life. 
'Tis  loving  and  serving 
The  highest  and  best; 
'Tis  onward,  unswerving. 
And  this  is  true  rest. 

The  Day  of  Rest 

By  George  Klingle 

O  sweet,  fair  day  of  silence, 
When  echoes  come  and  go, 

Of   voices   praising   Him,   the 
Who  died  so  long  ago; 


King, 


As  tho  in  benediction 

It  brought  us  nearer  heaven, 

His  face  to  see,  His  own  to  be, — 
Day  sweetest  of  the  seven. 

The  Sabbath  Bells 
By  Charles  Lamb 

The  cheerful  Sabbath  bells,  wherever  heard, 
Strike  pleasant  on  the  sense,   most  like  the 

voice 
Of  one  who  from  the  far-off  hills  proclaims 
Tidings  of  good  to  Zion :  chiefly  when 
Their   piercing   tones    strike    sudden   on    the 

ear 
Of  the  contemplant,  solitary  man, 
Whom     thoughts     abstruse     or     high     have 

chanced  to  lure 
Forth  from  the  walks  of  men,  revolving  oft, 
And  oft  again,  hard  matter,  which  eludes 
And    baffles    his    pursuit — thought-sick,    and 

tired 
Of  controversy,  where  no  end  appears 
No  clue  to  his  research,  the  lonely  man 
Half  wishes  for  society  again. 
Him,  thus  engaged,  the  Sabbath  bells  salute 
Sudden !     His  heart  awakes,  his  ear  drinks  in 
The  cheering  music ;  his  relenting  soul 
Yearns  after  all  the  joys  of  social  life. 
And  softens  with  the  love  of  human  kind. 

Sabbath  Evening 
By  George  Denison  Prentice 

How  calmly  sinks  the  parting  sun ! 

Yet  twilight  lingers  still ; 
And  beautiful  as  dream  of  heaven 

It  slumbers  on  the  hill; 
Earth  sleeps,  with  all  her  glorious  things. 
Beneath  the  Holy  Spirit's  wings, 
And,  rendering  back  the  hues  above, 
Seems  resting  in  a  trance  of  love. 

Round  yonder  rocks  the  forest  trees 

In  shadowy  groups  recline. 
Like  saints  at  evening  bowed  in  prayer 

Around  their  holy   shrine; 
And    through    their    leaves    the    night-winds 

blow, 
So  calm  and  still,  their  music  low 
Seems  the  mysterious  voice  of  prayer. 
Soft  echoed  on  the  evening  air. 


And  yonder  western  throng  of  clouds. 

Retiring  from  the  sky. 
So  calmly  move,  so  softly  glow. 

They  seem  to  fancy's  eye 
Bright  creatures  of  a  better  sphere, 
Come  down  at  noon  to  worship  here. 
And,  from  their  sacrifice  of  love, 
Returning  to  their  home  above. 

The  blue  isles  of  the  golden  sea. 

The  night-arch  floating  high, 
The  flowers  that  gaze  upon  the  heavens, 

The  bright  streams  leaping  by. 
Are  living  with  religion ;  deep 
On  earth  and  sea  its  glories  sleep, 
And  mingle  with  the  starlight  rays, 
Like  the  soft  light  of  parted  days. 

The  spirit  of  the  holy  eve 

Comes  through  the  silent  air 
To  feeling's  hidden  spring,  and  wakes 

A  gush  of  music  there ! 
And  the  far  depths  of  ether  beam 
So  passing  fair,  we  almost  dream 
That  we  can  rise  and  wander  through 
Their  open  paths  of  trackless  blue. 

Each  soul  is  filled  with  glorious  dreams, 

Each  pulse  is  beating  wild ; 
And  thought  is  soaring  to  the  shrine 

Of  glory  undefiled ! 
And  holy  aspirations  start. 
Like  blessed   angels,  from  the  heart. 
And  bind — for  earth's  dark  ties  are  riven- 
Our  spirits  to  the  gate  of  heaven. 

A  Sabbath  Hymn 

By  O.  E.  Roberts 

Rise  hallowed  morn,  whose  earliest  ray 
Tells  of  a  tomb  no  longer  sealed. 
Bright  angels  roll  the  stone  away 
And  sin  and  death  their  empire  yield. 

O'er  all  the  earth  the  morning  chime 
Calls  on  the  sons  of  men  to  pray. 
People  and  tribes  of  every  clime 
Rejoicing  hail  the  sacred  day. 

Released  from  toil  and  earthly  care, 

Our  spirits  feel  a  sweet  repose. 

A  holy  calm  fills  all  the  air 

The  peace   which   God  alone  bestows. 

Thy  Spirit's  work  in  souls  sincere 
Continue  Lord,  nor  take  Thy  rest 
Till  every  heart  that  worships  here. 
Renewed  on  earth,  in  heaven  is  blest. — E, 

Sabbath  Morn 

N.  F.  S.  Grundtvig 


From   death,   Christ,   on   the    Sabbath 

A  conqueror  arose ; 
And  when  each  Sabbath  dawn  is  born 

For  death  a  healing  grows. 
This  day  proclaims  an  ended  strife. 
And  Christ's  benign  and  holy  life.  ' 


morn, 


230 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


By  countless  lips  the  wondrous  tale 

Is  told  throughout  the  earth ; 
Ye  that  have  ears  to  hear,  oh,  hail 

That  tale  with  sacred  mirth  ! 
Awake,  my  soul,  rise  from  the  dead, 
See  life's  grand  light  around  thee  shed. 

Death  trembles  each  sweet  Sabbath  hour, 
Death's   brother.    Darkness,    quakes; 

Christ's  word  speaks  with  divinest  power, 
Christ's  truth  its  silence  breaks; 

They  vanquish  with  their  valiant  breath 

The  reign  of  darkness  and  of  death. 

The  Sabbath 

By  Rev.  Henry  Ostram 

O  Sabbath  !    'tis  of  thee, 
Sweet  day  of  liberty 

And  worshiping; 
Type  of  the  soul's  repose, 
Day  when  my  Lord  arose, 
Blessed  at  creation's  close, 

Of  thee  I  sing. 

Thou  treasure-house  of  prayer. 
Thou  balm  for  pain  and  care. 

Thou  fount  of  praise ; 
Thy  mornings  breathe  release. 
Thine  evenings  whisper  peace. 
Thy  anthems  never  cease, 

Thou  psalm  of  days. 

Forth  on  thy  wings  of  white. 
Plumed  in  celestial   light, 

Sweet  Sabbath  day: 
Fly  all  the  earth  abroad. 
Till  all  thy  beauty  laud, 
Till  all  adore  thy  God, 

All  hope,  all  pray. 

Merge  heaven  into  home. 

And  where  sad  strangers  roam, 

A  friendship  give ; 
Soothe  ev'ry  toiler's  pain, 
Wash  every  sinner's  stain. 
Hallow  on  land  and  main 

All  men  that  live. 

Our  father's  God  to  thee. 
Author  of  sanctity. 

To  Thee  we  sing; 
May  all  the  world  revere 
This  day  so  old,  so  dear, 
O  bring  Thy  presence  near, 

Great  God,  our  king. 

The  Sabbath. 
By  Edward  Bulwer,  Lord  Lytton 

Fresh  glides  the  brook  and  blows  the  gale. 

Yet  yonder  halts  the  quiet  mill ; 
The  whirring  wheel,  the  rushing  sail, 

How  motionless  and  still ! 

Six  days'  stern  labor  shuts  the  poor 
From  nature's  careless  banquet-hall 

The  seventh  an  angel  opes  the  door. 
And,  smiling,  welcomes  all ! 


A  Father's  tender  mercy  gave 

This  holy  respite  to  the  breast, 
Tr  breathe  the  gale,  to  watch  the  wave. 

And  know — the  wheel  may  rest ! 

Six  days  of  toil,  poor  child  of  Cain, 
Thy  strength  thy  Master's  slave  must  be; 

The  seventh  the  limbs  escape  the  chain, — 
A  God  hath  made  thee  free  ! 

The  fields  that  yester-morning  knew 
Thy  footsteps  as  their  serf,  survey; 

On  thee,  as  them,  descends  the  dew, 
The  baptism  of  the  day. 

Fresh  glides  the  brook  and  blows  the  gale. 
But  yonder  halts  the  quiet  mill; 

The  whirring  wheel,  the  rushing  sail. 
How  motionless  and  still ! 

So,  O  weary  heart ! — but,  lo, 

7  b«  church-spire,  glistening  up  to  heaven 
To  warn  thee  where  thy  thoughts  should  go 

The  day  thy  God  hath  given ! 

Lone  through  the  landscape's  solemn  rest. 
The  spire  its  moral  points  on  high. 

O  soul,  at  peace  within  the  breast, 
Rise,  mingling  with  the  sky ! 

They  tell  thee,  in  their  dreaming  school. 
Of  power  from  old  dominion  hurled. 

When  rich  and  poor,  with  juster  rule. 
Shall  share  the  altered  world. 

Alas !  since  time  itself  began. 

That  fable  hath  but  fooled  the  hour; 

Each  age  that  ripens  power  in  man 
But  subjects  man  to  power. 

Yet  every  day  in  seven,  at  least, 
One  bright  republic  shall  be  known; 

Man's  world  awhile  hath  surely  ceased. 
When  God  proclaims  His  own ! 

Six  days  may  rank  divide  the  poor, 
O  Dives,  from  thy  banquet-hall ; 

The  seventh  the  Father  opes  the  door, 
All  holds  His  feast  for  all. 

Various  Selections 

Days,  Common. — 

God  gives  us  through  the  common  days, 
The  level  stretches,  white  with  dust. 
When  thought  is  tired,  and  hands  upraise 
Their  burdens  feebly,  since  thev  must; 
Through  days  of  slowly  fretting  care. 
When  most  we  need,  the  strength  of  prayer. 

M.  E.  Sangster. 
Easter  Sunday. — 

'Twas    Easter-Sunday.      The    fuIl-blossomed 

trees 
Filled   all   the   air   with   fragrance   and    with 
joy. 
Longfellow — Spanish  Student.    Act  I. 

Sc.  3. 
Litany,  Moravian. — 

From  untimely  projects. 
From    needless   perplexity, 

And  from  all  sin — 
Good  Lord  deliver  us. 


SUNDAY 


231 


Lord's  Day,  The. — 

O  day  of  rest !     How  beautiful,  how  fair, 
How  welcome  to  the  weary  and  the  old ! 
Day  of  the  Lord !  and  true  to  earthly  care ! 
Day  of  the  Lord,  as  all  our  days  should  be ! 
Longfellow — Christus.    Pt.  HL 

John  Endicott.    Act  L    Sc.  2. 
Meditation. — 

By  all  means  use  some  time  to  be  alone, 
Salute  thyself;  see  what  thy  soul  dost  wear, 
Dare  to  look  in  thy  chest,  for  it  is  thine  own ; 
And  tumble  up  and  down  what  thou  findest 
there. 

G.  Herbert. 

Sabbath,  The. — 

How  still  the  morning  of  the  hallow'd  day ! 
Mute  is  the  voice  of  rural  labor,  hush'd 
The  plowboy's   whistle,   and   the   milkmaid's 
song. 

Grahame — The  Sabbath.    Song. 

The  Sabbaths  of  Eternity, 
One  Sabbath  deep  and  wide. 

Tennyson — St.  Agnes  Eve.  I.  33. 

So  sang  they,  and  the  Empyrean  rung 
With  Halleluiahs.     There  was  Sabbath  kept. 
Milton — Paradise  Lost.    Bk.  VH. 
Line  632. 

See  Christians,  Jews,  one  Sabbath  keep. 
And  all  the  western  world  believe  and  sleep. 
Pope — The  Dunciad.     Line  99. 

Sundaies. — 

Sundaies   observe ;   think  when  the  bells  do 

chime, 
'Tis  angel's  musick;  therefore  come  not  late. 
Herbert — The  Temple.     The  Church 

Porch. 
Sunday. — 
Of  all  the  days  that's  in  the  week, 

I  dearly  love  but  one  day. 
And  that's  the   day  that  comes  betwixt 
A  Saturday  and  Monday. 

Henry  Carey — Sally  in  Our  Alley. 

Sunday. — 

The  Sundaies  of  man's  life, 
Thredded  together  on  Time's  string, 
Make  bracelets  to  adorn  the  wife 
Of  the  eternal,  glorious  King. 
On   Sunday  heaven's  gates   stand  ope; 
Blessings  are  plentiful  and  rife. 
More  plentiful  than  hope. 

Herbert — The  Temple.    Sunday. 

Sunday  Ethics. — 

For,  bless  the  gude  mon,  gin  he  had  his  own 
way, 
He'd    na    let    a    cat    on    the    Sabbath    say 
"  mew  ;  " 
Nae  birdie  maun  whistle,   nae  lambie   maun 

play. 
An'    Phoebus    himsel    could    nay    travel    that 
day, 
As  he'd  find  a  new  Joshua  in  Andie  Agnew. 
Moore — Sunday  Ethics. 


Sundays,  On. — 

On  Sundays,  at  the  matin-chime, 

The  Alpine  peasants,  two  and  three, 

Climb  up  here  to  pray ; 
Burghers    and    dames,    at    Summer's    prime, 
Ride  out  to  church  from  Chamberry, 

Dight  with  mantles  gay. 
But  else  it  is  a  lonely  time 
Round  the  Church  of  Brou. 

Matthew  Arnold — The  Church  of 
Brou.     H.     St.   3- 
Wish,  A. — 

"  I  sometimes  wish  the  good  Book  had  said, 
'  Remember  Saturday  night  to  keep  it  holy.' 

Sunday  would  be  smoother  if  it  had." 

Anna  Breath. 

The  Sepulcher  on  Sabbath  Morning 
By  Thomas  Hastings 

How  calm  and  beautiful  the  morn 

That  gilds  the  sacred  tomb. 
Where  Christ  the  crucified  was  borne. 

And  veiled  in  midnight  gloom  ! 
Oh !  weep  no  more  the  Savior  slain. 
The  Lord  is  risen.  He  lives  again ! 

Ye  mourning  saints,  dry  every  tear 

For  your  departed  Lord ; 
"  Behold  the  place,  He  is  not  here," 

The  tomb   is   all   unbarred : 
The  gates  of  death  were  closed  in  vain, 
The  Lord  is  risen.  He  lives  again ! 

Now  cheerful  to  the  house  of  prayer 

Your  early  footsteps  bend ; 
The  Savior  will  Himself  be  there. 

Your  Advocate  and  friend : 
Once  by  the  law  your  hopes  were  slain, 
But  now  in  Christ  ye  live  again ! 

How  tranquil  now  the  rising  day ! 

'Tis  Jesus  still  appears. 
A  risen  Lord,  to  chase  away 

Your  unbelieving  fears : 
Oh,  weep  no  more  your  comforts  slains, 
The  Lord  is  risen.  He  lives  again ! 

And  when  the  shades  of  evening  fall, 
When  life's  last  hour  draws  nigh, 

If  Jesus  shines  upon  the  soul. 
How  blissful  then  to  die ! 

Since  He  has  risen  that  once  was  slain, 

Ye  die  in  Christ  to  live  again  ! 

Sundays 
By  Henry  Vaughan 

Bright  shadows  of  true  rest!  some  shoots  of 

bliss ; 
Heaven  once  a  week ; 
The     next     world's     gladness    prepossest    in 

til  is  ; 
A  day  to  seek  ; 
Eternity  in  time ;  the  steps  by  which 
We  climb  above  all  ages ;  lamps  that  light 
Man  through  his  heap  of  dark  days ;  and  the 

rich 
And    full    redemption    of   the    whole    week's 

flight ! 


232 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


The    pulleys     unto     headlong    man;     time's 
bower ; 

The  narrow  way ; 
Transplanted  paradise;  God's  walking  hour; 

The  cool  o'  the  day ! 
The  creature's  jubilee  !  God's  parle  with  dust; 
Heaven  here ;   man  on  those  hills  of  myrrh 

and   flowers ; 
Angels  descending;  the  returns  of  trust; 
A  gleam  of  glory  after  six-days-showers ! 

The  Church's  love  feasts;  time's  prerogative, 

and  interest 
Deducted   from   the   whole;   the  combs  and 

hive, 
And  home  of  rest. 
The  milky  way  chalked  out  with  suns ;  a  clue, 
That  guides  through  erring  hours ;  and  in  full 

story 
A  taste  of  heaven  on  earth ;  the  ledge  and  cue 
Of  a  full  feast;  and  the  out-courts  of  glory. 

First-day  Thoughts 

By  John  G.  Whittier 

In  calm  and  cool  and  silence,  once  again 
I  find  my  old  accustomed  place  among 
My  brethren,  where,  perchance,  no  human 

tongue 
Shall   utter   words;    where  never  hymn  is 

sung, 
Nor   deep-toned   organ   blown,   nor   censer 
swung, 
Nor   dim   light   falling  through  the  pictured 

pane ! 
There,  syllabled  by  silence,  let  me  hear 
The    still    small    voice    which    reached    the 
prophet's  ear; 


Read  in  my  heart  a  still  diviner  law. 
Than  Israel's  leader  on  his  tables  saw ! 
There  let  me   strive   with   each  besetting  sin 
Recall  my  wandering  fancies,  and  restrain 
The  sore  disquiet  of  a  restless  brain ; 
And,  as  the  path  of  duty  is  made  plain, 
May  grace  be  given  that  I  may  wake  therein, 
Not  like  the  hireling,  for  his  selfish  gain. 
With  backward  glances  and  reluctant  tread. 
Making  a  merit  of  his  coward  dread. — 
But    cheerful,     in    the    light    around    me 

thrown, 
Walking  as  one  to  pleasant  service  led, 
Doing  God's  will  as  if  it  were  my  own. 
Yet  trusting  not  in  mine,  but  in  His  strength 
alone ! 

Sunday 

By  James    Edmeston 

When  the  worn  spirit  wants  repose, 

And  sighs  her  God  to  seek. 
How  sweet  to  hail  the  evening's  close, 

That  ends  the  weary  week ! 

How  sweet  to  hail  the  early  dawn. 

That  opens  on  the  sight. 
When  first  that  soul-reviving  morn 

Sheds  forth  new  rays  of  light ! 

Sweet  day,  thine  hours  too  soon  will  cease ; 

Yet,  while  they  gently  roll, 
Breathe,  Heavenly  Spirit,  source  of  peace, 

A  Sabbath  o'er  my  soul ! 

When  will  my  pilgrimage  be  done, 
The  world's  long  week  be  o'er. 

That  Salbath  dawn  which  needs  no  sun, 
That  day  which  fades  no  more? 


ASCENSION  DAY  233 


ASCENSION  DAY 

(May) 

ASCENSION  DAY,  or  Holy  Thursday,  is  an  important  festival  in  the  Greek, 
Roman,  and  English  churches.  It  is  held  on  the  fortieth  day  after  Easter, 
ten  days  before  Whitsunday,  and  commemorates  the  ascension  of  our  Lord  into 
Heaven.  It  is  one  of  the  six  days  for  which  the  English  church  appoints  special 
psalms.  The  Church  of  England  also  especially  recommends  it  as  a  fitting  day 
for  the  receiving  of  the  Holy  Communion.  It  is  certain  that  its  observance 
dates  from  the  earliest  times ;  the  first  mention  of  it  being  found  in  the  Apostolic 
Constitutions ;  but  St.  Augustine  believed  it  to  have  been  instituted  by  the  apostles 
themselves,  or  by  the  primitive  bishops  immediately  succeeding  them.  Of  this, 
however,  there  is  no  satisfactory  proof. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  Ascension  Day  went  in  some 
cases  beyond  the  bounds  of  reason,  and  became  superstitious  and  ridiculous. 
Such  was  the  custom  of  drawing  an  image  of  Christ  up  to  the  roof,  to  represent 
His  ascension,  and  the  casting  down  an  image  of  Satan  into  flames,  to  represent 
his  falling  as  lightning  from  Heaven. 

In  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  our  times,  on  Ascension  Day,  after  the 
Gospel  has  been  read,  the  Paschal  candle  is  extinguished,  denoting  our  Savior's 
leaving  the  earth ;  the  altar  is  decorated  with  images,  relics,  and  flowers ;  and  the 
priests  and  their  attendants  are  attired  in  white  vestments. 

Bishop  Pearson,  in  a  sermon  on  Ascensiontide,  makes  the  following  clear  and 
important  statements  concerning  the  event,  and  truth  of  Ascension  Day : 

"  The  ascent  of  Christ  into  Heaven  was  not  metaphorical  or  figurative,  as  if 
there  were  no  more  to  be  understood  by  it,  but  only  that  He  obtained  a  more 
heavenly  and  glorious  state  or  condition  after  His  resurrection.  For  whatsoever 
alteration  was  made  in  the  body  of  Christ  when  He  rose,  whatsoever  glorious 
qualities  it  was  invested  with  thereby,  that  was  not  His  ascension,  as  appeareth 
by  those  words  which  He  spake  to  Mary,  Touch  Me  not,  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended 
to  My  Father.  .  .  .  Now  this  kind  of  ascension,  by  which  Christ  had  not 
yet  ascended  when  He  spoke  to  Mary  after  His  resurrection,  was  not  long  after 
to  be  performed ;  for  at  the  same  time  He  said  to  Mary,  Go  to  My  brethren,  and 
say  unto  them,  I  ascend  unto  My  Father  and  your  Father.  And  when  this  ascen- 
sion was  performed,  it  appeared  manifestly  to  be  a  true  local  translation  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  as  Man,  from  these  parts  of  the  world  below  into  the  heavens  above ; 
by  which  that  body,  which  was  before  locally  present  here  on  earth,  and  was 
not  so  then  present  in  heaven,  became  substantially  present  in  heaven,  and  no 
longer  locally  present  on  earth.  For  when  He  had  spoken  unto  the  disciples, 
and  blessed  them,  laying  His  hands  upon  them,  and  so  was  corporally  present 
with  them,  even  while  He  blessed  them  He  was  parted  from  them.  .  .  .  This 
was  a  visible  departure,  as  it  is  described,  a  real  removing  of  that  body  of  Christ, 
which  was  before  present  with  the  apostles ;  and  that  body  living  after  the 
resurrection,  by  virtue  of  that  soul  which  was  united  to  it." 


234 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


The  Scriptural  authority  for  the  event  which  this  day  celebrates  is  to  be 
found  in  the  brief  statements  contained  in  Mark  xvi:  19;  Luke  xxiv:  51,  and  in 
the  more  detailed  account,  Acts  i :  4-12. 


CHRIST'S  CORONATION  DAY 


By  Rev.  Talmadge  Root 


Holy  Thursday  holds  no  such  place  m  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  Church  as  Easter  or 
Good  Friday.  This  is  not  strange,  for  in  the 
New  Testament  the  Ascension  receives  no 
such  emphasis  as  the  Resurrection.  It  is  not 
mentioned  by  Matthew,  John  or  Mark,  for  in 
the  best  manuscripts  the  second  Gospel  ends 
abruptly  at  xvi :  8.  Luke,  in  his  Gospel  and 
Acts,  is  our  sole  authority  for  the  event. 
Even  the  allusions  to  it  ( Jn.  vi :  62 ;  xyn  27; 
Acts  i:  22),  are  few  and  unemphatic  in  com- 
parison with  those  to  the  Resurrection. 

These  facts  raise  the  question,  not  indeed  as 
to  the  occurrence  of  the  event,  but  as  to  its 
real  significance.  The  Resurrection  was  an 
event  significant  in  itself.  Life  beyond  the 
grave  could  have  been  demonstrated  only  as 
it  has  been,  by  one  well-attested  case  of  rising 
from  the  dead.  Its  significance  lies  in  the  fact 
itself.  Hence  it  is  that  the  Gospels  d\yell  with 
such  fulness  upon  the  details  which  con- 
vinced the  disciples  that  the  very  body  which 
died  upon  the  cross  lived  again  in  tangible 
reality. 

Not  such  the  significance  of  the  Ascension ! 
Then,  it  would  signify  Christ's  final  depar- 
ture from  earth.  In  that  case  how  can  we  ex- 
plain the  "  great  joy"  with  which  the  disciples 
returned  to  Jerusalem?  Or  reconcile  Luke 
with  Matthew,  who  not  only  mentions  no 
departure  but  records  as  Jesus'  last  words : 
"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world?  " 

The  phenomena  themselves  cannot  have 
such  literal  value.  The  disciples  did  not,  and 
could  not,  see  Jesus  ascend  into  heaven  and 
take  His  seat  at  the  right  of  God.  What  they 
did  see  was  that  He  was  "taken  up  "  until 
"  a  cloud  received  him  out  of  their  sight." 
"Up"  is  the  direction  of  heaven  only  sym- 
bolically, not  literally.  An  upward  pointing 
finger  every  minute  sweeps  through  an  arc 
of  15',  and  in  12  hours  indicates  the  oppo- 
site direction  in  absolute  space.  "  Up  "  gains 
its  significance  from  its  close  association  with 
moral  ideas.  The  Ascension  was  a  symbolic 
event. 

It  is  none  the  less  important  and  historical. 
Many  historical  events  possess  importance  not 
from  what  they  were  in  themselves,  but  from 
what  they  symbolized.  Such  was  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Such  is  the  coronation  of  a 
king.  To  ascend  the  steps  of  a  throne  and  to 
be  crowned  with  a  circlet  of  gold  do  not  in 


themselves  confer  authority !  They  have 
value  only  because  custom  and  sentiment  have 
made  them  symbolize  royal  power.  We  re- 
mark, "  In  1625,  Charles  I.  ascended  the  throne 
of  England,"  without  a  thought  of  the  actual 
scene,  meaning  that  he  assumed  royal  au- 
thority. In  the  same  sense  Christ  "  ascended," 
not  to  depart  from  earth,  but  to  take  the 
throne  of  His  Kingdom  on  earth.  "  He  sat 
down  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  God's  reign 
does  not  consist  in  sitting  upon  a  distant 
throne  !  It  consists  in  omnipresent  power  and 
authority.  To  sit  at  His  right  hand  means  to 
share  His  Authority  and  Omnipresence.  This 
is    Matthew's    interpretation :      "  Jesus    came 

.  _  .  .  saying.  All  authority  is  given  unto 
me  in  heaven  and  on  earth." 

It  is  impossible  to  perceive  by  the  senses 
even  the  authority  of  a  king.  Therefore  men 
seek  to  make  it  visible  and  tangible  by  the 
ceremonies  of  coronation.  Still  less  can  we 
perceive  the  spiritual  authority  of  Christ. 
The  more  necessary  was  it  that  it  should  be 
impressed  upon  the  imagination  of  believers 
by  the  visible  event  of  the  Ascension.  This 
was  Luke's  understanding  of  the  event.  It 
was,  indeed,  the  termination  of  knowledge  of 
Christ  "after  the  flesh;"  and  left  a  vivid 
hope  of  beholding  Him  again  "  in  like  man- 
ner." But  the  very  fact  that  Luke  places  his 
fuller  account  not  at  the  close  of  the  Gospel, 
but  at  the  commencement  of  Acts,  referring 
to  the  "  former  treatise "  in  which  he  had 
narrated  "  all  that  Jesus  began  both  to 
do  and  to  preach,"  shows  that  he  regarded 
the  Ascension  not  as  the  termination  but 
the  real  beginning  of  Jesus'  personal  leader- 
ship. 

Sense  of  the  present  reign  of  the  Living 
Christ  is  the  great  need  of  the  Church.  So 
soon  as  it  is  ignored,  heresy  begins.  Admit 
that  Christ  is  absent,  and  the  claims  of  the 
Pope  to  be  His  vice-regent  are  logical,  if  not 
conclusive.  Regard  His  reign  as  postponed, 
and  our  only  hope  for  the  victory  of  His 
cause  is  His  return.  But  it  is  not  so !  He 
would  not  thus  desert  to  the  devil  the  world 
that  He  died  to  redeem  !  He  has  not  aban- 
doned His  followers  to  suffer  and  toil  alone ! 
He  walks  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden 
candlesticks — not  part  of  the  furniture  of 
heaven,  but  the  churches  that  live  on  earth 
"  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations."  His  was 
the  ascension  of  a  throne !  We  celebrate 
His  Coronation  Day ! 


ASCENSION  DAY 


235 


THE  ASCENSION  OF  OUR  LORD 


Sometimes  we  need  a  sharp  reminder  of 
the  world  unseen.  God  meets  us  out  of  the 
shadow.  The  mystery  is  simply  the  obscur- 
ing cloud,  like  that  which  hid  the  solar  eclipse 
from  this  part  of  its  path  across  the  continent. 
The  cloud  did  not  change  the  event,  nor 
arrest  the  swing  of  the  planet  or  shadow 
through  interstellar  spaces.  To  those  whom 
Christian  experience  has  ripened,  personal  re- 
ligion is  a  vision  of  the  Christ.  He  is  all 
and  in  all.  The  old  difficulties  of  thought 
have  passed  like  the  cloud ;  the  personality 
of  Jesus  stands  out  radiantly  clear  and  full  of 
present  comfort  and  promise. 

His  Ascension  marked  a  stage  in  His  reve- 
lation, but  it  only  brought  Him  nearer  to  us. 
To  have  lingered  among  the  early  disciples 
would  have  limited  His  mission  and  seques- 
tered Him  from  the  later  Church.  As  the 
Resurrection  opened  the  grave,  the  Ascension 
opened  heaven.  Every  word  of  His  now  is  a 
voice  from  the  unseen  addressed  to  each  one  of 
us.  We  hear  the  Gospel  as  if  He  spake  from 
glory;  we  lift  our  eyes  from  the  smiling  face 
of  the  world  on  a  day  of  early  summer,  and 
lo !  the  Lord  our  God  looks  down  upon  our 
brightened  vision  and  our  kindling  faith  and 


love.  Ah,  Thou  art  with  us  still !  We  "are 
not  in  a  world  apart;  this  is  a  world  where 
Christ  is,  and  the  other  world  is  here  also. 
If  we  believe  in  this  world,  we  believe  in  that 
world.  If  we  believe  in  the  world  that  God 
has  made  for  us  here,  we  believe  in  the  world 
that  Jesus  has  made  for  us  there.  The  two 
are  separate,  yet  they  are  also  one. 

Perhaps  our  greatest  difficulty  is  also  our 
heaviest  sorrow  if  we  begin  to  yield  to  it. 
The  separation  of  the  unseen,  which  is  its 
largest  claim  on  our  confidence,  begets  some- 
times a  doubt  and,  sometimes,  forgetfulness. 
Doubt  is  sorrow  and  forgetfulness  is  danger. 
Behold  the  world  where  Christ  has  taken  our 
beloved  to  a  perfect  life,  and  if  we  believe, 
our  grief  is  the  birth  of  joy.  Be  conscious  of 
the  world  to  come,  and  you  are  saved  from 
the  snares  of  this  present  world.  This  is  the 
old,  old  truth  and  the  world-old  struggle. 
We  still  keep  up  the  fight  with  the  sun  which 
would  blot  from  our  thoughts  the  greater 
Unseen.  And  the  vision  of  our  Lord  going 
hence  to  be  nearer,  closer  in  all  that  concerns 
us  here  and  hereafter,  is  a  reminder  of  our 
relation  to  heaven,  a  promise  to  him  that 
overcometh. — E. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 
THE  LESSONS  OF  OUR  LORD'S  ASCENSION 


By  H.  Kern,  D.D. 

Afterward  he  appeared  unto  the  eleven  as  they  saf  at  meat,  and  upbraided  them  with  their 
unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,  because  they  believed  not  them  which  had  seen  him  after 
he  was  risen,  etc. — Mark  xvi:  14-20 


Beloved  in  the  Lord  !  It  is  the  coronation 
festival  of  our  King  and  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  glorious  Son  of  God,  that  we  with  joyful 
heart  celebrate  this  day.  For  with  the  ascent 
of  the  Savior  into  heaven,  from  which  this 
anniversary  day  receives  its  name,  He  has 
entered  upon  the  real  and  undisputed  pos- 
session of  His  royal  reign,  in  which  from  this 
time  on  He  rules  over  all  things  that  are  in 
heaven  and  on  earth.  He  was  saluted  as  a 
triumphant  victor  over  the  broken  power  of 
death  and  darkness  by  the  heavenly  hosts, 
filling  all  the  heavens  with  joyous  hallelu- 
jahs ;  the  entire  kingdom  of  everlasting  life 
celebrates  this  glorious  festival  of  joy,  be- 
cause the  Son,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the 
Eternal  Father,  who  had  left  heaven  and 
come  upon  the  earth  for  the  purpose  of  sav- 
ing lost  mankind,  now,  after  the  contest  is 
over  and  the  victory  achieved,  returns  as  the 
exalted  world-Redeemer  and  again  resumes 
His  place  in  the  middle  of  the  eternal  Holy 
of  Holies  in  heaven.  How  can  it  be  other- 
wise than  that  this  day  shall  also  be  cele- 
brated   with    gladness    and    thanksgiving    by 


Christians  here  on  earth?  Is  it  not  deserv- 
ing of  the  greatest  joy  to  know  that  from  this 
time  on  our  Savior  is  in  heaven  as  the  Lord 
over  all,  that  we  have  in  the  seat  of  almighty 
power  above  a  Ruler  who  had  at  one  time 
been  a  man  as  we  are  and  who  is  not  ashamed 
to  own  us,  poor  mortal  beings,  as  His  breth- 
ren;  who  does  not  dwell  in  unapproachable 
majesty  above  us  and  our  needs,  but  is  like 
unto  us  and  regards  us  as  like  unto  Him. 
Indeed,  this  is  a  day  of  joy;  but  it  is  at  the 
same  time  a  day  for  earnest  reflection,  and 
that  for  the  very  reason  that  our  divine  Lord 
and  King  looks  upon  us  as  like  unto  Him  and 
wishes  to  draw  us  to  Him.  As  great  as  is 
the  joy  of  this  truth,  so  great  is  also  the 
responsibility  attached  to  it.  Our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ  has  on  this  day  been  ex- 
alted to  the  throne  of  heaven's  sacred  shrine. 
This  is  the  lesson  found  in  the  gospel  words 
for  to-day.  "  Follow  me !  "  He  cries  out 
unto  us,  He  who  has  preceded  us  to  the 
world  above ;  "  follow  Me  from  the  darkness 
and  dust  of  the  earth  up  to  holier,  higher 
aims  and  goals."     Especially  do   we  find   in 


236 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


these  words  the  exhortation  which  the  Lord 
at  the  close  addresses  to  His  disciples,  not  to 
live  in  quiet  ease  and  for  the  enjoyment  of 
earth's  goods,  but  for  earnest  work,  for 
steady  faithfulness  and  fidelity,  in  faith,  in 
service,  in  contest  and  progress  on  the  road 
to  heaven ;  and  as  a  reward  for  this  fidelity 
is  held  out  the  joy  which  is  promised  to  us 
in  His  ascension.  The  lessons  of  admonition 
found  in  this  ascension  for  us  are  these: 

L  Deep  Humility; 

n.  Diligent   Service; 

HL  Joyful  Hope. 

I.  Beloved,  the  Lord  loved  His  disciples 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end ;  He,  how- 
ever, praised  them  but  rarely,  but  often  up- 
braided and  rebuked  them.  Why  was  this? 
It  is  easy  to  say  that  this  was  because  they 
were  weak,  sinful  human  creatures,  men  who 
not  through  their  own  powers  but  only 
through  the  grace  of  God's  spirit  could  learn 
to  think,  speak  and  do  that  which  is  good. 
Therefore  we  cannot  be  surprised  to  read  in 
to-day's  gospel  lesson  that  even  at  the  end, 
just  as  He  was  about  to  depart  and  ascend 
to  the  throne  of  His  majesty.  He  upbraided 
them  on  account  of  their  unbelief,  which  they 
had  displayed  over  against  the  announce- 
ment of  His  resurrection.  We  cannot  be 
surprised,  still  less  does  this  mislead  us,  that 
we  find  ourselves  approving  the  words  of  the 
Lord,  as  tho  zvc  had  the  right  to  find  fault 
with  what  the  Apostles  did  and  said.  No ; 
this  we  should  for  the  best  of  reasons  leave 
to  God  and  the  Savior  alone,  for  all  the  faults 
which  we  find  in  them  are  also  our  faults, 
and  are  only  for  this  reason  so  clearly  por- 
trayed in  the  Scriptures  in  order  that  we 
thereby  may  all  the  more  clearly  learn  to  see 
our  own  failings  and  in  the  light  of  such 
knowledge  bend  the  heart  and  soul  in  deep 
humility.  What  right  have  we  to  upbraid 
them  for  displaying  unbelief  over  against  the 
message  of  Christ's  resurrection,  we  who  in 
our  actions  and  words  daily  display  a  similar 
unbelief?  For  to  believe  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  Lord  means  to  rejoice  in  the  risen 
Lord,  and  with  hearts  full  of  gratitude,  com- 
fort and  consolation  in  the  light  of  the  great 
victory  of  the  Conqueror  of  Death  to  glory 
in  our  faith  and  calling. 

Instead  of  this  it  occurs  only  too  often 
that  this  whole  matter  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  Lord  practically  is  regarded  as  something 
like  a  beautiful  old  story,  which  once  a  year, 
on  Easter  Day,  forms  the  topic  of  edifying 
discourse,  but  otherwise  belongs  to  the  re- 
gions of  myth  and  story.  As  a  consequence 
of  this,  the  modern  world  has  to  a  great  ex- 
tent lost  the  Christian  joyfulness  resulting 
from  the  Lord's  resurrection,  as  also  the 
blessed  assurances  that  this  faith  brings.  As 
a  further  result,  the  cares  and  concerns  of 
love  constantly  press  down  upon  us  without 
the  counteracting  power  of  a  joyful  hope  and 
certainty  in  the  Lord.  The  spiritual  loss  of 
the  lack  of  full  faith  in  the  risen  Lord  is  felt 
in  all  the  walks  and  stations  of  life.  The 
joyful  message  that  Christ  has  arisen,  that 
Christ  has  conquered  all  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness,, that  His  resurrection  is  for  us  the  guar- 


antee that  we  too  shall  rise  unto  everlasting 
happiness,  is  in  the  saddest  and  most  sorrow- 
ful hour  of  our  lives  to  prove  to  dispel  our 
ills  and  sufferings.  Indeed,  this  is  the  light 
in  which  we  should  daily  look  upon  this 
great  work  of  the  Lord ;  and  since  we  do  not 
in  our  heart  of  hearts  think  of  the  resurrec- 
tion thus,  we  not  only  lose  the  spiritual  joys 
arising  from  this  conviction,  but  belong  also 
to  that  class  of  people  whom  the  Lord  should 
upbraid  for  their  unbelief  every  day. 

Therefore  when  we  this  day  speak  of  the 
great  truth  that  as  His  adherents  we  should 
follow  Him  on  His  path  to  glory  above,  on 
the  road  that  leads  to  heaven,  we  should  on 
this  day  too  be  the  first  ones  keenly  to  feel 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  our  faith  and  trust 
in  His  resurrection  is  not  that  power,  factor, 
and  force  in  our  lives  which  it  was  intended 
to  be.  In  view  of  this  our  hearts  should  feel 
deeply  humiliated  that  we  are  such  unfaithful 
followers  of  Him  who  has  gone  before,  con- 
quering and  to  conquer  for  our  salvation. 
He  who  is  ascending  a  high  ladder  should 
never,  for  fear  of  falling,  look  downward, 
but  constantly  upward.  Only  thus,  too,  can 
we  attain  our  heavenly  goal,  when  we 
keep  the  high  ideals  and  aims  of  Christ- 
ian life  before  us.  But  in  order  to  learn  to 
trust  the  grace  that  draws  us  upward,  we 
must  first  have  learned  to  know  the  depths 
out  of  which  we  are  ascending.  To  appre- 
ciate fully  the  glorious  blessings  of  the  king- 
dom of  God's  grace,  we  must  first  have 
walked  through  the  valley  of  humiliation 
and  come  to  the  conviction  of  our  sure  need 
of  God's  boundless  mercy. 

II.  And  through  His  grace  the  heart  that 
by  humble  self-knowledge  has  been  properly 
prepared  to  receive  the  seed  of  the  Spirit  is 
filled  with  a  holy  confidence  and  with  an 
eager  desire  to  seize  the  gracious  helping 
hand  of  the  Lord.  Then,  however,  it  is  also 
necessary  that  we  serve  with  the  measure  of 
grace  that  has  been  given  us.  No  matter 
how  weak  the  disciples  were  at  this  time,  and 
however  much  the  Lord  was  compelled  to 
upbraid  them,  He  did  not  on  that  account 
say  that  He  could  not  use  them  in  the  service 
and  work  of  His  kingdom.  But  rather  He 
commands  them  to  go  out  and  spread  the 
glorious  gospel  news  of  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  reconciliation  with  God,  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Satan's  kingdom.  And  the  disciples 
did  what  had  been  commanded  them.  They 
did  not  regard  their  own  weakness,  but  began 
to  preach  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  and,  behold,  they  succeeded 
better  and  better  every  day.  They  did  not 
themselves  know  how  this  all  happened,  but 
the  better  they  succeeded  the  more  confirmed 
they  became  in  their  faith,  the  more  joyful 
in  the  performance  of  their  high  and  holy 
calling,  for  nothing  tends  so  much  to  the  in- 
crease of  faith  as  to  see  the  kingdom  of  our 
Savior  spreading  and  becoming  a  power  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  For  this  reason  it 
is  a  blessed  privilege  to  labor  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lord  as  a  gospel  messenger  and 
worker,  and  to  contribute  one's  strength  to 
the  upbuilding  of  the  walls  of  Zion. 


ASCENSION  DA\ 


237 


By  these  means  the  little  flame  of  faith  in 
the  heart  becomes  a  consuming  fire.  This  we 
must  learn  to  know,  we  who  have  the  work 
of  the  Apostles  to-day,  and  are  their  weak 
followers  and  imitators,  to  the  purpose  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  may  come.  In  preach- 
ing the  gospel  the  ministers  themselves  may 
be  the  greatest  gainers ;  the  privilege  of 
laboring  thus  increases  our  faith  and  confi- 
dence in  Him  whose  ambassadors  we  are. 
And  to  a  still  greater  degree  this  is  the  case 
with  those  who  labor  without  among  the 
heathen  nations  and  are  in  Gentile  lands,  the 
fishers  of  men,  drawing  into  the  net  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ  the  souls  of  the  many.  They, 
seeing  the  progress  of  their  works,  rejoice  in 
a  strengthened  trust  and  faith,  the  more  they 
labor,  the  more  they  toil.  The  same  is  true 
of  all  Christians  whose  hearts  and  hands  are 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord.  It  is  the  high  mis- 
sion of  a  new  redeemed  soul  to  labor  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord,  to 
win  souls  for  the  Savior,  notwithstanding  all 
weakness  of  faith,  and  doing  such  labor  our 
own  souls  are  to  gain  and  be  strengthened, 
and  we  are  to  advance  on  the  way  to  heav- 
enly glory.  For  none  is  too  weak  or  too 
small  to  help  the  one  common  work  of  the 
Church  of  God  on  earth.  Children  can  often 
win  their  parents  for  the  Lord  by  their  child- 
like, pious  life ;  the  poor  widow,  who  may  be 
in  need  of  bread,  may,  by  her  example  of 
tiust  and  faith,  be  an  object  lesson  for  many 
that  are  without,  and  teach  them  to  learn  to 
love  the  Lord  and  His  word.  A  poor  peas- 
ant, by  the  firmness  of  his  faith,  may  become 
the  source  of  strength  for  the  doubting  faith 
of  the  learned.  In  every  station  and  walk 
and  condition  of  life,  we  can,  by  our  con- 
versation, word,  and  deed,  declare  to  others 
the  glories  and  blessings  of  a  heart  centered 
in  a  risen  and  ascended  Lord. 

HI.  But  with  all  this  we  should  never  lose 
courage  or  be  filled  with  forebodings  of  fail- 
ure.    If  we  enter  upon  the  work  of  the  Lord 


in  such  a  spirit,  nothing  substantial  and  suc- 
cessful is  accomplished.  If  in  Christ's  name 
we  undertake  Christ's  work,  there  will  be  no 
time  for  lamentations  or  complaints.  There 
are  no  reasons  for  such  a  thing.  The  spirit 
of  God  has  been  promised  from  above  to  be 
strong  in  those  who  are  weak.  Your  Savior 
is  your  strength ;  He  abides  with  you  to  the 
end  of  days.  In  a  few  plain  words,  the  Evan- 
gelist says,  "  He  was  received  up  into  heaven 
and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God." 
Blessed  are  we  that  we  know  this,  blessed  are 
we  that  we  have  such  a  kind  Lord.  He  is 
seated  on  the  throne  of  power  and  rules  all 
things  wisely  and  well.  He  guides  and  di- 
rects all  things  from  His  exalted  seat  of 
power,  with  His  all-overlooking  eye  of  maj- 
esty, with  the  all-conquering  glance  of  His 
eye,  with  His  all-embracing  love.  He  di- 
rects the  destinies  of  nations  and  individuals, 
notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  all  evil 
powers  and  forces.  All,  great  and  small,  are 
in  the  hollow  of  His  hands ;  and  especially 
are  the  members  of  His  Kingdom  of  grace 
the  objects  of  His  never-ceasing  and  loving 
solicitude  and  care.  Our  faith  in  our  Heav- 
enly King  as  such  a  ruler  must  cast  the 
brightest  of  sunshine  in  our  lives  and  labors. 
It  must  draw  us  to  Him.  It  must  fill  our 
hearts  with  cheer  and  joy,  gladly  and  will- 
ingly to  serve  Him  and  work  in  His  cause. 
The  heart  that  is  sealed  by  His  Spirit  in  His 
kingdom  has  the  blessed  hope  in  the  Lord 
who  has  ascended  on  the  throne  of  majesty 
to  rule  and  reign  forever.  Let  us  therefore 
on  this  day,  while  humbly  remembering  our 
lack  of  faith  in  Him  and  His  gospel,  yet 
glorify  our  King  in  His  majesty,  and  with 
hearts  full  of  confidence  and  implicit  trust, 
pray  and  petition  to  Him  constantly  to  send 
us  from  His  throne  of  grace  the  Spirit  that 
makes  us  fit  for  heaven  and  that  will  even- 
tually make  us  partakers  of  the  glories  of  the 
eternal  heaven  beyond  the  grave.  Amen ! — 
H.  R. 


THE  ASCENDED  CHRIST 

By  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


When  he  ascended  up  on  high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men. — Eph.  iv:  8 


Into  the  history  of  our  race  came  the  his- 
tory of  the  career  of  Jesus.  That  changed  all 
the  relations  of  humanity  to  the  universe  and 
to  itself.  That  furnished  a  reason  for  the  ex- 
istence of  humanity.  That  now  maintains  the 
support  of  humanity.  That  predicts  the  fu- 
ture of  humanity. 

The  life  of  Jesus  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Now,  in  regard  to  that 
religion  it  is  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  it 
is  not  merely  a  philosophy  or  a  science,  but 
the  inspiration  of  a  new  spiritual  life.  We 
must  not  forget  that  to  live  the  life  of  a 
Christian  does  not  demand  any  particular  cul- 
ture, or  mere  intellectual  assent  to  any  prop- 
ositions, or  the  belief  in  any  series  of  doc- 


trines. It  does  not  depend  on  a  philosophy 
or  a  theology,  but  it  does  hang  on  a  man's 
belief  in  a  fact.  One  single  historical  fact, 
thoroughly  believed  and  lived  upon,  followed 
out  to  all  its  logical  consequences  in  practical 
living,  will  make  any  man  a  Christian. 

The  history  of  eighteen  centuries  shows 
this.  Men  have  held  to  manifold  forms  of 
philosophy,  and  believed,  and  taught  many 
and  diverse  theories  of  theology,  and  have 
lived  and  worked  under  all  kinds  of  eccles- 
iasticism,  and  yet  have  manifestly  been  Chris- 
tians ;  but  no  man  has  failed  to  believe  in  the 
fact  of  the  Ascension  of  the  Risen  Body  of 
Jesus  and  been  a  Christian,  no  matter  what 
else  he  believed.    He  could  not  be.    The  de- 


238 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


nial  of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  is  as  distinct 
and  complete  an  abandonment  of  the  Chris- 
tian reHgion  as  the  denial  of  the  existence  of 
the  Jehovah  of  Sinai  would  be  of  Jewish  re- 
ligion, or  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  God 
would  be  of  all  religion.  The  resurrection 
and  the  ascension  of  Jesus  make  a  hinge,  the 
resurrection  part  of  which  takes  hold  upon 
earth,  and  the  ascension  part  on  heaven. 

It  is  indispensable  to  believe  that  Jesus  the 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead.  No  matter  what 
we  think  of  Him,  no  matter  which  other  part 
of  His  history  we  accept  or  reject,  no  matter 
what  opinion  we  have  of  His  form  and  char- 
acter, if  He  did  not  raise  Himself  from  the 
dead,  if  the  Galilean  Prophet's  dust  is  still 
reposing  in  some  unknown  Syrian  grave.  His 
claims  are  all  worthless ;  He  is  not  the  high- 
est spiritual  authority  in  the  universe,  as  He 
claimed ;  He  is  not  the  Creator  of  the  world, 
as  He  claimed ;  He  cannot  be  the  Savior  of 
the  world,  as  He  claimed.  If  He  did  not  rise 
from  the  dead,  all  He  said  and  all  He  did  can 
be  treated  by  mankind  as  the  words  and  the 
deeds  of  one  who  must  have  been  either  a  fool 
or  a  knave.  All  Christianity  goes  down  with 
the  denial  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 

This  was  perceived  and  announced  in  the 
very  first  years  of  Christianity  by  its  teachers, 
and  especially  by  its  very  greatest  thinker,  the 
Apostle  Paul,  who  asserted  that  if  Christ  had 
not  risen  from  the  dead,  all  the  preaching  of 
Christian  teachers  and  all  the  belief  of  Chris- 
tian disciples  was  in  vain.  That  point  is  set- 
tled. To  believe  that  Christ  did  not  rise  from 
the  dead  as  thoroughly  abrogates  Christianity 
as  to  believe  that  there  is  no  God. 

Now  this  is  a  very  interesting  feature  of  the 
case,  that  our  religion  rests  not  on  a  theory, 
but  on  a  fact.  A  theory  may  or  may  not  be  a 
mistake,  but  a  fact  is  always  susceptible  of 
proof.  And  it  is  very  important  to  remember 
that  nothing  which  ever  occurred  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  has  any  more  evidence  to 
support  it  than  the  fact  that  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth, who  was  crucified  and  who  was  buried, 
rose  from  the  dead.  Nothing  alleged  to  have 
occurred  in  the  days  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, nothing  in  the  wars  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  can  bring  to  the  thinking  man  of  the 
eighteenth  century  more  evidence  than  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  from  the  dead.  That  is 
the  Easter  Day  part  of  the  hinge. 

To-day  we  have  assembled  to  consider  the 
other,  the  Ascension  Day  portion  of  the  divine 
fact  on  which  swings  our  redemption.  To  get 
the  full  force  of  it  we  must  remember  some- 
thing of  the  forty  days  preceding  this  crown- 
ing event  of  our  Lord's  earthly  history.  I 
call  your  attention  briefly  to  the  facts  that  He 
was  seen  first  by  one  woman,  then  by  several 
women,  and  then  by  one  disciple,  and  then  by 
two,  and  then  by  ten  of  the  disciples,  and  then 
by  the  whole  eleven,  and  then  by  five  hundred 
of  the  disciples  at  once.  He  also  appeared  to 
James.  His  younger  brother.  At  these  ap- 
pearances our  Lord  ate.  and  drank,  and 
showed  His  hands  and  His  feet.  It  is  to  be 
remembered    that    these    were    acts    repeated 


through  nearly  six  weeks,  in  which  His  apos- 
tles were  being  taught  more  deeply  as  to  His 
natural  existence  as  a  man  and  as  to  the  di- 
vine side  of  His  nature.  It  is  important  to 
recall  the  fact  that,  having  appeared  in  the 
body  which  He  brought  out  of  the  tomb.  He 
always  came  among  them  without  announce- 
ment, and  always  departed  without  adieu. 

That  resurrection  and  those  appearances 
were  absolutely  essential  to  the  consumma- 
tion of  their  faith.  If  He  had  not  risen  all 
their  hopes  would  have  failed,  and  their  three 
years  of  remarkable  relations  with  Jesus 
would  have  been  to  them  sometimes  as  an 
enigma,  but  generally  as  the  remembrances  of 
a  dream.  It  could  have  been  of  no  spiritual 
benefit  to  them,  and  they  could  never  use  it 
for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  others. 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  our  faith  in 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  does  not 
depend  wholly  upon  the  testimony  of  the  im- 
mediate eye-witnesses,  but  that  there  are  thou- 
sands of  historical  facts,  the  existence  of 
which  in  our  present  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
human  thinking  cannot  be  accounted  for  with- 
out the  assumption  of  another  fact — namely, 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  They  are  such  as 
these :  The  head  of  a  body  of  religionists,  in 
whom  they  believed  as  having  power  to  resist 
all  force,  is  murdered  on  a  certain  Friday  in 
A.  D.  30.  That  Friday  night  there  was  not  a 
single  one  of  them  who  believed  he  would 
ever  see  Him  again.  There  was  no  plan  and 
no  purpose  for  the  future,  and  there  was  no 
purpose  because  there  was  no  object.  On  the 
following  Svmday  evening  they  were  reassem- 
bled, their  hopes  were  rekindled,  they  were 
again  a  body  with  a  head.  They  asserted  the 
resurrection  of  their  leader,  they  asserted  it 
to  His  murderers,  who.  if  they  still  had  pos- 
session of  His  body,  if  they  had  not  lost  it, 
could  have  produced  it.  The  production  of 
that  body  was  absolutely  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  their  own  ground  and  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  new  religion  :  but  they  failed 
to  produce  that  body.  The  disciples  had  seen 
it.  It  was  dead  or  it  was  alive.  If  dead  it 
was  no  more  to  them  out  of  the  grave  than  in 
the  grave.  But  alive  it  supplied  them  with 
every  intellectual  consideration  and  furnished 
them  with  every  spiritual  stimulus  to  carry 
this  Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

In  half  a  century  it  had  overrun  the  Ro- 
man Empire ;  it  was  in  the  remote  prov- 
inces, it  was  in  Italy,  it  was  in  distant 
and  humble  hamlets,  it  was  in  the  city  of 
Rome.  Far  to  the  front  there  was  the  res- 
urrection. "  Jesus  and  the  resurrection," 
this  was  the  theme  of  the  teaching  of  the 
apostles ;  this  was  the  inspiration  of  their 
eloquence ;  this  was  the  captivating  power  of 
tlieir  zeal.  To  account  for  the  history  of 
eighteen  centuries  since  a.  d.  31  is  absolutely 
impossible  without  the  assumption  of  the  res- 
urrection of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  as  a 
fact.  Look  at  an  existing  fact  here  before  our 
eyes,  the  presence  in  this  Church  of  this  great 
body  of  Knights-Templar,*  part  of  a  great 
institution  this  moment  in  the  United  States 


*  Thi«  sermon  was  delivered  on  Ascension  day,  May  7.   iSqi  before  Columbian,  Palestine,   Manhattan, 
Ivanhoe,  Constantine,  and  York  Commanderies  of  Knights-Templar. 


ASCENSION  DAY 


239 


of  America,  a  land  far  off  and  unknown  when 
Christ  was  crucified,  but  in  which  every  day 
two  or  more  temples  are  erected  to  His  wor- 
ship. I  look  down  upon  this  body  of  uni- 
formed and  armed  men,  the  Knights-Templar 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  I  ask  any 
thinker  to  account  for  the  phenomenon  on 
the  assumption  that  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead  is  a  myth  and  not  a 
fact. 

We  have  come  together  to  celebrate  the 
ascension  of  Jesus,  the  other  part  of  what  I 
have  ventured  to  call  the  great  hinge  on  which 
Christianity  swings.  The  sacred  Scripture  of 
the  New  Testament  gives  the  following  ac- 
count of  that  last  appearance  of  Jesus  to 
mortal  eyes.  St.  Mark  tells  us  that  after  the 
Lord  had  spoken  unto  His  disciples,  "  He  was 
received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right 
hand  of  God."  St.  Luke  tells  us,  in  his  Gos- 
pel, that  after  Jesus  had  given  the  promise 
to  His  apostles  that  they  should  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high.  He  led  them  out  to 
Bethany,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives ;  that  He 
lifted  up  His  hands  and  blessed  them,  and 
that  while  blessing  them  He  was  parted  from 
them  and  was  carried  up  to  heaven.  This 
same  writer,  who  was  the  only  educated  man 
in  the  company,  in  writing  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  enlarged  the  account,  telling  us  that 
after  Jesus  had  promised  His  apostles  that 
they  should  receive  power  from  on  high  after 
the  Holy  Ghost  had  come  upon  them,  and 
that  they  should  become  His  witnesses  to  the 
utmost  parts  of  the  earth,  He  was  taken  up 
from  the  circle  of  men  among  whom  He 
stood,  and  a  cloud  received  Him  out  of  their 
sight ;  and  that  while  they  stood  gazing  into 
heaven  two  men  stood  by  them  in  white  ap- 
parel, saying,  "  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand 
ye  gazing  up  into  heaven?  This  same  Jesus 
who  is  taken  from  you  shall  so  come  in  like 
manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven." 
There  are  two  other  facts  mentioned  in  this 
account :  one  is  that  Jesus  received  divine 
worship  from  His  disciples  before  the  two 
men  spoke  to  them,  and  that  immediately 
afterward  they  returned  to  Jerusalem  and  be- 
gan to  organize  for  work. 

The  importance  of  the  record  in  regard  to 
the  Ascension  can  scarcely  be  overrated,  and 
j'et  Christendom  has  seemed  to  content  itself 
with  observance  of  the  Resurrection.  But  re- 
flect a  moment  upon  what  would  be  the  state 
of  the  case  if  the  departure  of  Jesus  had  not 
taken  place  just  as  recorded  in  the  Gospel. 
The  Lord  either  might  have  made  His  fare- 
wells to  the  apostles  and  left  them,  going 
away  naturally  as  He  had  been  accustomed  to 
do  before  His  death,  or  He  might  have  made 
a  valedictory  and  have  disappeared  as  He  had 
been  accustomed  to  do  during  the  forty  days 
immediately  after  the  resurrection.  In  either 
case  there  would  have  been  an  incompleteness 
in  His  career,  and,  however  majestic  and 
beautiful  the  outlines  of  His  life,  it  would 
always  appear  to  succeeding  generations  some- 
thing like  a  pyramid  whose  apex  was  lost  in 
a  mist. 

No ;  the  earthly  career  of  our  Lord  was 
open,  rounded,  and  complete.     The  extremes 


of  human  society  saw  Him  as  a  human  babe, 
over  whose  public  stable-cradle  Jewish  peas- 
ants and  Oriental  sages  bent.  Out  in  the 
open  air,  on  mountain  or  by  sea-side,  or  in 
public  synagog  or  crowded  temple,  He  taught 
through  all  His  ministry,  doing  nothing  in 
secret,  keeping  no  esoteric  doctrine  for  culti- 
vated Nicodemuses  while  teaching  something 
else  to  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  and  the  com- 
mon dwellers  by  the  Jordan.  He  died  in  the 
sight  of  people  from  every  part  of  the  earth, 
at  a  point  in  full  view  of  Jerusalem  when  it 
was  crowded  with  visitors  assembled  at  a 
solemn  feast.  After  His  resurrection  He  had 
appeared  to  apostles  and  disciples,  men  and 
women,  in  several  places,  by  the  space  of 
about  six  weeks. 

What  now  was  to  be  done  with  that  body? 
Should  it  evanesce?  What,  then,  was  to  be- 
come of  that  religion  which  is  to  surpass  all 
the  religions  of  the  world  in  spiritual  power, 
because  it  does  not  consist  in  theological  doc- 
trines, however  true,  or  ethical  precepts,  how- 
ever sound,  or  in  ritualistic  ceremonials,  how- 
ever esthetic  or  imposing,  but  in  personal 
devotion  to  a  Person  who  is  divinely  human 
and  humanly  divine?  Would  not  it  also 
have  evanished  from  among  men  ? 

No  !  No  !  The  grand  personality  of  Jesus 
grew  grander  and  more  personal  to  the  end. 
On  the  slope  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  sur- 
rounded by  a  number  of  persons  who  should 
afterward  be  able  always  to  correct  and  con- 
firm each  other's  recollections,  He  talked 
with  His  apostles,  told  them  that  some  special 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  about  to  come 
upon  them,  that  when  it  came  they  should  re- 
ceive spiritual  "  power  "  and  should  then  be- 
come witnesses  to  Him  unto  the  utmost  parts 
of  the  earth.  His  glowing  description  of  their 
coming  career  of  power  and  glory  fixed  every 
eye  on  Him.  Each  saw  Him  and  all  saw 
Him.  While  they  were  gazing  He  began  to 
rise.  The  circle  widened  with  a  sense  of 
awe.  No  man  knew  what  was  to  be  next ; 
the  Master  seemed  to  grow  taller  and  more 
majestic,  fuller  of  a  divine  beauty  than  had 
ever  shone  on  mortal  face  before.  And  He 
no  longer  touched  the  ground,  but  rose,  rose 
slowly,  shooting  into  the  eye  of  each  disciple 
in  turn  a  look  of  love  and  confidence,  a  look 
brighter  than  the  sun  and  wider  than  the 
sky,  a  look  that  oversplendored  each  man's 
intellect  and  made  each  man's  heart  swell  like 
an  ocean-tide.  "  He  went  up,"  up,  up, 
through  that  clear  Syrian  air  under  that  pure 
Syrian  sky.  "  while  they  looked  steadfastly 
toward  heaven,  as  He  went  up." 

As  the  ages  have  passed,  the  more  the 
Scripture  has  been  studied,  more  and  more 
Christians  have  come  to  find  the  power  and 
comfort  which  reside  in  the  fact  of  the  Lord's 
Ascension.  It  illuminates  all  the  previous  life 
of  the  Christ.  It  shows  how  His  birth  was 
an  incarnation,  and  that  He  must  have  had 
a  pre-existence  in  a  divine  glory  in  which  He 
was  so  much  at  home  when  His  earthly 
career  closed.  To  Nathanael,  one  of  His 
earliest  disciples  and  the  most  guileless.  He 
said,  "  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  open, 
and   the   angels    of   God   ascending   and    de- 


240 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


scending  upon  the  Son  of  Man "  (John  i : 
51),  and  to  the  cuhivated  Nicodemus  He  had 
said,  "  No  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven 
but  the  Son  of  Man,  who  hath  descended 
from  heaven"  (John  iii :  13).  When  one  of 
His  most  profound  discourses  had  set  His 
disciples  to  doubting,  He  said  to  them, 
'■  What  and  if  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man 
ascend  up  where  he  was  before?"  (John  vi : 
62).  In  view  of  His  approaching  death  He 
said  to  His  circle  of  chosen  apostles,  "  I  came 
forth  from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into  the 
world :  again,  I  leave  the  world,  and  go  to 
the  Father"   (John  xvi:28). 

The  effect  of  the  Ascension  upon  the  first 
apostles  was  instantaneous,  powerful,  and 
transforming.  Naturally,  while  this  stupen- 
dous event  was  taking  place  they  would  be 
in  an  absorbing  rapture,  but  such  states  of 
exaltation  are  neither  wholesome  nor  help- 
ful. The  men  in  white  had  put  to  them  the 
question  why  they  stood  there  gazing  up  to 
heaven.  The  gaze  was  natural,  but  not  nor- 
mal. Men  must  not  let  any  visions  of  heaven 
turn  them  from  any  duties  of  earth.  What- 
ever revelation  God  makes  to  the  spirit  is 
plainly  to  give  the  spirit  strength  to  do  its 
earthly  work. 

So  the  disciples  returned  unto  Jerusalem, 
banded  together,  united  with  them  godly 
women,  and  so  stood  ready  for  the  next 
marching  orders.  When  those  orders  came 
they  found  that  the  Lord  was  working  with 
them,  and  as  they  traveled  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  their  ascended  Lord,  now  sitting  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  which  to  them  must 
have  meant  the  possession  of  omnipotence, 
wrought  with  them.  If  He  had  still  been 
upon  earth,  no  matter  to  what  majestic 
heights  He  may  have  risen,  He  could  not 
have  been  so  stimulating  to  their  faith  as 
when  sitting  at  "  the  right  hand  of  God."  A 
star  in  the  heavens  may  be  equally  near  to 
two  persons  on  the  planet,  altho  they  be  in 
antipodes,  while  it  would  be  impossible  to 
erect  in  Jerusalem,  or  in  Rome,  or  in  Paris, 
or  in  New  York,  or  in  San  Francisco,  a 
tower  so  lofty  as  to  be  simultaneously  beheld 
by  the  people  in  all  these  cities.  So  Jesus 
never  seemed  nearer  to  His  apostles  than  He 
did  when  He  returned  to  the  Father  and  took 
His  seat  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  It  is  the 
Clowning  fact  in  His  career. 

The  Apostle  Paul  groups  in  culminating 
order  the  three  facts  which,  based  upon  the 
incarnation,  are  the  foundation  of  the  hope 
of  our  redemption — Christ's  death,  Christ's 
resurrection,  and  Christ's  ascension.  "  Who 
is  he  that  condemneth?"  the  apostle  asked; 
and  his  answer  is,  "  It  is  Christ  that  died, 
yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  in- 
tercession for  us  "  (Rom.  viii :  34).  He  might 
have  died,  and  yet  the  work  of  our  salvation 
be  left  incomplete.  He  might  have  risen,  and 
yet  the  work  of  our  salvation  be  left  incom- 
plete. The  completing  fact  is  that  He  is  ever 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  On  the  cross  His 
sufferings  made  a  powerful  plea  for  our  sins. 
His  emergence  from  the  tomb  made  a  power- 
ful plea  for  our  immortality.    But  both  would 


have  failed  but  for  His  ascension,  in  which 
He  took  a  glorified  human  body  up  through 
the  ranks  of  cherubim  and  seraphim,  of  an- 
gels and  archangels,  who  parted  to  let  Him 
pass  in  superb  majesty  up  to  the  throne  to 
eternity,  where  He  placed  His  glorified  human 
body  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  to  be  forever 
in  the  sight  of  God  the  Father  and  in  the 
sight  of  all  principalities  of  the  invisible 
world;  where  He  ever  liveth,  making  inter- 
cession for  us,  which  intercession  would  be 
powerless  without  that  presence. 

It  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that  those  two 
men  in  white,  perhaps  angels  from  the  upper 
glory,  who  turned  the  apostles  away  from 
gazing  into  the  trackless  ether  through  which 
their  Lord  had  ascended  to  the  gates  of  glory, 
turned  them  away  to  the  hard  work  and 
rugged  hardships  attendant  upon  carrying  the 
Gospel  to  the  nations,  gave  them  for  comfort 
the  wonderful  promise,  "  This  same  Jesus, 
which  is  taken  from  you  into  heaven,  shall 
so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  hinv 
go  into  heaven." 

First  notice  the  preservation  of  the  identity 
of  Jesus,  Mary's  Babe,  the  Boy  of  Nazareth,, 
the  Master  of  the  Apostles,  the  crucified, 
buried,  risen,  ascended  Jesus  is  "  this  same 
Jesus."  No  change,  no  transfiguration  breaks 
in  upon  the  identity  of  our  Lord.  When 
Stephen,  soon  after  the  Ascension,  was  gaz- 
ing into  the  heavens,  and  saw  Jesus  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  he  beheld  the  very  same 
person  who  broke  the  bread  and  delivered 
the  wine  at  the  Last  Supper,  the  same  person 
who  had  expired  on  the  cross,  had  risen  from 
the  grave,  and  had  been  seen  by  the  apostles 
ascending  into  heaven.  Let  us  never  lose 
sight  of  that  wonderful  fact. 

Another  great  truth  is.  He  is  to  come  again 
upon  earth,  "  this  very  same  Jesus."  We 
must  remind  ourselves  that  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scripture  which  they  held  in  their 
hands,  the  Jews,  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
our  Lord,  had  just  as  clear  a  promise  of  the 
First  Advent  as  we  have  now  of  the  Second, 
and  yet  they  had  conned  those  Scriptures  and 
repeated  them,  losing  sight  of  their  grand 
meaning,  so  that  He  came  and  went,  and 
many  of  them  saw  Him  many  and  many  a 
time  and  never  knew  Him.  Now  He  is  to 
come  again.  It  is  an  utter  waste  of  time  for 
any  man  to  strive  to  determine  zi'lien  that 
shall  be,  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  future 
more  certain  than  that  He  will  come,  and 
that  He  will  come  out  of  the  heavens ;  that 
as  His  body  was  not  dissipated  into  the  ether, 
but  carried  in  perfect  organism,  glorified  into 
the  heavens,  so  "  in  like  manner,"  in  that 
glorified  organism,  the  Son  of  God  shall  come 
down  among  men  again. 

My  Brethren,  He  may  be  coming  now. 
When  He  first  appeared  incarnate  among 
men,  the  birth  of  the  Bethlehem  Babe  was  as 
noiseless  as  this  morning's  dawn.  But  sec- 
tarian Jerusalem,  so  very  near  His  cradle, 
was  so  absorbed  in  theological  disputes  and 
civil  insubordination,  and  imperial  Rome  was 
in  such  a  turmoil  of  politics  and  corruption, 
that  neither  of  these  centers  of  civilization 
knew  when  he  arrived.  Centuries  had  elapsed 


ASCENSION  DAY 


241 


since  the  promise  had  been  made  of  the  com- 
ing Seed  of  David,  the  JNIessiah,  the  Deliv- 
erer, the  Person  who  should  unite  in  Himself 
the  offices  of  prophet,  priest  and  king.  Great 
national  and  political  changes  had  occurred; 
the  heroic  Maccabean  period  had  passed,  the 
Roman  Conquest  had  been  completed,  and 
still  the  Deliverer  had  not  come. 

My  brethren,  let  us  be  on  our  guard !  He 
may  choose  an  Ascension  Day  on  which  to 
revisit  the  earth.  While  we  worship  here  He 
may  be  already  arriving,  or  it  may  be  next 
Sunday ;  but  soon  or  late,  He  will  come. 
Let  us  be  found  ready.  Let  no  sword  be  laid 
away.  Let  no  vigilance  be  relaxed.  Let 
every  man  of  us  every  day  be  prepared  to 
salute  the  coming  Captain  of  our  salvation 
when  He  shall  enter  our  asylum,  or  our 
home,  or  our  city.  How  should  men  live 
who,  on  such  a  day  as  this,  come  uniformed 
and  armed  into  a  venerable  edifice  erected  for 
His  worship  !  O  knights !  should  any  of  us 
allow  these  lips,  which  have  taken  the  solemn 
vows  of  the  Red  Cross,  to  be  polluted  with 
words  of  falsehood  or  of  filth?  O  knights! 
should  any  of  us,  whose  vows  do  bind  us  to 
deliver  the  oppressed,  be  found  as  oppressors 
when  the  Lord  shall  come  again?  Shall  any 
of  us,  in  the  campaign  against  infidelity  and 
vice,  be  found  wavering  in  our  loyalty,  or 
sunk  in  sensual  wassail,  when  our  majestic 
Lord  shall  turn  His  holy  eyes  upon  us? 

Shall  our  feet,  which  are  drilled  to  keep 
step  to  the  march  of  the  Christ's  legions,  ever 
walk  into  a  saloon,  the  headquarters  of  the 
devil,  our  Captain's  chief  foe,  or  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  house  of  her  whose  "feet 
go  down  to  death,  and  whose  steps  take  hold 
on  hell  ?  "  When  your  steps  are  directed  to 
your  place  of  business,  or  to  your  home,  or 
to  your  Church,  or  to  your  asylum,  oh !  my 
brethren,  go  expecting  the  Son  of  God,  ex- 
pecting to  find  the  Commander-in-Chief.  At 
every  turn,  in  all  your  walks  of  life,  expect  to 


confront  "  this  same  Jesus "  come  back  to 
earth  once  more. 

And  so,  brethren,  let  us  His  followers,  His 
sworn  followers.  Knights  of  the  Cross,  of  the 
Red  Cross,  let  us  never  forget  the  vows  we 
have  made  to  follow  Him  as  our  Divine 
Leader.  Whither  did  He  go  when  He  walked 
as  the  Son  of  Man  among  the  children  of 
men?  He  went  down  to  the  sorrowful  and 
to  the  sinful.  So  to  the  sorrowful  and  the 
sinful  let  us  go  like  the  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion, carrying  helpfulness  in  our  hands  and 
love  in  our  hearts.  What  was  the  battle  our 
Captain  fought  ?  It  was  a  battle  for  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  and  for  the  right  against 
the  wrong.  He  never  antagonized  a  human 
hope  or  a  human  heart.  He  smote  evil,  only 
evil,  and  stood  for  the  right,  only  for  the 
right.  Now,  my  fraters,  dear  brothers.  Sir 
Knights,  let  our  swords  be  like  His  sword, 
bathed  in  heaven.  In  our  homes,  in  our 
business,  in  politics,  in  science,  in  our  social 
life,  in  every  way,  let  our  sword  be  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  never  drawn  without  cause, 
never  wielded  without  right,  never  sheathed 
without  honor. 

It  may  be  a  long  and  weary  battle,  but  we 
shall  be  brought  off  more  than  conquerors, 
and  over  every  pilgrimage-path  and  upon 
every  battle-field  let  us  remember  that  when 
He  ascended  up  on  high  "  He  led  captivity 
captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men,"  and  that 
He  will  give  us  the  gifts  of  faith,  of  hope,  and 
of  charity ;  that  He  will  minister  unto  us 
the  grace  of  wisdom,  of  courage,  of  strength, 
and  of  fortitude,  and  while  we  are  living, 
and  when  we  are  dying,  may  we  ever  utter 
thus  our  prayer  to  the  Father,  "  Grant,  we 
beseech  Thee,  Almighty  God,  that  as  we  be- 
lieve Thine  only  begotten  Son  to  have 
ascended  into  the  heavens,  so  we  may  also 
in  heart  and  mind  continually  ascend,  and 
with  Him  continually  dwell." — H.  R. 


ASCENSION  DAY  AND  PENTECOST 


(Selections  from  the  German) 

By  Prof.  George  H.  Schodde,  Ph.D. 


Ascension  Day  a  Festival  of  Faith 

Luke  xxiv :  50-53 

Glorious  facts  are  revealed  in  these  verses. 
They  can  be  compared  with  the  starry 
heavens ;  each  fact  more  glorious  than  the 
preceding ;  the  longer  we  look  and  contem- 
plate, the  greater  is  the  abundance  of  rich 
truths  here  opened  to  our  view.  The  ascen- 
sion Gospel  is  one  of  comforting  importance, 
of  powerful  effect,  and  deep  and  earnest  sig- 
nificance.    It  is — 

I.  The  re.'\l  festival  of  faith  ;  which 
fact  is  recognized,  (i)  In  its  significance  for 
us,  namely,  that  we  learn  how  heaven  has 
been  opened  for  us,  as  it  is  our  Savior  who 


has  entered  heaven ;  and  (2)  in  its  effects  in 
us,  namely,  that  it  opens  our  hearts  for 
heaven,  for  heaven  is  the  place  to  which  our 
Savior  has  been  exalted.  The  Savior,  first, 
led  His  disciples  to  Bethany,  but  only  after 
He  had  passed  through  Gethsemane  and 
Calvary.  This  is  emblematic  of  His  way  of 
leading  man's  soul,  first  through  the  valley  of 
humiliation  and  recognition  of  sin.  But, 
then,  He  blessed  them,  which  is  emblematic 
of  His  grace  given  by  faith  to  those  who 
have  learned  to  look  for  help  to  Him  alone. 
Faith  looks  only  to  the  outstretched  hand  of 
the  Savior.  Then,  further.  He  departs  to 
heaven ;  indicating  what  shall  be  the  reward 
of   those    whose    faith    has   made   them    His. 


242 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


His  own  ascension,  the  certain  assurance  that 
where  He  is,  there  those  too  shall  be,  who 
are  His  own. 

n.  The  subjective  effects  of  the  ascen- 
sion GOSPEL,  namely,  that  it  unlocks  and 
prepares  our  hearts  for  heaven.  (i)  The 
apostles  zc'orsliipcd  Him,  indicative  of  how 
their  hearts  had  been  opened  to  a  recognition 
of  His  true  character  and  work.  (2)  They 
returned  to  Jerusalem,  with  great  joy;  their 
hearts  and  lives  were  filled  with  the  full  joy 
of  confident,  faith.  (3)  They  were  contin- 
ually in  the  temple  blessing  God;  their  lives 
thus  became  one  of  constant  devotion,  conse- 
cration and  service  to  Him. — Theodosius 
Harnack. 

Sermon  Sketches  on  the  Gospel  Lesson  for 
Ascension  Day- 
Mar  fe  xvi:  14-19 

14  Afterward  he  appeared  unto  the  eleven 
as  they  sat  at  meat,  and  upbraided  them  with 
their  unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,  because 
they  believed  not  them  which  had  seen  him 
after  he  was  risen. 

15  And  he  said  unto  them.  Go  ye  into  all 
the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature. 

16  He  that  believeth,  and  is  baptised,  shall 
be  saved;  but  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be 
damned. 

17  And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that 
believe:  In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out 
devils;    they  shall  speak  with  new  tongues. 

18  They  sitall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they 
drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt 
them;  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and 
they  shall  recover. 

19  So  then  after  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto 
them,  he  was  received  up  into  heaven,  and 
sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God. 

What  does  the  Ascension  of  the  Lord  sig- 
nify? 

1.  The  only  worthy  conclusion  of  His  life 
on  earth. 

2.  The  all-supporting  corner-stone  of  His 
life  in  heaven. 


The  Ascension  of  the  Lord,  the  glorifica- 
tion of  the  Lord. 

1.  As   a    Prophet. 

2.  As  a  High  Priest. 

3.  As  a  King. 

The  glory  of  the  Lord  on  His  Ascension 
Day. 

1.  He  is  raised  up  to  heaven. 

2.  He  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. 
All  things  are  fulfilled  in  the  Lord's  glori- 
fication. 

1.  His  disciples  go  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth. 

2.  He  himself  takes  possession  of  the 
heaven  of  heavens. 

How  does  the  Lord  depart  from  His  dis- 
ciples ? 

1.  He  upbraids  them  for  their  unbelief. 

2.  He  gives  them  His  last  commands. 

3.  He  comforts  them  with  great  promises. 

4.  He  remains  with  them  by  His  word  and 
wonders. 

How  the  Lord's  departure  can  comfort  us. 

1.  That  He  has  left  us  faith,  through 
which  we  can  overcome  the  world. 

2.  That  He  is  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  and  that  through  Him  we  too  can 
come  to  the  Father. 

The  way  through  Christ  to  Eternal  Bliss. 
It  leads : 

1.  Through  Repentance. 

2.  Through  Faith. 

3.  Through  work  in  Love. 

The  earth  in  the  Light  of  Christ's  Ascen- 
sion is — 

1.  A  school  for  faith. 

2.  A  place  full  of  promises. 

3.  A  temple  for  God's  honor. 

Heaven  in  the  Light  of  Christ's  Ascension 
is — 

1.  Highly  exalted  above  this  earth. 

2.  Opened  for  this  world. 

3.  Has   come   down  to  this   earth. 

The  Testament  of  the  Lord  in  ascending 
to  heaven. 

1.  It  consists  of  the  saving  Gospel  to  all 
men. 

2.  It  consists  of  wondrous  powers  in  the 
believers. — Nebe. 


THE  ASCENSION 


So  then  after  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto  them,  he  was  received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the 

right   hand    of    God. — Mark    xvi:  19 


The  ascension,  the  crowning  incident  in 
Christ's  career. — All  these  incidents  are  his- 
torical facts. — Each  has  been  assailed  by  skep- 
tics, especially  His  ascension. — Their  argu- 
ments as  to  its  impossibility  are  not  worth 
answering. — But  we  must  answer  argument, 
from  silence  of  two  evangelists. — Notice  frag- 
mentary character  of  the  gospels,  John  xxi : 
25. — To  make  complete  record  they  must  be 
grouped  together. — Independent  witnesses 
who  describe  facts  as  impressed  upon  their 
observation. — Each     evangelist,     too,     has    a 


prominent  design  which  regulates  his  selec- 
tion of  incidents  for  description. — Still  this 
does  not  satisfactorily  account  for  silence  of 
Matthew  and  John. — Yet  unreasonable  to  ar- 
gue from  this  their  ignorance  of  it. — Such  a 
theory  tenable  only  from  total  absence  of  any 
reference  to  it. — As  acquaintances  of  the  risen 
Jesus,  must  have  believed  in  His  ascension. — • 
The  ascension  the  necessary  adjunct  of  the 
resurrection. — References  in  St.  Matthew 
xxviii :  18,  xxvi :  64. — References  in  St.  John 
XX :  17,      vi :  62. — Indirect      confirmation      of 


ASCENSION  DAY 


243 


Luke's  detailed  account  and  this  brief  record 
of  St.  Mark. 

Consider   Christ's   Ascension. 

I.  As  A  RETURN  HOME.  History  of  Christ 
on  earth  full  of  mystery  and  difficulty. — As 
God  He  must  be  omnipresent.  John  iii:i3. — 
Yet  as  God's  servant  He  left  heaven  for  a 
time. — Earth  the  place  of  His  exile  till 
Father's  purposes  accomplished. — Into  these 
He  threw  Himself  as  "  His  meat  and  drink," 
so  finding  pleasure. — Yet  must  have  felt  pri- 
vation— hence  His  hours  of  retirement. — By 
these  exercises  the  tedium  of  His  exile  was 
relieved. — True  He  was  always  conscious  of 
His  Father's  presence,  but  with  restrictions. 
— Therefore  Luke  xii :  50  may  mean  simply  a 
desire  for  painful  ordeal  to  be  quickly  over. — 
But  also  language  of  one  who  knows  that 
this  fiery  baptism  is  the  only  means  by  which 
His  soaring  spirit  can  be  released. — Till  then 
"  straitened  " — longs  for  return  home. — 
"  Home,"  the  magnet  which  attracts  the  true 
children. — If  Absalom  in  Geshur  longs  for 
it,  if  prodigal  longs  for  it,  d  fortiori  the  Son. 
— He  knows  no  cold  reception  against  Him. 
Ps.  xxiv :  9. 

II.  As  AN  EXALTATION.  Again  revert  to 
difficulty  presented  by  Christ's  deity,  con- 
nected with  His  exaltation. — As  God  He 
could  receive  no  addition  to  His  prerogatives, 
etc. — As  Mediator  it  is  that  He  is  exalted. — 
His  sojourn  on  earth  was  a  state  of  degrada- 
tion.— No  language  could  adequately  describe 
extent  of  it. — Love  drew  Him  down  to  un- 
dergird  our  frail  humanity. — Then  He 
showed    what    mere    "  dust  and  ashes "    is 


capable  of. — He  had  been  exalted  in  His  bap- 
tism— in  the  wilderness — before  His  enemies 
— by  His  miracles — even  on  His  cross — above 
all  in  His  resurrection. — But  a  higher  honor 
reserved,  as  resurrection  made  Him  a  King 
dc  jure,  so  ascension,  a  King  de  facto. — "  All ' 
power  given  to  me,"  etc.,  as  the  Son  of  Man. 
— This  indeed  worthy  of  admiration,  "  the 
worm "  of  Ps.  xxii :  6  elevated  to  loftiest 
throne. — Phil,  iiip-ii,  "Names  at  which  the 
world  grew  pale." — But  this  "  name "  a 
source  of  blessing. — Evidence  of  grandeur  of 
His  exaltation  is  Rev.  v:  11-13. 

HI.  As  A  NEVER-ENDING  MARCH  OF  TRI- 
UMPH. The  ascension,  the  link  connecting 
Christ's  work  on  earth  with  His  reign  in 
Heaven. — Not  seated  there  in  idle  state ;  car- 
ries on  government. — As  on  earth  unwearied 
in  labors,  so  in  heaven — John  xii :  32.  Mag- 
netic attraction  of  ascended  Jesus  at  work. — 
The  ascension  the  signal  for  commencement 
of  the  Church's  successful  warfare. — Refer 
again  to  Matt,  xxvii :  18,  and  connect  v :  19. — 
In  carrying  out  this  commission,  power  of 
ascended  Redeemer  seen. — Preaching  may  be 
'■  foolishness,"  but  wisdom  justified  in  using 
its  means. — Causes  ever  fresh  peals  of  joy  in 
heaven. — Thus  the  war  is  being  waged  with 
varying  success,  but  Acts  ii :  47. — Prophecy 
points  to  glorious  future,  Eph.  i :  22,  23 ;  Rev. 
xxi :  2. — Pleasant  to  meditate  on  Redeemer's 
exaltation. — The  King  will  subdue  every  foe. 
— Under  His  scepter  you  are  sure  of  safety. — 
See  in  the  dispenser  of  God's  mercy,  the  ad- 
ministrator of  God's  favor,  and  the  very  em- 
bodiment of  God's  love. — H.  A.  C.  Y. 


LESSONS  FROM  THE  ASCENSION 


And  it  came  to  pass  while  he  blessed  them,  he  was  parted  from  them,  and  carried  up   into 

heaven. — Luke  xxiv:  51 


The  Ascension  was  the  appropriate  bloom 
and  culmination  of  the  Resurrection.  Had 
Christ,  after  the  Resurrection,  died  a  natu- 
ral death,  or  had  He  simply  disappeared  from 
view  into  unknown  obscurity,  the  Resurrec- 
tion, as  a  proof  of  His  divine  power,  and 
pledge  of  His  undimmed  and  undiminished 
existence  would  have  gone  for  nothing.  And 
the  Ascension  of  our  Lord  has  some  most 
precious  lessons  for  us. 

I.  Since  our  Lord  has  ascended  we  are 
never  to  think  of  Him  as  dead.  A  French 
writer  suggested  the  parallel  to  me.  Out 
from  the  southwest  extremity  of  Africa  a 
cape  is  thrust,  which,  in  the  earlier  times,  was 
held  to  be  a  fatal  barrier  to  navigation.  Many 
had  been  drawn  by  wind  and  current  into  the 
swirling  waters  round  it,  but,  it  was  said, 
none  had  ever  reappeared.  They  called  it 
the  Cape  of  Storms.  But  at  last,  a  bold  nav- 
igator determined,  if  possible,  to  vanquish  the 
dreaded  cape.  He  sailed  resolutely  round  it. 
He  opened  for  Europe  the  route  to  the  East 
Indies.  He  changed  the  Cape  of  Storms 
into  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 


So  was  there  thrust  out  into  human  life 
the  black,  stormy,  inscrutable  Cape  of  Death. 
What  became  of  those  who  at  last  had 
rounded  it?  Whither  had  they  disappeared? 
On  its  thither  side  was  there  any  land  of  ac- 
tivity and  life,  or  were  they  submerged  in  the 
dark  waters? 

That  had  been  the  ceaseless,  wondering 
question  of  humanity  for  ages.  For  that 
question  man,  of  himself,  had  never  been  able 
to  gain  perfectly  clear  and  satisfactory  reply. 
There  is  no  sadder  page  in  literature  than 
that  in  which  John  Stuart  Mill  represents 
himself  as  hanging  about  the  tomb  of  his 
dead  wife  at  Avignon,  with  the  hope  of  his 
life  gone  out,  and  with  no  vision  for  the  fu- 
ture that  was  not  shut  off  and  ended  by  that 
grim  tombstone. 

But,  right  in  this  very  region  of  death 
Christianity  is  full  of  speech  and  certainty. 
Christianity  points  with  unhesitating  finger 
to  her  risen  Lord.  He  has  rounded  the  black 
and  inscrutable  Cape  of  Storms,  and  changed 
it  for  us  henceforth  into  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.     He  has  brought  life  and  immortality 


244 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


to  light.  He  is  death's  victor.  And  the  As- 
cension is  assurance  that  death  hath  no  more 
dominion  over  Him.  Therefore,  since  Christ 
has  risen  and  ascended  we  are  never  to  think 
of  Him  as  dead. 

Since  our  Christ  is  thus  alive  we  are  to  be 
sure  that  all  the  great  oMces  pertaining  to 
His  exahation  are  in  active  exercise. 

(a)  He  stands  in  heaven  to-day  the  living 
head  of  His  redeemed  Church.  We  are  mem- 
bers of  His  body.  Not  till  the  head  dies 
can  the  body  die. 

"  Since  Christ  and  we  are  one, 
Why  should  we  doubt  or  fear? 
If  He  in  heaven  has  fixed  His  throne. 
He'll  fix  His  members  there." 

(b)  He  stands  in  heaven  to-day  our 
priestly  advocate.  It  is  the  purpose  of  our 
lives  that  we  sin  not ;  and  yet  if  we  do  sin, 
we  need  not  despair;  we  have  an  advocate 
with  the  Father,  even  Jesus  Christ  the  right- 
eous— His  advocacy  evermore  avails  in  our 
behalf. 

(c)  He  stands  in  heaven  to-day  as  the 
controller  of  all  things  in  God's  providential 
government.  "All  power  is  given  unto  me 
in  heaven  and  in  earth."  It  is  His  pierced 
hand  which  is  on  the  helm  of  things.  What 
a  foundation  for  faith ! 

2.  Since  our  Lord  has  ascended  we  are 
never  to  think  of  Him  as  distant — believe  it, 
those  apostles  who  saw  and  conversed  with 


Jesus,  who  walked  by  His  side,  who  rested 
in  His  bosom,  who  sat  at  His  feet,  were  im- 
measurably more  distant  from  Him  than  we 
may  be  to-day,  if  we  will  have  it  so.  Con- 
tact of  spirit  with  spirit — nothing  can  be 
nearer,  more  intimate.  To  those  He  stood 
by  in  actual,  bodily  shape.  He  could  be  but 
external  form,  external  voice,  external 
shape.  John  and  Peter  could  not  get  nearer 
to  Him  than  we  can  now  get  to  one  another, 
through  eye-glance,  ear,  touch,  bodily  com- 
panionship. But  now,  having  ascended,  our 
Lord  has  sent  His  Spirit  whose  office  it  is  to 
unite  in  subtle  and  deathless  companionship 
our  spirit  with  His  own  omnipresent  Holy 
Spirit.  His  inner  presence  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  the  special  boon  and  issue  of  His 
ascension.  "  He  hath  poured  forth  this." 
We  are  never  to  think  of  our  ascended  Lord 
as  distant,  since  the  adorable  Paraclete  is 
with  us. 

"  Closer  is  He  than  breathing. 
And  nearer  than  hands  and  feet." 

3.  Since  our  Lord  has  ascended  we  are 
never  to  think  of  Him  as  different.  "  He 
that  descended  is  the  sa)ne  also  that  as- 
cended." Our  Lord  has  not  laid  aside  His 
brotherhood  with  us.  He  wears  yet  our  hu- 
man nature.  Tho  glorified  man.  He  is  man 
still.  So  to  our  Brother's  heart  prayer  must 
find  its  way ;  from  him  to  us  a  perfect  sym- 
pathy must  ever  flow. — H.  R. 


THE  ASCENSION 


By  Rev.  C.  O.  Eldridge 


He  was  taken  up  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of  their  sight. — Acts  i:  g 


The  Son  of  Man  was  in  Heaven  while  yet 
on  earth,  tho  not  in  the  same  sense.  He  is 
now  on  earth  tho  in  Heaven,  but  not  in  the 
same  sense.  By  His  ascension  we  understand 
that  divine  act  by  which  His  manifest  cor- 
poreal presence  was  lifted  from  earth  to 
Heaven. 

I.  Christ  was  not  of  the  world  while  in 
THE  WORLD.  He  was  indeed  born  in  Bethle- 
hem, yet  never  spoke  of  that  as  His  origin. 
He  ever  claimed  a  higher  origin.  He  said : 
"  I  came  forth  from  the  Father  and  am 
come  into  the  world :  again,  I  leave  the  world 
and  go  unto  the  Father."  To  the  Jews  He 
said,  "  Ye  are  from  beneath ;  I  am  from 
above :  ye  are  of  this  world :  I  am  not  of  this 
world."  "  If  God  were  your  Father  ye 
would  love  me,  for  I  proceeded  forth  and 
came  from  God ;  neither  came  I  of  myself, 
but  he  sent  me."  And  when  His  earthly 
ministry  drew  near  its  close  He  asked  the 
Father  to  restore  Him  "  to  the  glory  which  I 
had  with  thee  before  the  world  was,"  and 
added,  "Thou  lovedst  me  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world." 


Such  claims  would  have  been  scouted  as 
the  dreams  of  a  madman,  but  that  His  life 
agreed  with  them.  His  teachings  were  those 
of  a  master,  not  of  a  scribe.  He  taught 
them  as  one  having  authority.  His  miracles 
showed  a  divine  power  over  Nature — water 
blushed  into  wine ;  bread  increased  in  His 
hands ;  the  winds  were  quiet  at  His  bidding 
and  the  waves  became  solid  under  His  feet; 
sickness  fled  at  His  command  and  spirits  dia- 
bolic and  human  were  subject  to  Him. 

His  death  was  an  essential  part  of  His 
great  work.  Speaking  of  this.  He  said, 
"  Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me,  be- 
cause I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I  might  take  it 
again.  No  man  taketh  it  from  me,  but  I 
lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have  power  to  lay 
it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. 
This  commandment  have  I  received  of  my 
Father." 

Thus  He  taught  that  His  resurrection  was 
also  in  the  program,  and  after  this  He 
seemed  less  of  the  world  than  before;  for 
tho  His  body  bore  the  nail  and  spear-prints, 
it  appeared   and    disappeared   as   it   had   not 


ASCENSION  DAY 


245 


done  before.  It  seems  to  have  been  visible 
only  to  His  friends,  and  already  to  have  in- 
dicated tokens  of  its  higher  destiny. 

II.  His  ascension  was  a  fitting  close  to 
His  earthly  ministry.  The  earthly  portion 
of  His  work  being  completed  nothing  could 
be  gained  by  a  longer  sojourn.  That  He 
might  carry  into  effect  His  mediatorial  work 
it  was  necessary  He  should  take  His  place 
above.  He  could  not  die  again :  death  had 
no  more  dominion  over  Him.  If  He  had  se- 
cretly departed  and  been  simply  missing.  His 
friends  would  have  been  left  in  most  painful 
perplexity  and  uncertainty.  It  was  quite  in 
harmony  with  His  whole  life,  death,  and  res- 
urrection, that  He  should  ascend  bodily  from 
among  them  in  the  clear  daylight.  They 
saw  Him  go,  they  traced  His  ascent  till  the 
heavens  received  Him :  they  knew  He  was 
gone,  and  they  never  sent  to  search  for  Him 
as  the  sons  of  the  prophets  had  searched  for 
Elijah  on  the  mountains. 

Here  was  a  magnificent  triumph  over  the 
law  of  gravitation.  Here  was  the  royal  ascent 
by  which  our  Solomon  went  up  to  the  house 
of  the  Lord.  The  everlasting  gates  lifted  up 
their  heads  and  the  King  of  Glory  entered  in. 
It  was  all  of  a  piece — His  life,  His  death, 
His  resurrection,  His  ascension,  all  were 
triumphs. 

III.  The  ascension  of  Christ  was  essen- 
tial TO  the  welfare  of  His  Church. 

1.  That  He  might  take  His  true  position 
as  head  over  all  things  to  His  Church.  As 
Mediator,  all  power  had  teen  given  Him  in 
Heaven  and  on  earth ;  it  was  meet  therefore 
as  He  had  the  authority  that  He  should  take 
the  throne. 

2.  That,  as  our  High  Priest.  He  might  ap- 
pear in  the  presence  of  God  for  us. 

3.  That,  as  a  returning  Conqueror,  He 
might  receive  and  distribute  royal  gifts,  and 


especially  that  He  might  bestow  the  Spirit 
upon  His  Church. 

IV.  The  ascended  Savior  is  more  fully 
OURS  than  ever  before.  We  have  not  lost 
Him :  we  know  Him  better  than  while  He 
lived  here,  and  He  is  ours  still. 

1.  He  is  the  object  of  our  faith.  Ours  is 
not  merely  a  Christmas  Day  religion,  nor  one 
which  rests  upon  His  life  and  teaching  only ; 
neither  is  it  merely  a  Good  Friday  religion, 
lingering  at  the  cross,  or  an  Easter  Sunday 
religion,  rejoicing  at  an  empty  sepulcher ;  it 
embraces  all  these,  but  goes  beyond  them  all, 
and  triumphs  in  an  ascended,  enthroned  Re- 
deemer who  bestows  upon  us  the  Holy 
Ghost :  yet  is  divinely  present  with  us  al- 
ways, even  to  the  end. 

2.  He  is  the  confirmation  and  pledge  of  our 
Iiopes.  It  might  have  been  thought  incredible 
that  God  should  raise  the  dead,  but  Christ 
has  risen,  the  first  fruits  of  the  resurrection 
of  His  people.  He  has  shown  us  the  way 
out  of  the  grave.  Our  exaltation  might  seem 
unlikely,  but  it  is  already  accomplished  in 
Him. 

"  He  hath  raised  our  human  nature, 
In  the  clouds  to  God's  right  hand." 

Thus  our  glorified  humanity  is  already  with 
God  upon  the  throne.  He  is  there  as  our 
Forerunner  to  prepare  for  us,  as  our  Head, 
a  pledge  that  His  members  shall  follow. 

3.  He  is  the  center  of  our  affections. 
Doubly  true  now  that  He  is  lifted  up  to  the 
throne,  that  He  shall  draw  all  eyes  and 
hearts  unto  Him.  It  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  us,  as  for  the  disciples,  to  lift  our 
hearts  to  things  above  if  He  were  here  still. 
Our  treasure  is  in  Heaven.  Our  Head  is 
there.  "  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek 
those  things  which  are  above,  where  Christ 
sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God."— P.  M. 


ASCENSION  DAY 


By  J.  Oswald  Dykes 
Acts  i:  i-ii  (with  Luke  xiv:   15-53) 


I.  It  is  quite  necessary  to  seize  firmly  and 
hold  fast  by  this  thought,  that  the  acts  of 
Apostles  and  all  sub.-equent  acts  of  their  true 
successors  are,  as  Bengel  says,  a  contin- 
uation of  Christ's  own  history,  if  we  would 
understand  St.  Luke's  opening  section  of 
Church  history,  or  any  after  section  of  it 
from  St.  Luke's  day  till  now.  The  one  event 
in  which  St.  Luke  finds  the  meeting  place 
of  these  two  eras  is  the  Ascension.  It  finds 
a  place  at  the  end  of  his  Gospel,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  his  Church  history,  because  it 
is  really  common  to  both. 

II.  Unlike  the  feebleness  of  good  wishes 
on  men's  dying  lips,  the  strong  benediction  of 
the  Prince  of  Life  commands  and  confers  a 
blessing,  while  from  His  radiant  face  and 
form,  and  down  from  His  uplifted  hands, 
there  rains  into  the  souls  of  the  eleven  a  rain 


of  gracious  influences,  of  hope  and  courage 
and  content  and  gladness.  Then,  like  a  thing 
of  rarer  quality,  which  by  its  own  upward 
virtue  ascends  through  the  grosser  atmos- 
phere below.  His  blessed  body  rose  with  a 
still  and  slow  and  stately  movement  into  the 
pure  bright  upper  air.  Nor  stayed ;  but  fol- 
lowed by  the  fixed  gaze  of  the  amazed  men, 
rose  on,  until,  still  raining  blessings  down. 
He"  reached  the  region  where  white  clouds 
rest.  Then  suddenly  there  swept  beneath 
His  feet  a  cloud  that  shut  him  from  their 
envious  eyes.  This  was  no  time  for  idle, 
melancholy  despondencies,  that  root  them- 
selves in  the  past — for  profitless  longings 
after  that  which  is  not.  Gazing  into  heaven 
will  not  fetch  Christ  back,  nor  any  other 
departed.  Let  us  return  to  Jerusalem. 
Earth  has  its  calls  to  duty,  and  heaven  will 


246 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


chide  us  if  we  do  not  heed  them.  Let  this 
be  the  spur  which  quickens  labor  and  the 
hope  which  cheers  exhaustion,  that  "  This 
same    Tesus    who    is    taken    from    us    into 


heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  they 
saw  him  go  into  heaven." — S.  B.,  vol.  viii., 
P-  339. 


OUR  ASCENDED  LORD 


J  Pet.  in:  22 


"  Who  is  gone  ?  "  Consider  how  differ- 
ently He  has  gone. 

Take  any  one  of  the  world's  greatest  lead- 
ers— Napoleon.  It  stands  there  just  at  the 
turn  of  the  stairs  in  the  palace  at  Versailles. 
You  come  upon  it  suddenly.  It  is  a  sculpture 
of  the  great  Napoleon  smitten  with  death. 
The  majestic  forehead;  the  thin,  set  lips;  the 
eye  which  seems  to  pierce  you  with  its  eagle 
glance  even  in  its  marble  similitude.  But 
death  is  on  him.  You  can  mark  it  in  the  re- 
laxed posture,  in  the  weakening  hands ;  you 
can  almost  see  the  irregular  convulsive  move- 
ment of  the  chest.  "Sic  transit  gloria 
mundi" — tiMS  is  the  legend  sculptured  on  the 
pedestal.  So,  at  last,  death  claimed  the  man 
before  whom  the  world  trembled.  So  he  is 
gone. 

Take  the  greatest  of  civic  leaders — Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  Said  Secretary  Stanton  of 
him :  "  Here  lies  the  most  perfect  ruler  of 
men  who  ever  lived."     So  he  is  gone. 

Take  Socrates — greatest  of  uninspired  re- 
ligious teachers.  But  death  baffles  him  and 
captures  him.  Here  is  Socrates  on  trial  for 
his  life,  saying  to  the  Athenians :  "  Or  per- 
haps do  I  differ  from  most  other  men  in  this ; 
and  if  I  am  wiser  at  all  than  any  one,  am  I 
wiser  in  this?  That  while  not  possessing 
any  exact  knowledge  of  the  state  of  matters 
in  Hades,  I  do  not  imagine  I  possess  such 
knowledge."  Here  is  Socrates  again,  under 
sentence  of  death,  talking  to  his  friends  just 
before  he  drank  the  hemlock :  "  Well,  friends, 
we  have  been  discoursing  for  this  last  hour 
on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  there  are 
many  points  about  that  matter  on  which  he 
were  a  bad  man  who  should  readily  dogma- 
tize." Then  he  drank  the  hemlock.  So  he  is 
gone. 

Have  you  enough  thought  about  and 
grasped  the  meaning  of  the  abysmal  differ- 
ence of  the  going  of  our  Lord  and  Savior 
Jesus  Christ?  He  died,  indeed,  as  all  His 
brother  men  had  died,  or  shall.  It  was  real 
death  He  met  upon  the  cross.  But  He  was 
not,  in  any  wise,  holden  by  death  as  death  has 
held  and  shall  hold — save  only  those  who 
shall  be  alive  at  the  Lord's  second  coming — 
all  the  rest.  He  rose  out  of  death,  and  from 
the  Resurrection  He  bloomed  into  the  As- 
cension. 

So  He  is  gone ;  but  oh,  how  differently ! 

Consider  next  how  similarly   He  is  gone. 

He  was  born  into  our  nature  and  remains 


in  our  nature,  for  in  our  nature  He  ascended. 
So  neither  by  the  experiences  of  death  nor 
resurrection  nor  ascension  is  He  divided 
from  us.  Ah,  how  one  with  us  He  was^ — 
in  weariness,  temptation,  toil.  Not  less  one 
with  us  is  He  now,  for  He  is  gone  in  our 
nature  still. 

Consider  whither  He  is  gone.  He  is  "  gone 
into  Heaven  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of 
God." 

What  is  Heaven? 

(a)  The  place  of  the  special  Divine  man- 
ifestation  (Ps.  cxxxix :  7-12). 

(b)  A  place.  Our  Lord  is  there  in  verita- 
ble bodily  presence. 

(c)  And  in  this  Heaven  our  Lord  is  on 
the  right  hand  of  God — the  place  of  utmost 
honor,  the  place  of  the  utmost  felicity. 

(d)  And  remember  our  Lord  is  in  Heaven 
at  the  right  hand  of  God  as  our  Representa- 
tive. Think  of  how  the  Scripture  labors  to 
tell  the  truth  of  the  believer's  oneness  with 
the  Lord — foundation  and  building;  husband 
and  wife ;  vine  and  branches ;  members  and 
head. 

(e)  As  our  Forerunner — "  whither  the 
Forerunner  hath  for  us  entered  " — i.  e.,  har- 
binger ;  the  first  number  of  a  series.  His 
presence  there  is  pledge  of  our  entrance 
there ;  the  first  flower  of  the  spring  is  pledge 
of  all  the  succeeding  flowers. 

Consider  to  ivhat  He  has  gone — to  su- 
preme and  eternal  rule.  Angels  and  au- 
thorities and  powers  being  made  subject  unto 
Him.  Angels  fly  for  Him.  Providences  do 
His  bidding.  History  is  only  the  evolution 
of  His  purpose. 

Learn,  first,  since  our  Lord  is  thus  gone, 
we  may  be  sure  of  the  final  triumph  of  His 
cause. 

"  Well  roars  the  storm  to  Him  who  hears 
A  deeper  voice  across  the  storm." 

Learn,  second,  since  our  Lord  is  thus  gone, 
what  resource  for  us. 

Learn,  third,  since  our  Lord  is  thus  gone 
and  I  trust  Him,  /  cannot  knozv  defeat. 

Learn,  fourth,  since  my  Lord  is  thus  gone, 
let  my  love  go  upzvard  to  Him. 

Learn,  fifth,  since  my  Lord  is  thus  gone, 
let  me  be  sure  He  will  master  for  me  death's 
strangeness. 

Learn,  sixth,  the  utmost  folly  of  refusing 
submission  to  a  Lord  thus  gone. — H.  R. 


ASCENSION  DAY 


247 


THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  OF  THE  ASCENDED  CHRIST 

By  a.  Maclaren 
Rev.  xxii:  14 


I.  If  we  are  clean,  it  is  because  we  have 
been  made  so.  The  first  beatitude  that  Jesus 
Christ  spoke  from  the  mountain  was, 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit ;  "  the  last 
beatitude  that  He  speaks  from  heaven  is, 
"  Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their  robes." 
And  the  act  commended  in  the  last  is  but  the 
outcome  of  the  spirit  extolled  in  the  first. 
For  they  who  are  poor  in  spirit  are  such  as 
know  themselves  to  be  sinful  men  ;  and  those 
who  know  themselves  to  be  sinful  men  are 
they  who  will  cleanse  their  robes  in  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ,  (i)  This  mysterious  robe, 
which  answers  nearly  to  what  we  mean  by 
character,  is  made  by  the  wearer.  (2)  All 
the  robes  are  foul.  (3)  The  foul  robes  can 
be  cleansed ;  character  may  be  sanctified  and 
elevated. 

II.  The  second  thought  that  I  would  sug- 
gest is  that  these  cleansed  ones,  and  by  impli- 
cation these  only,  have  unre  trained  access  to 
the  source  of  light ;  "  Blessed  are  they  that 
wash  their  robes,  that  they  may  have  the  right 
to  the  tree  of  life."  That  of  course  carries 
us  back  to  the  old  mysterious  narrative  at  the 
beginning  of  the  book  of  Genesis.  The  tree 
of  life  stands  as  the  symbol  here  of  an  ex- 


ternal source  of  life.  I  take  "  life "  to  be 
used  here  in  what  I  believe  to  be  its  predomi- 
nant New  Testament  meaning,  not  bare  con- 
tinuance in  existence,  but  a  full,  blessed  per- 
fection and  activity  of  all  the  faculties  and 
possibilities  of  the  man,  which  this  very 
apostle  himself  identifies  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  that 
life,  says  John,  has  an  external  source  in 
heaven,  as  on  earth. 

III.  Those  who  are  cleansed,  and  they  only, 
have  entrance  into  the  society  of  the  city. 
The  city  is  the  emblem  of  security  and  of 
permanence.  No  more  shall  life  be  as  a  des- 
ert march,  with  changes  which  only  bring 
sorrow,  and  yet  a  dreary  monotony  amidst 
them  all.  We  shall  dwell  with  abiding  reali- 
ties, ourselves  fixed  in  unchanging,  but  ever- 
growing, completeness  and  peace.  The  tents 
shall  be  done  with  ;  we  shall  inhabit  the  solid 
mansions  of  the  city  which  hath  foundations, 
and  shall  wonderingly  exclaim,  as  our  unac- 
customed eyes  gaze  on  their  indestructible 
strength,  "  What  manner  of  stones  and  what 
buildings  are  here  ?  "  And  not  one  stone  of 
these  shall  be  thrown  down. — S.  B.,  vol.  xii., 
p.  379- 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ASCENSION,  Christ's.— Christ's  offering 
Himself  on  earth,  answered  to  the  killing 
of  the  sacrifice  without  the  veil ;  and  His  en- 
tering into  heaven,  there  to  intercede,  an- 
swered to  the  priest's  going  with  blood  and 
his  hands  full  of  incense  within  the  veil.  So 
that  this  is  a  part,  yea,  a  special  part,  of 
Christ's  priesthood ;  and  so  necessary  to  it, 
that  if  He  had  not  done  this,  all  His  work 
on  earth  had  been  ineffectual ;  nor  had  He 
been  a  priest,  that  is,  a  complete  and  perfect 
priest,  if  He  had  remained  on  earth,  Heb. 
viii:4;  because  the  very  design  and  end  of 
shedding  His  blood  on  earth  had  been  frus- 
trated, which  was  to  present  it  before  the 
Lord,  in  heaven.  So  that  this  is  the  per- 
fective part  of  the  priesthood ;  He  acted  the 
first  part  on  earth  in  a  state  of  deep  abase- 
ment, in  the  form  of  a  servant ;  but  He  acts 
the  second  part  in  glory,  whereto  He  is  taken 
up,  that  He  may  fulfil  His  design  in  dying, 
and  give  the  work  of  our  salvation  its  last 
completing  act —John  Flavel. 

ASCENSION^  DAY.— We  celebrate  this 
day  the  Ascension  of  our  great  Judge  into 
heaven,  where  He  sits  upon  His  throne  and 


has  all  the  world  before  Him ;  every  human 
soul,  with  its  desires  and  aims,  its  thoughts, 
words,  and  works,  whether  they  be  good  or 
bad.  Every  man  who  is  running  now  his 
mortal  race  is  from  first  to  last  before  the 
eye  of  Him  who  as  on  this  day  ascended  with 
human  nature  into  heaven.  But  we  also  cele- 
brate the  entrance  of  Christ  into  heaven  to 
sit  there  in  another  character,  viz.,  as  our 
Mediator,  Intercessor,  and  Advocate.  He 
sits  there  as  High  Priest,  to  present  to  the 
Father  His  own  atonement  and  sacrifice  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  It  is  our  Lord's 
supreme  place  in  the  universe  iiozv,  and  His 
reign  over  all  the  worlds,  visible  and  invisi- 
ble, which  we  commemorate  in  His  Ascen- 
sion. We  are  especially  told  in  Scripture 
never  to  think  of  our  Lord  as  having  gone 
away  and  left  His  Church ;  but  always  to 
think  of  Him  as  now  reigning,  now  occupy- 
ing His  throne  in  heaven,  and  from  thence 
ruling  over  all.  He  rules  in  His  invisible 
dominions,  among  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect ;  He  rules  in  the  Church  here 
below,  still  in  the  flesh.  There  He  receives 
a  perfect  obedience,  here  an  imperfect  one; 


248 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


but  He  still  rules  over  all ;  and  tho  we  may, 
many  of  us,  resist  His  will  here.  He  overrules 
even  that  resistance  to  the  good  of  the 
Church,  and  conducts  all  things  and  events 
by  His  spiritual  providence  to  their  great 
final  issue.  Let  us  worship  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  then,  both  with  fear  and  love ;  but 
also  remembering  that  in  those  in  whose 
heart  He  dwells,  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear. 

—J.   B.    MOZLEY. 

ASCENSION,  Difficulties  of  the.— We 
may  confess,  there  are  some  special  diffi- 
culties presented  by  this  event  when  we  con- 
template it,  ask  what  it  means,  consider  what 
it  involves.  It  is  not  only  that,  whereas 
Christmas  brings  the  Eternal  into  our  very 
midst,  the  Ascension  "  parts  Him  from  our 
sight,"  hides  Him  behind  the  veil  of  the  un- 
seen world ;  it  is  also  impossible  to  answer 
the  questions  that  may  be  raised  as  to  the 
actual  removal  of  Christ's  human  body  into 
"  the  heavenly  places,"  or,  as  St.  Paul  once 
phrases  it,  "  far  above  all  the  heavens."  But 
can  we  expect  to  answer  them?  It  has  been 
well  said  that  "  physical  difficulties  in  such  a 
case  are  practically  trifling,"  because  we  do 
not  understand  the  conditions  of  existence 
attaching  to  that  which,  as  belonging  to  the 
Incarnate,  is  in  truth  the  "  body  of  God ;  " 
nor,  in  fact,  do  we  know,  in  any  full  sense, 
what  is  meant  by  "  the  highest  heaven,"  con- 
sidered as  the  scene  of  our  Lord's  glorified 
life.  Nor  must  we  look  for  the  heaven  of 
"  God's  right  hand  "  among  the  skies  which 
astronomy  has  examined,  and  which,  as  St. 
Peter  says,  "  are  in  the  way  to  be  dissolved." 
At  the  same  time  we  are  well  assured  that  the 
Resurrection  of  Christ  carried  with  it  His 
Ascension ;  given  the  one,  the  other  follows ; 
He  could  not  tarry  on  earth — He  could  not 
but  go  up  on  high,  that  is,  transfer  His  bodily 
existence  into  some  inmost  sanctuary  of  Di- 
vine glory,  some  central  home  of  eternal 
power  and  life. — W.  Bright. 

ASCENSION,  Effect  of  the.— Note  the 
effect  wrought  on  the  disciples  by  the  Ascen- 
sion of  Christ — an  effect,  you  observe,  not  of 
sorrow,  but  of  joy.  In  place  of  being  dis- 
heartened by  the  separation,  they  were 
mightily  encouraged,  and  "  returned  to  Jeru- 
salem with  great  joy:  And  were  continually 
in  the  temple,  praising  and  blessing  God." 
Shall  we  grieve  that  the  Visible  Presence  is 
withdrawn,  and  that  there  is  no  longer  on 
earth  the  mighty  and  mysterious  Personage 
who  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself 
and  discomfited  through  dying  the  enemies  of 
God  and  man  ?  Not  so !  There  is  no  reason 
for  sorrow  that  He  quits  the  earth  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind.  We  could  not  detain 
Him  below,  we  would  have  Him  as  our  Me- 
diator within  the  veil.  This  and  this  only, 
can  secure  to  us  those  spiritual  assistances 
through  which  we  ourselves  may  climb  the 
firmament. — H.  Melvill. 

ASCENSION,  Fable  of.— The  body  of 
Romulus  disappeared  suddenly,  and  no  rem- 
nant of  it  or  of  his  clothing  could  be  discov- 
ered by  the  most  diligent  search.     One  report 


is  that  he  disappeared  from  the  temple  of 
Vulcan ;  another  that  he  was  holding  an 
assembly  outside  the  city  when  there  was 
great  darkness,  fearful  thunderings,  and  a 
resistless  tempest,  which  terrified  and  scat- 
tered the  people.  When  this  had  subsided, 
the  people  came  together  again,  but  Romulus 
could  not  be  found.  It  was  thence  reported 
by  the  patricians,  that  Romulus  had  been 
caught  up  to  heaven,  and  would  be  to  the 
Romans  a  propitious  god.  Thus  Romulus 
became  one  of  the  gods  of  Rome.  This  was 
confirmed  by  the  oath  of  his  devoted  and 
famous  friend,  Julius  Proclus,  who  swore 
that  he  met  Romulus  while  traveling  on  the 
road,  clad  in  the  most  dazzling  armor.  As- 
tonished at  the  sight,  he  cried  out,  "  For 
what  misbehavior  of  ours,  or  by  what  acci 
dent,  O  King,  hast  thou  so  untimely  left  us?  " 
He  answered,  "  It  pleased  the  gods,  my  good 
Proclus,  that  we  should  dwell  with  men  for 
a  time,  and  having  founded  a  city  which  shall 
be  the  most  powerful  and  glorious  in  the 
world,  return  to  heaven,  from  whence  we 
came.  Farewell,  then!  Go,  tell  the  Romans 
that  by  the  exercise  of  temperance  and  forti- 
tude they  shall  attain  the  highest  pitch  of 
human  greatness,  and  I,  the  god  Quirinus, 
will  ever  be  propitious  to  you." — F.  11. 

ASCENSION,    Lessons    of    the. — By    the 

Ascension  all  the  parts  of  life  are  broug'nt 
together  in  the  oneness  of  their  common 
destination.  By  the  Ascension  Christ  in  His 
Humanity  is  brought  close  to  every  one  of 
us,  and  the  words  "  in  Christ,"  the  very  char- 
ter of  our  faith,  gain  a  present  power.  By 
the  Ascension  we  are  encouraged  to  work 
beneath  the  surface  of  things  to  that  which 
makes  all  things  capable  of  consecration.  We 
ponder  these  lessons  of  the  Presence  of 
Christ  Ascended  about  us  and  in  us  all  the 
days  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  sense 
of  our  own  weakness  becomes  perhaps  more 
oppressive  than  before.  Then  it  is  that  the 
last  element  in  our  confession  as  to  Christ's 
work  speaks  to  our  hearts.  He  is  not  only 
present  with  us  as  Ascended :  He  is  active 
for  us.  We  believe  that  He  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty.  — 
Bishop  Westcott. 

ASCENSION,     Need     of     Christ's.— The 

Apostle  makes  a  priest's  exaltation  so  neces- 
sary a  part  of  his  priesthood,  that  without  it 
he  could  not  have  been  a  priest.  "  If  he 
were  on  earth  he  should  not  be  a  priest," 
Heb.  viii:4;  that  is,  if  He  had  continued 
here,  and  had  not  been  raised  again  from  the 
dead,  and  taken  up  into  glory.  He  could  not 
have  been  a  complete  and  perfect  priest.  For 
just  as  it  was  not  enough  for  the  sacrifice  to 
be  slain  without,  and  His  blood  left  there; 
but  it  must  be  carried  within  the  veil,  into  the 
most  holy  place  before  the  Lord,  Heb.  ix :  7 ; 
so  it  was  not  sufficient  that  Christ  shed  His 
own  blood  on  earth,  except  He  carry  it  be- 
fore the  Lord  into  heaven,  and  there  perform 
His  intercession  work  for  us. — John  Flavel. 

ASCENSION,      The.— Luke     xxiv:  50-53. 
May  18,  forty  days  after  the  crucifixion. 


A.SCENSION  DAY 


249 


50.  And  lie  led  theni  out  of  the  city,  where 
He  had  been  giving  His  last  instructions.  As 
far  as,  until  they  were  over  against  Bethany. 
Blessed  tliein.  No  mere  form,  but  a  real, 
enduring  blessing. 

51.  He  zi'as  parted  from  them.  By  begin- 
ning to  ascend  upward.  And  carried  tip  into 
heaven.  The  tense  of  the  original  is  pictur- 
esque, and  indicates  a  continued  action,  a 
gradual  going  up  out  of  their  sight.  Com- 
pare the  more  detailed  account,  Acts  i:9-ii. 

It  was  at  this  time,  that  the  great  change 
came  over  His  body  described  in  i  Corinth- 
ians XV :  51-53.  When  a  cloud  had  received 
Him  out  of  their  sight  two  angels  bade  them 
be  comforted,  for  the  time  was  coming  when 
He  should  return.  Of  the  present  appear- 
ance of  Jesus  we  have  a  hint  in  the  transfig- 
uration, when  "  His  face  did  shine  as  the  sun 
and  his  raiment  was  white  as  the  light " 
(Matt.  xvii:2);  and  in  the  Revelation  (i: 
12-16),  where  He  is  seen  with  "eyes  as  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  his  feet  like  unto  fine  brass 
as  if  they  burned  in  a  furnace :  and  his  voice 
as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  and  his  counte- 
nance was  as  the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength." 

52.  And  they  worshipped  liim.  They  gave 
Him  the  religious  worship  due  only  to  God. 
And  returned  to  Jerusalem  with  great  joy. 
Every  sorrow  had  been  turned  into  joy. 

Illustration.  The  seven  fears  turned  into 
seven  joys,  in  Arnold's  Light  of  Asia. 

53.  And  zvcre  continually  in  the  temple,  at 
the  hours  of  worship.  They  were  regular  in 
attendance. 

The  temple  was  the  visible  symbol  of  wor- 
ship. 

The  courts  of  the  temple  were  open  to  all 
Jews.  As  yet  no  prejudice  had  arisen  against 
Christians,  and  they  were  not  powerful 
enough  to  excite  active  opposition.  Jesus 
had  called  the  temple  His  Father's  house, 
and  it  was  natural  that  His  disciples  should 
love  to  worship  there,  praising  and  blessing 
God,  because  He  had  done  such  great  things 
for  them  and  for  the  world.  The  new  relig- 
ion was  full  of  hope  and  joy,  light  and  glad- 
ness, in  contrast  with  the  religion  of  the 
Jewish  traditions,  and  with  the  gloom  occa- 
sioned by  the  death  of  their  Master. — P. 

BETHANY,  The  Place  of  Christ's  As- 
cension.— He  led  them  out  as  far  as  Bethany. 
We  can  imagine  the  feelings  of  the  disciples 
as  they  trod  the  familiar  road,  for  they  had 
often  been  to  Bethany  together.  The  inner 
signification  of  Bethany  is  the  House  of 
Sorrow ;  and  it  is  a  beautiful  illustration, 
both  of  the  tenderness  and  of  the  complete- 
ness of  His  triumph,  that,  on  His  way  to  His 
highest  exaltation.  He  should  pass  the  place 
of  His  deepest  sorrow,  and  that  thence  He 
should  ascend  straight  to  the  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. — W.  M. 

PUNSHON. 

CHRIST     ASCENDED,    As    a    Sun    of 

Righteousness. — Christ  is  to  the  moral 
world  what  the  sun  is  to  the  natural  world, 
(i)  He  is  the  source  of  light.  (2)  He  is  the 
source  of  power.  Nearly  all  the  power  in  the 
world  comes   directly  or  indirectly  from  the 


sun.  (3)  He  is  the  source  of  life.  (4)  He  is 
the  source  of  comfort  and  cheer.  (5)  He  is 
the  source  of  the  beauty  of  holiness ;  all  the 
glories  of  color  come  from  the  sun. — P. 

CHRIST  ASCENDED,  Why.— To  ascend 
on  high  must  have  meant  for  Christ  a  large 
increase  of  His  quickening  influence,  more 
power  to  act  beneficially  on  human  minds 
and  hearts,  to  purify  and  energize,  to  inspire 
and  elevate,  as  hitherto  He  had  not  been 
able.  That  was  His  supreme  ambition,  the 
height  for  which  He  sighed ;  and  was  it 
not  even  thus  that  He  went  up  gloriously  at 
last  from  the  cross  and  the  grave,  mounting 
from  thence  to  be  a  greater  saving  and  sub- 
liming force  than  He  had  ever  been  before, 
to  beget  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  be- 
yond what  He  had  ever  done? — S.  A.  Tipple. 

CHRIST   ASCENDED,   Why.—"/  go   to 

prepare  a  place  for  you."  There  is  prepared 
a  place  not  merely  for  all,  but  for  you,  a 
personal  preparation  in  glory  for  each  child 
as  by  grace  in  each  child;  a  room,  a  house, 
for  each  nature  adapted  to  its  needs. — Ab- 
bott. Heaven  is  a  prepared  place  for  a  pre- 
pared people. — Van  Doren. 

Preparing  us  for  the  place.  Jesus  went 
away  not  only  to  prepare  a  place  for  us,  so 
that  it  will  be  ready  for  us  as  one  by  one 
we  go  home,  but  to  prepare  us  for  the  place, 
to  fit  us  for  heavenly  enjoyments  and  heav- 
enly service.  It  is  quite  as  essential  that  we 
should  be  prepared  for  heaven  as  that  heaven 
should  be  prepared  for  us.  The  same  double 
process  is  going  on  with  reference  to  that 
part  of  our  Father's  home  in  which  we  may 
dwell  in  this  life.  He  is  opening  doors  of 
opportunity,  and  preparing  a  sphere,  a  place 
for  us  on  earth,  and  also  preparing  us  for  the 
sphere  He  would  have  us  fill,  and  the  work 
He  would  have  us  do. — P. 

CHRIST  ASCENDED,  Why.— Consider 
the  Ascension  in  the  light  of  its  declared  pur- 
pose:  "That  he  might  fill  all  things."  (i) 
When  we  see  the  only-begotten  Son,  clothed 
in  a  body  like  our  own,  exalted  above  all  the 
heavens,  in  that  sight  we  have  before  us  the 
all-glorious  and  controlling  center  of  all  the 
spheres,  the  key  which  interprets  the  testi- 
mony of  prophecy,  the  gathered  first  fruits  of 
a  new  and  redeemed  world.  The  Gospel  con- 
tains a  gospel  for  nature  as  well  as  for  man, 
the  prediction  of  the  day  when  the  strife  of 
elements  shall  cease,  and  when  the  powers  of 
darkness  shall  be  swallowed  up  of  light.  (2) 
By  Christ's  ascension  our  nature  is  endowed 
with  an  exalted  fulness  and  clothed  with  a 
glory  becoming  the  Son  of  God.  "  A  parcel 
of  clay,"  to  use  the  words  of  Archbishop 
Leighton,  "  is  made  so  bright  and  set  so  high 
as  to  outshine  all  the  flaming  spirits  of  eter- 
nity and  the  stars  of  the  morning."  And  with 
such  a  miracle  of  grace  who  can  regret  his 
connection  with  a  sinful  history  which  condi- 
tions so  great  a  salvation  ? — W.  Pulsford. 

CHRIST  ASCENDED,  Why.— A  number 
of  years  ago  a  delegation  of  Sioux  Indians 
was  present  at  a  public  meeting  in  the  Phila- 
delphia    Academy     of     Music.     Red     Cloud, 


250 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


whose  burly  form  and  natural  eloquence  had 
attracted  much  attention,  was  called  upon  to 
speak.  Turning  to  Mr.  G.  H.  Stuart,  he  ?aid : 
"  Red  Cloud  wants  to  ask  you  one  question, — 
Who  made  us?  Did  you  ever  see  the  Great 
Spirit  or  His  Son?  You  have  told  Red 
Cloud  that  the  Great  Spirit  came  down  from 
heaven,  and  dwelt  among  the  white  men,  and 
that  He  went  up  again.  (Pondering  for  a 
few  minutes.)  What  did  He  go  up  again 
for?  Red  Cloud  has  come  and  he  wants  to 
find  out."     Many  others  want  an  answer. 

Jesus  Himself  answered  the  question 
(John  xvi:  7). 

1.  Only  by  His  going  away  could  the  Holy 
Spirit  come  and  take  His  place.  With  Him 
in  bodily  presence  in  any  one  place,  the  at- 
tention of  His  people  would  be  called  away 
from  the  spiritual  and  universal  nature  of 
His  Church,  to  that  which  was  outward,  and 
temporal,  and  earthly.  The  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  be  hindered  and  hampered. 
Statecraft,  politics,  government  by  force, 
would  naturally  arise,  turning  the  thoughts 
away  from  new  hearts  and  spiritual  lives. 

2.  His  bodily  presence  could  be  only  in 
some  one  place,  toward  which  all  men  would 
tend.  "  A  present  bodily  Jesus  involves  a 
geographical  Church."  Now  abiding  on  the 
right  hand  of  God,  He  is  enabled  to  be  the 
omnipresent  Savior  of  all  men,  as  would  not 
be  possible  if  He  were  in  the  body,  tho  as 
King  in  Jerusalem.  His  Holy  Spirit  is  every- 
thing to  all  men  everywhere  that  He  Him- 
self would  be  if  present  with  each  one  to  aid, 
to  comfort,  and  to  guide.  "  The  Holy 
Spirit,"  says  Boardman,  "  gives  us  one  and 
the  same  Church,  even  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church  throughout  all  lands  and  times  and 
names."  Professor  Stokes  compares  the  cen- 
tralization of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  at 
Rome,  which,  "  instead  of  securing  the  uni- 
versality of  the  Church,  strikes  a  deadly  blow 
at  it,"  and  the  centralization  of  the  British 
Empire  at  London.  Now  in  the  unseen  heav- 
ens is  "  the  common  destiny,  the  true  Father- 
land of  all  the  sons  of  God." 

3.  The  ascension  was  a  noble  and  fitting 
close  of  the  earthly  career  of  Jesus ;  far  bet- 
ter than  to  die  again,  as  Lazarus  did,  or  than 
to  remain  always  on  earth  in  His  body, — the 
only  alternatives.  Jesus'  life  thus  became 
also  a  type  of  our  lives,  an  inspiration  tovvard 
such  living  as  would  bring  the  most  glorious 
and  perfect  ending  of  our  earthly  careers  that 
is  conceivable  through  our  resurrection  ex- 
istence in  glorified  spiritual  bodies. 

4.  It  completed  the  proof  of  His  divine 
nature  and  mission.  It  was  the  crowning  of 
His  life  with  success. 

5.  It  showed  the  continued  reality  of 
Christ's  existence,  linking  this  world  with  the 
other,  and  showing  how  He  could  be  the 
ever-living  Savior  in  heaven,  whom  Stephen 
saw  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  came  to 
Paul  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  who  is  ever 
with  His  people,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  last  view  of  Christ  is  not  upon  the  cross, 
but  ascending  from  Olivet  into  glory ;  not  in 
agony  of  atonement,  but  in  the  act  of  bless- 
ing;   not  in  seeming  defeat,  but  in  manifest 


triumph.  We  worship,  not  a  dead,  but  a  liv- 
ing Savior,  to  whom  we  shall  go,  with  whom 
we  shall  be  in  glory,  and  whom  we  shall  love 
and  serve  through  endless  age  . 

6.  Thus  His  children  are  taught  to  live  by 
faith  and  not  by  sight,  and  are  trained  in  | 
character  and  manhood  by  the  responsibility  \ 
of  carrying  on  His  work.  The  present  sys- 
tem trains  "  governors  and  governed,  kings 
and  subjects,  parents  and  children,  teachers 
and  pupils,  all  alike." 

7.  The  doctrine  of  the  ascension,  with  its 
hope  of  future  glory,  with  its  transfigured 
Son  of  Man  (not  son  of  Jew  or  Greek,  but  of 
man)  on  the  throne,  "  adds  new  dignity  to 
life,"  for  the  lowliest  shall  be  changed  into 
the  likeness  of  His  glorified  body.  "  It  is  an 
ever-flowing  fountain  of  dignity,  of  purity,  of 
mercy." — P. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of. — The  high  priest 
entering  the  Holy  of  Holies  once  every 
year,  on  the  day  of  Atonement,  Lev. 
xvi ;  Heb.  ix :  24-26.  The  Holy  of  Holies, 
where  the  symbol  of  Divine  glory  rested, 
typified  heaven ;  and  within  that  mysterious 
shrine  the  high  priest,  after  he  had  made 
atonement  for  himself,  for  the  sanctuary,  and 
for  the  people,  was  to  enter;  and,  dressed  in 
the  white  linen  robes  common  to  the  priest- 
hood (not  in  the  gorgeous  robe  of  his  high 
priesthood),  was  to  sprinkle  with  blood  be- 
fore the  mercy-seat  seven  times,  taking  with 
him  also  a  censer  full  of  burning  coals,  and 
sweet  incense,  beaten  small.  The  ark  carried 
up,  with  pomp  and  rejoicing,  to  Mount  Zion. 
Ps.  xxiv ;  Ixviii :  18.  Moses  going  up  into 
the  mount  to  receive  the  law,  Deut.  x.  and 
Elijah's  translation  to  heaven,  followed  by 
the  double  portion  of  his  spirit  being  given 
to  his  successor,  have  generally  been  ac- 
knowledged by  the  Church  as  figures  of 
Christ's  ascension.  Some  add  Samson's  vic- 
toriously carrying  up  the  gates  of  Gaza  to 
the  top  of  the  hill.    Judges  xvi :  3. — Bowes. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of. — He  wished  to 
leave  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  should 
not  think  He  had  simply  vanished  from  them, 
and  wait  for  His  present  re-appearance. — 
Geikie.  His  ascension  is  not  His  separation 
from  His  people,  but  the  ascension  of  His 
throne  and  the  beginning  of  His  reign  as  the 
head  of  the  Church  which  "  is  his  body,  the 
fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all"  (Eph. 
i :  23). — Rev.   Com. 

There  has  been  a  stupid  objection  raised, 
that,  as  the  world  is  turning  around  all  the 
time,  going  up  would  not  necessarily  lead 
to  any  point  in  the  sky  called  heaven.  But 
if  there  is  such  a  central  point,  any  being 
going  np  from  this  world  a  short  distance 
could  change  his  course  to  that  direction,  no 
matter  in  which  direction  he  started. — P. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of. — In  public,  in  the 
daylight,  on  holy  Olivet,  the  Lord  finished 
with  glory  the  career  which  He  began  in  ob- 
scurity. He  finished  His  earthly  career,  but 
not  His  human  life.  His  ascension  perpetu- 
ated His  incarnation.  He  did  not  evacuate 
His  human  body,  but  carried  it  with  Him  to 


ASCENSION  DAY 


251 


the  right  hand  of  God — with  its  nail  prints 
and  its  thorn  scars.  Touched  with  a  feeling 
of  our  infirmities,  our  great  High-priest  has 
passed  into  the  heavens.  There  He  ever 
liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us.  With  His 
pierced  hands  He  is  able  to  save  to  the  utter- 
most them  that  come  unto  God  by  Him.  He 
is  able  to  lift  them  up  to  the  place  where  He 
reigns.  This  gives  place  and  locality  to  heaven. 
Heaven  is  somewhere.  It  is  where  the  holy 
feet  of  Jesus  stand,  and,  therefore,  where  the 
weary  feet  of  His  pilgrims  may  rest.  It  is 
where  His  lips,  which  left  the  earth  pro- 
nouncing blessing,  still  speak,  and,  therefore, 
where  the  happy  ears  of  His  saints  may  hear 
His  blessed  words  of  love  and  wisdom ; 
where  loving  eyes  behold  Him,  the  chief 
glory  of  that  glorious  place,  and  the  fairest 
object. — R.  S.  Barrett. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of.— By  our  Lord's 
Ascension  into  Heaven,  we  mean  His  dis- 
appearance into  the  spiritual  realm  which 
pervades  the  material.  And  that  realm,  as 
He  has  Himself  assured  us,  consists  of  var- 
ious spheres  of  being.  The  common  notion 
about  heaven,  I  suppose,  is  that  it  is  one  vast 
place  in  which  the  whole  human  race  together 
with  the  angels,  shall  be  assembled  after  the 
general  judgment,  and  there  live  for  ever  in 
ceaseless  adoration.  Very  different  is  the 
view  which  our  Lord  gives  us  of  heaven.  He 
describes  it  as  a  world  of  many  abodes.  "  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  dwelling-places; 
if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you."  In 
other  words,  it  is  natural  to  expect  that  there 
should  be  different  dwelling-places,  different 
spheres  of  being,  different  plans  of  existence 
in  the  spiritual  world ;  so  natural  indeed  is  it 
that,  were  it  otherwise,  our  Lord  would  have 
made  a  special  revelation  on  the  subject; 
.  our  own  instincts  confirm  our 
Lord's  declaration. — Malcolm  McCall. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of. — I  suppose  that 
our  first  impressions  are  to  consider  the  As- 
cension of  our  Lord  as  the  very  greatest 
event  connected  with  His  appearance  on 
earth.  To  our  own  mind,  undoubtedly,  noth- 
ing could  be  so  solemn,  so  exalting,  as  the 
changing  this  life  for  another ;  the  putting 
off  mortality  and  putting  on  immortality ;  and 
all  this  we  connect  with  the  thought  of  the 
removal  from  earth  to  heaven.  And  had 
Christ  been  as  we  are.  His  Ascension  would 
have  been  spoken  of  very  differently  from 
what  it  is  now ;  and  the  account  of  His 
Resurrection  would  have  been  justly  deemed 
incomplete  without  it.  But  to  Christ,  if  I 
may  so  speak.  His  Resurrection  was  natural, 
it  was  His  death  that  was  the  miracle  of  His 
love.  Surely,  as  we  need  not  to  be  told  that 
Lazarus  died  again  after  his  resurrection,  as 
we  know  that  it  follows,  of  course,  because 
he  was  a  man  and  no  more ;  so  we  need  not 
be  told  that  Christ,  after  His  Resurrection, 
ascended  into  heaven.  We  know  that  it  fol- 
lows, of  course,  for  the  dwelling  of  the  Most 
High  God  is  not  in  earth,  but  in  heaven. — 
Thomas  Arnold. 

CHRIST,  Ascension  of  Elijah  and  of. — 
The  ascension  of  Elijah  may  be  compared  to 


the  flight  of  a  bird,  which  none  can  follow; 
the  ascension  of  Christ  is,  as  it  were,  a  bridge 
between  earth  and  heaven,  laid  down  for  all 
who  are  drawn  to  Him  by  His  earthly  exist- 
ence.— Baumgarten. 

CHRIST,  Body,  The,  of  the  Ascended.— 

Consider  first  the  question  of  a  body  possibly 
existing  in  heaven.  If  Adam  had  kept  His 
state  of  innocence,  he  would  not  have  died, 
nor  would  he,  we  imagine,  have  continued 
for  ever  in  Paradis*",  among  the  trees  and  the 
beasts  of  the  earth.  We  believe  that  he 
would  have  been  translated  in  his  body,  glori- 
fied, to  heaven.  Enoch  was  thus  removed, 
and  afterwards  Elijah.  Again,  Moses,  tho 
his  body  had  been  hidden  in  the  earth,  ap- 
peared after  a  thousand  years,  above  a  hill  of 
Palestine,  and  was  heard  to  talk.  Whence 
did  his  body,  and  that  of  Elijah  come?  None 
can  say.  It  is  enough  for  our  purpose  to 
admit  that  their  presence  at  the  Transfigura- 
tion is  a  proof  that  bodies  can  exist  some- 
where above  the  range  of  the  lower  earth. — 

C.   W.  FURSE. 

CHRIST,  Exaltation  of.— When  the 
Jewish  rulers,  who  had  sworn  the  life  oi 
Jesus  away  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Roman 
governor,  heard  first  of  His  Resurrection, 
they  remonstrated  with  the  witnesses :  "  Ye 
intend  to  bring  this  man's  blood  upon  us." 
The  Resurrection  of  Jesus  had  no  other 
meaning  to  them  than  vengeance.  They 
reasoned :  "  If  He  whom  we  slew  is  exalted, 
wo  unto  us  !  "  But  to  these  very  men  the 
apostles  preached  pardon.  They  proclaimed 
that  Jesus  is  exalted  for  the  purpose  of  show- 
ing mercy  to  His  murderers.  He  is  exalted 
to  give,  and  He  gives  even  to  them.  He 
gives  to  all,  and  upbraideth  not.  Now  that 
He  is  exalted,  and  His  enemies  are  in  His 
power,  instead  of  taking  vengeance.  He  gives 
remission  of  sins.  The  water  is  exalted  into 
the  heavens  in  order  that  it  may  give  rain 
upon  the  earth — it  is  exalted  to  give.  It  is 
drawn  up,  as  by  a  resurrection ;  and  arises 
pure  into  the  heavens,  that  it  may  be  in  a 
capacity  to  send  refreshing  to  the  thirsty 
ground.  In  the  same  way  He  who  comes  as 
rain  on  the  mown  grass  was  exalted  that  He 
might  give — that  He  might  give  Himself,  as 
the  living  water,  to  His  own. — Arnot. 

CHRIST,  Exalted  Giver.— As  in  the  Ro- 
man triumphs,  the  victor  ascending  up  to  the 
Capitol  in  a  chariot  of  state  used  to  cast  cer- 
tain pieces  of  coin  among  the  people  for  them 
to  pick  up,  which  he  used  not  to  do  at  other 
times,  so  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  day  of 
His  triumph  and  solemn  inauguration  into 
His  heavenly  kingdom,  scatters  some  heavenly 
jewels  that  the  thief  might  pick  up,  which 
He  doth  not,  and  will  not,  do  every  day ;  or 
as  in  these  days,  it  is  usual  with  princes  to 
save  some  notorious  malefactors  at  their 
coronation,  when  they  enter  upon  their  king- 
dom in  triumph,  which  they  seldom  do  after- 
ward, so  did  Jesus  Christ  act  toward  this 
thief. — T.  Brooks. 

CHRIST,  Gift  of  the  Ascended.— 
"  Wherefore,  he  saith,  when  he  ascended  up 


252 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


on  high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave 
gifts  unto  men.  And  he  gave  some,  apostles ; 
and  some,  prophets ;  and  some,  evangelists ; 
and  some,  pastors  and  teachers ;  for  the  per- 
fecting of.  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of 
Christ."  As  when  Roman  heroes  returned 
from  blood-red  fields,  and  the  senate  awarded 
them  a  triumph,  they  rode  in  their  chariot 
drawn  by  milk-white  steeds  through  the 
thronging  streets  of  the  capital,  so  did  Jesus 
Christ  when  He  led  captivity  captive  receive 
a  triumph  at  His  Father's  hands.  The  tri- 
umphal chariot  bore  Him  through  the  streets 
of  glory,  while  all  the  inhabitants  thereof 
with  loud  acclaim  saluted  Him  as  Conqueror. 

"  Crown  Him  !  crown  Him  ! 
Crowns  become  the  victor's  brow !  " 

It  was  the  wont  of  the  Roman  conqueror 
as  he  rode  along  to  distribute  large  quanti- 
ties of  money  which  were  scattered  among 
the  admiring  crowd.  So  our  glorified  Lord 
scattered  gifts  among  men,  yea  to  the  re- 
bellious also  He  gave  those  gifts  that  the 
Lord  God  might  dwell  among  them ;  in  this 
manner,  then,  to  grace  the  triumph  of  Jesus, 
the  Spirit  of  God  was  liberally  poured  out 
upon  the  Church  below. — Spurgeon. 

CHRIST  IN  HEAVEN,   The  Ascended. 

— Christ  is  already  in  that  place  of  peace, 
which  is  all  in  all.  He  is  on  the  right  hand 
of  God.  He  is  hidden  in  the  brightness  of 
the  radiance  which  issues  from  the  everlast- 
ing throne.  He  is  in  the  very  abyss  of  peace, 
where  there  is  no  voice  of  tumult  or  distress, 
but  a  deep  stillness — stillness,  that  greatest 
and  most  awful  of  all  goods  which  we  can 
fancy;  that  most  perfect  of  joys,  the  utter, 
profound,  ineffable  tranquillity  of  the  Di- 
vine Essence.  He  has  entered  into  His  rest. 
That  is  our  home;  here  we  are  on  a  pil- 
grimage, and  Christ  calls  us  to  His  many 
mansions  which  He  has  prepared. — J.  H. 
Newman. 

CHRIST  IN  THE  CLOUD.— A  suffering 
believer  once  remarked  to  a  friend:  "When 
I  am  very  low  and  dark  I  go  to  the  window, 
and  if  I  see  a  heavy  cloud  I  think  of  those 
precious  words,  '  A  cloud  received  him  out 
of  their  sight,'  and  I  look  up  and  see  the 
cloud  sure  enough,  and  then  I  think— well, 
that  may  be  the  cloud  that  hides  Him.  And 
so  you  see  there  is  comfort  in  a  cloud." — 
H.  R. 

CHRIST  IS  DOING,  What  the  As- 
cended.— In  the  Cologne  Cathedral  hangs  the 
original  pencil  drawing  of  the  cathedral  by 
Meister  Gerard,  about  1250,  "  whose  great 
genius  conceived  and  put  into  existence  these 
plans,  whose  fulfilment  would  require  cen- 
turies of  labor."  The  work  was  begun,  but 
war  and  political  changes  left  it  unfinished. 
For  several  centuries  the  plans  disappeared. 
Then,  in  new  circumstances,  these  drawings 
were  "  hunted  from  garrets  in  which  they 
had  slumbered,"  and  in  1830,  almost  six  hun- 
dred years  after  the  plans  were  made,  work 
was  again  begun,  and  carried  to  completion. 


Jesus  was  going  on  now  to  carry  out  the 
plans  formed  "  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,"  and  begun  by  Him  during  His 
bodily  life.  The  new  kingdom  is  won- 
drously  beautiful,  but  it  is  not  yet  completed. 
—P. 

CHRIST  OUR  ADVOCATE,  The  As- 
cended.— "  We  have  an  advocate  with  the 
Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous."  i  John 
ii :  I.  The  word  here  translated  Advocate 
was  translated  Comforter  in  John  xiv :  16,  26; 
XV  :  26 ;  xvi :  7.  It  sometimes  means  one  who 
takes  up  his  client's  cause  to  carry  it  through 
by  pleadings  and  acts, — an  advocate;  some- 
times one  who  goes  forth  to  make  peace 
between  two  parties,  beseeching  for  an  of- 
fender,— an  intercessor;  sometimes  one  who 
stands  by  the  sinking  sufferer,  uttering  words 
of  consolation  and  strength, — a  comforter. 
All  these  offices  concur  in  Jesus  Christ,  who 
is  our  Advocate  to  urge  our  cause,  an  Inter- 
cessor to  make  our  peace,  our  Comforter  to 
fill  us  with  joy. — ^J.  W.  Alexander. 

CHRIST  OUR  INTERCESSOR,  The  As- 
cended.— Jno.  xvii:  9.  Once,  I  suddenly 
opened  the  door  of  my  mother's  room,  and 
saw  her  on  her  knees  beside  her  chair,  and 
heard  her  speak  my  name  in  prayer.  I 
quickly  and  quietly  withdrew,  with  a  feeling 
of  awe  and  reverence  in  my  heart.  Soon  I 
went  away  from  home  to  school,  then  to  col- 
lege, then  into  life's  sterner  duties.  But  I 
never  forgot  that  one  glimpse  of  my  mother 
at  prayer,  nor  the  one  word — my  name — 
which  I  heard  her  utter.  Well  did  I  know 
that  what  I  had  seen  that  day  was  but  a 
glimpse  of  what  was  going  on  every  day  in 
that  sacred  closet  of  prayer,  and  the  con- 
sciousness strengthened  me  a  thousand  times 
in  duty,  in  danger,  and  in  struggle.  When 
death  came,  at  length,  and  sealed  those  lips, 
the  sorest  sense  of  loss  that  I  felt  was  the 
knowledge  that  no  more  would  my  mother 
be  praying  for  me.  In  John  xvii.  we  hear 
Christ  praying  for  us — just  once,  a  few  sen- 
tences; but  we  know  that  this  is  only  a  .'^am- 
ple of  the  intercession  for  us  that  goes  on 
forever.  Nothing  shall  interrupt  this  plead- 
ing, for  He  ever  liveth  to  intercede. — J.  R. 
Miller. 

CHRIST  OUR  INTERCESSOR,  The  As- 
cended.— Hcb.  vii:  25.  There  arises  from 
all  parts  of  the  world,  at  the  morning  and 
evening,  and  through  the  lal  ors  of  the  day, 
a  perpetual  incense  of  adoration  and  petition ; 
it  contains  the  sum  of  the  deepest  wants  of 
the  human  race,  in  its  fears  and  hopes,  its 
anguish  and  thankfulness ;  it  is  laden  with 
sighs,  with  tears,  with  penitence,  with  faith, 
with  submission ;  the  broken  heart,  the 
bruised  .-spirit,  the  stifled  murmur,  the  ardent 
hope,  the  haunting  fear,  the  mother's  darling 
wish,  the  child's  simple  prayer ;  all  the  bur- 
dens of  the  soul,  all  the  wants  and  desires 
nowhere  else  uttered,  meet  together  in  that 
sound  of  many  voices  which  ascends  into  the 
ears  of  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts.  And  min- 
gled  with  all  these  cravings  and  utterances 


ASCENSION  DAY 


253 


is  one  other  voice,  one  other  prayer,  their 
symphony,  their  melody,  their  accord,  deeper 
than  all  these,  tenderer  than  all  these, 
mightier  than  all  these — the  tones  of  One 
who  knows  us  better  than  we  know  our- 
selves, and  who  loves  us  better  than  we  love 
ourselves,  and  who  brings  all  these  myriad 
fragile  petitions  into  one  prevalent  interces- 
sion, purified  by  His  own  holiness  and  the 
hallowing  power  of  His  work. — Henry  B. 
Smith. 

CHRIST,  Presence  of  the  Ascended. — 
Should  a  visitor  go  his  way  and  say,  "  I  came 
to  see  how  Christ  looked  in  a  Christian 
country,  and  I  found  many  spurious  Christs 
and  many  miscalled  gospels,  but,  the  Christ 
of  St.  Luke  and  St.  John  I  did  not  find,"  why 
he  speaks  but  idle  words ;  for  wherever  there 
is  at  work  the  Spirit  of  righteousness  there 
is  the  Son  of  man,  the  ascended,  the  ever- 
living  Christ,  not  in  the  sects,  not  in  our 
little  systems,  which  are  born  and  perish  in 
a  day,  not  in  the  petty  cobwebs  men  may 
spin,  but  in  a  million  inarticulate  prayers,  in 
the  numberless  acts,  and  words,  and  thoughts 
of  righteousness  and  love  that  every  day 
go  up  to  heaven  from  obscure  saints,  men 
and  women  struggling  to  be  true  and  good 
against  temptations  to  be  bad  of  which  we 
can  form  no  idea.  "  Behold,  I  am  alive  for 
evermore." — A.  Ainger. 

CHRIST,     Seeing     the     Ascended. — His 

own  voice,  speaking  a  welcome,  will  be 
sweeter  music  than  the  seraphs'  song.  What 
a  thrill  it  brings  to  the  soul  when  one  first 
beholds  Niagara,  or  Mont  Blanc,  or  West- 
minster's towers,  or  St.  Peter's  dome !  How 
the  heart  quickens  when  the  eye  first  sees 
some  world-famed  man — Gladstone,  or  Bis- 
marck, or  Tennyson !  But  to  think,  oh,  to 
think,  we  shall  see  Jesus !  .  .  .  Even  the 
thought  throws  us  upon  our  knees ;  but  the 
reality  ! — The  ascended  Lord !  The  Divine 
Man  !  The  Everlasting  Son  !  The  King  in 
His  beauty !  God  help  us  all  to  be  faithful. 
— R.  S.  Barrett. 


CHRIST  WORKS  FOR  MAN,  How  th« 
Ascended. — There  are  two  closely  connected 
ways  by  which  Christ  after  His  glorification 
began  a  new  work  for  mankind,  the  one  in- 
ward, towards  God ;  the  other  outward,  to- 
wards the  world.  The  first  is  the  exercise  of 
an  immeasurably  increased  power  of  inter- 
cession. In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we 
appear  to  be  given  to  understand  that  so  far 
from  having  accomplished  and  laid  aside  His 
priestly  function  with  His  death,  our  Lord 
was  first  truly  consecrated  to  His  priesthood 
on  the  morning  of  the  Resurrection  (Heb.  v: 
5,  6).  The  sacrificial  task  was  not  at  an  end 
when  His  life  was  laid  down  on  Calvary, 
which  answered  to  the  slaughter  of  the  typical 
victims.  The  whole  point  of  the  sacrifice  lies 
in  the  presentation  of  that  life,  enriched  and 
consecrated  to  the  utmost  by  having  under- 
gone  death,  and  still  and  for  ever  living,  in 
the  inmost  presence  of  God.  Christ  then  has 
passed  within  the  veil  to  complete  His  merci- 
ful work  for  men,  by  pleading  for  them, 
.  .  .  appearing  for  them  "  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God," — and  by  pleading  for  them  in 
the  irresistible  power  which  His  perfect  dis- 
charge of  His  mission  has  given  Him. 

CONDUCT,  Relation  of  the  Ascended 
Lord  to  Daily. — Paul  never  thought  of  the 
precepts  which  belong  to  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness of  earth  as  standing  aloof  from  the 
revelations  of  the  Divine  world  or  as  merely 
added  to  them.  He  supposed  that  the  Ephe- 
sians  ought  to  know  that  they  were  sitting 
with  Christ  in  heavenly  places,  in  order  that 
they  might  not  lie  or  allow  filthy  communica- 
tions to  proceed  out  of  their  mouths.  He 
did  not  suppose  that  it  was  necessary  to 
tell  those  for  whom  he  asked  that  they  might 
know  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  that 
they  should  not  deceive,  nor  slander  their 
neighbor,  nor  be  thieves  nor  adulterers.  If 
the  saints  in  Ephesus  considered  it  an  insult 
to  hear  these  plain  broad  exhortations  they 
must  go  to  some  other  teacher  than  St.  Paul. 
— F.  D.  Maurice. 


POETRY 


The  Ascension  Day 

By  John   Keble 

Why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven? 
This  same  Jesus,  which  is  taken  up  from 
you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner 
as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven.  Acts  i: 
II. 

Soft  cloud,  that  while  the  breeze  of  May 

Chants  her  glad  matins  in  the  leafy  arch, 
Draw'st  thy  bright  veil  across  the  heavenly 
way. 
Meet   pavement    for    an    Angel's  glorious 
march : 

My  soul  is  envious  of  mine  eye, 

That  it  should  soar  and  glide  with  thee  so 
fast, 


The  while  my  groveling  thoughts  half  buried 
lie, 
Or  lawless  roam  around  this  earthly  waste. 

Chains  of  my  heart,  avaunt  I  say — 
I  will  arise,  and  in  the  strength  of  love 

Pursue  the  bright  track  ere  it  fade  away, 
My  Savior's  pathwav  to  His  home  above. 

Sure,  when  I  reach  the  point  where  earth 
Melts   into   nothing  from  the   uncumbered 
sight. 
Heaven   will  o  ercome  the  attraction  of  my 
birth. 
And  I  shall  sink  in  yonder  sea  of  light: 

Till  resting  by  the  incarnate  Lord, 
Once   bleeding,    now    triumphant    for   my 
sake. 


254 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


I  mark  Him,  how  by  seraph  hosts  adored 
He  to  earth's  lowest  cares  is  still  awake. 

The  sun  and  every  vassal  star, 

All  space,  beyond  the  soar  of  angel  wings, 
Wait  on  His  word :  and  yet  He  stays  His 
car 

For  every  sigh  a  contrite  suppliant  brings. 

He  listens  to  the  silent  tear 

For  all  the  anthems  of  the  boundless  sky — 
And  shall  our  dreams  of  music  bar  our  ear 

To  his  soul-piercing  voice  for  ever  nigh? 

Nay,  gracious  Savior — but  as  now 
Our    thoughts    have   traced    Thee   to    Thy 
glory-throne, 
So  help  us  evermore  with  Thee  to  bow 
Where  human  sorrow  breathes  her  lowly 
moan. 

We  must  not  stand  to  gaze  too  long, 
Tho    on    unfolding    Heaven    our    gaze    we 
bend, 
Where  lost  behind  the  bright  angelic  throng 
We    see    Christ's    entering    triumph    slow 
ascend. 

No  fear  but  we  shall  soon  behold. 
Faster  than  now  it  fades,  that  gleam  revive, 

When  isuing  from  His  cloud  of  fiery  gold 
Our  wasted  frames  feel  the  true  sun,  and 
live. 

Then  shall  we  see  Thee  as  Thou  art. 
For  ever  fixed  in  no  unfruitful  gaze, 

But  such  as  lifts  the  new-created  heart, 
Age  after  age,  in  worthier  love  and  praise. 

The  Ascension 
By  Charles  Wesley 

Our  Lord  is  risen  from  the  dead, 

Our  Jesus  is  gone  up  on  high ; 
The  powers  of  hell  are  captive  led. 

Dragged  to  the  portals  of  the  sky. 

There  His  triumphal  chariot  waits, 
And  angels  chant  the  solemn  lay : — 

"  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  heavenly  gates, 
Ye  everlasting  doors,  give  way. 

"  Loose  all  your  bars  of  massy  light. 
And  wide  unfold  the  ethereal  scene ; 

He  claims  these  mansions  as  His  right; 
Receive  the  King  of  glory  in." 

"  Who  is  this  King  of  glory,  who?  " 
"  The  Lord  that  all  His  foes  o'ercame ; 

The  world,  sin,  death,  and  hell  o'erthrew ; 
And  Jesus  is  the  conqueror's  name." 

Lo,  His  triumphal  chariot  waits. 

And  angels  chant  the  solemn  lay : — 
"  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  heavenly  gates, 

Ye  everlasting  doors  give  way." 

"  Who  is  this  King  of  glory,  who?  " 
"  The  Lord  of  glorious  power  possessed. 

The  King  of  saints  and  angels,  too : 
God  over  all,  forever  blessed." 


The  Ascension 
By  Christopher  Wordsworth 

See,  the  Conqueror  mounts  in  triumph 

See  the  King  in  royal  state. 
Riding  on  the  clouds  His  chariot 

To  His  heavenly  palace-gate ; 
Hark,  the  choirs  of  angel  voices 

Joyful  halleluiahs  sing. 
And  the  portals  high  are  lifted, 

To  receive  their  heavenly  King. 

Who  is  this  that  comes  in  glory, 

With  the  trump  of  jubilee? 
Lord  of  battles,  God  of  armies. 

He  has  gained  the  victory ; 
He  who  on  the  cross  did  suffer. 

He  who  from  the  grave  arose. 
He  has  vanquished  sin  and  Satan, 

He  by  death  has  spoiled  His  foes. 

Thou  hast  raised  our  human  nature 

On  the  clouds  to  God's  right  hand, 
There  we  sit  in  heavenly  places, 

There  with  Thee  in  glory  stand; 
Jesus  reigns  adored  by  angels, 

Man  with  God  is  on  the  throne, 
Mighty  Lord,  in  Thine  a-cension 

We  by  faith  behold  our  own. 

Lift  us  up  from  earth  to  heaven. 

Give  us  wings  of  faith  and  love. 
Gales  of  holy  aspiration 

Wafting  us  to  realms  above ; 
That,  with  hearts  and  minds  uplifted. 

We  with  Christ  our  Lord  may  dwell 
Where  He  sits  enthroned  in  glory 

In  the  heavenly  citadel. 

So  at  last  when  He  appeareth. 

We  from  out  our  graves  may  spring 
With  our  youth  renewed  like  eagles'. 

Flocking  round  our  heavenly  King, 
Caught  up  on  the  clouds  of  heaven. 

And  may  meet  Him  in  the  air, 
Rise  to  realms  where  He  is  reigning 

And  may  reign  forever  there. 

The  Ascended  Lord 

By  Thomas  Kelly 

The  Head  that  once  was  crowned  with  thorns 

Is  crowned  with  glory  now ; 
A  royal  diadem  adorns 

The  mighty  Victor's  brow. 

The  highest  place  that  heaven  affords 

Is  His,  by  sovereign  right, 
The  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords, 

And  heaven's  eternal  light. 

The  joy  of  all  who  dwell  above, 

The  joy  of  all  below 
To  whom  He  manifests  His  love, 

And  grants  His  name  to  know. 

To  them  the  cross,  with  all  its  shame, 

With  all  its  grace,  is  given; 
Their  name  an  everlasting  name. 

Their  joy,  the  joy  of  heaven. 


ASCENSION  DAY 


255 


Thej-  suffer  with  their  Lord  below, 
They  reign  with  Him  above ; 

Their  profit  and  their  joy  to  know 
The  mystery  of  His  love. 

The  cross  He  bore  is  life  and  health, 
Tho  shame  and  death  to  Him; 

His  people's  hope,  His  people's  wealth, 
Their  everlasting  theme. 

Hail  the  Day 

By  Charles  Wesley 

Hail  the  day  that  sees  Him  rise, 
Ravished  from  our  wishful  eyes ! 
Christ,  awhile  to  mortals  given, 
Re-ascends  His  native  heaven. 

There  the  glorious  triumph  waits. 
Lift  your  heads,  eternal  gates ! 
Wide  unfold  the  radiant  scene, 
Take  the  King  of  glory  in ! 

Him  tho  highest   heaven   receives, 
Still  He  loves  the  earth  He  leaves : 
Tho  returning  to  His  throne. 
Still  He  calls  mankind  His  own. 

Lord,  tho  parted  from  our  sight, 
High  above  yon  azure  height. 
Grant  our  hearts  may  thither  rise, 
Following  Thee  beyond  the  skies. 

He  Is  Gone 

By  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley 

He  is  gone ;  a  cloud  of  light 
Has  received   Him   from  our  sight; 
High  in  heaven,  where  eye  of  men 
Follows  not,  nor  angels'  ken ; 
Through  the  veils  of  time  and  space, 
Passed  in  to  the  holiest  place; 
All  the  toil,  the  sorrow  done, 
All  the  battle  fought  and  won. 


He  is  gone ;    towards  their  goal 
World   and    Church    must    onward 
Far  behind  we  leave  the  past; 
Forward  are  our  glances  cast : 
Still  His  words  before  us  range 
Through  the  ages,  as  they  change: 
Wheresoe'er  the  truth  shall  lead. 
He  will  give  whate'er  we  need. 

He  is  gone ;  but  we  once  more 
Shall  behold  Him  as  before; 
In  the  heaven  of  heavens  the  same. 
As  on  earth  He  went  and  came. 
In  the  many  mansions  there, 
Place  for  us  He  will  prepare : 
In   that   world    unseen,    unknown, 
He  and  we  shall  yet  be  one. 

Glory's  King 

By   Charles   Wesley 

God  is  gone  up  on  high, 
With  a  triumphant  noise; 

The  anthems  of  the  sky 
Proclaim  the  angelic  joys: 


roll; 


Join  all  on  earth,  rejoice  and  sing. 
Glory  ascribe  to  glory's  King! 

God  in  the  flesh  below, 

For  us  He  reigns  above ; 
Let  all  the  nations  know 

The  Savior's  conquering  love : 
Join  all  on  earth,  rejoice   and   sing. 
Glory  ascribe  to  glory's  King ! 

All  power  to  our  great  Lord 

Is  by  the  Father  given ; 
By  angel  hosts  adored 

He  reigns  supreme  in  heaven : 
Join  all  on  earth,  rejoice  and  sing. 
Glory  ascribe  to  glory's  King ! 

Till  all  the  earth  renewed 
In   righteousness   divine. 
With  all  the  hosts  of  God, 
In  one  great  chorus  join: 
Join  all  on  earth,  rejoice  and  sing. 
Glory  ascribe  to  glory's  King ! 

The  Ascended  Savior 

By  Charles  Coffin,  Tr.  by  John  Chandler 

O  Savior,  who  for  man  hast  trod 
The  winepress  of  the  wrath  of  God 
Ascend,  and  claim  again  on  high 
Thy  glory,  left  for  us  to  die. 

A  radiant  cloud  is  now  Thy  seat, 
And   earth   lies   stretched  beneath  Thy  feet; 
Ten  thousand  thousands  round  Thee  sing, 
And  share  the  triumph  of  their  King. 

The  angel-host  enraptured  waits : 
"  Lift  up  your  heads,  eternal  gates !  " 
O  God  and  Man !  the  Father  s  throne 
Is  now,  for  evermore.  Thine  own.  ■ 

Our  great  High-Priest  and  Shepherd,  Thou 
Within  the  veil  art  entered  now, 
To  offer  there  Thy  precious  blood. 
Once  poured  on  earth  a  cleansing  flood. 

And  thence  the  Church,  Thy  chosen  bride. 
With  countless  gifts  of  grace  supplied. 
Through  all  her  members  draws  from  Thee 
Her  hidden  life  of  sanctity. 

O  Christ,  our  Lord,  of  Thy  dear  care 
Thy  lowly  members  heavenward  bear; 
Be  ours  with  Thee  to  suffer  pain. 
With  Thee  for  evermore  to  reign. 

The  Soul  Ascending  with  Christ 

By  Caroline  May 

Thou  art  gone  up  on  high 
Beyond  that  starry  sky, 

So  far,   so  fair ! 
And  while  our  searching  eyes 
Traverse  the  wondrous  skies, 
Jesus,  our  souls  would  rise 

To  see  Thee  there ! 

Let  us  Thy  power  receive; 
That  as  we  do  believe 


256 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Thou  hast  arisen, 
We,  too,  may  rise  with  Thee, 
And  dwell  continually 
Happy  and  pure  and  free 

From  earth's  dark  prison. 

Once  Thou  on  earth  didst  dwell; 
Once  the  abodes  of  hell 

Thou  didst  behold ; 
Once  Thou  didst  lie  so  low, 
All  a  world's  waves  of  wo 
Over  Thy  head  did  flow, 

Anguish  untold. 

Jesus,  beloved  Lord, 

Thou  wast  for  sin  abhorred, 

For  man  beloved ; 
Thus  Thou  didst  show  to  God 
Thou  hadst  the  wine-press  trod, 
Thou  His  just  wrath  and  rod 

For  man   removed. 

Now  we  look  up  to  Thee, 
Ascended  Christ,  and  see 

Thee  on  Thy  throne ; 
Thou  our  strong  Advocate, 
For  us   dost  mediate, 
There,   with  Thy  power  and  state 

Fully  made  known. 

Now  Faith  and  Hope  appear, 
Like  those  two  angels  dear, 

On  that  grand  day. 
Who  stood  by,  clad  in  white. 
When  clouds  of  dazzling  light, 
Up    through   the   heavens    so   bright. 

Caught  Thee  away. 

Soon  at  Thy  own  right  hand. 
In  that  far  upper  land. 

We  shall  declare 
All  Thou  for  us  hast  done; 
Triumphs  Thy  power  has  won, 
Grace,  long  ago  begun. 

Perfected  there. 

Then  what  a  joy  'twill  be. 
Praising,  adoring  Thee, 

Our  hearts  in  tune, 
Joining  with  heaven's  glad  host 
Thy  wondrous  love  to  boast. 
Father,   Son,  Holy  Ghost, 

Godhead  Triune ! 

Reigning  in  Light 

By  Matthew   Bridges 

Rise,  glorious  Conquer'r,  rise 
Into  Thy   native   skies; 

Assume  Thy  right ; 
And  where,  in  many  a  fold, 
The  clouds  are  backward  rolfd, 
Pass  through  those  gates  of  gold. 

And  reign  in  light. 

Victor  o'er  death  and  hell. 
Cherubic  legions  swell 

The  radiant  train : 
Praises  all  Heaven  inspire; 
Each  angel  sweeps  his  lyre. 
And  claps  his  wings  of  fire, 

Thou  Lamb  once  slain. 


Enter,  incarnate  God  ! 

No  feet  but  Thine  have  trod 

The  serpent  down : 
Blow  the  full  trumpets,  blow. 
Wider  yon  portals  throw. 
Savior,  triumphant,  go. 

And  take  Thy  crown. 

Lion  of  Judah,  Hail ! 
And  let  Thy  name  prevail 

From  age  to  age : 
Lord  of  the  rolling  years. 
Claim    for    Thine    own    the    spheres. 
For  Thou  hast  bought  with  tears 

Thy  heritage. 

"Worthy  the  Lamb 

By  James  Allen 

Glory  to  God  on  high, 
Let  praises  fill  the  sky! 

Praise  ye  His   Name. 
Angels  His  Name  adore, 
Who  all  our  sorrows  bore. 
And  saints  cry  evermore, 

"  Worthy  the  Lamb  !  " 

All  they  around  the  throne 
Cheerfully  join   in   one, 

Praising   His   name. 
We  who  have  felt  His  blood 
Sealing  our  peace  with  God, 
Spread  His  dear  fame  abroad : 

"  Worthy  the  Lamb  I  " 

Join  all  the  human  race, 
Our  Lord  and  God  to  bless; 

Praise  ye  His  Name! 
In  Him  we  will  rejoice. 
Making  a  cheerful  noise, 
And  say  with  heart  and  voice. 

Worthy  the  Lamb  !  " 

Tho  we  must  change  our  place. 
Our  souls  shall  never  cease 

Praising  His  name ; 
To  Him  we'll  tribute  bring. 
Laud  Him  our  gracious  King, 
And  without  ceasing  sing 

"  Worthy  the  Lamb !  " 

He  is  Gone,  and  We  Remain 

By  Arthur  Penrhyn   Stanley 

He  is  gone  and  we  remain 
In  this  world  of  sin  and  pain: 
In  the  void  which  He  has  left. 
On  this  earth  of  Him  bereft, 
We  have  still  His  work  to  do. 
We  can  still  His  path  pursue; 
Seek  Him  both  in  friend  and  foe, 
In  ourselves  His  image  show. 

He  has  gone  !  unto  their  goal 

World    and    church    must    onward    roll; 

For  behind  we  leave  the  past; 

Forward  all  our  glances  cast : 

Still  His  words  before  us  range 

Through  the  ages  as  they  change; 


ASCENSION  DAY 


257 


Whereso'er  the  truth  shall  lead, 
He  will  give  whate'er  we  need. 

He  is  gone !  but  we  once  more 
Shall  behold  Him  as  before, 
In  the  Heaven  of  heavens  the  same 
As  on  earth  He  went  and  came: 
In  the  many  mansions  there, 
Place  for  us  He  will  prepare : 
In  that  world,  unseen,  unknown. 
He  and  we  shall  yet  be  one. 

Gazing   Up 
By  Charles  Wesley 

Master,  Lord,  to  Thee  we  cry. 
On  Thy  throne  exalted  high ; 
See  Thy  faithful  servants,  see, 
Ever  gazing  up  to  Thee. 
Grant,  tho  parted  from  our  sight, 
High  above  yon  azure  height. 
Grant  our  hearts  may  thither  rise, 
Following  Thee  beyond  the  skies. 

Ever  may  we  upward  move. 
Wafted  on  the  wings  of  love; 
Looking  when  our  Lord  shall  come, 
Looking  for  our  heavenly  home : 
Then  may  we  with  Thee  remain. 
Partners  of  Thine  endless  reign ; 
There  Thy  face  unclouded  see. 
Find   our   Heaven  of   heavens   in  Thee. 


Ascension  Hymn 

By  the  Venerable  Bede 

A  hymn  of  glory  let  us  sing; 

New  hymns  throughout  the  world  shall  ring; 

By  a  new  way  none  ever  trod 

Christ  mounteth  to  the  throne  of  God. 

The  apostles  on  the  mountain  stand. 
The  mystic  mount  in  Holy  Land; 
They  with  the  Virgin  Mother  see 
Jesus  ascend  in  majesty. 

The  angels  say  to  the  eleven, 
"  \yhy  stand  ye  gazing  into  heaven?" 
This  is  the  Savior,  this  is  He; 
Jesus  hath  triumphed  gloriously! 

They  said  the  Lord  should  come  again, 
As  these  beheld  Him  rising  then, 
Calm,  soaring  through  the  radiant  sky. 
Mounting  its  dazzling  summits  high. 

May  our  affections  thither  tend. 
And  thither  constantly  ascend, 
Where,  seated  on  the  Father's  throne. 
Thee,  reigning  in  the  heavens,  we  own ! 

Be  Thou  our  present  joy,  O  Lord, 
Who  wilt  be  ever  our  reward ! 
And  as  the  countless  ages  flee. 
May  all  our  glory  be  in  Thee  I 


258  HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


WHITSUNDAY 

IN  the  Church  year  there  are  two  cycles  of  festivals:  The  Semestre  Domini 
and  the  Semestre  Ecclesiae.  The  holy  days  of  the  former  refer  to  our  Lord's 
life,  and  Whitsunday  is  the  last  of  them.  It  is  meant  to  commemorate  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  infant  Christian  Church  in  Jerusalem  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost,  which  fell  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  our  Lord's  resurrection.* 

Whitsunday  is  very  intimately  associated  with  its  Jewish  predecessor,  Pente- 
cost, not  only  chronologically  and  historically,  through  the  events  recorded  in 
Acts  ii,  but  also  in  its  inner  significance,  as  being  a  feast  of  thanksgiving  for  the 
first  fruits  of  the  Spirit.f  St.  Augustine  emphasizes  this  thought  in  his  Ep.  54, 
Ad  Januar. 

The  day  seems  to  have  been  observed  from  the  very  beginning,  having  been 
engrafted  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  At  first  the  whole  period  of  fifty  days  was 
observed,  but  gradually  the  last  day  came  to  monopolize  the  attention  of  the 
Church.  It  is  mentioned  as  a  separate  feast  by  such  early  writers  as  Irenaeus 
(130-200  A.  D.),  and  Tertullian  (160-240  a.  d.).  The  latter  several  times  men- 
tions the  fact  that  this  was  one  of  the  principal  times  for  baptism  in  the  early 
Church. 

Whitsunday  is  in  contrast  with  Lent,  in  that  no  fasting  was  enjoined,  and 
prayer  was  offered  standing  rather  than  kneeling.  All  the  Whitsunday  customs 
of  the  early  Church  were  of  a  joyful  nature.  The  exhibitions  of  the  theater  and 
the  circus  were  suspended,  and  the  ceremonials  and  liturgy  of  the  Church 
increased. 

The  English  name  is  thought  by  not  a  few  authorities  to  be  Whitsun  Day, 
not  Whitsunday,  and  to  be  the  same  as  the  name  Pentecost,  coming  through  the 
German  Pfingsten.  Most  of  the  older  writers  on  the  English  Church  festivals, 
however,  have  claimed  that  originally  the  name  was  either  White  Sunday  or 
Wit  Sunday.  In  the  former  case  they  derived  the  word  from  the  chrisoms  of  the 
newly  baptized,  and  in  the  latter  from  the  outpouring  of  wit,  the  Old  English  for 
wisdom,  upon  the  apostolic  church  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost. 

In  commenting  on  Whitsunday's  sublime  event,  and  its  significance,  W.  H. 
Hutchings,  writes : 

"  There  they  continued  where  they  were  gathered  together,  the  small  band 
of  disciples,  the  mustard-seed  which  was  to  grow  into  the  great  tree  of  the 
Catholic  Church ;  there  they  awaited  the  Advent  of  the  Comforter ;  musing  on  the 
past,  *  *  *  and,  intent  on  the  future,  with  holy  anxiety  picturing  to  them- 
selves what  this  Other  Comforter  should  be, — not  knowing  whether  He  would 
appear  in  human  guise,  or  as  an  angel  of  light,  or  whether  He  would  be  all 
Divine ;  wondering  how  He  should  be  to  them  what  Jesus  had  been  in  His  per- 
sonal ministry,  and  how  He  would  even  have  a  closer  fellowship  vv^th  them,  and 
that,  not  for  a  time,  but  '  for  ever.'  They  continued  in  supplication,  listening  to 
every  sound,  expecting  His  arrival  every  moment,  when  suddenly — the  building 
trembled  with  the  sound  of  a  rushing,  mighty  wind,  and  to  their  amazement,  there 

*  Luke  xxiv  :  4g  ;  John  xiv  :    16-26  ;  Acts  ii.  +  Rom.  viii :  23. 


WHITSUNDAY 


259 


spread  out  upon  them  and  around  them  from  one  center  a  seraphic  shower, — ■ 
tongues  of  fire  Uke  one  vast  halo  of  glory,  and  '  sat  upon  each  of  them,' — and  the 
Apostles  were  filled  with  the  same  Spirit  which  had  dwelt  from  the  days  of 
Nazareth  in  the  Manhood  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  enlargement  of  the  Spirit's  Home 
in  Human  Nature, — as  He  had  been  able  to  '  rest '  on  Christ,  so  now  the  fiery 
tongue  '  sat '  upon  each  of  them,  so  calm  and  abiding  is  that  Presence.  O  dearly 
bought  Mystery !  All  the  Mysteries  of  our  Lord  led  the  way  for  this ;  His  Birth, 
Life,  Death,  Resurrection,  Ascension,  Glorification,  'were  so  many  stages  in  pro- 
curing it.     '  1  am  come/  saith  Christ,  *  to  send  Fire  on  the  earth.'  " 


PENTECOSTAL  TIMES 

By  Rev.  William  M.  Davis 


Three  facts  stand  out  as  we  read  the  story 
of  the  Day  of  Pentecost : 

First,  the  right  and  normal  condition  of  the 
Church ;  second,  that  this  should  be  its  per- 
manent condition,  and  third,  that  this  is  not 
its  condition  to-day. 

The  question  is  at  once  forced  upon  us, 
"  Why  do  we  not  have  Pentecostal  times  in 
the  Church  now?"  Should  we  not  seek  the 
reasons  and  ought  we  not  try  to  remove  the 
obstacles,  if  any  there  be,  that  stand  in  the 
way  of  such  a  bright  consummation? 

Are  the  days  when  the  multitudes  pressed 
about  Jesus  to  be  no  more?  Is  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  straitened  that  He  does  not  answer 
prayer?  Have  the  days  forever  gone  when 
the  "  Word  of  the  Lord  shall  prosper  "  and 
men  shall  cry  out  "  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ?  " 

If  God  will  help  us  look  at  facts  and  con- 
ditions, let  us  try  to  see  if  we  cannot  get 
some  ray  of  light  and  some  glimmers  of 
truth  in  answer  to  this  question,  "  Why  do 
we  not  have  Pentecostal  times  in  the  Church 
to-day?  " 

I.  Perhaps  it  is  because  the  Church  does 
not  pray  for  this  as  it  did  in  days  of  old. 
You  will  find  that  Pentecost  never  comes 
without  prayer.  Jacob  "  saw  God  face  to 
face,"  but  it  was  only  after  he  had  wrestled 
all  night  in  prayer.  Jonah  sent  God's  mes- 
sage ringing  through  Nineveh  till  king  and 
peasant  sat  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  but  only 
after  he  had  prayed.  Daniel  faced  lions  and 
dangerous  human  foes,  but  you  remember 
three  times  each  day  that  window  was  opened 
toward  Jerusalem.  No  time  of  blessing  was 
ever  enjoyed  in  the  Church  of  God  that  was 
not  preceded  by  prayer. 

Does  the  Church  now  pray  for  Pentecostal 
days?  Do  those  who  visit  churches  here  and 
there  hear  ministers  praying  and  people  pray- 
ing for  Pentecostal  outpourings?  When  God 
looks  down  from  heaven  and  sees  the  father 
at  the  family  altar  and  the  mother  at  the  bed- 
side with  her  children  at  her  knee,  does  He 
hear  one  great  universal  anthem  of  prayer 
from  the  whole  Church,  united  with  one  ac- 
cord in  faith  and  triumphant  for  Pentecostal 


days?  Of  one  thing  we  can  be  sure.  Until 
God  does  see  such  scenes  and  hear  such 
prayers,  Pentecostal  times  will  never  come. 

II.  It  may  be  that  another  reason  why  we 
do  not  have  Pentecostal  times  is  that  the 
Church  don't  expect  them — ay,  worse — may- 
hap don't  want  them !  There  are  churches, 
I  am  sure,  where  attendants  would  be  very 
much  put  out  indeed  if  the  pews  were  to  be 
filled  with  strangers  and  outcasts  and  pub- 
licans and  harlots  and  sinners.  If  these  peo- 
ple for  whom  Christ  died  were  to  crowd  into 
some  of  our  churches,  as  no  doubt  they  would 
if  Pentecost  were  fully  come,  the  people  al- 
ready there  would  feel  so  uncomfortable  that 
they  would  soon  look  for  another  corner  lot 
on  which  they  could  build  a  church  that  they 
could  call  theirs ! 

The  Church  don't  expect  Pentecost.  We 
have  heard  it  said  many  times,  "  Oh,  these 
were  special  occasions  and  God  does  not  do 
now  as  He  did  in  those  days."  Does  He 
not?  Explain  then  how  it  was  that  the  monk 
of  Erfurt,  single  handed,  shook  the  mightiest 
organization  that  this  world  has  ever  seen  to 
its  foundation !  Tell  me  why  it  was  that 
when  Wesley  and  Whitefield  preached  in 
England,  they  had  audiences  of  ten  and 
fifteen  thousands  which  hung  breathless  on 
their  burning  words  !  Explain  how  Spurgeon 
filled  Surrey  gardens  and  Exeter  Hall  for 
years  and  years  with  weeping  thousands,  if 
God  does  not  work  now  as  He  did  in  Pente- 
costal times ! 

It  is  the  enemy  of  souls  that  tries  to  per- 
suade the  Church  that  God  does  not  work 
now  as  He  used  to.  And  so  the  Church  does 
not  expect  it.  The  Church  is  even  almost 
surprised  when  there  is  a  moving  in  the  tops 
of  the  trees,  and  when  the  waters  of  the 
silent  pools  are  simply  stirred. 

III.  It  may  be  that  we  do  not  have  Pente- 
costal times  because  we  do  not  have  Pente- 
costal preachers. 

Preachers  are  human  and  we  shall  not 
arraign  them  overmuch.  The  day  was  when 
it  could  be  said,  "  Like  priest,  like  people," 
but  the  day  now  is  when  it  might  better  be 
said,    "  Like  people,    like  priest."     Preachers 


26o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


are  too  often  what  the  people  make  them,  and 
if  you  have  any  fault  to  find  with  the  priest 
look  to  his  people.  The  demand  of  the  peo- 
ple is  for  a  preacher  that  will  "  draw,"  that 
will  "  take,"  that  will  "  fill  the  church,"  not 
with  sinners  but  with  sitters,  not  with  pray- 
ers but  with  pay-ers !  And  so  the  preacher 
is  forced  to  make  frantic  efforts  to  do  what 
the  people  want.  In  spite  of  himself,  he  thus 
gets  his  message  from  the  people  instead  of 
from  his  God.  He  preaches  what  he  thinks 
they  will  like  instead  of  what  God  tells  him 
they  need.  He  takes  up  topics  that  will  draw 
men  to  church,  instead  of  Scripture  that  will 
draw  them  to  Christ.  This  ought  not  so 
to  be.  It  is  not  so,  of  course,  in  all  cases,  but 
it  is  lamentably  so,  perhaps  unconsciously,  in 
many.  Preachers  thus  become  man-made  in- 
stead of  God-made.  They  choose  their  pro- 
fession instead  of  God  choosing  them.  Pen- 
tecostal times  will  not  come  until  we  have 
in  our  churches  Pentecostal  preachers  and 
Pentecostal  sermons. 

Can  you  imagine  how  that  crowd  would 
have  looked  that  day,  as  they  surged  about 
the  Spirit-filled  disciples,  if  Peter  had  arisen 
and  preached  to  them  a  sermon  on  "  Friend- 
ship "  or  on  "  Candor "  or  on  "  Love  of 
Praise"  or  on  "The  African  War"?  Pre- 
pared and  anxious  for  the  word  of  the 
Eternal,  as  that  multitude  was,  it  would 
have  risen  in  righteous  wrath  and  driven 
Peter  from  its  midst  if  he  had  made  such  a 
hideous  mistake.  I  don't  believe  that  multi- 
tude wanted  even  magnificent  music,  or  a 
beautiful  ritual,  or  a  splendid  ceremony  of 
any  kind.  What  it  wanted  was  the  Word  of 
God  and  it  wanted  it  quickly. 

When  prayer  and  faith  have  prepared  a 
people  for  a  message,  wo !  wo !  be  to  the 
ambassador  of  God  who  fails  to  give  it 
straight  from  the  throne  itself!  That  was 
what  Peter  gave  that  multitude ;  or  rather 
the  Spirit  gave  it  through  Peter.  He  gave 
Scripture,  not  an  emasculated  Scripture,  but 
the  words  of  David,  Joel,  and  the  prophets 
of  old,  and  he  linked  that  Scripture  to  exist- 
ing needs  and  circumstances.  He  gave  his 
hearers  Christ.  Every  word  was  made  to 
palpitate  and  throb  with  Christ  not  as  an 
ethical  teacher,  a  great  reformer,  a  matchless 
character  or  an  ideal  man  but  Christ  crucified, 
Christ  risen,  Christ  enthroned  and  regnant, 
Christ  the  forgiver  of  sin  and  Christ  the 
Savior  of  men.  And  he  gave  it  with  such 
Holy  Ghost  power  that  men  did  not  applaud 
him,  but  censured  themselves.  They  did  not 
say  "  What  a  great  preacher  Peter  is,"  but 
"  What  a  vile  sinner  I  am."  "  Other  preach- 
ers reach  my  ear  but  Latimer  reaches  my 
heart,"  said  a  courtier  of  the  long  ago.  Ah, 
when  we  have  Pentecostal  preachers  and  ser- 
mons we  will  have  Pentecostal  times  in  the 
Church. 

IV.  It  may  be  that  another  reason  why  the 
Church  and  world  do  not  have  Pentecostal 
times  to-day  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Church 
and  world  do  not  have  Pentecostal  ideas  of 
religion. 


Is  there  enough  of  conscience  in  to-day's 
conception  of  religion?  When  Peter  pointed 
his  finger  at  that  multitude  and  thundered  out 
his  accusation,  "  Him  ye  have  taken  and  by 
wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain,"  con- 
science like  a  feathered  arrow  pierced  them 
to  the  heart.  We  talk  a  great  deal  to-day 
about  morality  and  ethics  and  enlightenment 
and  culture  and  "  sweetness  and  light."  Sin, 
rebellion  against  God.  guilt  and  doom  are  re- 
garded as  old  fashioned  terms  and  as  out  of 
date.  We  have  not  fully  learned  what  Chal- 
mers learned  after  twelve  years  of  work  in 
the  ministry,  "  that  the  system  of  '  Do  this 
and  live '  gives  no  peace  and  is  not  worthy 
of  obedience." 

In  the  Church  and  world  to-day  we  still 
have  people  who  are  trying  to  earn  God's 
favor  by  a  right  life,  utterly  misconceiving 
the  teaching  of  Scripture. 

Till  we  get  the  Pentecostal  idea  of  religion, 
that  the  best  man  is  a  sinner,  that  he  is  lost 
utterly  and  forever,  no  matter  what  he  may 
do  to  save  himself,  and  that  until  he  has  re- 
pented and  believed  in  Jesus  Chirst,  he  is 
doomed  to  death  here  and  hereafter,  we  can- 
not expect,  or  have,  Pentecostal  times  in 
Church. 

V.  Perhaps  the  most  potent  reason  why 
we  do  not  have  Pentecostal  times  to-day 
is  that  we  do  not  have  a  Pentecostal  bap- 
tism of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  after  the 
Spirit  had  descendeu  that  Peter  preached 
and  three  thousand  were  added  to  the 
Church.  Here,  after  all,  is  the  sine  qua  non, 
the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Once  we 
have  secured  that,  all  the  rest  will  follow. 
Take  cold  iron  and  try  to  weld  it ;  how 
fruitless  is  the  effort.  Hammer  it,  twist 
it,  turn  it,  use  utmost  skill  and  it  is  of 
no  avail.  Put  that  iron  in  the  fire,  let  it 
be  softened  and  made  malleable,  then  lay  it 
on  the  anvil  and  each  stroke  tells,  and  it 
can  be  fashioned  to  our  will. 

The  Holy  Spirit  must  soften  and  melt 
men's  hearts  and  then  we  may  look  for  Pen- 
tecostal blessings  in  the  Church. 

How  can  we  get  that  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Spirit?  That  is  the  important  ques- 
tion. 

The  Chinese  tell  a  fable  of  a  great  potter 
of  the  long  ago  who  was  ordered  to  make 
a  set  of  dishes  for  the  Imperial  table.  He 
tried  and  tried ;  he  used  all  his  skill  in  order 
to  bring  out  the  beauty  and  the  gloss  that  he 
desired,  but  all  his  efforts  seemed  to  fail.  At 
last,  in  utter  despair  of  ever  accomplishing 
his  task,  he  threw  himself  into  the  furnace 
with  his  wares,  and  they  say  that  such 
heavenly  beauty  never  gleamed  and  glistened 
from  mortal  handiwork  before  nor  since ! 

Would  we  know  how  to  get  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  Pentecostal  blessings  and  power?  We 
must  learn  the  secret  of  China's  imperial  pot- 
ter and  cast  ourselves  into  the  furnace  of^ 
prayer,  into  the  furnace  of  surrender,  into  the 
furnace  of  fire,  and  as  God  honored  such  de- 
votion at  Pentecost,  He  will  assuredly  honor 
it  to-day  !— P.  J. 


WHITSUNDAY 


261 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  OFFICE  AND  WORK  OF 

THE  HOLY  SPIRIT* 

By  Rev.  D.  N.  Beach 


In  preparing  this  paper  I  have  consulted 
nothing  not  accessible  in  English.  Neither 
have  I  consulted  periodical  literature,  nor 
literature  of  an  occasional  nature,  like  collec- 
tions of  sermons  or  encyclopedia  or  diction- 
ary articles,  except  in  the  case  of  three  ser- 
mons of  the  seventeenth  century,  hereafter  to 
be  mentioned,  and  the  article  in  Smith's 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  Two  works  of 
importance  which  I  have  wanted  very  much 
to  see,  and  have  searched  diligently  for,  I 
have  been  unable  to  find,  viz. :  Bishop  Heber 
on  the  Personality  and  Office  of  the  Com- 
forter (the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1816),  and 
Burton's  Testimonies  of  the  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers  to  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
and  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
(1831). 

The  last  named  work,  together  with 
Swete's  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  from  the 
Apostolic  Age  to  the  Death  of  Charle- 
magne (1876),  and  the  closing  division  of 
Smeaton's  Cunningham  Lectures  for  1882, 
headed  Historical  Survey  of  the  Doctrine 
or  THE  Holy  Spirit,  are  to  be  commended  as 
authorities  on  the  history  of  the  doctrine. 
Swete  and  this  division  of  Smeaton  I  have 
been  able  hardly  more  than  to  look  into. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  will  appear 
how  small  a  portion  of  the  entire  literature 
of  this  subject  I  am  to  survey  at  present. 

Of  the  earlier  writers  I  have  consulted 
Archbishop  Tillotson's  Sermon  on  the  Un- 
pardonable Sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  ; 
Barrow's  sermons  On  the  Gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  on  The  Divinity  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  and  Owen's  Declaration  and  Vin- 
dication of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
(1676),  and  Discourse  Concerning  the  Holy 
Spirit  (1674).  Barrow's  two  sermons  amount 
to  a  tolerably  complete  treatise,  in  his  compre- 
hensive, weighty  and  admirable  manner. 
Owen  on  the  Trinity  is  brief,  and  much  in 
the  method  of  modern  systematic  theologians. 
On  the  Holy  Spirit,  on  the  contrary,  he  is 
elaborate  and  exhaustive.  The  work  is  faulty 
in  treating  at  length  many  topics  to  which  his 
theme  stands  related  merely — as,  for  instance, 
the  person  of  Christ,  in  connection  with  the 
relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  incarnation. 
I  have  seen,  nevertheless,  nothing  which  ap- 
proaches this  work  in  grasp  of  the  subject, 
in  depth,  and  in  essential  suggestiveness. 

Coming  now  to  works  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, I  have  examined  the  treatment  given  the 
subject  by  Dwight,  Hodge,  Van  Oosterzee, 
and  Henry  B.  Smith,  among  the  systematic 
theologians — in  the  case  of  Hodge,  both  in 
his  Theology  and  (more  homiletically)  in 
his    Conference    Papers    (1879).    Of   these 


writers  the  least   formal  and  the  richest  in 
treatment  is  Dwight. 

I  have  also  examined  Oehler  (Old  Testa- 
ment), and  Van  Oosterzee  and  Weiss  (New 
Testament),  among  biblical  theologians. 
Oehler  recognizes  amply  the  place  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  does 
not  find  as  yet  its  personality.  Van  Ooster- 
zee finds  the  latter  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  Weiss  seems  not  to,  except  in  the  Para- 
clete of  John,  which,  he  says,  "  is  represented 
as  a  person  in  the  speeches  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospel,  without  this  idea  being  assimilated 
with  the  Johannean  system  of  doctrine " 
(vol.  ii.,  p.  405).  Even  in  John,  Weiss 
finds  the  Holy  Spirit  principally  "  the  Spirit 
of  truth  "  (p.  407)  ;  and,  viewing  the  Spirit 
in  this  aspect,  he  agrees  with  our  previous 
essayist — if  I  understood  him — in  affirming 
that  the  Paraclete  "  can  testify  to  the  world 
only  by  the  instrumentality  of  believers,  and 
in  that  way  lead  it  from  the  sin  of  its  un- 
belief "(p.  405.) 

I  now  proceed  to  speak  of  fifteen  works, 
to  be  found  (with  the  possible  exception  of 
Robert  Hall's)  in  volumes  by  themselves. 
Seven  of  these  may  fairly  be  pronounced  trea- 
tises on  the  subject,  and  I  speak  of  them 
first. 

I  mention,  then.  Cardinal  Manning's  Tem- 
poral Mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  or.  Rea- 
son AND  Revelation  (1865)  ;  and  his  Inter- 
nal Mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (1875). 
These  books  have  intrinsic  value.  They  have 
value  also  as  a  recent  exposition  of  Roman 
Catholic  views  on  this  subject.  The  former 
volume — as  the  secondary  title,  "  Reason  and 
Revelation,"  suggests — develops  the  Spirit's 
outer,  or  "  temporal  "  function,  as  that  of  es- 
tablishing truth.  Offset,  to  reason  are,  here, 
the  Church,  the  letter,  and,  after  that,  the  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture,  together  with  tra- 
dition— all  under  the  oversight  of  the  Spirit. 
Thus,  competent  authority  is  afiforded  for  the 
mind  to  rest  upon.  In  the  latter  volume  the 
more  spiritual  or  "  internal "  work  of  the 
Spirit  is  treated. 

I  mention  next  Moberly's  Administration 
OF  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Body  of  Christ 
(the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1868).  And  I 
mention  this  work  next,  because  the  Romish 
positions  as  regards  authority  are  not  more 
faithfully  defended  in  the  first  mentioned  of 
Cardinal  Manning's  treatises  than  the  Angli- 
can views  as  regards  "  apostolical  and  eccle- 
siastical teaching  and  authority,"  and  as  re- 
gards "  the  two  sacraments  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  two  great  sacramentals,  ordination  and 
absolution  "  (p.  33),  are  in  this  book.  On  the 
Spirit's  work  in  these  channels  the  book  is 
an   elevated   discourse,   and   its   appendix,   in 


*  No  literature  of  a  later  date  than  1884  has  been  examined  for  this  review. 


262 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  form  of  "  Notes,"  is  heavy  with  citations 
on  churchly  matters. 

More  satisfactory,  because  more  catholic, 
are  the  four  remaining  members  of  this 
group. 

The  least  valuable  of  them,  I  had  almost 
said,  is  Bickersteth's  Spirit  of  Life;  or. 
Scripture  Testimony  to  the  Divine  Person 
AND  Work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (1869),  writ- 
ten in  a  flowing,  easy  style ;  exhaustive  in 
its  Scripture  citations ;  warmly  Christian  in 
spirit;  beautifully  i-everent  toward  Him  who 
was  to  be  sent  when  Jesus  should  depart ;  but 
painfully  uncritical,  particularly  in  its  treat- 
ment of  the  Old  Testament  testimony. 

Of  a  nobler  tone,  because,  while  not  less 
devout,  more  truly  intelligent,  are  the  others : 
Simeon's  Offices  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Four 
Sermons  Preached  before  the  University 
of  Cambridge  in  the  Month  of  November, 
1831 ;  Julius  Hare's  Mission  of  the  Com- 
forter (five  sermons  before  the  same  Uni- 
versity, March,  1840),  with  Notes,  and 
Smeaton's  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  (the 
Cunningham  Lectures  for  1882). 

Simeon's  book  confines  itself  to  the  offices 
of  the  Spirit,  as  does  Hare's,  but  covers  more 
ground  and  is  written  more  tersely. 

Hare's  work,  on  the  other  hand,  which — 
whether  wittingly  or  not,  I  cannot  say — fol- 
lows Simeon  in  a  measure,  while  more  diffuse 
than  Simeon's,  carries  more  warmth  and 
conviction.  Confined  tho  it  is  to  an  expo- 
sition of  the  expediency  of  Christ's  departure, 
and  of  the  Spirit's  mission  as  regards  sin, 
righteousness,  and  judgment,  it  is  suggestive 
of  much  more. 

Better  than  either — except  as  regards  the 
warming  power  of  Hare — is  Smeaton's  vol- 
ume. Professor  in  New  College,  Edinburgh, 
its  author  is,  to  say  the  least,  orthodox 
enoiigli;  but  from  a  conservative  point  of 
view,  he  has  produced  a  candid  and  critical 
book.  His  first  division  presents  the  biblical 
testimony,  disposed  according  to  the  method 
of  Biblical  Theology,  under  successive  epochs 
for  the  Old  Testament,  and  under  successive 
types  of  doctrine  for  the  New  Testament. 
The  second  division  consists  of  the  "  Lec- 
tures "  proper ;  the  first  on  the  personality 
and  procession  of  the  Spirit ;  the  remaining 
five  on  His  offices.  Division  HL — already  al- 
luded to — is  an  admirable  survey  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  doctrine  from  the  age  of  the 
apostles. 

The  remaining  eight  books  fall  naturally 
into  pairs. 

The  first  two  are:  The  Paraclete:  An 
essay  on  the  Personality  and  Ministry  of 
THE  Holy  Ghost,  with  some  Reference  to 
Current  Discussions  (1875)  ;  and  J.  B. 
Walker's  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  or. 
Philosophy  of  the  Divine  Oper.a.tion  of 
THE  Redemption  of  Man  (1869).  Of  these 
books,  The  Paraclete  is  incomparably  the 
abler,  and  Walker  incomparably  the  clearer. 
Both  set  out  to  be  somewhat  complete  trea- 
tises. I  have  thrown  them  out,  however,  from 
the  class  of  treatises  strictly  speaking,  because 
each  undertakes  to  set  forth  a  philosophy  on 
the  subject — a  purpose  incompatible,  I  think, 


with  a  proper  treatment  of  the  theme.  The 
Paraclete — one  of  the  most  suggestive  of 
books,  tho  rather  unhealthfully  so — thus,  by 
its  reasonings,  prepares  the  way  for  a  polemic 
against  Mill,  Huxley  and  others. 

Next  are  to  be  mentioned :  Faber's  Prac- 
tical Treatise  on  the  Ordinary  Operations 
OF  the  Holy  Spirit  (1813)  ;  and  Professor 
Phelps'  New  Birth  ;  or,  The  Work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  (1866).  Both  of  these  books,  it 
need  not  be  said,  are  admirable ;  but  the  ob- 
jective point  in  them  is  hardly  so  much  the 
Holy  Spirit,  as  man  needing  renovation  and 
holiness.  Faber's  work  is  very  direct  and 
simple ;  Professor  Phelps'  has  more  of  a 
homiletical  coloring,  deliberately  pausing,  for 
example,  to  discuss  methods  of  preaching  in 
their  relation  to  its  theme. 

There  come  next :  Robert  Hall's  Work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  (1809)  ;  and  Scribner's 
Pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit  (1875), — the 
former,  but  for  its  brevity,  fit  to  be  classed 
with  the  treatises ;  but  both  practically  horta- 
tives  toward  more  reverence  for,  and  a  more 
earnest  seeking  after  the  Spirit.  As  such 
they  are  much  to  be  praised,  particularly  Rob- 
ert Hall's  few  and  earnest  pages. 

Lastly,  there  are  two  books  on  this  subject 
which  I  may  call  devotional:  Cutler's  Work 
OF  THE  Spirit  ;  or.  Doctrinal  and  Practical 
Meditations  on  the  Nature  and  Work  of 
THE  Holy  Ghost  (1873) — strictly  devotional, 
with  Scripture,  meditation,  and  poetry  for 
each  day  of  the  year,  treating  the  topic  in  an 
orderly  and  somewhat  complete  manner  ;  and 
Robert  Philip's  Love  of  the  Spirit  Traced 
IN  His  Work  (3d  ed.,  1836).  This  latter 
is  a  dissertation  on  the  Holy  Spirit  from  the 
point  of  view  of  His  yearning  love.  The  at- 
tempt is  made  to  show  that  not  Christ  Him- 
self is  animated  by  a  more  tender  and  per- 
sonal love  toward  men  than  is  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  book  becomes,  under  this  plan  of 
treatment,  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  mov- 
ing of  writings — a  real  devotion. 

I  make,  in  conclusion,  the  following  re- 
marks: 

L  As  the  matter  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  one  to  be  experi- 
mentally known,  if  known  at  all  to  advantage, 
and  as,  also,  even  experimental  knowledge 
requires  correctives  and  guides,  I  venture  to 
suggest  the  helpfulness  of  a  considerable 
amount  of  reading  on  this  subject,  and,  if 
I  were  to  be  so  bold,  I  should  suggest,  by 
way  of  saving  time,  the  consecutive  reading, 
say,  of  four  books ;  First,  Hare,  for  its  sound- 
ness and  its  warming  quality ;  then,  Smeaton, 
for  a  comprehensive  and  thorough  presenta- 
tion of  the  whole  subject  (his  is  the  best 
single  book  on  it  of  which  I  know)  ;  then — 
if  one  has  patience — Owen,  to  correct  whom 
Smeaton  will  have  served,  and  than  whom, 
corrected,  there  is  not  a  profounder  work  on 
the  subject  in  English,  if  in  any  .language ; 
and  lastly,  Philip,  whose  wonderful  book  as  a 
devotion,  I  last  mentioned.  Then,  if  a  daily 
devotion  were  wished.  Cutler ;  or  if  some- 
thing with  man  as  the  objective  point,  Faber. 
But  these  last  two  I  make  supplementary. 
The  first  four  are  enough. 


WHITSUNDAY 


263 


II.  Do  we  realize  enough  the  peril  that 
attends  such  a  theme?  Upon  it  Irving  went 
to  wreck.  Plymouth  Brethrenism,  with  its 
meetings  under  the  presidency  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  its  holding  to  be  wrong  to  pray 
for  the  Spirit  because  the  Spirit  is  present,  is 
a  more  substantial,  but  hardly  less  pernicious 
error  than  that  of  the  Irvingites.  When  we 
contemplate  what  happened  to  so  able  and 
good  a  man  as  Irving  through  error  here, 
we  may  all  well  beware.  But  how?  By 
somewhat  wide  reading  on  the  subject,  as  I 
have  suggested ;  by  study,  especially  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  as  the  most  spiritual  of  the 
apostles  advised,  by  proving  the  spirits  (i 
John  iv:  i),  "  for  God  is  not  a  God  of  con- 
fusion, but  of  peace"   (i  Cor.  xiv:  33). 

III.  I  should  not  be  candid  did  I  not  say 
that  the  methods  of  Biblical  Theology  are 
raising — and  I  cannot  see  but  properly — 
certain  questions  about  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  I  have  alluded  to  the  guarded 
position  of  Oehler — necessarily  guarded,  while 
treating  of  the  Old  Testament.  Also,  to  the 
attitude  of  Weiss.  I  should  not  feel  justified, 
from  insufficient  study  of  him,  in  affirming 
the  details  of  Weiss'  view.  But  as  I  under- 
stand him  he  finds  exegetical  grounds  for  a 
somewhat  less  personal  conception  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  than  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
accepting.  Yet  no  man  can  doubt  the  rever- 
ence of  his  view ;  or  that  it  has,  to  his  mind, 
exegetical  foundation.  I  suspect  that  this 
statement  will  be  laid  heavily  against  Weiss 
by  some,  but  I  hardly  think  by  any  who  have 
read  him  carefully.  For  one,  I  want  to  see 
this  side  of  the  subject  fairly  discussed,  as 
well  as  the  other.  If  it  is  erroneous,  may  it 
not  be  that  it  gets  its  rise  in  the  defects — in- 
trinsically, or  as  expounded — of  a  truer  con- 
trary view?  Here  let  us  know,  by  following 
on  to  know  (Hos.  vi:3). 

IV.  Finally,  these  tendencies  are  to  be 
noted  in  the  literature  of  the  subject: 

1.  The  devotional  tendency — impossible  to 
be,  within  proper  limits,  enough  commended 
— Philip,  Cutler,  even  Cardinal  Manning,  on 
the  Internal  Mission. 

2.  The  hortative  tendency — Robert  Hall, 
Scribner,  as  well  as  so  many  of  our  current 
papers  and  addresses  (equally  deserving, 
many  of  them,  to  be  printed)  ;  this  tendency, 
also,  within  proper  limits,  commendable. 


3.  The  conglomerate  tendency,  if  I  may  so 
say — shown  alike  by  treatises  on  conversion 
and  kindred  subjects,  under  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  by  treatises  (like  The  Para- 
clete) seeking  to  construct  a  philosophy  of 
the  Spirit.  I  shrink  from  this  class  of  books, 
admirable  intrinsically  tho  some  of  them 
are. 

4.  Then,  treatises  on  the  Holy  Spirit  that 
may  be  properly  so  styled — some  on  the 
offices,  and  some  on  person  and  offices,  and 
some  on  person,  offices,  and  history  of  the 
doctrine  as  well.  These  are  the  really  help- 
ful books — helpful  to  the  understanding  and 
to  the  heart — tho  from  the  uncritical  works 
of  this  class  I  feel  that  we  should  a'.so 
shrink. 

But  what  I  mourn  in  books  on  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  a  too  formal  treatment  of  the  whole 
subject,  as  if  it  were  all  sure,  and  could  all 
be  mapped  and  marked  out.  This  is  particu- 
larly the  method  of  the  systematic  theolo- 
gians in  their  published  works.  What  study 
and  meditation  I  have  been  able  to  give  to 
the  subject  (and  it  is  a  theme  which  has 
been  much  in  my  thought  for  years)  have 
left  on  me  the  impression  that  we  have  here 
the  unsounded  depths  of  mystery  in  Deity. 
And  when  I  say  that,  I  draw  a  distinction  be- 
tween vagueness  and  mystery.  Undoubtedly 
much  may  be  known,  and  accurately  known, 
about  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  it  is  our  duty  to 
proceed  to  know  it ;  but  how  little  of  all  that 
is  to  be  known !  I  seem — if  I  may  say  it  rev- 
erently— to  know  the  Father  ;  I  seem  to  know 
the  Lord  Jesus :  but  the  Holy  Spirit,  to 
whom  I  continually  pray,  I  seem  not  to  know. 
And  the  more  I  know  Him,  the  less  I  seem 
to  know  Him.  And,  when  I  see  Jesus  wish- 
ing to  withdraw  Himself,  in  order  that  the 
Spirit  may  (the  more  completely)  come — 
saying  "it  is  expedient"  (John  xvi:  7); 
when  I  hear  Him  declare  that  the  one  sin 
unpardonable  is  against  that  blessed  Spirit — 
I  seem  to  get  glimpses  of  more  than  any  of 
the  ordinary  expositions  reach  unto,  viz.,  of 
that  in  God,  which  all  else  in  God  right  chiv- 
alrously pays  homage  to,  and  would  lift  into 
loftiest  regard.  In  this  range  may  we  not 
look  for  what  is  latest  to  be  found,  and 
greatest,  in  God ;  and  for  what  to  know 
(when  we  shall  know  it),  will  be  to  know 
God  indeed?*— H.  R. 

*  During  the  discussion  which  followed  the  paper,  which  was  prepared  at  the  request  of  and  read  before 
the  Boston  (Congregational)  Ministers'  Meeting,  two  works,  not  mentioned  by  the  essayist,  were  especially 
commended  :  John  Howe's  (1630-1705)  OFFICE  AND  WORKS  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  and  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson's 
The  Holy  Comforter  (1866). 


264 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 
PENTECOSTAL   BLESSINGS 


By  Rev.  Dekan  W.  Pressel 

John  xiv:  23-31 


It  is  Pentecost !  In  one  of  our  grand  old 
Pentecostal  hymns  we  sing: 

"  O  Holy  Ghost,  descend,  we  pray, 
Abide  with  us  from  day  to  day, 

Thy  temple  deign  to  make  us ! 
Let  Thy  bright  beams,  Thou  heav'nly  Light, 
Dispel  the  darkness  of  our  night. 

To  joy  and  gladness  wake  us." 

The  echo  of  this  hymn  should  arouse  a 
Christian  congregation  to  celebrate  this  fes- 
tival day 

(i)  As  a  day  of  joyous  remembrance;  (2) 
as  a  day  of  earnest  humiliation;  (3)  as  a 
day  of  grateful  encouragement. 

I.  "  O  Holy  Ghost,  descend,  we  pray,  abide 
with  us  from  day  to  day."  That  which 
Christ  in  our  text  before  His  departure  prom- 
ises to  His  disciples  became  a  reality  and  a 
fact  on  Pentecost.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
tells  us  that  when  the  days  were  fulfilled  the 
faithful  were  found  together,  united  by  the 
bond  of  the  one  love  for  the  ascended  Lord, 
in  the  one  obedience  to  His  Word,  in  the 
one  confidence  in  the  certainty  that  He  would 
fulfil  His  promises,  waiting  for  the  bestowal 
of  His  power  from  on  high.  There,  then, 
ju'st  as  our  first  parents  once  noticed  the  ap- 
proach of  their  God  by  the  rustling  of  the 
evening  air,  they  too  felt  the  living  and  life- 
giving  breath  of  Jesus  as  tho  seized  by  a  terri- 
ble wind.  They  were  fired  with  enthusiasm ; 
they  broke  forth  in  laudation  of  the  mighty 
deeds  of  the  eternal  God ;  they  spake  as  tho 
they  were  filled  with  sweet  wine,  and  in  many 
tongues  gave  utterance  to  the  wonders  of 
His  grace ;  and  in  joyful  contemplation  lis- 
tened to  a  discourse  concerning  the  crucified 
and  risen  Christ ;  their  enthusiasm  was  en- 
kindled in  three  thousand  converts,  who  came 
to  repentance,  and  were  baptized  in  the  name 
of  Jesus.  They  continued  in  the  breaking  of 
the  bread  and  in  prayer,  in  teaching  and  in- 
struction, and  came  together  daily  in  the 
temple,  having  all  things  in  common,  divided 
among  themselves  their  goods  and  posses- 
sions, and  together  and  with  one  heart  they 
praised  the  Most  High,  and  won  the  good- 
will of  all  the  people.  The  Lord,  however, 
added  daily  to  their  number  those  who  were 
to  be  saved.  Behold,  this  was  the  entrance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  that  Pentecost  day  in 
accordance  with  the  promises  of  the  Lord. 
See,  then,  the  Church  of  Christ  was  born  and 
came  into  existence  and  into  the  world,  like 
dew  from  heaven.  Behold,  in  this  way  God's 
dwelling-place  was  established  among  men ; 
His  grace  from  heaven  was  implanted  into 


the  hearts  of  men,  which  came  out  of  the 
heart  of  the  Father  in  heaven  and  of  His 
exalted  Son  to  bless  this  miserable  earth. 
Pentecost  indeed !  Truly  it  is  a  day  of  glori- 
ous remembrance ;  and,  like  none  others,  it 
urges  us  to  pray,  "  O  Holy  Ghost,  descend, 
we  pray,  abide  with  us  from  day  to  day." 

II.  "  Thy  temple  deign  to  make  us."  Us 
us — not  only  that  assembly  of  people  who 
two  thousand  years  ago  peacefully  and  con- 
tentedly, in  faith  and  joy,  celebrated  the  first 
Pentecost.  It  is  zve ;  it  is  zve  who  ask  for 
this  boon  now ;  the  Christianity  of  to-day ; 
our  congregations,  our  families,  our  present 
generation  with  all  its  classes  and  conditions 
of  men,  with  its  entire  society  and  in  all  its 
individuals.  Oh,  Christian  friends,  if  we 
apply  to  ourselves  the  measure  of  that  Pente- 
cost, then  this  is  indeed  also  a  day  of  earnest 
humiliation.  Then  with  groans  beyond  utter- 
ance we  must  pray  on  this  festival  day,  "  Thy 
temple  deign  to  make  us !  "  For  if  we  com- 
pare ourselves  with  the  Christians  of  that 
great  day,  how  can  we  do  otherwise  than  in 
contrition  of  heart  declare  that  we  have  been 
far  from  reaching  the  ideal  and  the  fact  of 
those  days.  There  we  see  the  presence  of  a 
new  power  on  every  tongue,  because  in  every 
soul  and  in  every  heart  the  fire  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  been  enkindled ;  and  therefrom 
came  their  intense  love  for  Him  who  had 
been  sent  by  the  Father,  in  whom  we  can  and 
should  love  each  other.  He  who  is  love  itself. 
Feel  the  pulse  of  this  present  generation,  and, 
alas,  how  sluggishly  the  blood  of  Christian 
life  flows  ! 

In  large  sections  and  parts  of  the  modern 
world  this  life  seems  to  be  altogether  gone, 
not  a  spark  seemingly  remains :  but  in  the 
room  thereof  there  glows  with  all  the  greater 
power  the  flames  of  selfishness,  sin,  and  wick- 
edness. Whenever  we  think  earnestly  of  this, 
we  feel  and  know  it  to  be  the  case ;  and  every 
honest  heart  confesses  that  the  zeal  is  weak 
for  the  Lord  and  His  cause,  for  Him  who  has 
redeemed  and  saved  lost  mankind  through 
His  sufferings  and  death,  and  not  through 
gold  or  silver.  He  has  bought  us ;  we  are 
His  ;  and  it  is  His  will  that  we  should  live 
in  joy  and  eternal  righteousness  in  His  king- 
dom, in  innocence  and  blessedness.  Certainly, 
in  view  of  this  contrast,  the  spirit  of  Pente- 
cost is  also  a  solemn  institution  for  reflection 
and  humiliation.  If  the  spirit  of  Pentecost 
has  no  deeper  lessons  to  teach  us  than  that  we 
accept  the  words  of  Jesus  as  the  Word  of  the 
Father  who  has  sent  Him ;  as  the  lamp  and 
light  of  the  truth,  as  the  fountain  of  eternal 
life  and  bliss,  as  the  rule  for  Christian  faith 


WHITSUNDAY 


265 


and  life,  as  the  firm  foundations  and  pillars 
of  Christian  prosperity  and  growth — if  we 
learn  this,  embrace  it,  love  it,  cling  to  it,  then 
how  we  must  deplore  the  fact  that  so  many 
have  departed  from  the  Lord  and  His  Word 
in  the  carelessness,  pride,  and  evil  propensi- 
ties of  their  hearts. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  over  against  this, 
we  see  in  the  first  Christian  Pentecost  the 
joy  and  happiness  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
faith  and  love  of  the  primitive  Christians,  in 
whom  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  has  been  im- 
planted by  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  whom  the  peace 
of  which  the  world  knows  nothing  has  be- 
come a  joyful  reality,  and  love  to  God  and 
love  to  their  fellow-men  is  the  controlling 
factor  in  their  hearts,  so  that  they  live  in 
peace,  without  contention  and  quarrel,  with- 
out envy  and  strife,  without  anger  and  hatred, 
then,  then  indeed  we  see  a  condition  of  affairs 
with  which  our  own  day  and  generation  pre- 
sents a  lamentable  contrast.  In  the  thou- 
sands of  contests  and  struggles  that  agitate 
the  hearts  of  men  and  society  everywhere 
there  is  one  cry  heard  over  all,  and  that  is  for 
peace.  The  Pentecost  peace  is  found  so  rarely 
in  our  day ;  and  for  that  reason  this  festival 
is  an  admonition  to  earnest  humiliation  and 
prayer  that  the  spirit  of  our  times  may  be 
transformed  and  transfused  by  the  Spirit  of 
Pentecost  from  on  high.  In  the  spiritual  bit- 
terness and  darkness  of  to-day  this  is  the  only 
fountain  of  hope  and  reformation. 

III.  "  Let  Thy  bright  beams,  Thou  heav'nly 
Light,  dispel  the  darkness  of  the  night,  to  joy 
and  gladness  wake  us."  Pentecost  day  also 
offers  the  Christian  an  abundance  of  material 
and  occasions  for  most  grateful  encourage- 
ment. Did  the  great  and  glorious  sun  of  the 
first  Pentecostal  day  succeed  in  banishing  all 
the  darkness  of  that  day,  to  scatter  all  the 
clouds?  The  Gospel  has  preserved  for  us 
enough  of  evidences  to  the  contrary,  and 
shows  us  that  even  then  the  world  and  its 
evil  were  arrayed  against  the  Pentecost 
spirit  with  bitterness  and  determination.  The 
multitude  of  those  who  opposed  the  Spirit 
was  vastly  greater  than  the  number  of  those 
who  submitted  to  His  influence.  Grace  was 
then  as  little  as  it  is  now  irresistible.  Some 
mocked  and  scoffed,  and  the  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  only  an  occasion  for  an 
expression  of  their  adherence  to  the  world. 
Peter  exhorted  them  to  accept  deliverance 
from  an  evil  generation.  Then  already  it  ap- 
peared that  faith  is  not  of  every  man.  There- 
fore it  is  not  surprising  that  in  our  day,  too, 
there  should   be  many  who   fall  away   from 


grace,  as  there  are  many  who  do  not  accept 
the  proffered  boon  of  salvation  at  all. 

The  prince  of  this  world  is  active  now  as 
ever  against  the  influence  of  Divine  grace  in 
our  hearts  and  in  the  world.  Yet  notwith- 
standing this  opposition,  we  have  all  reasons 
for  reassurance  that  faith  in  the  Lord  and 
trust  in  His  Word  and  promises  will  eventu- 
ally gain  the  victory.  Of  this  fact  Pentecost 
gives  us  the  testimony  and  evidences  always. 
The  Spirit,  who  as  the  Comforter  was  to  take 
the  place  of  the  Lord  in  the  hearts  of  the 
faithful  came  in  reality,  without  again  de- 
parting ;  and  He  has  shown  Himself  more 
powerful  than  the  world  ever  since.  Other- 
wise Christ  vainly  would  have  been  wiped  out 
of  existence  long  ago.  The  Sun  of  the  first 
Pentecost  that  came  forth  as  a  bridegroom 
out  of  his  chamber,  rejoicing  as  a  strong  man 
to  run  a  race,  was  no  passing  meteor.  He  has 
been  a  hero  in  the  Church ;  a  warrior  whose 
armor  has  been  impenetrable.  The  rays  of 
this  Sun  which  warmed  and  vivified  the  souls 
of  the  first  disciples,  and  out  of  humble, 
frightened  fishermen  made  heroes  with  hearts 
of  iron,  that  Spirit  has  been  alive  in  the 
Church  ever  since,  as  countless  martyrdoms 
'*  by  fire  and  sword  have  testified  in  all  genera- 
tions. The  rays  of  this  Sun  have  always 
been  powerful.  Think  only  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  second  Pentecost  of  the  Christian 
Church,  a  new  seal  of  the  promises  of  Christ 
to  His  Church ;  and  has  the  Church  ever 
since  not  experienced  the  presence  and  power 
of  this  benign  Spirit?  Is  not  this  grace,  this 
present  and  living  reality,  in  the  Church  of 
our  God? 

Therefore  let  not  your  hearts  be  afraid. 
He  who  has  promised  to  be  with  His  Church 
and  His  children  always,  even  to  the  end  of 
days,  He  is  present  with  us  yet  in  and 
through  His  Spirit,  no  matter  what  the  dan- 
gers that  vex  and  perplex  us  may  be.  We 
have  ground  for  the  certain  hope  of  final  vic- 
tory in  the  Pentecostal  promises  and  spirit. 
Let  us  therefore  prayerfully,  hopefully,  and 
joyfully  join  in  the  petition: 

"  Oh,  Holy  Ghost,  descend,  we  pray, 
Abide  with  us  from  day  to  day. 

Thy  temple  deign  to  make  us  ! 
Let  Thy  bright  beams,  Thou  heav'nly  Light, 
Dispel  the  darkness  of  the  night. 

To  joy  and  gladness  wake  us, 
That  we,  to  Thee 
Truly  living,  to  Thee  giving 
Pray'r  unceasing. 
Still  may  be  in  love  increasing." — H.  R. 


THE  BAPTISM  WITH  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

By  J.  W.  A.  Stewart,  D.D. 

Ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost. — Acts  i:  5 


I.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Spirit  of  absolute 
moral  perfection,  and  stands  for  purity.  The 
baptism  with  the  Spirit  begets  a  life  that  is 
holy.     The  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  whom 


Jesus  gives  acts  like  fire  against  sin.  "  Our 
God  is  a  consuming  fire,"  means  the  con- 
demnation and  punishment  of  the  wicked 
and   impenitent;    but   also   the   purifying  of 


266 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


all  whom  Christ  baptizes  with  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

n.  The  Holy  Ghost  stands  for  power.  In 
the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  that  power 
is  applied  in  working  in  the  believer  the  com- 
plete salvation  promised  by  Christ,  the  com- 
plete deliverance  from  the  power  of  sin. 

III.  The  Holy  Ghost  stands  for  the  spirit- 
ual enlargement  of  the  believer.  Through 
baptism  with  the  Spirit  the  Christian  is  led 
into  all  the  heights  and  depths  of  spiritual 
knowledge  and  experience.  The  apostle 
prays,  "  that  ye  may  be  strengthened  with 
might  through  his  Spirit  in  the  inward  man." 


IV.  The  Holy  Ghost  stands  for  power  for 
service,  and  His  baptism  gives  this  power. 
"  He  that  believeth  in  me,"  said  Jesus,  "  out 
of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water. 
This  spake  he  of  the  Spirit  which  they  that 
believed  on  him  were  to  receive."  A  Spirit- 
filled  man  is,  under  Christ,  a  source  of  eter- 
nal life  to  those  about  him.  You  recall  the 
words  of  Christ  to  His  disciples :  "  But  ye 
shall  receive  power  when  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
come  upon  you."  We  all  know  of  the  mighty 
working  of  that  power  through  Peter,  and 
John,  and  Paul,  and  the  early  Church. — 
H.  R. 


THE  PENTECOSTAL  FEAST 

By  Rev.  Henry  Smith 


Deut.  xvi:  g-i2 


In  the  Law  of  Moses  we  find  references 
made  to  three  great  feasts,  viz.,  Passover, 
Tabernacles,  Pentecost.  Each  feast  had  a 
very  prominent  place  in  the  heart  and  mind 
of  the  nation.  All  were  intended  to  promote 
some  great  moral  and  spiritual  purpose.  That 
purpose  was  to  foster  and  evoke  joy.  Juda- 
ism was  not  a  joyless  religion;  much  less 
should  Christianity  be. 

The  Pentecost  was  a  corn  festival  origi- 
nally. The  Feast  of  Tabernacles  being  a 
fruit  festival.  Modern  Jews  have  lost  sight 
of  the  Pentecost  as  a  corn  harvest,  and  so 
have  modern  Christians,  but  at  our  thanks- 
giving service  we  may  find  it  profitable 

I.  To  REMIND  OURSELVES  OF  THE  SACRED 
CHARACTER    OF    THE    HARVEST. 

The  harvest  field  should  be  a  holy  place. 
Alas !  it  is  not  always  such.  But  in  the 
harvest  field,  if  anywhere,  we  may  see  the 
hand  and  the  glory  of  God. 

II.  God  took   care  to   teach   the   people 

THE    SACREDNESS    OF   COMMON   THINGS. 

To  those  who  have  eyes  to  see  a  grain  of 


corn  is  suggestive  of  some  of  the  deepest 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom.  The  small  grain 
suggests  a  reign  of  law.  The  working  of 
wisdom,  love,  and  patience.  There  is  a  close 
relation  between  the  intellectual  and  the 
spiritual,  and  the  physical  underlies  them 
both.  The  Jews  were  in  a  true  sense  what 
the  nation's  cornfields  enabled  them  to  be. 
England's  town  and  city  life  is  largely  what 
England's  cornfields  and  the  cornfields  of 
other  lands  give.  Christ  sought  to  teach  the 
people  of  His  day  the  sacredness  of  the  com- 
mon corn. 

III.  This  feast  was  intended  to  be  a  re- 
newed bond  of  brotherhood. 

Plenty  sometimes  hardens  the  emotional 
life  (cf.  the  rich  fool.  Some  modern  mil- 
lionaires). God  intends  it  should  be  other- 
wise. See  how  Levite,  stranger,  fatherless 
and  friendless,  was  thought  of  in  the  Jewish 
Pentecost. 

IV.  It  was  a  season  of  setting  wrong 
things  right  in  the  family  and  national 

LIFE. C.    G. 


ST.  PETER'S  PENTECOSTAL  SERMON 


By  Bishop  Harvey  Goodwin 
Then  they  that  gadly  received  his  word  were  baptised,  etc. — Acts  ii:  41.  42 


Consider  the  several  points  noted  in  the 
text,  as  showing  the  result  of  St.  Peter's 
sermon. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  the  persons  who  had 
been  baptized,  and  so  added  to  the  Church, 
remained  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fel- 
lowship; that  is,  they  joined  themselves  to 
their  company,  listened  to  their  teaching,  and 
acted  accordingly ;  they  were  not  ashamed  to 
confess  that  they  belonged  to  the  new  society 
who  owned  a  crucified  Master,  and  they  did 
not  wish  merely  to  adopt  a  new  name,  and 
not    withal    to    show    by    their    conduct   that 


their    Christian    name   was    a    reality.     As   aj 
general  rule,  it  is  clear  that  the  effect  of  the ' 
conversion     which     was     produced     by     St. 
Peter's  sermon  was  true  and  vital ;    tho  there 
were    some   who    disgraced   their   profession, 
yet  as   a  general   rule,   the  profession   which 
was  made  under  the  influence  of  St.  Peter's 
words  was  fully  borne  out  by  the  lives  of  the  ' 
converts. 

II.  Another    point     mentioned     concerning ' 
the  converts  is,  that  they  remained  steadfast 
in  the  breaking  of  bread;    this  phrase  has  in 
the   New   Testament   a  peculiar   signification," 


WHITSUNDAY 


267 


and  generally  means  that  which  undoubtedly 
it  does  mean  in  this  case,  namely,  the  cele- 
bration of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. And  the  converts  remained  steadfast  in 
the  partaking  of  the  Holy  Communion.  In 
our  own  days,  it  is  nothing  remarkable  for  a 
Christian  to  listen  to  a  sermon,  and  yet  hold 
back  from  the  breaking  of  bread ;  people 
think  that  listening  to  a  sermon  commits 
them  to  nothing ;  that  the  breaking  of  bread 
does;  that  the  one  is  amusing,  and  the  other 
certainly  awful.  What  does  this  prove  but 
that  the  heart  is  wrapped  up  in  impenetrable 


folds   of  worldliness,   or   self-satisfaction,   or 
carnal  security. 

III.  Lastly,  those  who  were  converted  by 
St.  Peter's  address  remained  steadfast  in 
prayer.  This  was  the  proper  fruit  of  a  ser- 
mon. The  sermon  is  rightly  appreciated,  it 
is  manifestly  blessed  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
when  it  leads  persons  to  value  and  joirt 
heartily  in  the  Church's  prayers.  The 
prayers  are  not  the  mere  introduction  to 
preaching,  but  preaching  is  intended  to  make 
people  pray. — S.  B.,  vol,  viii.,  p.  359- 


THE  FAITH  OF  PENTECOST 


By  C.  J.  Vaughan,  D.D. 

Behold,  are  not  all  these  which  speak  Galileans?    And  how  hear  we  every  man  in  our  own 
tongue,  wherein  we  were  bornf — Acts  ii:  7,  8 


I.  There  are  but  two  postulates  necessary 
to  the  faith  of  Pentecost,  or  Whitsuntide : 
the  first,  God  is  Almighty ;  and  the  second, 
Christianity  is  of  God.  Given  these  two 
principles,  all  is  intelligible.  The  new  Gos- 
pel was  a  word,  was  a  message,  was  a  testi- 
mony, was  a  proclamation ;  these  were  its 
names  for  itself.  Therefore  it  must  find  a 
voice  and  it  must  get  a  hearing.  It  was  a. 
failure  if  it  did  not.  There  must  be  a  miracle. 
Men's  eyes  and  ears  must  be  made  cognizant 
of  God's  intervention,  must  be  appealed  to,  as 
St.  Peter  appeals  to  them  on  this  occasion, 
"  He  hath  shed  forth  this  which  ye  now  see 
and  hear."  I  know  not  how  else  the  Gospel 
could  ever  have  got  out  of  little  Palestine ; 
how  else  the  Gospel  could  ever  have  gained, 
in  the  first  instance,  the  attention  of  man- 
kind. 

II.  These  Galileans  speak  still.  Each  one 
of  them,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh.  No  phi- 
losopher, no  poet,  no  orator,  ever  spake  as 
they  speak.  To  have  written  a  page  in  the 
Bible  is  to  have  an  immortality  of  speech. 
There  is  no  book  like  it,  its  enemies  them- 
selves being  judges.    Men  feel  that  the  Bible 


is  something  to  them  which  none  other  book 
is.  It  has  words  of  eternal  life,  which  must 
be  heard  in  their  integrity,  and  heard  in  the 
birth-tongue.  How  is  this  and  why?  The 
Spirit  of  God  touched  their  lips  and  there- 
fore it  is  life  or  death  to  listen. 

III.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  not  dead  but  liv- 
ing. The  miracle  of  Pentecost  was  a  token, 
was  a  symbol,  was  a  proclamation — of  what? 
Of  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  all  His 
fulness,  to  abide  with  us  for  ever.  We  want 
still  God's  Holy  Spirit ;  and  still,  as  in 
times  of  old.  He  lives  and  works  in  Christ's 
Church.  Not  in  the  Church  as  an  establish- 
ment, as  an  institution,  as  an  aggregate  of 
humanity  or  a  center  of  worship.  It  is  by 
making  the  separate  stones  temples  that  the 
Spirit  builds  into  one  the  great  temple.  It  is 
by  opening  to  the  praying  soul  the  secrets  of 
Scripture,  that  the  Spirit  causes  these  long 
dead  Galileans  to  speak  and  preach  to  us. 
By  bringing  a  spiritual  ear  to  the  spiritual 
utterance,  so  that  spiritual  things  may  be 
interpreted  to  the  spiritual  in  that  which  is 
the  common,  the  unchangeable  language  of 
hearts  and  souls. — S.  B.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  349. 


THE  HOLY  GHOST 


By  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 
Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost? — Acts  xix:  2 


I.  Why  should  not  each  of  us  put  this 
question  to  his  own  heart  as  a  personal  in- 
quiry, as  a  question  that  ought  to  be  an- 
swered as  before  God,  without  equivocation, 
without  self-deception^  and  without  any  at- 
tempt to  deal  triflingly  with  the  piercing  and 
all-important  interrogative?  If  we  treat  the 
question  in  this  way,  it  will  become  to  us  a 
judgment-seat;  and  why  should  we  not  ever 
and  anon  arrest  ourselves  in  the  hurry  and 


rush  and  delirium  of  life,  to  ask  a  question 
or  two  that  shall  pierce  the  heart  and  bring 
us  to  a  right  knowledge  and  a  proper  estima- 
tion of  ourselves?  The  Divine  mediation  is 
a  progress.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
from  the  outline,  the  shadow,  the  type,  to  this 
great  spiritual  personality,  this  sovereignty 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there  has  been  progress, 
advancement,  culmination ;  and  in  all  these 
I   see   a   grandeur   most   impressive   and    in- 


268 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


structive.  Now,  are  we  in  the  line  of  that 
progress,  are  we  as  far  on  as  our  opportuni- 
ties have  enabled  us  to  be?  or  are  some  of 
us  still  lingering  far  behind?  Have  some  of 
us  turned  back  to  the  beggarly  elements?  Is 
it  not  matter  of  debate  with  the  heart  whether 
it  has  passed  through  the  process  called  re- 
generation— whether  it  has  passed  from  death 
unto  life? 

II.  What  is  the  one  decisive  sign  by  which 
wc  may  know  whether  we  have  received  the 
Holy  Ghost?  Is  it  to  be  a  mere  sentiment, 
an  impression  upon  the  mind,  a  religious 
hope?  or  is  it  to  be  something  more  decisive, 
emphatic,  and  incontrovertible?  What  is  the 
one  decisive  sign  that  a  man  has  received  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?  Let  me  approach  that  question 
through  two  others.  Have  you  received  the 
poetic  spirit?  How  do  you  prove  it?  Not 
by  prose,  but  by  poetry.  Have  you  received 
the  heroic  spirit?  How  do  you  prove  it? 
Not  by  cowardice,  not  by  craven-heartedness, 
but  by  adventure  and  by  freely  encountering 
peril  in  all  its  thousand  forms  and  possibili- 
ties of  visitation.  Have  you  received  the 
Holy  Spirit?  The  decisive  sign  is  love  of 
holiness,  not  power  of  theological  debate; 
not  only  contending  for  the  faith  once  deliv- 
ered to  the  saints,  not  only  outwardly  irre- 
proachable  character,   but    love   of  holiness ; 


not  reputation,  but  reality ;  a  heart  that  pants 
after  the  holiness  of  God;  life  concentrated 
into  one  burning  prayer  to  be  sanctified,  body, 
soul,  and  spirit ;  life  a  sacrifice  on  God's 
altar, — that  is  what  I  mean  by  saying  that 
holiness  is  the  one  decisive  test  of  our  having 
received  the  Holy  Ghost.  Alas !  are  not 
some  professing  Christians  afraid  to  say  the 
word  "  holy  "  ?  I  find  this  in  the  course  of 
my  study  of  human  nature  and  my  inter- 
course with  men,  that  I  should  be  almost 
startled  if  I  heard  some  men  say  the  word 
"  holy."  They  hope ;  they  assent ;  they  would 
fain  believe ;  they  are  not  without  some  idea 
that  so-and-so  may  be  the  case ;  but  a  rich, 
ripe,  unctuous,  emphatic  expression  of  Chris- 
tian experience  would  be  from  their  lips  al- 
most an  anti-climax,  if  not  a  profanity.  We 
are  not  called  upon  to  do  with  as  little  Chris- 
tianity as  possible ;  it  is  not  "  Just  get  over 
the  line,  and  that  will  do;  "  it  is  this:  "  Be 
ye  perfect,  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect ;  be  ye  holy,  as  God  is  holy."  This  is 
the  vocation  to  which  we  are  called,  and  if, 
when  men  ask  us  if  we  have  received  the 
Holy  Ghost,  we  only  answer  them  by  some 
theological  mystery  which  neither  they  nor 
we  can  understand,  then  we  lie  not  unto 
men,  but  unto  the  Holy  Ghost. — S.  B.,  vol. 
ix.,  p.  54. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


BAPTISM,    Pentecostal    and    Seclusion. 

— Acts  i:  14-21.  The  pentecostal  baptism  and 
the  pentecostal  seclusion  were  related  to  each 
other  not  as  power  and  accident,  but  as  power 
and  condition.  Walls  of  prayer  excluding  all 
entrance  of  the  zvorld  must  enclose  the  room 
which  is  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  is  a  causal  necessity.  An  engine  open 
on  one  side  of  its  cylinder  to  the  steam  from 
the  boiler,  and  on  the  other  side  to  the  air 
without,  would  either  only  blow  ofif  without 
turning  a  wheel,  or  else  blow  up  itself  and 
the  machinery.  How  then  can  men  seeking 
worldly  intercourse  presume  to  pray  for  the 
might  of  the  Holy  Spirit?  A  worldly-minded 
man  filled  with  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
would  be  an  anomaly  in  the  dynamics  of 
heaven  and  earth. — Rev.  Dubois  H.  Loux, 
Ph.D.     (C.  G.) 

CHRISTIANITY.— Whatever  the  age,  or 
the  intellect  of  the  passing  age,  may  be,  even 
if  ever  arise  again  such  a  galaxy  of  great 
minds  as  dawned  upon  this  country  three 
hundred  years  ago,  tho  all  those  great  minds 
start  upon  their  glorious  career,  comprising 
and  intensifying  all  the  light  engendered  by, 
before,  and  since  the  time  of  Shakespeare, 
Bacon,  Newton,  then,  tho  they  enhance  that 
light  tenfold  by  their  own  bright  genius,  till 
a  thousand  waking  nations  gleam,  like  hill- 
tops touched  with  sunrise,  to  guide  men  on 


the  human  road,  to  lead  them  heavenward, 
all  shall  be  no  more  than  a  benighted  river 
wandering  away  from  the  stars  of  God.  Do 
what  we  will  and  think  as  we  may,  enlarging 
the  mind  in  each  generation,  growing  con- 
temptuous of  contempt,  casting  caste  to  the 
winds  of  Heaven,  and  antiquating  prejudice, 
nevertheless  we  shall  never  outrun  or  even 
overtake  Christianity.  Science,  learning,  phi- 
losophy may  regard  it  through  a  telescope ; 
they  touch  no  more  than  astronomy  sets  foot 
upon  a  star.  To  a  thoughtful  man,  who  is 
scandalized  at  all  the  littleness  felt  and  done 
under  the  holy  name,  until  he  almost  begin 
to  doubt  if  the  good  outweigh  the  evil,  it  is 
reassurance  to  remember  that  we  are  not 
Christians  yet,  and  comfort  to  confess  that 
on  earth  we  never  can  be.  For  nothing  shows 
more  clearly  that  our  faith  is  of  Heaven  than 
the  truth  that  we  cannot  rise  to  it  until  it 
raise  us  thither.  And  this  reflection  is  akin 
to  the  stately  writer's  sentiment,  that  our 
minds  conceive  so  much  more  than  our 
bodies  can  perform  to  give  us  token,  aye,  and 
earnest,  of  a  future  state. 

Of  all  the  creeds  which  have  issued  as  yet 
from  God,  or  man,  or  the  devil,  there  is  but 
one  which  is  far  in  advance  of  all  human 
civilization.  True  Christianity,  like  hope, 
cheers  us  to  continual  efforts,  exalts  us  to 
unbounded  prospects,  flies  in  front  of  our 
best  success.     Let  us  call  it  a  worn-out  garb 


I 

i 


WHITSUNDAY 


269 


when  we  have  begun  to  wear  it ;  as  yet  the 
mantle  is  in  the  skies,  and  we  have  only  the 
skirt  with  the  name  on  it. — R.  D.  Black- 
more,  Author  of  "  LoRNA  Doone."     (P.  M.) 

CHURCH,  Contributing  for  a.  —  A 
worthy  Quaker  who  lived  in  a  country  town 
in  England  was  rich  and  benevolent,  and  his 
means  were  put  in  frequent  requisition  for 
purposes  of  local  charity  and  usefulness.  The 
townspeople  wanted  to  rebuild  their  parish 
Church,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
raise  funds.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Quaker 
could  not  be  asked  to  subscribe  towards  an 
object  so  contrary  to  his  principles;  but  then, 
on  the  other  hand,  so  true  a  friend  to  the 
town  might  take  it  amiss  if  he  was  not  at 
least  consulted  on  a  matter  of  such  general 
interest.  So  one  of  their  number  went  and 
explained  to  him  their  project;  the  old 
Church  was  to  be  removed,  and  such  and 
such  steps  taken  towards  the  construction  of 
a  new  one.  "  Thee  was  right,"  said  the 
Quaker,  "  in  supposing  that  my  principles 
would  not  allow  me  to  assist  in  building  a 
Church.  But  didst  thee  not  say  something 
about  pulling  down  a  Church?  Thee  may'st 
put  my  name  down  for  a  hundred  pounds." — 
F.  II. 

HOLY  SPIRIT,  Agency  of  the.— -Uncon- 
verted men  often  say,  "  If  these  things  are  so, 
if  they  are  so  clear  and  great,  why  cannot  we 
see  them  ?  "  And  there  is  no  answer  to  be 
given  but  this,  "  Ye  are  blind."  "  But  we 
want  to  see  them.  If  they  are  real,  they  are 
our  concern  as  well  as  yours.  Oh,  that  some 
preacher  would  come  who  had  power  to  make 
us  see  them !  "  Poor  souls,  there  is  no  such 
preacher,  and  you  need  not  wait  for  him. 
Let  him  gather  God's  light  as  he  will,  he  can 
but  pour  it  on  blind  eyes.  A  burning  glass 
will  condense  sunbeams  into  a  focus  of 
brightness ;  and  if  a  blind  eye  be  put  there, 
not  a  whit  will  it  see,  t'ro  it  be  consumed. 
Light  is  the  remedy  for  darkness,  not  blind- 
ness. Neither  will  strong  powers  of  under- 
standing on  your  part  serve.  The  great  Earl 
of  Chatham  once  went  with  a  pious  friend  to 
hear  Mr.  Cecil.  The  sermon  was  on  the 
Spirit's  agency  in  the  hearts  of  believers. 
As  they  were  coming  from  the  Church,  the 
mighty  statesman  confessed  that  he  could  not 
understand  it  all,  and  asked  his  friend  if  he 
supposed  that  any  one  in  the  house  could. 
"  Why  yes,"  said  he,  "  there  were  many  plain, 
unlettered  women,  and  some  children  there, 
who  understood  every  word  of  it,  and  heard 
it  with  joy." — Dr.  Hoge. 

HOLY    SPIRIT,    Biblical.— The    Gift    of 

the  Spirit  is  frequently  described  by  words 
expressive  of  abundance  and  continuance. 
Thus  the  Holy  Ghost  is  spoken  of  as — Com- 
ing, as  a  mighty  and  powerful  impulse,  as  in 
the  case  of  Othniel,  Jephthah,  Samson,  etc., 
personally,  and  upon  the  Church  collectively. 
Poured  out,  Ps.  li :  23  ;  Isa.  xliv :  3  ;  Joel 
ii :  28,  29;  Zech.  xii :  10;  Acts  ii :  17,  18.  Shed 
abundantly,  Titus  iii :  6.  Clothing,  Judges  vi : 
34 ;  I  Chron.  xii :  18,  margins ;  so  Luke  xxiv : 
49 — "  endued,"  or  invested  with  the  Spirit. 
Dwelling,  Ps.  Ixviii:  18;  John  xiv :  17;  Rom. 


vi:  9;  I  Cor.  iii:  16,  and  also  vi :  19.  Abiding, 
John  xiv :  16.  Supplying  the  wants  of  the 
Church  Phil,  i :  19.  The  Greek  word  here 
(Phil,  i:  19),  is  taken  from  the  office  of  the 
Choregus,  whose  place  it  was  to  supply  the 
chorus,  at  his  own  expense,  with  ornaments 
and  all  other  necessaries.  So  the  Holy  Spirit 
supplies  the  wants  of  the  Church.  St.  Luke's 
Gospel  contains  the  most  frequent  references 
to  the  Holy  Ghost  of  all  the  gospels.  In  the 
first  four  chapters,  we  read  of  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth,  John  the  Baptist,  Mary,  Simeon, 
and  our  Lord  Himself,  being  filled  with,  or 
moved  by,  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  striking  con- 
trast. Thomas,  tho  one  of  our  Lord's 
chosen  apostles,  who  had  been  with  Him  dur- 
ing His  ministry,  and  heard  Him  so  often 
foretell  His  own  resurrection,  yet  refused  to 
believe  the  resurrection,  until  compelled  by 
sight  to  say,  "  My  Lord,"  John  xx :  18.  Eliz- 
abeth— less  favored — when  Mary  came  to  see 
her  before  He  was  born,  at  once  acknow- 
ledged her  as  "  the  mother  of  my  Lord," 
Luke  i :  43.  "  Elizabeth,"  we  read,  "  was  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  ver.  44.  Filled  with 
THE  Spirit — Full  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  How 
often  these  pregnant  expressions  occur ;  de- 
noting the  energizing,  ennobling  power  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  heart  of  God's  saints.  They  are 
generally  marked  by  some  special  result  fol- 
lowing. Take,  e.  g.,  the  following  cases  :  Besa- 
lecl — Exod.  xxxi :  3  ;  xxxv  :  30,  31 — "  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  God ;  "  to  prepare  the  ma- 
terials for  the  tabernacle.  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth — Luke  i :  41,  67 — inspired  with  the 
spirit  of  prophecy.  Jolm  Baptist,  Luke  i:  15, 
16.  (See  the  beautiful  connection.)  The  dis- 
ciples at  Pentecost,  and  afterwards — Acts  ii : 
4 ;  xiii :  52 — endued  with  the  ordinary  and  ex- 
traordinary gifts  of  the  Spirit.  The  seven 
deacons — Acts  vi — qualified  for  their  import- 
ant offices ;  filled  with  wisdom,  ver.  3 ;  faith, 
ver.  5  ;  and  power,  ver.  8.  Peter — Acts  iv :  8 ; 
xiii :  19,  20 — emboldened  to  confess  Jesus 
Christ  without  fear.  Stephen — Acts  vi :  5 — 
witnessing  a  good  confession;  rejoicing  in  the 
midst  of  danger,  vi :  15  ;  calm  in  the  hour  of 
death,  vii:55.  St.  Paul — Acts  ix:i7;  xiii :  9 
— even  from  the  commencement  of  his  minis- 
terial course,  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
— Bowes. 

HOLY  SPIRIT  OF  GOD,  The.— The  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  is  our  Guide.  Who  will  dis- 
please his  Guide,  a  sweet  comfortable  Guide, 
that  leads  us  through  the  wilderness  of  this 
world?  As  the  cloud  before  the  Israelites  by 
day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  so  He 
conducts  us  to  the  Heavenly  Canaan.  If 
we  grieve  our  Guide,  we  cause  Him  to  leave 
us  to  ourselves.  The  Israelites  would  not 
go  a  step  further  than  God  by  His  angel  went 
before  them.  It  is  in  vain  for  us  to  make 
toward  Heaven  without  our  blessed  Guide. — 
Sibbes,  1577-1635. 

HOLY  SPIRIT'S  WORK,  Conviction  of 
Sin  the. — John  xvi:  8.  The  revisers  have 
improved  this  verse  by  changing  "  reprove  " 
to  "  convince ''  (cf.  A.  V.  margin.)  _  The 
Greek  word  kXsyxBiv  in  some  passages  in  the 
New  Testament  means  simply  "  rebuke,"  as 


270 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


in  Luke  iii :  19;  in  others  "  convince,"  as  here: 
in  others  again  "  convict,"  as  in  James  ii :  9. 
Conviction  of  sin  is  pre-eminently  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Says  Julius  Charles  Hare 
(in  The  Mission  of  the  Comforter)  :  To 
convince  the  -world  of  sin, — to  produce  a  liv- 
ing and  lively  conviction  of  it, — to  teach  man- 
kind what  sin  is, — to  lay  it  bare  under  all  its 
masks, — to  trace  it  through  all  the  mazes  of 
its  web, — and  to  light  on  it  sitting  in  the 
midst  thereof, — to  show  it  to  man,  not  merely 
as  it  flashes  forth  ever  and  anon  in  the  overt 
actions  of  his  neighbors,  but  as  it  lies  smol- 
dering inextinguishably  within  his  own 
bosom, — to  give  him  a  torch  wherewith  he 
may  explore  the  dark  chambers  of  his  own 
heart, — to  lead  him  into  them,  and  to  open 
his  eyes  so  that  he  shall  behold  some  of 
Sin's  countless  brood  crouching  or  gamboling 
in  every  corner, — to  convince  a  man  of  sin 
in  this  way,  by  proving  to  him  that  it  lies 
at  the  bottom  of  all  feelings,  and  blends  with 
all  his  thoughts ; — to  convince  the  world  of 
sin,  by  showing  it  how  sin  has  tainted  its 
heart,  and  flows  through  all  its  veins,  and  is 
mixed  up  with  its  lifeblood ; — this  is  a  work 
which  no  earthly  power  can  accomplish.  No 
human  teacher  can  do  it.  Conscience  cannot 
do  it.  Law,  in  none  of  its  forms,  human  or 
divine,  can  do  it.  Nay,  the  Gospel  itself  can- 
not do  it.  Altho  the  word  of  God  is  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  yet  unless  the  Spirit  of 
God  draws  forth  that  sword,  it  lies  powerless 
in  its  sheath." — C.  G. 

»  HOLY  SPIRIT,  The.— As  the  sails  of  a 
ship  carry  it  into  the  harbor,  so  prayer  car- 
ries us  to  the  throne  and  bosom  of  God. 
But  as  the  sails  cannot  of  themselves  speed 
the  progress  of  the  vessel,  unless  filled  with 
a  favorable  breeze,  so  the  Holy  Spirit  must 
breathe  upon  our  hearts,  or  our  prayers  will 
be  motionless  and  lifeless. — Toplady,  1740-1778. 

HOLY  SPIRIT,  The.— One  of  the  three 
great  articles  of  the  Christian  faith  is  a  be- 
lief in  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  who,  in  answer 
to  prayer,  bestows  upon  us  His  supernatural 
guidance  and  assistance.  Assuming  this  to 
be  true,  there  remains  no  room  for  com- 
parison between  this  and  the  influence  of 
purely  natural  culture.  It  seems  desirable  to 
mention  this,  lest,  in  arguing  upon  pther 
grounds,  this  moinentous  power  in  Christian 
faith  should  appear  to  be  overlooked. — 
A.  P.  L. 

PENTECOST,  The  Christian. — Next  to 
the  day  of  Christ's  death,  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost was  the  greatest  day  that  ever  dawned 
on  our  world.  It  was  the  first  day  of  the  last 
and  best  dispensation  of  revealed  religion.  It 
was,  as  it  has  been  well  called,  "  the  birth- 
day "  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  was  the 
first  day  of  the  new  creation,  in  which  the 
elements  which  had  previously  existed  in  a 
state  of  chaotic  confusion  began  to  be  fash- 
ioned and  arranged  by  the  plastic  power  of 
the  Spirit  of  glory  and  of  God. — Morris. 
(F.  IL) 

PENTECOST,  The  Day  ot.—Acts  ii:  i- 
47.    The  day  of  Pentecost  was  characterized 


by  a  great   miracle,   a  great   sermon,   and  a 
great  revival. 

The   miracle    was   not   only   the   inaugura- 
tion  of  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy   Spirit    ; 
and    the    solemn    investiture    of   the    Church 
with   its   functions   as  a   witness-bearing   and 
world-reaching    Church,    but    also    a    specific 
equipment   of  the   Apostles   for   their    work. 
The  mighty  wind  and  the  tongues  of  fire  were 
symbols  of  God's  mysterious,  vitalizing  power 
and  His  illuminating  and  warming  presence. 
The  gift  of  tongue  symbolized  the  bloodless      1 
character  of  the   Christian   warfare,   and  the     I 
power  of  the  preached  word.  ' 

The  sermon  of  Peter  was  preached  from 
the  strange  text:  "  These  men  are  full  of  new 
wine,"  a  text  which  disclosed  the  old  ten- 
dency of  the  Sadducees  to  deny  the  miracu- 
lous. Even  as  to-day,  men  love  to  explain 
away  the  supernatural.  Upon  it  Peter 
pleached  a  plain,  honest,  earnest,  doctrinal 
sermon  which  produced  a  wonderful  revival. 

There  was  nothing  of  rhapsody  in  the 
sermon,  and  nothing  of  uncertainty  in  its 
results.  On  the  contrary  we  are  expressly 
told  that  the  converts  continued  steadfast — 
a  statement  especially  encouraging  to  us  in 
these  days  when  revivals  are  disparaged  and 
their  results  are  considered  transitory. — 
Francis  L.  Patton,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

SPIRIT  OF  GOD.— Ordinances  are  but  as 
the  sails  of  a  ship,  and  ministers  as  the  sea- 
men that  manage  those  sails.  The  anchor 
may  be  weighed,  the  sails  spread,  but  when  all 
this  is  done  there  is  no  sailing  till  a  gale  come. 
We  preach,  pray  and  listen,  but  there  is  no 
motion  Christward  until  the  Spirit  of  God 
blows  upon  us. — Flavel,  1627-1691. 

SPIRIT,  Witness  of  the.— i?o;n.  viii:  16. 
That  the  world  deny  any  such  testimony  in 
the  hearts  of  believers,  and  that  they  look  on 
it  with  scorn  and  treat  it  with  derision,  proves 
only  that  they  are  unacquainted  with  it ;  not 
that  it  is  an  illusion.  It  is  a  sensible  and 
true  remark  of  the  French  philosopher  Hem- 
sterhuis,  in  regard  to  certain  sensations  which 
he  was  discussing:  "Those  who  are  so  un- 
happy as  never  to  have  had  such  sensations, 
either  through  weakness  of  the  natural  or- 
gan, or  because  they  have  never  cultivated 
them,  will  not  comprehend  me." — A.  P.  L. 

SPIRIT,  Witness  of  the. — 7  Cor.  ii:  4. 
The  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  taken  in  a  sense 
quite  too  limited,  when  it  is  taken  as  merely 
a  practical  testimony  in  the  conscience,  the 
feelings,  the  heart,  and  not  at  the  same  time 
as  a  testimony  borne  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
as  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  through  the  medium 
of  the  thoughts  of  men.  We  know  that  the 
chief  witness,  on  which  all  else  depends,  is 
that  which  is  borne  in  "  demonstration  of 
power." — A.  P.  L.  , 

TRUTH,  The  Spirit  of.— John  xiv:  17. 
The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  living,  personal,  divine 
unity  of  complete  revelation ;  and,  as  such, 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  (John  xv  :  26  ;  xvi :  13). 
He  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  inasmuch  as  He 
makes  objective  truth  subjective  in  believers, 
in  order  to  the  knowledge  of  truth.     Objec- 


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271 


tively  He  is  the  Spirit  of  God  (Rom.  viii :  14), 
and  God  Himself  (Acts  v)  ;  the  Spirit  of  the 
Father  (Matt.  x:20);  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
(Rom.  viii:  9);  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  (2 
Cor.  iii :  17),  the  Holy  Spirit  (Acts  ii).  SuId- 
jectively  He  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  the  Spirit 
of  wisdom  and  revelation  (Eph.  i:i7);  the 
Spirit  of  power,  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind 
(2  Tim.  i :  27)  ;    the  Spirit  of  Adoption,  of 


prayer  (Rom.  viii:  15)  ;  the  Spirit  of  Sancti- 
fication  (Rom.  1:4,  of  life  (Rom.  viii:  10), 
of  meekness  (i  Cor.  iv:  21),  of  comfort  (Acts 
ix:3i),  of  glory  (i  Pet.  iv :  14),  of  sealing, 
of  the  earnest  of  eternal  life  (Eph.  i:  13,  14), 
of  all  Christian  charismata  (i  Cor.  xii:4). 
As  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  the  Holy  Ghost  ap- 
plies to  believers  the  full  truth  of  the  perfect 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ. — A.  P.  L. 


POETRY 


The  Church 

By  Samuel  John  Stone 

The  Church's  one  foundation 

Is  Jesus  Christ  her  Lord; 
She  is  His  new  creation 

By   water   and   the   word : 
From  heaven   He  came  and  sought  her 

To  be  His  holy  bride ; 
With  His  own  blood  He  bought  her. 

And  for  her  life  He  died. 

Elect  from  every  nation, 

Yet  one  o'er  all  the  earth, 
Her   charter   of  salvation, 

One  Lord,   one   faith,   one  birth; 
One  holy  name  she  blesses, 

Partakes  one  holy  food, 
And  to  one  hope  she  presses, 

With  every  grace  endued. 

'Mid  toil  and  tribulation, 

And  tumult  of  her  war. 
She  waits  the  consummation 

Of  peace  for  evermore; 
Till,   with  the  vision  glorious. 

Her  longing  eyes  are  blest, 
And   the   great   Church   victorious 

Shall  be  the  Church  at  rest. 

Yet  she  on  earth  hath  union 

With  God  the  Three  in  One, 
And   mystic   sweet   communion 

With  those  whose  rest  is  won: 
O  happy  ones  and  holy ! 

Lord,  give  us  grace  that  we 
Like  them,  the  meek  and  lowly, 

On  high  may  dwell  with  Thee. 


Various  Selections 

Wherever  God  erects  a  house  of  prayer, 
The  devil  always  build  a  chapel  there. 

Defoe — Tlie   Trueborn  Englishman. 

Line  i. 
God  never  had  a  church  but  there  men  say, 
The  devil  a  chapel  hath  raised  by  some  wyles, 
I  doubted  of  this  saw,  till  on  a  day 
I    westward    spied    great    Edinburgh's    Saint 
Gyles. 

Drummond — Posthumous  Poems. 

No  sooner  is  a  temple  built  to  God,  but  the 
devil  builds  a  chapel  hard  by. 

Herbert — Jacula  Prudentum. 


And  storied  windows  richly  dight. 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light. 

Milton — //  Penseroso.    Line  159. 

No  silver  saints,  by  dying  misers  giv'n, 
Here  brib'd  the  rage  of  ill-requited  heav'n: 
But  such  plain  roofs  as  Piety  could  raise, 
And  only  vocal  with  the  Maker's  praise. 

Pope — Eloisa  to  Abelard.     Line  137. 

Who  builds   a   Church   to   God,   and   not  to 

Fame 
Will  never  mark  the  marble  with  his  Name. 
Pope — Moral  Essays.    Ep.  III. 
Line  285. 

The  People  of  God 

By  James  Montgomery 

People  of  the  living  God, 
I  have  sought  the  world  around, 

Paths  of  sin  and  sorrow  trod, 

Peace  and  comfort  nowhere  found. 

Now  to  you  my  spirit  turns, 

Turns,  a  fugitive  unblessed ; 
Brethren,  where  your  altar  burns, 

O  receive  me  into  rest. 

Lonely  I  no  longer  roam, 

Like  the  cloud,  the  wind,  the  wave ; 
Where    you    dwell    shall    be   my  home, 

Where  you  die  shall  be  my  grave. 

Mine   the   God    whom   you   adore, 
Your  Redeemer  shall  be  mine ; 

Earth  can  fill  my  heart  no  more. 
Every  idol  I  resign. 

Descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  John  Keble 

Swiftly  and  straight  each  tongue  of  flame 

Through  cloud  and  breeze  unwavering  came, 

And  darted  to  its  place  of  rest 

On  some  meek  brow  of  Jesus  blest. 

Nor  fades  it  yet,  that  living  gleam, 

And  still  those  lambent  lightnings  stream; 

Where'er  the  Lord  is,  there  are  they ; 

In  every  heart  that  gives  Him  room, 
They  light  His  altar  every  day, 

Zeal  to  inflame,  and  vice  consume. 


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HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
Thomas  H.  Gill 

Day  divine,  when  in  the  temple, 

To  the  first  disciples  came 
Glory  new  and  treasure  ample, 

Mighty  gifts  and  tongues  of  flame ! 
Day  to  happy  souls  commended. 

When  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given, 
When  the  Comforter  descended, 

Bringing  down  the  joy  of  heaven. 

Hath    the    Holy   Ghost   been   holden 

By  those  ancient  saints   alone? 
Only  may  the  ages  golden 

Call  the  Comforter  their  own? 
No  ;  their  portion  we  inherit ; 

Ours  the  sorrow,  ours  the  sin: 
We  beseech  the  Holy  Spirit ; 

We  the  Comforter  would  win. 

Grieving  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  George  Herbert 

And  art  Thou  grieved,  sweet  and  sacred  Dove, 
When  I  am  sour 
And  cross  Thy  love? 
Grieved  for  me?     the  God  of  strength  and 
power 
Grieved  for  a  worm,  which,  when  I  tread, 
I  pass  away  and  leave  it  dead. 

Then  weep,  mine  eyes,  the  God  of  love  doth 
grieve : 

Weep,  foolish  heart. 
And  weeping  live ; 
For  death  is  dry  as  dust.     Yet  if  we  part, 
End  as  the  night,  whose  sable  hue 
Your  sins  express :  melt  into  dew. 

When  saucy  mirth  shall  knock  or  call  at  door, 
Cry  out,  get  hence. 
Or  cry  no  more. 
Almighty  God  doth  grieve,  He  puts  on  sense : 
I  sin  not  to  my  grief  alone. 
But  to  my  God's,  too ;  He  doth  groan. 

O  take  thy  lute,  and  tune  it  to  a  strain, 
Which  may  with  thee 
All  day  complain. 
There  can  no  discord  but  in  ceasing  be. 
Marbles  can  weep;   and   surely  strings 
More  bowels  have,  than  such  hard  things. 

Lord,  I  adjudge  myself  to  tears  and  grief, 
E'en  endless  tears 
Without  relief. 
If  a  clear  spring  for  me  no  time  forbear, 
But  runs,  although  I  be  not  dry; 
I  am  no  crystal,  what  shall  I? 

Yet  if  I  wail  not  still,  since  still  to  wail 
Nature  denies ; 
And  flesh  would  fail. 
If  my  deserts  were  masters  of  mine  eyes: 
Lord,  pardon,  for  Thy  Son  makes  good 
My  want  of  tears  with  store  of  blood. 


Guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  John  Milton 

He  to  His  own  a  Comforter  will  send. 
The  promise  of  the  Father,  who  shall  dwell     J 
His  Spirit  within  them,  and  the  law  of  faith     I 
Working  through  love,  upon  their  hearts  shall 

write. 
To  guide  them  in  all  truth. 

Influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  . 

By  John  Mason  ' 

There  is  a  Stream,  which  issues  forth 

From  God's  eternal  Throne, 
And  from  the  Lamb,  a  living  stream 

Clear  as  the  crystal  stone. 

The  stream  doth  water  Paradise;  i 

It  makes  the  angels  sing; 
One  cordial  drop  revives  my  heart; 

Hence  all  my  joys  do  spring. 

Such  joys  as  are  unspeakable, 

And  full  of  glory  too ; 
Such  hidden  manna,  hidden  pearls, 

As  worldlings  do  not  know. 

Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  hath  heard. 

From  fancy  'tis  concealed. 
What   Thou,   Lord,  hast  laid  up  for  Thine, 

And  hast  to  me   revealed. 

I  see  Thy  face,  I  hear  Thy  voice, 

I  taste  Thy  sweetest  love : 
My  soul  doth  leap :  but  O  for  wings, 

The  wings  of  Noah's  dove ! 

Then  should  I  flee  far  hence  away, 

Leaving  this  world  of  sin ! 
Then  should  my  Lord  put  forth  His  hand,. 

And  kindly  take  me  in ! 

Then  should  my  soul  with  angels  feast 

On  joys  that  always  last! 
Blest  be  my  God,  the  God  of  joy, 

Who  gives  me  here  a  taste. 

Xiitany  to  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  R.  Herrick 

In  the  hours  of  my  distress, 
When  temptations,  me  oppress, 
And  when  I  my  sins  confess. 

Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me. 

When  I  lie  within  my  bed. 
Sick  in  heart,  and  sick  in  head, 
And  with  doubts  disquieted. 

Sweet   Spirit,  comfort  me. 

When  the  house  doth  sigh,  and  weep. 
And  the  world  is  drowned  in  sleep, 
Yet  mine  eyes  the  watch  do  keep. 
Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me. 

When  God  knows  I'm  tossed  about 
Either  with  despair  or  doubt, 
Yet  before  the  glass  be  out. 

Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me. 


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273 


When  the  tempter  me  pursueth 
With  the  sins  of  all  my  youth, 
And  reproves  me  for  untruth, 

Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me. 

When  the  judgment  is  revealed 
And  that  opened  which  was  sealed, 
When  to  Thee  I  have  appealed, 

Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me. 

Offices  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  John  Hey 

The  Spirit  of  God 
From  heaven  descending,  dwells  in  domes  of 

clay; 
In    mode    far    passing    human    thought.    He 

guides, 
Impels,  instructs :    intense  pursuit  of  good. 
And  cautious  flight  of  evil  He  suggests, 
But  in  such  gentle  murmurs,  that  to  know 
His  heavenly  voice,  we  must  have  done  His 

will. 

Power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
By  Harriet  Auber 

Our  blest  Redeemer,  ere  He  breathed 

His  last  farewell, 
A  guide — a  Comforter,  bequeathed, 

With  us  to  dwell. 

He  came  in  tongues  of  living  flame 

To  teach,  subdue ; 
All-powerful  as  the  wind  He  came, 

As   viewless  too. 

He  comes,  His  graces  to  impart; 

A  willing  guest, 
While  He  can  find  one  humble  heart 

Wherein  to  rest. 

He  breathes  that  gentle  voice  we  hear 

As  breeze  of  even  ; 
That  checks  each  fault,  that  calms  each  fear, 
■      And  speaks  of  heaven. 

And  all  the  good  that  we  possess, 

His  gift   we   own ; 
Yea,  every  thought  of  holiness, 

And  vict'ry  won. 

Spirit  of  purity  and  grace, 

Our  weakness  see ; 
O  make  our  hearts  Thy  dwelling-place, 

And  worthier  Thee. 

Prayer  to  the  Holy  Spirit 

Veni  Creator  Spiritus 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  souls  inspire, 

»And  lighten  with  celestial  fire : 
Thou  the  Anointing  Spirit  art. 
Who  dost  Thy  sevenfold  gifts  impart. 
Thy  blessed  unction  from  above 
Is  comfort,  life,  and  fire  of  love : 
Enable  with  perpetual  light 
The  dullness  of  our  blinded  sight: 


Anoint  and  cheer  our  soiled  face 
With  the  abundance  of  Thy  Grace ; 
Keep  far  out  foes ;  give  peace  at  home ; 
Where  Thou  art  Guide,  no  ill  can  come. 
Teach  us  to  know  the  Father,  Son, 
And  Thee  of  Both,  to  be  but  One; 
That,  through  the  ages  all  along. 
Thy  praise  may  be  our  endless  song. 

A.  D.  1662 

Biver  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
By  William  Hurn 

There  is  a  River,  deep  and  broad. 

Its  course  no  mortal  knows ; 
It  fills  with  joy  the  Church  of  God, 

And  widens  as  it  flows. 

Clearer  than  crystal  is  the  stream, 

And  bright   with   endless  day; 
The  waves  with  every  blessing  teem, 

And  life  and  health  convey. 

Where'er  they  flow,   contentions   cease, 

And  love  and  meekness  reign ; 
The  Lord  Himself  commands  the  peace, 

And  foes  conspire  in  vain. 

Along   the   shores,    angelic   bands 

Watch  every  moving  wave; 
With   holy  joy  their  breast  expands, 

When  men  the  waters  crave. 

To  them  distressed  souls  repair. 

The  Lord  invites  them  nigh ; 
They  leave  their  cares  and   sorrows   there, 

They  drink,  and  never  die. 

Flow   on,   sweet   Stream,   more   largely  flow, 

The  earth  with  glory  fill ; 
Flow  on,  till  all  the  Savior  know, 

And  all  obey  His  will. 

Temples  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

By  Charles  Jenner 

If  yet  the  Holy  Spirit  deigns  to  dwell 
In  earthly  domes,  'tis  not  those  defiled 
With  pride,  with  fraud,  with  rapine,  or  with 

lust; 
'Midst  the  rough  foliage  of  the  thorny  brake. 
The  clustering  grape  not  blushes,  and  the  fig 
Decks  not  the  prickly  thistle's  barren  stalk; 
Even    thus    shall    all    be    measured    by    their 

fruits. 


Lead, 


Lead,  Kindly  Light 

By  John  H.  Newman 

amid     th'     encircling 


kindly     Light, 
gloom, 
Lead  Thou  me  on ; 
The  night  is  dark,  and  I  am  far  from  home. 

Lead  Thou  me  on ; 
Keep  Thou  my  feet ;    I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ;   one  step  enough  for  me. 

I  was  not  ever  thus,  nor  prayed  that  Thou 

Shouldst  lead  me  on ; 
I  loved  to  choose  and  see  my  path ;    but  now 

Lead  Thou  me  on. 


274 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


I  loved  the  garish  day;    and  spite  of  fears, 
Pride    ruled    my    willj     remember    not    past 
years. 

So  long  Thy  pow'r  hath  blest  me,  sure  it  still 

Will   lead   me  on 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 

The  night  is  gone. 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile, 
Which    I    have    loved    long    since,    and    lost 
awhile. 

The  Spirit's  Hour 

By  John  Ward  Stimson 

My  mocking  bird,  full  oft,  in  vesper  twilight 
still, 
Croons   in   a   low   refrain  to   south   winds 
soughing  by. 

And  tunes  his  glowing  throat  to  echo  back 
each  trill 
Of  far-off  fading  notes  from   warblers  in 
the  sky. 

When  every  murmuring  chord  has  sunk  be- 
yond my  reach, 

He  sits,  alert  there,  still,  himself  the  sound  to 
teach. 

So  too  that  "  still  small  voice  "  which  broods 
o'er  poet  soul. 
So  sacred,  sweet  and  low,  mysteriously  shy ! 

Ye  cannot  catch  Its  call,  nor  hear  Its  char- 
iot's roll 
When    fanning    seraph    wings    and    thun- 
dering hosts  go  by. 

Except  in  holy  tryst  ye  wait,  nor  deaf  nor 
blind. 

Like  pure  Eolian  harp  kissed  by  the  autumn 
wind. — E. 

Veni  Sancte  Spiritus 

By  F.  W.  Faber,  D.D. 

Come  Holy  Spirit !  from  the  height 
Of  heaven  send  down  Thy  blessed  light! 

Come,  Father  of  the  friendless  poor ! 
Giver  of  gifts,  and  Light  of  hearts. 
Come  with  that  unction  which  imparts 

Such  consolations  as  endure. 

The  Soul's  Refreshment  and  her  Guest, 
Shelter  in  heat,  in  labor  Rest, 

The  sweetest  Solace  in  our  wo ! 
Come,  blissful  Light !   oh  come  and  fill. 
In  all  Thy  faithful,  heart  and  will, 

And  make  our  inward  fervor  glow. 

Where  Thou  art,  Lord !  there  is  no  ill, 
For  evil's  self  Thy  light  can  kill : 

Oh !  let  that  light  upon  us  rise ! 
Lord !    heal    our    wounds,    and    cleanse    our 

stains. 
Fountain  of  grace !  and  with  Thy  rains 

Our  barren  spirits  fertilize. 

Bend  with  Thy  fires  our  stubborn  wills. 
And  quicken  what  the  world  would  chill, 

And  homeward  call  the  feet  that  stray: 
Virtue's  reward,  and  final  grace. 
The  Eternal  Vision  face  to  face, 

Spirit  of  Love !  for  these  we  pray. 


Come  Holy  Spirit !  bid  us  live ; 

To  those  who  trust  Thy  mercy  give 

Joys  that  through  endless  ages  flow : 
Thy  various  gifts,  foretastes  of  Heaven, 
Those  that  are  named  Thy  sacred  Seven, 

On  us,  O  God  of  love,  bestow. 

Whitsunday 

By  John  Keble 

And  suddenly  there  came  a  sound  from 
heaven  as  of  a  rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it 
filled  all  the  house  where  they  were  sitting. 
And  there  appeared  unto  them  cloven  tongues 
like  as  of  fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each  of 
them.  And  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost. — Acts  ii:  2,  3,  4. 

When  God  of  old  came  down  from  Heaven, 

In  power  and  wrath  He  came ; 
Before  His  feet  the  clouds  were  riven, 

Half  darkness  and  half  flame : 

Around  the  trembling  mountain's  base 

The  prostrate  people  lay. 
Convinced  of  sin,  but  not  of  grace ; 

It  was  a  dreadful  day. 

But  when  He  came  the  second  time, 

He  came  in  power  and  love. 
Softer  than  gale  at  morning  prime 

Hovered  His  holy  Dove. 

The  fires  that  rushed  on  Sinai  down 

In  sudden  torrents  dread, 
Now  gently  light,  a  glorious  crown, 

On  every  sainted  head. 

Like    arrows    went    those   lightnings    forth 
Winged  with  the  sinner's  doom, 

But    these,    like   tongues,    o'er    all   the   earth 
Proclaiming  life  to  come : 

And  as  on  Israel's  awe-struck  ear 

The  voice  exceeding  loud, 
The  trump,  that  angels  quake  to  hear. 

Thrilled  from  the  deep,  dark  cloud. 

So,  when  the  Spirit  of  our  God 

Came  down  His  flock  to  find, 
A  voice   from   Heaven   was  heard  abroad, 

A  rushing,  mighty  wind. 

Nor  doth  the  outward  ear  alone 

At  that  high  warning  start ; 
Conscience  gives  back  the  appalling  tone; 

'Tis  echoed   in   the  heart. 

It  fills  the  Church  of  God ;  it  fills 

The   sinful   world   around ; 
Only  in  stubborn  hearts  and  wills 

No  place  for  it  is  found. 

To  other  strains  our  souls  are  set: 

A  giddy  whirl  of  sin 
Fills  ear  and  brain,  and  will  not  let 

Heaven's  harmonies  come  in. 

Come,  Lord,  come  Wisdom,  Love,  and  Power, 

Open  our  ears  to  hear; 
Let  us  not  miss  the  accepted  hour; 

Save,  Lord,  by  Love  or  Fear. 


CHILDREN'S  DAY  275 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 

ORIGIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHILDREN'S  DAY 

By  James  A.  Worden,  D.D. 
[From  a  leaflet  published  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication.! 
ROM  early  times,  pastors  have  devoted  certain  Sabbaths  or  parts  of  Sabbaths 


F 


to  special  services  for  children.  Many  years  ago  certain  pastors  were 
accustomed  to  devote  one  Sabbath  every  three  months  to  certain  forms  of  service 
in  behalf  of  the  Sabbath-school. 

Then  grew  up  an  almost  universal  custom  of  holding  Sabbath-school  anni- 
versaries, either  upon  a  Sabbath  or  upon  some  week-day  evening.  Here  we  have 
the  several  elements  of  the  evolution  of  Children's  Day.  An  effort  was  una  void-, 
ably  made  to  systematize  and  correlate  those  several  customs  of  recognizing  the 
children's  place  in  the  public  worship  of  the  Lord's  Day.  As  a  result  of  this 
widespread  endeavor  there  gradually  obtained  a  consensus  of  thought  and  practice. 

Who  it  was  that  first  suggested  an  annual  Children's  Day  that  should  combine 
the  idea  of  an  anniversary,  a  special  children's  service,  in  the  beautiful  season  of 
the  year,  on  which  all  parts  of  the  country  and  all  Sabbath-school  workers  could 
unite,  it  is  impossible  to  discover.  Perhaps  it  sprang  up  naturally  in  many  child- 
like hearts  at  once.  It  would  be  as  easy  to  fix  the  exact  hour  at  which  spring 
re-visits  the  earth  after  the  storms  of  winter,  as  to  fix  the  date  of  the  exact  origin 
of  Children's  Day.  And  to  write  a  history  of  its  development  would  be  no  easier 
than  to  undertake  to  record  the  annals  of  the  blossoming  of  spring  flowers  and  the 
budding  of  the  trees.  We  only  know  that  whereas  it  was  winter,  now  it  is  spring, 
and  so  Children's  Day  is  come,  on  which  the  Church  rises  and  shines  and  sings 
and  puts  on  its  beautiful  garments.  If  any  claim  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  its  General  Conference,  was  the  first  ecclesiastically  to  recognize 
Children's  Day  they  are  probably  correct;  but  long  before  this,  hundreds  of 
Presbyterian  schools  were  observing  the  day  of  joy  and  gladness  without  refer- 
ence to  the  authority  of  Church  courts. 

But  when,  in  1883,  many  years  after  Presbyterian  Sabbath-school  workers 
had  been  accustomed  to  do  this,  the  General  Assembly  said,  "  It  hereby  designates 
the  second  Sabbath  in  June  as  the  Children's  Day  on  which  special  services  for 
the  children  shall  be  held,  and  the  vital  topics  of  the  Christian  nurture  and  the 
conversion  of  the  young  shall  be  pressed  upon  the  thought  of  the  entire  congre- 
gation," the  whole  vast  forces  of  the  Sabbath-school  gladly  and  loyally  wheeled 
into  line.  So  that  two  years  later  it  is  recorded :  "  The  General  Assembly  notices 
with  approval  the  observance  by  our  Churches  and  Sabbath-schools  of  the  second 
Sabbath  of  June,  designated  by  a  former  General  Assembly  as  Children's  Day, 
and  emphasizes  the  importance  of  seeking  the  presence  and  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  these  services,  that  they  may  not  be  simply  attractive,  but  profitable,  con- 
tributing to  the  conversion  and  Christian  nurture  of  the  young."  Superintendents, 
officers,  teachers,  and  scholars  supported  this  effort  with  joyous  faith  and  earnest 
cooperation. 


276 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


What  more  powerful  object-lesson,  setting  forth  the  love  of  Christ  and  of 
Christ's  Church  to  the  young,  than  the  services  of  Children's  Day  ?  What  clearer 
demonstration  of  the  identity  of  Church  and  Sabbath-school  could  be  given?  I 
venture  to  say  that  the  children  and  youth  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  never  have 
doubted,  since  the  establishment  of  Children's  Day,  the  Church's  supreme  interest 
in,  and  love  for  them ;  and  they  have  reciprocated  this  interest  and  love  with  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  their  youthful  spirits. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  incidents  in  the  life  of  our  Lord  occurred  when  He 
was  on  the  direct  road  to  Jerusalem  and  Calvary,  and  was  surrounded  by  an  ex- 
cited and  wondering  multitude ;  when,  in  this  very  crisis  of  His  work,  He  stopped 
to  give  an  opportunity  to  mothers  and  fathers  to  bring  their  young  children  to  Him 
that  He  might  put  His  hands  upon  them  and  bless  them.  And  when  the  disciples 
rebuked  this  parental  solicitude  as  an  interference  with  the  greater  and  more 
important  work  of  healing  and  teaching  the  crowds,  Jesus  rebuked  them  and  said, 
"  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  God."  And  He  took  them  up  in  His  arms,  put  His  hands  upon  them 
and  blessed  them.  Is  not  this  Children's  Day  the  outgrowth  of  the  '*  same  mind 
that  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  "  ? 

The  Christian  appreciation  of  childhood  is  one  of  the  significant  marks  of  this 
new  and  brighter  era ;  and  it  brings  with  it  a  baptism  of  new  and  simpler  love,  the 
hearts  of  the  fathers  being  turned  to  the  children,  and  the  hearts  of  the  children 
to  their  fathers.     Longfellow  expresses  our  heart's  sentiment  when  he  sings : 

"  Ah  !  what  would  the  world  be  to  us, 
If  the  children  were  no  more? 
We  should  dread  the  desert  behind  us 
Worse  than  the  dark  before. 

"  Come  to  me,  oh  ye  children, 
And  whisper  in  my  ear. 
What  the  birds  and  the  winds  are  singing 
In  your  sunny  atmosphere. 

"  Ye  are  better  than  all  the  ballads 
That  ever  were  sung  or  said, 
For  ye  are  living  poems, 
And  all  the  rest  are  dead." 


CHILDREN'S  DAY  SUGGESTIONS 


Few  special   days  in  the  average  Sunday- 
school  are  looked  forward  to  with  such  eager 
expectancy    on    the   part    of   the    scholars    as 
Children's    Day.      Even    fathers 
A  Day  of  and    mothers,    big   brothers    and 
Oppor-      sisters,  who  perhaps  seldom  en- 
tunity      ter  church  doors,   go  then  if  at 
no     other     time.       With     many 
schools   it  is  practically  the  end  of  a  year's 
work   and   an   anniversary   corresponding   to 


Commencement  Day  in  our  public  schools. 
But  in  every  school  it  may  be  a  day  of  un- 
usual opportunity  for  presenting  the  joy  of 
the  Christ-life  and  the  friendship  of  the  All- 
loving  One  to  many  who  perhaps  are  not 
reached  at  other  times  during  the  year.  Be- 
sides this,  the  memory  of  a  happy  Children's 
Day,  with  its  birds  and  flowers,  its  music  and 
fluttering  banners  and  all  kindred  associa- 
tions of  loving  helpfulness,  has  often  been  in 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


277 


after  years  the  breath  which  stirred  to  flame 
a  loyahy  for  the  church  that  had  become  an 
uncertain  flicker.  This  being  the  case,  pastor, 
superintendent,  and  teachers  should  spare  no 
pains  in  planning  to  make  the  day  a  golden 
one  in  the  circlet  of  the  year. 

Children's  Day  not  only  aff'ords  oppor- 
tunity for  providing  an  especially  happy  time 
for  the  school  as  a  whole,  but  the  different 
departments,  as  well  as  individual  teachers, 
may  take  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  devise 
many  helpful  plans  for  their  own  special 
classes. 

With  some  the  celebration  of  Children's 
Day  lasts  all  day,  taking  the  place  of  Church 
and  Sunday-school,  or  giving  color  to  these. 

Often  it  takes  the  place   of  the 

Hours       morning   or   the   evening   church 

for  the      service.     Again  it  is  confined  to 

Exercises   the     Sunday-school     hour.       In 

some  instances  a  special  after- 
noon service  is  held.  The  morning  church 
hour  is  sometimes  given  over  to  a  program 
by  the  smaller  children,  and  the  evening  serv- 
ice to  the  older  boys  and  girls.  Where  the 
morning  church  service  is  confined  to  the 
regular  order,  the  hymns  and  anthems  may 
be  selected  with  the  idea  of  being  especially 
helpful  to  children  and  easily  understood  by 
them,  and  the  sermon  is  prepared  with  refer- 
ence to  the  children.  The  Sunday-school  at- 
tends in  a  body,  seats  in  the  front  or  in  the 
gallery  being  reserved  for  the  members.  In 
this  case  the  exercises  by  the  scholars  them- 
selves follow  later  in  the  day. 

Published   exercises   and   cantatas   may   be 

had   in   abundance,   and   a   selec- 

Children's  tion  to  fit  the  needs  of  any  school 

I>ay         may   easily  be  made.     Some  are 

i        Programs  quite     simple,    while    there    are 
others  more  elaborate. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  prepare  a  home-made 
program    by    selecting    suitable    songs    from 
various  books,  and  using  such  recitations  and 
desirable  exercises  as  are  readily 
Home-      copied    from    books    or    clipped 
made        from        Sunday-school       papers, 
Prog-rams  magazines,    and   similar    sources. 
Such  a  program  may  be  prepared 
without  expense,  and  is  often  more  satisfac- 
tory than  one  secured  ready  prepared.    When 
a   program   is   to   be   made   in   this   way,   the 
choo^^ing  of  material  should  be  given  into  the 
hands  of  one  or  more  persons  who  will  use 
taste   and   judgment   in   making   selections. 

It  is  necessary  to  use  care  in  assigning 
pieces.  Give  each  one  only  what  is  within  the 
range  of  his  capability  to  understand  and 
render  well.  Often  little  folks  are  asked 
to  memorize  recitations  too  difficult  for  their 
years,  while  other  children  are  sometimes 
given  selections  too  young  for  them. 

Both  music  and  recitations  shouM  be  of 
real   worth   and   dignity.     When   such  pieces 

I  as  "  Like  as  a  Father,"  "  The  Palms,"  and 
Gounod's  "  Praise  Ye  the  Father,"  and  such 
classics  as  Lowell's  "  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal," 
can  be  as  readily  learned  as  something  of 
less  worth,  there  is  little  excuse  for  spending 
time  in  storing  the  mind  with  mere  jingles. 
Music  and  poetry  memorized  for  Children's 


Day  may  as  well  be  something  that  will  also 
enrich  the  mind  for  a  lifetime. 

It  is  usually  wisest  to  let  one  committee  of 
three  or  four  do  all  the  planning  both  of  the 
program  and  the  decorations.     But  when  the 

work   is   thoroughly    outlined,    it 

Com-       can  be  subdivided  so  as  to  give 

mittees     as  many  as  possible  something  to 

do,  thus  lightening  the  load  for 
the  main  committee.  Different  classes  may 
be  requested  to  attend  to  parts  of  the  decora- 
tions, while  teachers  may  take  charge  of  drill- 
ing those  in  their  dasses  who  are  to  take 
part  in  the  exercises. 

Often  a  sub-committee  takes  charge  of  the 
decorations,  under  the  direction  of  the  gen- 
eral committee,  so  that  wherever  it  is  neces- 
sary the  decorations  can  be  made  to  accommo- 
date the  needs  of  the  program  committee,  if 
for  instance  special  designs  of  arches,  shields, 
or  crosses  are  needed  to  illustrate  some  reci- 
tation or  exercise.  If  one  committee  keeps 
the  general  result  clearly  in  view,  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  work  can  be  given  profitably 
to  as  many  as  are  willing  to  help  carry  it  on, 
and   "  many   hands   make  light   work." 

Rehearsals  should  not  be  allowed  to  inter- 
fere with  the  Sunday-school  hour.  The  songs 
may  be  practised  at  the  time  usually  given  to 

singing  other  music,  but  most  of 
Rehearsals  the    rehearsing   should   be    done 

outside  the  regular  Sunday- 
school  session.  An  evening  in  the  week  or  a 
Sunday  afternoon  may  be  chosen.  The 
smaller  children  can  usually  have  their  re- 
hearsals on  a  week-day  afternoon.  Whatever 
the  time  selected,  the  drilling  should  be  fre- 
quent and  thorough,  so  that  no  halting,  half- 
prepared  parts  shall  mar  the  exercises  when 
the  important  time  comes.  If  various  teach- 
ers rehearse  their  own  classes  at  least  a 
week  before  the  final  day,  the  general  com- 
mittee should  personally  hear  all  numbers  on 
the  program  in  order  to  strengthen  the  weak 
places  and  correct  mistakes  before  it  is  too 
late.  It  is  seldom  wise  to  leave  much  re- 
hearsing to  busy  mothers  at  home. 

Children's  Day  is  coming  to  be  recognized 
as  one  of  the  most  suitable  times  for  trans- 
ferring   scholars    from    one    department    to 

another.     Such    transfer     occurs 

Children's  in    nearly    all    schools,    at    least 

Day  as      from    the    Primary    Department 

Promotion  into   the  Juvenile,   and   from  the 

Day        Juvenile   into   the   Main    School. 

A  public  recognition  of  this  pro- 
motion is  proper  whether  scholars  pass  into  a 
higher  class  by  regular  examination  or  simply 
because  of  becoming  old  enough  for  transfer. 
A  prominent  place  on  the  program  is 
usually  given  to  the  promotion  or  graduating 
exercises.     In  one  school  graduating  classes 

occupy  front  seats,  the  girls 
Promotion  dressed  in  white,  the  dark  suits 
Exercises  of  the  boys  brightened  by  button- 
hole bouquets.  When  their  turn 
comes  they  take  their  places  on  the  platform 
and  the  examination  questions  are  asked  by 
the  Primary  Superintendent.  The  class  an- 
swer,   some    in    turn    and    some    in    concert. 


^-jts 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


When  the  first  and  twenty-third  Psalms,  the 
Commandments,  and  the  Beatitudes  have 
been  repeated  and  the  catechism  questions  an- 
swered, the  diplomas  are  awarded  by  the 
pastor.  Then  comes  a  short  address  of  wel- 
come from  the  superintendent  of  the  main 
school.  Following  this  a  tiny  tot  from  the 
primary  department  comes  upon  the  platform 
with  a  basket  of  bouquets  for  the  graduates, 
as  a  little  good-by  gift  from  the  infant  class. 
It  is  sometimes  hard  to  tell  which  the  grad- 
uates receive  most  proudly — the  diplomas  or 
the  bouquets. 

When  there  is  more  than  one  graduating 
class  they  may  take  turns  in  their  order — 
primary,  juvenile,  and  so  on,  depending  upon 
how  elaborate  a  system  of  grading  is  fol- 
lowed. 

The  annual  graduating  exercises  prove  a 
means  of  wonderful  helpfulness,  not  only  to 
the  school  but  to  many  homes.  Parents  who 
have  shown  little  interest  in  the  Sunday- 
school  are  almost  sure  to  be  present  to  wit- 
ness the  promotion  of  their  children. 

Small  diplomas  and  certificates  of  promo- 
tion of  varying  prices  and  degrees  of  elegance 
may  be  bought  from  the  different  Sunday- 
school  supply  houses.  The  prices 
Graduat-  of  these  range  from  one  to  five  or 
_  ing  ten  cents  each.  The  diplomas  are 
Diplomas  printed  on  linen  paper  to  imitate 
and^       parchment.  When  rolled  and  tied 

Certifi-  with  a  bit  of  ribbon  they  are 
cates  greatly  prized  by  the  children. 
Diplomas  for  the  girls  may  be 
tied  with  blue  ribbon  and  those  for  the  boys 
with  pink,  or  a  different  shade  may  be  se- 
lected for  each  child. 

Sometimes  promotion  cards  are  used  in- 
stead of  diplomas.  A  promotion  certificate 
which  is  much  liked  by  the  children  is  made 
of  cardboard  about  12x14  inches.  In  the  cen- 
ter is  space  for  the  child's  name,  the  name  of 
the  school,  the  superintendent,  etc.  Around 
the  four  sides  in  the  form  of  a  border  are 
places  for  seals  to  be  attached — a  green  seal 
for  the  first  examination,  a  red  seal  for  the 
second,  and  so  on,  the  number  of  seals  de- 
pending upon  the  length  of  the  course  of 
study.  These  seals  are  usually  in  the  form  of 
large  gold  paper  stars  gummed  on  the  back 
and  with  a  bit  of  colored  ribbon  hanging  from 
them. 

Another  plan  is  to  have  the  list  of  names 
of  those  who  graduate  placed  on  a  large  card, 
handsomely  framed  and  hung  near  the  super- 
intendent's desk  where  all  may  inspect  it 
from  time  to  time. 

A  teacher  can  prepare  home-made  diplomas 

or  have  some  friend  who  is  a  fine  penman 

help  her  in  doing  so.     Such  a  diploma,  being 

the   work   of  the  teacher's   own 

Home-  hands,  would  be  more  prized  per- 
inade  haps  than  any  that  could  be  pur- 
Diplomas  chased.  If  certificates  of  promo- 
tion are  used  instead  of  diplo- 
mas, they  can  be  cut  from  bristol  board  and 
ornamented  with  one  of  the  penny  prints  of 
Hofmann's  "  Boy  Jesus  "  or  some  other  ap- 
priate  picture. 


Something  like  the  following  can  be  made 
by  using  two  colors  of  ink.  ruling  the  lines 
and  the  borders  red. 


First  Congregational  Sunday  School 


This  certifies  that 

has  passed  a  satisfactory  examination  in 
the  Primary  Department  and  is  promoted 
to  the 

Chicago, 1900. 

Teacher. 
Primary  Supt. 

Supt.  of  Main  Room. 


Some    Sunday-schools   give   certificates   on 
Children's  Day  to  all   who  pass  satisfactory 
examinations    on    the    lessons    of    the    year. 
These  examinations  are  conduct- 
Promotion  ed   previous    to    Children's    Day, 
Certifi-     and  the   awards   made  as  a  part 
cates        of    the    exercises    on    that    day. 
for  All      Thus   a   pupil   may   earn   a   new 
certificate     each    year.     Another 
plan,  which  however  involves  more  expense, 
is  to  give  at  the  first  examination  a  handsome 
certificate   in  a   frame,   with   places   for   seals 
around  the  edge  of  the  certificate.    Each  Chil- 
dren's  Day   those   who   have   passed   the   ex- 
amination bring  back  their  certificates  to  have 
a   new   seal  attached.     New   scholars   receive 
their  certificates  at  this  time. 

In   Churches  that  practise   infant   baptism, 

the  baptism  of  young  children  is  one  feature 

of  the   Children's  Day  program. 

Saptism    In  some  cases  those  of  the  Sun- 

of  day-school      graduating      classes 

Children    who  wish  to  do  so,  are  received 

into  Church  membership  on  this 

day. 

Much  inspiration  and  enthusiasm  is  added 
to    the    exercises    by    a    processional    of    the 
whole  school.     If  the  exercises  are  to  be  held 
in  the  auditorium  of  the  Church, 
The         as   they   usually   are,    the   school 
Proces-     gathers     in     the     Sunday-school 
sional      room  and  the  procession  is  form- 
ed by  classes, — primary  children 
first  in  the  line  and  the  others  following  in 
their    order.     Another    plan    is    to    have    the 
Boys'   Brigade,  if  there  is  one  in  the  school, 
lead  the  procession.     It   is  always  necessary 
to  have  as  leaders  two  who  will  not  be  timid 
and  who  will  take  short,  even  steps.     When 
this  is  attempted,  be  sure  that  the  Bible  classes 
join  in  the  procession.     This  will  do  much  to 
prevent   the   older   boys    from    hanging   back 
through    fear   of   doing    something   not   quite 
consistent  with  their  dignity.     A  cornet  at  the 
head  makes  it  much  easier  for  the  children  to 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


279 


sing  well  while  marching.  A  large  number 
of  songs  are  well  adapted  to  be  used  as  march- 
ing songs,  tho  "  Onward,  Christian  Soldiers," 
stems  to  be  the  favorite.  An  organ  prelude 
preceding  the  entrance  in  procession  gives 
visitors  an  opportunity  to  be  seated. 

Where  schools  have  for  the  various  classes 
banners  which  can  be  carried  in  the  proces- 
sional, doing  this  increases  the  interest. 
Teachers  may  plan  to  add  to  the 

Banners  interest,  as  well  as  to  the  class 
and  Flags  spirit,  by  preparing  banners  for 

in  the      their  classes.     They  can  be  fash- 

Proces-  ioned  from  delicate  colors  of 
sional  cambric  or  cheesecloth,  and  bor- 
dered with  flowers  or  ferns.  The 
mottoes  can  be  cut  from  gold  or  silver  paper 
and  put  on  with  a  little  paste.  Flags  large 
and  small  may  be  carried  in  addition  to  the 
banners.  A  school  thus  equipped  with  ban- 
ners and  flags  flying,  and  marching  to  some 
majestic  Church  hymn,  is  a  sight  to  stir  the 
heart  of  the  least  enthusiastic  and  fire  with 
new  zeal  the  sometimes  discouraged  workers. 

Flowers  have  always  had  so  large  a  part  in 

the  celebration  of  Children's  Day  that  many 

call  it  Flower  Sunday.     It  should  be  Flower 

Sunday,  not  only  because  of  the 

II  Flowers     use  of  flowers  in  the  decoration 

P  of     the     Church     and     Sunday- 

'       school  rooms,  but  because  of  the  distribution 

of  the  flowers  afterwards  among  the  sick  and 

aged   and    others    who    might    not    otherwise 

have  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  them.    Some 

schools    at    Easter    distribute    to    each    child 

plants  and  bulbs  to  be  cultivated  and  brought 

to  Church  on  Children's  Day  as  a  part  of  the 

decoration,    then    given    away    afterward    to 

brighten  some  home. 

Children  should  be  encouraged  to  bring 
flowers  from  the  woods  and  fields  and  from 
their  home  gardens  to  help  in  the  decorations. 
Let  them  have  as  large  a  part  as  possible  in 
making  the  Church  beautiful.  One  Sunday- 
school  gives  each  class  one  of  the  fourteen 
large  windows  to  decorate,  while  a  number 
of  classes  help  to  decorate  the  platform. 

Plenty  of  green  branches  add  greatly  to  the 
beauty  of  the  decorations.  Oak  branches  are 
easily  procured  and  the  leaves  do  not  wither 
quickly.  Potted  plants,  palms,  and  ferns  can 
also  be  borrowed  from  various  homes  by  send- 
ing a  competent  person  to  carry  them  to  the 
Church  and  afterward  return  them  safely. 
Seme  of  the  larger  boys  may  be  enlisted  to 
attend  to  this  part  of  the  work. 

Some  schools  on  Children's  Day  present 
each  child  with  a  small  plant  or  bulb  to  be 
kept  and  cared  for.  Sometimes  these  are 
given  with  the  thought  of  cultivating  them 
for  some  future  celebration.  One  school  gave 
out  one  Children's  Day  several  hundred 
young  chrysanthemum  plants,  with  the  under- 
standing that  they  were  to  be  prepared  for  a 
Chrysanthemum  Show  early  in  November. 
To  this  exhibition  a  small  admission  was 
charged  and  the  proceeds  used  to  assist  the 
poor  during  the  winter.  Some  of  the  plants 
were  sold  and  others  were  distributed  among 
the  sick.  The  same  plan  might  be  adopted 
with  bulbs   or   some   other  plants,   and   they 


could  be  cultivated  to  use  in  decorating  for 
Harvest  Home  or  Rally  Sunday.  There  is 
much  helpfulness  in  thus  keeping  before  the 
children  a  definite  purpose  from  month  to 
month.  In  any  case  the  thought  should  be 
not  only  to  make  the  rooms  fragrant  and 
beautiful  for  the  special  services,  but  to  share 
with  others  these  most  beautiful  of  summer's 
treasures. 

Different  ways  of  distributing  the  flowers 

may    be    adopted.     They    can    be    packed    in 

baskets  and  sent  to  hospitals  or 

Distribu-   Flower  Missions,  or  turned  over 

tion  of     to  the  Flower  Committee  of  the 

Flowers  Church  young  people's  society 
for  distribution.  If,  however,  the 
children  themselves  have  a  part  in  the  distri- 
bution, it  will  mean  more  to  them,  and  per- 
haps to  the  recipients.  One  of  the  souvenir 
programs  tied  to  the  stems  of  the  flowers  will 
interest  the  sick  ones  to  whom  bouquets  are 
sent,  and  give  them  the  sense  of  being  really 
in  touch  with  the  joyous  celebration. 

In  these  days  when  artificial  flowers  are  so 

inexpensive  and  easily  made,  as  well  as  really 

beautiful,  it  is  often  desirable  to  use  them  in 

addition     to     the     real     flowers. 

Artificial   When    an    emblematic    figure — a 

Flowers  cross,  a  star,  or  a  shield — is  to  be 
fashioned,  artificial  flowers  are 
more  suitable  than  real  ones.  Artificial  flow- 
ers may  also  be  formed  into  letters  for  mot- 
toes, made  into  arches,  crosses,  and  garlands, 
twined  with  ropes  of  evergreen,  or  hung  in 
bunches  from  the  chandeliers. 

A  pretty  exercise  for  some  of  the  tiniest 
tots  of  the  Primary  Department  is  the  form- 
ing of  a  white  shield  bearing  a  blood-red 
cross.  The  shield  is  first  made  of  thin  board 
covered  with  sprays  of  evergreen  or  with 
dark  green  crepe  paper.  Holes  are  bored  for 
the  stems  of  the  flowers,  and  a  number  of 
children,  each  bearing  a  large  white  blossom, 
recite  appropriate  verses  about  faith,  as  they 
place  the  flowers  in  the  shield.  Then  come 
children  with  red  blossoms,  each  one  reciting 
a  verse  about  the  cross,  and  inserting  their 
flowers,  thus  making  the  form  of  a  cross  on 
the  white  background. 

Canaries  in  their  gilded  cages  make  a  beau- 
tiful addition  to  the  decorations.  A  cage  with 
a  bunch  of  flowers  and  greenery  may  be  hung 
from  each  chandelier.  The  twit- 
Birds  tering  of  the  birds  during  the 
service  and  their  rippling  songs, 
joining  with  the  children's  voices,  are  a  fitting 
accompaniment  on  this  day  of  rejoicing  and 
pleasure-giving. 

June  14,  the  anniversary  of  the  adoption  of 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  by  Congress,  is  now  set 
apart  as  Flag  Day.  Some  have  found  it  help- 
ful to  celebrate  this  in  connec- 
Children's  tion  with  Children's  Day.     Flags 

Day  as  and  bunting  are  used  with  the 
Flag  Day  flowers  in  decorating,  flags  car- 
ried in  the  procession  and  tiny 
flags  worn  with  bunches  of  flowers  by  the 
children,  while  the  exercises  are  planned  to 
place  an  emphasis  on  patriotism.  One  teacher 
suggests  that  a  girl  wave  the  Stars  and 
Stripes    while  the   audience   join   in    singing 


28o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


"  America  "  and  in  the  Salute  to  the  Flag : 
"  We  give  our  hearts  and  our  heads  to  God 
and  our  Country — one  country,  one  language, 
one  flag,  and  one  God  " — the  sentiment  of  all 
Christian  patriots. 

A  beautiful   service  that  the  children  will 
never  forget,  and  which  will  make  glad  the 
heart  of  many  an  aged  one,  is  a 
Children's  Children's  Day  service  to  which 
Day  as     the  grandfathers  and  grandmoth- 
Grand-     ers  are  especially  invited.    Let  it 
parents'     be    understood    by   the    children. 
Day         in    planning    the    exercises,    that 
the  preparations  are  to  be  made 
with    this    in    view.     Then    when    Children's 
Day  morning  arrives,   seats  can  be  reserved 
for  the  guests  of  honor,  to  whom  written  in- 
vitations have  been  previously  sent.     Wher- 
ever possible,  let  conveyances  be  sent  to  bring 
to    the    Church    those    too    feeble    to    walk. 
Have  the  children  feel  that  these  guests  are 
their    special    company,    and    plan    in    every 
way   to   make    the    service    a    delightful    one 
for  them.     At  the  close  of  the  exercises   a 
company  of  boys  may  act  as  escorts  to  the 
carriages    and    busses,    while    the    girls    may 
present  the  old  people  with  bouquets  or  other 
souvenirs. 

Babies  who  are  enrolled  as  members  of  the 
Cradle  Roll  class  may  be  invited  to  visit  the 
Primary  Department  at  the  regular  Sunday- 
school  session  on  Children's  Day. 
Cradle-roll  Some    special    exercises    can    be 
Babies  at   planned  to  interest  the  mothers, 
Sunday-    and   a   motion   song   or   exercise 
school      will  please  the  baby  visitors.  The 
delight  of  the  small  lads  and  las- 
sies at  seeing  "our  baby"  in  Sunday-school 
is    unbounded.     Thus    the    ties    between    the 
home  and  Sunday-school  are  made  the  firmer 
by  a  visit  from  "  mamma  and  baby." 

Girls  dressed  in  white  and  carrying  baskets 
trimmed    with    small    flags    and 
Collections  flowers  may  act  as  collectors. 

Girls  may  act  as  ushers,  tho 
some  of  the  young  men  who  do  not  care  to 
take  part  in  any  other  way  may  be  enlisted  to 
do  this  and  give  valuable  aid. 

Beautiful  souvenir  programs  can  be  pre- 
pared at  little  expense.  If  Children's  Day  is 
also  celebrated  as  Flag  Sunday,  the  program 
may  be  printed  or  copied  with  mimeograph 
on  the  reverse  side  of  a  paper  or  pasteboard 
flag.  Handsome  cards,  with  flower  designs 
on  one  side,  may  be  used  as  souvenirs,  print- 
ing the  order  of  exercises  on  their  backs. 
Programs  with  a  half-tone  print  of  a  child's 


head  or  a  copy  of  some  appropriate  picture 
need  not  be  expensive. 

A  beautiful  custom  observed  yearly  by  some 
schools   is   that   of   decorating  the   graves   of 
Sunday-school  members  each  Children's  Day. 
In  the  afternoon  the  school  as- 
Decorating  sembles  and  goes  in  a  body  to  the 
Graves  on  cemetery,    bearing    wreaths    and 
Children's  bouquets.    After  the  graves  of  all 
Day        who  have  been  members  of  the 
school  have  been  decorated,  the 
scholars  gather  under  the  trees  and  join  in 
song    and    prayer.     Thus    are    the    children 
strengthened  in  the  thought  that  "  Death  is 
but   the    covered    way   that    leads    at    last   to 
light,"  and  that  those  gone  before  have  but 
stepped   into   another    room   of   the    Father's 
house,  while  we  on  this  side  are  as  truly  in 
His  presence. 

A  choir  of  the  older  boys  and  girls  care- 
fully chosen  and  drilled  for  Children's  Day, 
will  add  greatly  to  the  exercises.     If  the  regu- 
lar  order   of    Church    service    is 
Choir       followed  they  may  take  the  place 
of  the  regular  choir  on  this  day. 
Quartets,    duets,    and    anthems    can    be    ren- 
dered by  them  with  beautiful  effect.    Not  only 
will  this  add  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  day, 
but  as   the   members   of  our   choirs   for  the 
future  must  come  from  the  ranks  of  the  boys 
and  girls  of  to-day,  it  is  most  fitting  that  they 
should  thus  in  childhood  begin  their  musical 
service  to  the  Church. 

One  number  always  included  in  the  Chil- 
dren's Day  program  by  a  certain  New  Jersey 
Sunday-school  is  a  resume  of  the  past  year's 
lessons,  prepared  for  the  occasion  by  one  of 
the  teachers,  and  recited  by  a  boy  or  girl. 
Another  plan  is  to  have  a  recitation  of  the 
Golden  Texts  for  the  past  year  given  by  a 
class  composed  of  as  many  of  the  scholars 
as  are  able  to  do  so.  A  floral  button,  bearing 
a  Scripture  text  awarded  at  this  time  is  a 
souvenir  the  children  will  greatly  prize. 

An     interesting     program     is     sometimes 
planned  to  help  in  cultivating  the  missionary 
spirit,  and  the  collection  devoted  to  mission- 
ary causes.  Recitations  and  read- 
A  Mis-      ings   telling  of  the  condition   of 
sionary     children    in    other    lands    can    be 
Program    found  in  abundance.     The  songs 
should  be  of  the  same  order,  and 
the  central  theme  of  the  whole  program  em- 
phasize the  blessedness  of  children  in  a  land 
where  Jesus  is  known  and  loved,  and  the  joy 
of  spreading  the  news  to  other  children  less 
favored.— N.  C.  T.  M. 


IMPROVED  METHODS  OF  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  TEACH- 
ING 

By  Ellen  Kenyon  Warner 


An  interesting  address  on  the  above  sub- 
ject was  given  at  one  of  the  Sunday  sessions 
of  the  Martha's  Vineyard  Summer  Institute 
by  its  President,  Dr.  William  A.  Mowry. 
Dr.  Mowry' s  recommendations  were  substan- 
tially as  follows : 


The  Sunday-school  has  for  its  object  to 
teach  a  high  morality  and  a  true  religion.  Its 
text-book  is  the  Bible.  The  Bible  is  a  history 
of  the  best  development  of  the  race.  Its  con- 
crete moral  teachings  are  always  of  interest 
to  the  young.     About  twenty-five  years  ago 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


281 


a  uniform  plan  for  Bible  study  in  the  Sun- 
day-schools originated  in  this  country  and 
spread  to  Canada  and  England.  The  ad- 
vantages that  have  been  realized  in  the  use 
of  this  plan  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  But 
the  scheme  should  be  broadened,  so  as  to 
take  in  practical  subjects;  and  the  methods 
of  teaching  in  the  Sunday-school  should  fol- 
low true  pedagogic  principles.  The  laws  of 
psychology,  too,  should  be  observed  in  the 
government  of  the  Sunday-school. 

The  kindergarten  system,  where  once  in- 
troduced under  competent  teachers,  is  never 
abandoned.  It  should  have  a  place  in  every 
Sundaj'-school  where  there  are  five  or  six 
children  of  the  right  age.  This  lowest  class 
should  have  the  best  teacher  in  the  school. 
A  large  class  with  a  superior  teacher  is  better 
than  smaller  classes  with  poor  teachers.  This 
primary  class  should  not  follow  the  Interna- 
tional Lessons.  They  should  have  placed 
before  them  in  a  graphic  manner  the  stories 
of  the  Bible,  especially  those  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  Golden  Rule  should  be  so 
paraphrased  for  them  as  to  bring  it  within 
their  easy  comprehension,  and  then  should  be 
learned.  Suitable  memory  gems  should  be 
studied  and  learned. 

Children  of  the  ages  between  five  or  six 
and  nine  or  ten  should  constitute  a  junior 
department.  These  classes  should  take  up 
the  International  Lessons.  The  classes  should 
be  small,  and  the  question  of  discipline  should 
receive  careful  attention.  The  most  tactful 
teachers  available  should  be  secured,  and  the 
classes  should  have  separate  rooms.  This  is 
provided  for  in  some  Sunday-schools  by  hav- 
ing the  class-rooms  ranged  around  the  assem- 
bly-room and  cut  off  from  it  by  rolling  doors, 
which  can  be  slid  back,  throwing  all  the 
rooms   into   one   for  general   purposes. 

A  senior  department,  corresponding  with 
the  high  school,  and  composed  of  the  pupils 
from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  should 
also  pursue  the  International  course,  but  upon 
a  higher  plane  of  study.  The  personality  of 
the  pupils  should  be  studied.  Above  this 
grade  a  great  change  is  needed.  A  variety 
of   subjects   adapting  the    Sunday-school   in- 


struction to  adults  of  all  ages,  tastes,  and 
interests  should  be  compassed.  A  critical 
study  of  the  life  of  Christ  by  all  authors 
should  be  made.  Particular  books  and  chap- 
ters of  the  Bible  may  receive  the  same  criti- 
cal study.  The  literature  of  the  Bible ;  re- 
cent Oriental  explorations ;  a  comparative 
study  of  sacred  and  profane  history — these 
and  other  subjects  are  suitable  for  adult  at- 
tendants upon  the  Sunday-school,  and  would 
interest  and  draw  in  great  numbers  of  those 
who  now  leave  its  classes  because  the  instruc- 
tion falls  below  their  level  of  study.  This 
department  for  general  higher  study  might 
be  called  the  collegiate  department.  There 
should  also  be  a  theological  department. 
Each  of  these  departments  should  be  found 
in  every  Sunday-school  that  has  five  or  six 
persons  for  each. 

The  Sunday-school  should  give  a  course  in 
the  Christian  doctrine,  teaching  the  technical 
and  fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion.  It  should  take  up  a  study  of  ethics, 
dwelling  upon  those  virtues  that  especially 
belong  to  the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  de- 
velopment of  religion  from  a  world  stand- 
point ;  the  history  of  the  Jewish  Church ;  the 
founding  and  subsequent  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church — some  one  at  least  of  these  or 
kindred  subjects  might  be  taken  up  in  almost 
any  Sunday-school.  In  larger  towns  more 
than  one  of  these  subjects  might  be  followed. 
There  is  no  lack  of  literature.  Teachers  may 
be  found  among  the  townsmen  and  women 
who  have  read  in  these  several  lines  until  they 
have  developed  enthusiasm  for  special  sub- 
jects or  characters  within  the  proper  scop^ 
of  Sunday-school  work.  Here  a  lawyer  may 
be  found  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  the 
Book  of  Job ;  there  a  doctor  who  believes 
that  no  other  such  man  ever  lived  as  Paul. 
Enlist  these  people  in  the  work  of  the  Sunday- 
school.     The  present  system  drives  them  out. 

Every  Sunday-school  should  have  courses 
of  lectures  on  how  to  control  and  interest 
children.  All  the  Sunday-schools  in  one 
place  should  have  classes  in  pedagogy,  under 
the  teaching  of  a  paid  expert.  These  classes 
should  make  a  special  study  of  discipline. — I. 


THE  CHILDREN'S  SERVICE 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Homiletic  Review :  I 
have  just  seen  in  one  of  my  foreign  ex- 
changes a  plan  for  a  children's  service,  which 
has  in  it,  to  me,  some  novel  and  suggestive 
features.  The  plan  has  been  pursued  for  a 
number  of  years  with  very  satisfactory  re- 
sults, says  the  article  before  me,  by  the 
Rev.  John  Richardson,  in  his  parish  in  Eng- 
land. Every  month  the  clergyman  sends  to 
each  family  in  the  parish  a  letter,  such  as 
the  one  given  below,  together  with  a  printed 
outline  of  the  coming  children's  address. 
The  children  and  young  people  thus  know 
what  texts  they  will  be  asked  to  repeat  in 
the  church  and  the  subject  on  which  they 
will  be  catechized.  I  take  the  liberty  of  send- 
ing you  two  of  these  outlined  discourses  as 


samples  of  what  is  thus  printed  and  dis- 
tributed. They  are  full  of  suggestions  not 
only  for  the  young,  but  for  all  ordinary 
hearers.  The  series  embraces  four  subjects — 
The  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  i.  His  Wonderful 
Life;  2,  His  Dreadful  Death;  3,  His  Resur- 
rection and  Glory ;  4,  His  Expected  Return. 
Respectfully, 

J.  A.  A. 

"  My  Dear  Friend :  I  am  very  anxious  to 
see  the  young  of  our  parish  grow  up  in  the 
knowledge  ard  love  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  I  propose  a  plan  to  you  in  which  I  shall 
be  very  glad  to  have  your  help. 

"  A  list  of  subjects  like  the  present  will 
be  sent  early  in  every  month  to  the  house  of 


282 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


every  person  who  will  accept  it,  and  the 
request  made  is  that  you  will  carefully  in- 
struct your  children  and  3'oung  servants  in 
them  during  the  month.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  last  Sunday  in  each  month  the  young 
people  will  be  catechized  on  the  things  con- 
tained in  the  monthly  paper;  and  if  you 
will  allow  your  children  to  be  present,  and 
attend   yourself,    I    shall    be   greatly   obliged. 


My  sole  object  is  to  help  in  the  religious  edu- 
cation of  the  young  of  our  families,  and  I 
ask  your  prayers  and  assistance. 

"  Believe  me, 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"  (Signed)        John  Richardson,  Vicar. 

"  P.S. — Additional  copies  of  this  paper  may 
be  had  at  my  house." — H.  R. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  STATISTICS   OF  ALL   COUNTRIES, 

1900 


COUNTRIES 


Sunday- 
Schools 


Teachers 


Europe 


England  and  Wales . 

Scotland 

Ireland 

Belgium 

Austria     

Denmark  

Finland    

France 

Germany 

Greece 

Italy 

Netherlands 

Norway , 

Portugal 

Russia 


spam 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

European  Turkey. 


Asia 

India  included  Ceylon.  . 

Persia 

Siam 

China , 

Japan    

Central  Turkey 


Africa. 


North  America 

United  States , 

Canada  

Newfoundland  and  Labrador 

West  Indies 

Central  America  and  Mexico, 


South  America. 


OCEANICA 


Australasia 

Fiji  Islands 

Hawaiian  Islands. 
Other  Islands 


The  World 


37.201 

6,275 

3,584 

89 

212 

506 

6,853 

1.450 

5.900 

4 

403 

1,560 

550 

II 

83 

88 

5.750 

1,637 

35 


5.548 
107 
16 
105 
150 
516 

4,246 


123,173 
8,386 

359 

2,185 

550 

350 


224,562 


585,457 
62,994 

27,740 

310 

513 

3.043 

11.534 

3,800 

34,983 

7 

654 

4,600 

4,390 

56 

777 

180 

17,200 

6,916 

175 


10,715 

440 

64 

1.053 

390 

2,450 

8,455 


1.305,939 
69,521 

2,275 

9.673 
1,300 

3,000 


4,766 

54,211 

1,474 

2,700 

230 

1,413 

210 

800 

2,239,728 


[The  total  number  of  teachers  and  scholars  in  the  world,  according  to  this  report,  was  22,508,661.  The 
table  does  not  include  the  schools  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Non- Evangelical  Protestant  churches.  The 
number  of  scholars  in  Roman  Catholic  Sunday-Schools  in  the  United  States  is  estimated  by  clerics  at  800,000. 
— C.  B.  F.] 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


283 


SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 

FINDING  WISDOM 

By  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 
(A  Sermon  for  Children) 


A  certain  man  went  forth  to  find  a  Queen 
of  whom  he  had  heard  many  things  that 
touched  his  hope  and  made  him  glad.  He 
was  told  how  kind  she  was  to  every  one ;  how 
rich ;  how  ready  to  give  all  she  had ;  and  how 
she  made  those  who  found  her,  richer  than 
merchants  and  loftier  than  princes.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  this  man  took  his  staff  in 
his  hand  and  went  forth  to  put  to  the  test 
all  that  he  had  heard  of  this  Queen,  so  great 
and  kind ;  and  as  he  said  farewell  to  those  at 
home,  he  added  that  he  would  soon  return 
and  tell  the  stirring  tale  to  his  children  and 
his  friends.  He  took  but  little  with  him,  for 
he  said  he  would  soon  be  home  again ;  a  week 
at  the  most,  and  he  would  come  back  rich  and 
strong,  if  all  that  he  had  heard  should  prove 
to  be  true.  So  saying,  he  passed  the  little 
wicket,  waved  his  hand  and  went  on  his  way 
without  fear  or  shame. 

On  the  third  day  he  came  within  sight  of 
the  great  Queen's  house,  and  when  he  saw 
that  it  stood  on  a  high  hill  and  knew  that 
behind  it  must  be  the  great  and  wide  sea, 
he  felt  a  little  afraid.  But  he  was  sure  there 
must  be  some  way  up  to  the  house,  else  how 
could  the  Queen  herself  get  into  it?  So  he 
took  heart  again  and  went  on  like  a  brave 
man.  Now  began  the  slope.  Then  came  a 
wicket  not  larger  than  the  one  he  had  passed 
three  days  ago  at  his  own  house,  and  there 
he  was  told  to  leave  his  staff.  He  left  it 
and  went  on.  Presently  he  was  spoken  to  by 
some  one  hidden  in  a  large  shrub,  and  the 
word  he  heard  was,  "  Go  home  again ;  what 
thou  hast  heard  is  untrue ;  go  back  and  dream 
no  more."  But  the  man  saw  the  great 
Queen's  house  in  front,  and  therefore  he 
thought  that  what  he  had  heard  from  the 
bush  was  a  lie,  so  on  he  went.  Then  he  saw 
a  sweet  child  plucking  flowers,  and  he  said, 
"Is  this  the  right  road?'''  And  the  child 
said,  "  Yes."  He  asked  again,  "  Is  the  great 
Queen  at  home?"  And  the  dear  child  said, 
"  She  is  always  at  home,"  and  having  said 
thi.-,  she  gave  him  a  sweet  white  flower  she 
had  just  plucked.  "  They  grow  nowhere 
else,"  said  she,  "  and  my  mother  is  always 
glad  for  those  who  come  to  see  her  to  take 
one;  it  will  not  die,  it  is  not  like  any  other 
flower  you  ever  saw."  The  man  was  pleased ; 
he  said,  "  Thank  you  much ;  my  little  girl 
shall  have  it  when  I  go  home."  On  he  went, 
and  as  he  went  the  house  seemed  to  go  back 
and  to  be  farther  from  him.  Then  the  road 
took  a  sudden  turn,  and  for  a  time  he  lost 
sight  of  the  great  Queen's  house  altogether. 
A  voice  then  said  to  him,  "  Go  home ;  seek 
her  not ;  they  are  fools  who  come  this  way." 
The  man  was  afraid,  and  wished  he  had  not 


given  up  his  staff,  but  still  he  went  on  until 
the  road  turned  again  and  divided  into  two 
parts,  one  going  to  the  left  and  the  other 
going  to  the   right. 

What  to  do  he  could  not  tell.  Should  he 
go  and  ask  the  little  girl?  She  might  be 
gone,  and  then  his  time  would  be  lost.  He 
would  try  the  left  road,  but  he  soon  found 
that  it  turned  downward  and  not  upward, 
by  which  he  knew  it  must  be  wrong,  for  the 
great  Queen's  house  was  on  a  lofty  hill. 
Then  he  turned  to  the  right  hand,  and  that 
brought  him  round  by  a  high  rock  which 
overhung  the  narrow  path  and  threw  a  very 
deep  shadow  on  the  road.  The  rock  was 
between  him  and  the  sun,  so  the  wind  was 
cold,  and  the  outlook  was  bleak  and  chilling. 
And  there  came  a  voice  out  of  a  cave,  saying, 
"  Turn  back ;  go  home ;  think  of  those  you 
have  left  behind."  Then  the  man  trembled 
and  thought  he  would  return,  and  he  would 
have  done  so  had  he  not  seen  a  boy  higher 
up  whose  hand  he  thought  was  beckoning 
him  forward.  On  he  went  again,  and  soon 
the  road  began  to  go  upward.  This  pleased 
the  man,  for  he  knew  that  the  great  Queen's 
house  stood  on  a  high  hill.  But  just  here  the 
road  was  very  rough ;  it  was  like  the  channel 
of  a  mountain  torrent ;  stones  great  and 
small  choked  up  the  way ;  still,  on  he  went, 
and  as  he  went  the  light  came  again,  and  the 
wind  was  warmer,  and  flowers  were  bloom- 
ing at  his  feet.  Then  the  great  Queen's  house 
came  in  sight,  and  the  man's  heart  was  full  of 
joy.  What  a  house  it  was !  So  high,  so  wide, 
without  a  stain  or  a  flaw  of  any  kind,  the 
sun  gilding  the  windows  with  rich  light,  and 
rare  plants  climbing  high  up  the  sunny  walls. 
But  there  was  no  one  to  speak  to.  Where 
was  the  boy?  Was  it  a  boy  or  was  it  a  man 
who  looked  like  a  boy  through  the  distance? 
All  was  silent.  A  feeling  of  strangeness  came 
upon  the  man  and  turned  his  gladness  into 
fear.  The  road  had  been  long  and  not  al- 
ways smooth — here  and  there,  indeed,  it  had 
been  quite  dangerous,  and  now  that  he  had 
walked  it  every  inch  he  knew  not  what  to  do. 
What  he  thought  was  a  door  was  not  a  doojj 
at  all.  The  door  would  be  on  the  other  side, 
but  he  saw  no  way  round,  so  he  wandered 
and  strained  his  eyes,  and  almost  wished  he 
had  never  come. 

But  his  trouble  was  over  in  a  moment,  for 
a  friendly  voice  said  to  him : 

"Hast  thou  come  to  the  feast  to-day?" 
And  the  man  answered,  "What  feast?" 
"  Hast  thou  not  heard  that  the  great  Queen 
hath  killed  her  beasts,  she  hath  mingled  her 
wine,  she  hath  also  furnished  her  table ;  she 
hath  sent  forth  her  maidens,  who  cry  upon 


284 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  highest  places  in  the  city.  Whoso  is 
simple  let  him  turn  in  hither  as  for  him  that 
wanteth  understanding,  she  saith  to  him, 
Come  eat  of  my  bread  and  drink  of  the  wine 
which  I  have  mingled !    All  things  are  ready." 

"  But,"  said  the  man,  "  I  did  not  know 
there  was  a  feast.  I  heard  that  the  great 
Queen  would  make  me  rich ;  is  not  that  true 
which  I  have  heard  ?  " 

"  Certainly ;  length  of  days  is  in  her  right 
hand,  and  in  her  left  hand  riches  and  honor. 
She  is  more  precious  than  rubies,  and  all  the 
things  thou  canst  desire  are  not  to  be  com- 
pared unto  her.  Wouldst  thou  see  the  great 
Queen  of  Light  ?  " 

"  For  that  purpose  have  I  come  all  this 
weary  way,"  said  the  man. 

"  Sawest  thou  not  her  Son  upon  the  hill 
where  the  road  is  roughest?" 

"  I  saw  a  young  figure,  but  knew  not  who 
or  what  it  was." 

"  It  was  the  great  Queen's  Son;  if  the  Son 
shall  make  thee  free,  thou  shalt  be  free  in- 
deed ;  He  alone  can  take  thee  in ;  He  will 
find  an  open  door  for  thee  in  that  solid  wall, 
yea,  the  seven  pillars  shall  bow  before  Him 
rather  than  entrance  shall  not  be  found." 

Then  the  man  turned  round  and  behold  the 
Son  was  at  hand,  and  with  many  a  welcome 
did  the  Son  bring  back  the  man's  shrinking 
confidence  and  fading  hope. 

"  Yea,"  said  He,  "  forsake  her  not,  and  she 
shall  preserve  thee ;  love  her,  and  she  shall 
keep  thee ;  exalt  her,  and  she  shall  promote 
thee ;  she  shall  give  to  thine  head  an  orna- 
ment of  grace,  a  crown  of  glory  she  shall 
deliver  to  theej  "  and,  so  saying,  the  unseen 
door  fell  open,  and  sounds  of  music  were 
heard  from  those  who  were  gathered  at  the 
great  Queen's  holy  feast,  and  the  man  went  in 
and  beheld  the  Queen ;  her  eyes  were  as  the 
sun  shining  in  a  deep  lake,  and  her  voice 
was  solemn,  sweet  and  peaceful,  as  a  voice 
heard  in  a  glad   dream. 

"And   hast   thou   come  alone?"    said   she. 

"  I  have  left  my  friends  at  home,"  the  man 
replied,  "  and  now  I  would  they  were  all  here,* 
and  that  we  might  never  go  elsewhere." 

"And  thou  hast  seen  the  sweet  child?" 
said  the  Queen. 

The  man  remembered.  It  was  the  little 
girl.  He  looked  at  the  white  flower,  touched 
it  lovingly,  and  smiled  as  one  smiles  who  is 
well  content. 

"  And  didst  thou  find  enemies  on  the 
road?  " 

"  Yea,  surely,  and  they  urged  me  home 
again." 

"  Blessed  are  all  they  that  overcome,"  said 
the  great  Queen.  And  as  she  said  so  a  new 
window  seemed  to  open  in  the  western  wall, 
and  the  man  felt  as  if  he  passed  into  a  trance 
as  the  Son  gently  led  him  forward.  When 
afterward  asked  about  it,  the  man  said :  "  He 


showed  me  a  pure  river  of  water  of  life,  clear 
as  crystal ;  in  the  midst  of  the  street  of  it, 
and  on  either  side  of  the  river,  was  there  the 
tree  of  life,  which  bore  twelve  manner  of 
fruits,  and  yielded  her  fruit  every  month, 
and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  nations.  And  when  I  would  have 
I  passed  over,  the  Son  said  to  me, '  Strait  is  the 
!  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way,  but  strive  to 
enter  in.'  So  I  awoke,  and  I  was  glad  with  a 
new  joy." 

Then  the  man  knew  that  the  great  Queen's 
name  was  Wisdom;  that  her  shining  house 
stands  upon  a  high  hill ;  that  the  road  is 
rough ;  that  enemies  are  here  and  there  upon 
it ;  but  he  also  knew  that  one  sight  of  the 
great  Qi>een's  face  was  worth  ten  thousand 
times  the  trouble  he  had  gone  through  in 
climbing  to  her  sunny  and  holy  dwelling 
place. 

"  My  only  fear,"  said  the  man,  "  is  going 
home  again,  the  road  is  so  long  and  some 
parts  so  rough." 

"  Ah,  no !  "  said  the  Son,  "  thou  returnest 
by  another  road,  for  her  ways  are  ways  of 
pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace." 
So  the  man  followed  down  flowery  slopes, 
where  no  lion  was,  nor  any  ravenous  beast 
had  ever  come,  and  swiftly  did  they  come  to 
the  wicket,  and  away  went  the  man.  staff  in 
hand,  to  bring  his  dear  ones  to  the  great 
Queen's  house.  His  children  saw  him,  and 
shouted  welcome,  and  ran  to  greet  him,  and 
when  they  saw  him  there  were  tears  in  his 
eyes,  but  they  were  tears  of  joy.  Then  the 
good  wife  came  and  plied  him  with  many 
questions,   and   said: 

"  Oh,  such  dreams  have  I  had  !  I  thought  I 
should  never  see  you  more ;  dreams  about 
enemies  lurking  in  bushes,  and  about  wolves, 
and  little  children,  and  steep  places,  and  I 
am  so  glad  it  is  not  true !  " 

"  It  is  every  word  true,"  said  the  good 
man ;  "  I  have  gone  through  it  all ;  and  now 
we  must  make  haste,  for  the  great  Queen 
waits." 

"And  are  you  rich?"  said  the  eager  wife. 

"  Forever !  ''  was  the  brief  reply. 

And  the  explanation  came  little  by  little. 
At  first  it  was  disappointing,  but  by  and  by 
it  was  better,  and  then  better  still,  and  at 
last  they  all  started  together,  and,  thank 
God,  they  all  found  the  way  to  the  great 
Queen's  house,  and  every  one  was  blessed, 
and  enriched,  and  crowned.  They  lived  for- 
ever in  the  great  Queen's  house,  and  never 
went  out  but  to  do  the  great  Queen's  errands. 
And  such  errands  they  were — to  ask  the  poor, 
and  the  sick,  and  the  mean  to  come ;  to  bring 
in  the  hungry,  the  thirsty  and  the  heavy 
laden  ;  to  tell  the  wanderers  that  whosoever 
would  might  come  in,  and  to  assure  the  very 
worst  that  none  would  be  turned  away. — 
H.  R. 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


285 


^ 


THE  LITTLE  MAID 

2  Kings  v:  2-4 


Notice  three  things  about  her:  Her  bad 
fortune ;  her  good  fortune ;  her  good  use  of 
her  good  fortune. 

I.  Her  bad  fortune. — She  lived,  we  may 
suppose,  in  a  quiet  country  home.  Had  par- 
ents to  care  for  her,  brothers  and  sisters  to 
play  with ;  her  young  life  was  bright  and 
happy.  One  day  rough  soldiers  rush  into 
house  and  wrench  her  away,  amid  tears  of 
all.    This  was  her  bad  fortune. 

No  wars  in  America  for  many  years  past. 
Old  men  even  have  not  seen  a  foreign  army 
plundering  and  slaying  in  this  country  and 
carrying  captive.  True,  our  soldiers  and 
sailors  have  had  to  carry  on  wars  away,  and 
at  home.  You  will  very  likely  never  see  a 
great  battle  in  this  land.  Besides,  we  pray 
to  be  kept  safe  from  our  foes.  Do  you  re- 
member petition,  "  From  our  enemies,"  etc.  ? 
In  Litany,  "  From  plague,  .  .  .  battle, 
etc."  National  anthem  of  English  Church, 
"  Confound  their  politics,"  etc.  So  that  there 
is  little  likelihood  you  will  ever  be  taken 
captive  to  a  strange  land.  But  you  will  have 
to  endure  many  troubles.  Tears  often  roll 
down  your  cheeks  even  now.  Greater  trials 
are  before  you.  Bear  the  little  ones  now, 
that  you  may  be  able  to  bear  great  ones  when 
they  come.  Thank  God  He  has  placed  you 
in  a  land  of  peace,  and  has  yet  dealt  gently 
with  you. 

II.  Her  good  fortune. — Soldiers  have  taken 
her  a  long  way — to  Damascus,  perhaps.  She 
is  glad  journey  is  over.  She  trembles  to 
think  what  may  happen  to  her.  They  hear 
that  their  captain's  wife  wants  a  waiting- 
maid.  They  bring  her  and  sell  her.  Thus 
she  is  at  last  out  of  their  rough  hands,  and 
finds  herself  in  fine  house  with  nice  work. 
This  was  her  good  fortune. 

Why  was  she  chosen  by  this  grand  lady? 
Must  have  been  many  other  little  captive 
maids  there.  There  was  something,  I  think, 
neat  in  her  dress  and  pleasing  in  her  manner 
that  attracted.  All  boys  and  girls  not  like 
this.  She  was  most  likely,  modest,  gentle, 
and  quiet.  If  you  wish  to  be  liked  and  suc- 
cessful, you  must  be  humble,  have  respect  for 
those  set  over  you — parents,  teachers,  etc. 
Avoid  a  rough  manner,  etc.  We  do  not  ex- 
pect in  children  soberness  of  old  age ;  but  we 
expect  them  to  be  serious  sometimes.  Each 
young  person  should  be,  what  little  girl  was 
once  called,  a  bit  of  blue  sky.  Blue  sky  is 
bright  and  clear,  so  you  should  be  cheerful 
and  contented.  But  blue  sky  very  calm,  never 
moving,  like  face  of  person  thinking  upon 
rolemn  subject.  There  is  a  time  to  laugh 
and  a  time  to  be  serious. 

III.  Her  good  use  of  her  good  fortune. — 
Naaman,  fine,  soldierly  man,  esteemed  by 
Benhadad ;  loved  by  people  whose  lives  and 
pioperty  he  had  saved  by  his  bravery  in  bat- 
tle What  a  hearty  reception  they  would 
give   him   on   his   return   from   some   victory. 


But  when  he  takes  off  armor,  and  lays  aside 
robes,  lo !  he  is  covered  with  scales  of  leprosy. 
Little  maid  would  pity  him.  Pity  is  good; 
we  should  pity  those  in  pain ;  pity  not  enough. 
In  her  compassion  she  was  like  Jesus  weeping 
at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  but  as  He  proceeded 
to  dry  the  sisters'  tears  by  restoring  their 
brother,  so  she  will  do  what  she  can.  So  you 
must  help  others  to  get  rid  of  their  troubles. 
Must  do  this  even  for  your  enemies ;  for 
Naaman  was  her  enemy,  and  had  killed  many 
of  her  people.  Yet  she  returns  good  for  evil. 
How  like  Jesus,  again !  "  Father,  forgive 
them,"  etc. 

What  remedy  does  she  propose?  She  has 
not  forgotten  Elisha;  knew  he  could  heal 
diseases.  She  speaks  to  mistress  about  him, 
saying,  "Would  God,"  etc.  (verse  3).  What 
surprise  these  words  must  have  caused  !  How 
slow  every  one  would  be  to  believe  her,  and 
call  her  a  silly  little  thing.  And  yet,  strange 
to  say,  her  mistress  and  master,  and  even  the 
great  king,  believe  her.  Astonishing !  I  can- 
not account  for  it,  except  by  supposing  that, 
having  never  known  her  to  tell  a  lie  on  any 
previous  occasion,  could  not  doubt  her  now. 
Beware  of  telling  first  lie.  Afterwards  peo- 
ple will  not  trust  you.  [Ilhist. — Dr.  Living- 
stone was  very  proud  of  one  of  his  fore- 
fathers, who,  calling  children  round  death- 
bed, said,  "  I  have  examined  family,  find  all 
honest.  Should  any  of  you  become  dishonest, 
you  do  not  belong  to  us.  Dishonesty  runs 
not  in  our  blood;  therefore  be  honest."] 
So  I  have  examined  character  of  little  maid, 
and  find  in  it  no  traces  of  untruth.  If  any 
of  you  give  way  to  lying,  you  are  no  relation 
to  her.  Untruth  runs  not  in  blood  of  her 
real  descendants.    Therefore  be  ye  truthful. 

Relate  rest  of  story  about  Naaman.  His 
cure.     His  conversion. 

Here  press  two  points:  (a)  Remembering 
God  when  from  home;   (b)  missionary  spirit. 

(a)  Sore  trial  to  ministers  and  teachers 
to  find  elder  ones  who  leave  our  schools  leave 
us  entirely.  Mingling  with  the  careless,  etc., 
they  gradually  forget  what  they  have  been 
taught,  forget  their  God,  their  soul,  eternity. 
Not  so  the  little  maid.  Far  from  home,  from 
pious  parents — for  must  she  not  have  had 
pious  parents? — she  still  thinks  upon  God  of 
her  fathers.  Oft  tempted  to  go  with  mistress 
to  temple  of  Rimmon.  But  no;  she  continues 
faithful  amongst  strangers  and  idolaters. 
Here  give  charge  to  continue  with  us  tho 
absent  from  us. 

(b)  Note,  she  was  a  "  little  "  maid  ;  and  yet 
means  of  mighty  good.  She  wished  to  see 
heathen  family  with  whom  she  lived  con- 
verted. Illness  of  her  master  gave  oppor- 
tunity to  do  this,  which  she  did  not  let  slip. 
Result — Naaman  was  led  to  serve  true  God. 
Thus  she  was  a  little  Jewish  missionary  to 
the  Gentiles.  You  are  little,  but  may  do  much 
good  in  same  way.     You  have  heard  of  God, 


286 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


been  taught  about  Christ.  Thousands  igno- 
rant of  this ;  would  you  not  like  to  share  with 
them  your  knowledge?  Would  not  like  to  be 
thought  selfish.  Then  give  your  little  pennies 
and  dimes  to  send  out  missionaries  to  teach 


multitudes  lying  in  darkness,  etc..  to  come 
into  light.  Pray  God  to  bless  your  little  gifts 
to  the  heathen  for  whom  they  are  intended. 
— Selected. 


CHILDREN'S  SERVICE 


Tlie  Lord  is  my  shepherd. — Ps.  xxiii:  i 


This  is  what  David  said  at  a  time  when 
he  was  in  great  trouble,  brought  on  him  by 
a  bad  son — Absalom.  David  was  driven  into 
a  wilderness  by  this  rebellious  son ;  but  he 
remembers  that  it  is  not  all  darkness — there 
is  a  bright  side  to  the  picture.  He  turns 
away  his  thoughts  from  the  dark  side  and 
looks  at  the  brightness,  and  his  feelings  find 
expression  in  this  beautiful  psalm.  His  pain- 
ful position  here  in  the  wilderness  reminds 
him  of  the  tender  and  beautiful  relation  sus- 
tained by  a  shepherd  to  the  sheep  which  he 
tends,  feeds  and  guards.  This  relation  God 
sustains  to  us : 

L  He  tends  us. — God  did  not  make  us, 
and  then  leave  us  to  ourselves.  He  has  not 
done  so  with  anything  which  He  created.  A 
blade  of  grass,  a  sparrow,  a  lily,  are  all  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible  as  receiving  God's  care ; 
and  they  are  mentioned  to  show  us  that  God, 
who  cares  for  such  things,  will  much  more 
care  for  us.  He  never  leaves  us.  He  abides 
forever  with  His  sheep — a  constant  and  never- 
tiring  Shepherd. 

H.  He  feeds  us. — It  was  the  duty  of  the 
Eastern  shepherd — to  whom  David  refers — 
to  find  ample  pasture  for  his  flock — to  lead 
them  hither  and  thither,  that  plenty  might  be 
found.  God  gives  us  our  daily  bread.  The 
Lord  provides.  He  feeds  the  young  ravens. 
He  furnishes  food  for  all  living  things ;  and, 
above  all  and  before  all,  He  provides  for  His 
children,  opens  His  bountiful  hands,  and 
satisfies  the  wants  of  every  living  thing. 

III.  He  guards  us. — Like  a  good  shepherd. 
He   protects   us   from   harm.     Fierce  beasts 


prowled  about  ready  to  devour  the  sheep, 
and  the  shepherd  had,  therefore,  to  be  on 
constant  watch  against  them.  Shepherds 
often  exposed  themselves  to  danger  while 
guarding  the  sheep.  Our  Shepherd  laid  down 
His  life  for  His  sheep.  We  have  enemies  who 
seek  to  devour  us.  Our  enemies  are  very 
numerous,  very  cunning  and  very  strong. 
David  said  if  the  Lord  had  not  been  on  his 
side  he  would  have  been  devoured.  God  is 
represented  as  our  "  Shepherd,"  "  Shield," 
"  Wall  of  Fire,"  etc.,  etc.  He  never  wearies, 
ever  watches.  Like  a  gentle  nurse.  He  guards 
us  night  and  day.  No  father,  no  mother  is 
so  loving,  true  and  constant  as  God.  To  be 
the  subjects  of  God's  shepherdly  care  we 
must  be  His  sheep.  Only  such  have  any  claim 
on,  or  right  to  expect,  the  protection,  suste- 
nance and  guardianship  of  God. 

God  the  child's  ally. — "  Workers  together 
with  him." — 2  Cor.  vi:  i. 

God  calls  upon  every  hand  to  help  in  His 
work,  however  small  and  feeble.  It  is  not 
our  skill  or  strength  which  will  secure  the 
results  sought,  but  God's  presence  with  us. 
God  is  our  ally ;  we  work  zcith  Him.  Many 
a  child  has  spoken  a  word,  or  done  a  deed, 
which,  by  God's  blessing,  has  been  the  means 
of  great  good.  One  child  against  the  world, 
with  Christ  to  help  him,  is  always  in  a  ma- 
jority. He  cannot  fail.  There  is  no  such 
word  as  fail  to  one  who  has  God  on  his  side. 
God  waters  the  seed  sown  by  tiny  hands  as 
readily  as  that  scattered  by  His  full-grown 
servants. — H.  R. 


WHAT  THE  LILIES  TEACH  US 


By  Rev.  W.  H.  Booth,  D.D. 
Consider  the  lilies. — Matt,  vi:  28 


Who  spoke  these  words?  WTiat  scholar 
can  name  the  mount?  Uncertain — called  the 
Mount  of  Beatitudes.  Why?  The  sermon 
on  the  Mount.  Probably  the  month  of  May. 
Christ  drew  lessons  from  a  great  variety  of 
objects.  Who  can  mention  some?  The  mind 
■ — the  bird— the  storm,  etc.  We  should  learn 
from  everj'thing.  "  Consider."  We  must  not 
simply  look  or  listen,  but  examine,  think 
about,  and  remember.  The  scene :  Jesus  in 
the  midst  probably  sitting  on  some  slight  ele- 
vation. The  disciples  around  Him.  Who  can 
name     these     disciples?      The     sun     shining 


brightly.  Everything  spring-like,  and  not  far 
off  a  field  of  lilies.  Not  like  our  lilies  of  the 
valley:  about  three  feet  high,  all  colors — 
white,  purple,  and  blue.  Pointing  to  them  as 
they  stand  in  their  delicate  beauty,  He  adds, 
"  Consider  the  lilies,"  etc.  See  if  they  do 
not  teach  the  very  truths  I  am  inculcating. 
We  learn  from  them  something  concerning 
I.  Our  Father's  power. — Our  earthly 
father  is  weak.  There  are  many  things  he 
would  do  for  us.  but  cannot.  Our  heavenly 
Father  is  almighty.  We  do  not  form  our 
ideas    of   His   power   from   big  things   only. 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


287 


A  butterfly's  wing,  or  a  daisy,  tells  us  as 
much  about  Omnipotence  as  mountain  or  sea. 
The  mightiest  forces  in  universe  not  noisiest 
or  most  striking.  Earthquakes,  volcanoes, 
thunderstorms,  hurricanes,  tell  us  of  God's 
power.  But  the  light  of  sun,  or  moon,  or 
law  of  gravitation  tell  us  more.  What  would 
be  the  consequence  if  these  were  to  fail. 
Illustrate  by  steam  hammer  used  in  foundries, 
which  will  crush  with  fearful  force,  or  break 
a  nutshell  without  injuring  the  kernel.  The 
latter  impresses  more  than  the  former  with 
wonder.  Variety  in  color,  size  and  form  of 
lilies  another  indication  of  God's  power. 
Men  repeat ;  God  never.  Our  resources  are 
so  limited  that  we  patent  a  good  invention. 
God's  resources  so  boundless  He  never  needs 
to  make  two  alike.  A  minister  once  told  some 
children  whom  he  was  addressing  that  no 
I  two  blades  of  grass,  daisies,  etc.,  were  alike. 
They  could  not  believe  it ;  went  to  search, 
I  found  it  true,  came  back  and  confessed  that 
I  he  was  right.  Learn. — This  power  will  pun- 
ish or  save  us.  We  must  all  come  into  con- 
tact with  it,  either  in  the  hands  of  our  Father 
or  our  Judge.  The  lilies  teach  us  also  some- 
thing concerning 

II.  Our  Father's  care. — The  beauty  and 
delicacy  of  all  the  parts.  Compare  the  real 
and  artificial  flowers.  Man's  best  imitation 
poor  when  placed  by  the  side  of  God's  crea- 
tion. Nothing  imperfect  or  slovenly  in  God's 
smallest  works. 

Note  concerning  lilies — 

1.  They  are  comparatively  insignificant,  yet 
cared  for.  Nothing  too  small  for  God's  ob- 
servation or  providence.  He  knows  the  spar- 
rows that  die.  He  tells  the  swallows  when 
to  fly.  He  "  paints  the  wayside  flower."  He 
"  feeds  the  young  ravens  when  they  cry." 
He  v/ho  hurts  one  of  God's  weakest  and 
smallest  creatures  does  it  under  His  eye. 
Learn. — If  God  cares  for  birds  and  flowers, 
He  must  care  for  children  more.  Mungo 
Park  learned  this  in  the  African  desert,  when 
stripped  by  savages  and  left  to  die.  He  had 
given  himself  up  for  lost,  when  he  saw  a 
small  piece  of  moss,  not  an  inch  in  size, 
clinging  to  a  small  stone,  and  perfect  in  its 
miniature  beauty  of  flower.  He  thought,  if 
God  can  take  care  of  this  little  bit  of  moss 
in  the  desert,  He  can  take  care  of  me.  This 
inspired  him  with  energy ;  he  rose  to  his  feet, 
and  after  traveling  some  distance  found 
friends  and  shelter. 

2.  Tliey  are  pcrisliing,  yet  cared  for. — In 
a  few  weeks  at  most  their  beauty  fades,  and 
they  disappear.  Their  life  is  short,  yet  no 
less  care  is  bestowed  upon  them  than  ypon 
the  oak  or  the  baobab,  which  often  live  a 
thousand  years.  How  much  more  likely  that 
God  should  care  for  us,  who  are  to  live  for 
ever. 

3.  They  often  grow  amongst  thorns,  yet  are 
cared  for. — This  is  very  common  in  Palestine. 
But  thorns  do  not  destroy  them.  They  make 
it  difficult  for  man  to  reach  or  gather  them. 
Many  children  are  like  "  the  lily  among 
thorns."  Drunken  father  or  mother,  or  both, 
prayerless  homes,  cruel  masters,  pestilential 
neighborhood,     evil     examples — all     tend     to 


choke  everything  good.  Yet  as  Jesus  came 
out  of  Nazareth,  so  such  lives  may  be  shielded 
by  God's  providence  and  transformed  by  His 
grace.  The  lilies  teach  us  also  something 
concerning 

III.  Our  frailty. — That  is,  our  weakness 
and  liability  to  sickness  and  death.  When  the 
south  wind  blows,  which  comes  from  the 
burning  sands  of  Arabia,  they  wither  and  die 
in  twenty-four  hours.  Not  more  frail  than 
our  lives.  More  than  half  the  population  of 
the  world  die  before  they  are  seventeen  years 
old.  Sickness  wastes  rapidly.  Children  es- 
pecially are  soon  deprived  of  strength  and 
sink  into  the  grave.  How  many  such  cases 
we  remember.  Visit  the  graveyard  and  no- 
tice how  many  short  graves. 

"  Nipped  by  the  wind's  untimely  blast. 
Parched  by  the  sun's  directer  ray, 
The  momentary  glories  waste, 

The  short-lived  beauties  die  away." 

They  also  teach  us  something  concerning 

IV.  Our  future  life. — When  stem  and 
flower  wither,  root  does  not  die;  it  remains 
buried  in  the  earth,  to  produce  new  life 
another  year.  When  you  wrap  yourselves  in 
wool  and  fur  to  keep  out  cold,  God  wraps  up 
these  bulbs  to  keep  them  from  perishing.  He 
covers  them  with  mantle  of  snow.  Altho 
invisible,  they  are  not  destroyed.  When 
spring  comes  they  re-appear,  often  more  beau- 
tiful than  before.  Sometimes  one  root  would 
bear  fifty  blossoms.  Death  is  our  winter. 
The  body  is  laid  in  the  ground.  When  the 
springtime  of  the  resurrection  comes,  it  will 
rise  again  more  beautiful  than  ever.  There 
are  differences  between  the  bodies  of  earth 
and  those  of  heaven.  No  more  hunger,  or 
pain,  or  crying,  or  sin.  Illustrate:  Child  ad- 
miring drops  of  rain  on  leaf  after  storm. 
Sun  shining  makes  them  look  like  crystals. 
Presently  absorbed  by  heat.  Child  began  to 
weep.  Father  pointed  up  to  sky,  where  rain- 
bow was  arching  the  heavens.  "  There,"  he 
said,  "  the  drops  are  far  more  beautiful  up 
there  than  down  here."  The  most  happy  and 
lovely  lives  here  will  be  far  more  so  in 
heaven.  "  They  shine,  as  the  stars,  for  ever 
and  ever."  The  lilies  also  teach  us  something 
concerning 

V.  Jesus  Christ. — He  is  called  the  "  Lily 
of  the  Valley."  "  The  fairest  amongst  ten 
thousand  and  altogether  lovely."  There  are 
spots  and  flaws  in  the  character  of  all  others ; 
none  in  His.  Abraham,  Lot,  Noah,  Job, 
David,  Peter,  Paul,  were  all  imperfect. 
Christ  alone  is  stainless  and  pure.  Going  into 
hot-house  one  day,  was  immediately  struck 
with  the  appearance  of  a  tall,  slender,  per- 
fectly white  flower  of  the  lily  species.  There 
were  others  of  various  sizes  and  colors,  but 
this  one  excelled  all  the  rest  in  purity  and 
stateliness.  An  emblem  of  Him  who  was 
"  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,"  etc.,  "  the  fairest 
among  ten  thousand,"  etc. 

1.  We  may  learn  from  everything  around 
us. 

2.  We  should  study  Nature  and  the  Bible 
side  by  side. — H.  R. 


288 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  STRONG  MAN'S  PALACE 

By  Rev.  S.  Winchester  Adriance 
Matt,  xii:  29;  Luke  xi:  21,  22. 


Jesus  was  very  fond  of  painting  pictures 
for  those  around  Him.  I  do  not  mean  that 
He  sat  down  with  a  real  brush  and  paint  and 
canvas  and  painted  in  that  way.  His  pic- 
tures were  word-pictures.  All  His  parables 
were  like  beautiful  stories,  and  when  any  one 
tells  a  story  so  plainly  that  it  seems  as  if 
you  could  see  all  that  he  is  talking  about — 
that  is  word-painting.  Your  mind  does  see 
them.  Now  this  picture  of  the  Strong  Man's 
Palace  is  a  word-picture.  They  had  brought 
to  Jesus  a  poor,  miserable  man.  A  great 
many  things  were  the  matter  with  him.  He 
was  blind,  and  that  was  bad  enough.  No 
beautiful  .^ky,  no  green  fields  or  daisies  or 
lilies  or  birds,  could  he  see  in  summer,  no 
pure  white  fuow  in  winter,  and  not  even  the 
kind  face  of  Jesus  could  he  see.  But  that  was 
not  all.  He  was  dumb,  too.  He  could  not 
speak  with  any  one,  but  just  mumbled  away 
his  queer  sounds.  Nor  could  he  sing,  and  all 
the  way  he  could  make  people  understand  was 
by  making  signs  with  his  fingers. 

Still,  for  all  that,  he  might  have  been  happy. 
But  he  was  miserable.  There  was  an  evil 
spirit  in  him  that  caused  all  this  distress,  and 
made  his  life  wretched  to  himself  and  to  all 
that  loved  him.  So  they  brought  him  to 
Je?us,  and  as  quickly  as  Jesus  spoke,  the  evil 
spirit  came  out,  and  then  he  could  speak  and 
■ '^e.  But  some  wicked  people  were  angry  at 
Jesus,  and  said  that  He  was  a  bad  man,  and 
that  the  evil-spirit  came  out  from  the  man  be- 
cause it  was  a  friend  of  Jesus.  Jesus  said: 
"  No,  if  I  were  bad  I  would  love  to  have  the 
bad  stay  in  the  man.  But  because  I  am  good 
and  want  to  do  him  good  I  cure  him."  And 
then  He  told  this  story  of  the  Strong  Man's 
House.  In  another  place  (Luke)  Jesus  calls 
it  a  wonderful  palace.  But  a  bad  strong 
man  had  somehow  or  other  gotten  through 
the  door,  had  moved  all  his  goods  in,  had 
armed  himself  from  head  to  foot  with  spears 
and  knives,  and  there  he  was,  saying  to  him- 
self, "  I  am  going  to  use  this  palace  just  as  I 
like,  and  invite  all  my  friends  here."  But, 
alas!  this  strong  man  was  unclean  and  all 
his  goods  and  friends  were  unclean.  He  left 
stains  all  over  the  palace,  on  the  walls,  on  the 


floor,  and  whatever  his  hands  or  his  feet 
touched  was  made  filthy.  Bad  pictures  were 
there,  bad  words  and  stories  were  said,  and 
the  longer  he  stayed  the  worse  it  was,  un- 
til it  did  not  seem  at  all  like  the  sweet,  beau- 
tiful palace  it  once  was.  Now  a  palace  is 
meant  for  everything  nice.  It  ought  to  have 
beautiful  pictures  on  the  walls,  and  clean 
floors,  often  of  stones  inlaid  with  wonder- 
fully-colored marble.  It  has  carved  pillars, 
broad  balls   and   sunny  windows. 

By  and  by,  another  still  stronger  Man,  a 
great  and  good  King,  who  really  owned  the 
palace,  came  by.  With  a  quiet  but  clear  voice 
He  said  to  the  porter  at  the  door,  "  Let  me 
in ;  this  house  is  mine."  And  the  bad  man 
inside  heard  the  voice.  Now,  altho  the  bad 
king  hated  the  good  King,  yet  he  was  afraid 
of  Him.  But  the  knock  at  the  door  made 
him  very  angry,  and  he  made  a  horrible 
struggle.  First  he  ordered  the  porter  not  to 
open  the  door,  and  then,  trembling  with  rage, 
he  tore  around  the  palace,  breaking  every- 
thing he  could  find,  and  saying :  "  I  will  not 
leave."  Then  the  Good  Man  broke  through 
the  door,  rushed  upon  the  bad  man,  took  all 
his  weapons  away,  and  bound  him  hand  and 
foot.  The  heart  of  the  Good  Man  was  sad  to 
see  the  dirt  and  ruin  all  around.  But  He 
knew  what  to  do.  "  Can  this  be  the  once 
beautiful  palace?''  He  wondered.  But  He 
knew  what  to  do ;  He  went  into  every  room, 
had  everything  washed,  threw  out  and 
burned  all  the  old  pictures,  spread  on  the  table 
good  food,  and  called  the  porter  at  the  door 
to  sit  down  with  Him  to  eat,  saying  to  him, 
"  I  will  be  your  friend."  Now  and  then  the 
old  man  who  had  been  staying  around,  came 
and  listened,  and  whispered  under  the  door 
to  the  porter,  "  Let  me  in."  But  the  Good 
Man  heard  his  voice  and  said  "  Begone." 

Can  you  tell  me  who  the  bad  man  is? 

Can  any  tell  me  what  his  goods  are? 

Can  any  tell  me  what  this  palace  is? 

Can  any  tell  me  who  the  porter  is  at  the 
door? 

Can  any  tell  me  who  is  the  Good  Strong 
Man?— H.  R. 


A  FEW  ANECDOTES 


She  Took  Out  the  "  If  " 

A  little  girl  was  awakened  to  anxiety  about 
her  soul  at  a  meeting  where  the  story  of  the 
leper  was  told. 

One  day,  a  poor  leper  came  to  Jesus  and 
worshiped  Him.  saying,  "  Lord,  if  thou  wilt, 
thou  canst  make  me  clean."  And  Jesus  put 
forth  His  hand  and  touched  him,  saying,  "  I 


will ;    be  thou  clean ;  "  and  immediately  his 
leprosy  was  cleansed. 

Well,  this  dear  little  girl,  who  was  anxious, 
said,  "  I  noticed  there  was  an  'if  in  what 
the  man  said,  but  there  was  no  '  if '  in  what 
Jesus  said ;  so  I  went  home  and  took  out  the 
*  if '  by  my  granny's  fireside ;  and  I  knelt 
down,  and  I  said,  '  Lord  Jesus,  Thou  canst. 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


289 


I 


Thou  wilt  make  me  clean;    I  give  myself  to 
Thee.'  " 

My  beloved  little  reader,  have  you  thus 
come  to  Jesus  ?  Oh  !  do  come  to  Him  !  He 
can,  He  will  make  you  clean — yes,  whiter 
than  snow.  You  are  a  sinner,  and  sin  is  a 
far  worse  disease  than  leprosy.  Nothing  can 
take  it  away  tut  the  blood  of  Jesus.  Come  to 
Him  this  very  minute.  For  "  behold,  now  is 
the  accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of 
salvation !  " — Selected. 

"  All  About  Our  '  Straggles  '  " 

Our  Juniors  take  great  delight  in  singing 
the  song  by  Johnson  Oatman,  entitled, 
"  There's  not  a  Friend  like  the  Lowly  Jesus, 
No,  Not  One."  Where  the  chorus  reads, 
"  Jesus  knows  all  about  our  struggles,"  one 
of  our  sweetest  little  voices  was  heard  singing 
above  the  rest,  "  Jesus  knows  all  about  our 
straggles." 

Was  she  so  far  out  of  the  way? — Rev.  W. 
K.  Crosby. 

Whose  Superscription? 

Victor  Hugo,  describing  the  work  of  the 
comprachicos,  those  devilish  instruments  of 
the  tyranny  of  a  devilish  age, — buying  chil- 
dren to  disfigure  them  into  dwarfs,  or  other 
monstrosities — says  :  "  These  are  the  audaci- 
ties of  monarchical  terrorism.  The  disfigured 
one  was  marked  with  the  fleur-de-lys ;  they 
took  from  him  the  mark  of  God,  they  put  on 
him  the  mark  of  the  king."' — B.  O.  K. 

God  on  the  Other  Side 

We  had  been  teaching  our  little  three-year- 
old  boy  the  Sunday-School  lesson.  It  was 
about  Nehemiah's  prayer.  While  undressing 
him  for  bed,  his  mother  began  to  question 
him  about  what  he  had  learned.  In  reply  to 
one  question  he  said:  "It  was  Nehemiah, 
an — an — and  God  around  on  the  other  ?ide." 

In  our  haste  we  often  forget  that  God  is 
behind  every  good  cause;  and  act  as  if  all 
depended  on  ourselves ;  or  as  tho  God  took 
no  notice  of  how  we  cast  a  ballot  or  neglect 
our  duties. — S.  I. 

Two  Stories 

One  little  girl  came  forward  in  the  meeting 
here.     Her  mother  was  a  Church  member. 

When  she  went  home  and  said,  "  I  have 
been  converted ;  I  have  given  my  heart  to 
Jesus  to-day,"  her  mother  said,  ""  You  are  too 
young;    you  don't  know  what  it  means." 

Then  the  little  girl  went  off  crying  with  a 
broken  heirt. 

When  Church  members  degenerate  and 
backslide  that  way,  what  wonder  that  we  ac- 
complish nothing?  What  wonder  it  is  charged 
upon  us  that  we  are  but  dead  forms,  that  we 
are  but  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal? 
It  is  even  so,  and  I  cannot  deny  it  when  I 
talk  with  a  skeptic  many  a  time. 

I  knew  a  little  child  who  went  home  out  of 
one  of  our  meetings.  Her  father  was  a  great 
big,  swearing  man,  a  wicked  man.     She  ap- 


proached him  timidly,  almost  afraid  to  tell 
him  about  it.  He  noticed  it,  and  said,  "  What 
is  it,  daughter?  What  do  you  want  to  tell 
me  ?     Speak  it  out." 

So  she  said,  "  Papa,  I  don't  know  what  you 
will  think,  but  I  went  forward  in  the  meeting 
to-day,  and  have  been  converted.  I  have  given 
my  heart  to  God,  and  I  am  going  to  pray  for 
you." 

The  great  big,  swearmg  man  looked  at  his 
little  girl,  who  was  only  nine  or  ten  years 
old  and  said,  "  Do  you  mean  it?  " 

"  Yes,  papa,  I  mean  it,"  said  the  little  one. 

Putting  his  arms  around  her  he  drew  her 
head  down  on  his  breast,  and  the  tears  began 
to  fill  his  eyes  as  he  said,  "  You  were  afraid 
of  wicked  old  papa,  weren't  you?  But  papa's 
glad  if  you  mean  it;  he  wouldn't  do  a  thing 
to  keep  you  back." 

The  infidelity  of  the  Church  breeds  more 
skepticism  and  agnosticism  than  all  the  Inger- 
solls  and  Putnams  in  America. — M.  B.  Wil- 
liams.      B.  A. 

Bad  Home  Examples 

There  is  too  much  home  religion  like  that 
which  led  the  Scotch  boy  to  ask  about 
heaven:  "Will  feyther  be  there?  Then  I'll 
nae  gang !  "  and  the  little  girl  sent  up-stairs 
to  ask  God  to  give  her  a  better  temper,  to 
add,  "  and  please,  Lord,  make  mamma's  tem- 
per better,  too." 

Going  Alone 

"  Me  want  to  go  my  lone,"  said  a  little  tot, 
refusing  her  father's  proffered  hand,  as  she 
made  her  way  painfully  along  over  the  slip- 
pery sidewalk.  In  a  moment  she  had  fallen, 
but  she  picked  herself  up  repeating  the  words, 
"  Me  want  to  go  my  lone."  Again  she  felL 
This  time  her  lips  quivered  as  she  rose,  but 
to  her  father's  words,  "  Daughter,  take  hold 
of  papa's  hand,"  she  only  replied  as  before, 
"  Me  want  to  go  my  lone." 

This  was  repeated  several  times,  the  fal- 
tering steps  becoming  more  and  more  bewil- 
dered and  halting.  Finally,  after  an  unusu- 
ally severe  fall,  she  came  back  to  her  father, 
and,  without  a  word,  put  her  little  hand  in 
his  big,  strong  one,  looking  up  into  his  face 
with  tearful  yet  trusting  eyes.  At  last  she 
was  safe.  The  way  was  easy.  With  that  sus- 
taining arm  she  knew  that  all  danger  was 
past. 

We  think,  perhaps,  in  the  blind  confidence 
and  ignorance  of  youth,  that  our  own  strength 
is  sufficient.  We  strive  to  forge  ahead,  but 
falter  and  fall  by  the  way.  At  last  it  is  borne 
in  upon  our  saddened,  weary  souls  that  we 
need  a  higher  strength,  a  larger  and  finer  in- 
telligence. Then  it  is  that,  like  the  little 
child,  we  come  back  to  our  Father,  and  with 
trusting  faith  place  our  hand  in  His.  Then 
it  is  that  we  know  for  the  first  time  what 
security  and  true  guidance  is. — S.  S.  T. 

Outdone  by  a  Boy 

A  lad  in  Boston,  rather  small  for  his  age, 
works  in  an  office  as  errand  boy  for  four  gen- 


290 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


tiemen  who  do  business  there.  One  day  the 
gentlemen  were  chaffing  him  a  little  about 
being  so  small,  and  said  to  him : 

"  ¥ou  will  never  amount  to  much ;  you 
never  can  do  much  business;  you  are  too 
small." 

The  little  fellow  looked  at  them. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  as  small  as  I  am,  I  can 
do  something  that  neither  of  you  four  men 
can  do." 

"  Ah,  what  is  that?  "  said  they. 


"  I  don't  know  as  I  ought  to  tell  you,"  he 
replied.  But  they  were  anxious  to  know  and 
urged  him  to  tell  what  he  could  do  that 
neither  of  them  were  able  to  do. 

"  I  can  keep  from  swearing,"'  said  the  little 
fellow. 

There  were  some  blushes  on  four  manly 
faces  and  there  seemed  to  be  very  little 
anxiety  for  further  information  on  the  point. 
— C.  A. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


1 

BOY,  A  Converted. — I  knew  a  boy  some 
years  ago,  whose  father  was  a  miserable 
drunken  wretch  and  infidel,  and  he  would  not 
allow  a  praying  man  under  his  roof,  for  he 
said  a  man  that  prayed  was  nothing  but  a 
black-hearted  hypocrite.  Somebody  got  hold 
of  his  little  boy  and  got  him  into  the  Sabbath- 
school,  and  he  was  converted.  One  day  after- 
ward the  old  man  caught  him  praying,  and  he 
took  him  by  the  collar  and  jerked  him  to  his 
feet,  commanding  him  with  oaths  never  to  be 
caught  doing  that  again  or  he  would  have  to 
leave  home  forever.  Twice  after  that  he 
caught  him  in  the  act  of  praying,  and  the  last 
time  told  him  to  leave  his  house  forever.  The 
little  fellow  packed  up  his  things  in  a  hand- 
kerchief, went  down  into  the  kitchen  where 
his  mother  was  and  bade  her  good-by,  then 
went  and  bade  his  little  brother  and  sisters 
good-by,  and  as  he  passed  his  father  on  his 
way  to  the  door,  he  reached  up  his  arms  to 
put  them  around  his  father's  neck,  and  said: 
"  Good-by,  father.  As  long  as  I  live  I  will 
pray  for  you,"  and  he  went  down  the  street, 
but  he  had  not  gone  a  great  while  before  his 
father  came  after  him  and  said,  "  If  that  is 
Christianity,  I  want  it."  And  the  boy  went 
back  and  prayed  with  his  father  and  led  him 
to  Christ. — Moody. 

BOY,  Heroic. — A  boy  who  had  been 
trained  by  the  missionaries  in  the  Loyalty 
Islands,  set  sail  in  a  fishing  boat  with  three 
other  persons.  A  little  way  out  they  were 
capsized,  but  clung  to  the  keel  for  support. 
After  being  sixteen  hours  in  the  water,  they 
drifted  ashore,  upon  Woody  Island,  where 
neither  water  nor  provisions  of  any  kind 
could  be  procured.  Their  long  exposure  and 
exhaustion  made  it  necessary  that  something 
should  be  done  at  once.  The  boy  called  Billy 
proposed  to  swim  to  another  island,  three 
and  a-half  miles  away.  In  his  exhaustion  it 
was  a  most  hazardous  enterprise.  On  starting 
he  said :  "  Suppose  me  catch  the  land,  me  see 
you  again;  suppose  me  die,  good-by."  He 
reached  the  island,  obtained  aid  and  rescued 
his  companions.  All  were  full  of  gratitude 
and  praise  for  him.  He  said.  "  Don't  think 
of  me.  Thank  God ;  it  is  God  who  has  done 
it."— F.  I. 


BOYS  AND  MOTHERS.— Some  one  has 

written  beautifully  of  the  boy  in  the  following 
manner.  Here  is  a  whole  sermon  in  a  few 
sentences : 

Of  all  the  love-afifairs  in  the  world,  none 
can  surpass  the  true  love  of  a  big  boy  for  his 
mother.  It  is  a  love  pure  and  noble — honor- 
able in  the  highest  degree  to  both.  I  do  not 
mean  merely  a  dutiful  affection.  I  mean  a 
love  which  makes  a  boy  gallant  and  courteous 
to  his  mother,  saying  to  everybody  plainly 
that  he  is  fairly  in  love  with  her.  Next  to  the 
love  of  the  husband,  nothing  so  crowns  a 
woman's  life  with  honor  as  this  second  love, 
this  devotion  of  her  son  to  her.  And  I  never 
yet  knew  a  boy  turn  out  bad  who  began  by 
falling  in  love  with  his  mother.  Any  man 
may  fall  in  love  with  a  fresh-faced  girl,  and 
the  man  who  is  gallant  enough  with  the  girl 
may  neglect  the  worn  and  weary  wife ;  but 
the  boy  who  is  a  lover  to  his  mother  in  her 
middle  age  is  a  true  knight,  who  will  love  his 
wife  as  much  in  the  sear-leafed  autumn  as  he 
did  in  the  daisied  springtime. — Selected. 

BOYS,  Danger  to. — We  once  saw  the  sen- 
tence "  Perishable,  don't  switch  off,"  chalked 
on  a  car  belonging  to  a  freight  train.  Care- 
less conductors  sometimes  leave  freight  cars 
on  side  tracks  for  a  day.  Here  was  one  that 
could  not  be  left  even  one  day  off  the  main 
track.  It  had  fruit,  or  something  else,  on 
board,  which  must  be  gotten  to  market  at 
once.  A  day  lost  might  bring  the  fruit  in  a 
day  late.  Those  boys  in  your  class  are  "  per- 
ishable property."  Don't  lose  your  hold  of 
them  an  hour.  Don't  "  switch  "  them  off 
the  track  by  any  carelessness  or  irregularity, 
or  dullness  or  severity  of  yours.  Hold  them 
firmly  and  steadily. — J.  H.  Vincent. 

CHILDHOOD,— Childhood,  in  being  the 
period  when  the  currents  of  life  take  their 
rise  and  assume  their  direction,  is  well  paral- 
leled by  the  watershed.  The  ^lississippi  and 
the  Red  River  of  the  North  have  their  sources 
but  a  few  miles  apart,  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  watershed.  But  what  a  difference  those 
few  miles  make  in  the  character  and  useful- 
ness of  the  two  streams !  The  ■  one  starts 
northward,  and,  flowing  750  miles,  empties 
itself   into   Lake   Winnipeg,    the   other   flows 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


291 


southward,  and  sweeps  majestically  along  for 
2,800  miles,  bearing  on  its  bosom  the  com- 
merce of  a  mighty  country,  enriching  millions 
of  busy  toilers,  and  never  stopping  till  its 
waters  are  mingled  with  those  of  the  meas- 
ureless sea. — H.  R. 

CHILDREN,  Putting  Stumbling  Blocks 
in  the  Way  of. —  (i)  By  teaching  that  chil- 
dren cannot  become  Christians  while  young; 

(2)  by    neglect    of   their    religious   training; 

(3)  by  the  example  of  parents  who  are  more 
interested  in  worldly  things  than  in  religion, 
who  neglect  family  prayer,  and  the  Church, 
and  Sabbath-school ;  (4)  by  "  all  conduct  on 
the  part  of  the  Church,  the  teacher,  or  the 
parent  which  tends  to  repress,  chill,  or 
check  the  enthusiasm  of  childhood  for  Christ, 
and  darken  its  simple  faith  in  Him;"  (5) 
by  faultfinding  with  the  Church  and  good 
people  in  their  presence,  thus  lessening  their 
respect  and  reverence  for  them.  (6)  Chil- 
dren are  hindered  from  coming  to  Christ  by 
building  the  audience  rooms,  conducting  the 
worship,  forming  the  choir  almost  solely  for 
the  benefit  of  the  adults,  and  doing  very  little 
for  the  convenience  and  instruction  of  the 
children. 

Compare  the  disciples  hindering  little  chil- 
dren from  going  to  Jesus  (Mark  x:  13,  14). 
—P. 

CHILDREN'S  AGE,  The.— Nearly  all  the 
Christian  denominations  have  come  to  adopt 
the  second  Sunday  in  June  as  "  Children's 
Day !  "  In  some  of  the  Churches  it  is  called 
by  other  names,,  as  "  Rose  Sunday,"  for  ex- 
ample. Not  only  do  we  have  a  Day  for  the 
special  benefit  of  the  children,  but  it  may 
almost  be  said  that  this  is  the  Children's  Age. 
Naturally  the  religion  of  Him  who  said, 
"  Suffer  the  little  children  and  forbid  them 
not  to  come  unto  me,"  has  ever  put  emphasis 
upon  the  necessity  of  caring  for  the  children. 
The  Churches  all  have  their  children's  so- 
cieties of  various  kinds,  while  the  community 
pays  especial  attention  to,  and  taxes  itself 
heavily  in  the  interest  of  the  proper  training 
and  culture  of  the  children.  The  law  books 
of  all  the  states  of  our  own  land  are  covered 
with  statutes  in  the  interest  of  those  who  are 
the  hope  of  the  future. 

Beyond  the  school  laws  there  are  many  en- 
actments for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  chil- 
dren. In  Massachusetts  children  under  four- 
teen years  of  age  are  forbidden  employment 
in  manufacturing,  mechanical  and  mercantile 
establishments,  while  the  public  schools  are  in 
session  unless  they  can  read  and  write.  In 
New  Hampshire,  an  act  has  been  passed  pro- 
hibiting the  employment  of  children  under 
ten  years  of  age.  In  Michigan,  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  ten  years  of  age  by 
showmen,  the  giving  of  obscene  books,  pam- 
phlets, etc.,  to  minors,  and  the  exhibition  of 
the  same  in  view  of  passing  children,  are  pro- 
hibited. In  New  York,  by  a  bill  passed  in 
1885,  children  under  twelve  years  of  age,  un- 
able to  write,  are  prohibited  employment. 
Children's  Aid  Societies,  and  Societies  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  exist 
in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  land. — P.  I. 


CHILDREN,   Save  the.— Were  we  more 

anxious  about  the  children  we  would  do  more 
work  of  a  Christian  kind.  The  old  man 
seems  to  be  beyond  our  reach,  but  the  little 
child  seems  to  be  made  for  Christ.  It  would 
seem — do  not  let  us  shrink  from  the  term — 
natural  for  every  liltle  child  to  put  out  his 
arms  to  cling  to  the  Child  of  Bethlehem. 
Save  the  children  and  you  will  purify  society; 
expend  your  solicitude  upon  the  young,  open- 
ing, tender  life,  and  you  shall  see  the  result 
of  your  concern  after  many  days.  Services 
should  be  constituted  for  children ;  the  old 
people  have  had  the  sanctuary  too  long ;  their 
ears  are  sated  with  eloquence ;  their  minds 
are  stored  with  names  that  never  turn  into 
inspirations;  Churches  might  be  built  for 
children,  and  preachers  trained  to  speak  to 
them  alone.  We  have  reversed  all  things  and 
thus  have  gone  astray.  .  .  . 

A  poet  says  he  was  nearer  heaven  in 
his  childhood  than  he  ever  was  in  after  days, 
and  he  sweetly  prayed  that  he  might  return 
through  his  yesterdays  and  through  his  child- 
hood back  to  God.  That  is  chronologically 
impossible — locally  and  nhysically  not  to  be 
done,  and  yet  that  is  the  very  miracle  which  is 
to  be  performed  in  the  soul — in  the  spirit; 
we  must  be  "  born  again." — Rev.  Joseph 
Parker. 

CHILDREN'S  QUESTIONS,  How  to 
Answer. — When  children  ask  you  questions 
about  gray  hairs,  and  wrinkles  in  the  face, 
and  sighs  that  have  no  words,  and  smiles  too 
bright  to  be  carved  upon  the  radiant  face  by 
the  hands  of  hypocrisy, — when  they  ask  you 
about  kneeling  at  the  altar,  speaking  into  the 
vacant  air,  and  uttering  words  to  an  unseen 
and  in  an  invisible  Presence, — when  they  in- 
terrogate you  about  your  great  psalms,  and 
hymns,  and  anthem-bursts  of  thankfulness, 
what  is  your  reply  to  these?  Do  not  be 
ashamed  of  the  history.  Keep  steadily  along 
the  line  of  fact.  Say  what  happened  to  you, 
and  magnify  God  in  the  hearing  of  the  in- 
quirer.— Rev.  Joseph  Parker. 

CHILDREN,  Taking  Care  of  the.— One 
chapter  in  George  William  Curtis'  volume, 
Prue  and  I,  is  called  "Mr.  Titbottoni's 
Spectacles."  The  magical  quality  of  these 
spectacles  was,  that  when  their  owner  looked 
through  them  at  people  he  ceased  to  see  them 
as  they  ordinarily  appeared  on  the  street ;  he 
saw  their  real  essential  character  personified. 
Wonderful  were  the  revelations  that  were 
made.  He  looked  at  one  man  and  saw  noth- 
ing but  a  ledger.  Another  was  simply  a  bil- 
liard cue,  another  a  bank  bill,  another  a  great 
hog,  or  a  wolf,  or  a  vulgar  fraction.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  saw  the  good  that  others  failed 
to  see.  One  of  his  school  teachers  was  a 
deep  well  of  living  water  in  which  he  saw 
the  stars.  Another  was  a  tropical  garden  full 
of  fruits  and  flowers.  In  one  woman's  heart 
lay  concealed  in  the  depth  of  character  great 
excellences  like  pearls  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  little  suspected  by  most,  but  perhaps  love 
is  nothing  else  than  the  sight  of  them  by  one 
person.     Another,  called  an  old  maid,  was  a 


292 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


white  lily,  fresh,  luminous  and  fragrant  still. 
Another's  nature  was  a  tropic  in  which  the 
sun  shone,  and  birds  sang,  and  flowers 
bloomed  forever.  His  wrinkled  grandmother 
appeared  as  a  Madonna,  "  and  I  have  yet 
heard  of  no  queen,  no  belle,  no  imperial 
beauty  whom  in  grace,  and  brilliancy,  and 
persuasive  courtesy  she  might  not  have  sur- 
passed." 

It  is  with  some  such  vision  that  the  angels 
often  see  in  the  child  and  the  lowly  possible 
saints  and  martyrs,  men  and  women  who 
shall  change  this  world  for  the  better,  angels 
excelling  in  strength,  with  victors'  crowns 
and  harps  of  heavenly  praise. 

So,  too,  should  the  Church  see  these  possi- 
bilities in  her  children  and  never  for  one 
moment  despise  them.  That  Church  will  be 
most  successful  which  does  the  most  for  her 
children,  trains  them,  educates  them,  wel- 
comes them,  arranges  services  for  them,  fa- 
vors the  Sunday-school,  furnishes  them  with 
the  best  rooms,  and  plenty  of  books  and 
everything  that  contributes  to  their  nurture. 

The  town,  too,  is  wise  that  does  not  despise 
her  children,  but  cares  more  for  school- 
houses  than  for  roads,  and  selects  her  teach- 
ers more  carefully  than  any  other  officers  of 
the  town. 

Good  old  Dr.  Tyng  said,  at  one  time,  "  In 
my  Church  I  haven't  hesitated  for  years, 
when  the  choice  came  between  one  child  and 
two  old  men,  to  take  the  child."  And  the  life 
and  prosperity  of  that  Church,  under  Dr. 
Tyng  as  its  pastor,  showed  the  wisdom  of  this 
Christ-like  way  of  estimating  childhood. — P. 

CHILDREN,  The  Faith  of.— A  Christian 
mother  once  came  to  me  to  ask  my  counsel 
concerning  her  son.  He  had  admired  and 
loved  his  Sunday-school  teacher ;  but  he  had 
learned  that  that  teacher  was  accustomed  to 
attend  the  theater,  and  at  once  he  lost  confi- 
dence in  his  teacher's  Christian  character. 
"  Nothing  that  that  teacher  can  say  will  now 
have  any  influence  with  my  son,''  said  the 
mother.  "  What  can  T  do?  Shall  I  take  my 
boy  out  of  that  class  ?  It  seems  useless  for 
him  to  remain  there  any  longer."  The  ques- 
tion is  not  in  such  a  case  whether  the  teacher 
had  a  moral  right  to  pursue  the  course  which 
he  did  concerning  theater-going ;  but  whether 
it  was  wise  for  him  thus  to  endanger  his  in- 
fluence with  his  scholars. — Rev.  H.  Clay 
Trumbull. 

CHILDREN  TO  LOOK  UP,  Teach  the.— 

Among  the  old  Romans  there  prevailed  the 
touching  custom  of  holding  the  face  of  every 
new  born  babe  toward  the  heavens,  signifying 
by  their  presenting  its  forehead  to  the  stars 
that  it  was  to  look  above  the  world  into  ce- 
lestial glories.  That  was  only  a  vain  supersti- 
tion ;  but  Christ  has  taught  us  how  to  realize 
the  old  Pagan  yearning. — Dr.  L.  A.  Banks. 

CHILD'S  ANALYSIS  OP  MOTIVE,  A. 
— A  child  will  not,  as  a  rule,  go  far  astray  in 
analysis  of  his  own  motives.  In  this  matter 
it  were  well  if  some  grown-up  children  would 
be  as  honest  in  owning  the  real  motives  gov- 
erning neglect  of  God's  word,  and  of  prayer. 

Little  Raymond  is  generally  a  thoughtful 


boy,   if  not   always   a   model   in   conduct.     I 

sometimes  think  he  is  better  than  most  boys. 
His  nature  has  been  refined  by  much  suffer- 
ing of  body.  One  day  he  had  done  something 
he  knew  to  be  wrong.  When  going  to  his 
bed  his  mother  said  : 

"  Ray,  are  you  not  going  to  pray  to- 
night ?  " 

"  No,"  said  he. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  questioned  his  mother. 

The  answer  came  after  a  moment  of 
thought,  his  face  hidden  in  the  bed-clothes ; 

"  Because,  Mamma,  I  am  ashamed  to 
pray." — Rev.  W.  K.  Crosby. 

CON"VERT,  A  Young.— A  woman  whose 
testimony  we  are  prepared  unhesitatingly  to 
endorse,  told  us  that  in  one  of  Mr.  Ham- 
mond's meetings,  held  in  Glasgow  last  spring, 
a  young  lady  came  up  to  her  and  said : — 

"Do  you  not  remember  me?" 

"  No,  I  do  not,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Do  you  not  remember  a  little  child  four 
years  old,  whom  you  found  in  one  of  Mr. 
Hammond's  meetings,  seventeen  years  ago, 
weeping  very  bitterly,  and  whose  nurse  was 
afraid  to  take  her  home,  to  whom  you  spoke 
kind  words  about  Jesus?" 

"  Yes,  I  do,  perfectly,"  was  the  reply. 

"  I  was  that  little  girl,  and  I  then  became  a 
Christian,  and  have  continued  so  ever  since," 
was  the  unexpected  answer. 

The  truth  is,  we  have  not  sufficient  confi- 
dence in  the  Spirit  and  Word  of  God  when 
we  speak  to  children  with  the  one  distinct 
aim  of  leading  them  at  once  to  the  Savior. 
It  is  not  enough  to  sow  in  their  young  minds 
seeds  of  truth  which  may  ripen  by  and  by. 
Our  duty  is  to  tell  them  plainly  they  are  lost 
sinners,  whom  Jesus  came  to  save.  When 
they  learn  their  condition  as  the  Scripture 
states  it,  and  when  they  hear  of  the  gracious 
Savior, 

Who  left  His  throne  on  high, 
And  came  into  the  world  to  die, 

their  young  hearts  are  touched,  and  an  im- 
pression often  is  made  which  no  lapse  of  time 
can  efface.  We  have  been  far  too  faithless 
about  the  conversion  of  children.  We  have 
learned  somehow  or  other  to  regard  child- 
hood as  an  unpromising  field,  which  it  is  a 
loss  of  labor  to  cultivate ;  while  in  truth  it 
is  the  most  hopeful  field  into  which  any  serv- 
ant of  Christ  can  enter. — Selected. 

EXAMPLES,  A  Few.— Dr.  Arnold,  a  great 
teacher,  and  the  father  of  Matthew  Arnold, 
said  :  "  All  who  have  meditated  upon  the  art 
of  governing  mankind,  have  felt  that  the  fate 
of  empires  depended  on  the  education  of  the 
young." 

It  was  the  remark  of  John  Bright,  that 
great  and  good  statesman,  "  I  think  that  the 
influence  of  a  good  man  and  a  good  woman 
teaching  ten  or  twelve  children  in  a  class,  is 
an  influence  in  this  world  and  the  world  to 
come,  which  no  man  can  measure,  and  the 
responsibility  of  which  no  man  can  calculate. 
It  may  raise  and  bless  the  individual.  It  may 
give  comfort  in  the  family  circle.  For  the 
blessing  which  the  child  receives  in  the  school 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


293 


it  may  take  home  to  the  family.  It  may  check 
the  barbarism  even  of  the  nation." 

The  following  is  the  testimony  of  our  great 
orator  Webster :  ''  If  we  work  upon  marble, 
it  will  perish ;  if  we  work  upon  bronze,  time 
will  efface  it ;  if  we  rear  temples  they  will 
crumble  to  the  dust ;  but  if  we  work  upon 
immortal  souls,  if  we  embue  them  with  right 
principles  of  action,  with  just  fear  of  wrong 
and  love  of  right,  we  engrave  on  those  tablets 
something  which  no  time  can  obliterate,  but 
which  will  grow  brighter  and  brighter  to  all 
eternity." 

The  following,  is  from  the  brilliant  French 
writer,  Edmond  About :  "  Our  children,"  he 
says,  "  are  side  altars  in  the  temples  of  our 
lives ;  manhood's  power  of  reasoning  and  cal- 
culation are  sorry  substitutes  for  their  dis- 
tinct consciences.  He  who  plants  a  tree  does 
well ;  he  who  fells  and  saws  it  into  planks 
does  well ;  he  who  makes  a  bench  of  the 
planks  does  well ;  he  who  sitting  on  a  bench 
teaches  a  child,  does  better  than  the  rest.  The 
first  three  have  added  to  the  common  capital 
of  humanity;  the  last  has  added  something 
to  humanity  itself." — Selected. 

GIRL'S  GIFT,  A  Little.— A  child,  dying, 
wished  to  give  something  to  the  missionary 
cause.  All  she  had  left  was  a  canary  bird  she 
dearly  prized.  That  she  gave.  It  was  brought 
to  the  missionary  meeting.  The  story  was 
told,  and  one  in  the  audience  arose  and  bid 
$300  for  the  bird ;  $400  was  bid ;  another, 
$500,  and  it  was  sold.  That  little  girl's  gift 
was  not  despised  by  God,  or  man. — Selected. 

RAJAH,  A  Thoughtful.— Ali  Schind,  one 
of  the  Rajahs  of  India,  was  noted  for  the 
uprightness  of  his  dealings,  and  for  his  nice 
sense  of  honor,  even  towards  the  lowest  of  his 
subjects.  One  day  while  out  hunting  with  his 
courtiers,  he  became  hungrv,  and  ordered 
some  of  the  game  they  had  taken  to  be 
dressed  for  an  immediate  repast.  This  re- 
quirement had  been  anticipated  by  his  attend- 
ants, and  they  had  brought  with  them  bread, 
sauces,  plates,  and  all  they  needed — all  except 
salt,  which  had  been  forgotten.  There  was, 
however,  a  village  near  by,  and  a  boy  was 
hastily  despatched  to  procure  some.  The 
Rajah,  hearing  the  order  given,  called  after 
the  lad  to  inquire  whether  he  had  taken 
money  to  pay  for  the  salt.  At  this  his  at- 
tendants expressed  some  surprise,  wondering 
that  so  great  a  man  should  trouble  himself 
about  such  trifles,  and  adding  that  those  who 
had  the  happiness  of  living  under  his  domin- 
ion had  no  right  to  murmur,  if  he  should 
claim  at  their  hands  gifts  of  much  greater 
value  than  a  handful  of  salt. 

"Justice,"  replied  the  Rajah,  "is  of  as 
much  importance  in  little  as  in  great  matters ; 
and  the  fact  of  my  conferring  benefits  on  my 
subjects  at  one  time  gives  me  no  right  to 
oppress  them  in  the  smallest  particular  at 
another.  Ail  t're  wrongs  and  oppressions 
under  which  mankind  groan  began  in  little 
things,  and  if  we  would  prevent  great  sins 
or  great  calamities,  we  must  strive  against 
the  beginnings  of  evil." 


Let  our  young  readers  mark  this,  and  if 
they  desire  to  become  good  and  great  men,  let 
them  in  childhood  form  habits  of  integrity, 
virtue,  and  piety. — C.  W. 

STRAWBERRIES,  The  First.— A  little 
girl  once  had  a  bed  of  strawberries.  Very 
anxious  was  she  that  they  should  ripen  and 
be  fit  to  eat.     The  time  came. 

"  Now  for  a  feast,"  said  her  brother  to 
her  one  morning,  as  he  picked  some  beautiful 
ones  for  her  to  eat. 

"  I  cannot  eat  these,"  said  she,  "  for  they 
are  the  first  ripe  fruit." 

"  Well,"  said  her  brother,  "  all  the  more 
reason  for  our  making  a  feast,  for  they  are 
the  greater  treat." 

"  Yes ;    but  they  are  the  first  ripe  fruit." 

''  Well,  what  of  that?" 

"  Dear  father  told  us  that  he  used  to  give 
God  the  first  out  of  all  the  money  he  made, 
and  that  then  he  always  felt  happier  in  spend- 
ing the  rest;  and  I  wished  to  give  God  the 
first  of  my  strawberries  too  !  " 

"  Ah !  but,"  said  her  brother.  "  how  can 
you  give  strawberries  to  God?  And  even  if 
you  could.  He  would  not  care  for  them." 

"  Oh  !  I  have  found  out  a  way,"  said  she. 
"  Jesus  said,  '  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye 
have  done  it  unto  me,'  and  I  mean  to  go  with 
them  to  Mrs.  Perkins'  dying  child,  who  never 
sees  a  strawberry;    they  are  so  poor." 

Away  went  the  children  to  give  them  to 
the  dying  child,  and  when  they  saw  her  put 
out  her  thin  arms  and  take  the  ripe,  round 
fruit  in  her  little  shriveled  fingers,  and  when 
they  saw  her  eyes  glisten,  and  her  little  faded 
lips  smile,  they  felt  as  if  they  had  a  richer 
treat  than  if  they  had  kept  the  ripe  fruit  for 
themselves ;  and  something  within  them  told 
them  that  God  had  accepted  their  little  offer- 
ing.— Selected. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL,    Faithful    to    the.— 

James  Kershaw,  of  England,  once  a  poor  boy, 
but  afterward  a  member  of  Parliament,  re- 
visited the  Sabbath-school  of  his  early  days, 
and  looked  over  the  old  class-books.  He  was 
gratified  to  see  that  for  seven  years  while  a 
scholar,  and  fourteen  years  while  a  teacher, 
he  had  not  once  been  absent.  He  then  ex- 
pressed his  conviction  that  his  attachment  to 
the  Sabbath-school  and  his  deep  regard  for 
the  Sabbath,  were  the  foundation  of  all  his 
blessings,   temporal   and   spiritual. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL,  Recommendation 
of  the. — A  wholesale  liquor  dealer  one  day 
accosted  Moses  F.  Odell,  the  well-known  su- 
perintendent of  Sand  Street  M.  E.  S.  S., 
Brooklyn :  "  I  want  you  to  send  me  a  first- 
rate  clerk — one  that  you  can  recommend.  He 
must  be  prompt,  smart,  and  reliable.  In  short, 
he  must  be  a  first-class  Sunday-school  boy." 
"  Why  do  you  want  a  clerk  out  of  my  Sun- 
day-school ?  You're  not  a  Christian ;  you 
don't  attend  Church  ;  your  children  are  not 
in  the  Sunday-school."  "  Oh,  that's  all  very 
well,"  replied  the  German  free-thinker,  "  I 
can  take  care  of  myself;  but  I  won't  have 
anybody   in   my   store   that   I   can't   trust.     I 


294 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


know  these  Sunday-school  boys,  and  they'll 
do  to  tie  to.  They  won't  drink  my  liquor,  nor 
rob  my  till."  It  must  be  said  that  Sunday- 
school  boys  do  not  do  tl^e  foul  work  of  liquor 
dealers,  but  the  indorsement  is  good. — F.  II. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS,  Advantage  of.— A 

little  boy  said  to  his  irreligious  mother,  as  she 
smoothed  his  dying  pillow,  "  Oh,  mother,  you 
have  never  taught  me  anything  about  Jesus ; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  Sabbath-school 
teachers,  I  should  now  be  dying  without  a 
hope  in  Him,  and  must  have  been  lost  for- 
ever."— F.  II. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS,    A    Tribute    to.— 

"  What  gives  you  the  greatest  satisfaction  as 
you  take  a  retrospective  view  of  your  long 
and  eventful  life,  doctor?" 

This  was  the  question  put  by  a  visitor  to 
one  whose  name  stands  for  all  that  is  good 
and  noble,  and  one  who  has  earned  an  en- 
viable reputation  as  scholar  and  linguist;  but 
the  answer  came  promptly : 

"  My  connection  with  various  Sunday- 
schools,  both  as  scholar  and  teacher." 

The  young  man  who  told  of  the  interview, 
granted  for  his  father's  sake,  said :  "  This  an- 
swer seemed  to  me  so  suggestive  of  weaken- 
ing power  that  I  thought  those  who  say  that 
'  his  mind  has  brightened  as  his  hair  was 
whitened,'  were  mistaken.  I  think  he  must 
have  read  my  thoughts,  or  judged  me  by  the 
average  youth,  for  after  a  moment's  silence 
the  venerable  doctor  said  emphatically : 

Yes,  my  young  friend,  as  I  review  my 
threescore  years  and  ten,  all  the  honors 
heaped  upon  me  because  of  my  research 
along  the  lines  in  which  you  are  so  greatly 
inlerested,  dwindle  to  nothingness  in  com- 
parison to  the  satisfaction  I  feel  in  know- 
ing that  until  the  Lord  shut  me  in  I  never 
absented  myself  from  Sunday-school,  where 
new  treasures  were  unfolded  as  teacher  and 
scholar  studied  the  Book  of  books.' 

"  I  wanted  to  talk  of  the  books  of  which  he 
was  the  author,"  said  my  informant,  "  but 
there  was  no  opportunity,  for  when  the  aged 
scholar  was  once  started  on  his  love  of  Bible 
study,  all  else  was  crowded  *out.  But  I  am 
free  to  confess  that  after  listening  to  one  who 
is  surely  a  type  of  '  Thine  age  shall  be  clearer 


than  the  noonday,'  I  was  ready  to  give  heed 
to  the  parting  injunction :  '  Make  it  your  first 
aim  to  study  the  Bible,  for  its  precepts  alone 
make  life  worth  the  living.'  " — Helena  H. 
Thomas. — U.  G.  N. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS,      Mission      of.— A 

new  and  beautiful  flower  has  recently  been 
discovered  in  the  State  of  Texas.  It  is  called 
the  compass  flower,  because  all  its  petals  point 
to  the  north.  In  sunshine  and  in  storm,  by 
day  and  by  night,  the  little  flower  points 
northward,  and  tho  the  traveler  may  per- 
chance be  lost  in  the  Texan  wilds,  yet,  if  he 
can  only  find  one  of  these  little  compass  flow- 
ers, he  may,  by  looking  at  it,  find  his  bearings 
and  ascertain  the  true  and  right  way.  Now, 
the  mission  of  the  Sabbath-school  is  to  sow 
the  seeds  of  truth  in  the  heart  of  the  little 
ones ;  those  seeds  will  spring  up  as  the  seeds 
of  flowers,  and  the  blossoms  will  appear, 
beautiful  and  lovely  in  the  sight  of  heaven, 
and  as  this  compass  flower  points  toward  the 
north,  they  will  point  toward  Christ.  And 
gazing  upon  these  compass  flowers  of  truth, 
planted  by  the  instrumentality  of  some  hum- 
ble Sunday-school  teacher,  many  a  poor  wan- 
derer may  be  brought  back  to  the  way  of 
peace  and  righteousness. — Anon. 

TONGUES,  Velvet.— When  I  was  a  boy,  I 
and  a  number  of  my  playmates  had  rambled 
through  the  woods  and  fields  till,  quite  for- 
getful of  the  fading  night,  we  found  ourselves 
far  from  home ;  we  had  lost  our  way.  It 
happened  that  we  were  nearer  our  home  than 
we  thought,  but  how  to  get  to  it  was  the  ques- 
tion. 

By  the  edge  of  the  field  we  saw  a  man 
coming  along,  and  we  ran  to  ask  him  to  tell 
us.  Whether  he  was  in  trouble  or  not  I  do 
not  know,  but  he  gave  us  some  very  surly 
answer.  Just  then  there  came  along  another 
man  who,  with  a  smile  on  his  face,  said, 
"  Jim,  a  man's  tongue  is  like  a  cat's ;  it  is 
either  a  piece  of  velvet  or  a  piece  of  sand- 
paper, just  as  he  likes  to  use  it  and  to  make 
it ;  you  always  seem  to  use  your  tongue  for 
sand-paper."  And  then  he  pleasantly  told  us 
the  way  home.  Try  the  velvet,  children. — S. 
S.  V. 


POETRY 


The  Children's  Hour 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

Between  the  dark  and  the  daylight. 
When  night  is  beginning  to  lower, 

Comes  a  pause  in  the  day's  occupations. 
That  is  known  as  the  children's  hour. 

I  hear  in  the  chamber  above  me 

The  patter  of  little  feet, 
The  sound  of  a  door  that  is  opened. 

And  voices  soft  and  sweet. 


From  my  study  I  see  in  the  lamplight. 
Descending  the  broad  hall  stair. 

Grave  Alice  and  laughing  Allegra, 
And  Edith  with  golden  hair. 

A  whisper  and  then  a  silence; 

Yet  I  know  by  their  merry  eyes 
They  are  plotting  and  planning  together 

To  take  me  by  surprise. 

A  sudden  rush  from  the  stairway, 

A  sudden  raid  from  the  hall. 
By  three  doors  left  unguarded. 

They  enter  my  castle  wall. 


i 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


295 


They  climb  up  into  my  turret, 

O'er  the  arms  and  back  of  my  chair; 

If  I  try  to  escape,  they  surround  me; 
They  seem  to  be  everywhere. 

They  almost  devour  me  with  kisses, 
Their  arms  about  me  entwine, 

Till  I  think  of  the  Bishop  of  Bingen 
In  his  Mouse-Tower  on  the  Rhine. 

Do  you  think,  O  blue-eyed  banditti. 
Because  you  have  scaled  the  wall, 

Such  an  old  mustache  as  I  am 
Is  not  a  match  for  you  all ! 

I  have  you  fast  in  my  fortress, 

And  will  not  let  you  depart. 
But  put  you  into  the  dungeon 

In  the  round  tower  of  my  heart. 

And  there  will  I  keep  you  forever, 

Yes,  forever  and  a  day, 
Till  the  walls  shall  crumble  to  ruin, 

And  molder  in  dust  away. 

Beauty  of  Childhood 

By  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis 

Beautiful,    beautiful    childhood !     with   a   joy 
That  like  a  robe  is  palpable,  and  flung 
Out  by  your  ev'ry  motion !  delicate  bud 
Of  the  immortal  flower  that  will  unfold 
And  come  to  its  maturity  in  heaven ! 
I  weep  your  earthly  glory.     'Tis  a  light 
Lent    to    the   new-born   spirit,   that   goes   out 
With  the  first  idle  wind.     It  is  the  leaf 
Fresh  flung  upon  the  river,  that  will  dance 
Upon  the  wave  that  stealeth  out  its  life. 
Then  sink  of  its  own  heaviness.     The  face 
Of  the  delightful  earth  will  to  your  eye 
Grow  dim ;  -the  fragrance  of  the  many  flowers 
Be  noticed  not,  and  the  beguiling  voice 
Of  nature  in  her  gentleness  will  be 
To  manhood's  senseless  ear  inaudible. 

Crown  of  Childhood 

The  cows  are  lowing  along  the  lane, 
The  sheep  to  the  fold  have  come 
And  the  mother  looks  from  the  cottage  door, 
To  see  how  the  night  comes  over  the  moor. 
And  calls  the  children  home. 

Their  feet  are  bare  in  the  dusty  road, 
Their  cheeks  are  tawny  and  red ;" 
They  have  waded  the  shallows  below  the  mill. 
They  have  gathered  wild  roses  up  the  hill, 
A  crown  for  each  tangled  head. 

The  days  will  come,  and  the  days  will  go. 
And  life  hath  many  a  crown, 
But    none    that    will    press    upon    manhood's 

brow 
As  light  as  the  roses  resting  now 

On  the  children's  foreheads  brown. 

F.  *I. 
A  Farewell 

By  Charles  Kingsley 

My  fairest  child.  I  have  no  song  to  give  you ; 
No  lark  could  pipe  to  skies  so  dull  and  gray ; 
Yet,  ere  we  part,  one  lesson  I  can  leave  you, 
For  every  day : 


Be  good,   sweet  maid,   and  let   who   will   be 
clever ; 

Do   noble   things,   not   dream   them,   all   day 
long: 

And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  for- 
ever 

One  grand,  sweet  song ! 

Blessing  upon  Children 

By  James  Grahame 

"  Suffer  that  little  children  come  to  Me, 
Forbid  them  not."    Emboldened  by  His  words, 
The  mothers  onward  press ;  but,  finding  vain 
The   attempt   to   reach   the   Lord,   they  trust 

their  babes 
To  strangers'  hands ;  the  innocents,  alarmed 
Amid  the  throng  of  faces  all  unknown, 
Shrink,  trembling,  till   their  wandering  eyes 

discern 
The  countenance  of  Jesus,  beaming  love 
And  pity;  eager  then  they  stretch  their  arms, 
And,    cowering,    lay    their    heads    upon    His 

breast. 

Example  for  Children 

By  Charles  Wesley 

Lamb  of  God,  I  look  to  Thee, 
Thou  shalt  my  example  be ; 
Thou  art  gentle,  meek,  and  mild: 
Thou  wast  once  a  little  child. 

Fain  I  would  be  as  Thou  art. 
Give  me  Thy  obedient  heart; 
Thou  art  pitiful  and  kind : 
Let  me  have  Thy  loving  mind. 

Let  me  above  all  fulfil 
God  my  heavenly  Father's  will; 
Never  His  good  Spirit  grieve. 
Only  to  His  Glory  live. 

Loving  Jesus,  gentle  Lamb, 
In   Thy   gracious   hands   I   am : 
Make  me.  Savior,  what  Thou  art ; 
Live  Thyself  within  my  heart. 

I  shall  then  show  forth  Thy  praise; 
Serve  Thee  all  my  happy  days; 
Then  the  world  shall  always  see 
Christ,  the  Holy  Child,  in  me. 

Weariness 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

O  little  feet!  that  such  long  years 

Must  wander  on  through  hope  and  fears, 

Must  ache  and  bleed  beneath  your  load; 
I,  nearer  to  the  wayside  inn 
Where  toil  shall  cease  and  rest  begin, 

I  am  weary,  thinking  of  your  road ! 

O  little  hands !  that,  weak  or  strong. 
Have  still  to  serve  or  rule  so  long, 

Have  still  so  long  to  give  or  ask; 
I,  who  so  much  with  book  and  pen 
Have  toiled  among  my  fellow-men. 

Am  weary,  thinking  of  your  task. 


296 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


O  little  hearts !  that  throb  and  beat 
With  such  impatient,  feverish  heat, 

Such  limitless  and  strong  desires ; 
Mine,  that  so  long  has  glowed  and  burned, 
With  passions  into  ashes  turned, 

Now  covers  and  conceals  its  fires. 

O  little  souls  !  as  pure  and  white 
And  crystalline  as  rays  of  light 

Direct  from   Heaven,   their  source  divine; 
Refracted  through  the  mist  of  years, 
How  red  my  setting  sun  appears. 

How  lurid  looks  this  soul  of  mine ! 

Children 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  LoNGfELLOW 

Ah !  what  would  the  world  be  to  us 

If  the  children  were  no  more? 
We  should  dread  the  desert  behind  us 

Worse  than  the  dark  before. 

What  the  leaves  are  to  the  forest. 

With  light  and  air  for  food. 
Ere  their  sweet  and  tender  juices 

Have  been  hardened  into  wood, — 

That  to  the  world  are  children; 

Through  them  it  feels  the  glow 
Of  a  brighter  and  sunnier  climate 

Than  reaches  the  trunks  below. 

Come  to  me,  O  ye  children ! 

And  whisper  in  my  ear 
What  the  birds   and  the   winds  are   singing 

In  your  sunny  atmosphere. 

For  what  are  all  our  contrivings, 

And  the  wisdom  of  our  books, 
When  compared  with  your  caresses, 

And  the  gladness  of  your  looks? 

Ye  are  better  than  all  the  ballads 

That  ever  were  sung  or  said; 
For  ye  are  living  poems. 

And  all  the  rest  are  dead. 

Hymn  for  Children's  Sunday 

Anonymous 

Ten  thousand  thanks,  O  Lord,  be  Thine, 
For  flowers  to  crown  this  summer  land. 

For  dews  to  fall  and  sun  to  shine. 
For  birds  to  sing  and  airs  so  bland ! 

But  more  we  thank  Thee  for  the  flowers 
That  bud  and  blossom  in  the  home. 

Like  song-birds,  making  glad  the  hours. 
Wherever  straying  feet  may  roam. 

Fairer  than  all  these  flowers  of  June, 
The  children  at  their  work  or  play ; 

Sweeter  their  song,  with  hearts  in  tune. 
Than  wild  bees'  hum  or  skylarks'  lay ! 

Lord,  bless  them  with  June's  wealth  of  life. 
Grown  golden  for  the  life  above ! 

Make  strong  to  win  in  hours  of  strife, 
And  crown  them  with  Thy  saving  love ! 


Hark  to   the  Children's  Voices 

By  George  Edward  Martin 

Hark  to  the  children's  voices ! 

Hark  to  their  cry  so  clear ! 
"Jesus,  the  Christ,  is  coming, 

Jesus  is  drawing  near : 
Near  to  the  city  portals. 

Near   to   the   church's   door. 
Near  to  the  homes  of  the  rich  of  earth 

And  the  lowly,  whose  lot  He  bore." 

Refrain 

Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  portals, 

Swing  open,  wide  and  high ! 
Jesus,  the  King,  is  coming, 

Jesus  is  drawing  nigh ! 
Singing,  because  He  bids  us. 

Loudly  the  challenge  rings — 
Swing  open  wide  ev'ry  heart-door  now. 

At  the  call  of  the  King  of  kings! 

Hark  to  the  children's  voices! 

Hark  to  their  cry  so  clear ! 
"  Jesus,  the  Christ,  is  coming, 

Jesus  is  drawing  near — 
Faith,  with  her  heav'nly  vision, 

Hope,    with   her    sunny   cheer. 
Love  in  whose  light  Faith  knows  no  night 

And  Hope  hath  no  blame  or  fear." 

Refrain. 

Hark  to  the  children's  voices ! 

Hark  to  their  glad  refrain ! 
Out  from  the  temple  holy 

Calling  to  men  again : 
"  Open  your  hearts,  oh  sinners. 

Welcome  the  Savior  King, 
Live  in  the  light  that  can  know  no  night. 

In  the  joy  of  the  ransomed  sing." 

Refrain. 

Greeting  Song 

By  Laura  E.  Newell 

We  would  greet  you  now,  this  joyous  Chil- 
dren's day, 
With  a  garland  of  sunshine  and  song. 
We   would  bid  you   welcome ;   heaven  cheer 
your  way ! 
May  your  hearts  all  be  happy  and  strong ! 

Duet. 

Onward,  onward  march  I 

Marching  all  together; 
Life  shall  still  be  bright. 

Till  the  day  is  done ; 
Onward  ever  as  we  roam ! 

Refrain 

We  are  marching  onward  in  the  narrow  way, 
And  we  greet  you  with  anthems  of  praise. 

In  the  golden  sunshine  of  this  Children's  day. 
We  our  hearts  unto  heaven  would  raise. 

How  the  Father's  love  to  us  this  day  is  shown. 
As   His  goodness  and  mercy  we  see: 

We  would  follow  Jesus,  who  doth  love  His 
own; 
Oh  salvation  is  boundless  and  free ! 


CHILDREN'S  DAY 


297 


I 


Duet. 

Christian  soldiers,  on ! 

Onward,  valiant  ever; 
Fearless,  strong  and  true, 

We'll  our  way  pursue, 
Till  His  glory  we  shall  view. 

Refrain. 
Ancient  Hymn 
By  St.  Ambrose 

Shepherd  of  tender  youth, 
Guiding  in  love  and  truth, 

Through  devious  ways; 
Christ,  our  triumphant  King, 
We  come  Thy  name  to  sing. 
And  here  our  children  bring, 

To  shout  Thy  praise. 

Thou  art  our  holy  Lord ; 
The  all-subduing  Word, 

Healer  of  strife ; 
Thou  didst  Thyself  abase, 
That  from  sin's  deep  disgrace 
Thou  mightest  save  our  race. 

And  give  us  life. 

Ever  be  Thou  our  Guide, 
Our  Shepherd  and  our  pride. 

Our  staff  and  song : 
Jesus,  Thou  Christ  of  God, 
By  Thy  perennial  word, 
Lead  us  where  Thou  hast  trod, 

Our  faith  make  strong. 

So  now,  and  till  we  die, 
Sound  we  Thy  praises  high. 

And  joyful  sing: 
Let  all  the  holy  throng, 
Who  to  Thy  Church  belong. 
Unite  and  swell  the  song 

To  Christ  our  King ! 

Jerusalem 
By  George  Edward  Martin 

Last  night  as  I  lay  sleeping,  there  came  a 

dream  most  fair : 
I  stood  in  old  Jerusalem,  beside  the  temple 

there : 
I  heard  the  children  singing,  and  ever  as  they 

sang, 
Methought  the  voice  of  angels  from  heaven 

in  answer  rang. 

Refrain 

Jerusalem !  Jerusalem ! 

Lift  up  your  gates  and  sing 
Hosanna  in  the  highest ! 

Hosanna  to  your  King! 
Hosanna  in  the  highest ! 

Hosanna  to  your  King ! 

And  then  methought  my  dream  was  changed, 

the  streets  no  longer  rang: 
Hush'd    were   the    glad    Hosannas   the    little 

children  sang : 
The  sun  grew  dark  with  mystery,  the  moon 

was  cold  and  chill, 
As  the  shadow  of  a  cross  arose  upon  a  lonely 

hill. 


Refrain 

Jerusalem !   Jerusalem ! 

Hark  how  the  angels  sing 
Hosanna  in  the  highest! 

Hosanna  to  your  King ! 
Hosanna  in  the  highest! 

Hosanna  to  your  King! 

Well    May   the    Church    Keep    Children's 
Day 

By  George  Edward  Martin 

Well  may  the  Church  keep  Children's  Day, 

And  thus  draw  near  the  Son, 

Who  gained  His  richest  human  realm, 

When  children's  hearts  were  won. 

Well  may  the  Church  keep  Children's  Day, 

And  thus  draw  near  the  skies. 

For  in  the  children's  sunny  hearts. 

The  light  of  heaven  lies. 

Well  may  the  Church  keep  Children's  Day, 

She  keeps  her  greatness  then. 

E'en  now  the  Christ  uplifts  a  child. 

Above  all  sinful  men. 

Oh,  happy  day!    Oh,  heavenly  hour! 

When  thus  the  Church  shall  stand, 

Like  Christ  with  smile  and  touch  of  grace, 

Amid  the  children's  band.     Amen. 

Sunbeam  Band 

By  Laura  E.  Newell 

First  Child 

We're  a  little  band  of  sunbeams, 

Happy,   happy  all  day  long. 
And  our  lives  are  full  of  sunshine, 

As  our  hearts  are  full  of  song. 

Second  Child 
Hither,  thither,  playing,  straying, 

Do  we  wander  to  and  fro. 
Gathering  the  sweetest  blossoms. 

Singing  gaily  as  we  go. 

Third  Child 
Smiling  as  the  skies  above  us, 

On  this  lovely   Children's  Day, 
Thankful  for  the  friends  who  love  us, 

Joyful  in  our  work  or  play. 

Fourth  Child 
You  may  think  a  band  of  sunbeams 

Have  not  any  work  to  do ; 
But  we  have,  and  help  each  other 

Trying  to  be  good  and  true. 

Fifth  Child 
Jesus  loves  us.    Do  you  wonder 

That  our  hearts  are  glad  and  light? 
When  on  earth  He  blessed  the  children. 

And  He  made  dark  places  bright. 

Sixth  Child 
So  would  we,  a  band  of  sunbeams, 

Strive  to  scatter  light  and  joy, 
And  to  help  to  make  earth  better. 

While   God's   praise   our   tongues   employ. 


298 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


All 

And,  whatever  may  befall  us, 

We  God's  sunbeams  still  would  be. 

Trusting  Him  who  loves  the  children. 
And  who  cares  for  you  and  me. 

In  the  Way  He  Should  Go 

By  Reginald  Heber 

By  cool  Siloam's  shady  rill 

How  fair  the  lily  grows ; 
How  sweet  the  breath  beneath  the  hill 

Of  Sharon's  dewy  rose. 
Lo,  such  the  child  whose  early  feet 

The  paths  of  peace  have  trod, 
Whose  secret  heart,  with  influence  sweet, 

Is  upward  drawn  to  God. 

By  cool  Siloam's  shady  rill 

The  lily  must  decay; 
The  rose  that  blooms  beneath  the  hill 

Must  shortly  fade  away. 
And  soon,  too  soon,  the  wintry  hour 

Of  man's  maturer  age 
May  shake  the  soul  with  sorrow's  power, 

And  stormy  passion's  rage. 

O  Thou,  whose  infant  feet  were  found 

Within  Thy  Father's  shrine. 
Whose  years,  with  changeless  virtue  crowned. 

Were  all  alike  divine! 


Dependent  on  Thy  bounteous  breath. 

We  seek  Thy  grace  alone, 
In  childhood,  manhood,  age,  and  death, 

To  keep  us  still  Thine  own. 

The  Sweet  Story 

By  Mrs.  J.  Luke 

I  think,  when  I  read  that  sweet  story  of  old, 
When  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 

How  He  called  little  children  as  lambs  to  His 
fold, 
I  should  like  to  have  been  with  them  then. 

I  wish  that  His  hands  had  been  placed  on 
my  head, 
That  His  arm  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  that  I  might  have  seen  His  kind  look 
when  He  said, 
"  Let  the  little  ones  come  unto  me." 

Yet  still  to  His  footstool  in  prayer  I  may  go, 
And  ask  for  a  share  in  His  love; 

And  if  I  now  earnestly  seek  Him  below, 
I  shall  see  Him  and  hear  Him  above : — 

In  that  beautiful  place  He  is  gone  to  prepare 
For  all  who  are  washed  and  forgiven : 

And  many  dear  children  are  gathering  there, 
"  For  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 


TRINITY  SUNDAY  299 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 

(June) 

TRINITY  SUNDAY  immediately  follows  Whitsunday,  and  is  set  apart  for  the 
honor  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  Much  obscurity  surrounds  the  date  of  the  origin 
of  this  holy  day.  It  seems  not  to  have  been  known  to  the  fathers  of  the  early  cen- 
turies, and  no  corresponding  festival  has  been  discovered  at  any  time  in  the 
separated  Greek  Church.  Benedict  XL  introduced  it  into  the  calendar  in  1305, 
but  the  general  establishment  of  Trinity  Sunday  as  a  common  festival  of  the 
Western  Church  dates  from  the  decree  of  John  XXIL,  who  died  in  1334. 

"  The  late  appearance  of  Trinity  Sunday  among  the  settled  Holy  Days  of  the 
Church  is  to  be  readily  understood  in  the  light  of  the  unique  character  of  that 
celebration.  It  is  not,  as  other  feasts,  the  commemoration  of  an  event — not  the 
memorial  of  a  phase  of  divine,  or  angelic,  or  saintly  activity  or  passion.  It  is 
rather  the  commemoration  of  a  systematized  result  of  many  separate  and  several 
facts  of  revelation — of  the  nexus  and  relation  of  several  simple  propositions,  each 
of  which,  involving  the  Infinite  and  the  Self-Existent,  involves  also  the  unthink- 
able and  the  incomprehensible.  In  its  ontological  doctrine,  there  is  nothing  neces- 
sarily of  human  interest.  Reason  is  dazzled  and  transcended ;  the  festival  is  a 
festival  of  faith,  of  orthodoxy,  of  a  creed."  * 

Trinity  Sunday  concludes  the  festival  part  of  the  Church  Year  in  the  West, 
and  in  the  Anglican  Church  the  Sundays  from  Whitsuntide  to  Advent  are  counted 
as  the  first,  second,  etc.,  till  the  twenty-sixth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

In  the  course  of  a  sermon  on  Jude  3,  Bishop  W.  R.  Huntington  thus  writes 
of  the  importance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity :  "  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
Trinity  in  Unity  has  proved  itself  the  conservator  and  upholder  of  other  beliefs 
which  appeal  more  evidently  to  the  affections  than  it  does  itself,  but  which,  experi- 
ence has  proved,  will  in  the  long  run  stand  or  fall  with  it.  This  is  the  reason 
why  Trinity  Sunday  is  made  the  crown  and  climax  of  that  part  of  the  Christian 
year  which  commemorates  the  life  of  Christ.  All  the  momentous  truths  that  lie 
scattered  along  our  path  from  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent  to  Whitsunday,  are 
gathered  up  into  a  single  sheaf  to-day,  and  this  strong  formula  serves  as  a  three- 
fold cord  to  bind  them  into  unity.  Take,  for  example,  the  belief  of  which  Christ- 
mas Day  is  the  commemoration,  namely,  the  union  of  the  Divine  and  the  human 
in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Eternal  Fatherhood  and 
the  Eternal  Sonship  which  alone  can  keep,  as  experience  would  seem  to  teach, 
that  precious  faith  of  the  Savior's  Divinity  bright  and  clear.  But  the  doctrine 
of  the  Eternal  Fatherhood  and  the  Eternal  Sonship  is  part  of  the  mystery  of  the 
Holy  Trinity.  Disown  the  threeness  of  the  Godhead,  and  presently  your  teaching 
about  Christ's  Divinity  will  become  thin,  shadowy,  vague.  Again  take  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Atonement,  the  belief  in  the  sacrificial  character  of  the  death  of  Christ; 
certainly  all  must  acknowledge  the  tremendous  hold  which  that  has  had  upon  the 
affections  of  men.  .  .  .  Deny  the  essential  Deity  of  Christ,  declare  Him  to 
be  a  creature,  and  a  creature  only,  and  what  doctrine  could  be  more  monstrous 
than  such  a  one  as  the  Atonement  ?  " 

•  CHURCH  SEASONS  ;  By  Alexander  H.  Grant,  M.  A.,  p.  221.    (Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York.) 


30O 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

OUR  TRINITARIAN  PRAYERS 

By  Robert  Balgarnie,  D.D. 


'As  he"  (the  Trinitarian  worshiper)  "directs  his  prayers,  now  to  one"  (person  of  the 
Trinity),  "now  to  another,  they  sit  apart  within  his  faith;  and  his  awe,  his  aspiration, 
his  affection.  How  into  no  living  unity." — Dr.  James  Martineau.* 


Thus  justly  and  incisively  Dr.  Martineau 
puts  his  finger  upon  a  weak  point  of  our  de- 
votions. He  acquits  us  of  Tritheisrn,  and 
fairly  enough  explains  to  his  co-religionists 
our  standpoint  as  Trinitarians,  yet  his  charge 
against  us  of  thought-confusion  in  our  wor- 
ship is  unquestionably  true.  In  our  anxiety 
to  be  orthodox  we  have  come  to  acquire  a 
habit  of  thought  and  expression  in  public 
prayer  that  can  hardly  be  described  as  either 
rational  or  scriptural.  If  we  closely  analyze 
our  mental  vision  in  addressing  the  Deity,  we 
seem  to  have  three  divine  beings  before  our 
spiritual  eye  instead  of  one.  We  conjure  up 
a  misty  conception  of  three  celestial  thrones, 
one  occupied  by  the  Father,  another  by  the 
Son,  and  the  third  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  We 
address  the  first  in  the  name  of  the  second, 
imploring,  as  we  do  so,  the  aid  and  influence 
of  the  third.  In  the  venerable  Litany  of  the 
English  Church  an  appeal  is  made  for  mercy 
to  "  God  the  Father  of  heaven ;  "  this  is  fol- 
lowed in  similar  terms  by  prayer  to  the  Son 
as  Redeemer  of  the  world ;  then  succeeds  a 
like  petition  to  the  Holy  Spirit ;  after  which 
comes  the  adoration  of  the  Trinity ;  the  prayer 
concludes  with  earnest  supplication  to  the 
Son  as  Lord.f 

Who  is  the  central  object  of  worship  in  this 
prayer  for  mercy?  If  we  scrutinize  our  inner 
consciousness  while  offering  it  we  must 
frankly  acknowledge  that  there  is  "  no  living 
unity."  Our  thought  seems  to  wander  in  the 
presence  chamber  from  Father  to  Son,  and 
from  Son  to  the  Blessed  Spirit;  we  localize 
their  thrones  by  habit,  we  appeal  to  each  con- 
secutively, but  with  no  unified  conception  in 
our  minds  of  one  divine  image  and  likeness- 
one  conceivable  and  approachable  form,  in 
whom  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  is  em- 
bodied ;  one  whom  we  can  worship  with  all 
reverence  and  affection  in  spirit  face  to  face. 
It  does  not  help  us  out  of  our  difficulty 
here  to  return  to  the  dreary  controversies  of 
the  early  Church.  Origen,  Clement,  Irenjeus, 
Tertullian,  and  others  were  confronted  in 
their  times  by  theories  of  the  Godhead  and 
tendencies  of  religious  thought  utterly  unlike 
those  that  beset  us ;  and  the  conclusions  they 
arrived  at  were  only  satisfactory  when  viewed 
in  relation  to  the  Gnostic  and  other  heresies 
of  their  age.     Like  ancient  ships  of  the  Le- 


vant, they  were  built  and  shaped  for  other 
seas  than  ours. 

Neither  does  the  Unitarian  sword  cut  the 
Gordian  knot.  As  Dr.  Martineau  has  shown 
in  his  second  volume  of  ''  Addresses,"  his 
own  ':o-worshipers  are  not  altogether  unbeset 
with  difficulties.  Putting  names  aside  and 
concentrating  our  thoughts  on  realities,  he 
frankly  admits  : 

"  The  Father,  in  the  sense  which  I  have 
endeavored  to  explain,  is  really  absent  from 
the  Unitarian  creed.  .  .  .  Did  Trini- 
tarians perceive  this,  they  would  be  less  dis- 
posed to  charge  us  with  believing  in  only  a 
cold,  distant,  and  awful  God.  .  .  .  Tell 
them  that  the  object  of  our  belief  is  their 
second  person,  not  their  first,  and  they  will 
feel  how  false  is  the  accusation ;  for  it  is 
precisely  around  Him,  as  the  very  center  and 
solar  glory  of  their  faith,  that  all  their  trust 
and  reverence  move,  and  in  Him  that  their 
affections  burn  and  glow.  If  it  is  in  Him 
that  we  also  put  our  faith,  tho  under  another 
name,  then  we  are  at  one  with  all  Chris- 
tendom in  the  very  focus  and  fervor  of  its 
religious  life.'"t 

There  are  some  misconceptions  that  have 
to  be  cleared  away  before  the  chief  point  of 
this  thesis  can  be  dealt  with. 

I.  We  have  been  taught — taught  wrongly — 
to  regard  Jehovah  of  Old  Testament  scripture 
as  "  the  Father,"  the  first  person  of  the  glor- 
ious Trinity.  In  spite  of  New  Testament 
teaching  to  the  contrary,  this  vital  error,  I 
fancy,  is  almost  universally  prevalent.  Altho 
we  are  expressly  informed  that  "  all  things," 
without  exception,  "  were  made  "  by  the  co- 
eternal  Son,  we  still  attribute  the  creation  of 
the  world  and  the  introduction  of  man  to  the 
act  of  the  Father,  and  constantly  distinguish 
in  our  prayers  between  God  the  Creator  and 
Christ  the  Redeemer  of  the  world.  Altho 
Moses  heard  God's  voice  at  the  bush,  and  saw 
Him  at  the  mountain  face  to  face,  and  we 
are  told  that  no  man  hath  ever  seen  or  heard 
the  Father,  we  continue  to  think  of  the 
Father — not  the  Son — as  the  "  covenant  God 
of  Israel."  Altho  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  seen  and 
worshiped  by  Isaiah  in  the  temple,  in  the  vis- 
ion that  effected  his  conversion  and  gave  him 
the  call  to  the  prophetic  office,  §  is  described 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  Christ  the  Son — then 


*  The  Christian  Reformer,  February,  1886. 

t  In  striking  contrast  with  the  English  Litany  stand  the  Public  Prayers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  which 
are  addressed  exclusively  to  the  Father  (f.  Directorv\,  This  is  unity  indeed,  but  the  unity  desiderated  by 
the  Unitarian.  .  t     •  n.     • 

$  "  A  Way  out  of  the  Trinitarian  Controversy."  §  Isaiah  vi. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


301 


anticipating  His  incarnation* — we  still  think 
of  and  address  the  Father  as  the  occupant  of 
the  mercy-seat  when  we  kneel,  as  Isaiah  did, 
in  confession  and  prayer  for  forgiveness.  And 
altho  we  know  that  "  the  Father  "  judgeth  no 
man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto 
the  Son,  that  all  should  honor  him  even  as 
they  honor  the  Father,"  we  cannot  apparently 
divest  our  minds  of  the  thought  that  it  is  the 
Father  who  "  will  bring  every  work  into  judg- 
ment." The  Old  Testament  "  Jehovah  "  has 
thus  become  to  us  "  the  Father  of  Heaven  "  in 
our  prayers.  This  is  the  genesis  of  our  error. 
It  is  in  following  this  false  light  that  we  have 
been  led  into  confusion  of  thought  in  prayer. 

2.  Even  New  Testament  Scripture  is  often 
popularly  misread  on  this  subject.  We  are 
distinctly  told  in  the  Gospels,  e.  ^.,  to  at- 
tribute the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  that  He  should  "  therefore 
be  called  the  Son  of  God ;  "  yet  the  voices 
from  heaven  that  acknowledged  Him  as  the 
'■  Only  Begotten  and  Well  Beloved  "  at  His 
baptism,  on  Hermon  at  His  transfiguration, 
and  at  His  passion  are  supposed  to  be  the 
lUterances  of  the  first  person  of  the  Trinity 
and  not  of  the  third. 

We  also,  being  regenerated,  are,  in  another 
sense,  "  born  of  the  Spirit;  "  we  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  in  strictest  theo- 
logical doctrine  it  is  the  third  person  of  the 
Trinity,  not  the  first,  who  has  begotten  us 
by  the  incorruptible  seed  and  made  us  "  sons 
and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty."  Is 
it  not,  therefore,  of  Him  our  Lord  speaks 
when  He  says,  "  I  ascend  unto  my  Father 
and  your  Father ;  to  my  God  and  your 
God  ?  "  "  Our  Father  in  heaven  "  is  God, 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

3.  Our  space  here  will  not  permit  examina- 
tion of  those  passages  in  St.  John's  Gospel 
where  our  Lord,  in  His  conscious  humanity, 
speaks  of  His  relationship  to  His  Father ; 
yet  most,  if  not  all,  are  capable  of  being  un- 
derstood of  God  the  Spirit.  "  I  am  in  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  " — the  indwell- 
ing God  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  We  will  come 
and  take  up  our  abode  with  him."  "  No  man 
can  come  unto  me  except  my  Father,  who 
hath  sent  me,  draw  him."  Conversion  is  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  we  are  already 
prepossessed  of  the  idea  that  the  reference  is 
to  the  first  person  of  the  Trinity,  and  thereby 
miss  possibly  the  point,  power,  and  beauty  of 
the  allusion. 

4.  The  imagery  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, in  which  our  Lord  is  represented  as 
our  Great  High  Priest  seated  at  His  Father's 
right  hand  in  the  heavens,  there  making  con- 
tinual intercession  for  us,  altho  a  divinely  in- 
spired truth  and  of  priceless  value  to  our 
faith,  is  nevertheless  answerable  for  not  a 
few  of  these  human  misconceptions.  We 
cannot  isolate  and  separate  our  Lord's  hu- 
manity as  if  it  stood  apart  from  his  Deity. 


It  was  the  Deity  within  Him  that  was  pro- 
pitiated and  reconciled  to  us  by  the  priestly 
sacrifices  of  His  humanity.  It  was  on  the 
altar  of  His  Deity  which  was  "  greater  than, 
and  sanctified  the  gift,"  that  He  offered  the 
sacrifice  of  His  human  nature,  and  so  made 
peace  between  God  and  man. 

They  tell  in  Greek  legend  of  a  wounded 
warrior  who  held  aloft  his  maimed  arm  be- 
fore the  judges  of  his  country  in  silent  yet 
eloquent  appeal  for  the  life  of  his  son,  a 
prisoner  at  their  tribunal.  The  plea  was  al- 
lowed, and  the  youth  was  spared.  So  the 
"  wound  prints "  of  our  Lord's  humanity 
make  silent  but  effectual  intercession  for  us. 
But  the  nail-pierced  hands  are  now  out- 
stretched to  us,  and  through  them  "  God  in 
Christ "  appeals  to  us  to  become  reconciled 
to  Him. 

5.  It  may  be  thought  to  militate  against  the 
ascription  of  Fatherhood  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  He  was  "  sent  "  as  the  "  Comforter  "  at 
Pentecost,  and  "  proceedeth  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son."t  "  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and 
he  will  give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he 
may  abide  with  you  forever,  even  the  Spirit 
of  truth.  ^.  .  .  I  will  not  leave  you  com- 
fortless (opqjavovi)  I  will  come  to  you."  t 

Were  these  promises  exhausted  in  the  out- 
pouring of  the  Spirit?  Was  He  the  other 
Advocate?  Was  He  waiting  for  His  advent 
till  the  Savior's  departure?  Was  it  impossi- 
ble for  Him  to  come  while  Jesus  remained 
on  earth?  Had  He  not  been  in  the  world 
from  the  beginning  ?§  What  mean  the  words 
"  I  will  not  leave  you  orphans,  I  will  come  to 
you?"  Is  there  not  something  here  that  we, 
with  our  many  prepossessions,  have  over- 
looked? Was  there  not  something  in  the 
divine  constitution  of  our  Lord's  personality 
that  only  required  a  spiritualized  and  glori- 
fied body  to  reveal  its  omnipresent  attributes 
and  its  omnipotent  love?  Did  not  the  Holy 
Ghost  descend  on  Jesus  at  His  baptism  and 
remain  on  Him,  thus  enshrining  itself  in  His 
human  spirit,  and  becoming  embodied  in  His 
humanity?  Was  it  not  This  that  "  baptized  " 
the  disciples  and  the  first  converts  at  Pente- 
cost, enabling  them  thenceforth  to  manifest 
and  exemplify  the  Spirit  of  Christ?  God  hath 
sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your 
hearts,  crying,  "  Abba,  Father."  || 

(a)  Peter  has  explained  the  phenomena  of 
Pentecost  as  the  fulfilment  of  Joel's  pre- 
diction :  "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all 
flesh,  and  your  sons  and  daughters  shall 
prophesy."  But  Joel's  prediction  was  the 
promise  of  Jehovah,  the  second  person  of  the 
glorious  Trinity.  It  was  His  spirit,  therefore, 
that  "  fell  "  upon  the  Church  at  Jerusalem, 
making  all  men  confess  that  "  the  Lord  was 
among  them  of  a  truth."  The  Father-Spirit 
had  been  in  the  world  from  the  beginning. 

(b)  "I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless;  I 
will  come  to  you."    That  Christ  fulfilled  His 


*  John  xii:  41. 

t  Filioque^  Not  in  Greek  text  of  Easter  Creed.— Bishop  Westcott,  "  The  Historic  Faith,"  p.  19Q. 

t  John  xiv:  16-22. 

§  The  Expositor^  November,  p.  368. 

I  "  That  imparted  spirit  acts  upon  us  as  the  agent  of  one  who  is  still  truly  human.    He  is  *the  spirit  o£ 
Jesus '  "  (Acts  xvi:  7),— Canon  Mason,  "  The  Faith  of  the  Gospel." 


302 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


pledge,  and  "  after  a  little  while "  returned 
in  spirit  to  His  own  is  the  unequivocal  tes- 
timony of  the  early  Church.  Wherever  two 
or  three  met  together  in  His  name  there  He 
was  in  their  midst.  When  they  preached 
"  the  power  of  the  Lord  was  present  to  heal." 
No  one  might  say,  "  Who  shall  ascend  into 
heaven  to  bring  Christ  down  from  above?" 
Saul  of  Tarsus  saw  and  heard  Him  on  the 
way  to  Damascus;  John  in  Patmos;  Peter 
at  Csesarea ;  Stephen  at  his  martyrdom :  "  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  caught  away  Philip "  at 
Gaza;  "  Doniine  quo  vadis?"  And  Chrysos- 
tom's  renown  as  a  preacher  commenced  with 
the  day  when  his  half  empty  Church  was 
filled  by  Christ  and  His  angels.  "  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
And  is  not  this  the  hope  and  joy  of  the 
Church  of  all  ages — that  Christ  is  with  us? 
that  our  living  Lord  is  in  the  midst  of  us? 
that  He  still  walks  in  the  midst  of  the  lamp- 


stands  ?  and  that  "  whosoever  shall  call  upon 
him  shall  be  saved?" 

What  constitutes  revival  times  but  a  sense 
of  His  presence?  Why  is  He  the  subject  of 
revival  hymns  and  the  object  of  revival 
prayers  but  because  it  pleases  God  at  such 
seasons  "  to  reveal  his  Son  in  us  "  and  "  the 
light  of  the  knowledge  of  his  glory  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ?  " 

(c)  The  third  person  of  the  blessed  Trinity 
is  not  "sent,"  does  not  "proceed;"  He  fills 
immensity  with  His  presence.  Like  the  light 
and  air  of  heaven,  He  pervades  the  universe. 
Like  the  ocean  waters  that  cover  the  basins 
of  the  seas,  the  gulfs,  the  bays,  the  creeks, 
the  inlets — nay,  every  little  crevice  and  shell 
along  the  shore,  "  He  filleth  all  in  all."  "  In 
him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being." 

The  argument  against  the  Fatherhood  of 
the  Spirit,  therefore,  is  not  quite  conclusive. — 
H.  R. 


OUR  TRINITARIAN  PRAYERS 

By  Robert  Balgarnie,  D.D. 
II 


"  Given  self,  to  find  God."*  As  we  have 
been  created  in  the  '  image  and  likeness"  of 
the  Trinity,  the  world's  earliest  Bible,  the 
first  and  clearest  revelation  of  the  mystery 
of  the  Godhead  will  be  found  in  man  him- 
self. If  man  resembles  his  Maker  not  only 
in  his  moral  attributes,  and  in  these  but 
dimly,  but  in  the  nature  and  constitution  of 
his  being;  iif  soul,  body,  and  spirit  be  three 
conceivable  hypostases  in  one  visible  per- 
sonality, we  have  been  divinely  furnished, 
from  the  beginning  of  our  history,  with  an 
intelligible  clew  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Three- 
One  God.  No  better  analogy,  at  all  events, 
has  ever  presented  itself. 

Taking  this,  then,  for  the  purposes  of  our 
argument  meanwhile,  as  the  divine  epitome 
of  the  Book  of  God,  let  us  see  to  what  it 
leads  as  regards  the  three  persons  of  the 
adorable  Trinity,  reserving  the  right  to  com- 
pare its  conclusions  ultimately  with  the 
direct  teaching  of  Scripture.  The  soul  or 
life  within  us  represents  the  Father ;  the 
Spirit,  with  all  that  is  comprehended  under 
that  term — the  mind,  the  will,  the  affections 
— will  represent  the  Holy  Spirit;  while  the 
outward  visible  form,  that  embodies  and  ex- 
presses both,  will  be  the  representative  of  the 
co-Eternal  Son.  In  both  cases  these  are 
one.* 

Should  any  one  object  to  this  detailed 
analogy,  I  would  say  that  we  cannot  other- 
wise conceive  or  think  of  the  Trinity  at  all. 
It  is  only  by  such  analogy  that  the  subject 
is  comprehensible.  "  The  invisible  things  of 
him  from  the  creation  of  the  world,  are 
clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and 
Godhead"     {Qsidrvi)    divinity .f 

*  Imago  Dei,  Homiletic  Review  for  April,  1892. 


I.  The  Father. — According  to  this  anal- 
ogy, then,  the  Father  is  the  life  or  soul  of  the 
universe.  He  is  essentially  and  emphatically^ 
the  Living  One.  To  impart  life  is  His  pre- 
rogative. In  this  self-existent,  all-pervading, 
and  changeless  Life  the  Son  and  Holy  Spirit 
are  equal  and  co-eternal  with  the  Father ; 
for  that  life  or  soul  is  one.  In  this  respect 
the  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  undistinguish- 
able ;  each  is  infinite,  ever-living,  and  im- 
mutable. This  is  what  we  mean  when  we 
speak  of  each  as  God. 

But  as  that  which  animates  the  mind  and 
body  of  the  human  frame  is  silent,  formless 
in  itself  to  us,  undefinable  and  incompre- 
hensible, so  the  Supreme  Life  "  passeth 
knowledge."  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time."  No  one  has  ever  heard  His  voice 
or  seen  His  shape.  "  He  dwells  in  the  light 
inaccessible."  "  We  go  forward,  but  he  is 
not  there ;  and  backward,  hut  we  perceive 
him  not."  He  is  beyond  the  comprehension 
of  any  created  intelligence.  "  Canst  thou  by 
searching  find  out  God?"  One  thing  we  do 
know  of  this  Infinite  Life,  and  that  by  rev- 
elation— His  infinite,  unchanging,  everlastmg 
love. 

We  call  Him  "  Father "  to  indicate  His 
relationship  to  the  Eternal  Son,  and  there  is 
no  other  name  by  which  He  has  revealed 
Himself.  The  ancient  Egyptians  thought  of 
Him  as  t]ic  Nameless  Supreme,  to  whom  all 
their  deities  and  gods  were  subordinate.  He 
had  no  temple  among  them,  altar,  or  form  of 
worship ;  but  in  their  thoughts  He  was  "  God 
over  all,  blessed  forever."  The  Greek  phi- 
losophers followed  their  example,  speaking  of 
Him  as  the  ''Ov.  Our  Scandinavian  ances- 
tors called  Him  the  "  Al-Fadur,"  placing 
+  Rom.  i :  20. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


303 


Him  above  Odin  and  Thor  and  all  in  Val- 
halla.    He  would  appear  at  Raquarok. 

"  Yet    there    shall    come 
Another  Mightier ; 
Altho  Him 
I  dare  not  name. 
Farther  onward 
Few  can  see 
Then  when  Odin 
Meets  the   Wolf." 

Ancient  Saga. 

It  was  this  probably  that  led  the  Hebrews, 
in  imitation  of  the  Egyptians,  to  suppress  the 
name  Jahve  in  their  worship,  styling  it  "  in- 
communicable," refusing  to  write  or  pro- 
nounce it,  and  foolishly  confounding  "  Jeho- 
vah, the  Son,"  with  the  Eternal  Father.  Sad 
to  think,  our  translators,  like  the  LXX,  have 
condoned  their  folly. 

But  if  we  address  our  prayers,  as  we  are 
directed  to  do  by  the  Church  but  not  scrip- 
tural authority,  to  the  All-Father,  to  Him 
whose  name  is  ineffable,  whose  being  is  in- 
comprehensible, only  naming  the  Son  as  the 
plea  for  acceptance  and  the  Spirit  as  a  help 
to  our  infirmities  in  the  act  of  devotion, 
we  can  have  no  possible  or  conceivable  Ob- 
ject of  adoration  before  our  mental  eye,  no 
holy  locality  in  earth  or  heaven  toward 
which  to  direct  our  thoughts;  no  throne, 
visible  by  men  or  angels,  to  which  we  can 
make  spiritual  approach ;  we  only  look  blind- 
fold into  space,  and  address  a  centerless  in- 
finitude. Even  the  Unitarian,  as  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau  confesses,  adoring  "  Jehovah  "  of  Old 
Testament  Scripture  as  "  the  Father,"  is  in 
reality  worshiping  the  Son. 

II.  The  Holy  Spirit. — Man  made  in  the 
image  and  likeness  of  the  Trinity  is  con- 
scious of  a  spirit  within.  Besides  the  life, 
or  FOul,  we  are  sensible  of  a  power  to  reason, 
decide,  love,  hate — a  power  that  differentiates 
us  from  the  brutes  and  elevates  us  above  the 
mechanical  laws  of  nature.  Something  in- 
finitely superior,  yet  analogous  to  this,  we 
are  divinely  taught,  and  our  experience  con- 
firms the  revelation,  exists  in  the  Godhead 
we  worship,  a  spirit  of  holiness,  of  ineffable 
wisdom  and  love.  Where  we  might  have 
turned  a  deaf  ear  and  obdurate  heart  to 
mechanical  force  we  are  influenced  by  divine 
persuasion,  argument,  and  affection.  Thus 
our  spirits  bear  witness  to  the  existence, 
character,  and  attributes  of  the  heavenly 
Spirit,  and  our  will  submits  to  His  authority. 
The  mind  of  that  Spirit  is  in  the  Bible,  and 
we  make  it  the  night-lamp  of  our  path. 

But  how  shall  we  conceive  of  that  Spirit 
as  an  external  object  of  worship?  How 
shall  we  pray  to  that  which  inspires  and 
prompts  our  prayers,  without  which  we  can- 
not pray?  Our  worship  in  this  case  can 
only  take  the  form  of  silent  submission,  con- 
senting to  be  filled  and  influenced  by  the 
fulness,  opening  our  eyes  to  the  light,  our 
ears  to  the  truth,  and  surrendering  our  wills 
to  His  ruling.     The  will  of  the  Spirit  is  that 


we  should  accept  Christ ;  and  in  His  wor- 
ship and  service  He  (the  Spirit)  is  honored, 
obeyed,  and  glorified. 

III.  The  co-Eternal  Son. — Enshrined  in 
the  light  that  centers  the  infinitude  of  the  in- 
visible God,  sat  One  from  eternity,  in  the 
Divine  nature  and  essence,  who  was  "  the 
express  ima^e  of  his  person"  ( ;t;a/3aKT?)^ 
Tfi%  vTtodradsGoz)  "  He  was  God,"  and  "  in 
the  form  of  God."  Whatever  that  form  was, 
it  was  that,  and  that  alone,  that  made  angelic 
and  other  worship  possible.  To  that  form, 
as  the  empty  space  began  to  fill  with  worlds 
and  their  inhabitants,  all  faces  turned,  all 
worship  ascended,  all  prayer  arose. 

From  that  "  form  "  went  forth  the  words 
that  called  everything  into  being,  that  gave  it 
shape  and  purpose,  that  gave  it  law  and  order. 
"  All  things  were  made  by  him,  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made." 

We  have  been  taught  to  call  that  "  form 
of  God  "  "  the  Son,"  and  to  speak  of  Him 
as  "  begotten  of  the  Father "  from  the 
poverty  of  human  language  and  the  feeble- 
ness of  human  intellect  to  express  or  grasp 
"  the  deep  things  of  God."  It  was  language 
that  might  have  risen  spontaneously  to  an 
archangel's  lips  if  brought  suddenly  and  for 
the  first  time  since  his  creation  into  the 
presence  of  the  Visible  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Invisible,  of  the  Comprehensible  on  the 
throne  of  the  Infinite,  of  the  Approachable 
where  he  had  expected  the  Inaccessible. 
"  He  is  the  Son  in  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal 
Father."  But  there  was  no  priority  of  ex- 
istence or  inequality  of  power  to  give  birth 
to  the  term  of  relationship.  "  In  the  begin- 
ning was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  zvas  God." 

In  the  Old  Testament  ages  the  Son  re- 
vealed Himself  in  human  form  to  man, 
whom  He  had  created  in  His  own  "  image 
and  likeness."  His  name  was  "  Jehovah," 
and  under  that  name  He  was  and  still  is 
the  only  Divine  object  of  worship  to  the 
Hebrew  tribes.  The  Jews  to  this  hour  wor- 
ship the  Son  as  we  do,  altho  under  another 
title,  and   denying   His   incarnation. 

"  The  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,"  and  the  New  Testament  era  be- 
gan. "  In  him  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily."  In  His  sinless  humanity, 
as  in  a  temple,  the  Father  and  blessed  Spirit 
stood  enshrined ;  and  the  manifestations  of 
the  Divine  Unity — the  Three-One  God  in 
Christ — became  the  central  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship 
him  "  was  the  decree  attendant  on  His  birth. 
"  Let  every  knee  bow  to  him,"  was  the  de- 
cree that  accompanied  His  ascension. 

The  introduction  of  the  word  "  Lord  "  in 
place  of  Jehovah  to  New  Testament  Scrip- 
ture, as  well  as  to  the  English  and  other  ver- 
sions of  the  Old  Testament,  altho  to  be  dep- 
recated in  the  interests  of  evidence  and  as 
a  liberty  taken  with  the  inspired  text,  has 
nevertheless  been  so  far  useful  that  it  facili- 
tates the  construction  of  the  Christian 
Litany.*     It  is  the  "  new  name  "  that  unites 


*  It  is  to  the  honor  of  the  American  Company  of  Revisionists  that  they  have  restored  tne  name  Jehovah 
to  the  English  Bible. 


304 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


the  past  with  the  present,  that  breaks  down 
"  the  wall  of  partition  "  between  the  Hebrew 
worshiper  of  Jehovah  and  the  Christian  wor- 
shiper of  Christ,  that  makes  both  one  in 
adoration  of  the  Incarnate  Son.  "  We  have 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God 
and  Father  of  all,"  in  Him  '"  who  was,  and 
is,  and  is  to  come."  "  He  is  the  Everlasting 
Father  and  Prince  of  Peace."  In  Him  is 
realized  for  us  the  unity  of  the  Godhead, 
the  embodiment  of  all  we  seek  to  worship, 
"  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and 
the    end — b  TtavroKpaz cop— the    Almighty." 

Is  it  necessary  to  add,  in  concluding  this 
article  on  trinitarian  prayer,  that  it  is  to  God, 
our  reconciling  Father  in  Christ,  that  we 
pray?  We  have  only  to  recall,  in  our  ap- 
proaches to  the  throne  of  heaven,  the  mid- 
night scene  on  Hermon,  when  the  indwelling 
Deity  of  our  blessed  Lord's  nature  was  seen 
by  His  disciples  shining  through  His  hu- 
manity, as  the  shechinah  of  the  temple  shim- 
mered through  the  veil  "  when  his  face  did 
shine  as  the  sun,  and  his  raiment  was  white 
as  the  light,"  in  order  to  realize  that  the 
Object  of  our  worship  is  divine.*  It  is  God 
we  appeal  to,  looking  at  us  through  human 
eyes ;  listening  to  us  through  human  ears ; 
speaking  to  us  in  human  language  and  by 
human  lips;  and  wiping  from  our  cheeks  the 


tears  of  sorrow  with  gentle  human  hands — 
to  "  God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself,  not  imputing  unto  men  their 
trespasses."  Nearer  than  this  we  may  not 
go;  higher  than  this  we  cannot  soar;  in  that 
presence  is  fulness  of  joy;  at  that  right  hand 
are  pleasures  forevermore. 

This,  then,  appears  to  be  the  solution  of 
our  trinitarian  difficulty:  to  concentrate  our 
thoughts  and  our  affections  on  God  the  Son 
as  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  Christ ;  to  adore 
Him  as  the  Creator,  Preserver,  all-wise 
Riiler  and  Redeemer  of  the  world;  to  wor- 
ship Him  as  the  ever-present  King  and 
Head  of  His  Church;  and  to  look  forward 
to  the  eternal  enjoyment  of  His  presence  in 
heaven,  as  the  consummation  of  our  happi- 
ness, as  "  all  our  salvation  and  all  our  de- 
sire." 

"  Almighty  God,  who  hast  given  us  grace 
at  this  time  with  one  accord  to  make  our 
common  supplications  unto  Thee,  and  dost 
promise  that  when  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  Thy  name.  Thou  wilt  grant  their 
requests,  fulfil  now,  O  Lord,  the  desires  and 
petitions  of  Thy  servants,  as  may  be  most  ex- 
pedient for  them ;  granting  us  in  this  world 
knowledge  of  Thy  truth,  and  in  the  world 
to  come  life  everlasting.  Amen."  (^A  Prayer 
of  St.  Clirysostom). — H.  R. 


THE  TRINITIES 


By  Frederick  D.  Power^  D.D. 

Moreover,  brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  gospel  which  I  preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye 
have  received,  and  wherein  ye  stand;  by  which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory 
what  I  preached  unto  you,  unless  ye  have  believed  in  vain.  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first 
of  all  that  which  I  also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
Scriptures;  and  that  he  was  buried;  and  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day  according  to 
the  Scriptures. — /  Cor.  xv:  1-4 


It  is  by  no  means  a  fanciful  thought  that 
the  main  facts  and  teachings  of  Scripture 
are  presented  to  us  under  the  form  of  trini- 
ties— groups  consisting  of  three  important 
constituents.  We  do  not  wonder  at  this 
interesting  fact  when  our  experience  with 
everything  outside  of  the  Bible  brings  us 
constantly  into  contact  with  triune  divisions 
of  things.  In  the  world  of  nature  we  have  the 
three  kingdoms :  animal,  vegetable,  and  min- 
eral. In  the  realm  of  matter  we  have  existence 
under  three  forms,  solid,  liquid,  and  gaseous. 
In  our  own  being  we  have  body,  soul,  and 
spirit.  In  the  heavens  we  have  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  ;  and  in  the  earth ;  air,  land,  and  sea. 

In  approaching  the  revelation  of  God  in 
His  Word  we  are  prepared  to  notice  the 
same  exhibition  of  three  in  one,  and  even 
the  most  sublime  and  essential  elements  of 
Christianity  developed  and  exhibited  in  a  suc- 
cession  of   trinities. 

I.  Whether  the  word  "  trinity '''  be  Scrip- 
tural or  not,  and  we  discard  the  expression 
"  The  Trinity "   because  of  its  unscriptural- 


ness,  it  still  expresses  the  thought  of  this 
peculiar  division  as  seen  in  the  three  dis- 
tinct persons  in  the  unity  of  the  Godhead. 
Of  this  one  fact  we  are  sure,  the  sacred 
Oracles  teach  that  the  one  living  and  true 
God  is  in  some  inexplicable  manner  triune, 
for  He  is  spoken  of  as  one  in  some  respects 
and  as  three  in  others.  Addressing  Him- 
self in  the  creation,  God  said :  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness."  Our 
Lord  declared :  "  If  any  man  love  me  he 
will  keep  my  commandments,  and  my  Father 
will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him 
and  make  our  abode  with  him."  Sending 
forth  His  disciples,  He  commanded:  "  Go  ye 
therefore  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  Of  Christ, 
John  declares :  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God.  and  the 
Word  was  God."  Of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Peter 
affirms  in  his  rebuke  of  Ananias :  "  Why 
hath  Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to  the 
Holy  Ghost?     Thou  hast  not  lied  unto  men. 


*  Here  as  elsewhere,  the  Lord,  as  the  Son  of  Man  gives  the  measure  of  the  capacity  of  humanity  (Bishop 
Westcott,  "  The  Historic  Faith,"  p.  264). 


TRINITY   SUNDAY 


305 


but  unto  God."  The  Apostolic  benediction 
proclaimed :  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  be  with  you  all."  "  There 
are  three  that  bear  record  in  heaven,  the 
Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
these  three  are  one." 

Here  is  a  mystery,  the  stupendous  mystery 
of  the  Christian  religion,  the  ineffable  mys- 
tery of  three  persons  in  one  God.  We  can- 
not define  it.  Every  human  attempt  at  defi- 
nition involves  it  in  deeper  mystery.  The 
arithmetic  of  heaven  is  beyond  us.  Yet  this 
i?  no  more  mysterious  and  inexplicable  than 
the  trinity  of  our  own  nature ;  body,  soul, 
and  spirit ;  and  no  man  has  ever  shown  that 
it  involved  a  contradiction  or  in  any  way 
conflicted  with  the  testimony  of  our  senses 
or  with  demonstrated  truth ;  and  we  must 
accept  it  by  the  power  of  a  simple  faith,  or 
rush  into  tritheism  on  the  one  hand  or  uni- 
tarianism  on  the  other. 

2.  Going  still  further  into  the  examina- 
tion of  this  arrangement  of  trinities,  we 
take  the  Divine  Person  mentioned  in  our 
text,  Christ,  the  Second  Person  of  the  God- 
head. At  once  there  comes  before  us  the 
trinity  of  offices  filled  by  our  Lord, — 
prophet,  priest,  and  king.  Man  could  not 
be  saved  unless  in  one  divine  person  all  three 
of  these  should  be  combined.  Christ  could 
not  be  the  Christ  if  God  were  not  all  three 
of  these  dignities  and  glories  united  in  His 
smgle  person. 

Prophet  He  was,  typified  by  all  the  illus- 
trious personages  of  the  Hebrew  race,  the 
Oracle,  the  Teacher,  the  Spokesman  for  God 
who  should  make  known  the  fulness  of 
revelation,  and  that  to  all  mankind.  "  God, 
who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners 
spake  in  times  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto 
us  by  his  Son."  Priest  He  was,  the  only  and 
aH-sufficient  Priest  of  the  Christian  Church. 
None  other  can  stand  between  man  and  his 
God.  None  other  can  exercise  sacerdotal 
functions  except  in  the  sense  that  all  Chris- 
tians are  kings  and  priests  unto  God.  A 
priest  is  He,  foreshadowed  faintly  by  the 
servants  of  the  Jewish  sanctuary ;  yet  more 
beautifully  adorned  than  the  family  of  Aaron 
in  all  the  splendid  robes  of  the  temple,  more 
glorious  in  communications  than  the  mys- 
teriously glowing  Urim  and  Thummim  on  the 
high-priest's  ephod  before  the  mercy-seat, 
more  potent  in  intercession  than  all  the 
priesthood  under  the  law,  seeing  that  He 
offered  Himself  on  the  altar,  and  opened  up 
a  new  and  living  wa^  into  the  very  holy  of 
holies  by  His  own  blood  of  atonement. 
"  This  one,  because  he  continueth  forever, 
hath  an  unchangeable  priesthood,  wherefore 
he  is  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost  them 
that  come  unto  the  Father  by  him."  "  Such 
an  high  priest  became  us,  holy,  harmless, 
undefiled,  separate  from  sinners,  and  made 
higher  than  the  heavens,  who  needeth  not 
daily,  as  those  high  priests,  to  offer  up  sacri- 
fice first  for  his  own  sins  and  then  for  the 
people's,  for  this  he  did  once  when  he  offered 
up  himself." 


King  He  was, 'O  Xpidro?  the  Christ,  the 
Anointed  of  God.  "  I  have  set  my  King 
upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion."  "  Blessed  and 
only  Potentate,  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords."  All-glorious,  all-powerful,  all- 
governing,  He  reigns  over  His  people  and 
over  all  the  earth.  "  God  hath  highly  ex- 
alted him  and  given  him  a  name  that  is 
above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus 
every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven 
and  things  on  earth  and  things  under  the 
earth,  and  every  tongue  should  confess  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  unto  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father." 

Thus  the  Christ  is  invested  with  a  triune 
power.  In  one  Being  these  three  offices  meet 
in  their  perfection,  and  we  accept  Him  in 
all  His  glory,  personal  and  official. 

3.  Then  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  the  facts 
which  constitute  the  Gospel,  are  unfolded  to 
us  in  a  trinity.  Three  distinct  facts  are  here : 
First,  that  "  Christ  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures ;  "  second,  that  "  he  was 
buried ;  "  and  third,  that  He  "  arose  again 
the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures." 
It  is  not  possible  to  measure  the  infinite  im- 
port of  these  three  facts.  There  would  be 
no  gospel  without  them,  no  salvation,  no 
proof  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  no  ground  of 
faith.  The  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation ;  not  faith,  not  repentance,  not 
baptism,  not  hope,  not  love.  We  are  saved 
by  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  action  which  saved 
us  is  set  forth  in  these  facts — the  death, 
burial,   and   resurrection   of  Jesus. 

Too  often  men  make  the  mistake  in  sup- 
posing their  salvation  is  secured,  not  by  what 
they  believe,  but  by  the  fact  that  they  do 
believe ;  not  by  the  facts  of  the  gospel,  but 
bj'  the  feelings  of  ecstasies  of  their  own 
natures ;  not  by  the  Son  of  God  and  His  per- 
sonal service,  but  by  their  apprehension  of 
the  truth  of  the  gospel  and  tacit  acceptance 
of  its  teaching.  In  other  words,  they  sub- 
stitute a  saving  faith  for  a  saving  gospel, 
and  find  the  proof  of  pardon  in  the  revulsion 
of  feeling  in  their  own  hearts  rather  than  in 
the  express  declaration  of  God's  Word. 
Was  it  so  with  these  Corinthians?  The  gos- 
pel which  Paul  preached  unto  them,  which 
they  also  received,  wherein  they  stood,  and 
by  which  they  were  saved,  consisted  of  the 
facts  of  the  death,  burial,  and  resurrection 
of  the  Messiah.  Without  the  death  of  Christ 
the  gospel  could  not  be  begun.  The  shed- 
ding of  blood  was  necessary  to  remission  of 
sins.  Expiation,  atonement  must  be  made 
that  the  sinner  may  be  saved  from  punish- 
ment. Some  one  must  be  wounded  for  our 
transgressions,  bruised  for  our  iniquities. 
God's  justice  must  be  satisfied,  God's  !ionor 
vindicated.  Man's  conscience  must  be  paci- 
fied, man's  sins  pardoned.  So  the  Son  died. 
The  cross  was  an  element  of  the  gospel. 
Without  the  burial  of  Christ  the  gospel  would 
not  be  complete.  The  prophecy  must  be  ful- 
filled; "  He  made  his  grave  with  the  wicked 
and  with  the  rich  in  his  death."  By  our 
Lord  the  tomb  has  been  forever  sanctified. 
The  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  becomes 
the   valley   of  the    opening    of   life.      Death, 


3o6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


instead  of  being  the  jailer  of  hell  and  the 
grave,  becomes  the  porter  of  heaven.  All 
that  he  can  now  do  is  to  cause  the  Christian 
to  sleep  in  Jesus,  to  release  the  immortal 
spirit  from  the  fetters  which  bind  it  to  earth, 
and  deposit  the  weary  body  in  the  tomb. 
The  grave  is  an  element  of  the  gospel. 

Without  the  resurrection  the  gospel  would 
not  be  perfected.  Before  this  great  consum- 
mation the  gospel  is  not  proclaimed  save  in 
promise.  The  fulness  of  the  glad  tidings  is 
not  realized.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
preached  as  at  hand.  Not  until  the  long- 
tied  bands  of  the  grave  are  broken,  the  stone 
rolled  from  the  mouth  of  the  sepulcher,  and 
the  newly-risen  One  walks  forth  into  the 
garden,  is  the  divinity  of  Jesus  proven  and 
the  sublimest  revelation  of  God  complete ; 
not  until  then  does  the  glorious  King  of 
kings  appear  with  all  authority  in  heaven  and 
in  earth,  and  say  to  His  representatives : 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature ;  he  that  believeth 
and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  condemned." 

Hence  the  resurrection  is  the  demonstra- 
tion of  the  gospel.  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen, 
then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is 
also  vain ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins."  Hence 
the  apostles,  in  going  forth  to  convert  the 
world,  were  to  lay  this  down  as  the  founda- 
tion of  their  preaching,  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
raised  from  the  dead  that  all  men  might  be- 
lieve on  and  obey  Him.  Hence  the  res- 
urrection is  essential  to  the  confirmation  of 
the  faith  of  Christians  in  His  person,  seeing 
He  is  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  with 
power  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness  by 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead,"  demonstra- 
ting the  truth  of  the  Word,  "  Thou  art  my 
Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,"  and 
of  the  promise,  "  I  will  give  thee  the  sure 
mercies  of  David."  Hence  the  resurrection 
is  a  most  pregnant  proof  of  the  all-sufifi- 
ciency  of  His  satisfaction :  "  He  was  deliv- 
ered for  our  offenses  and  raised  for  our  jus- 
tification." Hence  on  the  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection is  built  our  faith  in  His  promise  to 
give  life  and  glory ;  for  how  could  we  be- 
lieve Him  to  be  the  Author  of  life  who 
remained  under  the  power  of  death?  Would 
not  all  hope  have  been  buried  m  His 
grave?  And  is  not  His  resurrection  the 
cause,  pattern,  and  argument  of  ours?  And 
rising  Himself  to  glory,  honor,  and  immor- 
tality, does  He  not  raise  His  people  also 
with  Him? 

What  a  glorious  truth  is  here !  The 
heathen  sorrowed  without  hope.  The  Jews 
had  only  vague  assurance  of  a  resurrection. 
The  myth  of  the  Phenix  was  but  a  myth.  A 
shattered  pillar ;  a  ship  gone  to  pieces ;  a 
race  lost ;  a  harp  lying  on  the  ground,  with 
snapped  strings,  its  music  gone ;  a  flower- 
bud  crushed  with  all  its  fragrance  in  it — 
these  were  the  sad  utterances  of  their  hope- 
less grief.  The  thought  that  death  was  the 
gateway  of  life  came  not  to  cheer  the  part- 
ing or  brighten  the  sepulcher.  But  look 
at  the  grassy  mounds  in  the  light  of  this 
truth.     Resurgent!     The    eye    of   faith    sees 


them  change  into  a  field  sown  thick  with  the 
seeds  of  immortality.  Blessed  field !  what 
flowers  shall  spring  there !  What  a  wild 
shout  shall  be  the  harvest-home  of  the  res- 
urrection day !  In  neighboring  fields, 
"  Whatsoever  a  man  sovveth  that  shall  he 
also  reap ;  "  but  here  what  a  difference  be- 
tween that  which  is  sown  amid  mourners' 
tears  and  that  which  shall  be  reaped  amid 
angel  joys! — between  the  poor  body  we  re- 
turn to  the  earth,  and  the  noble  form  that 
shall  spring  from  its  ashes  !  Lazarus'  putrid 
corpse  with  health  glowing  on  its  cheek  is 
nothing  to  the  change  that  then  shall  be 
wrought  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye,  at  the  last  trump.  From  east  and 
west,  from  north  and  south  the  armies 
gather.  Yesterday,  bones,  carcasses,  rotten- 
ness, worms,  corruption,  dust — to-day,  mul- 
titudes in  glorified  and  immortal  bodies, 
thronging  the  many  mansions  of  the  Father's 
house. 

The  death,  the  burial,  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus — these  are  the  three  facts  of  the  gos- 
pel. The  mere  existence  of  these  facts, 
however,  does  not  save  men.  The  mere  ad- 
mission that  they  are  true  does  not  secure 
the  end  that  God  designed.  In  order  that 
this  may  be  done  they  must  be  received ; 
every  man  must  actually  and  truly  appro- 
priate them  to  himself.  Practically  it  is  as 
important  to  understand  how  the  gospel 
may  be  received  as  it  is  to  understand  the 
nature  and  component  parts  of  the  gospel, 
for  what  is  the  gospel  to  a  man  if  it  be  not 
received  by  him?  What  are  the  Bible,  the 
Church,  the  pardon  of  sin,  the  death  of 
Christ,  all  the  sublime  facts  and  teachings 
of  the  Christian  religion,  if  personally  and 
receptively  a  man  knows  them  not  ? 

4.  This  brings  us  to  another  trinity — the 
reception  of  the  gospel  involves  obedience 
to  three  distinct  precepts.  We  must  truly 
and  heartily  believe  the  gospel ;  honestly  and 
sincerely  repent  of  our  sins,  and  actually 
and  formally  accept  it  by  a  reverent  and  obe- 
dient baptism.  Thus  the  understanding  rec- 
ognizes and  accepts  the  gospel  as  true,  the 
affections  delight  in  and  embrace  it  as  good, 
the  will  obeys  it  and  approves  it  as  right. 
The  records  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and 
the  Epistles  to  the  Churches  make  clear  the 
essentiality  of  this  triune  obedience.  After 
conforming  to-  these  three  precepts,  and  not 
before,  we  are  regarded  as  having  come 
into  fellowship  with  Christ  and  His  Church. 
Paul,  writing  afterward  in  allusion  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel,  as  he  had  delivered 
it,  declares :  "  I  thank  God  that  ye  have 
obeyed  from  the  heart  the  form  of  doctrine 
which  was  delivered  unto  you ;  being  then 
made  free  from  sin,  ye  became  the  servants 
of  righteousness." 

What  was  the  doctrine?  The  death,  bur- 
ial and  resurrection  of  Christ.  And  what 
was  the  form  or  type  of  this  doctrine? 
Death  to  sin,  burial  with  Christ  by  baptism, 
a  resurrection  in  the  likeness  of  His  rising 
to  walk  in  newness  of  life.  To  the  people  on 
Pentecost  Peter  preached  this  trinity  of  facts, 
— how  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to 


TRINITY   SUNDAY 


307 


the  Scriptures,  was  buried,  and  rose  again ; 
and  the  three  thousand  rendered  this  trinity 
of  obedience ;  they  believed,  and  were  com- 
manded to  "  repent  and  be  baptized  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission  of 
sins."  "  And  as  many  as  gladly  received  the 
Word  were  baptized,  and  the  same  day  there 
were  added  unto  them  about  three  thousand 
souls."  As  Christ's  death,  Christ's  burial, 
and  Christ's  resurrection  must  be  all  as- 
sured facts,  so  of  human  obedience  there 
must  be  no  uncertainty,  no  contingency,  no 
doubt  whatever  that  all  the  elements  in  the 
trinity  of  our  acceptance  are  complete.  The 
apostles  recognized  no  man  as  fully  obedient 
to  the  gospel  and  worthy  to  be  enrolled  in  the 
Church  until  obedience  to  all  three  of  these 
precepts  had  been  rendered.  Is  not  the  gos- 
pel the  same  in  our  day?  Are  not  the  terms 
of  acceptance   unchanged? 

5.  Receiving  now  the  trinity  of  facts  in  a 
trinity  of  obedience,  we  have  a  triune  bless- 
ing. We  are  "  saved,"  or  receive  the  "  re- 
mission of  sins,"  the  "  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life.  This 
is  the  trinity  of  blessings  which  heaven  be- 
stows on  the  Christian.  First  Christ  comes, 
takes  away  his  sins,  purifies  his  heart,  paci- 
fies his  conscience,  assures  him  of  the  wiping 
out  of  his  past  record.  Then  the  Spirit  is 
given,  enlightens,  comforts,  sanctifies,  glad- 
dens, directs,  strengthens,  and  takes  up  His 
abode  within  him. 

Then  in  view  of  the  brevity  of  human  life, 
of  the  pain  which  the  thought  of  losing  this 
new-born  joy  must  bring,  He  fills  the  Chris- 
tian with  the  assured  hope  of  an  everlasting 
life,  of  higher  joys,  of  richer  glories,  of 
more  abundant  delights,  of  sweeter  friend- 
ships, of  more  lasting  rewards  which  shall 
be  developed  out  of  these  present  gifts  of  the 
gospel.  Oh,  what  happiness !  Who  can  re- 
fuse it?  Who  does  not  long  for  it?  Where 
is  there  a  heart  in  all  the  world  that  does 
not  in  serious  reality  hunger  and  thirst  for 
this  blessing  which  the  gospel  alone  pre- 
tends to  give? 

6.  But  there  is  more.  Out  of  this  trinity 
of  blessings  grows  another  trinity — a  trinity 
of  responsibilities.  In  the  gospel  which  we 
have  received  we  are  to  stand,  and  three 
principles  are  necessary  to  standing — faith, 
hope,  and  love.  All  Christian  living  is 
marked  and  covered  by  this  trinity  of  con- 
duct. Faith  here  is  the  growth,  development, 
continuance  of  the  seed-faith  which  em- 
braces the  gospel.  It  is  the  daily  looking  to 
Jesus,  the  seeing  of  Him  that  is  invisible. 
Hope  here  is  the  carrying  forward  and  up- 
ward of  the  original  hope,  the  strengthened 
and  matured  form  of  that  assurance  received 
when  the  conditions  of  salvation  were  ac- 
cepted. That  was  a  joy,  a  gladness;  this  is 
a  stimulus,  a  safeguard.  That  was  an  evi- 
dence that  we  had  been  saved  from  our 
past  sins;  this  is  a  power  that  keeps  us  for- 
ever from  being  lost.  Love  is  the  climax 
of  this  trinity.  Love  is  the  end  of  the  com- 
mandment. Love  is  the  active  principle  of 
our  standing  which  embraces  all  practise  of 
Christianity    toward    God    and    man.      Faith 


looks  up,  hope  reaches  up,  love  climbs  up. 
So  looking  steadfastly,  hoping  constantly, 
loving  fully,  we  can  only  stand  and  wait  all 
the  days  of  His  appointed  time  till  our 
change  come. 

7.  One  more  trinity,  and  the  saved  soul 
shall  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  ever-adora- 
ble Trinity  of  the  Godhead:  Glory,  honor, 
immortality !  By  degrees  the  Christian  has 
come  higher  and  higher.  Body,  soul,  and 
spirit,  touched  and  overshadowed  by  the 
great  facts  of  the  gospel — the  death,  burial, 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus — brought  into  en- 
tire harmony  with  these  by  obedience  to 
three  great  precepts — faith,  repentance,  and 
baptism, — and  kept  in  preparation  and  ex- 
pectancy by  three  great  conditions — faith, 
hope,  and  love, — are  ready  for  transfigura- 
tion, translation  into  the  presence  of  the 
Most  High.  Glory  is  the  supernal  bright- 
ness the  Father  bestows,  honor  the  renown 
of  victory  won  by  the  Christian  soldier  on 
hard-fought  fields,  immortality  the  deathless 
bliss  of  a  deathless  being  in  the  presence  of 
the  throne ! 

Now  see  in  all  these  trinities  a  climacteric 
effect.  All  three  are  essential  in  every  case 
to  the  perfectness  of  the  unity  which  they 
form,  and  the  last  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
crown  the  series.  God  is  goodness,  wisdom, 
power.  His  goodness  might  influence  Him 
to  create.  His  wisdom  devise  the  universe, 
but  must  not  His  power  be  exercised  to  per- 
fect His  work?  The  Father  of  our  spirits  is 
all  that  is  expressed  in  the  address,  "  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven ;  "  the  Son  is  all 
that  is  set  forth  in  the  name  "  Immanuel ;  " 
but  must  not  the  Spirit  come  to  reveal  to 
us  the  Father  and  the  Son?  In  Christ  as 
prophet  He  is  the  teacher  sent  from  God,  in 
Christ  as  Mediator  He  is  the  High  Priest  of 
our  profession,  but  are  these  anything  with- 
out His  kingly  dignity  and  power  by  which 
He  rules  and  reigns  in  the  midst  of  His  ene- 
mies? In  the  gospel  His  death  and  burial 
are  glorious,  stupendous  facts,  but  without 
the  resurrection  what  are  they?  He  is  not 
the  Son  of  God,  His  sacrifice  is  vain,  our 
faith  also  is  vain. 

In  our  acceptance  of  the  gospel,  "  without 
faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God."  and  ex- 
cept men  repent  they  must  perish,  but  with- 
out obedience  can  we  have  the  full  assurance 
of  pardon  ?  "  Faith  without  works  is  dead." 
We  are  "  baptized  into  Christ,"  "  baptized 
into  his  death."  So  the  command  to  be- 
lievers was,  "  Repent  and  be  baptized  every 
one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  for 
the  remission  of  sins,"  and  to  the  believing 
penitent,  "  Arise  and  be  baptized  and  wash 
away  your  sins,  calling  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord."  In  the  unit  called  salvation  the  re- 
mission of  past  sins  is  a  blessing,  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  greater  blessing,  but 
what  would  either  or  both  of  these  be  with- 
out the  third,  the  bope  of  eternal  life?  In 
the  trinity  of  Christian  living,  faith  is  noth- 
ing, hope  is  nothing  without  love.  This  is 
the  climax.  "  Tho  I  have  the  tongues  of 
men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not  love,  I  am 
as   sounding   brass   and   a   tinkling   cymbal." 


3o8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


"  And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love ;  and  the 
greatest  of  these  is  love."  Heaven,  glory, 
what  is  that?  Honor— what  joy  can  it  bring 
without  immortality?  It  is  for  an  eternity 
we  want  these  joys  and  splendors — not  for  a 
century,  a  lifetime,  a  decade,  a  year,  or  a 
day ! 

So    passing    through    the    whole    series    in 


every  case,  accepting  all  and  doing  all,  we 
shall  receive  all.  Is  the  measure  full  with 
you,  my  friend?  In  the  trinity  of  obedience 
is  there  one  thing  left  undone?  Fulfil  your 
duty.  The  completion  of  the  joy,  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  assurance  depends  upon  the 
perfectness  of  your  obedience,  the  perfect- 
I   ness  of  your  service. — H.  R. 


THE  TRINITY 

By  John  A,  Broadus,  D.D, 
For  through  him  we  both  have  access  by  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father. — Ephesians  ii:  i8 


The  apostle  Paul  had  been  engaged  in 
what  we  call  "  Judaizing."  It  was  under- 
stood that  all  Gentiles  who  became  Chris- 
tians must  also  become  Jews.  He  says : 
"  Wherefore  remember,  that  ye  being  in  time 
past  Gentiles  in  the  flesh,  who  are  called  un- 
circumcision  by  that  which  is  called  the  cir- 
cumcision, in  the  flesh,  made  by  hands ;  at 
that  time  ye  were  without  Christ,  being 
alienated  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel, 
and  strangers  from  the  covenant  of  promise, 
having  no  hope  and  without  God  in  the 
world.  But  now  in  Christ  Jesus,  ye  who  some- 
times were  far  off  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood 
of  Christ.  For  he  is  our  peace,  who  hath  made 
both  one."  The  Jews  were  accustomed  to 
speak  of  themselves  as  near  by  and  the  Gen- 
tiles as  far  off.  "  And  hath  broken  down  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  between  us."  mean- 
ing the  gates  of  the  temple  from  the  outer 
court — in  which  alone  the  Gentiles  were  per- 
mitted to  come.  "  Having  abolished  in  his 
flesh  the  enmity,  even  the  law  of  command- 
ments contained  in  ordinances ;  for  to  make 
in  himself  of  twain  one  new  man,  so  making 
peace."  Paul  is  speaking  to  the  Gentiles,  and 
by  his  personal  influence  and  by  the  help  of 
zealous  brethren  at  Jerusalem,  it  was  con- 
sidered right  that  this  barrier  should  be 
broken  down  between  the  Gentiles  and  the 
Jews,  and  that  they  should  be  united  in  one 
faith.  So  Paul  presents  the  plea  contained 
in  our  text :  "  For  through  him  we  both  have 
access  by  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father."  One 
God  and  Father,  one  faith,  one  baptism — all 
one  spiritual  body — tho  so  widely  separated, 
yet  one  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  Jews,  tho  so 
widely  separated  from  the  Gentiles,  would, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  both  have  access  by 
one  Spirit  unto  the  Father. 

But  do  you  observe  that  in  making  that 
plea  he  brings  out  "  God  the  Father,"  ''  God 
the  Son,"  and  "  God  the  Holy  Spirit?  "  For 
through  Him — that  is,  Christ,  we  both  have 
access  by  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father. 

Is  the  preacher  going  to  dare  to  preach  a 
sermon  on  the  "  Trinity "  ?  Have  not  we 
been  told  many  times  that  ours  is  so  practical 
an  age  that  people  don't  want  to  hear  about 
the  great  doctrines  of  Christianity?  Now, 
friends.  I  don't  believe  that — I  believe  that  in- 
telligent people  are  very  willing  and  sometimes 
very  glad  to  hear  about  the  highest  truths  of 


the  Christian  system,  provided  their  attention 
is  called  to  the  devotional  aspect  of  the 
truths.  The  text  presents  to  us :  "  God  the 
Father,"  to  whom  we  have  our  access ;  "  God 
the  Son,''  through  whom  we  have  access; 
and  "  God  the  Holy  Spirit,"  by  whom  we 
have  our  access. 

My  friends,  it  is  a  very  wonderful  thing 
to  think  of,  that  God  who  made  the  uni- 
verse— the  Eternal,  the  Omnipotent,  the  Al- 
mighty, the  All  Knowing — became  man  and 
lived  among  us,  and  died  for  us,  that  we 
might  have  salvation  and  eternal  life,  who 
"  in  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God.  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God  " — Son  of  God — somehow  distinct,  yet 
God,  but  that  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  as  the  apostle  says,  "  full  of 
grace  and  truth."  "  And  we  beheld  his 
glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father."  We  looked  upon  Him  and  our 
hands  handled  Him.  He  was  in  the  be- 
ginning, He  was  with  God,  He  was  God, 
He  became  flesh.  He  dwelt  among  men.  O 
friends,  we  are  used  to  it,  we  have  heard 
it  over  and  over,  we  have  heard  it  all  our 
lives ;  but  it  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  that 
ever  happened  since  the  Creation.  We  read 
of  the  doubt  of  the  Apostle  Thomas ;  but  he 
was  convinced  at  last  that  his  Lord  had 
risen  from  the  grave.  Said  Thomas,  "  Ex- 
cept I  shall  see  in  his  hands  the  print  of  the 
nails,  and  put  my  finger  into  the  print  of  the 
nails,  and  thrust  my  hand  into  his  side,  I 
will  not  believe.  Then  came  Jesus,  the  doors 
being  shut,  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  said, 
Peace  be  unto  you.  Then  saith  he  to 
Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  be- 
hold my  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy  hand, 
and  thrust  it  into  my  side :  and  be  not  faith- 
less, but  believing.  And  Thomas  answered 
and  said,  My  Lord  and  my  God."  It  did 
seem  to  Thomas  too  good  to  believe,  he 
could  not  believe  it.  But  when  Jesus  asked 
him  to  put  his  finger  into  His  side — into  the 
print  of  the  nails — he  broke  out,  "  My  Lord 
and  my  God."  But  Jesus  did  not  rebuke  him 
because  he  doubted.  "  Jesus  saith  unto 
Thomas,  Because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou 
hast  believed :  blessed  are  they  that  have 
not  seen  and  yet  have  believed." 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


309 


I 


Sometimes  I  am  tempted  to  say  to  some 
of  my  congregations.  You  don't  believe  that 
God  became  a  man,  lived  on  earth  among 
men,  died  on  the  cross,  was  buried  and  the 
third  day  rose  again,  and  as  the  God-man 
ever  lives  to  intercede  for  us,  but  we  will 
stir  ourselves  to  take  hold  of  that  stupendous 
fact :  the  Scriptures  teach  it.  Why.  a  little 
child  who  reads  the  New  Testament  will  see 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  God,  and  when  you 
search  for  the  truth,  you  will  find  in  the 
ninth  chapter  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans and  the  fifth  verse :  "  Whose  are  the 
Father's,  and  of  whom  as  concerning  the 
flesh  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all,  God 
blessed  for  ever."  And  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Hebrews  we  read  concerning  the  Son : 
"  But  unto  the  Son  he  saith,  Thy  throne, 
O  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever."  Everywhere 
in  the  Scriptures  it  is  plainly  declared  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God, 
and  it  is  strikingly  and  manifestly  declared 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  also  God.  Men  blas- 
pheme the  Holy  Spirit,  they  try  to  deceive 
themselves  regarding  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  The 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  " — so  the  Scripture  teaches — that  is 
what  we  call  "  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity." 
Children,  I  don't  suppose  you  know  the 
meaning  of  the  "  Trinity."  It  means  three 
in  one ;  it  is  the  idea  that  God  the  Father, 
God  the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Spirit  is  one 
God.  These  three  are  somehow  different 
from  one  another  and  yet  One  in  God — three 
in  oneness — tri-unity  or  "  Trinity."  But  you 
say.  "  How  can  three  be  one  ?  how  can  we 
believe  anything  that  we  cannot  understand?  " 

My  dear  friends,  please  tell  me  what  you 
do  understand.  Do  you  know  what  life  is? 
Why,  all  the  physiologists  and  metaphysi- 
cians cannot  tell  us  what  life  is ;  nobody  can 
define  "  life  "  ;  nobody  can  account  for  life, 
yet  you  believe  in  life ;  you  believe  that  you 
have  a  soul  somewhere  in  your  body,  you 
know  it,  but  you  cannot  understand  it ;  and 
if  we  do  not  understand  the  nature  of  the 
"Trinity,"  does  it  make  any  difference? 
But  you  say,  "  What  have  I  to  do  with  any- 
thing that  I  do  not  understand  the  nature 
of?"  Look  at  the  wires  running  all  along 
the  streets  in  every  direction ;  now,  when 
these  wires  are  connected  with  the  electrodes 
of  the  battery,  electricity  flows  along  the 
wires.  Now.  you  cannot  see  that  electricity, 
you  cannot  weigh  it,  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
any  weight ;  it  is  a  mighty  power,  but  you 
do  not  know  the  nature  of  it ;  nobody  knows 
the  nature  of  it.  But,  if  we  put  ourselves  in 
the  right  relation  with  that  unknown  quan- 
tity— for  it  is  coming  into  our  lives  in  a 
dozen  different  ways,  it  is  coming  into  our 
homes — therefore,  if  we  put  ourselves  in  a 
right  relation  with  it,  it  will  be  of  advantage 
to  us.  And  if  we  put  ourselves  in  a  wrong 
relation  with  it,  it  will  kill  us,  for  it  is  a 
dangerous  and  powerful  element.  And  just 
so  it  is  in  regard  to  the  "  Trinity."  If  we 
put  ourselves  in  right  relations  with  the 
Trinity,  according  to  the  Scripture  teachings, 


in  right  relations  with  God  the  Father,  God 
the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  shall  be 
infinitely  blessed  in  time  and  in  eternity,  liv- 
ing, dying,  forever.  But  if  we  put  ourselves 
in  wrong  relations  with  God  the  Father,  God 
the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  shall 
be  ruined,  as  we  deserve  to  be.  We  cannot 
understand  the  nature  of  the  "  Trinity,"  we 
cannot  explain  it.  But,  friends,  we  do  live 
in  a  practical  age  and  therefore  we  ought  to 
see  the  practical  importance  of  these  great 
truths  and  their  practical  nature;  we  ought 
to  take  hold  of  them  in  a  practical  way  and 
to  let  alone  the  practical  varying  nature  of 
that  which  we  do  not  know.  Children,  do 
you  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  eternal 
Son  of  God?  This  is  a  very  wonderful  thing, 
is  it  not?  that  the  Son  of  God  became  man 
and  dwelt  among  us,  that  the  Son  of  God 
suffered  and  died  on  the  cross.  This  is  a 
very  shameful  death,  a  very  disgraceful 
death,  more  disgraceful  than  the  scaffold  or 
the  electrocuting  chair,  but  the  Son  of  God 
died  this  shameful  and  disgraceful  death, 
then  was  buried  in  the  sepulcher  and  rose 
the  third  day,  and  carried  that  body  up  to 
the  mediatorial  throne  on  high ;  and  we  are 
invited  to  put  our  trust  in  Him  as  our 
Savior,  to  follow  in  His  footsteps,  to  imitate 
His  blessed  example,  to  live  as  His  disciples, 
and  then  we  shall  be  saved. 

It  is  indeed  a  wonderful  thing  that  the 
God-man  died  on  the  cross.  You  say, 
"Could  God  die?"  I  answer  "No."  You 
say,  "Could  God  suffer?"  I  answer,  "I 
suppose  not."  But  then  the  God-man  suf- 
fered in  His  human  nature.  Yet  it  was 
not  simply  a  good  man  that  suffered  and 
died,  it  was  the  God-man,  and  what  a  won- 
derful significance  that  gave  to  His  atoning 
death ;  He  lived  for  us,  suffered  for  us,  died 
for  us ;  His  being  God  gave  an  importance 
to  that  fact ;  as  our  Redeemer  He  died  that 
we  might  live.  But  you  say,  "  How  could 
it  be  right  that  one  person  should  die  for 
another?"  Why,  the  noblest  thing  that  any 
person  ever  did  was  to  suffer  for  another, 
and  some  have  died  for  others,  yes,  volun- 
tarily suffered  and  died  that  another  might 
live ;  see  the  loving  .'^acrificial  devotion  of  a 
parent  for  his  children ;  he  would  suffer, 
yes,  die  for  his  children ;  see  the  many  ex- 
amples of  friend  suffering  for  friend.  So 
you  see  that  it  would  not  do  but  that  the 
Savior  should  suffer  in  order  to  redeem  the 
world.  But  you  say,  "  How  could  His  suf- 
fering and  dying  for  me  do  me  any  good?" 
God  says  plainly  in  His  Word  that  through 
atoning  blood,  through  human  sacrifice  of 
life  alone  He  could  forgive  men  their  sins, 
and  it  is  on  that  ground  that  He  is  willing 
to  forgive  the  sins  of  the  world.  And  if  God 
says  that  it  was  necessary,  that  it  was  all 
right  for  Christ  to  suffer  and  die  for  me, 
all  I  have  to  do  is  to  accept  it  and  come 
through  Christ  to  the  Father,  who  died  for 
me  that  I  might  receive  salvation.  If  God 
is  satisfied,  why  should  not  I  be  satisfied? 
If  God  has  made  this  marvelous  provision, 
and  He  says  that  it  is  all  right  to  obtain  sal- 


3IO 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


vation  on  that  ground,  I  shall  have  to 
whether  I  understand  it  or  not,  and  I  ought 
to  be  glad,  whether  I  understand  it  or  not, 
that  He  has  provided  that  way. 

But  the  only  way  to  understand  it  is  to 
take  hold  of  it  in  a  practical  way ;  you  cannot 
understand  it  if  you  stand  off  from  it.  It  is 
like  swimming,  you  cannot  understand  it 
unless  you  take  hold  of  it  in  a  practical  way 
and  resolve  to  learn  to  swim,  then  plunge  in 
the  water  and  strike  out ;  that  is  the  only  way 
to  learn  to  swim,  and  the  only  way  we  can 
ever  do  anything  practical ;  in  the  doing  of  it 
we  will  understand  better  the  nature  of  it. 
And  we  must  come  near  to  our  Savior,  con- 
fess our  sins  to  Him  and  trust  Him;  then 
we  will  understand  more  clearly  this  life  and 
the  eternal  life;  and  we  shall  understand 
how  our  sins,  which  are  many,  may  be  for- 
given because  of  what  our  Savior  has  done 
in  our  behalf.  And  it  is  not  merely  what 
He  has  done  in  the  past,  but  what  He  is 
doing  now.  The  apostle  Paul  says  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "  Wherefore  he  is 
able  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come 
unto  God  by  him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  them."  The  Savior  is 
now  busy  carrying  out  the  designs  of  the 
creation  and  preparing  a  place  for  us ;  and 
we  are  to  think  not  merely  how  He  once  died 
for  us,  but  how  He  ever  lives  for  us. 

And  our  prayers,  which  are  ever  unworthy, 
if  offered  in  His  worthy  name  will  be  accept- 
able to  God;  all  His  infinite  love  goes  to 
give  value  to  my  poor  prayers  and  yours, 
when  we  offer  them  in  His  name.  So  we  are 
taught  also  that  this  Savior  who  came  to 
this  earth,  and  lived,  and  suffered,  and  died 
that  we  might  live — this  Savior  will  come 
again  to  earth  and  receive  His  own  unto 
Himself.  Now,  I  know  nothing  about  the 
discussions  regarding  the  millennium;  I  do 
not  know  as  much  about  it  as  I  did  thirty 
years  ago;  but  there  is  this  great  and  won- 
derful fact  that  He  will  come  again;  we  are 
to  be  ushered  into  His  eternal  presence,  and 
we  that  have  loved  and  served  Him  will  be 
received  by  Him  into  eternal  glory;  all  men 
will  have  to  appear  before  the  judgment  seat 
of  God.  Then  let  us  look  at  the  work  of 
God,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  our  relations  with 
Him — it  is  He  alone  that  can  work  a  change 
in  our  moral  nature.  We  are  sinful,  we  are 
prone  to  do  wrong,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  do 
what  is  right;  the  little  boy  who  has  ac- 
quired a  wrong  habit  knows  how  hard  it  is 
to  stop  doing  that  wrong  and  to  try  to  do 
right.  But  God,  the  Holy  Spirit,  will  corne 
into  our  hearts  and  work  such  a  change  in 
us  that  we  will  hate  the  sin  and  love  the 
holiness ;  and  this  is  called  being  born  over 
again — made  into  a  completely  new  creature 
— and  it  is  God's  Holy  Spirit  that  works 
that  great  change.  So  when  we  set  out  to 
love  and  work  and  serve  Christ  with  all  our 
powers,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  help  us  in  all 
our  ways ;  He  will  help  us  to  know  our  duty 
and  to  do  it,  and  somehow,  as  more  and 
more  we  need  it,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  go 
on  renewing  and  sanctifying  us.  The  Holy 
Spirit  will  come  to  us  by  asking  for  it.    You 


believe  that  human  fathers  and  mothers  are 
able  to  give  good  things  unto  their  children; 
and  some  of  you  parents  know  what  a  joy 
and  comfort  it  is  for  you  to  give  any  good 
thing  that  seemeth  good  for  the  children  to 
them,  and  how  hard  it  is  for  you  to  refuse 
them  when  you  think  it  is  not  good  for  them 
to  have  anything;  and  if  the  human  parents 
are  able  to  give  good  things  unto  their  chil- 
dren, how  much  more  able  is  God  to  give  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  for  it  and  that 
earnestly  seek  for  it.  But  the  Holy  Spirit 
enables  us  to  pray  for  what  you  or  I  do  not 
understand  how  to  pray  for.  And  so,  my 
dear  friends,  we  must  seek  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  guide  us  and  help  us ;  and  we  must  trust 
ourselves  unto  the  Savior  and  ask,  through 
the  Holy  Spirit,  Christ's  blessing  to  sustam, 
strengthen  and   sanctify  us. 

This,  friends,  is  what  I  call  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  that  through  the  Divine  Savior 
we  have  our  access  in  one  Holy  Spirit  unto 
the  Father.  And  so  we  may  come  boldly 
unto  the  throne  of  grace  if  we  set  out  ear- 
nestly to  live  a  life  of  piety.  Look  at  that 
little  girl  who  is  going  out  into  the  darkness 
of  the  night — thick  darkness  has  settled 
down;  she  says,  "It  is  so  dark  outside,  I 
hear  a  strange  noise,  I  am  afraid  to  go  out 
into  the  dark;  "  but  the  child's  father  comes 
and  takes  the  little  one's  hand  in  his  strong 
hand;  she  feels  it  clutching  her  little  hand 
and  now  she  starts  out  into  the  darkness 
without  fear.  And  that  is  the  attitude  of  the 
human  soul  to  God;  it  should  trust  itself 
to  the  loving  Savior  and  to  the  gracious 
Holy  Spirit,  setting  out  to  walk  through  the 
darkness  guided  by  His  sustaining  hand,  and 
thus  it  wi.l  reach  safety  at  last. 

My  friend,  are  you  a  Christian?  won't  you 
try  to  be  a  more  earnest  one,  rejoicing  in 
God  your  Father  in  Jesus  Christ  your  Di- 
vine Redeemer,  in  the  Holy  Spirit  that  can 
sanctify  and  strengthen  you?  Whether  your 
days  be  many  or  few,  devote  them  to  the 
service  of  the  Blessed  Savior.  My  friend, 
are  you  a  Christian?  won't  you  take  hold  of 
this  blessed  truth  more  strongly?  You  say 
there  are  questions  that  you  cannot  answer, 
that  you  cannot  understand — let  the  ques- 
tions alone.  You  know  of  many  who  have 
taken  hold  of  this  blessed  truth  and  have 
found  joy,  love,  strength  in  its  service,  and 
have  died  in  its  comfort.  Oh,  that  every 
heart  among  us  might  be  moved  at  this  hour 
to  take  hold  of  this  blessed  truth.  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Divine  Savior,  who  once  lived 
on  this  earth  and  suffered  and  died  for  you, 
now  bends  from  the  mediatorial  throne  ready 
to  receive  your  petition — He  who  gave  Him- 
self for  us  and  ever  lives  to  make  inter- 
cession for  us.  Life  is  a  very  strange  thing 
in  many  ways,  but  the  strangest  and  saddest 
thing  of  all  is  that  people  should  let  them- 
selves be  told  of  the  redeeming  love  and  re- 
newing grace  of  Our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus 
Christ,  and  then  go  out  and  walk  about  in 
the  world  as  tho  He  had  never  trod  the 
earth  before.  God  help  us  to  live  as  those 
ought  to  live  who  know  the  story  of  salva- 
tion.    Amen. — P.  T. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


311 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  BELIEVING  ON  THE  SON 

He  that  believeth  on  the  Son,  etc. — John  Hi:  3^ 


The  Spirit  utilized  John's  peculiar  love  to 
Jesus  as  a  vehicle  for  conveying  the  great 
truth,  which  permeates  all  John's  writings, 
that  God  now  regards  men  only  as  they  re- 
gard His  Son   (John  v:22,  23). 

To  reject  the  Son  and  yet  worship  the 
Father  is  to  be  a  "  liar,"  an  uncandid  self- 
deceiver,  preferring  his  "  darkness "  to  the 
clear  "  light  "  of  the  "  true  God,"  now  fully 
revealed  by  Jesus  Christ  (i  John  ii:22;  v: 
20). 

So  here  we  see  that 

I.  There  is  no  eternal  life  apart  from  "  the 
Son." 

This  is  the  leading  thought,  carried  on 
from  the  verse  preceding — a  fitting  close  to 
this  cardinal  chapter. 

It  is  reasonable,  too;  for 

1.  A  perishing  world  has  been  redeemed  by 
the  blood  of  God's  Son ;  to  save  men  other- 
wise would  be  self-contradiction  (Gal.  ii :  20, 
21). 

2.  "  Thou  shalt  not  surely  die  "  (which  is 
still  the  devil's  master-key  for  the  human 
heart-door)  would  otherwise  triumph  over 
truth  and  justice.  Salvation  save  through 
Christ  would  degrade  God  and  exalt  the  devil 
and  the  sinner   (Rom.  iii :  19,  20). 

3.  A  sinner  must  therefore  either  be  saved 
through  Christ  or  perish  (Acts  iv:i2;  i 
John  v  :  11,  12). 

II.  Evcrv  man  must  assume  some  attitude 
towards  the  Son;  and  is  held  responsible  by 
God  for  it. 

No  evasion  possible ;  His  yoke  must  be 
either  accepted  or  declined — and  practically 
too;  belief  must  fructify  into  "obedience," 
and  vice  versa.  The  heathen  will  be  tested 
otherwise,  since  they  cannot  "  believe  on  him 
of  whom  they  have  not  heard"    (Rom.   x: 

14).  .  .      , 

III.  "Belief"  or  "unbelief"  is  the  crucial 
test  of  man's  attitude  toward  God's  Son. 


God  sent  His  Son  to  die  for  me,  because  I 
could  not  save  myself. 

1.  Have  I  gratefully  placed  "  on  the  Son" 
my  reliance  for  salvation?   (Gal.  ii:i5.  16). 

2.  Or  have  I  haughtily  turned  away? 
(Rom.  x:3), 

3.  Or,  have  I  listlessly  passed  Hirn  by, 
more  deeply  concerned  about  other  things? 
(Matt,  xxii:  5;    Heb.  ii :  i,  etc). 

4.  Or,  am  I  a  self-contradicting  hypocrite 
— both  "  believing  on  the  Son  and  having 
eternal  life,"  and  "  obeying  not  the  Son  and 
never  to  see  life?  " 

5.  Practical  belief  is  God's  test  of  char- 
acter— God's  separating  "  fan." 

(a)  All  docile  and  candid  lovers  of  "  light " 
believe    (Matt,   xi  125-27). 

(&)  All  unbelief  is  due  to  "  love  of  dark- 
ness,"  "  an   evil  heart  of  unbelief." 

(c)  Even  intellectual  unbelief  is  by  Christ 
traced  to  the  "  will"  (John  vii :  17).  There 
is  no  mystery  in  Christ  greater  than  the 
mystery  of  God  and  the  universe. 

IV.  The  reward  of  belief  is  "  eternal  life": 

1.  Nov.',  through  the  Spirit.  "Hath"  (l 
John  v  :  7-12  ;  Eph.  i :  14) . 

2.  "Forever  with  the  Lord"  (Rom.  viii: 
16,  17  ;    I  Thess.  iv  :  17). 

V.  The  punishment  of  unbelief  is  aban- 
donment to  eternal  blindness  and  eternal 
wo. 

1.  Abandonment  by  God;  "  Abideth  on 
him ;  "  refusing  salvation,  he  is  left  under 
wrath. 

2.  Eternal  blindness:  "  Shall  not  see  life;  " 
never  see  God  as  "  Love  "  (John  xvii :  3  ; 
Psa.  lxiii:3).  No  "final  restoration"  is 
hinted  at. 

3.  Eternal  wo:  "The  wrath  of  God;"  not 
"  annihilation,"  else  why  creation  ?  but  the 
everlasting  displeasure  of  God  purposely 
manifested  against  a  rejecter  of  His  "  be- 
loved  Son." — Beta.     H.   R. 


THE  TRINITY,  THE  SOURCE  OF  GRACE  AND  PEACE 


Rev.  i:  4,  5 


Authorship  of  this  Book  clearly  declared. — 
St.  Paul  in  his  epistles,  mentions  office  and 
authority. — But  St.  John  had  no  need  to  do 
so. — None  likely  to  confound  him  with  some 
other  John. — Strange  that  any  should  have 
disputed  its  authorship. — Begins  with  saluta- 
tions of  grace  and  peace. — Desires  that  they 
might  be  enriched  with  fulness  of  blessing. — 
Grace  had  already  brought  them  out  of  dark- 
ness.— But  desires  they  might  enjoy  more. — 
It.  bestowal  assured,  when  consider  source. — 
Text. 

I.  First  Person  of  the  Trinity,  styled, 
TEXT.     Difficulty  in   finding  language  to   set 


forth  God. — Scripture  employs  various 
methods. — Usual  way  to  proclaim  His  at- 
tributes. Comp.  Exod.  xxxiv :  6. — Here 
uniqueness  of  God's  nature. — "  Is,  and  was. 
and  is  to  come,"  i.  e.,  the  self-existent  One. — 
So  at  burning  bush,  "  I  Am." — His  presence 
pervades  all  space,  covers  all  time. — Time 
has  a  relation  to  material  things,  none  to 
God. — Mind  bewildered  in  contemplating 
Him. 

II.  The  Third  Person  in  the  Trinity, 
STYLED,  text. — Evidently  refers  to  Holy 
Spirit,  for  introduced  between  Father  and 
Son. — Contradicted  notion  of  created  intelli- 


312 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


gence,  as  ch.  viii :  2. — Seven  the  number  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. — Spirit  works  in  the  Church, 
sealing  elect,  etc. — Began  His  work  at  Crea- 
tion.— So  ever  since,  striving  with  wayward- 
ness, inspiring  men  of  God,  overruling  Kings, 
etc. — In  redemption,  especially.  Holy  Spirit, 
active. — Overshadowed  Virgin  Mary,  anointed 
Christ, 

"  Thou   the  anointing   Spirit  art, 
Who  dost  Thy  sevenfold  gifts  impart." 

These  sevenfold  gifts  in  Is.  xi :  2. — Christ  re- 
ceived these  for  men,  to  fulfil  Is.  xv :  g. — 
Evidences  every  day  of  its  being  fulfilled. — 
The  Spirit's  energy  set  forth  in  ch.  v :  6. — 
Horns,  eyes,  spirits,  and  in  a  sevenfold  de- 
gree. 

HI.  The  Second  Person. — Introduced  last, 
for  more  to  .«ay  of  Him. — Dwells  upon  name, 
Jesus  Christ,  threefold  office. 

(i)  Prophet,  "  faithful  witness." — Came  as 
teacher  confirming  words  by  works. — No 
teacher  so  persuasive,  "  spake  of  what  seen." 
' — His  tidings  unpalatable,  yet  preserved. — 
His  faithfulness  evidenced  before  Pilate, 
John  xviii :  },']. — ''  A  good  confession,"  con- 
vincing to  Pilate. — A  king  of  the  truth  at- 
tracting sympathetic  souls. — Exposes  wortfi- 


lessness  of  Satan's  testimony. — Seeks  to  re- 
instate men  in  the  truth  of  their  humanity. 

(2)  Priest. — ''  First-begotten  from  the 
dead." — In  person  of  Christ,  death  assumed 
new  character. — Became  a  womb  from  which 
new  life  to  spring,  "  first-begotten." — From  it 
a  glorious  progeny. — Claim  kindred  with  ex- 
alted Head. — Hung  on  cross  and  lay  in 
grave,  as  people's  representative. — As  a  priest 
offered  Himself,  would  it  be  accepted. — That 
question  answered  on  resurrection  morn. — 
Then  problem  solved,  veil  withdrawn,  death 
the  gate  to  life. 

(3)  King. — "  Prince  of  the  Kings  of 
earth." — Kingly  office  asserted,  "  many 
crowns." — Christ's  offices  culminate  in,  and 
derive  value  from  His  death. — His  witness 
perfected  in  death,  and  its  truth  demonstrated 
by  resurrection. — So  priestly  office. — And  now 
kingly  office  springing  out  of  obedience  to 
death. — A  name  above  every  name,  confer- 
ring eternal  life. — Supreme  in  heaven,  "  let 
angels  worship,"  in  hell,  "  holds  keys,"  on 
earth,  till  "  all  kings  fall  before  him." — 
Fitting  title  at  opening  of  this  book,  which 
describes  fortunes  of  the  Church. — In  vain 
do  earthly  powers  rebel  against  Him. — From 
this  triune  Jehovah  issue  grace  and  peace 
for  every  humble  believer. — H.  A.  C.  Y. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


By  Bishop  Brooke  F.  Westcott,  D.D. 
Kev.  iv:  8,  with  i  John  v:  20 


To-day  we  are  called  upon  to  keep  the 
festival  of  revelation.  Every  other  great 
festival  of  our  Church  commemorates  a  fact 
through  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  teach 
men  something  of  His  purpose  of  love ;  Trin- 
ity Sunday  encourages  us  to  reflect  for  a 
brief  space  on  that  final  truth,  most  absolute, 
most  elementary,  most  practical,  which  gives 
unity  and  stability  to  all  knowledge.  The 
view  of  the  Divine  nature  which  it  offers  for 
our  devout  contemplation  is  the  charter  of 
human   faith. 

I.  The  conception  of  the  Triune  God  is 
not  given  to  us  first  in  an  abstract  form. 
The  abstract  statement  is  an  interpretation 
of  facts,  a  human  interpretation  of  vital 
facts,  an  interpretation  wrought  out  grad- 
ually in  the  first  years  of  the  Church,  and 
still  mastered  gradually  in  our  individual 
growth.  We  are  required  each,  in  some 
.'■ense,  to  win  for  ourselves  the  inheritance 
which  is  given  to  us,  if  the  inheritance  is  to 
be  a  blessing.  We  learn  through  the  ex- 
perience of  history  and  life  how  God  acts, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
arrl  by  the  very  necessity  of  thought  we  are 
constrained  to  gather  up  these  lessons  into 
the  simplest  possible  formula.  So  we  come 
to  recognize  a  Divine  Trinity,  which  is  not 
sterile,  monotonous  simplicity.  We  come  to 
recognize  One  in  whom  is  the  fulness  of  all 
conceivable  existence   in  the   richest   energy. 


One  absolutely  self-sufficient  and  perfect, 
One  in  whom  love  finds  absolute  consumma- 
tion. One  who  is  in  Himself  a  living  God, 
the  fountain  and  end  of  all  life. 

II.  The  conception  of  the  Triune  God 
illuminates  the  idea  of  creation.  It  enables 
us  to  gain  firm  hold  of  the  truth  that  the 
learning  which  we  observe  under  the  condi- 
tion of  time  answers  to  a  Being  beyond  time ; 
that  history  is  the  writing  out  at  length  of 
that  which  we  may  speak  of  as  a  Divine 
thought.  The  same  conception  illuminates 
the  idea  of  the  Incarnation.  It  enables  us  to 
see  that  the  Incarnation  in  its  essence  is  the 
crown  of  the  Creation,  and  that  man,  being 
made  capable  of  fellowship  with  God,  has  in 
his  very  constitution  a  promise  of  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  highest  destiny. 

III.  This  truth  is  not  speculative,  but  prac- 
tical. The  Christian  conception  of  God  is 
the  translation  into  the  language  of  thought 
of  the  first  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsun- 
tide. By  our  faith  in  these  facts  we  confess 
that  the  Divine  life  has  been  united  with 
human  life.  We  confess,  even  if  we  do  not 
distinctly  realize  the  force  of  the  confession, 
that  the  Divine  life  is  the  foundation  and  the 
end  of  human  life.  And  we  live,  so  far  as 
life  deserves  the  name,  by  this  faith  by  which 
consciously  or  unconsciously  we  are  stirred 
to  toil  and  sustained  in  sacrifice. — Oxford 
Review  and  Jotirnal,  May  24th,  1883. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


313 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


DIVINITY,  Proofs  Wliich  Our  Lord 
Gave  of  His. — When  Ulysses  returned  with 
fond  anticipations  to  his  home  in  Ithaca,  his 
family  did  not  recognize  him.  Even  the  wife 
of  his  bosom  denied  her  husband — so  changed 
was  he  by  an  absence  of  twenty  years,  and 
the  hardships  of  a  long-protracted  war.  It 
was  thus  true  of  the  vexed  and  astonished 
Greek  as  of  a  nobler  King,  that  he  came  unto 
his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not.  In 
this  painful  position  of  affairs  he  called  for 
a  bow  which  he  had  left  at  home,  when,  em- 
barking for  the  siege  of  Troy,  he  bade  fare- 
well to  the  orange-groves  and  vine-clad  hills 
of  Ithaca.  With  characteristic  sagacity,  he 
saw  how  a  bow,  so  stout  and  tough  that  none 
but  himself  could  draw  it,  might  be  made  to 
bear  witness  on  his  behalf.  He  seized  it. 
To  their  surprise  and  joy,  like  a  green  wand 
lopped  from  a  willow  tree,  it  yields  to  his 
arms ;  it  bends  till  the  bow-string  touches 
his  ear.  His  wife,  now  sure  that  he  is  her 
long  lost  and  long  lamented  husband,  throws 
herself  into  his  fond  embraces,  and  his  house- 
hold confess  him  the  true  Ulysses. — Thomas 
Guthrie. 

FATHER,  God  Our  Heavenly. — God 
bears  not  in  vain  the  name  of  a  Father ;  he 
fills  it  up  to  the  full.  It  is  a  name  of  in- 
dulgence, of  hope,  of  provision — a  name  of 
protection.  It  argues  the  mitigation  of  pun- 
ishment ;  a  little  is  enough  for  a  father.  In 
all  temptations,  oh,  let  us  by  prayer  fly  to 
the  arms  of  our  heavenly  Father !  and  expect 
from  Him  all  that  a  father  should  do  for  his 
child.  But  yet  we  must  remember  the  name 
of  a  father  is  a  word  of  relation ;  duty  is  ex- 
pected from  us  ;  w^e  must  reverence  Him  as  a 
father  with  fear  and  love.  He  is  a  great 
God,  we  ought  to  fear  Him ;  He  is  merciful, 
3'ea,  hath  bowels  of  mercy,  we  ought  to  love 
Him ;  if  we  tremble  before  Him.  we  forget 
that  He  is  loving;  and  if  over-bold,  we  also 
forget  that  He  is  a  great  and  holy  God. 
Therefore  we  should  always  go  to  the  throne 
of  grace  with  reverence,  holy  love,  and  con- 
•fidence  in  the  name  of  Jesus. — Sibbes. 

FATHER,  God  the.— The  full  meaning  of 
God's  fatherhood  was  not  brought  out  in  Old 
Testament  times  as  we  understand  it  now, 
tho  it  was  known  and  recognized  by  pious 
saints.  See  i  Chron.  xxix:io:  Ps.  ciii:i3; 
Isa.  Ixiii :  16 — rather  nationally  than  per- 
sonally. The  Gospel  of  St.  John  is  the 
Gospel  which  speaks  most  of  God  as  the 
"  Father."  It  contains  about  one  hundred 
references,  with  many  varieties  of  expres- 
sions. Eph.  iii :  15 — "  Of  whom  the  whole 
family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named."  Some 
refer  this  to  Christ,  but  more  generally  it  is 
referred  to  the  Father.  God's  ownership  over 
the  Church  is  involved  in  its  being  named 
from  Him.     To  give  a  name  to  a  person  or  a 


place  denotes  lordship  over  it,  or  interest  in 
it;  as  a  father  gives  his  own  name  to  a  child; 
a  husband  to  a  wife;  a  conqueror  to  a  con- 
quered city. — Bowes. 

GOD  IS  LIGHT.— /o/iM  i:  5.— As  the  sen- 
tence, "God  is  a  Spirit'"  (John  iv:24)  is 
immediately  followed  by  "  and  those  who 
worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and 
in  truth."  so  this  sentence  must  be  taken  as 
a  principle,  the  application  of  which  is  in  the 
sequel.  The  sentence  is  through  and  through 
ethical  and  practical.  St.  John  wants  no 
science  without  practice.  He  does  not  allow 
an  enlightenment  of  the  mind  without  a  cor- 
responding bias  and  purifying  of  the  will. — 
A.  P.  L. 

GOD,  Son  of.— In  order  to  understand 
Jesus  Christ  our  Savior,  and  the  meaning 
of  His  coming,  we  need  to  know  who  He 
was  before  He  came.  We  learn  from  Tohn 
i:  1-3,  and  Heb.  i :  2,  3,  that  He  was  existent 
from  eternity,  that  He  "  was  with  God,  and 
was  God."  that  he  was  "  the  effulgence  of 
his  glory,  and  the  very  image  of  his  sub- 
stance." 

The  divine  nature  of  Christ  is  not  a  mere 
theory,  far  away  from  human  life,  but  is  a 
fact  essential  to  one  who  would  reveal  God 
to  men,  and  be  the  Savior  of  men.  He 
speaks  to  us  from  personal  knowledge  of 
God,  of  His  love,  His  care.  His  readiness  to 
forgive,  His  nearness  to  men,  His  fatherhood. 
He  tells  us  about  heaven  and  immortal  life 
from  His  own  experience.  Only  the  Son  of 
God  could  possibly  make  atonement  f©r  sin. 
Only  He  could  have  power  to  save  us  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places,  to  be  our  ever-present 
friend,  our  perfect  example,  our  infallible 
guide. 

Dr.  Gladden,  in  his  Puzzling  Questions, 
(pp.  184-6)  compares  the  soul  to  a  very  in- 
tricate and  curious  piece  of  mechanism, 
which  nobody  has  been  able  successfully  to 
operate,  "  on  which  mechanical  experts  of  all 
countries  have  tried  their  hands,  with  very 
unsatisfactorj'  results."  "  But  here  is  one 
who  knows  you  through  and  through,  who 
knows  what  you  are,  and  what  you  are  not, 
but  ought  to  be,  and  what  you  may  be.  and 
how  you  may  live  the  only  life  that  is  worth 
living.     He  is  one  to  trust  and  obey." 

When  sovereigns  wish  to  ascertain  for 
themselves  how  their  subjects  live,  they 
leave  their  robes  of  state  behind,  and  move 
incognito  among  their  people,  mingling  with 
the  crowd,  as  belonging  to  them.  Thus  their 
subjects  speak  cut  their  feelings  freely,  and 
they  become  acquainted  with  them.— From 
Marcus  Dods. 

Library.  Expositor's  Bible  on  John,  vol. 
ii.  p.  344.  for  above  illustration  in  full ;  Our 
Elder  Brother  (by  E.  P.  Tenney,  King- 
Richardson  Company),  p.  413.  for  illustration 


^I-i 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


from  Lessius;  Suggestive  Illustrations  on 
John,  for  further  illustrations ;  Burning 
Questions,  by  Dr.  Gladden,  ''  Who  is  Jesus 
Christ?"   for  a   wealth  of  testimonies. — P. 

GOD,   The  Fatherhood  of.— In  the  New 

Testament,  God  is  made  known  to  us  as  a 
Father;  and  a  brighter  feature  of  that  book 
cannot  be  named.  Our  worship  is  to  be 
directed  to  Him  as  our  Father.  Our  whole 
religion  is  to  take  its  character  from  this 
view  of  the  Divinity.  In  this  He  is  to  rise 
always  to  our  minds.  And  what  is  it  to  be 
a  father?  It  is  to  communicate  one's  own 
nature,  to  give  life  to  kindred  beings ;  and  the 
highest  function  of  a  father  is  to  educate  the 
mind  of  the  child,  and  to  impart  to  it  what 
is  noblest  and  happiest  in  his  own  mind. 
God  is  our  Father,  not  merely  because  He 
created  us,  or  because  He  gives  us  enjoy- 
ment, for  He  created  the  flower  and  the  in- 
sect, yet  we  call  Him  not  their  father.  This 
bond  is  a  spiritual  one.  This  name  belongs 
to  God  because  He  frames  spirits  like  Him- 
self, and  delights  to  give  them  what  is  most 
glorious  and  blessed  in  His  own  nature. — A. 
P.  L. 

GOD,  The  Infinite.— Unity  added  to  in- 
finity increases  it  not,  any  more  than  a  foot 
added  to  infinite  space.  What  is  finite  van- 
ishes before  that  which  is  infinite,  and  be- 
comes absolutely  nothing.  For  instance,  our 
understanding,  in  respect  of  'God'is ;  our 
righteousness  compared  with  the  Divine. — 
A.  P.  L. 

GOD,  The  Name.— This  word  is  spelled  in 
four  letters  in  almost  every  language,  viz. : 
Latin,  Deus;  French,  Dieu;  Greek,  Oioi ; 
German,  Gott;  Scandinavian,  Odin;  Swedish, 
Codd;  Hebrew,  Hdou;  Syrian,  Adad;  Per- 
sian, Syra;  Tartarian,  Idgu;  Spanish,  Dios; 
East  Indian,  Esgi,  or  Zeui;  Turkish,  Addi; 
Egyptian,  Anum,  or  Zeiit;  Japanese,  Zain ; 
Peruvian,  Sian;  Wallachian,  Zene;  Etrurian, 
Cliur;  Irish,  Dieh;  Arabian,  Alfa.  The  name 
appropriated  by  the  Saxon  nations  ("  the 
Good")  is  unequaled,  except  by  the  most 
venerable  Hebrew  name,  Jehovah. — A.  P.  L. 

GOD,  The  Nature  of .—  "  God  is  spirit  " 
(John  iv:  24);  "  God  is  light  "  (i  John  i:  5); 
"God  is  love  (i  John  iv:5).  All  from  the 
pen  of  St.  John  are  the  briefest  and  profound- 
est  definitions,  or  Divine  oracles  rather,  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  God,  which  can  be 
found  anywhere.  The  first  refers  mainly  to 
His  metaphysical,  the  second  to  His  intellect- 
ual, the  third  to  His  moral  essence ;  but  of 
course  the  line  cannot  be  distinctly  drawn. — 
A.  P.  L. 

JESUS  CHRIST  LORD  OF  ALL,  Re- 
vealed Truth  Proclaims. — As.  with  the 
genius  that  aspires  to  immortality  and  an- 
ticipates the  admiration  of  future  ages,  the 
painter  leaves  his  name  on  a  corner  of  the 
canvas,  so  Inspiration,  dipping  her  pen  in 
indelible  truth,  has  inscribed  the  name  of 
Jesus  upon  all  we  see — on  sun  and  stars, 
flower  and  tree,  rock  and  mountain,  the  un- 
stable  waters  and  the  firm  land;  and  also 


on  what  we  do  not  see,  nor  shall  till  death 
has  removed  the  veil,  angels  and  spirits,  the 
city  and  heavens  of  the  eternal  world.  This 
is  no  matter  of  fancy.  It  is  a  fact.  It  is 
a  blessed  fact.  No  voice  ever  sounded  more 
distinctly  to  my  ear,  than  that  of  revealed 
truth,  proclaiming  Jesus,  Lord  of  all. — Thos. 
Guthrie. 

TRINITY,  Derivation  of.— The  word 
"  Trinity,"  in  its  Latin  form  Trinifas,  is  de- 
rived from  the  adjective  trinus,  "  threefold," 
or  "  three  in  one."  It  is  nowhere  employed 
in  Holy  Scripture,  but  was  a  term  invented 
and  used  as  early  as  the  second  century,  to 
express  the  doctrine  by  a  single  word,  for  the 
sake  of  brevity  and  convenience. — Bishop 
Hall. 

TRINITY,  Glory  to  the.— That  holy  man, 
St.  Francis,  of  Assisi,  found  appropriate  ex- 
pression of  the  ardent  devotions  of  his  soul 
in  the  constant  repetition  of  the  doxology 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and 
to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the  be- 
ginning, is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world 
without  end.  Amen."  He  recommended  the 
same  exercise  to  others,  who  found  it  very 
helpful  to  spirituality. — F.  II. 

TRINITY,  Incomprehensibility  of  the. 

— An  infidel  was  scofiing  at  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  He  turned  to  a  gentleman,  and 
said,  "Do  you  believe  such  nonsense?" 
"  Tell  me  how  that  candle  burns,"  said  the 
other.  "  Why  the  tallow,  the  cotton,  and 
the  atmospheric  air  produce  light."  said  the 
infidel.  "  Then  they  make  one  light,  do  they 
not?"  "Yes."  "Will  you  tell  me  how 
they  are  three,  and  yet  but  one  light?  "  "  No, 
I  cannot."  "  But  you  believe  it  ?  "  The 
scoffer  was  put  to  shame. — F.  II. 

TRINITY  IN  UNITY,  the.— The  light  of 
the  sun,  the  light  of  the  moon,  and  the  light 
of  the  air,  in  nature  and  substance  are  one 
and  the  same  light,  and  yet  they  are  three 
distinct  lights  :  the  light  of  the  sun  being  of 
itself,  and  from  none ;  the  light  of  the  moon 
from  the  sun  ;  and  the  light  of  the  air  from 
them  both.  So  the  Divine  Nature  is  one, 
and  the  persons  three ;  subsisting,  after  a  di- 
verse manner,  in  one  and  the  same  Nature. — 
R.  Newton. 

TRINITY,  Names  of.— The  two  principal 
names  which  are  applied  to  deity  in  the  Old 
Testament  are  Jehovah  and  God  (in  He- 
brew, Eloliini).  The  former  is  God's  proper 
name,  and  clearly  applies  ,to  the  divine 
essence.  This  name  is  always  singular,  and 
may  be  rendered,  "  He  who  exists."  The 
other  name,  Aleim  or  Elohim,  is  plural.  And 
the  question  occurs.  Why  is  the  name  Je- 
hovah, which  refers  to  His  essence,  always 
singular?  Plainly,  to  express  the  unity  of 
the  divine  essence.  Why  is  the  other,  Elo- 
him, plural?  As  clearly  to  denote  a  plurality 
of  persons  in  the  Godhead. — Field. 

TRINITY,  Symbol  of  the.— This  symbol, 
light,  is  composed  of  three  parts,  one  visible 
and  two  invisible ;  first,  illuminative  rays, 
which  affect  our  vision,  and  by  their  Fraun- 


TRINITY   SUNDAY 


315 


hofer  lines  bring  to  us  a  knowledge  of  the 
substance  of  the  suns  from  which  they 
spring ;  second,  chemical  rays,  which  cause 
growth,  and  give  the  results  of  photography ; 
and,  third,  the  principle  called  heat,  separate 
from  either.  So  is  God  revealed — three  per- 
sons in  one  God.  No  man  hath  seen  the 
Father,  or  the  Holy  Ghost :  but  the  Son  has 
been  seen  of  men.  Each  of  these  component 
parts  is  capable  of  separate  and  independent 
action.  Each  can  be  sundered  from  the 
other,  and  still  retain  its  full  efficiency.  The 
illuminative  rays  still  stream  with  their  in- 
credible swiftness,  still  bloom  with  incom- 
prehensible color,  and  still  bear  their  records 
of  other  worlds,  after  the  other  two  com- 
ponent parts  have  been  turned  to  other  work. 
There  could  be  no  other  so  happy  illustration 
of  the  incomprehensible  triune  nature  of 
God. — Dr.  H.  W.  Warren. 

TRINITY,  Understanding  the.— He  who 
goes  about  to  speak  of  the  mystery  of  the 
Trinity,  and  does  it  by  words,  and  names  of 
man's  invention,  talking  of  essence  and  ex- 
istence, hypostases  and  personalities,  priority 
in  co-equality,  and  unity  in  pluralities,  may 


amuse  himself  and  build  a  tabernacle  in  his 
head,  and  talk  something — he  knows  not 
what ;  but  the  renewed  man,  that  feels  the 
power  of  the  Father,  to  whom  the  Son  is 
become  wisdom,  sanctification,  and  redemp- 
tion, in  whose  heart  the  love  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  shed  abroad — this  man,  tho  he  un- 
derstand nothing  of  what  is  unintelligible, 
yet  he  alone  truly  understands  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity. — Jeremy  Taylor. 

TRINITY,    Unity  of  the.— A  converted 

Indian  gave  the  following  reason  for  his  be- 
lief in  the  Trinity :  "  We  go  down  to  the 
river  in  winter,  and  we  see  it  covered  with 
snow ;  we  dig  through  the  snow,  and  we  come 
to  the  ice;  we  chop  through  the  ice,  and  we 
come  to  the  water;  snow  is  water,  ice  is 
water,  water  is  water ;  therefore  the  three 
are  one." — F.  II. 

TRIUNE  GOD,  The.— Is  a  conception  for 
which  we  can  never  find  a  complete  illus- 
tration ;  but  it  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  every 
ray  of  sunlight  is  composed  of  three  kinds 
of  rays,  which  perform  three  distinct  kinds 
of  work:  the  heat-rays,  the  light-rays,  and 
the  actinic,  or  chemical  rays. — H.  R. 


POETRY 


To  a  Clover  Leaf 

By  Eliza  Atkins  Stone 

O  tiny  trinity  of  green, 

Thou  perfect  three-in-one ! 
Lowly  I   kneel   before  thy  shrine 

Wilt  hear  mine  orison? 

To-day  I   feel  a  kinship  near, 

With  all  things  secret,  shy; 
Too  close   about   my   spirit  draws 

The  myriad  mystery. 

The  sun  is  over  glorious. 

Awful  the  arch  of  sky, 
And  the  high  altars  of  the  earth 

Seem  not  for  such  as  I; 

But,  hushed  and  hidden  here  with  thee, 

The  wondrous  All  I  read. 
In  gentle  symbol  charactered. 

Accordant  to  my  need. — I. 


Ode  to  God 

By  Derzhavin 

O  Thou  eternal  One :    whose  presence  bright 
All  space  doth  occupy,  all  motion  guide ; 
Unchanged     through     time's     all-devastating 

flight ; 
Thou  only  God !     There  is  no  God  beside ! 
Being  above  all  beings!  Mighty  One! 
Whom  none  can  comprehend  and  none  ex- 
plore ; 
Who  fill'st  existence  with   Thyself  alone: 
Embracing    all — supporting — ruling    o'er — 
Being    whom   we    call    God — and   know    no 
more ! 


In  its  sublime  research  philosophy 

May  measure  out  the  ocean-deep — may  count 

The  sands  or  the  sun's  rays — but,  God  for 

Thee 
There  is  no  weight  nor  measure :  none  can 

mount 
Up  to  thy  mysteries.    Reason's  brightest  spark, 
Tho  kindled  by  Thy  light,  in  vain  would  try 
To  trace  Thy  counsels,  infinite  and  dark: 
And  thought  is  lost  ere  thought  can  soar  so 

high. 
Even  like  past  moments  in  eternity. 

Thou  from  primeval  nothingness  didst  call 

First  chaos,  then  existence :  Lord !  on  Thee 

Eternity  had  its  foundation;  all 

Sprung  forth  from  Thee — of  light,  joy,  har- 
mony. 

Sole  origin  :  all  life,  all  beauty  Thine. 

Thy  word  created  all,  and  doth  create; 

Thy  splendor  fills  all  space  with  rays  divine. 

Thou  art.  and  wert,  and  shalt  be !  Glorious ! 
Great ! 

Light-giving,  life-sustaining  Potentate ! 

Thy    chains    the    unmeasured    universe    sur- 
round. 
Upheld    by    Thee,    by    Thee    inspired    with 

breath ! 
Thou  the  beginning  with  the  end  hast  bound, 
And  beautifully  mingled  life  and  death  I 
As    sparks    mount    upward    from    the    fiery 

blaze. 
So  suns  are  born,  so  worlds  spring  forth  from 

Thee : 
And  as  the  spangles  in  the  sunny  rays 
Shine  round  the  silver  snow,  the  pageantry 
Of    heaven's    bright    army    glitters    in    Thy 
praise. 


3l6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


A  million  torches  lighted  by  Thy  hand 
Wander  unwearied  through  the  blue  abyss: 
They  own  Thy  power,  accomplish  Thy  com- 
mand, 
All  gay  with  life,  all  eloquent  with  bliss. 
What  shall  we  call  them?     Piles  of  crystal 

light— 
A  glorious  company  of  golden  streams — 
Lamps  of  celestial  ether  burning  bright — 
Suns    lighting    systems    with    their    joyous 

beams  ? 
But  Thou  to  these  art  as  the  noon  to  night. 

Yes !    as  a  drop  of  water  in  the  sea, 
All  this  magnificence  in  Thee  is  lost : 
What  are  ten  thousand  worlds  compared  to 

Thee? 
And    what    am    /    then?     Heaven's    unnum- 
bered host, 
Tho  multiplied  by  myriads,  and  arrayed 
In  all  the  glory  of  sublimest  thought, 
Is  but  an  atom  in  the  balance,  weighed 
Against  Thy  greatness,  is  a  cipher  brought 
Against     infinity!      O,     what    am    I     then? 
Naught ! 

Naught!  yet  the  effluence  of  Thy  light  di- 
vine, 
Pervading   worlds,   hath   reached   my  bosom 

too; 
Yes!  in  my  spirit  doth  Thy  spirit  shine, 
As  shines  the  sunbeam  in  a  drop  of  dew. 
Naught !  yet  I  live   and  on  hope's  pinions  fly 
Eager  towards  Thy  presence ;   for  in  Thee 
I  live,  and  breathe,  and  dwell ;   aspiring  high. 
Even  to  the  throne  of  Thy  divinity. 
I  am,  O  God !  and  surely  Thou  must  be ! 

Thou  art !   directing,  guiding  all.  Thou  art ! 
Direct  my  understanding,  then,  to  Thee ; 
Control  my  spirit,  guide  my  wandering  heart; 
Tho  but  an  atom  'midst  immensity. 
Still  I  am  something,  fashioned  by  Thy  hand ! 
I    hold    a    middle    rank    'twixt    heaven    and 

earth, 
On  the  last  verge  of  mortal  being  stand, 
Close  to  the  realms  where  angels  have  their 

birth. 
Just  on  the  boundaries  of  the  spirit-land! 

The  chain  of  being  is  complete  in  me; 
In  me  is  matter's  last  gradation  lost. 
And  the  next  step  is  spirit — Deity! 
I  can  command  the  lightning,  and  am  dust! 
A  monarch,  and  a  slave ;  a  worm,  a  god ! 
Whence  came   I   here?   and   how   so  marvel- 

ously 
Constructed   and   conceived?    unknown,   this 

clod 
Lives   surely  through    some   higher   energy; 
For  from  itself  alone  it  could  not  be! 

Creator,  yes!  Thy  wisdom  and  Thy  word 
Created  iiic!  Thou  source  of  life  and  good! 
Thou  spirit  of  my  spirit,  and  my  Lord! 
Thy  light.  Thy  love,  in  their  bright  plenitude 
Filled  me  with  an  immortal  soul,  to  spring 
Over  the  abyss  of  death,  and  bade  it  wear 
The  garments  of  eternal  day,  and  wing 
Its  heavenly  flight  beyond  this  little  sphere. 
Even    to    its    source — to    Thee — its    Author 
there. 


O  thoughts  ineffable !  O  visions  blest ! 

Tho  worthless  our  conceptions  all  of  Thee, 

Yet  shall  Thy  shadowed  image  fill  our  breast, 

And  waft  its  homage  to  Thy  Deity. 

God!    thus    alone    my    lonely    thoughts    can 

soar; 
Thus    seek    Thy   presence,    Being    wise    and 

good! 
'Midst  Thy  vast  works  admire,  obey,  adore; 
And  when  the  tongue  is  eloquent  no  more, 
The  soul  shall  speak  in  tears  of  gratitude. 

God's  Glory 

By  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 

Lord  of  all  being,  throned  afar. 
Thy  glory  flames  from  sun  and  star; 
Center  and  soul  of  every  sphere. 
Yet  to  each  loving  heart  how  near. 

Sun  of  our  life.  Thy  quickening  ray 
Sheds  on  our  path  the  glow  of  day; 
Star  of  our  hope.  Thy  softened  light 
Cheers  the  long  watches  of  the  night. 

Our  midnight  is  Thy  smile   withdrawn; 
Our  noontide  is  Thy  gracious  dawn ; 
Our  rainbow  arch  Thy  mercy's  sign ; 
All,  save  the  clouds  of  sin,  are  Thine. 

Lord  of  all   life,   below,   above. 

Whose  light  is  truth,  whose  warmth  is  love. 

Before   Thy   ever-blazing  throne 

We  ask  no  luster  of  our  own. 

Grant  us  Thy  truth  to  make  us  free. 
And  kindling  hearts  that  burn  for  Thee, 
Till   all   Thy   living  altars  claim 
One  holy  light,  one  heavenly  flame. 

Herein  is  Love 

By  Frederick  W.   Faber 

My  God,  how  wonderful  Thou  art. 

Thy  majesty  how  bright! 
How  glorious  is  Thy  mercy-seat. 

In  depths  of  burning  light  I 

How  dread  are  Thine  eternal  years, 

O  everlasting  Lord ! 
By  prostrate  spirits  day  and  night 

Incessantly  adored. 

Oh.  how  I  fear  Thee,  living  God, 
With  deepest,  tenderest  fears. 

And  worship  Thee  with  trembling  hope, 
And    penitential    tears. 

Yet  I  may  love  Thee  too,  O  Lord, 

Almighty  as  Thou  art. 
For  Thou  hast  stooped  to  ask  of  me 

The  love  of  my  poor  heart. 

No  earthly  father  loves  like  Thee, 

No  mother  half  so  mild 
Bears  and  forbears,  as  Thou  hast  done 

With  me.  Thy  sinful  shild. 

My  God,  how  wonderful  Thou  art, 

Thou  everlasting  Friend! 
On  Thee  I  stay  my  trusting  heart. 

Till  faith  in  vision  end. 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


317 


Eternal  Spirit! 
By  Rev.  William  H.  Bathurst 

Eternal  Spirit !  by  whose  power 

Are  burst  the  bands  of  death, 
On    our    cold   hearts    Thy    blessing    shower, 

Revive  them  with  Thy  breath. 

'Tis  Thine  to  point  the  heavenly  way, 

Each  rising  fear  control, 
And  with  a  warm,  enlivening  ray 

1  o  melt  the  icy  soul. 

'Tis  Thine  to  cheer  us  when  distressed, 

To  raise  us  when  we  fall ; 
To  calm  the  doubting,  troubled  breast, 

And  aid  when  sinners  call. 

'Tis  Thine  to  bring  God's   sacred  Word, 

And  write  it  on  our  heart ; 
There  its  reviving  truths  record, 

And  there  its  peace  impart. 

Almighty  Spirit!  visit  thus 
Our  hearts,  and  guide  our  ways; 

Pour  down  Thy  quickening  grace  on  us^ 
And  tune  our  lips  to  praise. 

Te  Deum  Laudamus 

By  Clarence  Augustus  Walv^torth 

Hark !    the  loud  celestial  hymn, 

Angel  choirs  above  are  raising: 
Cherubim  and  seraphim 

In  unceasing  chorus  praising. 
Fill  the  heav'ns  with  sweet  accord: 
Holy !    holy  !    holy  Lord  ! 

Lo !  the  apostolic  train 

Join  Thy  sacred  Name  to  hallow ! 
Prophets  swell  the  loud  refrain, 

And  the  white-robed  martyrs  follow; 
And  from  morn  till  set  of  sun, 
Through  the  Church  the  song  goes  on. 

Holy  Father,  Holy  Son, 

Holy  Spirit,  Three  we  name  Thee, 
While  in  essence  only  One, 

Undivided  God  we  claim  Thee ; 
And,  adoring,  bend  the  knee. 
While  we  own  the  mystery. 

Spare  Thy  people,  Lord,  we  pray. 
By  a  thousand  snares  surrounded; 

Keep  us  without  sin  to-day, 
Never  let  us  be  confounded. 

Lo !  I  put  my  trust  in  Thee, 

Never,  Lord,  abandon  me. 

Three  in  One 

By  Gilbert  Rorison 

Three  in  One,  and  One  in  Three, 
Ruler  of  the  earth  and  sea, 
Hear  us,  while  we  lift  to  Thee 
Holy  chant  and  psalm. 

Light  of  lights,  with  morning,  shine: 
Lift  on  us  Thy  light  divine; 
And   let    charity   benign 

Breathe  on  us  her  balm. 


Light  of  lights,  when  falls  the  even. 
Let  it  close  on  sin  forgiven ; 
Fold  us  in  the  peace  of  heaven, 
Shed  a  holy  calm. 

Three  in  One,  and  One  in  Three, 
Dimly  here  we  worship  Thee: 
With  the  saints  hereafter  we 
Hope  to  bear  the  palm. 

Thrice  Holy 
By  Christopher  Wordsworth 

Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord, 

God  of  Hosts,  eternal  King, 
By  the  heavens  and  earth  adored; 

Angels  and  Archangels  sing, 
Chanting  everlastingly, 

To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

Since  by  Thee  were  all  things  made. 
And  in  Thee  do  all  things  live. 

Be  to  Thee  all  honor  paid; 
Praise  to  Thee  let  all  things  give, 

Singing  everlastingly 
To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

Thousands,  tens  of  thousands,  stand. 
Spirits  blest,  before  the  throne. 

Speeding  thence  at  Thy  command. 
And,  when  Thy  commands  are  done. 

Singing  everlastingly 
To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

Cherubim  and  Seraphim 

Veil  their  faces  with  their  wings; 
Eyes  of  angels  are  too  dim 

To  behold  the  King  of  kings. 
While  they  sing  eternally 

To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

Thee  apostles,  prophets  Thee, 
Thee  the  noble  martyr  band. 

Praise  with  solemn  jubilee. 
Thee,  the  Church  in  every  land. 

Singing   everlastingly 
To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

Halleluiah!    Lord,  to  Thee, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost; 

Godhead  One,  and  Persons  Three; 
Join  with  us  the  heavenly  host. 

Singing   everlastingly 
To  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

The  Trinity  Adored 

By  Rev.  James  Wallis  Eastburn 

O  Floly,  holy,  holy  Lord, 

Bright   in  Thy  deeds  and   in  Thy  Name, 
For  ever  be  Thy  Name  adored, 

Thy  glories  let  the  world  proclaim. 

O  Jesus,  Lamb  once  crucified 
To  take  our  load  of  sins  away, 

Thine  be  the  hymn  that  rolls  its  tide 
Along  the  realms  of  upper  day. 

O  Holy  Spirit  from  above, 

In  streams  of  light  and  glory  given, 
Thou  source  of  ecstasy  and  love. 

Thy  praises  ring  through  earth  and  Heaven. 


3i8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


O  God  Triune,  to  Thee  we  owe 
Our  every  thought,  our  every  song; 

And  ever  may  Thy  praises  flow 
From  saint  and  seraph's  burning  tongue. 

Trinity  Hymn 

By  Edward  Cooper 

Father  of  heaven,  whose  love  profound 
A  ransom  for  our  souls  hath  found. 
Before  Thy  throne  we  sinners  bend: 
To  us  Thy  pardoning  love  extend. 

Almighty  Son,  incarnate  Word, 
Our  Prophet,  Priest,  Redeemer,  Lord, 
Before  Thy  throne  we  sinners  bend : 
To  us  Thy  saving  grace  extend. 

Eternal  Spirit,  by  whose  breath 
The  soul  is  raised  from  sin  and  death. 
Before  Thy  throne  we  sinners  bend : 
To  us  Thy  quickening  power  extend. 

Jehovah, — Father,  Spirit,  Son, — 
Mysterious  Godhead,  Three  in  One, 
Before  Thy  throne  we  sinners  bend: 
Grace,  pardon,  life,  to  us  extend. 

Analogies    of   the    Trinity 

By  Martin  F.  Tupper 

There  be  three  grand  principles — life,  genera- 
tion, and  obedience — 
Shadowing,  in  every  creature,  the  Spirit,  and 

the  Father,  and  the  Son. 
There    be    three     grand    unities,     variously 

mixed  in  trinities, 
The  rose,  and  the  ruby,  and  the  pearl;  each 

one  is  made  of  three ; 
And  the  three  be  the  like  ingredients,  min- 
gled in  diverse  measures. 
Thyself   hast   within   thyself  body,   and  life, 

and  mind; 
Matter,  and  breath,  and  instinct,  unite  in  all 

beasts  of  the  field; 
Substance,    coherence,    and    weight,    fashion 

the  fabrics  of  the  earth ; 
The  will,  the  doing,  and  the  deed,  combine 

to  frame  a  fact : 
The  stem,  the  leaf,  and  the  flower ;  beginning, 

middle,  and  end ; 
Cause,  circumstance,  consequent;  and  every 

three  is  one. 
Yea,  the  very  breath  of  man's  life  consisteth 

of  a  trinity  of  vapors. 
And  the  noonday  light  is  a  compound,  the 

triune  shadow  of  Jehovah. 

Hymn  to  the  Trinity 

By  William  Croswell  Doane 

O  Holy  Father,  who  hast  led  Thy  children 

In  all  the  ages,  with  the  fire  and  cloud, 
Through     seas     dry-shod;     through     weary 
wastes  bewildering; 
To  Thee,  in  reverent  love,  our  hearts  are 
bowed. 

O  Holy  Jesus,  Prince  of  Peace,  and  Savior, 
To  Thee  we  owe  the  peace  that  still  pre- 
vails, 


Stilling  the  rude  wills  of  men's  wild  behavior, 
And  calming  passion's  fierce  and   stormy 
gales. 

O  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  the  Life  Giver, 

Thine  is  the  quickening  power  that  gives 

increase. 

From  Thee  have  flowed,  as  from  a  pleasant 

river, 

Our  plenty,   wealth,  prosperity  and  peace. 

O  Triune  God,  with  heart  and  voice  adoring. 
Praise  we  the  goodness  that  has  crowned 
our  day; 
Pray  we,  that  Thou  wilt  hear  us,  still  im- 
ploring 
Thy  love  and  favor,  kept  for  us  alway. 

Blest  Trinity 
By  Hervey  Doddridge  Ganse 

Eternal  Father,  when  to  Thee, 

Beyond  all  worlds,  by  faith  I  soar. 

Before  Thy  boundless  majesty 
I  stand  in  silence,  and  adore. 

But,  Savior,  Thou  art  by  my  side : 
Thy  voice  I  hear,  Thy  face  I  see, 

Thou  art  my  friend,  my  daily  guide; 
God  over  all,  yet  God  with  me. 

And  Thou,  Great  Spirit,  in  my  heart 
Dost  make  Thy  temple  day  by  day: 

The  Holy  Ghost  of  God  Thou  art. 
Yet  dwellest  in  this  house  of  clay. 

Blest  Trinity,  in  whom  alone 
All  things  created  move  or  rest. 

High  in  the  heavens  Thou  hast  Thy  throne, 
Thou  hast  Thy  throne  within  my  breast. 

Trinity   Sunday 

By  John  Keble 

//  /  have  told  you  earthly  things,  and  ye 
believe  not,  hozv  shall  ye  believe,  if  I  tell  you 
of  heavenly  things? — 5"^.  John  Hi:  12. 

Creator,    Savior,   strengthening  Guide, 
Now  on   Thy  mercy's  ocean  wide 
Far  out  of  sight  we  seem  to  glide. 

Help  us,  each  hour,  with  steadier  eye 
To   search   the   deepening   mystery. 
The  wonders  of  Thy  sea  and  sky. 

The  blessed  angels  look  and  long 
To  praise  Thee  with  a  worthier  song, 
And  yet  our  silence  does  Thee  wrong. 

Along  the  Church's  central  space 
The  sacred  weeks  with  unfelt  pace 
Have  borne  us  on  from  grace  to  grace. 

As  travelers  on  some  woodland  height, 
When  wintry  suns  are  gleaming  bright. 
Lose   in   arched   glades   their   tangled   sight; 

By  glimpses  such  as  dreamers  love 
Through  her  gray  veil  the  leafless  grove 
Shows  where  the  distant  shadows  rove; 


TRINITY  SUNDAY 


319 


Such  trembling  joy  the  soul  o'erawes 
As  nearer  to  Thy  shrine  she  draws; 
And  now  before  the  choir  we  pause. 

The  door  is  closed — but  soft  and  deep 
Around  the  awful  arches  sweep 
Such  airs  as  soothe  a  hermit's  sleep. 

Frorn  each  carved  nook  and  fretted  bend 

Cornice  and  gallery  seem  to  send 

Tones  that  with  seraph  hymns  might  blend. 

Three  solemn  parts  together  twine 

In  harmony's  mysterious  line ; 

Three  solemn  aisles  approach  the  shrine: 

Yet  all  are  One — together  all, 

In  thoughts  that  awe  but  not  appal 

Teach  the  adoring  heart  to  fall. 

Within  these  walls  each  fluttering  guest 
Is  gently  lured  to  one  safe  nest — 
Without,  'tis  moaning  and  unrest. 

The  busy  world  a  thousand  ways 
Is  hurrying  by,  nor  ever  stays 
To  catch  a  note  of  Thy  dear  praise. 

Why  tarries  not  her  chariot  wheel, 
That  o'er  her  with  no  vain  appeal 
One  gust  of  heavenly  song  might  steal  ? 

Alas  !  for  her  Thy  opening  flowers 
Unheeded  breathe  to  summer  showers, 
Unheard  the  music  of  Thy  bowers. 

What  echoes  from  the  sacred  dome 
The  selfish  spirit  may  o'ercome 
That  will  not  hear  of  love  or  home? 

The  heart  that  scorned  a  father's  care, 
How  can  it  rise  in  filial  prayer? 
How  an  all-seeing  Guardian  bear? 

Or  how  shall  envious  brethren  own 
A  Brother  on  the  eternal  throne, 
Their  Father's  joy,  their  hope  alone? 

How  shall  Thy  Spirit's  gracious  wile 
The  sullen  brow  of  gloom  beguile, 
That  frowns  on  sweet  affection's  smile? 

Eternal  One,  Almighty  Trine! 

(Since  Thou  art  ours,  and  we  are  Thine) 

By  all  Thy  love  did  once  resign, 

By  all  the  grace  Thy  heavens  still  hide. 
We  pray  Thee,  keep  us  at  Thy  side. 
Creator,    Savior,   strengthening   Guide ! 

The  Blessed  Trinity 

By  Reginald  Heber 

Holy,  holy,  holy!    Lord  God  Almighty; 
Early  in  the  morning  our  song  shall  rise  to 

Thee, 
Holy,  holy,  holy,  merciful  and  mighty ; 
God  in  three  persons,  blessed  Trinity. 

Holy,  holy,  holy !  all  the  saints  adore  Thee, 
Casting  down  their  golden  crowns  around  the 

glassy  sea. 
Cherubim  and  seraphim  falling  down  before 

Thee, 
Which  wert,  and  art,  and  evermore  shalt  be. 


Holy,  holy,  holy !  tho  the  darkness  hide  Thee, 
Tho  the  eye  of  sinful  man  Thy  glory  may 

not  see. 
Only   Thou   art   holy;   there   is  none  beside 

Thee 
Perfect  in  power,  in  love,  and  purity. 

Holy,  holy,  holy !  Lord  God  Almighty ; 

All    Thy   works   shall   praise   Thy   name,   in 

earth  and  sky  and  sea : 
Holy,  holy,  holy,  merciful  and  mighty ; 
God  in  three  persons,  blessed  Trinity.    Amen. 

Trisagion. 

By  James  Montgomery 

Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord 

God   of   hosts !    When   heaven   and   earth 
Out  of  darkness,  at  Thy  word, 

Issued  into  glorious  birth. 
All  Thy  works  before  Thee  stood, 
And  Thine  eye  beheld  them  good. 
While  they  sang  with  sweet  accord. 
Holy,    holy,    holy    Lord! 

Holy,  holy,  holy !  Thee, 

One  Jehovah  evermore. 
Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  we, 

Dust  and  ashes,  would  adore; 
Lightly  by  the  world  esteemed, 
From  that  world  by  Thee  redeemed. 
Sing  we  here,  with  glad  accord, 
Holy,    holy,    holy    Lord ! 

Holy,  holy,  holy !  All 

Heaven's  triumphant  choir  shall  sing, 
When  the  ransomed  nations  fall 

At  the  footstool  of  their  King: 
Then  shall  saints  and  seraphim, 
Hearts  and  voices,  swell  one  hymn, 
Round  the  throne  with  full  accord, 
Holy,    holy,    holy    Lord! 

The  Triune  God 

By  Horatius  Bonar 

Glory  be  to  God  the  Father, 

Glory  be  to  God  the  Son, 
Glory  be  to  God  the  Spirit, 

Great  Jehovah,  Three  in  One : 
Glory,  glory, 

While  eternal  ages  run ! 

Glory  be  to  Him  who  loved  us, 
Washed  us  from  each  spot  and  stain; 

Glory  be  to  Him  who  bought  us. 
Made  us  kings  with  Him  to  reign: 

Glory,  glory. 
To  the  Lamb  that  once  was  slain ! 

Glory  to  the  King  of  angels. 

Glory  to  the  Church's  King, 
Glory  to  the  King  of  nations, 

Heaven  and  earth,  your  praises  bring: 
Glory,  glory. 

To  the  King  of  glory  bring ! 

Glory,  blessing,  praise  eternal ! 

Thus  the  choir  of  angels  sings; 
Honor,  riches,  power,  dominion ! 

Thus  its  praise  creation  brings . 
Glory,  glory, 

Glory  to  the  King  of  kings ! 


320 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 

(November) 

ALL  SAINTS'  DAY  is  a  holy  day  of  the  Greek,  Romish,  Anglican,  and  Episco- 
pal churches.  Chrysostom  tells  us  that  as  early  as  the  fourth  century,  a 
festival  was  celebrated  by  the  Eastern  Church  in  honor  of  all  the  saints  on  the 
Sunday  after  Whitsuntide,  and  called  All  Saints'  Sunday.  It  is,  however,  as  late 
as  the  seventh  century  before  such  a  day  was  observed  in  the  Western  Church. 

Pope  Boniface  IV.  having  obtained  possession  of  the  pantheon  at  Rome,  fitted 
it  for  Christian  worship,  dedicated  it  to  the  Virgin  and  all  the  saints,  and  its 
day  of  dedication,  May  13,  was  annually  celebrated  for  all  the  saints.  Later  Pope 
Gregory  III.  dedicated  a  church  to  the  honor  of  all  the  saints,  on  November  i,  and, 
in  the  ninth  century,  the  Anglican  and  Prankish  Churches  having  been  induced  to 
introduce  an  all-saints'  festival  on  November  i,  this  date  became  generally  accepted. 
The  day  was  popularly  called  All  Hallow's  Day,  whence  it  became  the  custom  to 
call  the  evening  before  All-hallow  e'en,  and  in  Scotland  and  Ireland  certain 
sports  and  festivities,  said  to  be  relics  of  Druidism,  were  indulged  in. 

In  the  Anglican  Church  All  Saints'  Day  is  still  observed;  in  most  other 
Reformed  churches  it  has  fallen  into  disuse. 

On  the  supreme  idea  of  this  day,  the  life  of  the  blessed  in  Paradise,  Bishop 
Webb  says :  "  We  may  think  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  as  having  con- 
sciousness about  themselves  and  about  each  other,  and  as  being  able  to  recognize 
each  other,  and  as  having  a  condition  of  identity,  which  some  sort  of  blessed  bright 
form  will  give  them.  Search  the  Scriptures  yourselves.  Take  every  passage 
which  discloses  the  individuality  of  those  who  have  gone  into  the  invisible  world ; 
you  will  scarcely  be  able,  it  seems  to  me,  to  come  to  any  other  conclusion.  There 
will  also  be,  amongst  other  marks  of  life  and  consciousness,  Memory.  You  know 
what  Abraham  said  to  one,  '  Son,  remember ! '  Look  back  upon  thy  life.  Think 
of  what  you  did  with  the  means  God  gave  you.  Think  of  those  who  were  so 
close  to  you,  at  your  very  gate.  .  .  .  There  will  be,  then,  this  great  bond  and 
link  between  one  part  of  our  life  and  another,  which  seems  almost  indispensable 
to  our  individuality  and  to  our  consciousness,  the  wonderful  prerogative  of 
Memory.  Together  with  this  there  will  be  a  progress,  a  growth,  in  knowledge, 
in  holiness.  St.  Paul  learned  in  Paradise  what  he  did  not  know  before,  here  on 
earth ;  and  shall  not  we  learn  the  power  and  meaning  of  truths  to  which  we  have 
not  yet  attained  ?  Shall  not  God  reveal  to  us,  in  Paradise,  the  truths  which  some 
holy  men  clearly  see  already,  but  whereunto  we  ourselves  cannot  honestly  say 
that  we  have  attained  ?     '  God  shall  reveal  even  this  unto  you.' " 


THE  GLORIES  OF  IMMORTALITY 

By    Alexander    Carson 


With  respect  to  the  nature  of  the  glory  of 
the  Heaven  of  heavens,  the  Scriptures  do  not 
appear  to  afford  much  precise  and  specific 
information.      It    would    appear    in    general, 


from  the  Book  of  Revelation,  that  the  chief 
employments  and  happiness  of  the  saints  con- 
sist in  the  praises  of  their  ever-blessed  Re- 
deemer.    On  earth,  tho  they  have  not  seen 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


321 


Ilim,  they  love  Him  above  all  things.  But 
in  Heaven  their  happiness  is  perfect  in  the 
perfect  love  of  Him. 

The  representation  of  the  new  Jerusalem 
is  evidently  figurative,  and  therefore  we  are 
not  warranted  10  say  that  any  of  the  specific 
object-  mentioned  in  this  description  actually 
exist.  We  ought  not  to  conceive  Heaven  as 
being  really  a  city,  with  such  walls,  gates, 
pavements,  etc.  This  representation  has  no 
doubt  an  important  meaning.  Put  this  im- 
portance would  be  infinitely  diminished  by 
suppo.-ing  that  it  is  a  literal  description.  A 
city  thus  built  would  be  the  most  glorious 
that  the  imagination  could  conceive,  to  be 
made  of  earthly  materials,  but  it  is  a  faint 
figure  of  the  glory  of  the  true  Heaven. 

Some  have  thought  that  the  risen  body  will 
not  possess  any  powers  of  sensation.  With 
respect  to  sight  and  hearing  this  is  mani- 
festly false.  How  much  of  the  pleasure  of 
the  heavenly  inhabitants  consists  in  the  sweet 
and  loved  songs  of  praise  to  God  and  the 
Lamb !  And  for  what  is  all  the  glory  of 
heaven,  if  not  to  gratify  the  eye?  Light  is 
the  most  glorious  object  on  earth,  and  the 
enjoyment  of  the  light  of  Heaven  appears  to 
be  among  the  most  eminent  felicities. 

The  angels  of  Heaven  are  called  angels 
of  light — as  di.^tinguished  from  the  angels 
that  kept  not  their  first  love,  who  are  re- 
served in  chains  of  everlasting  darkness  to 
the  judgment  of  the  great  day.  Now,  it  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  former  are  so  called 
from  the  light  in  which  they  dwell,  rather 
than  from  their  knowledge,  or  from  the  na- 
ture of  their  works,  as  Macknight  under- 
stands the  passage.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
point  out  a  distinguishing  ignorance  in  the 
fallen  spirits,  and  angels  of  light  would  be  a 
very  indefinite  and  distant  expression  to  de- 
note that  they  are  continually  employed  in 
promoting  truth  and  virtue.  Believers  may 
be  distinguished  from  the  children  of  this 
v/orld,  as  the  children  of  light,  because  they 
are  enlightened  in  that  great  truth  of  which 
the  others  are  ignorant. 

God  is  also  said  to  dwell  in  light — "  who 
only  hath  immortality,  dwelling  in  the  light 
which  no  man  can  approach  unto ;  whom  no 
man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see."  This  light  is 
so  exceedingly  glorious  that  no  man  in  his 
present  state  can  approach  it.  But  the  time 
will  come  when  even  the  eyes  of  the  saints 
will  be  able  to  bear  that  light,  for  "  they  shall 
see  God."  "  Flesh  and  blood  shall  not  in- 
herit the  kingdom  of  God,"  but  the  glorious 
spiritual  bodies  of  the  saints  will  enjoy  it. 
What  must  be  the  brilliancy  of  the  light  of 
Heaven  when  a  glance  of  it  now  overpow- 
ers any  of  the  human  race?  "At  midday, 
O  king,  I  saw  in  the  way  a  light  from 
Heaven  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun, 
shining  round  about  me  and  them  which 
journeyed  with  me.  And  when  we  were  all 
fallen  to  the  earth,"  etc.  "  And  when  I  could 
not  see  for  the  glory  of  that  light,  being  led 


by   the   hand  of  them  that   were   with   me," 
etc. 

Some  have  stipposed  that  God  will  never 
be  visible  and  that  the  promise  that  we  shall 
see  God  means  only  that  we  shall  see  the 
light  in  which  He  dwells.  It  is  dangerous 
to  advance  too  far  on  such  a  subject.  But  I 
am  not  willing  even  here  to  limit  Scripture 
language  by  vieWs  of  possibility.  That  one 
spirit  may  have  a  perception  of  another  cor- 
responding to  what  we  call  visible  is  surely 
not  only  possible  but  certain.  If  so,  why  may 
not  our  spirits  have  such  a  perception  of 
God?  And  that  it  i^  impossible  for  the 
glorified  eye  of  the  saint  to  have  a  percep- 
tion of  God  is  more  than  I  will  say.  Let  it 
suffice  us  that  "  we  shall  see  God."  Let  us 
leave  the  manner  of  this  to  Himself.  "  Take 
heed,"  says  Christ,  "  that  ye  despise  not  one 
of  these  little  ones ;  for  I  ray  unto  you  that 
in  heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the 
face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  And 
if  angels  behold  the  face  of  God,  it  will  not 
be  impossible  for  us.  To  behold  His  tace 
must  imply  to  view  Him  in  His  glory;  we 
need  not,  therefore,  confound  ourselves  by 
any  subtle  inquiries  about  the  way  of  seeing 
a  spirit.  God  is  everywhere :  it  is  possible 
to  make  us  sensible  of  His  presence,  what- 
ever part  of  space  we  may  at  any  time  oc- 
cupy. This  is  an  unfathomable  subject,  but 
tho  it  represses  arrogant  inquiries  beyond 
what  is  written,  it  opens  up  a  boundless 
field  of  expectation  of  our  future  state.  Hav- 
ing such  a  God  as  a  Father,  what  may  we 
not  expect? 

The  reward  of  the  saints  is  frequently 
exhibited  with  very  animating  efifect,  under 
the  figure  of  the  crowns  of  the  victors  in 
the  Grecian  games,  and  of  the  conquerors 
who  obtain  a  triumph  on  their  return  to 
their  country.  In  these  games  the  greatest 
men  of  the  times  entered  as  competitors  for 
the  glory  of  victory,  and  even  kings  thought 
themselves  honored  by  obtaining  the  prize. 
The  victor  was  rewarded  with  a  crown  of 
leaves,  and  was  received  with  unbounded 
honor  by  the  vast  multitudes  assembled  from 
all  parts  of  Greece.  Now,  after  all  the  self- 
denial  of  their  former  lives  and  unwearied 
diligence  in  preparatory  exercises ;  after  all 
the  toils,  dangers,  and  suflferings  in  the  ar- 
duous struggle,  they  thought  this  crown  of 
leaves  a  high  recompense.  It  raised  them 
upon  a  pinnacle  of  glory,  to  be  viewed  with 
admiration  by  all  countries.  Yet,  as  the 
apostle  says  .they  had  in  prospect  only  a 
corruptible  crown ;  we  have  in  our  view  an 
incorruptible  crown.  Their  crown  was  the 
greatest  the  world  could  bestow,  but  it 
was  fading,  and  is  already  withered  many  a 
hundred  years.  The  crown  of  the  Christian 
flourishes  on  his  head  with  unfading  fresh- 
ness, and  will  bloom  through  eternity.  Its 
glory  will  be  witnessed  not  by  the  people  only 
of  one  age,  but  by  all  the  principalities  in 
Heaven.— W.  B.  O. 


322 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

PRECIOUS  DEATH 
By  a.  C.  Dixon,  D.D. 

Precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  his  saints. — Ps.  cxvi:  1$ 


As  we  see  death,  it  means  decay,  removal, 
absence.  These  are  things  which  we  do  not 
prize.  They  are  the  "  present  affliction," 
which  is  "  always  grievous."  But  as  God 
sees  death,  He  beholds  something  really  pre- 
cious to  Him  and,  we  may  justly  infer,  pre- 
cious to  us,  for  whatever  is  against  us  can- 
not be  precious  to  our  Father. 

We  are  looking  at  the  wrong  side  of  the 
tapestry,  where  all  is  tangle  and  confusion. 
God  sees  the  right  side,  where  the  design  is 
intelligent  and  the  colors  harmonious.  We 
look  at  the  back  of  the  canvas ;  God  alone 
sees  the  painting  wrought  by  a  master  hand. 
We  are  without  the  veil,  and  see  but  the 
dim  light  through  the  curtain ;  within  is  the 
shechinah  glory.  We  stand  in  the  dark,  be- 
lieving and  hoping;  God  is  in  the  light,  see- 
ing and  knowing. 

It  may  be  of  profit  to  us  to  inquire,  Why 
is  the  death  of  a  saint  precious  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord? 

I.  Because  to  God  death  means  the  oppor- 
tunity to  supply  every  need  of  His  child. 
Health  means  conscious  strength.  While  we 
are  well,  we  may  feel  that  we  are  equal  to 
taking  care  of  ourselves.  Dying  means  ab- 
solute helplessness.  Such  is  God's  oppor- 
tunity. When  physicians  give  up  the  case. 
He  takes  it  up.  After  human  help  has  failed, 
the  Lord  delights  to  be  to  us  all  that  we 
need.  When  loving  words  fail  to  comfort, 
"  His  rod  and  his  staff,  they  comfort."  His 
voice  in  the  dark  is  music  to  our  souls. 
When  we  are  too  weak  to  speak  to  Him  in 
prayer.  He  speaks  to  us  in  promise.  Our 
weakness  in  the  dying  moment  is  precious 
to  God,  for  it  gives  Him  the  opportunity  of 
doing  all  for  us. 

II.  To  God  death  means  the  most  intimate 
communion.  He  rejoices  to  have  all  to  Him- 
self those  whom  He  loves.  He  said  of  Israel, 
"  I  will  allure  her  and  bring  her  into  the 
wilderness,  and  speak  comfortably  unto  her." 
No  one  else  can  help  us  die.  Through  the 
valley  we  must  go  alone — yet  not  alone,  for 
Jesus  accompanies.  For  once  He  has  us  all 
to  Himself.  While  living,  we  may  have  ex- 
periences that  isolate  us  from  others :  sor- 
rows or  joys  which  no  one  upon  earth  can 
appreciate.  Only  He  can  enter  into  them 
with  us.  At  such  times  God  delights  to  be 
alone  with  His  people.  He  makes  the  wil- 
derness a  garden  and  the  desert  place  a 
fountain  of  living  water.  Those  of  us  who 
have  experienced  something  of  this  kind  may 
dimly  imagine  the  more  blessed  experience 
when,  in  the  hour  of  death,  the  Christian  has 
God  all  to  himself,   and  the  joy   which  he 


feels  is  but  a  tithe  of  the  joy  which  the  Lord 
Himself  must  derive  from  such  intimate 
communion  with  His  children. 

III.  To  God  death  means  rest.  Jesus 
said,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest."  It  was  His  delight  to 
quiet  the  heart  and  give  rest  to  the  weary 
mind.  The  voice  from  heaven  said,  "  Blessed 
are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord ;  they  rest 
from  their  labors."  "  There  remaineth  a  rest 
to  the  people  of  God."  To  us  death  looks 
like  a  rest  of  the  body — the  lifeless  form  no 
longer  suffers ;  it  sleeps  until  the  waking  on 
the  resurrection  morning.  God  sees  the  rest 
of  soul,  and  the  event  which  introduces  His 
children  into  this  restful  state  is  precious  to 
Him. 

IV.  To  God  death  means  larger  life. 
Christ  came  to  give  life,  and  to  give  it 
more  abundantly.  Whatever  imparts  and  in- 
creases the  life  of  God's  people  is  of  great 
value.  While  to  us  death  seems  to  be  the 
cessation  of  life,  to  God  it  is  an  increase  of 
life. 

"  Death  is  the  crown  of  life. 
Were  death  denied,  poor  man  would  live  in 

vain ; 
Were  death  denied,  to  live  would  not  be  life  ; 
Were  death  denied,  even  fools  would  wish 

to  die."' 

To  us  death  is  contraction.  As  we  grow 
older  memory  fails,  sight  fails,  hearing  fails, 
strength  fails.  Our  world  narrows,  and  to 
the  eye  of  sense  death  is  the  climax  of  suc- 
cessive failures.  It  is  the  final  contraction 
into  the  narrow  grave.  Paul  looked  through 
God's  eyes  when  he  wrote,  "  The  time  of  my 
departure  is  at  hand."  The  word  "  depar- 
ture "  is  a  nautical  term,  which  means  lifting 
anchor  and  sailing  out  into  the  broad  sea. 
Death  is  enlargement  of  life  and  opportunity. 
The  last  words  of  Drummohd  Burns  were, 
"  I  have  been  dying  for  years,  now  I  shall 
begin  to  live."  It  is  passing  from  the  land 
of  the  dying  into  the  land  of  the  living. 

"  Death  is  another  life.     We  bow  our  heads 
At  going  out,  we  think ;  and  enter  straight 
Another  golden  chamber  of  the  King's 
Larger  than  this  we  leave,  and  lovelier." 

V.  To  God  death  means  joy.  All  through 
the  Bible  we  are  exhorted  to  "  Rejoice,  re- 
joice evermore!  "  The  joy  of  His  children  is 
precious  to  God. 

We  are  apt  to  fear  dying  more  than  death. 
What   death   will   bring   we   anticipate   with 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


323 


pleasure,  while  we  shrink  from  the  pain  and 
mystery  of  the  dying  moment;  and  yet  even 
in  this  many  are  agreeably  disappointed.  Dy- 
ing may  be  rapture. 

Dying,  Rutherford  exclaimed :  "  I  feed  on 
manna ;  oh,  for  arms  to  embrace  Him !  " 

President  Wingate,  of  Wake  Forest  Col- 
lege, whispered  to  his  wife  with  his  last 
breath,  "  I  thought  it  would  be  sweet,  but 
I  did  not  think  it  would  be  so  sweet  as 
this." 

But  however  great  the  joy  of  dying,  the 
joy  of  death  is  greater,  for 

"  It    is    the    key 
That  opens  the  palace  of  eternity." 

It  is  passing  from  shadow  into  sunshine ; 
from  the  discords  of  earth  into  the  music 
of  the  celestial  harps ;  from  contraction  into 
everlasting  expansion. 

Oh,  the  joy  of  meeting  and  greeting! 
Death  is  still  a  gathering  unto  our  people. 
To  know  that  Christ  is  with  us  thrills  our 
hearts.  To  behold  Him  as  He  is  and  be 
like  Him  will  give  such  rapture  that  mortal 
frame  could  not  endure  it.  Hope  has  its  joy; 
hope  realized  will  be  ecstasy.  If  the  joys  of 
anticipation  are  so  great,  what  will  be  the 
joys  of  realization?  Pope's  picture  of  the 
dying  Christian  is  not  overdrawn,  and  marks 
with  vivid  outlines  the  transition  between 
earth  and  heaven : 


"Hark!  they  whisper;  ansfels  say, 

'  Sister  spirit,  come  away !  ' 
What  is  this  absorbs  me  quite, 
Steals  my  senses,   shuts  my  sight. 
Drowns  my  spirit,   draws  my  breath? 
Tell  me,  my  soul,  can  this  be  death? 

"  The  world  recedes,   it  disappears  I 
Heaven  opens  on  my  eyes !  my  ears 

With  sounds  seraphic  ring: 
Lend,  lend  your  wings  !  I  mount !  I  fly  ! 
O  grave !   where  is  thy  victory  ? 

O  death!  where  is  thy  sting?" 

VI.  To  God  death  means  ministry  to  the 
living.  Death  is  a  dusky  servant  of  the  King. 
Through  death  Jesus  entered  the  family  of 
the  Jewish  ruler,  and  the  death  of  our  friends 
often  leads  us  to  invite  this  Man  of  Sorrows 
to  our  homes.  The  departure  of  loved  ones 
opens  a  window  of  heaven,  and  gives  us  a 
glimpse  into  the  beyond ;  and  in  leaving  us, 
they,  in  a  very  true  sense,  come  to  us.  We 
appreciate  them  as  we  never  did  before ; 
we  see  their  virtues  and  forget  their  faults ; 
they  are  to  us  transfigured,  while  everything 
about  them  shines  with  a  peculiar  glory. 
The  most  precious  treasures  in  every  family 
are  its  deaths.  Like  angels,  they  come  to  us 
daily  from  the  past,  making  us  more 
heavenly-minded,  and  we  look  for  our  loved 
ones  toward  the  future,  for  "  them  that  sleep 
in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him." — H.  R. 


RECOGNITION  OF  OUR  FRIENDS  IN  HEAVEN 


By  J.  W.  Chapman,  D.D. 

Then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known. — i  Cor.  xiii:  iz 


It  would  seem  to  us,  if  this  were  the  first 
time  we  had  ever  listened  to  these  words, 
as  if  they  would  answer  the  question  which 
has  been  in  our  minds  all  the  days  of  our 
lives ;  the  question  which  we  have  so  often 
asked  each  other :  Shall  we  know  each  other 
there?  Said  an  old  saint  to  her  husband, 
who  for  threescore  years  and  ten  had  jour- 
neyed by  her  side :  "  Do  you  suppose  we 
shall  know  each  other  when  we  meet  on  the 
other  shore?"  And  the  old  man  who  had 
been  seventy  years  by  her  side,  and  more 
than  that  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  answered 
her  in  these  words :  "  I  am  very  sure  I  shall 
not  know  less  in  the  next  world  than  this, 
and  I  am  sure  we  shall  know  each  other  in 
the  better  land." 

I  am  sure  that  in  this  world  we  do  not 
know  each  other.  You  do  not  know  your 
own  child.  Every  day  as  you  look  into  her 
face,  and  as  you  study  the  little  life,  you 
find  that  there  is  more  in  it  than  you  ever 
imagined.  The  Word  of  God  makes  this 
plain  to  us,  for  we  are  told  that  "  now  we 
see  as  through  a  glass  dimly.'"  We  behold 
only  the  shadow  of  ourselves  and  our  friends. 
Then  we  are  told  just  in  the  next  verse,  of 
the  time  to  come  "  we  shall  see  face  to  face," 
and  more  than  that,  we  are  told  "  we  shall 


know  even  as  also  we  are  known."  It  is  a 
wondrous  question.  Shall  we  know  each 
other  on  the  other  shore?  There  are  very 
few  of  us  but  what  have  at  some  time  jour- 
neyed to  a  tomb.  As  I  look  around  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left  I  can  see  many  a 
one  wearing  the  evidence  of  mourning,  and 
so  as  this  question  comes  to  us  to-night,  every 
heart  almost  seems  to  throb  right  in  it.  It 
makes  the  lips  tremble,  it  moves  the  heart, 
and  the  face  is  flushed  and  then  grows  pale; 
and  we  put  the  question  to  each  other,  then 
breathlessly  listen  for  the  answer.  How 
many  times  we  have  heard  it  said,  "  I  wonder 
if  it  is  true  that  we  shall  know  each  other 
in  the  better  land?  "  I  have  had  so  many  let- 
ters during  the  course  of  my  ministry  asking 
me  to  preach  concerning  this  subject,  that  I 
want  to  answer  the  question  in  a  satisfactory 
manner,  to  myself  at  least. 

How  much  more  Heaven  would  seem  to  be 
to  us  if  we  could  only  answer  the  question 
in  the  affirmative.  In  the  East  we  are  told 
that  when  a  friend  dies  and  is  buried,  they 
bring  to  the  grave  a  cage  of  birds  (always 
singing  birds),  and  there  they  open  the  cage, 
and  just  as  the  coffin  is  being  lowered  into 
the  tomb,  the  birds  come  out  singing  as  they 
go.    There  has  never  been  a  Christian  buried 


324 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


but  what  the  birds  of  Paradise  have  been 
singing  their  sweetest  songs  about  us,  sweeter 
than  any  birds  of  earth,  altho  we  are  told 
that  the  nightingale  is  the  very  queen  of 
birds,  and  its  song  is  as  the  very  music  of 
Heaven. 

Can  you  tell  me  what  Heaven  is?  It  may 
be  ?aid  it  is  a  place  not  made  with  hands ;  a 
city  the  census  of  which  has  never  been  re- 
corded ;  a  city  through  whose  streets  no  rush 
of  toil  or  travel  is  heard ;  a  city  without 
griefs  or  graves,  marriages  or  mournings, 
without  sorrows  or  sins:  a  city  whose  glory 
is  that  it  has  Jesus  for  a  King,  the  angels  for 
its  guards,  and  the  saints  of  God  for  its  in- 
habitants ;  a  city  whose  walls  are  salvation 
and  whose  gates  are  praise.  This  is  true, 
and  yet  this  does  not  satisfy  you,  and  I  am 
sure  that  it  does  not  satisfy  me.  We  are 
told  that  Heaven  is  a  place  where  all  the 
fulness  of  glory  dwells.  Can  you  give  me 
a  definition  of  what  the  glory  of  Heaven  is? 
My  idea  of  the  glory  of  Heaven  might  differ 
from  yours.  I  can  go  to  the  tent  of  an  Indian 
and  the  things  he  prizes  are  very  few  and  sim- 
ple. Just  a  few  eagle  feathers,  reminding  him 
of  the  war  he  has  engaged  in  ;  an  old  toma- 
hawk, which  he  swings  around  his  head  and 
then  sends  flying  to  the  mark ;  a  bow  and 
arrow  which  his  father  had  given  him,  and 
which  he  has  had  ever  since  he  was  sent  into 
the  field  of  life. 

Now  if  I  were  to  take  these  things  which 
are  the  glory  of  the  Indian,  and  take  them  to 
a  shepherd's  hut,  he  would  look  at  them  and 
say.  "  Why  these  things  are  not  worth  a 
moment's  consideration."  He  has  a  few 
things  which  he  delights  in,  but  if  I  were  to 
take  the  things  which  he  has  and  go  over 
to  the  house  of  a  rich  man,  whose  walls  are 
covered  with  paintings  and  whose  halls  are 
filled  with  statuary,  he  would  look  upon  the 
things  of  the  peasant,  and  turn  away  with 
disgust  upon  his  face,  and  say  they  were  not 
worth  the  room  they  occupied ;  and  yet  if  I 
were  to  take  the  things  in  which  the  rich 
man  finds  his  glory  and  carry  them  to  the 
palace  of  the  king,  they  would  be  as  nothing 
to  him.  An  empire  has  exhausted  itself  in 
contributing  to  his  wealth  and  splendor,  and 
he  too  would  say,  "  Why  these  things  are  not 
worth  the  room  they  take  up ;  "  and  yet  if 
we  were  to  take  the  things  wherein  the  king 
glories  into  the  City  above,  they  would  be 
as  nothing  compared  to  the  glory  of  that 
City ;  the  City  whose  streets  are  gold,  whose 
gates  are  pearl,  whose  foundation  stones  are 
jewels.  Can  you  imagine  the  wonderful  glory 
that  awaits  us  in  the  skies? 

When  Paul  was  caught  up  into  the  Heaven 
above,  he  said  he  had  heard  things  not  lawful 
for  him  to  utter ;  a  better  translation  would 
be  that  he  had  heard  things  it  would  not  be 
possible  for  him  to  utter ;  there  was  no  lan- 
guage to  describe  his  vision.  If  he  had  seen 
the  things  he  could  not  possibly  describe, 
we  can  only  say  to  those  that  ask  of  us,  as 
Bunyan  once  told  an  old  woman  who  was 
asking  him  about  that  beautiful  City.  "  Mad- 
am," said  he,  "  I  cannot  tell  you  about  the 
city,  the   only  advice   I   can   give  you  is  to 


live  the  life  that  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God, 
and  go  for  yourself  to  behold  its  splendor."" 
And  yet,  if  this  is  true,  it  is  a  good  thing  for 
us  to  think  about  Heaven.  I  have  been  told 
that  when  artists  sit  for  a  long  time  painting 
pictures  their  eyes  sometimes  get  below  the 
proper  tone  or  pitch,  so  they  get  a  number  of 
little  bright  pebble  stones,  and  place  them  on 
the  easel,  and  every  little  while  they  will 
look  at  these  stones  before  them,  and  in  this 
way  they  can  always  keep  the  pitch  or  tone 
of  the  eye  just  right.  Thinking  of  Heaven 
is  to  the  Christian  what  the  tuning  fork  is  to 
the  great  orchestra.  They  get  below  the 
pitch  sometimes  and  it  is  then  necessary  to 
go  back  to  the  tuning  fork  to  get  the  right 
tone  and  the  right  pitch.  No  man  can  think 
of  Heaven  but  for  a  little  time,  without  it 
making  him  a  purer  and  better  man.  Then 
another  reason,  too.  why  it  is  a  good  thing  to 
think  of  Heaven  is  that  some  of  you  have 
friends  up  in  the  skies.  I  remember  one  time 
calling  upon  one  of  the  families  in  my 
Church  in  Albany.  The  mother  had  never 
traveled  much  out  of  the  place  where  she 
lived  in  this  country,  excepting  that  she  had 
ccme  from  England,  for  they  were  English 
people ;  yet  when  I  sat  down  she  began  to  tell 
me  something  about  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  of  places  I 
knew  only  by  name ;  and  I  said,  "  Why.  how 
is  it  that  you  know  so  much  about  these 
places?"  "Why,"  she  said,  "I  have  a  son 
who  travels  all  over  the  islands  of  the  sea," 
and  she  said,  "  I  surely  ought  to  be  interested 
in  the  places  where  my  boy  goes." 

At  one  time  a  peasant  in  an  English  town 
lost  his  little  boy.  He  was  taken  up  with  the 
things  of  time,  and  the  Bible  was  a  strange 
book  to  him  until  the  boy  died ;  but  after  the 
boy  died,  every  night  just  as  soon  as  he  re- 
turned from  his  labor,  he  would  be  found 
with  the  tallow  dip  bending  close  over  the 
Book,  poring  over  its  pages  whenever  he 
could  find  time.  His  friends  asked  him  why 
he  was  doing  so.  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  I  am 
trying  to  find  out  about  the  place  where 
my  boy  has  gone  in  order  that  I  may 
know  all  about  it."  My  friends,  it  is  a  good 
thing  for  you  and  for  me  to  know  about 
Heaven,  because  of  the  number  of  friends 
that  have  gone  up  into  the  skies.  And  yet 
we  have  but  a  faint  glimpse  and  foretaste  of 
Heaven.  We  read  in  history  that  when  the 
people  of  the  northern  barbarians,  the  Huns 
and  the  Goths,  had  once  tasted  of  the  rare 
wines  of  Italy,  they  never  would  be  satis- 
fied until  they  had  taken  up  their  abode  in 
that  land. 

You  will  remember  that  when  Columbus 
was  coming  towards  this  country,  he  had  a 
foretaste  of  it  before  he  ever  came  in  sight 
of  land,  for  he  could  see  it  in  the  sea-weed, 
and  in  those  little  pieces  of  bush,  with  the 
bright  berries  on  them ;  then  he  said  to  those 
who  were  with  him,  "  This  is  the  very  first 
vision  of  the  land  towards  which  I  am  now 
leading  you." 

Let  me  put  this  question  to  you :  How  do 
you  spell  Heaven?  I  imagine  I  hear  you 
saying:    Well  the  first  letter  is  H,  and  *^hc 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


325 


second  e,  and  the  third  a,  and  the  next  v, 
and  the  next  e,  and  the  last  n.  But  this  is 
not  the  way  I  spell  it.  The  better  way  to  spell 
Heaven  is  to  take  the  faces  of  my  beloved 
dead,  and  view  first  one  here,  and  one  there, 
another  there,  until,  as  I  look  up  into  the 
faces  so  dear  to  me  so  long  ago,  I  have  be- 
fore me  the  sweetest  picture  I  can  think  of, 
and  the  view  which  will  greet  me  the  mo- 
m.ent  I  enter  the  city.  An  eminent  divine 
once  said,  "  The  first  idea  I  had  of  Heaven 
was  a  great  city,  with  walls  and  spires,  and 
a  great  many  angels,  but  not  one  person  I 
knew.  Then  one  of  my  little  brothers  died, 
and  then  I  thought  of  Heaven  as  a  great  city, 
with  walls  and  spires  and  one  little  fellow 
that  I  knew."  Then  a  second  brother  died, 
then  the  third  and  fourth,  then  one  of  his 
friends  died,  and  he  began  to  know  a  little 
about  it,  but  never  until  he  let  one  of  his 
own  children  go  up  into  the  skies  had  he 
any  idea  as  to  what  Heaven  was  like.  Then 
the  second  and  the  third  and  the  fourth  child 
was  taken  away  from  him  and  he  said, 
"  There  came  a  time  when  I  lived  more  with 
them  and  with  God  than  here  on  the  earth." 
So  the  best  view  of  Heaven  comes  to  you  and 
to  me,  when  we  have  loved  ones  in  that  city 
of  light. 

And  now  comes  the  question,  Shall  we 
know  each  other  there?  When  I  see  my 
mother,  I  believe  I  shall  know  her  just  as 
surely  as  I  knew  her  in  this  world,  and  that 
statement  is  not  denied  once  in  the  Book, 
but  its  truth  is  implied  over  and  over  again, 
and  I  think  this  is  about  the  strongest  evi- 
dence that  could  possibly  be  given  to  us.  A 
friend  of  mine  who  had  been  traveling  in 
the  Alps  was  telling  me  about  them,  and  I 
had  never  known  him  to  have  such  power  of 
description,  yet  he  told  me,  as  we  sat  there, 
of  the  sunrise  he  had  witnessed,  and  I  think 
I  have  never  heard  anything  so  beautiful. 
His  eyes  filled  with  tears ;  his  face  was  shi- 
ning as  he  became  more  and  more  interested 
in  his  theme,  and  he  sat  there  and  told  me  all 
about  the  sunrise ;  yet  he  never  stopped  a 
moment  to  prove  to  me  that  the  Alps  existed, 
that  was  all  implied  in  the  same  way  the  an- 
swer to  this  great  question  is  implied  in  this 
Book.  Suppose  you  heard  such  statements 
as  these  for  the  first  time :  "  And  Abraham 
died  and  was  gathered  unto  his  people;' 
"  Jacob  died  and  was  gathered  unto  his 
people ;  "  "  Moses  died  and  he  was  gathered 
unto  his  people ;  "  what  would  you  think  ? 
Why,  if  we  take  the  Book  and  read  just  as  it 
is,  there  would  be  no  question  but  what  we 
shall  know  each  other.  What  would  be  the 
use  of  gathering  all  the  saints  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  their  people  if  they  did  not 
know  each  other  in  that  better  land? 

There  is  a  sick  child  in  the  palace  of  the 
king ;  he  is  tossing  to  and  fro  on  the  bed 
that  might  have  been  made  of  gold.  The 
watchers  stand  on  either  side,  watching  the 
little  heart  almost  as  it  beats  away  the  life 
in  that  little  body ;  and  above  the  breathing 
of  that  little  boy  can  be  heard  the  sobs  and 
the  moans  of  the  king  in  another  room. 
His    boy    is    dying;    his    hands    are    getting 


colder,  and  his  feet  are  already  like  ice,  and 
some  one  says,  "  Go  and  call  the  king." 
Then  some  one  goes  to  the  door  where  the 
king  is,  and  they  are  afraid  to  go  in  to 
tell  him.  Suddenly  the  little  heart  flutters, 
and  then  stops  and  the  pulses  beat  rapidly 
and  are  still ;  the  eyes  are  set  and  they  close 
them  gently ;  fold  the  hands  over  the  breast, 
and  then  they  go  and  stand  like  sentinels 
outside  the  room  where  the  king  is  still  cry- 
ing out  in  his  agony.  At  last  he  comes  forth, 
and  as  soon  as  he  sees  the  people  he  knows 
that  his  boy  is  dead,  so  he  cried,  "  Is  he  dead? 
Is  he  dead?"  and  they  say,  "  Long  live  the 
king,  but  the  boy  is  dead."  Then  they  sup- 
pose he  will  turn  away  in  rage  and  anger, 
but  instead,  he  immediately  goes  into  one  of 
the  chambers  and  changes  his  raiment,  and 
then  up  into  the  sanctuary  to  worship,  and 
they  hear  him  say,  "  The  boy  is  gone,  and  he 
can  never  come  back  to  me;  "  and  they  hear 
him  say,  "  But  I  shall  go  to  him,  I  shall  go 
to  him." 

Why  beloved,  the  Holy  Ghost  wrote  it  in 
the  book,  and  do  you  believe  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  would  have  written  it  in  this  Book 
to  have  deceived  all  the  ages?  Did  not  I 
comfort  my  own  heart  with  that  thought 
when  we  held  in  our  arms  the  boy  that  was 
more  precious  to  us  than  life  itself?  We 
were  comforted  with  this  thought.  He  never 
can  come  to  us,  but  thanks  be  unto  God, 
we  can  go  to  him,  because  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  it.  What  would  be  the 
use  of  David  going  to  his  boy  if  he  did  not 
know  him  in  the  other  world.  Then  when 
you  come  to  the  New  Testament,  why,  it  is 
like  a  great  harbor,  which  is  covered  over 
and  over  with  beautiful  vines ;  and  as  we 
stand  before  it,  and  look  up,  the  most  won- 
derful fruit  hangs  down,  and  this  fruit  is 
for  the  healing  of  broken  hearts  the  wide 
world  round. 

Let  me  give  you  two  or  three  places  where 
it  is  implied.  The  mount  of  Transfiguration, 
where  the  Master  was  seen  as  you  and  I 
shall  see  Him  when  we  reach  the  other  ■  ide, 
with  His  face  shining  like  an  angel's,  and 
His  garments  whiter  than  any  fuller  could 
make  them;  and  then  Moses  and  Ellas  stand- 
ing, and  Peter  and  James  and  John,  who  had 
never  until  then  seen  either  Moses  or  Elias, 
and  I  doubt  if  they  had  ever  seen  a  repre- 
sentation of  them,  yet  they  knew  them  the 
moment  they  looked  on  the  transfiguration 
scene ;  and  Peter  said,  "  Why,  this  is  Moses 
and  Elias."  They  knew  each  other  and  Peter 
knew  them. 

I  think  there  is  a  change  comes  to  us  in 
this  world,  but  a  person  never  changes  so 
much  but  what  we  know  him.  I  remember 
my  friend  Mr.  Brown,  of  Indianapoli--,  a  man 
who  was  an  infidel,  and  who  looked  like  one, 
and  yet  when  I  saw  him  in  Cincinnati  he 
was  so  changed  by  the  indwelling  of  the 
Spirit,  but  I  knew  him.  It  will  be  a  change 
for  you  and  for  me  when  we  walk  the  streets 
of  the  City;  but  my  friends,  I  am  sure  we 
shall  know  each  other  there. 

Second.  The  scene  at  Bethany.  Mary 
and   Martha   are   weeping;    their   hearts    are 


326 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


almost  broken  because  their  brother  is  dead, 
as  they  cry  out  to  the  Master  saying,  "  If 
thou  hadst  only  been  here  our  brother  had 
not  died."  I  can  see  Him  as  He  places  His 
hand  on  the  shoulder  of  the  mourner,  saying, 
"  Weep  not,  for  ye  shall  see  him  on  the  resur- 
rection morning."  Do  you  believe  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  for  a  single  moment  would  have 
deceived  those  sisters,  when  He  said,  "  Thy 
brother  shall   rise  again?" 

Why,  He  is  saying,  "  Don't  you  weep,  you 
are  going  to  meet  your  loved  ones  in  the 
streets  of  the  wonderful  city."  I  think  He 
said  it  for  you  and  for  me.  He  comforted 
Mary  and  Martha  because  of  the  fact  that 
He  knew  I  was  going  to  weep.  When  I  was 
in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  I  picked  up  a  shell 
and  held  it  to  my  ear,  and  I  could  hear  the 
roar  of  the  sea,  altho  I  was  a  thousand  miles 
away.  And  so  Jesus  Christ  put  as  it  were  the 
shell  to  His  ear,  and  He  heard  me  sobbing 
and  moaning,  and  He  said  to  the  sisters, 
and  through  the  sisters  said  to  me,  "  Don't 
you  weep,  your  children  shall  rise  again  in 
the  resurrection  morning,  and  you  shall 
know  each  other  there."  Take  the  Bible 
description  of  death,  and  you  will  find  that 
it  is  only  a  sleep.  Don't  you  think  we  always 
wake  from  our  sleep  with  clearer  vision  and 
stronger  life? 

Rutherford  says : 

"  I  shall  sleep  sweet  in  Jesus, 

And  in  His  likeness  rise. 
To  know  and  to  adore  Him, 

To  see  Him  with  these  eyes, 
'Tween  me  and  resurrection 

But  Paradise  doth  stand, 
And  glory  shadeless   shineth 

In  Immanuel's  land." 

What  do  you  think  He  meant  when  He 
said,  "  And  where  I  am  there  ye  shall  be 
also?"  I  think  He  meant  to  say,  "I  am 
your  Brother,  God  is  your  Father,  and  we 
are  like  a  great  family,  and  you  shall  know 
each  other  there." 

What  do  you  think  He  meant  by  appear- 
ing so  many  times  after  the  resurrection? 
Walking  with  the  disciples  to  Emmaus,  talk- 
ing with  them  until  they  knew  Him,  and  then 
appearing  to  them  again  on  the  sea,  saying, 
"Children,  have  ye  any  meat?"  It  was  the 
appearance  on  earth  of  one  who  had  been  in 
Heaven.  What  did  it  mean?  I  think  that 
Christ  wanted  us.  to  understand  that  if  we 
knew  each  other  in  this  world,  nothing  could 
keep  us  from  knowing  each  other  in  the 
better  land.  Think  of  the  Bible  description 
of  Heaven.  "  The  Father's  house,''  great 
family  circle,"  and  as  Spurgeon  has  said. 
"  What  kind  of  a  family  circle  would  it 
be  in  Heaven,  if  we  did  not  know  each 
other?  " 

Just  in  concluding  let  me  say,  that  I  be- 
lieve it,  because  if  I  did  not,  it  must  be  that 
the  power  of  memory  would  leave  me  as 
I  passed  into  the  other  world.  A  man  in 
Chicago  came  home  one  night  and  as  his  wife 
met  him  at  the  door  she  said  to  him.  "  The 
doctor  has  been  here,  and  he  says  the  boy 


has  had  a  change  for  the  worse,  and  that 
he  is  dying,  and  you  must  go  in  and  tell 
him."  So  the  father  went  in,  and  as  he 
stood  looking  into  the  face  of  his  boy  he 
said,  "  My  boy,  the  doctor  has  been  here  to- 
day, and  he  says  that  before  the  morning 
you  will  be  with  Jesus  Christ."  And  then, 
strong  man  that  he  was,  he  turned  his  face 
away  and  sobbed  and  wept ;  then  the  little 
fellow  took  his  hand,  and  said  to  him,  "  Don't 
you  cry  about  it,  because  the  very  moment 
that  I  see  Jesus  Christ  I'll  tell  Him  that  just 
as  soon  as  I  can  remember  anything  about 
you,  you  told  me  about  Him,  and  tried  to 
lead  me  to  know  Him,"  and  friends,  I  can 
say  that  about  my  own  father,  and  do  you 
think  that  when  that  boy  reaches  the  other 
shore  he  will  forget  his  father?  Do  you 
think  that,  when  I  tread  the  streets  of  gold, 
I  can  forget  my  good  mother,  who  exerted 
her  love  and  her  sweet  influence  over  me, 
until  she  led  me  into  the  very  kingdom  of 
God?  I  could  not  preach  with  the  same 
power  if  I  did  not  believe  the  answer  to  this 
question  as  I  have  already  stated  it.  I  long 
to  meet  my  mother  and  to  know  her  in  the 
other  world,  and  nothing  else  could  satisfy 
my  longing.  When  I  have  a  longing  for 
water  God  quenches  my  thirst.  If  I  long 
for  food.  He  satisfies  my  hunger;  and  when 
I  long  for  immortality,  it  is  the  strongest  evi- 
dence that  I  am  immortal.  The  longing  that 
I  have  to  know  my  friends  in  the  skies  to  me 
is  the  strongest  evidence  that  I  shall  know 
them. 

The  last  lesson — because  so  many  that  have 
died  have  seemed  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
other  world.  I  think  the  mother  of  Dr.  Cuy- 
ler  had  one,  when  looking  around  into  the 
faces  of  her  family  she  told  them  all  good 
night,  then  took  the  candle  in  her  hands  and 
started  to  her  room,  but  came  back  again  and 
said  "  Good  night  "  to  them  all,  standing  at 
the  door  just  for  a  little  time,  with  the  light 
upon  her  beautiful  face,  then  went  up  to 
her  own  room  to  her  couch,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing they  found  her  with  her  eyes  closed,  her 
heart  still,  and  she  had  gone  out  into  the 
other  world  to  wake  in  the  morning,  and  in 
the  morning  she  was  to  know  them  all  as 
she  knew  them  in  the  eventide.  Like  the 
mother  of  one  of  the  members  of  a  former 
church  of  mine,  who,  as  she  was  coming 
down  towards  the  end  of  life's  journey, 
seemed  to  think  that  she  was  a  child  once 
more,  and  as  she  said  "  Good  night  "  to  them 
all,  she  said,  "  I  will  see  you  in  the  morning," 
and  the  next  day  her  eyes  were  closed,  her 
heart  had  ceased  its  beating.  Do  you  think 
she  will  see  them  in  the  morning?  I  think 
so  with  all  my  soul.  Do  you  believe  it?  I  can 
think  of  another  member,  who  said  to  those 
around  her  just  as  her  heart  was  beating 
away  its  life,  "  Turn  the  bed  around,  so  that 
I  can  die  with  my  face  towards  Bethany,  the 
place  which  has  seemed  most  like  Heaven 
to  me."  I  think  that  there  were  angels  hover- 
ing round  her,  and  as  she  knew  those  about 
her  just  as  she  was  about  to  see  Jesus  Christ, 
I  think  she  would  know  them  after  she  had 
looked  into  His  wondrous  face. 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


327 


Carlyle  has  said : 

"  It   is   an   old   belief  that  on   some   solemn 

shore. 
Beyond  the  sphere  of  grief,  dear  friends  shall 

meet  once  more, 
Beyond   the   sphere  of  time,   and   death   and 

its  control. 
Serene  in  changeless  prime  of  body  and  of 

soul. 
This    hope    we    still    would    keep,    this    faith 

we'll  not  forego, 
Unending  be  the  sleep,  if  not  to  waken  so." 

Are  you  going  there?  I  put  the  question 
to  you. 

A  man  was  dying  in  one  of  the  hospitals. 
The  attendants  thought  he  was  dead,  but  they 
saw  him  move  his  arm,  and  raise  it  in  the 
air.  He  had  not  spoken  for  more  than  an 
hour,  and  those  who  were  near  him  heard 
him  saying,  "  Here  sir,  here,  sir."  Then  he 
was  still,  and  they  bent  down  over  him  and 


said,  "  Is  there  anything  we  can  do  for 
you  ?  "  Looking  up,  with  his  face  shining,  he 
said,  "  No,  they  were  calling  the  roll  in 
Heaven,  and  I  was  only  answering  to  my 
name."  Is  your  name  written  there?  Your 
mother's  name  is  recorded;  your  child's 
name  is  written  down;  and  your  loved  one's 
names  are  recorded  there.  Is  yours  there? 
I  can  say,  through  Jesus  Christ,  my  name  is 
written  there.    Listen: 

"  Into  the  harbor  of  Heaven  I'll  glide 

Home  at  last,  home  at  last. 
Softly   I'll   drift   o'er  the  bright   silver  tide, 

For  I'm  home  at  last. 
Glory  to  God  all  my  trials  are  o'er, 
I'll  stand  then  secure  on  that  beautiful  shore, 
Glory  to  God,  I  shall  shout  evermore, 

Home  at  last,  home  at  last. 

"  Then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am 
known."  "  Thanks  be  unto  God  who  giveth 
us  the  victory." — U.  G.  N. 


THE  PALMS  AND  ROBES 


By  T.  DeWitt  Talmage,  D.D. 

flfter  this  I  beheld,  and,  lo,  a  great  multitude  zvhich  no  man  could  number,  of  all  nations,  and 
kindreds,  and  people,  and  tongues,  stood  before  the  throne,  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed 
■with  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  hands;  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying.  Salva- 
tion to  our  God  which  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb. — Rev.  vii:  9,  10 


It  is  impossible  to  come  in  contact  with 
anything  grand  or  beautiful  in  art.  nature, 
or  religion,  without  being  profited  and  ele- 
vated. We  go  into  the  art-gallery,  and  our 
soul  meets  the  soul  of  the  painter,  and  we 
hear  the  hum  of  his  forests  and  the  clash  of 
his  conflicts,  and  see  the  cloud-blossoming 
of.  the  sky  and  the  foam-blossoming  of  the 
ocean ;  and  we  come  out  from  the  gallery 
better  men  than  when  we  went  in.  We  go 
into  the  concert  of  music  and  are  lifted  into 
enchantment ;  for  days  after,  our  soul  seems 
to  rock  with  a  very  tumult  of  joy,  as  the 
sea,  after  a  long  stress  of  weather,  rolls  and 
rocks  and  surges  a  great  while  before  it 
comes  back  to  its  ordinary  caltn. 

On  the  same  principle  it  is  proHtable  to 
think  of  Heaven,  and  look  off  upon  that 
landscape  of  joy  and  light  which  St.  John 
depicts ;  the  rivers  of  gladness,  the  trees  of 
life,  the  thrones  of  power,  the  comminglings 
of  everlasting  love.  I  wish  this  morning  that 
I  could  bring  Heaven  from  the  list  of  intangi- 
bles, and  make  it  seem  to  you  as  really  it  is — 
the  great  fact  in  all  history,  the  depot  of  all 
ages,  the  parlor  of  God's  universe. 

This  account  in  my  text  gives  a  picture  of 
heaven  as  it  is  on  a  holiday.  Now  if  a  man 
came  to  New  York  for  the  first  time  on  the 
day  that  Kossuth  arrived  from  Hungary,  and 
he  saw  the  arches  lifted,  and  the  flowers  flung 
in  the  streets,  and  heard  the  guns  booming, 
he  would  have  been  very  foolish  to  suppose 
that  that  was  the  ordinary  appearance  of  the 
city.     While,  my  friends,   Heaven  is  always 


grand  and  always  beautiful,  I  think  my  text 
speaks  of  a  gala  day  in    Heaven. 

It  is  a  time  of  great  celebration — perhaps 
of  the  birth  or  the  resurrection  of  Jesus ;  per- 
haps of  the  downfall  of  some  despotism ; 
perhaps  because  of  the  rushing  in  of  the  mil- 
lennium. I  know  not  what ;  but  it  does  seem 
to  me  in  reading  this  passage  as  if  it  were  a 
holiday  in  Heaven;  after  this  I  beheld,  and, 
lo,  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man  could 
number,  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and 
people,  and  tongues,  stood  before  the  throne, 
and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  in  white  robes, 
and  palms  in  their  hands;  and  cried  with  a 
loud  voice,  saying,  "  Salvation  to  our  God 
which  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the 
Lamb." 

I  shall  speak  to  you  of  the  glorified  in 
Heaven — their  number,  their  antecedents, 
their  dress,  their  symbols,  and  their  song. 

I.  But  how  shall  I  begin  by  telling  you  of 
the  numbers  of  those  in  Heaven? 

I  have  seen  a  curious  estimate  by  an  in- 
genious man  who  calculates  how  long  the 
world  was  going  to  last,  and  how  many  peo- 
ple there  are  in  each  generation,  and  then 
sums  up  the  whole  matter,  and  says  he  thinks 
there  will  be  twenty-seven  trillions  of  souls 
in  glory.  I  have  no  faith  in  his  estimate.  I 
simply  take  the  plain  announcement  of  the 
text — it  is  "  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man 
can  number." 

Every  few  years  in  this  country  we  take 
a  census  of  the  population,  and  it  is  very 
easy  to  tell  how  many  people  there  are  in  a 


328 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


city  or  in  a  nation;  but  who  shall  give  the 
census  of  the  great  nation  to  be  saved?  It 
it  quite  easy  to  tell  how  many  people  there 
are  in  different  denominations  of  Christians 
—how  many  Baptists  and  Methodists  and 
Epi.  copalians  and  Presbyterians;  of  all  the 
denominations  of  Christians  we  could  make 
an  estimate. 

Suppose  they  were  gathered  in  one  great 
audience-room ;  how  overwhelming  the  spec- 
tacle !  But  it  would  give  no  idea  of  the 
great  audience-room  of  heaven — the  multi- 
tudes that  bow  down  and  that  lift  up  their 
hosannas.  Why,  they  come  from  all  the 
chapels,  from  all  the  cathedrals,  from  all 
sects,  from  all  ages ;  they  who  prayed  in 
splendid  liturgy,  and  those  who  in  broken 
sentences  uttered  the  wish  of  broken  hearts 
— from  Grace  Church  and  Sailor's  Bethel, 
from  under  the  shapeless  rafters  and  from 
under  high-sprung  arch — "  a  great  multitude, 
that  no  man  can  number." 

One  of  the  most  impressive  things  I  have 
looked  upon  is  an  army.  Standing  upon  a 
hillside  you  see  forty  thousand  or  fifty  thou- 
sand men  pass  along.  You  can  hardly  im- 
agine the  impression  if  you  have  not  actually 
felt  it.  But  you  may  take  all  the  armies  that 
the  earth  has  ever  seen — the  legions  under 
Sennacherib  and  Cyrus  and  Caesar  and 
Xerxes  and  Alexander  and  Napoleon,  and 
all  our  modern  forces,  and  put  them  in  one 
great  array,  and  then  on  some  swift  steed 
you  may  ride  along  the  line  and  review  the 
troops ;  and  that  accumulated  host  from  all 
ages  seems  like  a  half-formed  regiment 
compared  with  the  great  array  of  the  re- 
deemed. 

I  stood  one  day  at  Williamsport,  and  saw 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Potomac  the 
forces  coming  down,  regiment  after  regi- 
ment, and  battalion  after  battalion.  It  seemed 
as  tho  there  were  no  end  to  the  procession. 
But  now  let  me  take  the  field-glass  of  St. 
John  and  look  off  upon  the  hosts  of  Heaven 
— thousands  of  thousands,  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand,  one  hundred  and  forty 
and  four  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands, until  I  put  down  the  field-glass  and 
say  "  I  cannot  estimate  it — a  great  multitude 
that  no  man  can  number." 

You  may  tax  your  imagination,  and  tor- 
ture your  ingenuity,  and  break  down  your 
powers  of  calculation  in  attempting  to  ex- 
press the  multitudes  of  the  released  from 
earth  and  the  enraptured  of  Heaven,  and 
talk  of  hundreds  of  hundreds  of  hundreds ; 
of  thousands  of  thousands  of  thousands ;  of 
millions  of  millions  of  millions ;  of  quadril- 
lions of  quadrillions  of  quadrillions ;  of 
quintillions  of  quintillions  of  quintillions ; 
until  your  head  aches  and  your  heart  faints, 
and  exhausted  and  overburdened  you  ex- 
claim :  "  I  cannot  count  them — a  great  mul- 
titude that  no  man  can  number." 

II.  But  my  subject  advances,  and  tells  you 
of  their  antecedents  "  of  all  nations  and  kin- 
dreds and  tongues."  Some  of  them  spoke 
Scotch,  Irish,  German,  English,  Italian,  Span- 
ish, Tamil,  Choctaw,  Burmese.  After  men 
have  been  long  in  the  land  you  can  tell  by 


their  accentuation  from  what  nationality  they 
came;  and  I  suppose  in  the  great  throng 
around  the  throne  it  will  not  be  difficult  to 
tell  from  what  part  of  the  earth  they  came. 

These  reaped  Sicilian  wheatfields  and  those 
picked  cotton  from  the  pods.  These  under 
blistering  skies  gathered  tamarinds  and  yams. 
Those  crossed  the  desert  on  camels,  and 
those  glanced  over  the  snow  drawn  by  Si- 
berian dogs,  and  these  milked  the  goats  far 
up  on  the  Swiss  crags.  Those  fought  the 
walrus  and  white  bear  in  regions  of  everlast- 
ing snow,  and  these  heard  the  song  of  fiery- 
winged  birds  in  African  thickets.  They  were 
white.  They  were  black.  They  were  red. 
They  were  copper  color.  From  all  lands, 
from  all  ages.  They  were  plunged  into  Aus- 
trian dungeons.  They  passed  through  Span- 
ish inquisitions.  They  were  confined  in  Lon- 
don Tower.  They  fought  with  beasts  in  the 
amphitheater.  They  were  Moravians.  They 
were  Waldenses.  They  were  Albigenses. 
They  were  Scotch  Covenanters.  They  were 
Sandwich  Islanders. 

In  this  world  men  prefer  different  kinds  of 
government.  The  United  States  want  a  re- 
public. The  British  Government  needs  to  be 
a  constitutional  monarchy.  Austria  wants 
absolutism.  But  when  they  come  up  from 
earth,  from  different  nationalities,  they  will 
prefer  one  great  monarchy — King  Jesus  ruler 
over  it.  And  if  that  monarchy  were  dis- 
banded, and  it  were  submitted  to  all  the  hosts 
of  Heaven  who  should  rule,  then  by  the 
unanimous  suffrages  of  all  the  redeemed, 
Christ  would  become  the  president  of  the 
whole  universe. 

Magna  chartas,  bills  of  right,  houses  of 
burgesses,  triumvirates,  congresses,  parlia- 
ments, nothing  in  the  presence  of  Christ's 
scepter,  swaying  over  all  the  people  who 
have  entered  upon  that  great  glory.  Oh ! 
can  you  imagine  it  ?  What  a  strange  com- 
mingling of  tastes,  of  histories,  of  nation- 
alities, "  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and 
people  and  tongues." 

III.  My  subject  advances  and  tells  you  of 
the  dress  of  those  in  Heaven.  The  object  of 
dress  in  this  world  is  not  only  to  veil  the 
body,  but  to  adorn  it.  The  God  who  dresses 
up  the  spring  morning  with  blue  ribbon  of 
sky  around  the  brow,  and  earrings  of  dew- 
drops  hung  from  the  tree  branch,  and  mantle 
of  crimson  cloud  flung  over  the  shoulder, 
and  the  violeted  slippers  of  the  grass  for  her 
feet — I  know  that  that  God  does  not  despise 
beautiful  apparel. 

Well,  what  shall  we  wear  in  Heaven ?  "I 
saw  a  great  multitude  clothed  in  zvhite  robes." 
It  is  white !  In  this  world  we  had  sometimes 
to  have  on  working  apparel.  Bright  and  lus- 
trous garments  would  be  ridiculously  out  of 
place  sweltering  amid  forges,  or  mixing 
paints,  or  plastering  ceilings,  or  binding 
books.  In  this  world  we  must  have  the 
working-day  apparel  sometimes,  and  we  care 
not  how  coarse  it  is.  It  is  appropriate ;  but 
when  all  the  toil  of  earth  is  past,  and  there 
is  no  more  drudgery  and  no  more  weariness, 
we  shall  stand  before  the  throne  robed  in 
white. 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


329 


On  earth  we  sometimes  had  to  wear  mourn- 
ing apparel — black  scarf  for  the  arm,  black 
veil  for  the  face,  black  gloves  for  the  hands, 
black  band  for  the  hat.  Abraham  mourning 
for  Sarah ;  Isaac  mourning  for  Rebecca ; 
Rachel  mourning  for  her  children ;  David 
mourning  for  Absalom ;  Mary  mourning  for 
Lazarus.  Every  second  of  every  minute  of 
every  hour  of  every  day  a  heart  breaks. 

The  earth  from  zone  to  zone  and  from 
pole  to  pole  is  cleft  with  sepulchral  rent ;  and 
the  earth  can  easily  afford  to  bloom  and 
blossom  when  it  is  so  rich  with  moldering 
life.  Graves !  graves !  graves !  But  when 
these  bereavements  have  all  passed,  and  there 
are  no  more  graves  to  dig,  and  no  more 
coffins  to  make,  and  no  more  sorrow  to 
suffer,  we  shall  pull  off  this  mourning  and  be 
robed  in  white.  I  see  a  soul  going  right  up 
from  all  this  scene  of  sin  and  trouble  into 
glory.     I  seem  to  hear  him  say : 

"  I  journey  forth  rejoicing 
From  this  dark  vale  of  tears, 
To  heavenly  joy  and  freedom, 
From  earthly  care  and  fears. 

"  When  Christ  our  Lord  shall  gather 
All  His  redeemed  again, 
His  kingdom  to  inherit — 
Good-night  till  then. 

"I  hear  my  Savior  calling; 
The  joyful  hour  has  come 
The  angel  guards  are  ready 
To  guide  me  to  our  home. 

"  When  Christ  our  Lord  shall  gather 
All  His  redeemed  again, 
His  kingdom  to  inherit — 
Good-night  till  then." 

IV.  My  subject  advances,  and  tells  you  of 
the  symbols  they  carry.  If  my  text  had  rep- 
resented the  good  in  Heaven  as  carrying  cy- 
press branches,  that  would  have  meant  sor- 
row. If  my  text  had  represented  the  good 
in  Heaven  as  carrying  nightshade,  that  would 
have  meant  sin.  But  it  is  a  palm  branch  they 
carry,  and  that  is  victory. 

When  the  people  came  home  from  war  in 
olden  times,  the  conqueror  rode  at  the  head 
of  his  troops,  and  there  were  triumphal 
arches,  and  the  people  would  come  out  with 
branches  of  the  palm-tree  and  wave  them  all 
along  the  host.  What  a  significant  type  these 
of  the  greeting  and  of  the  joy  of  the  re- 
deemed in  Heaven !  On  earth  they  were  con- 
demned of  synagogs,  and  were  put  out  of 
polite  circles.  They  had  infamous  hands 
strike  them  on  both  cheeks.  Infernal  spite 
spat  in  their  faces.  Their  back  ached  with 
sorrow. 

Their  brow  reeled  with  unalleviated  toil. 
How  weary  they  zvere!  Sometimes  they 
broke  the  heart  of  the  midnight  in  the  midst 
of  all  their  anguish,  crying  out,  "O  God!" 
But  hark  now  to  the  shout  of  the  delivered 
captives ;  as  they  lift  their  arms  from  the 
shackles  they  cry  out,  "  Free  !  Free !  "  They 
look  back  upon  all  the  trials  through  which 
they    have    passed,    the    battles    they    have 


fought,  the  burdens  they  carried,  the  mis- 
representations they  suffered,  and  because 
they  are  delivered  from  all  these  they  stand 
before  God  waving  their  palms. 

They  come  to  the  feet  of  Christ  and  they 
look  up  into  His  face,  and  they  remember 
His  sorrows,  and  they  remember  His  pain, 
and  they  remember  His  groans,  and  they  say : 
"  Why,  I  was  saved  by  that  Christ.  He  par- 
doned my  sins.  He  soothed  my  sorrows;" 
and  standing  there  they  shall  be  exultant, 
waving  their  palms. 

That  hand  once  held  the  implements  of 
toil  or  wielded  the  sword  of  war ;  but  now 
it  plucks  down  branches  from  the  tree  of  life 
as  they  stand  before  the  throne  waving  their 
palms.  Once  He  was  a  pilgrim  on  earth ;  He 
crunched  the  hard  crusts — He  walked  the 
weary  way :  but  it  is  all  gone  now,  the  sin 
gone,  the  weariness  gone,  the  sickness  gone, 
the  sorrow  gone.  As  Christ  stands  up  before 
the  great  array  of  the  saved  and  recounts  His 
victories,  it  will  be  like  the  rocking  and  toss- 
ing of  a  forest  in  a  tempest,  as  all  the  re- 
deemed arise  up,  host  beyond  host,  rank  be- 
yond rank,  waving,  waving  their  palms. 

V.  My  subject  makes  another  advance- 
ment, and  speaks  of  the  song  they  sing. 
Doctor  Dick,  in  a  very  learned  work,  says 
that  among  other  things  in  Heaven  he  thinks 
they  will  give  a  great  deal  of  time  to  the 
study  of  arithmetic  and  th^  higher  branches 
of  mathematics.  I  do  not  believe  it.  It 
would  upset  my  idea  of  Heaven  if  I  thought 
so;  I  never  liked  mathematics;  and  I  would 
rather  take  the  representation  of  my  text, 
which  describes  the  occupation  of  heaven  as 
being  that  of  joyful  psalmody.  "  They  cried 
with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  Salvation  unto  our 
God." 

In  this  world  we  have  secular  songs,  nur- 
sery songs,  boatmen's  songs,  harvest  songs, 
sentimental  songs ;  but  in  Heaven  we  will 
have  taste  for  only  one  song,  and  that  will 
be  the  song  of  salvation  from  an  eternal 
death  to  an  eternal  Heaven,  through  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb  that  was  slain. 

I  see  a  soul  coming  up  to  join  the  re- 
deemed in  heaven.  As  it  goes  through  the 
gates,  the  old  friends  of  that  spirit  come 
around  it  and  say:  "What  shall  we  sing?" 
and  the  newly-arrived  soul  says :  "  Sing  sal- 
vation; "  and  after  a  while  an  earthly  des- 
potism falls,  and  a  scepter  of  iniquity  is 
snapped,  and  churches  are  built  where  once 
there  were  superstitious  mosques,  and  angel 
cries  to  angel :  "  How  shall  we  celebrate  this 
victory?"  and  angel  cries  to  angel:  "Let  us 
sing;"  and  the  answer  is:  "What  shall  we 
sing?"  another  voice  says:  "Let  us  sing 
salvation."- 

And  after  a  while  all  the  Church  on  earth 
will  rush  into  the  outspread  arms  of  the 
Church  of  heaven,  and  while  the  righteous 
are  ascending,  and  the  world  is  burning,  and 
all  things  are  being  wound  up,  the  question 
will  be  asked:  "What  shall  we  sing?"  and 
there  will  be  a  voice  "  like  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  like  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings," 
that  will   respond :    "  Sing  salvation." 


330 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


In  this  world  we  have  plaintive  songs — 
songs  tremulous  with  sorrow,  songs  dirgeful 
for  the  dead ;  but  in  Heaven  there  will  be  no 
sighing  of  winds,  no  wailing  of  anguish,  no 
weeping  symphony.  The  tamest  song  will  be 
halleluiah — the  dullest  tune  a  triumphal 
march.  Joy  among  the  cherubim!  Joy  among 
the  seraphim !  Joy  among  the  ransomed !  Joy 
forever ! 

On  earth  the  music  in  churches  is  often 
poor,  becausts  there  is  no  interest  in  it,  or  be- 
cause there  is  no  harmony.  Some  would  not 
sing;  some  could  not  sing;  some  sang  too 
high ;  some  sang  too  low ;  some  sang  by  fits 
and  starts ;  but  in  the  great  audience  of  the 
redeemed  on  high  all  voices  will  be  accordant, 
and  the  man  who  on  earth  could  not  tell  a 
plantation  melody  from  the  "  Dead  March  in 
Saul  "  will  lift  an  anthem  that  the  Mendels- 
sohns  and  Beethovens  and  the  Schumanns  of 
earth  never  imagined ;  and  you  may  stand 
through  all  eternity  and  listen,  and  there  will 
not  be  one  discord  in  that  great  anthem  that 
forever  rolls  up  against  the  great  heart  of 
God.  It  will  not  he  a  solo;  it  will  not  be  a 
duet  I  it  will  not  be  a  quintette ;  but  an  in- 
numerable host  before  the  throne,  crying, 
"  Salvation  unto  our  God  and  unto  the 
Lamb."  They  crowd  all  the  temples;  they 
bend  over  the  battlements ;  they  fill  all  the 
heights  and  depths  and  lengths  and  breadths 
of  Heaven  with  their  hosannas. 

When  people  were  taken  into  the  temple  of 
Diana  it  was  such  a  brilliant  room  that  they 
were  always  put  on  their  guard.  Some  peo- 
ple had  lost  their  sight  by  just  looking  on  the 
brilliancy  of  that  room,  and  so  the  janitor 
when  he  brought  a  stranger  to  the  door  and 
let  him  in  would  always  charge  him,  "  Take 
heed  of  your  eyes." 

Oh  !  when  I  think  of  the  song  that  goes  up 
around  the  throne  of  God,  so  jubilant,  many- 
voiced,    multitudinous,    I    feel    like    saying. 


"  Take  heed  of  your  ears."  It  is  so  loud  a 
song.  It  is  so  blessed  an  anthem.  They  sing 
a  rock  song,  saying,  "  Who  is  He  that  shel- 
tered us  in  the  wilderness  and  shadowed  us 
in  a  weary  land?"  And  the  chorus  came 
in :  "  Christ  the  shadow  of  a  rock  in  a  weary 
land." 

They  sing  a  star  song,  saying.  "  Who  is 
He  that  guided  us  through  the  thick  night, 
and  when  all  other  lights  went  out,  arose  in 
the  sky  the  morning-star,  pouring  light  on  the 
soul's  darkness?  "  And  the  chorus  will  come 
in:  "Christ,  the  vioyning-star,  shining  on 
the  world's  darkness."  They  will  sing  a 
flower  song,  saying,  "  Who  is  He  that  bright- 
ened all  our  way,  and  breathed  sweetness 
upon  our  soul,  and  bloomed  through  frost 
and  tempest  ?  "  and  the  chorus  will  come  in, 
"  Christ,  the  lily  of  the  valley,  blooming 
through  frost  and  tempest."  They  will  sing 
a  water  song,  saying,  "  Who  is  He  that 
gleamed  to  us  from  the  frowning  crag,  and 
lightened  the  darkest  ravine  of  trouble,  and 
brought  cooling  to  the  temples,  and  refresh- 
ment to  the  lip,  and  was  a  fountain  in  the 
midst  of  the  wilderness?"  and  then  the 
chorus  will  come  in,  "  Christ,  the  fountain  in 
the  midst  of  the  wilderness." 

My  friends,  will  you  join  that  anthem? 
Shall  we  make  rehearsal  this  morning?  If 
we  cannot  sing  that  song  on  earth,  we  will 
not  be  able  to  sing  it  in  Heaven.  Can  it  "be 
that  our  good  friends  in  that  land  will  walk 
all  through  that  great  throng  of  which  I 
speak,  looking  for  us  and  not  finding  us? 
Will  they  come  down  to  the  gate  and  ask 
if  we  have  passed  through,  and  not  find  us 
reported  as  having  come  ?  Will  they  look 
through  the  folios  of  eternal  light  and  find 
our  names  unrecorded?  Is  all  this  a  rep- 
resentation of  a  land  we  shall  never  see? — of 
a  song    we  shall  never  singf — C.  H. 


THE  FIRST  FIVE  MINUTES  AFTER  DEATH 

By  Henry  P.  Liddon,  D.D. 
I  Cor.  xiii:  12 


I.  At  our  entrance  on  another  state  of  ex- 
istence we  shall  know  what  it  is  to  exist  under 
entirely  new  conditions.  What  will  it  be  to 
find  ourselves  with  the  old  self — divested  of 
that  body  which  has  clothed  it  since  its  first 
moment  of  existence — able  to  achieve,  it  may 
be,  so  much, — it  may  be,  so  little ;  living  on, 
but  under  conditions  which  are  so  entirely 
new.  This  experience  alone  will  add  no  little 
to  our  existing  knowledge,  and  the  addition 
will  have  been  made  during  the  first  five 
minutes  after  death. 

II.  And  the  entrance  on  the  next  world 
must  bring  with  it  a  knowledge  of  God  such 
as  is  quite  impossible  in  thij  life.  His  vast. 
His  illimitable  life,  will  present  itself  to  the 
apprehension  of  our  spirits  as  a  clearly  con- 
sistent whole — not  as  a  complex  problem  to 
be  painfully  mastered  by  the  efforts  of  our 


understandings,  but  as  a  present,  living,  en- 
compassing Being  who  is  inflecting  Himself 
upon  the  very  sight,  whether  they  will  it  or 
not,  of  His  adoring  creatures.  "  Thine  eyes 
shall  see  the  King  in  his  beauty  " — they  were 
words  of  warning  as  well  as  words  of 
promise. 

III.  At  our  entrance  on  another  world  we 
shall  know  ourselves  as  never  before.  The 
past  will  be  spread  out  before  us  and  we  shall 
take  a  comprehensive  survey  of  it.  One 
Being  there  is  who  knows  us  now,  who 
knows  each  of  us  perfectly,  who  has  always 
known  us.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  we  shall 
know  ourselves  even  as  also  we  are  known. 
We  shall  not  have  to  await  the  Judge's  sen- 
tence; we  shall  read  it  at  a  glance,  whatever 
it  be,  in  this  new  apprehension  of  what  we 
are. — S.  B.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  349. 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


331 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BODY 


By  F.  D.  Maurice,  D.D. 
Phil.  Hi:  20,  21 


L  St.  Paul  valued  his  privilege  of  being  a 
citizen  of  the  greatest  city  upon  earth.  The 
Philippians  had  reason  to  know  that  he 
valued  it.  He  had  made  them  understand  by 
his  conduct  that  citizenship  is  a  great  and 
honorable  thing.  Men  are  bound  together  as 
citizens  of  a  city,  as  members  of  a  nation, 
by  God  Himself.  But  St.  Paul  tells  the  Phil- 
ippians that  he  was  the  citizen  of  another 
country  too :  "  Our  citizenship  is  in  Heaven." 
We  have  friends  and  fellow-sufferers  upon 
earth  ;  our  work  is  upon  earth ;  we  live  to  do 
good  to  the  earth ;  but  our  home  is  with 
God.  He  has  bought  us  at  a  great  price  that 
we  might  be  freemen  of  His  kingdom,  and 
might  always  fly  to  Him  and  plead  our  cause 
before  Him !  He  has  made  for  us  a  new  and 
living  way  into  His  presence  through  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  His  Son;  and  we  have  a 
right  to  walk  in  that  way,  and  not  to  be  taking 
the  downward  way,  the  way  of  death. 

H.  St.  Paul  had  the  greatest  reverence  for 
his  own  body  and  for  the  bodies  of  his  fellow- 
creatures  that  any  man  could  have.  For  he 
believed  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Savior,  had  taken  a  body  such  as  ours,  and 


had  eaten  earthly  food,  and  had  drunk  of 
earthly  water  and  wine,  and  had  given  that 
body  to  die  upon  the  cross,  and  had  raised 
it  out  of  the  grave,  and  had  ascended  with  it 
to  the  right  hand  of  His  Father.  Therefore 
when  St.  Paul  recollected  his  citizenship  in 
Heaven,  when  he  claimed  to  be  a  member  of 
Christ's  body  and  prayed  in  His  name  to  His 
Father  and  our  Father,  he  could  not  but 
think  how  this  body,  which  is  so  curiously 
and  wonderfully  made,  has  a  hidden  glory 
in  it,  which,  when  Christ  appears  in  His 
glory,  shall  be  fully  made  manifest.  Every- 
thing seems  to  be  threatening  it  with  death, 
but  Christ,  in  whom  is  the  fulness  of  life, 
has  overcome  death  and  is  stronger  than 
death.  He  has  raised  up  my  spirit,  that  was 
sinking  lower  and  lower,  to  trust  in  Him  and 
hope  in  Him ;  He  will  raise  up  this  body  too. 
Nothing  shall  be  lost  of  all  that  God  has 
given  us,  for  Christ  has  redeemed  it.  Only 
death  and  corruption  shall  perish,  for  they 
have  assaulted  God's  glorious  handiwork. 
What  God  has  created  God  will  preserve. — 
S.  B.,  vol.  X.,  p.  344. 


THE  INTERMEDIATE   STATE 


By  John  H.  Newman^  D.D. 
Rev.  vi:  11 


I.  In  this  passage  we  are  told  that  the 
saifits  are  at  rest.  "  White  robes  were  given 
unto  every  one  of  them ;  and  it  was  said  unto 
them,  that  they  should  rest  yet  for  a  little 
season.''  The  great  and  anxious  question 
that  meets  us  is,  What  is  to  become  of  us 
after  this  life?  We  fear  for  ourselves,  we 
are  solicitous  about  our  friends,  just  on  this 
point.  Now  here  Scripture  meets  our  need. 
It  is  enough,  surely,  to  be  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  in  our  Savior's  presence ;  it  is 
enough,  after  the  pain  and  turmoil  of  this 
world,  to  be  at  rest. 

II.  Next,  in  this  description  it  is  implied 
that  departed  saints,  tho  at  rest,  have  not  yet 
received  their  actual  reward.  "  Their  works 
do  follow  them,"  not  yet  given  in  to  their 
Savior  and  Judge.  They  are  in  an  incom- 
plete state  in  every  way,  and  will  be  so  till  the 
day  of  judgment,  which  will  introduce  them 
to  the  joy  of  their  Lord,  (i)  They  are  in- 
complete inasmuch  as  their  bodies  are  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  and  they  wait  for  the  resur- 
rection. (2)  They  are  incomplete  as  being 
neither  awake  nor  asleep ;  they  are  in  a  state 
of  rest,  not  in  the  full  employment  of  their 
powers.     (3)  There  is  an  incompleteness  also 


as  regards  their  place  of  rest.  They  are 
"  under  the  altar,"  not  in  the  full  presence 
of  God,  seeing  His  face  and  rejoicing  in  His 
works,  but  in  a  safe  and  holy  treasure-house 
close  by,  like  Moses  "  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock," 
covered  by  the  hand  of  God  and  beholding 
the  skirts  of  His  glory.  (4)  The  inter- 
mediate state  is  incomplete  as  regards  the 
happiness  of  the  saints.  The  blessed  in  their 
disembodied  state  admit  of  an  increase  of 
happiness,  and  receive  it.  "  They  cried  out 
in  complaint,  and  white  robes  were  given 
them ;  they  were  soothed  and  bid  wait  a 
while.'' 

III.  Nor  would  it  be  surprising  if,  in  God's 
gracious  providence,  the  very  purpose  of  their 
remaining  thus  for  a  season  at  a  distance 
from  Heaven  were  that  they  may  have  time 
for  growing  in  all  holy  things  and  perfecting 
the  inward  development  of  the  good  seed 
sown  in  their  hearts.  As  we  are  expressly 
told  that  in  one  sense  the  spirits  of  the  just 
are  perfected  on  their  death,  it  follows  that 
the  greater  the  advance  each  has  made  here, 
the  higher  will  be  the  line  of  his  subsequent 
growth  between  death  and  the  resurrection. 
I  — S.  B.,  vol.  xii.,  p.  301. 


332 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


NO  MORE  TEARS 

God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes. — Rev.  vii:  IJ 


What  are  tears?  Little  drops — salt — like 
water.  Where  seen?  In  eye,  on  cheek,  on 
pillow,  copy-book,  mother's  lap. 

What  cause  tears?  Sudden  pain  (a  fall,  a 
knock) — sickness,  death  of  dear  ones,  pas- 
sion, disappointment,  penitence,  sympathy, 
sorrow  for  others'  sins  (like  David,  Psa. 
cxix :  136). 

All  cry,  good  as  well  as  bad — even  Jesus 
(Luke  xix :  41 ;  John  xi:35).  Why? 
Whence  comes  all  the  trouble  that  brings 
tears?  Sin.  Every  sorrow  caused  by  some 
sin.     Christ's  sorrow  by  our  sin. 

How  happy  and  bright  a  child  that  seldom 
cries  !     Suppose  never — how  happy  ! 

There  is  a  place  where  no  tears.  Where? 
At  home — in  church — in  green  fields — in 
Queen's  palace?  Tears  everywhere  in  this 
world.  Heaven.  There  all  faces  bright — all 
hearts  happy.  Voices  not  crying,  not  com- 
plaining, but  singing  for  joy. 


Why?  Because  God  wipes  all  tears  away. 
You  like  mother  to  do  so,  it  shows  her  love; 
how  loving  must  God  be ! — more  even  than  a 
mother  (Isa.  xlix:i5).  Sometimes  mother 
can't  wipe  away  your  tears,  for  she  can't  stop 
sickness — can't  prevent  disappointment.  How 
can  God  wipe  all  away?  Because  He  takes 
away  what  brings  tears — sin.     How? 

1.  Washed  away  by  the  blood  of  lamb. 

2.  Driven  away  by  Spirit  in  heart. 

3.  Put  away  forever  from  Heaven  and  all 
who  are  there. 

Whose  eyes?  "  Their  " — the  great  multi- 
tude (ver.  9) — Abel,  Moses,  David,  Peter — 
white  and  black,  old  and  young,  kings  and 
beggars.     Shall  we  be  among  them? 

On  earth,  much  crying — in  Heaven,  no  cry- 
ing— another  place,  where  nothing  but  crying. 
How  escape  that?  Ask  God  to  take  away  all 
sin  for  Christ's  sake,  then  all  tears  go  away 
too.— P.  M. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS    AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


DEATH,  Beautiful.— /.y.  Ixi:  3.  Death, 
like  autumn,  is  sad,  spectral,  and  seemingly 
ruinous,  and  yet  like  it  also,  what  unearthly 
beauty  shines  through  it.  What  light  of 
faith,  and  tenderness  of  love  in  the  eyes,  in 
the  words  of  the  passing  saint.  How  the 
struggle  with  death,  the  burnings  of  dis- 
ease, transfigure  the  countenance  into  a  heav- 
enly glow  of  patience,  and  hope,  and  self- 
sacrifice  that  betoken  the  nearness  and  glory 
of  a  better  life.  "  They  are  not,"  for  God 
has  taken  them. — C.  G. 

DEATH,  Happiness  After. — She  is  gone  ! 
No  longer  shrinking  from  the  winter  wind, 
or  lifting  her  calm  pure  forehead  to  the  sum- 
mer's kiss;  no  longer  gazing  with  her  blue 
and  glorious  eyes  into  a  far-off  sky ;  no 
longer  yearning  with  a  holy  heart  for  Heaven  ; 
no  longer  toiling  painfully  along  the  path, 
upward  and  upward,  to  the  everlasting  rock 
on  which  are  based  the  walls  of  the  city  of  the 
Most  High ;  no  longer  here ;  she  is  there ; 
gazing,  seeing,  knowing,  loving,  as  the  blessed 
only  see.  and  know,  and  love.  Earth  has 
one  angel  less  and  Heaven  one  more,  since 
yesterday.  Already,  kneeling  at  the  throne, 
she  has  received  her  welcome,  and  is  resting 
on  the  bosom  of  her  Savior.  If  human  love 
hath  power  to  penetrate  the  veil  (and  hath 
it  not?),  then  there  are  yet  living  here  a  few 
who  have  the  blessedness  of  knowing  that  an 
angel  loves  them. — F.  II. 

DEATH  IS  GAIN.— Precious,  in  the  sight 
<^^  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  His  saints,  be- 


cause it  brings  them  near  to  God.  How 
strange,  indeed  how  absurd,  this  life  would 
be  if  death  ended  all !  Think  of  a  man  like 
Gladstone,  who  lived  under  a  high  sense  of 
duty,  whose  life  was  one  of  prayer,  who  sang 
"  Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  height "  amid 
the  suffering  of  his  last  days;  his  whole  life  a 
trust  in  God,  a  serving  God,  a  striving  after 
God,  and,  finally,  a  longing  to  be  free  and 
get  away  to  God, — just  imagine  all  this  end- 
ing in  nothingness  !  Why,  it  reminds  one  of 
the  famous  Amblongus  pie  of  the  nonsense 
book.  It  was  a  pie  of  most  elaborate  con- 
struction. Particular  directions  were  given 
as  to  the  making  of  it,  what  was  to  be  put  in, 
and  in  what  quantities.  It  was  to  be  very 
carefully  compounded,  and  most  scientifically 
baked,  and  then  the  final  instructions  were  to 
"  open  the  window  and  pitch  it  out  as  fast 
as  possible."  Just  as  laughable,  so  to  speak, 
is  the  idea  of  a  man,  trained  to  high  thought 
and  holy  feeling  and  submissive  will,  being, 
at  the  last,  simply  "  cast  as  rubbish  to  the 
void." — E.  Times. 

DEATH  OF  LITTLE  NELL.— She  was 
dead.  There,  upon  her  little  bed,  she  lay  at 
rest.  The  solemn  stillness  was  no  marvel 
now.  She  was  dead.  No  sleep  so  beautiful  and 
calm,  so  free  from  trace  of  pain,  so  fair  to 
look  upon.  She  seemed  a  creature  fresh  from 
the  hand  of  God,  and  waiting  for  the  breath 
of  life;  not  one  who  had  lived  and  suffered 
death.  Her  couch  was  dressed  with  here  and 
there  some  winter  berries  and  green  leaves, 
gathered  in  a  spot  she  had  been  used  to  favor. 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


333 


"  When  I  die,  put  near  me  something  that 
has  loved  the  light,  and  had  the  sky  above  it 
always.'  She  was  dead.  Dear,  gentle,  pa- 
tient, noble  Nell,  was  dead.  Her  little  bird — 
a  poor  slight  thing  the  pressure  of  a  finger 
would  have  crushed — was  stirring  nimbly  in 
its  cage;  and  the  strong  heart  of  its  child- 
mistress  was  mute  and  motionless  for  ever. 
Where  were  the  traces  of  her  early  cares, 
her  sufferings,  and  fatigues?  All  gone.  Sor- 
row was  dead  indeed  in  her,  but  peace  and 
perfect  happiness  were  born ;  imaged  in  her 
tranquil  beauty  and  profound  repose.  And 
still  her  former  self  lay  there,  unaltered  in 
this  change.  Yes.  The  old  fireside  had 
smiled  upon  that  same  sweet  face ;  it  had 
passed,  like  a  dream,  through  haunts  of  mis- 
ery and  care ;  at  the  door  of  the  poor  school- 
master on  the  summer  evening,  before  the 
furnace-fire  upon  the  cold  wet  night,  at  the 
still  bedside  of  the  dying  boy,  there  had  been 
the  same  mild,  lovely  look.  So  shall  we  know 
the  angels  in  their  majesty,  after  death. — 
Charles  Dickens. 

DEATH  OF  LITTLE  PAUL.—"  Now  lay 

me  down,"  he  said;  "  and  Floy,  come  close  to 
me,  and  let  me  see  you  !  "  Sister  and  brother 
wound  their  arms  around  each  other,  and  the 
golden  light  came  streaming  in,  and  fell  upon 
them,  locked  together.  "  How  fast  the  river 
runs  between  its  green  banks  and  the  rushes, 
Floy!  But  it's  very  near  the  sea.  I  hear 
the  waves !  They  always  said  so !  "  Presently 
he  told  her  that  the  motion  of  the  boat  upon 
the  stream  was  lulling  him  to  rest.  How 
green  the  banks  were  now,  how  bright  the 
flowers  growing  on  them,  and  how  tall  the 
rushes !  Now  the  boat  was  out  at  sea,  but 
gliding  smoothly  on.  And  now  there  was  a 
shore  before  him.  Who  stood  on  the  bank? 
He  put  his  hands  together,  as  he  had  been 
used  to  do,  at  his  prayers.  He  did  not  re- 
move his  arms  to  do  it ;  but  they  saw  him 
fold  them  so,  behind  her  back.  "  Mamma 
is  like  you,  Floy.  I  know  her  by  the  face ! 
But  tell  them  that  the  print  upon  the  stairs 
at  school  is  not  divine  enough.  The  light 
about  the  head  is  shining  on  me  as  I  go  !  " 
The  golden  ripple  on  the  wall  came  back 
again,  and  nothing  else  stirred  in  the  room. 
The  old,  old  fashion  !  The  fashion  that  came 
in  with  our  first  garments,  and  will  last  un- 
changed until  our  race  has  run  its  course,  and 
the  wide  firmament  is  rolled  up  like  a  scroll. 
The  old,  old  fashion — Death !  Oh  thank 
God,  all  who  see  it,  for  that  older  fashion  yet, 
of  immortality !  And  look  upon  us,  angels  of 
young  children,  with  regards  not  quite  es- 
tranged, when  the  swift  river  bears  us  to  the 
ocean  ! — Charles  Dickens. 

DEATH,    The    Entrance    into     Life. — / 

Cor.  in:  21,  22.  I  once  went,  with  a  large 
party  of  friends,  into  a  beautiful  cave.  The 
passage  into  the  cave  was,  in  places,  quite 
difficult.  At  one  place  we  had  to  crawl 
along  through  an  opening  very  close  and  nar- 
row, and  in  doing  so  felt  the  dread  of  suffo- 
cation. When  the  end  of  this  narrow  passage 
was  reached,  a  spacious  room  was  before  us, 
brilliantly  illuminated  by  the  torches  of  the 


many  who  had  preceded  us,  dome  and  floor 
and  walls  glittering  like  the  palace  of  a  king, 
with  stalactites  and  stalagmites.  The  sight 
was  beautiful  beyond  expression.  And  I 
thought,  so  is  death  but  a  dark  and  narrow 
passage  into  the  unspeakable  glories  and 
beauties  of  Heaven.  What  must  be  our  rap- 
ture when  the  soul  emerges  from  the  stifling 
atmosphere  and  the  appalling  darkness  of  the 
tomb  into  the  city  of  God,  with  its  gold- 
paved  streets  and  jasper  walls ! — C.  G. 

HEAVEN   AND   EARTH   BRIDGED.— 

Gen.  xxviii:  12.  When  they  began  to  build 
a  great  wire  suspension  bridge  over  a  wide 
river,  a  kite  was  sent  across  with  the  first 
fine  wire.  This  was  fastened,  and  then  on 
it  other  wires  were  drawn  across,  until  the 
great  bridge  hung  in  the  air,  and  thousands 
were  passing  over  it.  From  many  a  home 
a  loved  one,  borne  to  Heaven,  carries  the 
first  heavenward  thought  of  a  worldly  house- 
hold. But  from  that  moment,  and  on  that 
slender  thread,  their  thoughts,  affections,  and 
longings  go  continually  heavenward,  until 
there  is  a  broad  golden  bridge  hung  between 
their  home  and  God's  house,  and  prayer  and 
love  are  constantly  passing  over. — S.  S.  T. 

HEAVEN  AND  EARTH,  The  Things 
in- — Eph.  i:  3,  10.  Both  the  spheres  of 
Heaven  and  earth  have  become  places  of  sin, 
when  a  part  of  the  angels  fell  into  sin  from 
God  (i  John  iii:8;  James  ii:  19;  2  Pet.  ii : 
4;  Jude  6).  Thence  it  came  to  earth  (2  Cor. 
xi:3)  in  even  greater  dimensions  (i  Cor.  x: 
20,  21).  Thus  the  state  originally  appointed 
by  God,  and  the  development  He  wished  to 
be  without  disturbance,  ceased  (Rom.  viii: 
18,  24),  so  that  a  renewing  of  the  heavens 
and  of  the  earth,  was  taken  into  view  (2  Pet. 
iii :  13).  The  center  of  this  renewal  is  Christ 
and  His  redeeming  work  (Col.  i:  20),  which, 
however,  has  its  development  also  as  before 
His  appearance  up  to  the  fulness  of  time,  so 
afterward  up  to  His  second  Advent,  when 
the  restitution  of  all  things  (Acts  iii:  21), 
the  palingenesia  (Matt,  xix :  28)  will  be  in- 
troduced  (2  Pet.  iii:  10-13).— A.  P-  L. 

HEAVEN  A  PLACE.— /o/;n  xiv:  2.  It  is 
certain  that  there  must  be  some  place  in 
the  upper  worlds  where  the  beauties  and 
wonders  of  God's  works  are  illuminated  to 
the  highest  transparency  by  His  power  and 
holy  majesty;  where  the  combination  of 
lovely  manifestations  as  seen  from  radiant 
summits,  the  enraptured  gaze  into  the  quiet 
valleys  of  universal  creation,  and  the  streams 
of  light  which  flow  through  them  must  move 
the  spirits  of  the  blest  in  the  mightiest  manner 
to  cry  out.  Holy !  holy  !  holy  !  And  there  is 
the  holiest  place  in  the  great  temple !  It  is 
there  because  divine  manifestations  fill  all 
spirits  with  a  feeling  of  His  holiness.  But 
still  rather,  because  there  He  reveals  Himself 
through  the  holiest  one  of  all,  even  Jesus 
Himself.— A  P.  L. 

HEAVEN,  Doctrine  ot.—JoJin  xiv.  The 
doctrine  of  Heaven  was  not  intelligible  to  be- 


334 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


lieving  hearts  until  the  disciples  were  forced 
to  learn  experimentally  that  the  earthly  world 
was  no  longer  a  resting  place  for  the  Lord 
and  for  them,  that  they  were  cast  out  of  the 
world.— A.  P.  L. 

HEAVEN,  Names  Written  in.— They 
that  are  written  in  the  eternal  leaves  of 
heaven  shall  never  be  wrapped  in  the  cloudy 
sheets  of  darkness.  A  man  may  have  his 
name  written  in  the  Chronicle,  yet  lost ; 
written  in  durable  marble,  yet  perish ;  written 
on  a  monument  equal  to  a  Colossus,  yet  be 
ignominious ;  written  on  the  hospital  gates, 
yet  go  to  hell ;  written  on  his  own  house, 
yet  another  come  to  possess  it.  All  these  are 
but  writings  on  the  dust,  or  in  the  water, 
when  the  characters  perish  as  soon  as  they 
are  made.  They  no  more  prove  a  man  happy 
than  the  fool  could  prove  Pontius  Pilate  a 
saint,  because  his  name  was  written  in  the 
Creed.  But  they  that  are  written  in  heaven 
are  sure  to  inherit  it. — A.  P.  L. 

HEAVEN  OUR  HOME.— /o/zn  xiv.  These 
sayings  inculcating  faith  in  the  Heavenly 
home.  L  The  saying  addressed  to  Thomas. 
n.  The  saying  addressed  to  Philip.  HL  The 
saying  addressed  to  Judas  Lebbaeus.  Or,  our 
heavenly  home  is  sure  to  us.  (i)  In  spite 
of  the  contradiction  of  an  outward  reality 
full  of  distress  and  death.  (2)  In  spite  of 
the  want  of  phenomena  evident  to  the  senses. 


I  know  nothing  against  Christianity  except 
its  want  of  evidence.  (3)  In  spite  of  the 
denial  of  the  hostile  world,  which  even  by 
its  hate,  as  a  germ  and  sign  of  hell,  must 
testify  of  love  as  the  seed  and  sign  of  heaven. 
—A.  P.  L. 

HEAVEN,  Preparation  for. —  (i)  Jesus 
is  now  going  thither.  (2)  The  Jews,  as  Jews 
can  never  come  thither.  (3)  The  disciples 
cannot  now  come  thither.  A  decided  in- 
dication of  our  need  to  ripen  for  heaven  by 
a  Christian  life.  Heaven  is  to  be  gained  by 
a  ladder,  not  by  a  leap,  step  by  step,  not  by 
a  bound. — A.  P.  L. 

JOY,  Eternal. — The  sufferings  of  the  just 
may  well  be  likened  to  fleeting  shadows  or 
passing  dreams.  As  soon  as  the  bright  morn- 
ing of  eternity  begins  to  dawn,  the  shadows 
of  mortality  are  forever  dissipated ;  and  they 
forget  at  once,  in  the  glorious  light  of  God's 
majesty,  the  tribulations  which  they  have  en- 
dured for  His  cause.  The  unspeakable  joys 
of  which  they  partake  so  absorb  all  their  fac- 
ulties, that  there  is  no  room  left  for  sorrow 
or  suffering.  If,  indeed,  their  past  trials  are 
remembered  by  them,  it  is  but  to  swell  with 
fresh  rapture,  and  to  tune  their  voices  to 
louder  anthems  in  the  praise  of  Him  who  has 
given  them,  in  exchange  for  the  cross,  such 
an  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. — 
F.  II  . 


POETRY 


At  The  End 

By  Danske  Dandridge 

Fearlessly  into  the  Unknown 

Go  forth,  thou  little  soul. 
Launch  out  upon  the  trackless  sea, 
Nor  wind  nor  stars  to  pilot  thee, 

Alone,  alone,  alone ! 

Thine  is  a  helpless  plight, 

Thou  canst  not  turn  thy  helm. 

Nor  reach  the  harbor  any  more; 

Thou   driftest  to  an  unguessed  shore. 
Dark,  dark  the  night. 

Yet  launch  and  take  no  care; 

For  what  can  care  avail  ? 
In  the  dark  void,  the  awful  space, 
Where  wand'rest  thou  to  find  thy  place, 

Thy  God  is  even  there. — I. 

The  Dead 

By    Richard    Henry    Stoddard 

Pluck  not  flowers  from  graves, 
For  those  which  June  has  shed 

Profusely  there  are  precious ; 
The  largess  of  the  dead ! 

Tread  lightly  o'er  their  dust, 
And  speak  with  bated  breath. 

Lest  you  disturb  the  silence 
And  sanctity  of  Death — 


The  pure  and  perfect  peace, 

The  sleep  where  dreams  are  not; 

No  evil  thing  remembered, 
And  no  good  thing  forgot ! — L 

Companioned 

By  Lilian  Whiting 

{In  Memoriam — C.  R.  S.) 

"  Hath  God  new  realms  of  lovely  life  for  thee 
In  some  white  star,  the  soul  of  eve,  or  mom  ?  " 

Through  days  and  dreams,  I  seem  to  walk 

with  one 

Whose  feet  must  shun 
Henceforth   the   paths   of  earth ;    for   whom 

the  sun 
Rises  in  unknown  realms  I  cannot  trace ; 
And  still  there  is  to  me  no  vacant  place. 
Before  me  comes  upon  the  air  her  face. 
In  the   deep,   luminous,   and   wondering  eyes 
I  read  the  rapture  of  a  glad  surprise; 
A  tender  hand  is  clasped  within  my  own. 
And  on  the  air  there  vibrates  still  her  tone. 

O  Friend !  on  whom  the  Vision  shines  to-day, 

What  mystic  sway 
Hath  wrought  its  spell  o'er  thee?    What  fair 

desire. 
As  o'er  that  sea  of  glass  with  mingled  fire 
Thy  way  hath  sped — what  fair  desire 
Is    born    within    thy    soul?     What    strange, 

sweet  dreams 


ALL  SAINTS'  DAY 


335 


Transfigure  thy  new  life,  in  wondrous  gleams 
Of  rose,  and  gold,  and  pearl,  through  starry 

space? 
Not  vainly  do  I  ask.     Thy  tender  grace 
Answers  my  love,  and  brings  the  new  life 

near; 
And   all    our   baffled   meanings   grow    more 

clear. — I. 

Goodnight 

By  May  Christie 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep ! 
Come,  wandering,  way-worn  sheep ; 
God   is   thy   Home,    He  longs   to  have  thee 
come. 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 
Oh,  leave  the  mountains  rough  and  steep ! 
In  God  is  peace  which  evermore  shall  cease. 
Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 
Thy  tear-filled  eyes  no  more  need  weep ; 
God  is  Thy  Friend,  and  will  all  danger  fend. 
Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep ! 
He  in   His  tender  care  will  keep 
Thee  safe  from  harm  with  His  almighty  arm, 
Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 
So  o'er  thy  frame  will  slumber  creep, 
And    thou'lt    find    rest    upon    thy    Savior's 
breast. 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! 
And  dreaming,  thou  wilt  hear  the  sweep 
Of    angel    wings,    and    strains    from    golden 
strings. 

Goodnight !     Sweet  sleep  ! — I. 

Heaven 

By  F.  W.  Faber 

Oh  what  is  this  splendor  that  beams  on  me 
now, 
This  beautiful'  sunrise  that  dawns  on  my 
soul. 
While  faint  and  far  off  land  and  sea  lie  below, 
And  under  my  feet  the  huge  golden  clouds 
roll? 

To  what  mighty  king  doth  this  city  belong, 
With    its    rich    jeweled    shrines,    and    its 
gardens  of  flowers. 
With  its  breaths  of  sweet  incense,  its  meas- 
ures of  song 
And  the  light  that  is  gilding  its  numberless 
towers? 

See !  forth  from  the  gates,  like  a  bridal  array. 
Come  the  princes  of  heaven,  how  bravely 
they  shine ! 
'Tis  to  welcome  the  stranger,  to  show  me  the 
way. 
And  to  tell  me  that  all  I  see  round  me  is 
mine. 


There  are  millions  of  saints,  in  their  ranks 
and  degrees, 
And  each  with  a  beauty  and  crown  of  his 
own ; 
And  there,  far  outnumbering  the  sands  of  the 
seas. 
The  nine  rings  of  Angels  encircle  the  throne. 

And  oh  if  the  exiles  of  earth  could  but  win 

One  sight  of  the  beauty  of  Jesus  above. 
From  that  hour  they  would  cease  to  be  able 
to  sin. 
And  earth  would  be  Heaven ;  for  Heaven 
is  love. 

But    words   may   not   tell   of   the   Vision   of 
Peace, 
With  its  worshipful  seeming,  its  marvelous 
fires; 
Where  the  soul  is  at  large,  where  its  sorrows 
all  cease. 
And  the  gift  has  outbidden  its  boldest  de- 
sires. 

No  sickness  is  here,  no  bleak  bitter  cold. 
No  hunger,  debt,  prison,  or  weariful  toil ; 

No  robbers  to  rifle  our  treasures  of  gold, 
No  rust  to  corrupt,  and  no  canker  to  spoil. 

My  God !  and  it  was  but  a  short  hour  ago 
That  I  lay  on  a  bed  of  unbearable  pains ; 
All  was  cheerless  around  me,  all  weeping  and 
wo; 
Now  the  wailing  is  changed  to  angelical 
strains. 

Because  I  served  Thee,  were  life's  pleasures 
all  lost? 
Was    it    gloom,    pain,    or   blood,   that   was 
Heaven  for  me? 
Oh  no!  one  enjoyment  alone  could  life  boast, 
And  that,  dearest  Lord !  was  my  service  of 
Thee. 

I  had  hardly  to  give;   'twas  enough  to  re- 
ceive, 
Only  not  to  impede  the  sweet  grace  from 
above ; 
And,  this  first  hour  in  Heaven,  I  can  hardly 
believe 
In  so  great  a  reward  for  so  little  a  love. 

Heaven 

By  Thomas  MacKellar 

There  is  a  land  immortal, 

The  beautiful  of  lands ; 
Beside  its  ancient  portal 

A  silent  sentry  stands : 
He  only  can  undo  it. 

And  .open  wide  the  door ; 
And  mortals  who  pass  through  it 

Are  mortals  evermore. 

That  glorious  land  is  heaven, 

And  Death  the  sentry  grim : 
The  Lord  thereof  has  given 

The  opening  keys  to  him; 
And  ransom'd  spirits,  sighing 

And  sorrowful  for  sin. 
Pass  through  the  gate  in  dying, 

And  freely  enter  in. 


336 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Tho  dark  and  drear  the  passage 

That  leads  unto  the  gate, 
Yet  grace  attends  the  message 

To  souls  that  watch  and  wait; 
And  at  the  time  appointed 

A  messenger  comes  down, 
And  guides  the  Lord's  anointed 

From  cross  to  glory's  crown. 

Their  sighs  are  lost  in  singing; 

They're  blessed  in  their  tears: 
Their  journey  heavenward  winging, 

They  leave  on  earth  their  fears. 
Death  like  an  angel  seeming, 

"  We  welcome  thee  !  "  they  cry : 
Their  eyes  with  rapture  gleaming, 

'Tis  life  for  them  to  die. — P.  J. 

In  Heaven 

By  Bell  Stuart 

"  There  shall  be  no  night  there." 

I  wonder  will  we  sometimes  say, 
"  Do     you     remember     how     the     darkness 
checked 
The  hurrying  day? 
The    soft,    cool    darkness,    bringing   time   to 
love 
And  time  to  pray? 

"  Do  you  remember  how  the  twilight  came, 

By  wandering  breezes  fanned. 
How  all  the  flowers  talked  in  plainer  speech 

On  every  hand, 
With  fragrant  voices  that  our  souls  were  then 

Too  dull  to  understand? 

"  And  ere  the  twilight  fell,  that  blazing  west 

That  gave  to  us  the  clue 
Of  colors  builded  into  heavenly  walls, 

Even  then  we  knew 
Those  tints  but  faintly  hinted  at  the  sights 

Which  now  we  view." 

And  if  there  falls  no  night  in  Heaven 

Must  we  the  mornings  miss? 
Or  are  these  too  but  hints  of  brighter  things? 

What  unimagined  bliss 
Has  been  prefigured  in  this  earthly  joy, 

A  dawn  like  this? 

A  whispering  breeze  has  waked  the  sleeping 
leaves 
With  the  birds'  first  twittering  call. 
The  dew  washed  earth  turns  to  the  climbing 
sun. 
The  stars  grow  small. 
Soon  o'er  the  grass  with  westward  pointing 
hands 
Long  shadows  fall. 

How   will   it  seem  when   day  and  night  no 
more 
Measure  the  hours  that  fly, 
When  changing  seasons  mark  no  more  the 
years 
That  hurry  by. 
When  time  itself  shall  cease  and  be 
Eternity  ? 


In  that  eternal  summer  shall  we  sometimes 
miss 

The  miracle  of  spring? 
No  August  ripeness  wears  the  tender  flush 

That  xMay-times  bring ; 
To  June's  first  roses,  richer  touch  and  grace 

Of  freshness  cling. 

The  vision  reads,  "  And  there  was  no  more 
sea," 
The  sights  we  love  so  well — 
The  flashing   spray,  the  white-fringed  tum- 
bling surf. 
The  rolling  swell — 
Its  many  voices,  singing  truth  our  lips 
Can  never  tell. 

Yet  as  a  child  with  ignorant  delight. 

Follows  a  funeral  train. 
Drawn    by    the    notes    that   break   the   heart 
bereft — 
The  sad  refrain  , 

Makes  one  whose  grief  was  healed  feel  the 
old  loss 
Made  new  again — 

So  could  we  read  the  message  of  the  sea. 

But  grasp  its  mystery. 
But  know  the  meaning  of  its  music  deep, 

It  well  might  be 
If  we  could  understand,  we  could  not  bear 

To  hear  the  sea. 


Suppose  the  children  lived  apart  from  us. 

Not  knowing  of  our  joys. 
And  one  should  tell  them,  "  When  you  grow 
to  be 
No  longer  girls  and  boys 
Your   hands   must   put   away   these    childish 
things 
And  have  no  toys." 

"  No  toys !  "  the  disappointed  little  hearts 

Might    grieving    say, 
"  No  rocking  horse !     No  dolls !     When  we 
are  grown 

What  can  we  play? 
If  this  is  true  then  we  will  not  grow  up. 

But  children  stay." 

Ah,  little  hearts,  as  childishly  we  ask 

Shall  we  earth's  beauties  crave 
When  we  have  grown  to  Heaven's  high 
estate; 

Does  manhood  brave 
Sigh  for  the  wooden  horse  that  once 

Such  pleasure  gave? 

"  No  dolls !  "   for  her  whose  heart  exulting 
knows 
The  bliss  of  motherhood? 
So  when  we  reach  the  fulness  of  that  great 

Undreamed  of  good, 
We  may  forget  these  sights,  nor  ask  to  have 
them 
If  we  could. — I. 

To  Some  in  Heaven 
By  Will  Carleton 

Beloved,  who  have  heard  a  call  too  sweet  to 

hear  and  stay 
Where  earthly  suns  and  shadows  fall,  whose 

feet  have  trodden  the  way, 


ALL  SAINTS'   DAY 


337 


Beyond    these    hills    and    vales    of    ours,    to 

where  the  towers  rise 
Of  that  fair  house  God   builds   for  us,   that 

home  beyond  the  skies. 

Beloved,  can  you  sometimes  see,  when  swing 

the  gates  ajar, 
And  happy  souls  brought  safe  to  heaven  find 

entrance  where  you  are, 
Through  just   a   little,   little  rift,  the  homes 

you  left  behind, 
Or  in  the  joyous  life  of  heaven,  are  we  quite 

out  of  mind?   ' 

Oh,  darlings,  when  you  fell  asleep,  you  looked 

so  hushed  and  calm ! 
The    very    silence    round    you,    dears,    was 

sweeter  than  a  psalm; 
Your  brows  forgot  the  care-lines,  and  your 

hands  were  folded  still, 
As  if  you  knew  all  secrets  of  the  Father's 

tenderest  will ! 

And  tho  we  saw  you  tranquil  in  that  dream- 
less radiant  peace. 

Ere  closed  the  grave-gloom  over  you — our 
mourning  does  not  cease; 

Our  tears  drop  slowly  in  the  night,  our  ach- 
ing eyes  are  blurred, 

We  cry  for  you  in  anguish,  and  you  answer 
not  a  word. 

We  have  put  away  your  playthings,  our  little 

children  sweet. 
And  the  house  is  very  empty,  and  the  rooms 

are  very  neat ; 
But  we'd  give  our  best  possessions,  to  hear 

you  at  the  door, 
And  to  see  your  dolls  and  toys  again,  in  a 

litter  on  the  floor. 

We  have  done  the  things  you  bade  us,  our 

mothers  fond  and  true. 
We  never  kneel  to  say  our  prayers,  without 

a  thought  of  you  ; 
O,    comrades    of   the   journey,   beloved   who 

could  not  stay, 
Do  you  in  heaven  remember  us  yet  on  the 

earthly  way? 

Beloved,  this  we  beg  you :  won't  you  pray  to 

God  for  this : 
That  we  may  grieve  less  bitterly;  that  even 

as  we  miss 
Your   presence   and  your  voices,   there  may 

reach  us  from  above 
A  gracious  balm  of  comfort  from  your  own 

unceasing  love? — E.  W. 

The  Life  Beyond 

By  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith 

To  feel  the  mild,  delicious  clime, 

Where  summer  never  fades ; 
To  breathe  the  glorious  atmosphere, 

Which  sickness  ne'er  invades; 

To  reach  at  last  that  happy  land. 
Where  tears  are  never  known; 

To  see  the  wondrous  face  of  Him 
Who  sits  upon  the  throne; 


All  the  great  souls  of  all  the  years. 
In  heaven's  high  courts  to  meet; 

All  kindred  spirits,  glorified. 
To  join  in  converse  sweet; 

To  burst  the  chrysalis,  and  soar 

On  love's  triumphant  wing; 
To  swell  the  hymns  of  mighty  praise 

The  ransomed  armies  sing; 

To  wear  the  robes  of  saints  in  light ; 

To  shine  as  shines  the  sun; 
To  hear  the  Savior's  welcome  voice 

Pronounce  the  glad  "  Well  done !  " 

And  oh,  the  crowning  heights  of  bliss, 

Where  all  the  glories  blend. 
To  know  the  bliss,  the  light,  the  love, 

Shall  never,  never  end ! 

Beyond  the  shades  of  sin  and  wo. 

With  joyful  speed  to  fly, 
And  in  God's  loving  arms  to  rest — 

Oh,  it  is  gain  to  die !— G.  R. 

The  Loved  Not  Lost 

By  John  G.  Whittier 

How  strange  it  seems,   with  so  much  gone 

Of  life  and  love,  to  live  still  on ! 

Ah,  brother,  only  I  and  thou 

Are  left  of  all  that  circle  now— 

The  dear  home  faces  whereupon 

The  fitful  firelight  paled  and  shone. 

Henceforward,  listen  as  we  will, 

The  voices  of  that  hearth  are  still ; 

Look  where   we  may,  the   wide   world  o'er. 

Those  lighted  faces  shine  no  more. 

We  tread  the  path  their  feet  have  worn, 

We  sit  beneath  their  orchard  trees. 

We  hear  like  them  the  hum  of  bees. 

And  rustle  of  the  bladed  corn; 

We  turn  the  pages  that  they  read. 

Their  written  words  we  linger  o'er; 

But  in  the  sun  they  cast  no  shade. 

No  voice  is  heard,  no  sign  is  made. 

No  step  is  on  the  conscious  floor ! 

Yet  Love  will  dream,  and  Faith  will  trust, 

(Since  He  who  knows  our  need  is  just.) 

That   somehow,   somewhere,  meet  we  must ! 

Alas !  for  him  who  never  sees 

The  stars  shine  through  his  cypress  trees! 

Who,  hopeless,  lays  his  dead  away. 

Nor  looks  to  see  the  breaking  day 

Across  the  mournful  marbles  play  ! 

Who  hath  not  learned,  in  hours  of  faith, 

The  truth  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown. 

That  Life  is  ever  Lord  of  death. 

And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own! 

The  City  of  Rest 
By  James  Buckham 
In  love  was  it  founded  and  pity, 

That  home  at  the  heart  of  the  grasses. 

Where  sleep  never  wearies  nor  passes. 
But  lies  with  God's  peace  in  his  breast,— 

In  love  for  the  spent  and  the  dying. 

In  pity  for  sorrow  and  sighing, 
A  home  for  the  homeless,  a  city, 
A  welcoming  city,  of  rest. 


338 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


There  never  a  trouble  shall  find  them; 
There,  under  God's  dew  and  man's  weeping, 
'Jhc  sick  and  the  weary  are  sleeping. 

Nor  burdened,  nor  worn,  nor  distressed. 
The  earth  folds  them  close,  like  a  mother, 
And  none  is  more  dear  than  another, 

For  God  in  His  love  has  assigned  them 

One  home  in  the  city  of  rest. 

I'hey  sleep,  but  their  eyes  are  not  holden. 

They  joy  in  the  daisies  and  clover. 

Yea,  when  the  loved  faces  bend  over, 
They  smile,  knowing  silence  is  best. 

They  see  nature's  beauty  and  splendor, 

They  hear  all  the  bird-music  tender; — 
Ah !  rose-lit  the  windows  and  golden 
That  look  from  the  city  of  rest. 

'Tis  sweet  at  the  last,  when  God  calls  us. 

To  go  to  the  city  of  slumber. 

Oh  !  think  of  the  infinite  number 
To  whom  that  long  surcease  is  blest! 

Release  from  the  ache  and  the  sorrow, 

No  slaving  to-day  or  to-morrow — 
Ah !  call  it  not  death  that  befalls  us. 
But  peace,  in  the  city  of  rest ! — Y.  C. 

Over  the  River 

Over  the  river  they  beckon  to  me — 

Loved  ones  who've  crossed  to  the  further 
side; 
The  gleam  of  their  snowy  robes  I  see, 
But  their  voices  are  drowned  in  the  rush- 
ing tide. 

There's  one  with  ringlets  of  sunny  gold, 
And  eyes  the   reflection  of  heaven's  own 
blue — 
He  crossed  in  the  twilight  gray  and  cold, 
And   the   pale   mist  hid   him   from  mortal 
view. 

We  saw  not  the  angels  that  met  him  there ; 

The  gate  of  the  city  we  could  not  see — 
Over  the  river,  over  the  river, 

My  brother  stands  waiting  to  welcome  me ! 

Over  the  river  the  boatman  pale 

Carried  another — the  household  pet ; 

Her  brown  curls  waved  in  the  gentle  gale — 
My  darling  child  !     I  see  her  yet ! 

She  crossed  on  her  bosom  her  dimpled  hands, 
And  fearlessly  entered  the  phantom  bark — 

We  watched  it  glide  from  the  silver  sands. 
And  all  our  sunshine  grew  strangely  dark. 

We  know  she  is  safe  on  the  other  side, 

Where   all    the    ransomed   and   angels   be ; 

Over  the  river,  the  mystic  river. 

My  childhood's  idol  is  waiting  for  me. 

For  none  return  from  those  quiet  shores. 
Who  cross  with  the  boatman  cold  and  pale; 

We  hear  the  dip  of  the  golden  oars. 
And  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  snowy  sail. 

And  lo !  they  have  passed  from  our  yearning 
hearts. 

They  cross  the  stream  and  are  gone  for  aye ; 
We  may  not  sunder  the  vail  apart 

That  hides  from  our  vision  the  gates  of  day. 


We  only  know  that  their  barks  no  more 
Will  sail  with  us  o'er  life's  stormy  sea; 

Yet  somewhere,  I  know,  on  the  unseen  shore. 
They  watch,  and  beckon,  and  wait  for  me. 

And  I  sit  and  think,  when  the  sunset's  gold 
Is  flushing  river,  and  hill,  and  shore, 

I  shall  one  day  stand  by  the  water  cold, 
And  list   for  the  sound  of  the  boatman's 
oar; 

I  shall  watch  for  a  gleam  of  the  flapping  sail ; 

I  shall  hear  the  boat  as  it  nears  the  strand; 
I  shall  pass  from  sight  with  the  boatman  pale, 

To  the  better  shore  of  the  spirit  land; 

I  shall  know  the  loved  who  have  gone  before, 
And  joyfully  sweet  will  the  meeting  be — 

When  over  the  river,  the  mystic  river. 
The  Angel  of  Death  shall  carry  me. — C.  H. 

The  Silence  of  the  Departed 

By  Joel  Swartz. 

The    lips    of    the    vanished    in    silence    are 
sealed, 
And  sealed  are  the  portals  through  which 
they  have  passed; 
No  whisper,  no  token  has  ever  revealed 
What  followed  that  moment  we  knew  as 
their  last. 

O,  where  do  the  sleepers  awaken  again? 

Where  blushes  the  morning  that  crimsons 
their  sky? 
To  us  who,  alas,  in  these  shadows  remain 

They  cannot  or  will  not  return  to  reply. 

When  rings  o'er  the  harbor  the  last  evening 
bell, 
And  twilight  has  drawn  down  the  last  cur- 
tains of  day. 
And  pale  lips  have  uttered  the  final  farewell, 
O,  whither  then  opens  the  vanished  one's 
way? 

So  candid,  so  affable  were  they  when  here, 
That  if  their  fond  spirits  are  still  in  our 
range. 
Their  stillness,  their  silence,  wherever  their 
sphere. 
To  sorrow  and  ignorance  are  painful  and 
strange. 

It  may  be  our  air  is  so  murky  and  dense, 
That  it  yields  to  no  touch  the  vanished  can 
give ; 

Or  may  be,  so  dull  is  our  bodily  sense. 
That  we  are  as  dead  to  the  spirits  who  live. 

The  caterpillar's  web,  whose  soft,  silver  fold, 
Is  wrapt   round   the  leaves  of  the  sweet- 
budding  spring, 
May  shut  in  the  worms  but  it  shuts  out  the 
gold 
Which  sparkles  and  burns  on  the  butter- 
fly's wing. 

Perhaps  it  is  well,  if  somehow  we  could  find 
The    vanished    of    earth    in    their    loftier 
sphere, 
That  might  the  sweet  ties  of  the  present  un- 
bind 
And  hinder  the  duties  imperative  here. 


ALL  SAINTS'   DAY 


339 


It  may  be  the  burdens  we  properly  bear, 
Would  pass  to  their  shoulders,  so  true  to 
the  last; 
O,  how  could  we  ask  them  our  journey  to 
share. 
Return   and   retrace   the  desert  they  have 
passed? 

But  are  they  not  near  us,  a  witnessing  cloud. 
With    sympathies    sweet    and    interest    in- 
tense, 
And  close  to  the  race-course  invisibly  crowd 
Where   hang   the   great   issues   of  life   in 
suspense? 

Ah  yes;  let  us  think,  were  our  senses  un- 
sealed, 
The    mountains    around    us    would   kindle 
with  fire; 
Bright  hands  would  reach  forward  assistance 
to  yield. 
And  whispers  of  hope  our  courage  inspire? 

And  high  over  all,  at  the  end  of  the  race, 
Our    conquering   captain    in    glory    should 
stand. 
With  cheer  for  our  hearts  in  the  smiles  of 
His  face, 
And   crowns   for  our  heads   in   His  nail- 
pierced  hand. 

Accept,   brother  pilgrim,   this   world  as  thy 
home. 
And  labor  to  make  it  the  brightest  and  best ; 
Yet   ready   to   answer   the   call,    "  Welcome, 
come. 
And  hear  through  the  silence  the  songs  of 
the  blest !  "—P.  J. 


Thou  Art   Gone 

By  Reginald  Heber 

Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave !   but  we  will  not 
deplore  thee, 
Tho  sorrows  and  darkness  encompass  the 
tomb; 
The   Savior  hath  passed  through  its  portals 
before  thee, 
And   the   lamp   of   His    love   is  thy   guide 
through  the  gloom. 

Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave !    we  no  longer 
behold  thee 
Nor  tread  the  rough  paths  of  the  world  by 
thy  side; 
But  the  wide  arms  of  mercy  are  spread  to 
enfold  thee. 
And  sinners  may  hope,  for  the  Sinless  hath 
died. 

Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave !   and,  its  mansion 
forsaking. 
Perchance    thy    weak   spirit   in    doubt   lin- 
gered long; 
But  the  sunshine  of  glory  beamed  bright  on 
thy  waking, 
And   the   sound   thou   didst   hear   was   the 
seraphim's  song. 

Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave !    but  we  will  not 
deplore  thee. 
Since  God  was  thy  ransom,  thy  guardian, 
and   guide : 
He  gave  thee,  He  took  thee,  and  He  will  re- 
store thee, 
And  death  has  no  sting,  since  the  Savior 
hath  died. 


340  HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 

(November) 

WHEN,  after  the  ingathering  of  the  first  harvest  in  a  new  world,  Governor 
Bradford  sent  four  men  out  to  shoot  wild  fowl  that  the  infant  colony 
"  might  after  a  more  special  manner  rejoice  together,"  he  little  dreamed  to  what 
that  pious  act  would  grow.  For  many  years  the  autumnal  "  feast  of  ingathering  " 
was  merely  an  occasional  festival,  as  unexpected  prosperity  or  unhoped-for  aid 
in  adversity  moved  our  Pilgrim  ancestors  to  a  special  act  of  praise.  It  was  not 
until  our  Revolutionary  War  that  the  Feast  became  national,  and  after  1784  it 
was  only  occasionally  observed  except  in  New  England.  It  was  our  civil  war 
which  brought  the  people  to  a  new  sense  of  national  oneness,  and  since  1863,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  has  annually  issued  a  Thanksgiving  proclamation. 
But  what  President  or  prophet  in  1864  could  have  dreamed  that  a  quarter  century 
later  the  lines  of  such  a  proclamation  would  go  out  into  all  the  world,  that  islands 
in  the  Southern  Sea,  and  in  the  broad  Pacific  Ocean  should  be  summoned  with 
us  to  observe  a  day  of  joyful  thanksgiving? 

On  such  a  day  as  this,  when  in  Cuba  and  Hawaii  and  the  Philippines  there 
are  hearts  uplifted  with  thankfulness  that  the  United  States  Government  exists 
and  is  theirs,  the  thoughtful  mind  cannot  but  occupy  itself  with  the  question.  To 
what  end  is  this  vast  and  marvelous  expansion  of  a  government  which  a  century 
and  a  half  ago  was  not  even  a  prophecy?  To  many  it  will  seem  but  the  action 
of  a  natural  law — the  law  of  Progress ;  but  are  there  not  an  elect  few  at  least  who 
will  recognize  in  it  the  workings  of  another  natural  law — that  of  Redemption? 

For  these  two  laws  are  equally  natural  and  equally  imperative.  They  rule 
in  diflferent  spheres,  but  they  rule  none  the  less.  And  happy  is  that  nation  which 
has  entered  the  higher  sphere  in  which  the  law  of  Progress  is  perceived  to  be 
simply  the  means  by  which  the  law  of  Redemption  shall  prevail. 

In  all  ages  of  the  world  there  have  been  men  whose  function  it  was  to  redeem. 
Prophets,  poets,  law-givers,  martyrs  have  been  aware  of  this  high  calling,  not  as 
something  exceptional,  singling  them  out  from  all  the  world,  but  as  something 
inevitable  and  universal,  their  singularity  being  but  a  symbol  of  that  which  should 
one  day  be  the  rule.  From  time  to  time  there  have  been  nations  which  at  least 
fitfully  and  as  by  a  flash  of  insight  perceived  that  they  were  called  to  redeem  the 
world.  Israel  was  such  a  nation ;  from  first  to  last,  amid  all  its  darkness,  errors, 
shortcomings,  the  conviction  that  it  was  called  to  a  work  of  Redemption  has  been 
an  integral  element  in  the  Hebrew  character,  and  by  virtue  of  it  the  Jewish  people 
through  vicissitudes  unparalleled,  have  remained  a  people.  France  was  such  a 
nation  for  the  brief  wild  period  of  the  Revolution ;  its  inspiring  spirit  was  the 
conviction  that  it  was  set  for  the  redemption  of  society,  its  worst  blunders,  blun- 
ders that  were  nothing  short  of  crimes,  were  but  a  startling  proof  of  the  vital  truth 
that  the  mission  of  Redemption  must  have  as  its  basis  religious  and  not  political 
sanctions. 

That  is  the  truth  that  our  nation  needs  to  learn  to-day.  Already  it  is  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  its  calling  to  something  other  than  mere  Progress ;  already 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


341 


the  prophetic  vision  that  its  progress  is  in  order  to  Redemption  is  dawning  upon 
the  national  consciousness.  May  the  profound  conviction  that  the  work  of  Re- 
demption is  possible  only  in  alliance  with  God  be  the  gift  of  this  Thanksgiving 
Day !— E. 

THE  FIRST  THANKSGIVING  IN  AMERICA 

By  Henry  Austin 


The  first  Thanksgiving !     This  is  a  theme, 

which  even  a  flippant  writer  would  perforce 

be  compelled  to  approach  with  a  feeling  akin 

to  reverence. 

The_  Even   John    Boyle   O'Reilly,    a 

Signifi-     man  not  born  in  the  faith  of  our 

cance  of     Pilgrim  fathers,  but  representing 
Thanks-    an  antagonistic  creed,   spoke  al- 

giving      ways  throughout  his  life  with  a 
certain  enthusiasm  in  regard  to 
this  great  original  of  a  now  historic  and  na- 
tional  ceremony. 

For  the  festival  of  Thanksgiving  to-day, 
tho  an  American  institution  and  a  matter  of 
proclamation  on  the  part  of  the  administra- 
tion, is  a  thing  that  goes  deeper  than  its 
national  significance,  and  finds  its  firm  root, 
not  merely  in  the  affections  and  the  customs 
of  one  people,  but  in  that  potent  imagination 
everywhere  that  speaks  the  aspirations  of 
mankind,  and  voices  in  no  vague  tones  the 
triumph  of  common  humanity. 

To  us  individually  Thanksgiving  signifies 
a  reunion  of  kinsfolk  under  the  natal  roof,  at 
the  hearthstone,  which  is  the  heartstone,  and 
this  reunion  is  for  a  joyous  discussion  of  es- 
pecially good  cheer  and  a  gentle  rewelding  of 
the  old  associations  of  consanguinity. 

But  to  us  collectively  as  a  people  Thanks- 
giving means  more.  It  stands  to-day  for 
what  it  stood  in  that  almost  primeval  wilder- 
ness when  the  forlornly  brave  little  band 
which  came  over  on  the  Mayflower  cele- 
brated their  gratitude  to  Him  who  had  pre- 
served them  from  the  perils  of  the  deep ; 
when  they  performed  the  rites  of  hospitality 
to  the  savages  whose  minds  had  been  in- 
clined toward  them  in  kindness;  and  when, 
furthermore,  they  gave  shape  and  example 
to  that  spirit  of  cooperation  and  fraternal 
love  which  was  destined  to  ripen  in  the  fol- 
lowing century  into  a  republic  broad-based 
on  the  rights  of  every  man. 

And  now  that  we  realize  the  wide  signifi- 
cance in  a  historical  way  of  the  first  Thanks- 
giving, let  us  understand  it  in  detail  and  be- 
hold it  in  all  the  vitality  of  a  picture  as  an 
event  by  itself. 

The   festival   began  about  a  year  after  the 

landing   of   the   Pilgrims   on   Plymouth   rock, 

for  it  was  on    November  21,    1620,  that  the 

Mayflower  with  one  hundred  and 

The  May-   two    Pilgrims     cast    anchor    off 

flower      Cape  Cod. 

Their  voyage  had  taken  about 
ten  times  the  time  which  a  crossing  of  the 
Atlantic  now  consumes,  and  the  poem  of 
Mrs.  Hemans,  that  so  many  of  us  learned  by 


heart  in  childhood,  was  no  exaggeration  of 
the  storm  and  gloom  which  had  companioned 
their  flight  across  the  sea  and  their  landing 
where  "  the  breaking  waves  dashed  high." 

The  first  half  of  their  first  year  on  the 
roaring  ocean  edge  of  the  wilderness  had 
been  a  period  of  deaths,  of  haunting  doubts, 
of  constant  hardships,  and  of  danger ;  tho 
not  danger  in  any  large  degree  from  the 
hostility  of  the  natives,  because  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  New  England  Indians  were 
originally  well-disposed  toward  the  white 
men. 

It    is    of    record    that,    shortly    after    their 

first   landing,   one   of  their   exploring  parties 

received    the    sudden    salute    of    a    flight    of 

arrows  from  ambush ;   but  these 

Kelations  arrows  did  not  kill  anybody  and 

with  the    evidently  were  intended  solely  as 

Indians  a  salute,  or  to  apprise  the  stran- 
gers of  the  presence  of  the  own- 
ers of  the  land. 

Friendly  relations  were  established  with 
the  Indians  at  the  start  and  might  have  con- 
tinued undisturbed,  had  the  government  of 
the  colony  been  supremely  single,  instead  of 
general,  or  had  the  subsequent  additions  to 
the  colony  been  of  equally  high  character  and 
benevolent  intent  with  the  first  comers. 

Their  Indian  friends  had  taught  the  Pil- 
grims how  to  plant  and  fertilize  corn,  and  it 
is  interesting  to  note  that  for  this  fertiliza- 
tion the  bones  of  shad  and  other  fish  that 
abounded  along  the  coast  were  used. 

The  first  year  of  the  Pilgrim  settlement,  in 
spite  of  that  awful  first  winter  when  nearly 
half  of  them  perished,  had  therefore  been 
comparatively  successful.  They 
Governor  had  planted  themselves  well,  and 
Bradford  it  is  eas>  to  understand  why  this 
fact  should  have  appealed  to  the 
pious  mind  of  their  second  governor,  William 
Bradford,  as  an  especial  reason  for  proclaim- 
ing a  season  of  thanksgiving. 

The  exact  date  of  this  first  Thanksgiving, 
which  also  might  be  considered  as  in  some 
sense  a  natural  evolution  from  the  old  har- 
vest festivals  of  England,  is  not  certain ;  but 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  an  open-air  feast, 
it  is  evident  that  it  must  have  occurred  in 
that  lovely  period  of  balmy  calm,  cool  air, 
and  soft  sunshine,  which  is  called  Indian 
summer,  and  which  may  be  considered  to 
range  between  the  latter  week  of  October 
and   the   latter   week  of  November. 

Edward  Winslow,  whose  name  stands  third 
as  a  signer  to  the  original  compact  in  the 
cabin  of  the  Mayflower  and  who  was  thrice 


342 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


made  governor,  1633,  1636,  and  1644,  writes 
an  account  of  it,  supposedly  to  one  George 
Morton,  under  date  of  December  11,  1621. 
This  account  runs  as  follows : 

"  You   shall   understand   that,   in  the   little 

time  that  a  few  of  us  have  been  here,  we  have 

built  seven  dwelling-houses  and  four  for  the 

use  of  the  plantation,  and  have 

A  Pilgrim  made     preparation     for     divers 

Father's    others. 

Account  "  We  set  the  last  spring  some 
twenty  acres  of  Indian  corn  and 
sowed  some  six  acres  of  barley  and  peas, 
and,  according  to  the  manner  of  the  Indians, 
we  manured  our  ground  with  herrings  or 
rather  shads,  which  we  have  in  great  abund- 
ance, and  take  with  great  ease  at  our  doors. 

"Our  corn  did  prove  well;  and,  God  be 
praised,  we  had  a  good  increase  of  Indian 
corn,  and  our  barley  indifferent  good,  but 
our  peas  not  worth  the  gathering,  for  we 
feared  they  were  too  late  down.  They  came 
up  very  well  and  blossomed ;  but  the  sun 
parched  them  in  the  blossom. 

"  Our  harvest  being  gotten  in,  our  gover- 
nor sent  four  men  on  fowling,  that  so  we 
might,  after  a  special  manner,  rejoice  to- 
gether after  we  had  gathered  the  fruit  of 
our  labors. 

"  They  four  in  one  day  killed  as  many  fowl 
as,  with  a  little  help  beside,  served  the  com- 
pany almost  a  week,  at  which  time,  amongst 
other  recreations,  we  exercised  our  arms, 
many  of  the  Indians  coming  amongst  us,  and 
among  the  rest  their  greatest  king,  Massasoit, 
with  some  ninety  men,  whom  for  three  days 
we  entertained  and  feasted ;  and  they  went 
out  and  killed  five  deer,  which  they  brought 
to  the  plantation,  and  bestowed  on  our  gov- 
ernor, and  on  the  captain  and  the  others. 

"  And.  altho  it  is  not  always  so  plentiful 
as  it  was  at  this  time  with  us,  yet  by  the 
goodness  of  God,  we  are  so  far  from  want, 
that  we  wish  you  partakers  of  our  plenty." 

Certes,  from  this  frank,  straightforward 
letter,  the  four  men  sent  out  as  gunners,  or 
fowlers,  for  this  was  the  word  used  in  that 
day,  by  Governor  Bradford,  were  veritable 
Nimrods,  men  of  mark  as  marksmen ;  or 
else  the  New  England  forest  was  more  plen- 
tifully supplied  with  game  than  even  the 
woods  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Ver- 
mont are  to-day. 

That  they  killed  many  wild  turkeys  which 
the  women  in  dressing  probably  stuffed  with 
beechnuts  and  that  they  brought  home  wood 
pigeons  and  partridges  in  abundance,  is  clear. 

But  it  seems  they  must  have  lacked  deer, 
since  the  Indian  nobles  in  the  train  of  King 
Massasoit  volunteered  to  go  out  and  bring  in 
the  venison. 

The  Indians,  of  course,  knew  the  haunts  of 
the  deer  far  better  than  the  pilgrim  fowlers. 

What   a    cheerful    spectacle    it    must    have 
been,   when   their    Indian   guests 

White       reappeared     carrying     a     many- 
Man  and    branched  buck,  slung  downward 
Red  Man   on  a  pole,  or  a  pretty  little  doe, 
possibly    hung    across    the    stal- 
wart shoulders  of  some  giant  red  man  who, 
in  endurance  and  activity,  could  have  easily 


eclipsed  one  of  our  modern  professional 
athletes ! 

Shall  one  doubt  that  the  Pilgrim  gravity  of 
demeanor  was  for  a  moment  dispelled,  when 
the  Indians  returned  with  their  delicious  con- 
tribution to  the  fraternal  feast,  and  that  a 
welcoming  cheer  arose  from  the  throat  of 
many  of  the  deep-lunged  Englishmen,  or  that 
the  younger  of  the  women  may  have  clapped 
their  hands  and  beamed  upon  their  red 
brothers  with  smiling  eyes  of  Saxon  blue? 

There  was  no  prejudice  then  in  English 
breasts  against  a  man  on  account  of  the  color 
God  had  given  him.  That  feeling  was  to 
come  later  in  some  of  the  descendants  of 
the  English  toward  another  dark-skinned 
race. 

The  men  and  women  of  the  Mayflower  met 
the  copper-colored  semi-savage  as  a  man  and 
brother  on  equal  footing,  tho,  of  course,  a 
pagan  whose  soul  had  to  be  saved. 

And  the  religious  exercises  that  accom- 
panied every  day  of  that  first  Thanksgiving 
season  were  doubtless  intended  to  serve  the 
double  purpose  of  expressing  their  own  grati- 
tude to  God  and  of  impressing  on  the  minds 
of  the  strangers  in  enjoyment  of  their  hos- 
pitality the  beauty  and  truth  of  a  worship 
more  suitable  to  the  diversified  human  mind 
than  the  Indian's  simple  deism. 

Between  the  feastings,  in  generous  emula- 
tion like  the  athletes  of  olden  Greece  or  the 
knights  in  medieval  tourneys,  many  of  the 
dusky  suite  of  King  Massasoit  contended 
with  the  younger  Pilgrims  in  various  games 
and  races  or  in  feats  of  strength  and  agility. 
Perhaps  Massasoit  himself  unbent  from  his 
kingly  dignity  to  show  how  straight  he  could 
send  an  arrow  at  some  improvised  target. 
Maybe,  some  Puritan  maiden,  remembering 
her  bowman  ancestors  at  Hastings,  laugh- 
ingly tried  her  hand  on  an  Indian  bow. 

Possibly,  too,  in  the  military  drill  and  evo- 
lutions which  Miles  Standish,  with  his  little 
regiment  of  twenty,  went  through,  there  was 
a  sagacious  intention  on  the  part 

Games  of  that  stout  little  warrior  to  give 
and         the  Indians  an  idea  what  a  for- 

Feasting  midable  foe  the  white  man 
might  be  if  provoked. 

The  feasting  through  those  balmy  days, 
and  with  such  an  army  of  unexpected  guests, 
was  doubtless  mostly  out  in  the  open  and  the 
cooking  done  at  huge  fires. 

Naturally,  the  deer,  like  the  oxen  of  Eng- 
land at  the  old  popular  feasts,  or  like  animals 
at  our  Soutliern  barbecues,  was  in  some  cases 
roasted  whole,  tho  it  is  likely  that,  as  they 
had  barley  flour,  the  cunning  hands  of  the 
Puritan  women  composed  some  delicious 
vension  pasties,  and  possibly  some  pies  and 
puddings  with  wild  fruit. 

Fish,  broiled  to  a  rare  brown  turn ;  clams, 
roasted  or  stewed,  and  oysters,  also  brought 
in  by  the  Indians  and  believed  to  be  the 
first  ever  eaten  by  the  Pilgrims,  were  like- 
wise among  the  dainties. 

Some  "  fire-water,''  too,  it  is  fair  to  infer, 
was  passed  about,  for  our  Pilgrim  fathers, 
there  is  abundant  evidence  to  prove,  tho  tem- 
perate, were  not  teetotalers. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


343 


Whether  the  Indians  sat  on  settles,  at  rude 

tables     improvised     for     the     occasion,     or 

whether   most   of   them    stretched    along   the 

ground  in  the  Roman  fashion  of 

The         dining,  is  a  question  for  imagina- 

Diuuer     tion  to  decide. 

To  their  king,  Massasoit,  it  is 
presumable  that  a  seat  of  honor  must  have 
been  offered,  and  it  would  be  a  satisfaction  of 
the  mind  to  know  whether  were  present  on 
this  occasion  his  two  sons,  Metacom  and 
Wamsutta,  or  Philip  and  Alexander,  as  they 
were  afterward  styled,  who,  in  the  unfrater- 
nal  years  to  follow,  fell  victims  to  the  cruelty 
and  greed  of  the  white  man. 

The  eye  of  imagination  beholds  at  this 
feast  the  Puritan  women  handing  about  to 
their  guests  bowls  of  delicious  food  with  a 
grave  and  simple  courtesy  that  must  have 
made  its  impression  on  the  Indian  mind. 

Perhaps  the  memory  of  their  grace  and 
graciousness  lingered  long.  We  know  that, 
in  the  frightful  wars  that  subsequently  oc- 
curred, the  New  England  Indians,  as  a  rule, 
treated  well  the  white  women  who  fell  into 
their  hands.  There  is  the  testimony  of  Mrs. 
Rowlandson,  that  even  when  held  in  cap- 
tivity by  King  Philip,  who  had  the  deepest  of 
reasons  to  hate  the  white  man,  she  was  al- 
ways an  object  of  most  courteous  considera- 
tion. The  King  even  paid  her  a  shilling  for 
making  a  shirt  for  his  little  boy. 

And  the  ear  of  imagination  hears  in  that 
first  season  of  Thanksgiving,  along  with  the 
solemn  music  of  the  stern  Pilgrim  hymns, 
the  ripple  of  feminine  merriment  and  the 
deep  laughter  of  the  soldiers  of  Miles 
Standish. 


And  if  Massasoit  and  his  ninety  men  did 
not  forget  momentarily  their  racial  gravity 
and  join  audibly  in  this  laughter,  it  still  must 
be  believed  that  their  hearts  laughed  and 
leaped  in  their  bosoms  and  their  dark  eyes 
brightened  in  conviviality  and  friendship. 
That  friendship,  hallowed  by  Thanksgiving 
hospitality,  continued  unbroken,  tho  occasion- 
ally disturbed,  for  about  half  a  century. 

Contrary  to  the  line  in  Mrs.  Hemans',  for 
poetry  abhors  the  exactness  of  history,  every 
day  there  was  heard  "  the  roll  of  the  stirring 
drum ;  "  but  it  summoned  not  to  battle,  sim- 
ply to  prayer;  and  at  every  set  of  sun,  again 
with  prayer  and  song,  the  gratitude  of  all 
hearts  was  poured  forth. 

And  one  of  the  leading  cooks  of  this  won- 
derful   woodland    banquet    was    none    other 
than  Priscilla,  whom  Captain  Standish  made 
the    grand    mistake    of    wooing 

Friscilla    through  another  man,  instead  of 
the         trying  to   take   her  heart   like  a 
Cook       true    soldier    by    storm    face    to 
face. 

She  it  was  who  presided  over  the  largest 
kitchen,  for  some  of  the  cooking  of  especial 
dishes  was  done  inside. 

What  a  picture  is  here  for  some  historical 
painter :  Priscilla  at  the  fire  or  flitting 
through  the  throng  outside  with  some  dainty 
offering  for  Massasoit,  while  the  eyes  of  all 
younger  men  follow  her  footsteps ! 

And  what  a  noble,  inspiring  picture  is  the 
whole  scene — a  picture  of  piety,  of  human 
brotherhood,  and  of  poetry,  for  which  the 
universal  heart  of  man,  when  realizing  its. 
profound  significance,  must  gladly  and 
proudly  give  thanks. — I.  A. 


FIRST  NATIONAL  THANKSGIVING  PROCLAMATION 


The  following  is  the  first  national  procla- 
mation issued  by  George  Washington,  first 
President  of  the  United  States.  It  is  dated 
January,  1795,  and  will  be  read  with  interest, 
especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  some  per- 
sons would  have  us  believe  that  a  national 
Thanksgiving  proclamation  is  a  recent  in- 
vention in  our  country : 

PROCLAMATION 

When  we  review  the  calamities  which 
af^ict  so  many  other  nations,  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  United  States  affords  much  mat- 
ter of  consolation  and  satisfaction.  Our  ex- 
emption hitherto  from  foreign  war,  an  in- 
creasing prospect  of  the  continuance  of  that 
exemption,  the  great  degree  of  internal  tran- 
quillity we  have  enjoyed,  the  recent  confirma- 
tion of  that  tranquillity  by  the  suppression  of 
an  insurrection  *  which  so  wantonly  threat- 
ened it,  the  happy  course  of  our  public  affairs 
in  general,  the  unexampled  prosperity  of  all 
classes  of  our  citizens,  are  circumstances 
which  peculiarly  mark  our  situation  with  in- 
dications of  the  divine  beneficence  toward 
us.  In  such  a  state  of  things  it  is  in  an 
*  The  Whisky  Insurrection 


especial  manner  our  duty  as  a  people,  with 
devout  reverence  and  affectionate  gratitude, 
to  acknowledge  our  many  and  great  obliga- 
tions to  Almighty  God,  and  to  implore  Him 
to  continue  and  confirm  the  blessings  we  ex- 
perienced. 

Deeply  penetrated  with  this  sentiment,  I, 
George  Washington,  President  of  the  United 
Slates,  do  recommend  to  all  religious  socie- 
ties and  denominations,  and  to  all  persons 
whomsoever,  within  the  United  States,  to  set 
apart  and  observe  Thursday,  the  19th  day 
of  February  next,  as  a  day  of  public  thanks- 
giving and  prayer,  and  on  that  day  to  meet 
together  and  render  sincere  and  hearty  thanks 
to  the  great  Ruler  of  nations  for  the  manifold 
and  signal  mercies  which  distinguish  our  lot 
as  a  nation ;  particularly  for  the  possession 
of  constitutions  of  government  which  unite 
and,  by  their  union,  establish  liberty  with 
order ;  for  the  preservation  of  our  peace,  for- 
eign and  domestic;  for  the  reasonable  con- 
trol which  has  been  given  to  a  spirit  of  dis- 
order in  the  suppression  of  the  late  insurrec- 
tion, and  generally  for  the  prosperous  con- 
dition of  our  aflfairsj  public  and  private,  and 

in  Western  Pennsylvania. 


344 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


at  the  same  time  humbly  and  fervently  be- 
seech the  kind  Author  of  these  blessings 
graciously  to  prolong  them  to  us;  to  imprint 
on  our  hearts  a  deep  and  solemn  sense  of  our 
obligations  to  Him  for  them ;  to  teach  us 
rightly  to  estimate  their  immense  value ;  to 
preserve  us  from  the  arrogance  of  prosperity, 
and  from  hazarding  the  advantages  we  enjoy 
by  delusive  pursuits,  to  dispose  us  to  merit  the 
continuance  of  His  favors  by  not  abusing 
them,  by  our  gratitude  for  them,  and  by  a 
corresponding  conduct  as  citizens  and  as  men 
to  render  this  country  more  and  more  a  safe 
and  propitious  asylum  for  the  unfortunate  of 


other  countries ;  to  extend  among  us  true  and 
useful  knowledge ;  to  diffuse  and  establish 
habits  of  sobriety,  order,  morality,  and  piety, 
and  finally  to  impart  all  the  blessings  we 
possess  or  ask  for  ourselves  to  the  whole 
family  of  mankind. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  of  America  to  be 
affixed  to  these  presents,  and  signed  the  same 
with  my  hand.  Done  at  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia the  first  day  of  January,  1795. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

By  the  President : 

Edm.  Randolph.  — P.  M. 


FOR  ALL  THE  PEOPLE 


Of  the  religious  festivals  of  the  year 
Thanksgiving  Day  is  the  only  one  that  is  for 
all  the  people.  Christmas  and  Easter  and 
the  whole  series  of  Church  festivals  are  for 
Christians  only.  The  Jews  have  their  Rosh 
Hashana  and  their  Passover,  and  that  day 
of  festivity  on  which  it  is,  or  was,  the  rule  to 
drink  wine  until  they  could  not  distinguish 
"  Bless  Mordecai "  from  "  Curse  Haman." 
The  Mohammedans  among  us  have  their 
Ramadan,  and  the  Chinese  have  their  feast 
dsys  also,  if  we  only  knew  what  they  are. 
Each  religion  has  its  own ;  but  there  is  one 
Thanksgiving  Day  for  all,  when  all,  of  what- 
ever faith,  can  in  their  own  way  call  on  God 
and  praise  Jesus.  Moses,  Mohammed  or  the 
Buddha  after  their  own  several  rites ;  for 
Thanksgiving  Day  appeals  to  us  all  without 
distinction  as  worshipers  of  our  God,  just  as 
Independence  Day  appeals  to  all  of  us,  of 
whatever  political  faith,  as  lovers  of  our 
country. 

The  same  mercies  to  households  and  indi- 
viduals demand  gratitude  to  God  as  on  other 
years.  As  many  times  before,  there  have 
been  new  households,  enlarged  families, 
dearer  ties,  increased  affections,  comfortable 
homes,  plentiful  tables,  abundant  harvests, 
a  beneficent  government,  free  schools,  and 
religious  liberty.  And  with  more  emphasis 
than  might  be  necessary,  those  who  this 
week  put  our  thanksgiving  into  verse  remind 
us  that  the  losses,  the  trials,  the  sufferings  of 
the  year  (1899)  need  not  quench  our  grati- 
tude ;  for  these,  too,  are  included  in  the  wise 
providence  of  a  loving  Father,  and  those  be- 
reavements which  bring  the  most  tears  add 
most  to  our  treasures  in  Heaven. 

There  is  much  to  be  grateful  for  in  the 
national     history     of     the     year.     We     have 


brought  to  an  end  our  war  with  Spain,  with 
little  loss  to  us  and  great  gain  to  those  for 
whose  sake  we  took  the  sword.  Of  our  new 
possessions  those  that  were  nearest  to  us 
and  knew  us  best  have  accepted  with  joy 
their  new  conditions.  Only  in  the  Philip- 
pines has  a  faction  resisted.  Whatever  may 
have  been  our  sense  of  past  duty,  it  is  the 
privilege  of  all  to  thank  God  that  He  has 
given  us  the  unexpected  and  unsought  op- 
portunity to  relieve  much  oppression  and  to 
extend  the  blessings  of  good  government  and 
fair  freedom  to  many  millions  of  people.  It 
is  a  wonderful  opportunity,  and  no  people 
on  the  face  of  the  globe  has  a  stricter  sense 
of  duty  to  those  under  their  power.  Far  are 
we  from  being  perfect,  if  tried  by  the  highest 
standard,  but  where  shall  we  find  a  nation 
which  less  desires  to  rule  and  more  desires 
to  rule  justly  and  to  give  liberty  to  all? 

For  one  great  event  that  transcends  the 
bounds  of  any  one  country  and  embraces  the 
whole  world  we  must  render  thanks  this  day 
to  Almighty  God.  For  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  earth  all  its  great  nations  have 
come  together  in  council,  and  have  consulted 
how  they  shall  go  to  war  no  more.  This  may 
not  end  all  wars,  but  it  will  suppress  most  of 
them.  It  puts  the  ban  on  war.  It  requires 
nations  in  dispute  to  seek  some  other  arbitra- 
ment. It  makes  war  a  shame.  It  smooths 
the  way  for  the  reduction  of  armies  and  ar- 
maments. It  sings  the  song  of  the  angels  of 
Bethlehem  about  the  cradle  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  We,  of  this  generation,  have  lived  to 
see — and  have  hardly  known  it — what  may 
be  the  greatest  epoch  in  the  world's  history 
since  Jesus  came  to  eanh.  For  such  mercies 
what  soul,  what  household,  will  not  raise  its 
thanksgiving  to  God? — In. 


THANKSGIVING  THOUGHTS 

By  E.  S.  Martin 


When  the  President  proclaims  to  us,  as  he 
dees  every  year,  that  Thanksgiving  is  at  hand 
and  that  it  behooves  us  to  observe  it,  he  gives 
us  reasons  why  our  hearts  should  be  grateful 


and  our  spirits  reverent.  The  crops  have 
been  good,  he  says,  and  work  has  been  plenty, 
we  have  been  prospered  and  have  grown 
richer ;  pestilence  has  not  vexed  us ;  a  fair  de- 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


345 


gree  of  success  has  attended  our  aims ;  we 
have  been  able  to  perform  in  good  measure 
what  has  seemed  to  us  to  be  our  national 
duty,  and  our  credit  as  a  people  stands  high 
among  the  nations  of  the  world.  These  are 
all  sound  reasons  for  thankfulness,  but  they 
have  need  to  be  supplemented,  if,  as  individ- 
uals, we  are  to  bring  to  Thanksgiving  all  the 
feelings  and  sentiments  that  it  ought  to  ex- 
cite. To  be  thankful  for  health  and  prosper- 
ity, if  we  happen  to  be  in  the  enjoyment  of 
those  blessings,  is  reasonable  and  right,  but 
it  is  not  enough.  We  should  go  deeper  than 
that,  and  considering  what  is  the  true  purpose 
of  our  stay  on  earth,  should  be  thankful  for 
every  experience  that  promises  to  make  for 
that  purpose's  most  complete  fulfilment.  For 
crushing  blows  and  devastating  bereavements 
it  is  not  in  us  to  be  thankful,  and  we  are 
apt  to  verge  on  hypocrisy,  or  on  hysterics,  if 
we  attempt  it.  It  is  enough  surely,  if  we  en- 
dure such  distress  with  fortitude  and  what 
tranquillity  we  may. 

To  the  eye  that  takes  large  views  and  sees, 
however  dimly,  the  purposes  of  the  Almighty 
fulfil  themselves  on  earth,  it  may  be  evident 
that  whatever  is.  is  right,  because  whatever 
is,  results  from  the  operation  of  laws  that  are 
essential  to  the  well  being  of  the  universe. 
That  folks  who  fall  get  hurt  is  due  to  a  law 
of  gravity  which  apparently  is  necessary  to 
our  existence.  We  should  be  thankful  that 
the  law  holds,  but  the  fall  may  easily  be  a 
grievous  thing  and  fit  to  be  lamented.  There 
are  such  things  as  disasters,  and  when  they 
befall  there  is  no  occasion  for  us  to  try  to  be 
thankful  for  them.  But  by  no  means  all  that 
disappoints  our  hopes  and  thwarts  our  wishes 
is  disastrous.  A  great  deal  that  troubles  us 
turns  out  in  the  end  to  be  for  our  good.  Dis- 
tasteful tasks  that  we  are  constrained  to  exe- 
cute may  prove  unexpectedly  wholesome  and 
profitable  to  us.  Losses  and  setbacks  which 
try  us  sorely,  may  rouse  us  from  dangerous 
ease  and  drive  us  into  beneficent  inactivity. 
Which  of  us  that  has  lived  long  enough  and 
well  enough  to  compass  any  measure  of  true 
success,  but  can  look  to  trials  and  reverses 
w.iich  have  seemed  in  the  end  to  be  the  very 
making  of  him.  Who  can  look  about  and  not 
see  blight,  distortion  and  disappointment  that 
are  traceable  to  prosperity  too  easily  won.  or 
to  some  qufp  of  fortune  which  seemed  when 
it  came  to  be  the  acme  of  good  luck. 

The  wisest  of  us  cannot  see  far  into  the 
future,  nor  discern  remote  results.  While  we 
are  trying  to  be  thankful  we  shall  do  well  to 
be  thankful  not  only  for  what  we  have  re- 
ceived and  for  what  we  have  been  spared, 
but  for  much  that  has  been  denied  us.  So 
many  things  we  want  that  would  not  be  good 
for  us  if  we  got  them !  Wanting  them  may 
be  well  enough,  for  every  lawful  want  is  a 
spur  and  helps  to  keep  us  moving,  but  attain- 
ment is  another  matter.  So  much  the  better 
for  us  if,  while  we  try  hard,  and  keep  trying, 
to  get  what  we  want,  we  are  pious-minded 
enough  to  be  thankful  for  what  we  get  even 
tho  it  falls  short  of  our  expectations. 

The  blessings  we  are  used  to,  become  so 
much  the  habit  of  our  lives  that  we  are  apt 


to  take  them  for  granted  and  to  fail  to  be 
stirred  by  them  to  any  positive  emotion  of 
thankfulness.  There  are  those  who,  ever 
mindful  of  the  unequal  measure  in  which 
privilege,  opportunity  and  all  material  goods 
are  distributed  in  this  world,  are  always  con- 
sciously grateful  for  the  ordinary,  every-day 
comforts ;  for  food  and  shelter  and  decent 
surroundings  and  a  peaceful  life.  But  most 
of  us,  differently  constructed,  are  prone  to 
consider  that  all  we  are  used  to  have  is  ours 
by  a  natural  right,  and  that  on  the  whole  it 
is  rather  a  hardship  that  we  cannot  contrive 
to  have  an  ever-increasing  share  of  sugar- 
plums allotted  to  us.  We  that  are  of  that 
disposition  must  try  at  Thanksgiving  to  come 
to  a  fuller  appreciation  of  our  more  recondite 
blessings,  as  well  as  of  those  which  we  ac- 
cept as  matters  of  course.  As  Riley  puts  it 
in  his  Thanksgiving  poem — 

Let  us  be  thankful,  thankful  for  the  prayers 
Whose  gracious  answers  were  long,   long 
delayed. 

That  they  might  fall  upon  us  unawares. 
And  bless  us,  as  in  greater  need  we  prayed. 

What  do  we  want  most?  To  be  good 
people  according  to  our  lights  and  our  abili- 
ties ;  to  do  right ;  to  grow  in  grace ;  to  de- 
velop character  and  strength  and  unselfish- 
ness ;  to  love  and  to  be  loved,  and  as  far  as 
lies  in  us  to  promote  righteousness  on  this 
earth.  These  aspirations  are  not  too  lofty  for 
us.  The  goal  they  point  to  is  really  that  to- 
ward which  we  would  direct  our  courses. 
Nearly  all  of  us  are  full  of  selfish  desires ; 
we  want  more  things,  more  money,  rnore 
fame,  more  of  what  we  call  the  good  things 
of  life.  But  after  all,  imperfect  as  we  are, 
and  conflicting  as  our  various  aspirations 
may  be,  few  of  us  would  deliberately  and 
consciously  barter  spiritual  and  intellectual 
valuables  for  material  ones.  We  want  what 
is  justly  our  due,  but  if  greediness  and  harsh 
exactions  are  the  price  of  riches  we  would 
rather  be  less  rich  ;  if  self-seeking  and  egotism 
are  the  price  of  fame  we  would  rather  con- 
tinue somewhat  obscure.  In  so  far  as  our 
scruples  are  sound  and  well  founded  we  hold 
them  to  be  beyond  price,  and  would  not  de- 
liljerateb  sacrifice  them  for  apparent  advance- 
ment. We  are  wise  in  these  preferences,  for 
what  we  are  after  is  not  so  much  the  means 
to  buy  happiness,  as  happiness  itself,  and  the 
basis  of  that  we  know  is  the  love  and  con- 
tentment which  dwell  in  a  clean  heart.  What 
we  have  reason  to  fear  is  not  that  we  shall 
consciously  choose  the  baser  part ;  it  is  the 
thin  end  of  the  wedge  which  in  time  might 
separate  us  from  our  ideals. 

Let  us  be  thankful  then  for  all  the  right 
choices  we  make  when  we  have  to  choose; 
for  all  the  unseen  influences  that  help  us 
to  choose  right ;  for  whatever  withholds  us, 
or  diverts  from  a  course  that  is  not  our  true 
course ;  for  any  denial  of  apparent  advantage 
or  present  ease  which  constrains  us  towards 
the  fulfilment  of  a  nobler  destiny.  It  some- 
times seems  as  if  in  our  immediate  time 
humility  was  not  in  so  great  request  as  its 


346 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


traditional  reputation  as  a  virtue  entitles  it  to 
be.  We  Americans  are  inclined  to  proclaim 
that  we  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  a  fit 
pattern  for  all  who  dwell  therein.  We  have 
excuse  perhaps;  but  for  all  that,  pride  has 
been  known  to  be  the  precursor  of  painful 
experiences.     It  is  well  that  we   should  be 


humble  in  our  thanksgivings,  and  that  our 
gratitude  should  neither  show  itself  in  exul- 
tation over  our  prosperity,  nor  in  expectation 
of  benefits  to  come,  but  in  the  hope  of  such 
leadings  and  inspirations  as  may  make  us  fit 
instruments  of  God's  work  on  earth. — In. 


THANKSGIVING 

By  James  M.  Ludlow,  D.D. 


A  Nation's  Thanksgiving!  What  a  beau- 
tiful sentiment!  Seventy  millions  of  people 
at  the  call  of  their  Chief  Magistrate  forsak- 
ing their  secular  pursuits  and  crowding  the 
temples  to  sing  and  pray  their  gratitude  to 
the  Deity !  Alas !  a  sentiment  as  empty  as 
most  of  the  temples  will  be  on  Thursday ! 
The  holy  day  is  chiefly  a  holiday.  The  race, 
the  game,  the  matinee,  the  feast — these  our 
thanksgiving  liturgy ! 

Perhaps  God  will  forgive  us.  We  parents 
take  the  hilarity  of  the  children — if  they  are 
little  or  thoughtless — in  lieu  of  "  Thank  you." 
Yet  he  asks  our  thanks.  A  neighbor  found 
his  recreation  during  the  hot  summer  in  re- 
furnishing his  home  to  delight  his  loved  ones 
on  their  return  from  vacation.  The  parlor 
gleamed  with  new  pictures,  and  every  cham- 
ber had  its  souvenir  of  thoughtfulness.  He 
said:  "  It  paid  to  see  their  enjoyment.  But 
one  thing  broke  me  all  up.  My  little  dot 
climbed  into  my  lap  and  kissed  me  and  said, 
'Papa,  you  was  weal  good,  wasn't  you?' 
She  was  the  only  one  that  said  so.  Bless  her 
heart !  " 

The  least  thing  you  or  I  can  do  to  show 
that  we  are  thankful  is  to  say  so.  If  you  are 
a  Christian,  that  means  a  confession  of  your 
faith  in  the  goodness  of  God.  If  you  are  not 
a  Christian  and  only  a  deist,  then  emulate, 
if  you  do  not  imitate,  the  boy  Goethe,  who 
made  a  tiny  altar,  put  on  it  some  combusti- 
bles, and  placed  it  in  the  window  where  the 
sun's  rays  would  make  them  flash. 

Try  also  to  feel  grateful.  A  class  of  deaf 
mutes  was  asked  for  a  definition  of  gratitude. 
One  wrote,  "  Gratitude  is  the  memory  of  the 
heart."  Noah  Webster  could  not  beat  that. 
To  kindle  a  sense  of  thankfulness  we  have 
only  to  think.  Rubbing  will  set  dry  sticks  on 
fire;  certainly  heart  fibers  will  do  as  much 
under  the  friction  of  purposeful  remem- 
brance. An  old  man  could  not  come  to 
Church,  so  he  spent  the  morning  in  recollect- 
ing the  events  of  his  life.  It  was  his  last  wor- 
ship on  earth.  Two  days  later  he  was  gone. 
Some  of  us  are  going  out  of  life  like  boorish 
guests  who  depart  without  thanking  their 
host. 

Do  something  to  show  your  gratitude.  Has 
the  year  been  prosperous?  Help  somebody 
who  is  in  need.  Has  your  faith  comforted 
you?  Tell  it  to  somebody  who  is  staggering 
under  his  load  without  your  assurance  of  the 
divine  love.  Edwin  Booth,  after  a  terrible 
bereavement,  wrote  to  a  friend :    "  Oh,  that  I 


could  give  you  the  full  companionship  of  the 
love  of  God  as  I  have  felt  it  since  Mary's 
death,  the  peace  that  has  filled  my  soul,  and 
the  strength  that  has  flowed  steadily  into  it 
since  that  terrible  day !  "  Did  he  give  the 
companionship  of  God?  Nay,  that  is  for 
God  himself  to  give ;  but  he  led  the  way  into 
the  house  of  comfort  where  God  always 
lives  and  waits  to  bless  all  who  will  become 
guests  of  his  affection.  Are  you  grateful  for 
1899?  Try  to  lift  somebody  else  into  the 
sunshine.  Sir  John  Lubbock  tells  us  that 
ants  will  drop  the  load  of  sweetness  they  are 
conveying  to  the  nest  and  carry  in  any 
wounded  or  sick  ant.  "  Go  to  the  ant,  thou 
sluggard,  consider  her  ways,  and  be  wise." 

Especially  keep  the  vows  of  the  year.    King 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  used  to  tell  his  com- 
rades this  story,  as  we  find  it  in  old  Roger  of 
Wendover's  Chronicles :    A  pit  had  been  dug 
to  entrap  wild  beasts.    A  rich  Venetian  while 
hunting  fell  into  it.     He  found  at  the  bottom 
a  lion  and  a  serpent.     Seeing  that  he  was  a 
companion  in  misery  they  did  not  harm  him. 
A  poor   woodcutter  going  by,   the   Venetian 
begged  his  assistance  in  escaping,  promising 
to  give  him  a  rich  reward.    When  the  ladder 
was  let  down  the  lion  and  the  snake  got  out 
first,  and  crouching  at  the  woodcutter's  feet 
roared  and  hissed  their  gratitude.    Afterward 
the  lion  brought  to  the  woodcutter's  cottage 
a  dead  goat ;  the  serpent  brought  a  precious 
stone,  and   laid  it   on  his   deliverer's'  dinner 
plate.     The  Venetian  failed  to  remember  the 
poor  man,  until  the  judges  of  Venice,  shamed 
by  the  story  of  the  grateful  beasts,  compelled 
their  townsman  to  fulfil  his  promise  even  to 
the   extent   of   half  the   rich   man's   fortune. 
A  yarn?     Yes,  but  one  of  those  yarns  that 
Great-hearts   like  to   tell.     Your   experience, 
my  friend,  during  the  year  past  has  been  ex- 
ceptional if  you  have  not  cried  out  a  promise 
from    the   bottom    of    some    pit.     Give   your 
whole  life  in  gratitude  to  God,  who  has  given 
you  everything.     At  the  temple  of  ^scula- 
pius  those  who  were  healed  always  left  some 
testimonial  to  the  divine  healer.     Where  life 
had   been    saved   it    was    customary    for    the 
beneficiary  to  present  his  full  statue  in  stone, 
wood,   ivory,   or   silver.     The   custom   shows 
a    premonition    in    noble    souls    of   the    duty 
which    the   apostle   enjoins   of   making   one's 
self  a  living  sacrifice  to  Him  "  in  whom  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being." 

The  shadows  of  the  falling  year  remind  us 
of  the  time  when  our  earthly  joys  will  be 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


347 


gone.  Would  you  perpetuate  them?  George 
Eliot  says  of  these  passing  delights :  "  Tho 
perishable  as  to  their  actual  existence,  they 
will  be  embalmed  to  eternity  in  the  precious 
spices  of  gratitude."  No  gift  of  God  has  only 
present  value.  The  happiness  it  brings  now 
is  only  the  glisten  on  the  coin ;  the  real  metal 
does   not  perish  if  its  luster  passes  off.     It 


may  be  reminted  for  our  use  in  another  realm 
of  being,  but  its  value  is  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  mined  for  us  from  the  heart  of  the  Infi- 
nite. 

Thanksgiving  Day  is  only  our  annual  time 
for  saying  grace  at  the  table  of  eternal  good- 
ness.— I. 


THANKSGIVING  MEMORIES  AND  HABITS 


By  William  Adams,  D.D. 


The  beginning  of  this  world's  history  was 
a  song ;  its  end  will  be  a  doxology.  The 
secret  of  all  rational  contentment  is  revealed 
in  that  inspired  direction  which  ought  to  be 
written  on  every  heart,  as  a  compendious  rule 
of  life.  "Be  careful  of  nothing;  but  in 
everything,  by  prayer  and  supplication,  with 
thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made 
known  unto  God.  And  the  peace  of  God, 
which  passeth  all  understanding,  shall  keep 
your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus." 

In  the  cathedral  of  Limerick  there  hangs  a 
peal  of  bells  which  was  manufactured  for  a 
convent  in  Italy,  by  an  enthusiast  who  fixed 
his  home  for  many  years  near  the  convent 
cliff  to  enjoy  their  daily  chimes.  In  some 
political  convulsion  the  bells  and  their  manu- 
facturer were  swept  away  to  another  land. 
After  a  long  interval,  the  course  of  his  wan- 
derings brought  him  to  Ireland.  On  a  calm 
and  beautiful  evening,  as  the  vessel  which 
bore  him  floated  along  the  broad  stream  of 
the  Shannon,  he  suddenly  heard  the  bells 
peal  forth  from  the  cathedral  tower.  They 
were  the  long-lost  treasures  of  his  memory. 
Home,  happiness,  friends,  all  early  recollec- 
tions were  in  their  sound.  Crossing  his 
arms  on  his  breast,  he  lay  back  in  the  boat. 
When  the  rowers  looked  round,  they  saw 
his  face  still  turned  to  the  cathedral — but  his 
eyes  had  closed  forever  on  the  world.  Such 
a  tide  of  memories  had  swept  over  the  sym- 
paithetic  cords  of  his  heart,  that  they  snapped 
under  the  vibration.  Who  has  not  experi- 
enced the  power  of  association  in  its  milder 
and  happier  forms?  The  return  of  an  an- 
niversary, the  melody  of  a  tune,  the  swinging 
of  a  church  bell,  will  set  memory  in  motion, 
and  unveil  the  pictures  which  hang  on  her 
sacred  walls.  Because  memory  is  clad  in 
sober  and  russet  garb,  many  associate  her 
form  with  sadness.  But  it  is  a  sadness  from 
which  we  never  wish  to  be  divorced.  Peace, 
quietness,  and  "  cherub  contemplation,"  come 
in  her  train.  Memory  is  the  mother  of 
gratitude.  Mirth  and  frivolity  are  born  of 
present  excitements  ;  but  there  cannot  be  deep 
and  serene  happiness  in  the  absence  of  all 
memories  of  the  past. 

The  bare  mention  of  the  word,  the  Old 
Thanksgiving  Day — what  a  power  has  it  to 
revive  the  pleasantest  reminiscences,  and  re- 
call the  brightest  scenes  of  other  days  in 
many  hearts !  It  transports  them  to  the 
home  of  their  childhood.     It  takes  them  at 


once  into  the  presence  of  the  father  and 
mother  who,  it  may  be,  for  many  years  have 
been  sleeping  in  the  grave.  It  recalls  their 
smiles  of  affectionate  greeting,  their  tones  of 
cheerful  welcome ;  tones  and  smiles  such  as 
only  they  could  give.  Every  image  of  peace, 
contentment,  competence,  abundance,  and  joy, 
comes  back  spontaneously  on  each  return  of 
the  grateful  festival.  It  is  a  day  not  indeed 
heralded  and  emblazoned,  like  the  corre- 
sponding festivals  in  our  ancestral  land,  in  all 
the  pomp  and  glory  of  song.  It  has  not  been 
celebrated,  like  Christmas,  by  the  imperial 
song  of  Milton,  the  dove-like  notes  of  Her- 
bert, or  the  classic  beauty  of  Keble.  Con- 
nected with  it  are  no  superstitious  rites 
handed  down  from  time  immemorial ;  no 
revellings  in  baronial  halls ;  no  decorations 
of  churches  or  houses  with  garlands  or  ever- 
greens ;  no  wassailings ;  no  shoutings ;  no 
carols  ;    no  riotous  dissipation. 

Simpler  in  its  nature,  humbler  in  its  pre- 
tensions, better  suited  to  a  people  of  a  more 
recent  origin,  it  is  set  apart  to  the  exercise 
of  those  home-bred  affections,  those  "  honest 
fireside  delights,"  which  are  greener  than 
laurel  or  fir-tree,  and  which,  from  a  natural 
affinity,  most  closely  harmonize  with  the 
sweet  sanctities  of  our  holy  religion.  As 
the  day  drew  on,  anticipation  was  busy  in  the 
young  and  old.  The  aged  pair,  from  beneath 
whose  shelter  their  children,  one  after  the 
other,  had  gone  forth  into  the  world,  leaving 
them  alone,  looked  forward  with  delight  to 
the  prospect  of  being  surrounded  once  more 
by  their  numerous  progeny  on  a  day  of  glad- 
ness ;  and  children  separated  widely  apart, 
and  already  grown  familiar  with  life's  per- 
plexities and  cares,  hailed  with  pleasure  the 
"  yearly  sacrifice,"  when  they  should  all  rally 
again  around  the  paternal  hearth,  and  renew 
their  faith  and  affection  among  the  long- 
cherished  scenes  of  their  childhood.  Happy 
was  the  venerable  sire,  who  went  up  that 
day  to  the  house  of  God,  in  company  with  his 
children  and  children's  children,  and  who 
sat  down  to  the  table  of  plenty  with  his 
household,  in  health,  peace,  and  contentment. 
If  any  were  detained  from  the  gathering  by 
stern  necessity  places  were  prepared  for  them 
as  if  they  were  present,  in  order  that  all  might 
feel  how  closely  they  were  linked  by  invisible 
sympathies ;  and  the  absent  ones,  wherever 
on  sea  or  land  they  roamed,  were  as  "  a 
bird  wandering  from  its  nest,"  or  crippled  in 


348 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  time  of  migration,  looking  far  away,  and 
longing  to  join  himself  unto  his  fellows. 

Tho  this  particular  day  has  been  desig- 
nated by  the  civil  authorities,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  in  the  one  only  national 
organization  which  had  God  for  its  author, 
several  days  in  the  year  were  set  apart  by 
Divine  institution  for  religious  festivities. 
Spring,  summer,  and  autumn  had  each  its 
festal  symbolism;  the  most  joyous  of  which, 
called  the  Feast  of  TabernacleSj  was  an  an- 
nual Thanksgiving — not  only  in  memory  of 
ancestral  favors,  but  for  the  ingathering  of 
the  harvests.  Nothing  can  be  conceived  more 
beautiful  than  the  manner  of  its  observance. 
Booths  were  erected  in  the  open  air,  with 
branches  from  the  palm  and  willow,  within 
which  families  were  gathered,  to  eat  to- 
gether before  the  Lord ;  so  that  the  occasion 
was  sacred  to  the  reunion  of  friends,  the 
enjoyment  of  hospitality,  the  interchange  of 
kindness,  the  expression  of  generous  regard 
for  the  stranger,  the  widow,  and  the  father- 
less. Nor  was  it  lawful  for  a  Jew  so  much 
as  to  taste  of  ear  or  parched  corn,  or  bread 
of  the  new  harvest,  till  a  nation  had  borne  a 
sheaf  of  barley  or  wheat  and  waved  it  be- 
fore God,  in  token  of  their  gratitude.  Are 
we  charmed  by  the  picture  which  the  imagi- 
nation paints  of  that  national  spectacle  when 
the  glens  of  the  vine  and  olive  gave  forth 
their  happy  inhabitants,  to  flow  together  into 
the  court  of  the  Lord,  with  chanting  of 
psalms  and  waving  of  sheaf  and  branch? 
But  when  did  the  sun  ever  look  down  upon 
such  a  scene  as  has  been  spread  often  be- 
neath his  eye  on  this  Western  Continent,  a 
land  unknown  and  undreamed  of  when  He- 
brew feasts  were  instituted,  when  many 
States  have  agreed  to  devote  one  and  the 
same  day  for  Thanksgiving  to  our  common 
Father  for  His  abundant  goodness?  What 
millions  of  well-clad,  well-fed,  well-taught, 
and,  if  they  would  but  believe  it,  happy  peo- 
ple, within  the  temples  of  religion,,  and  the 
homes  of  health,  comfort,  and  plenty ! 

As  the  mind  travels  over  the  extended 
scene,  it  rests  not  so  much  on  metropolitan 
affluence,  on  gatherings  in  stately  mansions 
and  tapestried  walls,  where  sumptuous  fare 
is  of  daily  occurrence,  as  on  the  humbler 
habitations  of  rural  life,  where  man  is 
brought  by  earth,  sky,  and  season,  in  closer 
contact  with  God.  Toil  is  at  rest  and  con- 
tented with  its  rewards.  Plow  and  flail  are 
exchanged  for  recreation.  If  nature  is  more 
silent  than  in  earlier  months,  when  birds 
and  beasts  are  full  of  jocund  music  and  life, 
it  is  the  silence  of  peaceful  contentment.  The 
rich  auturtm  sunlight  bathes  the  sere  and 
yellow  stalks  and  husks  of  corn  still  standing 
in  the  field,  reduced  to  the  undress  of  the 
year,  yet  testifying  of  the  golden  wealth  they 
have  yielded  to  man;  barns  bursting  with 
plenty;  the  cattle  chewing  the  cud  with  mute 
thankfulness ;  families  reassembled  in  the  old 
homestead ;  mirth  in  the  voices  of  the  young, 
and  placid  delight  warming  the  ashy  hue  of 
age ;  what  images  of  serene  satisfaction  are 
those  which  are  presented  by  this  day  of 
happy  memories ! 


Thanksgiving  Day  has  a  history  attached 
to  it.  Like  the  Latin  word  "  virtus,"  it  is  a 
history  which  runs  through  the  entire  life 
of  a  people.  We  cannot  afford  to  lose  rever- 
ence for  ancestral  memories.  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  Mr.  Irving,  our  American  Gold- 
smith, has  expended  so  much  time  in  the 
prolix  exaggeration  of  the  peculiar  habits 
of  the  early  Dutch  colonists.  When  Diedrich 
Knickerbocker  extends  an  extravaganza 
through  two  volumes  over  that  portion  of  our 
history,  we  confess  to  a  feeling  somewhat 
painful,  mingling  with  the  keenest  relish  of 
the  humorous.  We  need  more,  not  less  of 
filial  respect  and  gratitude  in  our  national 
character. 

Shem  and  Japheth,  with  their  mantle  of 
charity,  did  a  nobler  service  than  their 
brother  who  laughed  at  the  shame  of  their 
common  parentage.  In  that  transition  period 
through  which  we  are  passing,  it  is  well  to 
thmk  of  the  primitive  strength  which  is  be- 
neath us,  and  upon  which  a  fruitful  surface 
invites  and  rewards  our  toil.  The  origin  of 
this  day  was  with  a  people  who  were  exiles 
for  the  sake  of  truth  and  liberty,  and  who 
gave  a  soul  to  the  scattered  colonies  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere.  "  Te  Deums  "  had  been  ' 
chanted  in  the  cathedrals  of  the  Old  World 
by  royal  decree,  at  the  birth  of  princes,  the 
coronation  of  kings,  and  the  issue  of  great 
battles ;  but  the  voluntary  appointment  of  a 
day,  by  a  whole  people,  for  the  distinctive  pur- 
pose of  rendering  thanks  to  the  Almighty 
for  His  manifold  blessings,  civil  and  religious, 
national  and  domestic,  marks  an  epoch  in  his- 
tory— Thanksgiving  Day  is  the  festival  of 
religious  liberty.  Removed  to  a  distance  I 
from  all  tyranny,  passing  from  suffering, 
which  called  for  brave  defiance  and  patience, 
into  success  and  enlargement  which  inspired 
gratitude,  religion,  finding  its  freedoin  in  the 
New  World,  poured  out  its  carols  at  the  very 
gate  of  heaven. 

Among  the  many  proclamations  issued  by 
the  Governors  of  the  several  States  in  the 
autumn  of  1857,  appointing  the  Thanksgiving 
for  that  year,  was  one  couched  in  these 
words : 

"  Since  I  have  been  in  office,  I  have,  in 
each  year,  as  Governor  of  the  State,  without 
any  authority  of  law,  but  sustained  by  an- 
cient custom,  appointed  a  day  of  thanksgiv- 
ing. Thursday,  the  19th  day  of  November, 
is  the  day  now  appointed,  and  I  trust  it  will 
be  observed.  There  is,  certainly,  some  super- 
ruling  Providence  which  has  brought  us  into 
existence,  and  which  will  ultimately  accom- 
plish the  ends  for  which  we  were  created, 
not  only  as  individuals,  but  as  a  people. 
Nothing  can,  therefore,  be  lost  by  recognizing 
the  obligation  which  we  owe  to  the  Supreme 
Being — by  it  much  being  gained." 

With  all  respect  to  magistracy,  I  call  that 
an  extraordinary  document.  He  is  not  alto- 
gether confident  about  it,  but  on  the  whole 
is  inclined  to  think  that  "  some  super-ruling 
Providence  "  may  be  addressed  with  thanks, 
especially  since  nothing  can  be  lost,  and 
something  may  be  gained  by  the  act !  The 
idea  of  "  making  something  "  out  of  Thanks- 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


549 


giving  carries  our  national  propensity  quite 
to  a  ludicrous  extreme ;  and  the  words 
"  loss "  and  "  gain,"  if  they  do  not  convey 
the  nicest  sense  of  religious  obligation,  cer- 
tainly suggest  an  eye  to  t/e  "  main  chance," 
as  an  apology  for  the  rendering  of  thanks ! 

We  are  certainly  a  most  astonishing  na- 
tion !  We  are  very  tenacious  of  our  old  British 
privilege  of  grumbling.  If  weather  and  busi- 
ness and  politics  kept  along  smooth  and  pros- 
perous all  the  time,  very  many  would  be 
thrown  out  of  occupation.  Croaking  is  their 
profession,  and  making  themselves  unhappy 
is  their  habit.  A  man  ought  to  have  a  very 
steady  head  who  reads  nothing  but  American 
newspapers.  He  becomes  familiar  with  ex- 
citement and  apprehension,  and  is  all  the 
while  wondering  what  will  come  to  pass  next. 
Mr.  Miller,*  who.  a  few  years  ago,  broached 
the  theory  that  the  world  was  near  its  end, 
and  like  "  Judas  of  Galilee,  in  the  days  of  the 
taxing  drew  away  much  people  after  him," 
could  have  succeeded  with  this  notion  no- 
where else  so  well  as  in  these  United  States 
of  America.  Such  things  are  indigenous  to 
our  soil.  In  a  country  like  our  own  stretching 
over  so  many  degrees  of  latitude  and  longi- 
tude, through  such  varieties  of  climate,  hot 
and  cold,  dry  and  wet,  with  such  diversities 
of  interest  and  manners  among  a  heteroge- 
neous population,  and  with  such  artificial  fa- 
cilities for  flashing  the  report  of  everything 
v.'hich  occurs  on  a  vast  continent  backwards 
and  forwards,  and  bringing  it,  every  few 
minutes,  upon  the  retina  of  every  man's  eye 
— why  one  might  be  excused  who  should  live 
in  a  constant  expectation  of  the  world's  catas- 
trophe! Rumors  of  a  comet  whisking  its 
fiery  tail  among  the  stars  and  certain  to  de- 
molish our  planet  upon  such  a  day  of  the 
calendar;  a  tornado  upsetting  houses,  fences 
and  forests ;  corn  in  the  last  of  June,  all 
over  the  West,  not  more  than  three  inches 
high,  when  it  should  have  been  as  many  feet, 
alarming  the  country  with  the  certainty  of  a 
famine;  now  a  drought  which  bakes  the  fur- 
rows and  burns  up  the  pastures ;  now  rains, 
excessive  and  continuous  beyond  all  the 
m.emories  of  the  "  oldest  inhabitant ;  "  a  tre- 
mendous inundation  of  the  Mississippi ;  a 
cold  snap  in  May,  which  kills  all  the  fruit; 
a  popular  election,  when  the  very  founda- 
tions of  society  are  moved,  the  sea  upturning 
its  discolored  depths;  mobs  in  Baltimore  and 
New  York,  bringing  out  the  military ;  sena- 
tors, counselors,  judges — names  so  venerable 
in  the  beginning, — accused  of  corruption  and 
venality ;  good  old  philanthropic  and  ecclesi- 
astical bodies  rent  asunder ;  Shem,  Ham,  and 
Japheth  pelting  one  another  with  hard  re- 
criminations, and  the  air  filled  with  all  the 
menaces  and  terrors  of  the  old  prophets;  to- 
day, a  plethora  of  money,  eager  to  buy  up 
t're  whole  continent,  and  all  the  islands  and 
countries  which  lie  adjacent  thereto;  and  to- 
morrow, a  "  panic "  before  which  the  bags 
of  gold  in  all  the  bank  vaults  collapse  and 
shrivel  up,  like  those  of  wind  which  Eolus 
sent  to  Homer's  hero ;  verily,  one  might  think 
♦William  Miller,  founder 


the  world  was  coming  to  an  end.  twenty  times 
in  the  course  of  a  twelvemonth ! 

But  in  some  way,  I  know  not  how  it  is,  we 
get  along  marvelously  well.  The  sun  rises 
and  sets;  the  stars  are  not  jostled  out  of 
their  steady  orbits ;  the  months  are  not 
thrown  out  of  step  in  their  orderly  proces- 
sion ;  the  seasons  follow  each  other  serenely 
and  honestly;  the  sign  of  the  covenant  is  in 
the  heavens,  bright  and  beautiful  as  when 
the  mothers  from  the  ark  lifted  their  babes 
aloft  to  "bless  the  bow  of  God;"  all  the 
heathenish  signs  in  the  Zodiac  do  not  pre- 
vent the  mighty  monarch  of  day  from  bring- 
ing the  year  about,  "  filling  our  hearts  with 
food  and  gladness ;  "  and  on  Thanksgiving 
Day,  in  the  golden  autumn,  multitudes  of 
people,  in  the  temples  of  religion  and  in 
their  homes,  meet  together  with  more  reason 
and  occasion  for  gratitude — if  they  were  wise 
enough  to  know  it — than  any  nation  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth.  "  The  Lord  hath  done 
great  things  for  us,  whereof  we  are  glad."  If 
there  is  one  peril  more  than  another  which 
threatens  our  prosperity,  it  is  that  indiffer- 
ence to  our  mercies  which  might  provoke 
God  to  withdraw  them.  May  God  incline  us 
more  and  more  to  that  unambitious,  unself- 
ish, contented,  cheerful,  thankful  temper, 
which  is  at  once  a  medicine  and  a  feast,  an 
ornament  and  a  protection. 

One  of  the  chief  advantages,  we  are  told, 
of  the  national  festivity  of  the  Hebrew,  was 
that,  by  friendly  intercourse  between  differ- 
ent tribes,  it  promoted  a  spirit  of  common 
patriotism.  If  Thanksgiving  would  but  be 
observed  in  a  becoming  spirit,  how  much 
would  it  accomplish  in  the  way  of  purifying 
and  strengthening  the  sentiment  of  nation- 
ality, which  was  fostered  by  ancestral  memo- 
ries, cemented  by  the  blood  of  our  fathers, 
and  wrought  into  the  structure  of  our  conti- 
nent by  the  hand  of  God,  in  the  flow  of  riv- 
ers, the  clasp  of  lakes  and  ridges,  and  the 
embracing  arm  of  an  unbroken  seaboard. 

An  excellent  minister  of  my  acquaintance 
is  in  the  habit  of  selecting  the  texts  of  his 
Thanksgiving  sermons  out  of  the  book  of 
Lamentations.  The  elegies  of  the  weeping 
prophet  are  a  part  of  the  Sacred  Volume,  and 
frequent  enough  are  the  occasions  when  they 
may  be  used  with  utmost  pertinency.  But  it 
so  happens  that  "  Thanksgiving  '■■ — the  only 
day  in  our  calendar  of  the  kind — is  the  one 
in  which  dirges  are  not  so  appropriate  as 
carols.  Its  true  design  is  not  to  furnish  the 
pulpit  with  an  opportunity  for  pelting  the 
civil  magistracy,  nor  for  indulging  in  lugubri- 
ous complaints  and  apprehensions  as  to  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  political  affairs ; 
but  specifically  to  rehearse  those  acts  of  the 
Divine  goodness  which  should  inspire  us 
with  gratitude  and  incline  us  to  a  cheerful 
expression  of  thanks.  That  man  who,  in  the 
worst  condition  of  affairs,  cannot  discover 
material  enough  for  praise,  is  already  in  a 
morbid  and  most  deplorable  state. 

This  festival  was  first  appointed  by  a  peo- 
ple proverbially  parsimonious  in  the  designa- 
of  the  sect  called  Millerites. 


350 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


tion  of  holidays.  With  the  exception  of 
"  Election  Day,"  and  the  "  Fourth  of  July," 
it  was  the  one  only  holiday  of  the  year. 
"  New  Year  "  came  and  passed  in  the  New 
England  States  with  no  recognition,  save  in 
the  presence  of  a  new  primer,  and  a  vague 
impression  that  it  was  the  time  for  a  boy  to 
make  good  resolutions.  But  the  last  Thurs- 
day in  November  gathered  to  itself  all  fra- 
grant and  pleasant  associations.  What  ex- 
traordinary sermons,  what  extraordinary  an- 
thems, on  that  day  in  the  old  ''  Meeting 
House  "  !*  Without  reproof,  one  could  smile, 
on  that  day,  at  the  wonderful  performances 
of  the  choir  in  those  old  fugue  tunes  in  which 
the  several  parts  were  perpetually  chasing 
each  other  in  a  hard  race,  till  they  came  in  at 
the  close,  with  a  general  making  up  on  satis- 
factory terms;    and  even  at  the  sermon  too. 


when  the  minister — that  man  of  black— did 
not  seem  so  ghostly  as  in  other  days,  but 
descending  from  high  mysteries,  talked  of 
passing  events  and  familiar  things,  in  a  style 
which  kept  his  hearers  awake  without  the  aid 
of  physical  appliances ;  and  so  the  day  which 
went  forth  with  joy  was  led  in  at  night  with 
peace. 

The  reader  will  infer  that  the  foundations 
of  the  author's  mind  were  laid  in  happy 
memories  and  associations  with  the  Day  and 
the  Habit  of  Thanksgiving. 

Sufficiently  compensated  will  he  be  if  any- 
thing shall  be  found  in  these  pages,  which 
may  serve  as  a  few  grains  of  frankincense  on 
that  oblation  which,  he  trusts,  will  burn  pure 
and  bright  on  all  our  altars  and  our 
hearths,  on  each  return  of  Thanksgiving 
Day. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 


MAKING  OUR  OWN  WORLD 

By  Maltbie  D.  Babcock,  D.D. 

The  people  therefore,  that  stood  by,  and  heard  it,  said  that  it  thundered;    others  said.  An 
,  angel  spake  to  him. — John  xii:  29 


A  verse  from  one  of  the  songs  of  boy- 
hood runs: 

"  This  world   is  not  so  bad  a  world 
As  some  would  like  to  make  it ; 
But  whether  good,  or  whether  bad. 
Depends  on  how  you  take  it." 

What  you  make  of  the  world  is,  practically, 
what  you  think  of  it  and  what  you  do  with 
it.  There  is  a  difference  in  the  opinions  and 
behavior  of  people.  From  the  same  facts 
they  reach  different  philosophies ;  from  the 
same  premises,  different  conclusions.  Some 
said  it  thundered ;  others  said,  An  angel 
spake  unto  Him — one  fact,  but  two  opinions ; 
one  sound,  but  two  interpretations.  Where 
lay  the  difference?  It  must  have  been  in  the 
people. 

Fichte  says,  what  system  of  philosophy  you 
hold  depends  wholly  on  what  manner  of  man 
you  are.  Philosophy  means,  in  effect,  your 
theory  of  life — Epicurean.  Stoic,  Utilitarian, 
Necessitarian.  Kant  speaks  of  the  "  Ding 
an  sich  " — the  thing  in  itself.  But  who  can 
tell  what  that  is?  The  moment  I  behold  any- 
thing, it  is  colored  by  my  powers  of  percep- 
tion and  interpreted  by  my  personality. 
There  was  a  sound  that  day  in  Jerusalem ; 
but  who  knows  what  it  was  in  itself?  To 
one  man,  thunder ;  to  another,  an  angel's 
voice;  to  Jesus  Himself,  the  voice  of  His 
Father.  What  is  music  in  itself,  if  there 
were  no  one  to  hear  it?  I  remember  listen- 
ing to  a  string  quartet  concert  with  a  friend. 
I  cannot  describe  the  pleasure  it  was  to  me. 
Asking  my  friend  afterward  what  he  thought 

*  This  name  for  a  church  is  not  of  New  England  origin,  as  is  generally  supposed,  for  the  classic  Addison 
uses  it  in  the  Sfectalor. 


of  the  concert,  he  said,  "  It  was  one  long 
squeak  to  me."  Mr.  Lowell,  in  an  English 
address,  said :  "  The  proverb,  '  Truth  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  the  well,'  comes  about  because 
whoever  looks  down  to  see  her  sees  his  own 
image,  and  is  sure,  not  only  that  he  has  seen 
the  goddess,  but  that  she  is  far  better  looking 
than  he  had  imagined."  Metaphysicians  call 
this,  not  perception,  but  apperception.  It  is 
the  fact  colored  by  the  mind.  It  is  the  sound 
as  I  hear  it,  the  sight  as  I  see  it.  It  is  a  land- 
scape through  the  glass  of  my  mind — dis- 
torted, if  the  glass  is  poor ;  clear,  if  the  glass 
is  good.  In  the  first  scene  of  Julius  Caesar, 
Decius  says,  "  Here  lies  the  east."  ''  No," 
says  Casca,  with  heart  full  of  conspiracy. 
Cinna  agrees  with  Decius,  and  points  to  the 
gray  dawn  in  the  east.  Again  Casca  says, 
"  No,  there  in  the  south,  where  I  point  my 
sword,  the  sun  will  rise,"  thinking  of  revolu- 
tion and  a  new  political  day.  "As  a  man 
thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he,"  and  so  he 
sees ;  and  the  world  is  not  what  it  is  in  itself, 
but  what  it  is  to  us, — colored  and  interpreted 
by  what  we  import,  impart.  Wordsworth  is 
accurate  when  he  speaks  of 

"  The  mighty  world  of  eye  and  ear. 

Both  what  they  half  create,  and  half  per- 
ceive." 

He  laments : 

"  I  heard  a  thousand  blended  notes, 
While  in  a  grove  I  sate  reclined, 
In  that  sweet  mood  when  pleasant  thoughts 
Bring  sad  thoughts  to  the  mind. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


351 


*'  To  her  fair  works  did  Nature  link 

The  human  soul  that  through  me  ran ; 
And  much  it  grieved  my  heart  to  think 
What  man  has  made  of  man. 

"  Through    primrose    tufts,     in    that    green 
bower, 
The  periwinkle  trailed  its  wreaths; 
And  'tis  my  faith  that  every  flower 
Enjoys  the  air  it  breathes. 

"  The  birds  around  me  hopped  and  played ; 
Their  thoughts  I  cannot  measure; 
But  the  least  motion  which  they  made. 
It  seemed  a  thrill  of  pleasure. 

"  The  budding  twigs  spread  out  their  fan, 
To  catch  the  breezy  air ; 
And  I  must  think,  do  all  I  can, 
That  there  was  pleasure  there, 

"  If  this  belief  from  heaven  be  sent, 
If  such  be  Nature's  holy  plan, 
Have  I  not  reason  to  lament 

What  man  has  made  of  man  ?  " 

Again  and  again  he  complains  over  the 
dulling  and  deadening  of  our  sensibilities, 
and  of  the  materializing  of  our  common  life. 

"  The  world  is  too  much  with  us ;    late  and 

soon. 
Getting   and    spending,    we   lay    waste    our 

powers : 
Little  we  see  in  Nature  that  is  ours." 

Why  do  we  not  see  "  Earth  crammed  with 
heaven,  and  every  common  bush  afire  with 
God?"  Why  is  "a  primrose  on  a  river's 
brim  "  a  yellow  primrose  to  us,  and  nothing 
more,  when  to  another  it  gives  "  thoughts 
that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears  "  ?  Why 
do  we  only  hear  it  thunder,  when  some  one 
else  hears  an  angel?  Why  cannot  I  see  the 
violet  hue  in  the  shadows  of  the  fence  rails? 
Artists  do.  "  I  do  not  see  these  things  in 
Nature  that  you  see,"  said  a  man  to  Turner 
as  they  stood  before  one  of  his  pictures. 
"Don't  you  wish  you  could?"  was  the  re- 
sponse. It  looks  as  tho  the  explanation  of 
differences  was  inside,  not  outside,  and  a 
man's  temperament  was  his  fate. 

I.  What,  then,  have  I  to  do  with  this?  If 
the  dififerences  is  in  people,  so  that  one  hears 
it  thunder  and  another  hears  an  angel's  voice, 
what  have  I  to  do  with  it  all  ?  I  am  what  I 
am.  How  can  I  be  held  responsible?  "Can 
the  blind  see  or  the  deaf  hear?  "  The  whole 
problem,  brethren,  is  solved  by  the  word 
attention.  It  is  attention  that  makes  the  dif- 
ference between  seeing  and  looking,  between 
hearing  and  listening.  Seeing  plus  attention 
equals  looking.  Hearing  plus  attention  equals 
listening.  What  you  Fee  and  hear  may  be 
wholly  out  of  your  control  now,  but  not  so 
with  your  looking  and  listening.  Moral  re- 
sponsibility and  moral  power  meet  in  your 
will.  You  can  choose  to  look  up,  not  down ; 
to  the  right,  not  to  the  left ;  not  because  it  is 
natural  to  you  or  pleasant,  but  because  God's 
word  tells  you  it  is  right.  What  is  your  neck 
for,  but  to  govern  your  looking  and  listen- 
ing?    You  may  see  wine  red  in  the  cup,  but 


you  can  look  another  way.  You  may  hear 
the  voice  of  temptation,  but  resolve  to  listen 
to  the  voice  of  God.  So,  with  your  God- 
given  will,  you  may  dispose  yourself  in  oppo- 
sition to  your  disposition.  This  can  be  done. 
No  man  is  the  slave  of  his  disposition  in  a 
world  where  the  Divine  will  and  the  human 
will  together  can  do  eventually  what  they 
please.  Temperament  is  wax  before  the 
human  will  and  God.  Natural  traits  are 
powerless  before  moral  decisions.  You  are 
not  responsible  for  the  disposition  you  are 
born  with,  but  for  the  disposition  you  die 
with.  It  can  be  changed.  Family  character- 
istics may  be  chosen  or  repudiated  by  the  de- 
termination of  the  character-builder.  Hered- 
ity is  powerful ;  but  human  choice  has  God 
within  reach. 

With  God  all  things  are  possible;  Saul  be- 
comes Paul ;  human  nature  is  changed.  A 
man  can  be  born  again — can  become  a  new 
creation.  "  Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come 
up  the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier  shall 
come  up  the  myrtle-tree,  and  it  shall  be  to  the 
Lord  for  a  name,  for  an  everlasting  sign."  A 
sign — of  what?  That  God  can  cross  the  sign 
and  line  of  your  nativity ;  that  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  you  can  be  regenerated ;  that,  tho  you 
were  born  under  a  mercurial,  a  saturnine,  or 
m.artial  star,  you  may  be  born  again  under 
the  star  of  Bethlehem,  with  another  disposi- 
tion, divine,  and  loyal  to  God,  with  a  new 
heart  that  sees  God,  with  a  new  heart 
that  hears  His  voice. 

II.  This  is  the  first,  great,  and  Divine  pos- 
sibility, and  the  second  is  like  unto  it  and  in- 
volved in  it.  You  can  change  your  point  of 
attention,  and  create  or  destroy  your  facul- 
ties, govern  your  senses,  and  determine  what 
you  shall  see  and  hear.  Christ  taught  this 
truth  again  and  again :  he  gains  that  uses. 
he  loses  that  neglects ;  seek  God  first,  and 
things  become  incidental ;  seek  the  world 
first,  and  God  becomes  vague  and  remote. 
Attention  develops ;  neglect  disintegrates.  If 
I  were  by  nature  like  a  fly  that  feasts  on  car- 
rion, and  should  resolve  to  follow  the  flight 
of  the  bees,  and  seek  only  fragrance  and  nec- 
tar, mv  love  for  the  foul  would  lessen,  my 
faculties  gradually  be  transformed,  and 
honey  and  wax,  sweetness  and  light,  would 
become  the  income  and  output  of  my  life. 
Beloved,  every  Christian  of  us  has  both  na- 
tures ;  the  old  instinct  for  decay,  the  new 
impulse  for  soundness ;  the  old  instinct  re- 
joicing in  iniquity,  the  new  impulse  in  the 
truth.  On  the  left  is  death,  on  the  right  is 
life.  The  depressing  and  the  encouraging  are 
side  by  side.  Scandal  and  records  of  sin  are 
opposed  to  kindness,  and  hope,  and  words  of 
good  report ;  on  the  one  hand  debits  and 
things  that  hurt — on  the  other  credits  and 
things  to  be  thankful  for ;  voices  of  tempta- 
tion— high  calling  from  God ;  our  personal 
wrongs — our  imperial  duties ;  carrion — clo- 
ver. To  which  will  you  choose  to  look  and 
listen,  despite  what  you  now  ordinarily  see 
and  hear?  "His  servants,"  said  Jesus,  "are 
ye  who  carries  you  away  by  force?"  No, 
"  to  whom  ye  yield  yourselves."  Which  way 
will    you    look?    You    can    decide:     it    will 


352 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


affect  your  seeing.  To  what  will  you  listen? 
You  can  decide :  it  will  affect  your  hearing. 
You  begin  saying :  "  As  I  am,  I  see  and 
hear."  True.  It  only  thunders  to  the  dull 
or  guilty  soul ;  while  the  ethereal  and  aspir- 
ing spirit  hears  angel  voices.  As  we  are,  we 
do,  say,  think,  hear,  see.  But  you  can  re- 
verse the  process :  As  you  look  and  listen, 
will  you  see  and  hear,  think,  say,  do,  become. 

The  men  who  heard  it  thunder  could  not 
help  it  that  day.  But  if  they  discovered  that 
others  heard  angels'  voices ;  if  they  said, 
"  why  cannot  I  ?  "  if  they  began  to  look  for 
God,  began  to  listen  for  angels,  some  day 
glimpses  of  God  came  to  them ;  some  day 
heavenly  music  blessed  them.  "  If  with  all 
your  hearts  ye  truly  seek  me,  ye  shall  also 
surely  find  me."  Every  one  that  seeketh, 
findtth  ;  for  God  is  the  God  of  the  hungry 
and  thirsty  soul,  and  satisfieth  the  desire  of 
every  living  thing. 

Beloved,  what  Thanksgiving  Day  is  to  us, 
what  voices  speak  to  us  to-day,  depends  upon 
what  we  have  been  looking  for  and  listening 
to  in  the  days  that  are  gone.  If  to-day  you 
find  yourself  inclined  to  murmur,  seeing 
much  that  is  hard  to  bear,  seeing  little  to  be 
thankful  for;  if  you  find  fault  instead  of 
saying  grace;  if  you  groan  and  cannot  sing; 
if,  as  Whittier  says, 

"  You  see  the  cloud  which  overhangs 
A  world  of  sin  and  loss ; 
I  hear  the  Lord's  beatitudes. 
His  prayer  upon  the  cross ;  " 

if,  in  a  word,  you  see  only  the  dark  side,  I  am 
sorry.  But  it  can  be  helped,  swiftly,  to-day, 
by  an  act  of  faith ;  more  slowly  in  the  year 
to  come  by  obedience  to  God's  laws.  God 
can  immediately  open  your  eyes.  You  re- 
member Elijah  and  the  terrified  young  man 
who  thought  they  were  friendless  and  help- 
less. "  Lord,  open  thou  the  young  man's 
eyes !  "  prayed  the  prophet,  and  lo,  the  moun- 
tains were  full  of  chariots  and  horsemen ! 

Like  a  piece  of  cold  iron  in  sand  and  metal 
filings,  which  brings  no  iron  out,  you  see  no 
especial  mercies.  But  wind  a  coil  of  wire 
about  the  iron,  and  the  invisible  current  so 
inspires  it  that  every  scrap  of  iron  leaps  to 
meet  it.  You,  too,  can  be  so  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  to-day  that  God's  benefits 
will  swiftly  greet  your  eyes  and  cluster  about 
your  heart. 

But  for  the  future,  I  appeal  to  you,  friends 
under  the  clouds,  friends  of  the  minor  key, 
knights  of  the  rueful  countenance,  missing 
the  voice  of  angels,  hearing  only  the  thunder, 
see  what  can  be  done  by  your  will  and  God's 
in  a  year.     Make  three  resolutions. 

I.  Resolve  to  do — the  seraphic  rather  than 
the  stormy  thing;  do  the  thoughtful  thing, 
and  cause  a  thankful  response ;  it  will  affect 
the  air  outside  you  and  change  the  tone  and 
temper  of  your  mind.  We  are  only  just 
learning  the  supreme  interest  of  the  mind  in 
the  hand.  Train  your  hand  to  be  kind  and 
ii;  will  soon  react  upon  your  heart  and  make 
it  sensitive  to  God's  mercies.  Being  kind 
to  others  will  awaken  you  to  the  Being  "  kin- 
ned "   to  you.     "  One   who   loves  his   fellow 


men  "  will  find  himself  "  one  whom  love  of 
God  has  blest." 

2.  Resolve  to  say — thankful  words.  How- 
ever you  feel,  you  are  not  obliged  to  talk. 
It  is  seldom  your  duty  to  say,  "  What  dis- 
agreeable weather !  "  "  What  a  poor  break- 
fast!  ''  "  What  a  homely  person!  "  "  What  a 
headache  I  have !  "  There  is  always  an  ap- 
preciative word  that  can  be  uttered.  As  a 
rule,  we  say  what  we  choose.  Why  not 
choose  what  we  say  by  the  rule  of  love? 
We  say  what  comes  naturally,  and  excuse 
ourselves  by  temperament.  Let  our  tempera- 
ment keep  silence  before  a  heart  that  will 
tell  of  God's  faithfulness  and  speak  good 
things  of  the  Lord.  It  is  not  wrong  for  a 
shadowed  heart  to  prompt  sunny  words. 
Even  a  cat  will  curl  up  in  the  only  spot  of 
sunshine  in  a  room.  Carlyle  came  down  one 
morning  with  his  "  waes ''  and  lamentations: 
"  If  I  could  hut  have  had  that  dog  by  the 
hind  legs  within  reach  of  a  stone  wall !  " 
Walter  Scott  once  had  just  such  a  night. 
"Did  you  hear  that  dog?"  he  was  asked. 
"  Yes,  poor  cur,  he  kept  me  awake.  I  was 
sorry  for  him ;  he,  no  doubt,  has  his  troubles 
too."  Let  our  speech  be  with  grace,  not 
groaning.  The  discouraging  note  can  be  left 
in  silence,  the  loving  thought  can  be  uttered; 
it  will  help  our  heart  to  hope. 

3.  Resolve  to  look — for  causes  of  thankful- 
ness. "  Seek  and  ye  shall  find,"  is  a  principle 
as  well  as  a  promise.  Look  for  trouble,  for 
sin,  shame,  ash-heaps,  broken  dishes ;  you 
will  find  them.  Look  for  goodness,  good 
people,  good  apples ;  you  will  find  them. 
The  Pharisees  saw  in  Matthew  a  despised 
publican,  and  their  pride  was  gratified.  Jesus 
saw  in  Matthew  a  man,  a  possibility,  and  His 
love  was  gratified.  Look  for  the  good  in 
people,  in  history,  in  the  providence  of  God. 
Look  for  the  goodness  of  the  Lord  in  your 
own  life.  The  dross  and  slag  of  life  accumu- 
late ;  smoke  is  in  the  air ;  flakes  of  soot  fall 
softly  upon  us ;  life  can  easily  seem  a  poor 
affair.  But  life  is  full  of  dignity,  grace,  and 
joy,  full  of  opportunity  for  goodness  and 
kindness.  Will  you  wait  till  the  sunset  hour 
gilds  its  passing?  Will  you  wait  till  death 
stirs  your  imagination  and  you  see,  but  too 
late,  how  much  beauty  and  half-appreciated 
joy  there  was  in  life ;  how  much  you  had  of 
blessing,  in  how  many  ways  you  could  have 
been  a  blessing?  Look  for  God's  goodness 
to-day.  Only  so  will  you  come  to  see  life  in 
its  fulness.  The  disagreeable  may  be  forced 
upon  you;  but  your  mind  will  instinctively 
find  an  offset.  Sweet  uses  will  shine  out  of 
adversity.  You  will  find  "  Tongues  in  the 
trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks,  sermons 
in  stones,  and  good  in  everything."  In  every 
storm  you  will  hear  your  Savior's  voice,  "  It 
is  I.''  Every  day  will  have  sufficient  testing ; 
but  the  word  of  Jesus  will  hold  good,  "  My 
grace  is  sufficient  for  thee."  You  will  see 
the  sterner  side  of  Me,  the  rocklike  structure 
of  righteousness  with  the  Puritan :  but  also 
life's  gentler  side  with  the  Mystic,  the  green 
pastures  and  still  waters  of  Peace.  In  your 
life  mercy  and  truth  shall  meet,  righteousness 
and  peace  shall  kiss  each  other.     The  world 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


353 


of  law  shall  yet  to  you  be  a  world  of  love. 
You  shall  hear  it  thunder  at  Sinai ;  but  you 
shall  hear  the  angel  voices  at  Bethlehem  sing- 
ing the  glory  of  the  God  of  love,  heralding  to 
all  mankind  tidings  of  peace  and  good  will. 

''  Old  friends,  old  scenes,  will  lovelier  be. 
As  more  of  Heaven  in  each  we  see : 
Some  softening  gleam  of  love  and  prayer 
Shall  dawn  on  every  cross  and  care. 


'  As  for  some  dear  familiar  strain 
Untired  we  ask,  and  ask  again, 
Ever  in  its  melodious  store, 
Finding  a  spell  unheard  before; 

■  Such  is  the  bliss  of  souls  serene. 
When  they  have  sworn  to  steadfast  mean, 
Counting  the  cost,  in  all  to  espy 
Their  God,   in  all  themselves   deny." 

— H.  R. 


OUR  COUNTRY 

By  J.  P.  Newman,  D.D. 
He  hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation. — Psalm  cxlvii:  20 


This  psalm  is  a  beautiful  ascription  of 
praise  to  Almighty  God  for  national  bene- 
dictions. It  is  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
He  makes  a  distinction  between  individuals, 
between  communities  and  nations,  by  the  be- 
stowment  of  His  blessings,  and  there  is  no 
fact  more  patent  than  this,  that  we  differ  in 
our  gifts  and  blessings ;  and  what  is  true  of 
us  as  individuals  is  also  true  of  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  The  Psalmist  therefore  recog- 
nizes this  great  fact,  that  national  blessings 
come  from  the  Almighty,  and  are  given  in 
recognition  of  national  fidelity  to  His  gov- 
ernment, obedience  to  His  laws,  and  are 
given  for  a  special  purpose,  to  be  used  not 
for  selfish  gratification,  but  for  our  own  hap- 
piness and  that  of  others.  The  Psalmist  as- 
cends from  the  individual,  crowned  with  in- 
numcTpljle  mercies,  to  the  Jewish  common- 
wcaliii,  and  after  reciting  the  marvelous  his- 
tory of  that  people,  enumerating  God's  won- 
derful interpositions  therein,  and  recounting 
the  blessings  enjoyed,  he  then  exclaims  in  the 
language  of  the  text,  "  He  hath  not  dealt  so 
with  any  nation." 

Let  me,  therefore,  call  your  attention 
calmly,  and  I  trust  gratefully,  to  the  national 
blessings  which  at  this  time  call  for  our  grati- 
tude. And  it  seems  to  me  that  if  we  recog- 
nize the  truth  stated  by  St.  Paul  when  he 
stood  on  Mars  Hill,  that  God  hath  ordained 
the  habitations  and  the  boundaries  of  na- 
tions, we  must  acknowledge  that  in  His  in- 
finite wisdom  and  goodness  He  has  selected 
for  us  the  most  desirable,  the  most  beautiful 
portion  of  this  earth.  No  matter  whether 
we  take  the  geographical  location,  or  the 
climate,  or  our  mineral  and  agricultural  ca- 
pacities, the  variety  of  our  climates,  our  longi- 
tude and  latitude — no  matter  from  what 
standpoint  we  view  our  location,  we  must 
confess,  without  self-conceit  or  national 
vanity,  that  this  national  location  is  the  most 
desirable  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is 
far  from  the  frozen  regions  of  the  north,  it 
is  far  from  the  burning  suns  of  the  south, 
but  sweeping  over  the  lovely  regions  of  a 
temperate  zone,  it  lies  too  far  south  to  be 
bound  in  by  perpetual  chains  of  frost,  and 
too  far  north  for  its  social  character  to 
sink  under  the  enervating  influences  of  a 
tropical    sun.     It    is    therefore    on    that    side 


of  the  equator  destined  by  Providence  to  be 
the  great  receptacle  of  humanity;  it  is  in 
the  latitude  and  longitude  where  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth  have  dwelt  in  prosperity 
and  in  power. 

Here  it  is  possible  to  find  within  our  own 
region  all  the  climates  of  the  earth;  the 
climate  of  the  tropics,  the  climate  of  the 
temperate  zone,  and  the  climate  o'i  the  polar 
region,  and  with  these  peculiarities  of  climate 
it  is  also  possible  for  us  to  find  the  fruits  of 
all  climates  and  of  all  countries.  Indeed,  a 
richer  inheritance  was  never  portioned  out 
to  any  people,  Palestine  not  excepted.  Tho 
I  consider  Palestine  a  world  in  miniature,, 
worthy  the  gift  of  God  and  worthy  the  ac- 
ceptance of  a  chosen  people,  yet  it  is  a  narrow 
strip  of  land;  you  could  place  it  inside  of 
one  of  our  counties,  and  especially  if  we 
take  counties  of  the  great  Western  States 
beyond  the  Mississippi. 

And  then,  in  addition  to  these  great  geo- 
graphical advantages,  we  ought  to  remember 
that  God  hath  graciously  favored  us  in  our 
ancestry.  Our  ancestors  were  never  vassals; 
our  ancestors  were  English  gentlemen,  occu- 
pying high  social  positions ;  persons  of  wealth 
and  of  intelligence ;  they  were  the  men  who 
stood  abreast  with  the  foremost  men  of  every 
nation,  and  we  must  look  upon  them,  not  as 
some  of  the  English  looked  upon  them  in  the 
days  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  as  felons  ban- 
ished from  their  country,  but  we  must  look 
upon  them  as  English  gentlemen ;  and  had 
England  been  wise  and  allowed  Patrick 
Henry  or  George  Washington,  or  both,  to 
represent  the  colonies  in  the  parliament  of 
Great  Britain,  there  would  have  been  no 
Revolution,  and  these  vast  States  to-day 
would  have  been  the  richest  possession  of 
the  English  Crown.  But  our  fathers  were 
men  of  renown  and  determination,  who 
fully  appreciated  their  rights,  which  they  de- 
clared for  themselves  and  for  their  posterity, 
that  where  there  is  no  representation  there 
shall  be  no  taxation.  Denied  representation, 
they  withheld  taxation ;  they  asserted  the 
rights  of  freemen ;  they  announced  the  ulti- 
mate principles  of  human  rights,  and  thus 
inaugurated  the  grandest  political  era  in  the 
annals  of  time. 


354 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


If  from  our  ancestors  we  look  out  upon 
our  population,  made  up  of  the  nationalities 
of  the  earth,  to  be  in  the  second,  certainly  in 
the  third  generation,  harmonized  unities,  and 
Americanized — if  we  look  out  upon  our  popu- 
lation we  must  be  satisfied  therewith.  It 
must  awaken  gratitude  in  the  national  heart 
that  the  Almighty  has  so  ordained  that  while 
this  country's  population  was  to  be  made  up 
so  largely  of  emigrants,  yet  the  emigrants 
were  not  to  be  the  offscouring  of  the  earth, 
were  not  to  be  the  aged  and  the  decrepid, 
were  not  to  be  the  poverty-stricken ;  but  they 
were  to  be  the  children,  the  youth,  the  man- 
hood, the  womanhood  of  the  best  populations 
of  the  great  Caucasian  race ;  in  other  words, 
of  the  descendants  of  Japheth,  that  branch 
of  the  human  race  which  to-day  is  advancing 
to  supreme  power  over  Ham  on  the  one  side, 
and  over  Shem  on  the  other. 

The  foreign  element  in  our  population  is 
too  frequently  denounced,  but  I  beg  of  you, 
citizenS;  to  analyze  it,  if  your  attention  has 
never  been  turned  to  the  wealth  of  the  emi- 
grants, the  amount  of  money  which  each 
foreigner  brings  into  this  country.  Usually 
those  who  come  are  thrifty;  whether  they 
are  farmers  or  artisans,  they  are  not  paupers, 
but  they  represent  what  may  be  called  the 
bone  and  the  sinew  of  the  Old  World;  and 
I  do  not  wonder  that  Bismarck  in  his  astute 
sagacity  favors  *  the  enactment  of  laws 
against  emigrating  from  Germany  here,  be- 
cause he  knows  that  those  of  Germany  who 
come  to  this  country  represent  national  wealth 
in  their  capacity  for  industry  as  well  as  in 
their  capacity  for  the  legislation  of  a  great 
country.  I  do  not  wonder  that  Lord  Beacons- 
field  is  alarmed;  and  that  in  his  poetic  fancy 
he  even  stepped  beyond  the  truth.  I  will 
not  say  beyond  the  truth  intentionally,  for  it 
seems  that  there  was  a  Canadian  who  went 
over  there,  and.  if  he  did  not  misrepresent  the 
facts,  he  certainly  led  the  prime  minister 
astray;  and  therefore  I  do  not  wonder  that 
in  the  exercise  of  his  poetic  imagination  he 
should  paint  such  a  picture  as  might  deter 
the  artisans  and  the  farmers  of  Great  Britain 
from  coming  to  this  country.  The  crowned 
heads  of  Europe  may  well  hold  up  their 
hands  in  anxiety,  for  they  see  that  the  class 
of  people  who  are  looking  toward  America 
are  the  people  who  contribute  most  largely  to 
a  nation's  wealth. 

It  is  true,  as  I  have  intimated,  there  is 
danger  in  the  stranger,  danger  in  the  for- 
eigner who  comes  with  antagonistic  ideas 
and  who  comes  with  selfishness,  for  selfish- 
ness underlies  emigration.  It  is  so  in  all  the 
past.  The  Hebrews  went  into  Egypt  for 
corn ;  the  Spaniards  went  into  Mexico  and 
South  America  for  gold,  and  the  only  emi- 
grants in  the  history  of  the  world  who  did 
not  emigrate  from  selfishness,  were  those  few 
Pi;i  itans  who  landed  on  a  barren  rock  in 
mid-winter,  who  came  for  God  and  for  con- 
science. 

Then  we  are  to  rejoice  in  this  great  fact 
that  we  have  a  transforming  power  inherent 
in  our  national  mind,  so  that  in  the  second, 


certainly  in  the  third  generation,  the  for- 
eigners who  come  here  are  no  longer  for- 
eigners, no  longer  Italian,  nor  French,  nor 
German,  nor  Irish,  nor  Scotch,  but  have  be- 
come Americans.     .     .     . 

And  then  we  are  to  remember  the  relative 
position  in  which  we  are  placed  by  the  mercy 
of  Almighty  God,  and  tho  it  is  not  pleasant 
at  any  time  to  draw  distinctions,  there  seems 
to  be  something  of  duty  therein ;  in  view  of 
the  object  to  be  accomplished  it  may  be  proper 
for  us  to  place  in  juxtaposition  our  nation 
with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  and  see 
how  exalted,  how  desirable  our  position,  as  a 
people,  when  contrasted  with  theirs.  For  in- 
stance, let  us  go  into  South  America,  a 
country  of  indefinite  capability ;  a  country 
with  friendly  skies  and  an  inexhaustible  soil, 
that  should  be  rich  and  prosperous  and 
virtuous.  Go  there  and  behold  South  Amer- 
ica like  a  mosaic  pavement  as  to  governments, 
or  like  a  potter's  vessel  broken  into  a  thou- 
sand fragments;  petty  states  pitted  against 
each  other ;  family  broils,  wars  and  famines, 
and  pestilence  reigning  there.  And  if  we 
turn  from  South  America  to  Mexico,  that  has 
in  part  thrown  off  the  incubus  of  Rome  under 
which  she  lived  and  suffered  so  long;  Mexico 
that  seeks  to  strike  for  herself  and  for  God; 
Mexico,  that  with  her  capabilities  should  be 
a  grand  republic,  and  yet  how  disordered; 
how  broken  into  parts :  and  how  difficult  to 
harmonize,  unify,  and  bring  into  unison  the 
distracting  elements  of  that  country. 

If  we  turn  from  our  own  continent  and 
cross  the  briny  deep,  if  we  go  to  mother 
England,  mother  of  us  all,  what  a  sad  con- 
dition England  is  in  to-day  with  her  great 
constitution,  with  her  Christian  creed,  with 
her  Hag  on  every  sea,  under  every  sky ;  with 
her  great  parliament,  with  her  distinguished 
ministry,  with  her  rapt  poets,  her  eloquent  _/^ 
orators,  her  splendid  scholars ;  England,  the 
mistress  of  the  seas ;  England,  whose  civi- 
lization is  everywhere — England,  that  to-day 
should  be  the  freest  and  the  happiest  nation 
on  the  globe !  But  look  at  England !  Op- 
pressed in  her  finances,  her  laboring  classes 
crying  for  bread,  her  farmers  stretching  out 
their  hands  in  prayer  for  aid,  her  artisans 
packing  up  their  tools  and  gathering  to- 
gether their  families  and  turning  their  faces 
to  Columbia's  land;  and  then  in  her  politics 
so  divided,  in  her  finances  so  embarrassed; 
with  a  war  in  Afghanistan,  with  a  war  in 
Africa,  and  see  her  preparations  for  a  war 
with  all  Europe ! 

Then  cross  the  channel  and  enter  France ; 
go  to  the  land  of  Lafayette.  True,  there  is 
a  republic,  true  the  Jesuits  have  been  de- 
throned, true,  France  has  developed  a  financial 
capacity  of  which  we  had  not  dreamed ;  but 
France  is  not  firm,  is  not  certain.     .     .     . 

And  then  if  we  pass  into  Russia,  with  her 
exchequer  exhausted,  with  a  fearful  war 
upon  her  hands,  her  armies  everywhere,  but 
not  competent  to  conquer ;  with  two  parties 
in  the  kingdom — the  German  party  and  the 
Russian  party;  with  the  Czar,  the  father,  at 


•  This  sermon  was  delivered  in  1879. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


355 


the  head  of  the  German  party,  and  the  son 
at  the  head  of  the  Russian  party.  Russia 
to-day  is  divided  against  herself,  and  is  pre- 
paring, as  she  never  prepared  before,  for  the 
bloodiest  conflict  anticipated  in  the  annals  of 
time.  And  besides  this,  Russia  with  her 
students — young  men  who  refuse  to  bow  to 
despotism — banished  to  Siberia,  whose  per- 
petual snows  are  stained  with  the  blood  from 
their  exposed  bodies ;  and  even  womanhood 
— helpless,  innocent,  beautiful — treads  those 
icy  paths. 

And  from  Russia  let  us  turn  to  Germany — 
grand  old  Germany — with  a  Christian  prince 
on  the  throne,  and  by  his  side  a  Christian  em- 
press, with  Moltke,  who  draws  the  sword 
only  for  victory — Moltke,  who  bows  morn- 
ing and  evening  around  his  family  altar ;  and 
with  Bismarck,  the  great  statesman.  Ger- 
many— grand  in  her  history ;  grand  in  her 
Protestantism;  grand  in  her  resources.  But, 
alas!  in  an  evil  hour  Bismarck  has  joined 
hands  with  the  Ultramontanists.  Alas !  Prus- 
sia is  jealous — jealous,  they  say,  of  Russia; 
jealous,  they  say,  of  France.  Germany  to- 
day is  on  a  war-footing,  and  the  people  are 
taxed  to  death  to  support  a  standing  army. 
The  same  is  true  of  Austria — Austria,  where 
the  House  of  Hapsburg  has  reigned  so  long. 
Francis  Joseph  now  sleeps  with  a  drawn 
sword  under  his  pillow,  and  the  armies  of 
Hapsburg  are  ready  to  march  at  the  sound 
of  the  bugle. 

If  we  pass  into  the  vine-clad  plains  of 
Piedmont  and  down  into  Italy,  and  stand 
before  the  Quirinal  Palace,  in  the  Eternal 
City,  there  we  find  the  youthful  king,  son  of 
Victor  Emanuel ;  he  has  drawn  the  sword, 
and  all  Italy,  from  Monte  Rosa  to  where 
Vesuvius  sends  her  incense  up  to  God — all 
Italy  "is  armed  for  the  coming  strife. 

Then,  if  we  turn  to  Spain,  whose  youthful 
prince  is  soon  to  lead  to  the  bridal  altar  a 
beautiful  Austrian  princess,  there  in  Spain 
to-day  is  rebellion ;  the  provinces  are  rising 
and  in  league  with  the  Catholic  power  against 
the  Republican  orators.  The  land  of  Castile 
to-day  is  in  the  throes  of  war.  Look,  then, 
to  the  great  Asiatic  regions;  compare  Asia 
with  America.  The  Porte  to-day  is  bank- 
rupt ;  he  is  surrounded  with  ministers  form- 
ing his  cabinet,  who  are  as  so  many  leeches 
on  the  body  of  the  empire,  sucking  the  very 
life-blood  of  its  wealth ;  and  with  an  army 
defeated  everywhere,  but,  like  the  locusts  of 
Egypt,  eating  out  the  very  life  of  the  empire ; 
and  with  an  empire  which,  with  its  friendly 
skies  and  rich  soil,  should  be  the  richest  in 
Asia,  is   famine-stricken   to-day. 

There  is  war  in  Afghanistan :  England 
trembles  on  her  throne  in  India.  Famine  in 
China ;  war  in  Japan.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
with  any  pleasure — indeed  it  is  with  sadness — 
that  I  paint  a  picture  of  the  national  condi- 
tion of  the  world  so  sad  as  this. 

But  from  this  side  of  the  picture  let  us 
look  to  our  own  land ;  here,  where  the  rose 
of  health  is  upon  the  national  cheek;  here, 
where  with  peace  the  bounty  of  God  has 
blessed  us  as  never  in  the. past;  here,  where 
the    Government    stands    secure;    where    the 


laws  are  executed;  where  peace  reigns,  with 
a  standing  army  of  twenty  or  twenty-five 
thousand  to  defend  fifty  millions  of  people — 
and  these  twenty  or  twenty-five  thousand 
men  scattered  on  the  frontiers.  In  this  coun- 
try peace  reigns ;  public  sentiment  controls ; 
public  conscience  is  enthroned ;  and  here 
there  is  an  invisible,  omnipresent  Power  con- 
trolling the  intellect,  controlling  the  passions, 
controlling  the  will,  of  the  American,  And 
never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
never  before  in  the  history  of  this  nation,  has 
the  Almighty  so  smiled  upon  the  husband- 
men ;  never  was  the  shout  of  the  harvesters 
more  gleeful ;  never  was  the  harvest  moon  so 
large  and  so  rich  as  in  this  year.  The  corn 
crop  of  last  year  (1878)  was  1,290  millions 
of  bushels;  this  year  it  is  1,000  millions  of 
bushels,  or  more  than  three  hundred  millions 
increase.  This  is  reliable,  for  I  received 
these  statistics  directly  from  the  Agricultural 
Bureau  in  Washington.  And  it  is  said  that 
the  corn  raised  this  year  is  worth  five  hun- 
dred and  ninety-three  millions  of  dollars, 
and  worth  to  the  farmer  five  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  wheat  crop  of  last  year  was 
420  millions  of  bushels ;  this  year,  449  mil- 
lions of  bushels — the  increase  about  thirty 
millions ;  worth  to  the  farmer  four  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  dollars.  The  oat  crop 
this  year  is  365  millions  of  bushels,  worth 
one  hundred  and  thirteen  millions,  netting  the 
farmer  ninety  millions  of  dollars.  The  rye 
crop  is  twenty-four  millions  of  bushels,  net- 
ting the  farmer  eleven  millions  of  dollars. 
The  barley  crop  is  forty  millions  of  bushels, 
worth  about  twenty-eight  millions  of  dollars. 
And  the  same  proportion  holds  as  to  buck- 
wheat, potatoes,  hay,  etc.  The  cotton  crop 
this  year  amounts  to  five  millions  of  bales, 
worth  two  hundred  and  forty-four  millions 
of  dollars,  and  worth  to  the  planters  of  the 
South,  after  all  expenses  are  paid,  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety  millions  of  dollars.  The 
grand  total  of  our  products  this  year  is  valued 
at  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
millions  of  dollars,  netting  the  farmers  and 
the  planters,  after  expenses  are  paid,  about 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  And  it  is  said,  taking  into 
account  these  crops  that  I  have  mentioned, 
together  with  other  crops  not  mentioned,  that 
our  farmers  will  realize  this  year  from  three 
to  three  thousand  five  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  for  their  crops. 

These  figures  are  almost  incomprehensible, 
but  they  are  grand  and  reliable.  Now  I  say 
that  a  people  thus  blessed  should  shout  the 
harvest-home ;  they  should  recognize  Him 
who  is  the  God  of  the  harvest ;  recognize 
Him  who  holds  in  His  fists  the  winds;  who 
calls  forth  the  clouds  and  waters  the  earth, 
and  then  disperses  the  clouds  and  calls  forth 
the  genial  and  invigorating  sun  to  shine  upon 
the  latent  energies  of  the  earth,  so  that  these 
harvests  shall  shine  in  glory  before  the  face 
of  God  and  the  face  of  man. 

Citizens — American  citizens, — I  take  it  that 
you  are  not  farmers — that  you  are  merchants ; 
you  are  mechanics ;  you  are  bankers ; — but, 
merchants,    mechanics,    bankers,    what    were 


356 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


you  without  the  farmer?  It  is  the  farmer 
that  stands  back  of  all  prosperity  and  of  all 
happiness.  If  the  farmer  fails,  you  fail;  and 
therefore  you  should  join  hands  with  the 
farmer  and  shout  the  harvest-home,  and  re- 
turn thanks  to  God,  saying,  ''  He  hath  not 
dealt   so  with  any  other  people !  " 

And  it  is  also  stated  in  these  statistics  from 
our  distinguished  statistician  in  Washington, 
that  we  shall  be  enabled  to  export  this  year 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  bushels 
of  grain;  and  also  that  we  cannot  meet  the 
demand.  Now  I  take  it  that  Providence  has 
not  merely  a  financial  object  in  this.  He  has 
another  object:  He  can  put  two  hundred 
.millions  of  the  human  race  on  this  continent, 
-'and  proposes  to  call  them  here,  where  corn 
is  abundant,  and  where  the  wheat  invites 
them.  We,  for  a  time,  must  send  our  grain 
abroad,  and  gold  will  return ;  but  I  prophesy 
that  this  vast  agricultural  yield  this  year  is 
an  invitation  to  Europe  to  come  to  our  shores. 

And  there  is  another  fact  worthy  of  our 
consideration,  of  a  moral  and  intellectual 
nature :  This  is  a  Christian  nation.  Some 
infidels  deny  this.  But  look  at  the  facts  in 
proof  that  this  is  a  Christian  nation.  Our 
population  now  is  about  fifty  millions.  We 
have  seventy  thousand  churches  under  our 
flag,  worth  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
We  expend  annually  eighty  millions  for 
churches,  and  we  have  the  money  to  do  it. 
We  have  provided  over  thirty  millions  of 
sittings  in  our  churches — room  enough  for 
all ;  and  if  you  take  out  the  children,  and 
also  take  out  the  sick  and  the  aged,  here  is 
church  room  enough  for  the  vast  population 
of  this  country,  and  all  the  adults  can  go  and 
within  God's  house  hear  the  Word  of  the 
Lord. 

There  are  more  than  seventy  thousand  min- 
isters. Now,  compare  this  number  with  the 
number  of  lawyers,  forty  thousand;  with  the 
number  of  physicians,  sixty-two  thousand. 
And  then,  to  indicate  our  intellectual  ad- 
vancement, there  are  in  this  country  one 
hundred  and  eighty-three  thousand  school- 
teachers :  we  have  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  public  schools,  and  support  the 
same  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred  millions  a 
year.  There  you  gain  an  idea  of  the  average 
intelligence  of  our  citizenship.  Remember 
this,  that  we  have  six  thousand  newspapers, 
and  those  newspapers  have  a  circulation  of 
twenty-two  millions ;  and  for  these  news- 
papers our  people  spend  in  the  neighborhood 
of  sixty-four  millions  of  dollars  a  year. 
What  a  comment  upon  the  average  intelli- 
gence of  the  American  people !  And  no  such 
average  can  be  found  elsewhere ;  no  such 
array  of  facts  and  figures  as  to  churches, 
ministers.  lawyers,  physicians,  school- 
teachers, newspapers ;  and  especially  no  such 
array  of  facts  as  to  public  schools,  the  glory 
of  this  Republic ;  and  God  preserve  unto  us. 
and  to  the  generations  to  come,  our  public 
schools,  which  stand  hard  by  the  Churches 
of  the  living  God  ! 

Now,  it  becomes  us,  in  view  of  all  these 
remarkable  facts,  to  look  for  a  moment  how 
we    may    express    our    thanks    to    Almighty 


God.  I  hold  that  it  is  by  the  full  realization 
and  appreciation  of  these  blessings,  and  by 
the  determination  to  transmit  the  same  to 
posterity.  Let  me  ask,  what  are  the  theories 
among  public  men  as  to  the  secret  of  this 
marvelous  success  ?  The  statesman  in  his 
vanity  ascribes  it  to  statesmanship ;  but  the 
statesman  should  remember  that  there  is 
nothing  in  statecraft  independent  of  itself; 
there  is  nothing  in  statecraft  competent  to 
produce  such  results,  and  competent  to  pre- 
serve a  nation  as  we  have  been  preserved. 
Our  splendid  government,  the  result  of  the 
ripened  wisdom  of  a  hundred  years,  would  go 
to  pieces  like  a  rope  of  sand  were  it  not  for 
other  vitalizing  influences.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, in  statesmanship.  Why,  there  is  not  a 
statesman  to-day  in  this  country  worthy  to 
be  compared  with  the  forefathers.  We  are 
weak  in  this ;  our  public  men  are  second-rate 
men.  And  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  even  men 
who  claim  to  be  senators,  who  claim  to  be 
statesmen,  condescend  to  mingle  in  party 
politics,  and  are  themselves  the  biggest  poli- 
ticians in  the  country.  Washington,  Web- 
ster, and  Clay  would  have  looked  with  loath- 
ing upon  such  a  character,  and  with  contempt 
upon  senators  who  seek  to  control  a  ward 
election.  No,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  in  the 
statesmanship  of  this  country.  It  is  in  some- 
thing else. 

The  scholar  ascribes  it  to  our  culture,  our 
public  schools,  the  average  intelligence.  But 
then  I  must  remind  you  that  Lord  Bacon 
said  that  "  in  knowledge  without  love  there 
is  something  of  malignity ;  "  I  must  remind 
you  of  the  saying  of  Coleridge,  that  in  the 
mere  products  of  the  understanding  there  is 
death ;  and  had  I  the  time,  I  might  recite  to 
you  facts  of  cultured  minds,  cultured  com- 
munities, that  have  gone  to  ruin  because  of 
moral  corruption.  The  strength  of  this  Re- 
public is,  therefore,  not  in  our  common 
schools,  as  it  is  not  in  our  statesmanship ; 
but  it  is  in  a  Divine  Christianity.  And  only 
as  Christianity  is  received  as  a  fact,  practical, 
necessary,  sublime ;  only  as  Christianity  is 
incorporated  in  your  conscience  and  will,  and 
sanctifies  your  hearts,  and  your  fortunes, 
and  your  desires,  does  it'  become  a  saving  l 
power.  This  is  the  saving  power  of  the  na-  I 
tion.  We  are  in  danger  to-day  from  the  in- 
subordination  of  civil  legislation.  Here  is 
the  rock  on  which  we  may  split.  Now  and 
then  a  grave  minister,  now  and  then  a 
bishop,  will  prophesy  that  this  Republic  will 
go  as  Venice  went,  as  Greece  went ;  now  and 
then  a  statesman  is  gloomy,  and  says  we  are 
hastening  to  the  rocks.  Yes,  we  will  hasten 
to  the  rocks,  and  the  proud  ship  of  state  will 
founder  there,  if  our  civil  legislation  is  in- 
subordinate to  the  legislation  of  high  Heaven. 
Just  as  the  legislation  of  the  several  States 
of  this  Union  must  always  harmonize  with 
our  national  legislation,  so  must  our  national 
legislation  always  harmonize  with  the  legis- 
lation of  Heaven ;  and  wherever  there  is  an 
infringement  of  the  Divine  law,  God's  wrath 
is  aroused,  and  one  of  the  saddest  spectacles 
to-day  in  this  Republic  is  that  a  million  and 
a  half  of  American  citizens  are  deprived  of 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


357 


the  right  of  American  citizenship ;  that  a 
million  and  a  half  of  citizens  who  have  all 
the  rights  and  immunities  of  citizenship,  yet 
are  under  duress,  and  dare  not  exercise  a 
freemen's  right,  dare  not  say  at  the  polls  who 
shall  be  their  legislator,  their  governor,  or 
their  president. 

The  Almighty  sympathizes,  always,  with 
the  oppressed ;  and  while  we  to-day  are  happy 
in  our  abundant  and  glorious  harvest,  north 
and  south,  yet  His  eye  is  upon  that  million 
and  a  half  of  citizens  deprived  of  their  rights, 
and  I  warn  you,  I  do  not  care  what  your 
politics  are — I  never  bring  these  things  into 
the  pulpit;  I  am  now  speaking  as  God's 
messenger,  as  His  minister ;  I  am  voicing  His 
thoughts  to  3'ou — and  I  warn  you,  citizens, 
if  there  is  not  a  correction  of  this  evil  that 
cries  to  heaven,  that  the  God  of  justice  will 
arise  in  His  wrath,  and  that  wrath  will  break 
forth.  Then  let  us  have  a  republican  govern- 
ment everywhere,  in  Massachusetts  and  South 
Carolina,  in  New  York  and  in  Louisiana. 
Let  the  citizen  be  free,  whether  he  is  yellow, 
white,  or  black.  Let  him  be  free.  God  de- 
mands it,  and  he  shall  be  free ! 

Now,  there  is  another  danger,  and  that 
comes  from  the  abuse  of  the  blessings  which 
we  enjoy  so  lavishly.  Our  danger  is  now  at 
this  point — excessive  luxury.  And  how 
strange  it  is  that  after  the  terrible  ordeal 
through  which  we  have  passed  of  financial 
depression  and  suffering,  yet  we  are  as 
light-hearted  as  ever;  and  with  this  abundant 
harvest,  with  this  increase  of  foreign  trade, 
with  this  income  of  gold,  there  is  to  be  a 
rebound,  and  with  this  rebound  we  will  be 
vain,  proud,  and  pompous — we  will  resort  to 
our  old  habits  of  luxury.  Then  God  will 
come  again  and  smite  us  as  He  has  smitten, 
and  the  splendid  fortunes  will  totter  to  their 
fall ;  millionaires  will  become  beggars  again, 
and  a  cry  will  go  up — the  cry  of  bankruptcy 
and  of  poverty.  This,  I  say,  is  our  danger. 
Fellow-citizens !     Remember  that  this  abun- 


dant harvest  is  given  for  gratitude,  and  to 
bless  those  who  are  in  need. 

And  our  danger  comes  also  from  an  abuse 
of  our  religious  duty.  That  religious  liberty 
is  in  danger  above  all  from  the  infidel,  who 
declares  there  is  no  God,  that  the  Bible  is 
no  longer  the  guide  of  our  conscience — the 
infidel  that  would  destroy  our  altars,  that 
would  hush  the  chiming  of  the  church-bells, 
that  would  abolish  our  Sabbaths  and  exile 
our  pastors,  that  would,  in  a  word,  abolish 
religion  from  the  face  of  the  nation.  These 
men  are  not  to  be  tolerated,  and  not  to  be 
supported.     .     .     . 

But  I  must  release  you.  It  seems  to  me 
that  these  thoughts  are  sufficient  to  awaken 
your  gratitude.  Let  me,  however,  in  conclu- 
sion, cast  the  horoscope  and  prophesy  of  the 
coming  future  of  my  beloved  country.  Poets 
have  sung  of  the  "  parliament  of  nations,  the 
federation  of  the  world,"  and  that  great  sol- 
dier who  drew  his  sword  only  to  conquer, 
who  has  visited  all  lands,  and  who  to-day  is 
a  citizen  of  the  world — that  great  soldier  is 
the  John  the  Baptist  of  this  "  parliament  of 
nations,  this  federation  of  the  world,"  in  pro- 
claiming everywhere  a  citizenship  intelligent, 
cultured.  Christian,  and  we  are  to  follow  in 
his  glorious  wake  in  our  mission  to  the  na- 
tions of  the  world.  I  do  not  look  for  a  uni- 
versal republic,  but  I  dream  of  this  parlia- 
ment of  nations,  when  wars  shall  cease,  when 
the  drum  shall  be  silent,  when  the  cannon 
shall  be  heard  no  more,  when  the  sword  shall 
be  sheathed.  I  dream  of  this  federation  of 
the  world,  when  the  nations  shall  gather 
somewhere — on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  or 
on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  or  on  the  hanks 
of  the  Tiber.  And  in  this  parliament  of  na- 
tions all  men  shall  be  brothers ;  war  shall  be 
abolished,  and  Jesus  Christ  proclaimed  the 
Savior  of  mankind,  the  Prince  of  peace,  and 
the  Lord  of  lords.  Then  will  go  forth  these 
beautiful  words  of  the  Psalmist,  "  He  hath 
not  dealt  so  with  any  other  nation." — H.  R. 


OWE  NO  MAN  ANYTHING* 

By  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D. 


Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another. — Romans  xiii:  8 


"We  cannot  return  to  such  a  feast  as  that 
which  assembles  us  in  this  place  this  morn- 
ing without  thoughts  that  revert  to  its  origin 
and  to  the  circumstances  which  gave  to  it  its 
character.  I  speak  to  those  whose  lineage 
traces  its  way  back  to  various  sources — Eng- 
lish, Scotch,  Dutch,  French  and  German. 
But  there  is  no  one  of  us,  however  remote  our 
ancestries  from  one  another,  who  does  not 
feel  that  we  have  nothing  more  distinctively 
American  than  this  day,  and  that,  however 
peculiarly  New  England-like  many  of  its 
original  characteristics  may  have  been,  it  is 
the  relic  of  an  age  and  a  spirit  which  be- 


longed in  greater  or  less  degree  to  all  our 
forefathers  alike. 

That  spirit  disclosed  itself  in  certain  con- 
spicuous characteristics  which  stand  out  in 
strong  relief.  As  we  read  the  history  of  our 
ancestors,  whether  they  were  the  founders  of 
New  England  or  the  founders  of  the  New 
Netherland,  we  find  it  distinguished  every- 
where by  energy,  probity,  frugality,  and  do- 
mestic concord.  Underneath  the  charming 
pictures  which  Irving  has  drawn  in  his 
Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York, 
you  may  trace  the  influence  of  that  earlier, 
simpler  age  of  which  he  there  tells  the  story. 


*  This  sermon  is  an  outline  only. 


358 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


The  old  burgher  and  his  vrow ;  the  primitive 
and  orderly  habits  of  the  house  and  the 
people ;  the  universal  contempt  for  trickery 
and  equivocation;  the  sturdy  virtue  that 
scorned  a  dishonest  advantage  and  hated  debt 
as  the  worst  of  slaveries;  the  family  unity 
that  bound  the  household,  master  and  serv- 
ant, husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child  in  a 
common  industry,  unity,  and  economy — these 
are  the  lineaments  of  that  earlier  life  which 
laid  the  foundations  of  this  New  York  of  ours, 
and  opened  the  avenues  of  its  future  pros- 
perity. If  we  should  be  bidden  to-day  to 
keep  a  thanksgiving  now  as  our  fathers  kept 
it  then,  we  should  doubtless  smile  with  a 
fine  sense  of  superiority  at  the  contrast  which 
our  own  houses  and  habits  would  usually  pre- 
sent. _  "  The  fire-place  of  patriarchal  dimen- 
sions,"' so  Irving  has  sketched  the  scene, 
"  gave  welcome  to  the  whole  family,  old  and 
young,  master  and  servant,  black  and  white 
— nay,  even  the  very  cat  and  dog  enjoyed  a 
community  of  privilege  and  had  each  a  right 
to  a  corner." 

The  old  Dutch  china  was  passed  on  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  the  viands  upon 
the  table  and  the  garments  upon  the  persons 
of  the  guests  gave  scant  token  of  elaborate 
forethought  or  unusual  cost. 

How  tasteless  and  even  wearisome  we 
might  easily  account  it !  And  yet  these  things 
were  the  expressions  of  the  social  and  do- 
mestic life  of  a  people  who  lived  resolutely 
within  their  means,  who  neither  ate  nor  drank 
nor  wore  what  they  had  not  paid  for,  whose 
life  was  no  miserable  struggle  to  escape  from 
tradesmen  and  creditors,  who  were  bitten  by 
no  tarantula  madness  to  rival  the  extrava- 
gances and  imitate  the  fashions  of  foreign  life, 
who  feared  God  and  obeyed  the  law,  and  bred 
in  their  children  the  same  virtues. 

And  as  of  these,  so  of  those  others,  our 
New  England  ancestry,  from  whom  many 
among  us  here  gathered  this  morning  are 
doubtless  sprung.  They  lie  to-day  sleeping 
among  their  own  austere  Northern  hills, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  white  clapboard 
meeting-house,  and  too  often,  I  fear,  we  shall 
look  in  vain  for  their  successors.  Among 
them  were  men  whom  Horace  Bushnell  aptly 
calls  "  the  sturdy  kings  of  Homespun,  who 
climbed  among  the  hills  with  their  axes  to  cut 
away  room  for  their  cabins,  and  for  family 
prayers,  and  so  for  the  good  future  to  come." 

How  simple,  nay,  even  how  severe,  as  it 
seems  to  us,  were  their  modes  of  thought  and 
habits  of  life  and  customs  of  recreation ! 
There  must  be  some  here  who  have  memories 
of  those  plain  New  England  homes  and  of  the 
men  and  manners  that  adorned  them.  There 
was  simplicicy,  there  was  drudgery,  if  you 
choose,  but  there  was  health  and  virtue  and 
integrity.  Facing  all  weather,  cold  and  hot, 
wet  and  dry,  wrestling  with  the  plow  on  the 
stony-sided  hilTs,  digging  out  the  stones  with 
hard  lifting  and  persi.stent  prizing,  dressing 
the  flax,  threshing  the  rye,  dragging  home  in 
the  deep  snow  the  great  wood-pile  for  the 
winter's  consumption,  they  knew  no  tedium 
and  no  discontent.  And  even  so  the  mothers 
spent    their    nervous    impulse    through    their 


muscles,  and  had  so  much  less  need  of  keep- 
ing down  the  excess  or  calming  the  unspent 
lightning  by  doses  of  anodyne.  In  the  play 
of  the  spinning-wheel  they  spun  fiber  within, 
and  wove  daily  something  strong  and  whole- 
some in  the  patterns  of  womanly  love  and 
service.  But,  best  of  all,  around  all  this 
simpler  life  there  was  a  closely-girded  habit 
of  economy. 

And  yet  they  had  their  ways  and  hours  of 
recreation,  and,  dry  and  angular  as  their  life 
now  seems  to  us,  brightened  it  often  with 
mirth  and  good  cheer.  Who  that  has  ever 
seen  an  oldfashioned  New  England  fireside, 
or  heard  its  story  from  someone  who  long  ago 
had  a  place  beside  it,  will  ever  forget  it? 
The  home  circle  gathered  about  the  high 
fire-place ;  the  sleighload  of  guests  from  the 
neighboring  village ;  the  quaint  old  songs ; 
the  elders  discussing  the  minister's  sermons, 
and  scenting  a  heresy  with  a  keenness  which 
had  at  least  the  virtue  that  it  cared  for  the 
difference  between  truth  and  error ;  the  simple 
fare  and  simpler  furniture ;  the  old  Bible 
brought  reverently  to  be  read  before  the 
friends  withdrew ;  the  hymn  sung  to  Corona- 
tion, or  Duke  Street,  or  old  Warwick ;  the 
homely  prayer,  with  its  unpolished  phrase 
and  rugged  fervor — it  was  thus  that  our 
fathers,  some  of  them,  kept  their  thanksgiving 
days,  and  rounded  the  quiet  lives  of  which 
those  days  were  so  cherished  and  conspic- 
uous a  feature.  Here,  again  there  is  a  fine 
field,  if  we  choose  to  enter  it,  for  our  own 
more  modern  scorn  or  criticism.  How  nar- 
row and  intolerant,  and  even  full  of  cant, 
sometimes  were  those  earlier  and  hardier 
worthies !  What  stern  and  even  cruel  ideas 
they  had  about  God  and  little  children,  and 
the  unpardonable  quality  of  sin !  Well,  there 
were  some  sins  that  they  did  find  it  hard  to 
forgive — sins  against  home  and  kindred ;  sins 
against  common  honesty ;  sins  of  extrava- 
gance and  self-indulgence,  of  ungoverned  am- 
bition and  personal  unfaithfulness — upon 
those  they  had  certainly  but  scant  and  stinted 
mercy.  But  they  paid  their  debts  and  kept 
their  word.  They  ruled  their  own  houses  and 
had  their  children  in  subjection.  A  house- 
hold then  was  a  united  and  homogeneous 
community,  in  which  the  love  and  trust  that 
reigned  within  were  prophecies  of  the  peace 
and  contentment  that  were  shed  abroad.  It 
was  rugged,  that  elder  American  life  of  ours, 
but  at  least  it  was.  on  the  whole,  healthy 
and  upright  and  kindly. 

But  at  any  rate,  whatever  may  have  been 
its  characteristics,  we  are  far  enough  away 
from  them  now.  No  nation  in  the  world  has 
ever  known,  I  venture  to  affirm,  so  radical 
a  revolution  in  its  social  and  domestic  habits 
as  has  this  people  in  so  short  a  space  of  time. 

The  love  of  display,  the  craving  of  lux- 
uries, the  eagerness  to  have  and  wear  and 
eat  and  drink  what  one's  neighbors  have  and 
wear  and  eat  and  drink,  the  widespread  dis- 
position to  make  life  more  ornate  and  less 
rugged,  more  smooth  and  less  self-denying — 
these  are  tendencies  and  desires  concerning 
which  there  can  be  no  dispute  nor  any  serious 
question.     Explain  it  as  you  choose — say  that 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


359 


the  austerities  of  the  fathers  have  provoked 
the  luxury  of  the  children ;  appeal  to  the  age 
as  placing  greater  luxury  within  easy  range 
of  a  greater  number — the  fact  remains  that, 
on  the  whole,  our  habits  are  not  simple,  our 
training  is  not  frugal,  our  social  customs  are 
not  plain  or  inexpensive. 

Such  a  fact  might  surely  be  regarded  with 
something  of  solicitude  if  it  indicated  no 
more  than  the  advent  of  an  age  of  self-indul- 
gence. For,  whatever  may  be  said  in  favor 
of  profuseness  and  luxury,  it  will  not  be  de- 
nied that  luxury  is  enervating.  We  do  not 
need  to  go  back  to  Rome  to  see  that  national 
luxury  paved  the  way  for  national  dishonor. 
France  discovered  it  in  the  reigns  of  the 
Louis's.  England  experienced  it  in  the  time 
of  Charles.  Costliness  of  living  and  unlimited 
personal  indulgence  mean  enfeebled  manhood 
and  decaying  intelligence. 

But  in  our  case  it  means  something  more 
and  zuorse.  It  means  the  growth  of  a  re- 
laxed sense  of  individual  honor  and  of  com- 
mon honesty.  It  means  a  disposition  that  will 
have  luxuries  by  paying  for  them  if  it  can, 
but  which  will  have  them  anyhow.  And  so 
with  us,  such  an  age  has  come  to  mean  an 
age  in  which  the  mere  externals  of  living 
have  become  so  precious  to  some  persons 
that,  rather  than  forfeit  or  forego  them  they 
will  betray  a  trust  and  defraud  a  creditor. 
To  think  lightly  of  debt  and  the  personal 
and  business  discredit  which  come  or  ought 
to  come  with  it ;  to  be  loose  in  matters  of 
trust,  and  reckless  or  unscrupulous  in  dealing 
with  the  interest  of  others ;  to  maintain  a 
scale  of  living  which  is  consciously  beyond 
one's  means,  and  yet  to  go  any  length  and 
run  any  risk  rather  than  abridge  or  relinquish 
it — these  things  are  so  frequent,  if  not  so 
familiar,  as  almost  to  have  lost  the  power  to 
shock  us. 

And  yet  is  there  any  degradation  more  ab- 
ject, any  slavery  more  absolute,  than  they  are 
sure  mentally  to  involve?  Every  now  and 
then  the  community  stands  aghast  at  some 
tragedy  of  horror,  in  which  a  poor  wretch, 
daring  rather  to  face  his  Maker  than  his 
creditors,  jumps  into  the  dock  or  blows  his 
brains  out.  A  dozen  of  his  fellows,  hastily 
gathered  and  as  hastily  dismissed,  register 
their  verdict  of  "  suicide  occasioned  by  finan- 
cial difficulties,"  and  the  great  wave  of  hu- 
man life  rolls  on  and  over,  and  the  story  is 
soon  forgotten.  Whereas,  if  we  firmly  re- 
alized what  such  things  meant,  we  would 
empanel  as  the  jury  every  youth  who  is  just 
setting  out  in  life,  every  husband  who  has 
just  led  home  a  young  wife,  every  woman 
who  is  a  mother  or  a  daughter  in  so  many 
thoughtless  households,  and  cry  to  them : 
"  See !  Here  is  the  fruit  of  extravagant 
living  and  chronic  debt !  Here  is  the  out- 
come of  craving  for  what  you  cannot  pay  for 
and  of  spending  what  you  have  not  earned ! 
Would  you  be  free  and  self-respecting  and 
undismayed,  no  matter  how  scanty  your 
raiment  or  bare  your  larder,  hear  the  apostle's 
words  to  that  Rome  that  had  such  dire  need 


to  heed  them,  '  Owe  no  man  anything,  but 
to  love  one  another.' " 

Yes,  honest  dealing  and  mutual  love.  Be- 
lieve me,  brethren,  the  two  things  are  closer 
together  than  we  are  wont  to  imagine.  Said 
a  foremost  physician  in  one  of  our  foremost 
cities  not  long  ago,  when  asked  how  far  the 
facility  with  which  American  constitutions 
break  down  was  occasioned  by  overwork: 

"  It  is  not  overwork  that  is  killing  the 
American  people,  neither  the  people  who  work 
with  their  brains  nor  those  who  work  with 
their  hands.  I  see  a  great  many  broken- 
down  men  and  broken-down  women.  I  am 
called  to  treat  scores  of  people  with  shattered 
brains  and  shattered  nerves,  but  they  are  not 
the  fruits  of  overwork.  The  most  fruitful 
sources  of  physical  derangement  and  mental 
and  nervous  disorders  in  America  are  pe- 
cuniary embarrassments  and  family  dissen- 
sions.'' ' 

For,  as  I  have  just  intimated,  far  oftener 
than  we  imagine  the  two  things  lie  close  to- 
gether. The  father  crowded  beyond  en- 
durance by  the  strain  to  maintain  a  scale  of 
living  long  ago  pitched  too  high ;  the  mother 
consciously  degraded  by  the  petty  evasions 
and  domestic  dishonesty  that  draws  money 
for  wages  and  marketing  and  spends  it  for 
dress ;  the  sons  and  daughters  taught  prod- 
igality by  example  and  upbraided  for  it  in 
speech — what  can  come  to  such  a  home  or 
family  circle  but  mutual  recrimination  and 
personal  alienation,  and  chilled  and  embit- 
tered feelings?  How  can  love  reign  in  a 
household  where  mutual  confidence  and  mu- 
tual sacrifice,  where  the  traits  that  inspire  re- 
spect and  kindle  affection,  are  equally  and 
utterly  wanting?  It  seems  as  if  it  were  a 
matter  extremely  remote  from  any  domestic 
or  social  interchange  of  the  affections  whether 
two  people,  or  indeed  a  whole  community, 
made  it  a  rule  to  pay  their  debts ;  but,  in 
fact,  not  to  pay  one's  debts  is  as  sure  and 
as  short  a  road  as  can  be  found  to  the  ex- 
tinction of  confidence,  the  destruction  of 
respect,  and  the  death  of  love. 

Where  now  shall  we  look  for  a  correction? 
I  answer,  in  a  higher  ideal  of  the  true  wealth 
or  weal  of  the  nation,  and  so  of  the  individ- 
uals who  severally  comprise  it.  It  was  Epic- 
tetus  who  said,  long  ago,  "  You  will  confer 
the  greatest  benefit  upon  your  city,  not  by 
raising  the  roof,  but  by  exalting  the  souls  of 
your  fellow-citizens  ;  for  it  is  better  that  great 
souls  should  live  in  small  habitations  than 
that  abject  slaves  should  burrow  in  great 
houses."  The  words  send  our  thoughts  back 
again  to  those  memories  of  our  forefathers 
with  which  I  began  this  discourse.  Recall 
for  a  moment  their  simple  beginnings.  "  They 
brought  hither  in  their  little  ships,"  as  some 
one  has  described  them,*  "  not  money,  nor 
merchandise,  nor  array  of  armed  force,  but 
they  came  freighted  with  religion,  learning, 
law,  and  the  spirit  of  men.  They  stepped 
forth  upon  the  shore,  and  a  wide  and  frown- 
ing wilderness  received  them.  Strong  in 
God  and  in  their  own  heroic  patience,  they 


*  Bushnell. 


36o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


began  their  combat  with  danger  and  hard- 
ship. Disease  smote  them,  but  they  fainted 
not ;  famine  stalked  among  them,  but  they 
feasted  on  roots  with  a  patient  spirit.  They 
built  a  house  for  God  and  then  their  houses 
for  themselves.  They  established  education 
and  the  observance  of  a  stern  but  august 
morality,  and  then  legislated  for  the  smaller 
purposes  of  wealth  and  convenience.  They 
gave  their  sons  to  God,  through  Him  to 
virtue,  and  through  virtue  to  the  State.  So 
they  laid  the  foundation.  .  .  .  What  ad- 
dition, we  are  now  tempted  to  ask,  could  any 
amount  of  wealth  or  luxury  have  made  to  the 
real  force  of  these  beginnings?  Having  a 
treasure  in  her  sons,  what  is  there  beside, 
whether  strength,  growth,  riches,  or  anything 
desirable,  which  a  State  can  possibly  fail  of? 
Wealth  is  but  the  shadow  of  men ;  and  lord- 
ship and  victory,  it  has  been  nobly  said,  are 
but  the  pages  of  justice  and  virtue." 

"  What !   are   numbers   knit, 

By  force  or  custom?  man  who  man  would 
be— 
Must  rule  the  empire  of  himself,  in  it 
Must  be  supreme,  establishing  his  throne 

Of  vanquished  will,  quelling  the  anarchy 
Of  hopes  and  fears,  being  himself  alone !  " 

And  this  is  what,  in  their  frugal  lives,  their 
sturdy  simplicity,  their  honest  dealings,  our 
fathers  taught  us.  Oh,  then,  as  we  remember 
on  such  a  day  as  this  how  much  we  have  to 
thank  them  for  as  well  as  to  thank  God  for, 
let  us  resolve  that  we  will  not  be  unworthy 
of  a  lineage  so  noble,  a  race  so  true.   In  those 


questions  of  the  hour  which  are  so  much  the 
echo  of  the  questions  of  our  personal  con- 
science, let  us  lift  up  our  voices  for  the 
payment  of  every  honest  debt  in  honest  coin. 
Let  us  resolve  that,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the 
nation  shall  have  a  clean  and  righteous  record 
in  its  dealings  with  those  who,  whether  here 
or  there,  are  its  creditors,  and  that  this  may 
come  to  pass,  let  us  begin  by  dealing  justly 
with  those  creditors  who  are  ours.  Let  us 
pay  every  debt  but  the  debt  which  we  can 
never  wholly  pay,  whether  to  God  or  our 
neighbor,  which  is  the  debt  of  love.  But  let 
us  gladly  own  that  debt,  and  be  busy  every 
day  of  our  lives  in  making  at  least  some  small 
payment  on  account.  As  we  gather  about  the 
family  board  to-day  let  us  remember  the 
houseless  and  homeless  and  unbefriended, 
and  be  sure  that  we  have  done  something  to 
make  sunshine  in  their  hearts,  no  matter 
what  November  gloom  may  reign  without. 
And  as  we  grasp  the  hand  and  look  into  the 
eyes  of  friend  and  kinsman,  be  this  the  greet- 
ing we  give :  "  Brother,  whatever  else  our 
homes  provide  to-day  of  plenty  and  good 
cheer,  let  us  provide  things  honest  in  the 
sight  of  all  men,"  and  then,  in  the  name  of 
that  Master  whom  we  serve  and  who  has 
loved  us  with  such  a  great  exceeding  love, 
"  let  all  bitterness  and  wrath  and  anger  and 
clamor  and  evil-speaking  be  put  away  from 
us  with  all  malice;  and  let  us  be  kind  to 
one  another,  tender-hearted,  forgiving  one 
another,"  whatever  the  old  wound  that  aches 
and  burns  to-day,  "  even  as  God  for  Christ's 
sake  hath  forgiven  us." — H.  R. 


A  FIVEFOLD  THANKSGIVING 


America  has  just  turned  a  new  and  won- 
derful page  in  her  history.  Reasons  for 
thanksgiving   (1899)  : — 

I.  Spiritual  ideals  have  been  brought 
TO  THE  FRONT. — The  American  people  have 
been  accused  of  being  a  nation  of  mercen- 
aries, money-gatherers,  but  we  have  dis- 
covered that  there  are  other  things  far  more 
dear  to  us  than  stocks  and  bonds.  We  are 
a  nation  of  prayer,  of  self-sacrifice  and  of 
Christian  ideals.  Expand.  Another  fact  un- 
derscored is : — 

II.  The  GROWTH  of  the  democratic 
SPIRIT. — We  represent  this  spirit  before  the 
world  at  its  best.  Spain  represents  the  op- 
posite spirit  at  its  worst.  The  third  grand 
result  which  has  been  promoted  by  the  war 
is : — 

III.  The  CLOSING  up  of  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  feud. — England  our  friend.  Quote 
expressions  of  this  sentiment.  See  verses  of 
the  poet  Laureate  in  June  Cm^  Gems  (p.  484). 

IV.  The   welding  together  of   our  own 

NATION     IN     A     stronger     UNION     THAN     WAS 

EVER    KNOWN    BEFORE. — Compare    the    Mass- 
achusetts Sixth  going  through  Baltimore  in 


April,  1861.  and  the  same  named  regiment 
passing  through  in  May,  1898.  Procession  of 
citizens  headed  by  mayor,  children  pelted  the 
soldiers  with  flowers.  Grand  reception, 
feasted,  given  an  American  and  Cuban  flag 
and  this  note  : 

"  Maryland's  greeting  to  Massachusetts. 
Baltimore  and  Boston  clasp  hands.  God 
speed  the  historic  Massachusetts  Sixth.  A 
united  country  honors  the  men  who  are  rally- 
ing to  her  defense.  May  the  memory  of  1861 
be  effaced  by  the  welcome  of  1898.  Do  we 
love  you?  Dewey?"  Let  the  bloody  shirt  be 
laid  away  among  the  archeological  curiosities 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  has  been  wiped  out. 

"  No  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no  West, 
But   one   great   land   with    freedom   blest." 

Last,  but  not  least,  we  have  reason  to  look 
with  grateful  eyes  on : 

V.  The  growing  unity  of  the  world. — 
Grand  openings  for  Christian  civilization  in 
conquered  territories,  in  Spain,  in  Africa,  in 
China.  Czar's  call  for  disarmament  of  the 
nations. — S.  R. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


361 


THE  HOME  GATHERING 

By  William  Adams,  D.D. 


For  there  is  a  yearly  sacrifice  there  for  all  the  family. — /  Sam.  xx:  6 


This  was  a  time-honored  custom  in  the 
family  of  Jesse,  apparently  maintained  by  his 
children  even  after  Jesse  was  dead. 

The  coming  of  winter  emphasizes  the  joys 
of  home.  It  is  well  that  we  have  our  annual 
home-gathering  when  we  are  called  to  give 
thanks  for  our  blessings. 

There  is  a  great  variety  in  our  household 
aflfections : 

1.  The  love  of  a  father  for  a  child;  grati- 
tude and  awe  at  his  own  relation  to  an  im- 
mortal spirit;  pity  for  helpless  infancy;  pride 
in  the  possibilities  of  the  child. 

2.  The  love  of  a  mother ;  who  ofifered  her 
own  life  for  the  new  life ;  glorying  in  un- 
limited expression  of  love ;  pitying  and  loving 
to  the  last  what  the  world  counts  worthless; 
v/hen  death  strikes  her  child,  refusing  to  be 
comforted. 

3.  The  love  of  children  for  their  parents; 
of  slow  growth,  hidden  at  first  by  weeds  of 
wilfulness ;  not  perfected  till  the  child  be- 
comes a  parent ;  but  even  in  childhood  a 
beautiful  compend  of  gratitude,  reverence, 
and  trust. 

4.  The  love  between  brothers  and  sisters : 
independent,  but  looking  back  to  the  same 
source ;  sharing  pillow  and  table,  and  inter- 
twining sympathies  and  affections ;  manliness 
in  the  brother;  gentle  beauty  in  the  sister,  as 


in  complete  companionship  she  insensibly  as- 
similates to  herself  the  man  that  is  to  be. 

5.  The  love  of  husband  and  wife ;  two 
independent  lives  so  harmonizing  as  to  be- 
come the  symbol  of  Christ's  love  for  His 
Church ;  the  relic  of  Paradise,  which  softens 
life's  asperities,  and  helps  its  purposes  by  joy. 

6.  The  relation  between  grandparents  and 
their  descendants;  reaching  down  with  pe- 
culiar tenderness ;  most  useful  in  offering  to 
the  young  an  object  of  respect,  reverence, 
and  love. 

For  these  affections  let  us  give  thanks. 
These  are  the  possessions  of  poor  and  rich, 
dearer  in  adversity. 

Christianity  refines  and  enlivens  the  do- 
mestic affections,  giving  us  a  true  home, 
where  children  may  grow  strong  before  they 
go  out  into  hard  life ;  the  memory  of  which 
is  a  comfort  and  inspiration ;  where  mature 
manhood  learns  its  best  lessons  of  simplicity, 
humility,  trust  in  Providence. 

As  the  ancients  threw  the  gall  of  the  nup- 
tial sacrifices  far  behind  the  altar,  we  should 
banish  all  bitterness  from  home. 

Mixed  with  sweet  thoughts  may  be  sad 
memories,  and  there  may  be  a  vacant'  chair; 
but  this  may  be  only  as  at  night  we  go  to 
our  different  chambers  to  meet  again  in  the 
morning. — H.  R. 


THANKSGIVING 


Praise  ye  the  Lord. — Psalm  cl:  i 


The  first  word  is  Halleluiah,  here  rendered, 
"  Praise  ye  the  Lord,''  Not  all  are  equally 
happy  or  comfortable ;  but  all  have  occasion 
for  gratitude.  Pain,  poverty,  bereavement, 
homelessness,  friendlessness — these  are  "  ills 
that  human  flesh  is  heir  to ;  "  nevertheless  the 
catalog  of  our  mercies  is  longer.  The  old 
song  strikes  a  true  note : 

"Don't  te  sorrowful,  darling;  don't  be  sor- 
rowful, pray ; 
For  taking  the  year  together,  my  dear. 
There  isn't  more  night  than  day." 

First,  as  to  Personal  Mercies.  God's  provi- 
dence has  been  round  about  us.  He  has  held 
VIS  in  His  arms  at  night  as  mothers  hold  their 
children.  He  has  guided  us  by  day  amid  dan- 
gers like  flying  arrows.  Our  lives  are  spared ; 
we  have,  at  the  worst,  enough  of  this  world's 
good  to  keep  soul  and  body  together.  For 
such  commonplace  mercies  let  us  thank  God. 

And  then  the  blessings  of  His  grace.  We 
are  familiar  with  the  Gospel.  If  we  have  ac- 
cepted its  conditions  of  life,  let  us  call  upon 


our  souls  and  all  that  is  within  us  to  praise 
God.  If  we  are  not  Christians,  let  us  never- 
theless be  thankful  that  we  are  on  Mercy's 
ground.  God's  hands  are  stretched  out  still. 
The  river  of  life  is  flowing  past  our  feet ;  we 
may  dip  and  drink  if  we  will.  How  many 
have  died  impenitent ;  how  many  are  just  now 
dying  in  despair !  But  heaven's  gates  are 
open  before  us.  "  Oh.  that  men  would  praise 
the  Lord  for  his  goodness  and  for  his  won- 
derful works  to  the  children  of  men !  " 

Second,  as  to  National  Blessings.  God 
hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  people.  Our  brief 
history  is  the  marvel  of  all  time.  Let  us 
thank  God  for  our  heritage  and  pray  against 
pride.  A  distinguished  foreigner,  on  return- 
ing from  a  visit  to  this  country,  said  :  "  The 
only  fault  I  have  to  find  with  the  Americans 
is  that  they  are  so  beastly  prosperous."  In 
spite  of  all  representations  to  the  contrary, 
our  people  are  better  fed,  clothed,  and  shel- 
tered than  any  other.  We  are  the  richest  of 
nations.  Our  wealth  is  most  equally  dis- 
tributed. The  rich  are  growing  richer,  and 
the  poor  are  growing  richer,  too. 


362 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Just  now,  while  we  are  remembering  the 
divine  goodness,  let  us  not  forget  to  thank 
God  for  the  recent  war  with  Spain.  It  is  a 
great  thing  for  a  nation  to  be  divinely  chosen 
to  vindicate  justice  and  humanity.  How  re- 
luctant we  were  to  enter  upon  the  task !  We 
preached  on  the  horrors  of  war ;  we  prayed : 
"  O  Lord,  give  us  peace  in  our  time !  "  We 
hoped  that  our  President  and  his  counselors 
would  make  all  possible  concessions,  and  that 
Spain  would  be  reasonable,  and  that  our 
politicians  would  not  lose  their  heads.  Then 
down  went  the  Maine;  and  the  die  was  cast. 
It  is  easy  to  see,  now,  that  God  all  along 
meant  us  to  champion  the  oppressed  Cubans. 
A  nation  that  had  distinguished  itself  for  op- 
pression during  four  hundred  years  needed  a 
sound  thrashing ;  and  we  were  apparently 
called  to  administer  it.  Now  thank  God  for 
the  outcome.  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  are  free. 
The  Philippines  are  probably  free.  It  has 
cost  us  something  to  bring  this  about ;  but  no- 
body doubts  the  wisdom  of  the  investment. 
Our  country  is  wiser,  richer,  nobler,  for  as- 


suming the  responsibility  which  God  laid 
upon   it. 

And  blest  be  God  for  peace;  peace  with 
honor  and  with  increase  of  righteousness. 
One  thing  is  perfectly  clear  in  the  light  of 
recent  events :  to  wit,  ours  is  a  Christian  na- 
tion ivith  a  Christian  calling.  It  looks  as  if 
God  intended  us  to  be  the  center  of  a  great 
evangelizing  influence.  "  We  have  the  men, 
we  have  the  ships,  we  have  the  money  too." 
The  last  census  shows  that  no  less  than 
twenty-two  millions  of  our  countrymen  are 
connected  with  some  sort  of  religious  or- 
ganization. What  an  army  of  crusaders ! 
If  the  Churches  of  America  were  to  realize 
their  latent  energies  for  the  propagation  of 
the  Gospel  at  home  and  abroad,  how  speedily 
would  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become 
the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ ! 

Thus  it  appears  we  have  abundant  reasons 
to  lift  our  hearts  and  voices  in  the  rejoicings 
of  Thanksgiving  Day.  "  Oh,  praise  the  Lord, 
for  he  is  good,  for  his  mercy  endureth  for- 
ever !  "— H.  R. 


GOD'S  PROVIDENCE  AND  THE  OPEN  DOOR* 


Whoso  stoppeth  his  cars  at  the  cry  of  the  poor,  he  also  shall  cry  himself,  hut  shall  not  he 

heard. — Prov.  xxi:  13 
I  know  thy  works:    behold,  I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man  can  shut  it:    for 

thou  hast  a  little  strength,  and  hast  kept  my  word  and  hast  not  denied  my  name. — Rev. 

Hi:  8 


Consider  first  the  fact  that  God  has  set 
before  His  Church  the  open  door  of  a  world, 
in  great  measure,  physically   subjugated. 

There  is  no  more  significant  historic  phrase 
in  the  New  Testament  than  that  phrase,  so 
often  recurring,  especially  in  St.  Paul's  epis- 
tles, "  the  fulness  of  the  times." 

Get  one  aspect  of  its  meaning.  At  the  time 
of  the  advent,  birth,  life,  death,  glorious  resur- 
rection, and  ascension  of  Christ,  and  for  some 
time  thereafter,  the  then  known  and  habit- 
able world  was  held  in  the  peace-compelling 
grasp  of  the  Roman  Empire.  That  empire 
had  changed  the  Mediterranean  Sea  into  a 
kind  of  inland  lake,  bordered  on  all  its  sides 
by  peaceful  provinces,  centralized  into  and 
under  the  acknowledged  authority  of  the  Ro- 
man Emperor.  From  the  golden  mile-post  in 
the  Forum  went  raying  out  ways  like  the 
Appian,  almost  as  straight  as  any  modern 
railway,  and  almost  as  disdaining  of  moun- 
tains and  of  valleys.  Those  roads  were  the 
track- ways  of  a  mighty  and  interchanging 
domestic  commerce.  They  were  also  unhin- 
dered passageways  for  the  carrying  of  im- 
perial edicts  and  for  the  swift  marching  of 
the  Roman  legions.  Also  these  roads  were 
the  avenues  of  travel.  And  these  highways 
were  an  important  element  in  the  "  fulness  of 
the  times."  For,  also,  along  these  roads  apos- 
tles and  other  heralds  of  the  cross  could 
speed,  carrying  the  good  news  of  God.    Such 


an  evangelizing  career  as  that  of  the  Apostle 
Paul  had  been  impossible  had  not  the  Roman 
Empire  laid  at  his  feet  such  ways  of  swift, 
easy,  various  access. 

Our  world  to-day  is  a  much  larger  and 
more  various  one  than  that  of  the  ancient 
Roman  Empire.  Yet  our  world  is  a  much 
more  thoroughly  subjugated  one,  in  all  phy- 
sical directions.  Think  what  the  discovery 
of  the  magnetic  needle  has  accomplished, 
prompting  to  the  farthest-reaching  voyages. 
Think  what  steam  has  done.  Think  what 
electricity  has  done.  Think  of  the  printing- 
press. 

Now — and  here  is  a  wonderful  fact — all 
these  vast  powers  of  magnetism,  steam,  elec- 
tricity, etc.,  have  not  been  chiefly  given  into 
the  hands  of  nations,  heathen  or  Mohamme- 
dan, nor  prevailingly  Romanist,  but  into  the 
hands  of  nations  Protestant,  of  a  free  Bible, 
of  free  churches.  And,  just  as  in  that  an- 
cient fulness  of  the  time  the  ancient  Church 
found  the  ways  made  and  open  for  her  feet 
that  she  might  propagate  her  Lord's  Gospel, 
so  now.  in  this  modern  fulness  of  the  times, 
the  modern  Church  stands  before  the  open 
door  of  a  largely  subjugated  physical  world, 
with  steel,  steam,  and  electricity  making  easy 
intercommunication   for   her. 

Consider,  second,  the  governments  of  the 
world  have   set  open   doors   for  the  feet  of 


*  For  further  suggestion  along  the  line  of  this  topic  and  for  most  admirable  elaboration  of  these  hints 
and  of  others  like  them,  attention  is  called  to  CHRIST'S  TRUMPET  CALL  TO  THE  Ministry,  by  Daniel  S.  Greg- 
ory, D.D.,  LL.D.,  published  by  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Company. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


363 


the  Church  of  Christ.  In  almost  every  land 
beneath  the  stars  the  missionary  is  now  saie 
and  protected. 

Consider,  third,  the  open  door  God  has 
set  before  His  Church  in  the  wealth  He  has 
given  her.  It  has  been  accurately  computed 
that    the    fourteen    million    members    of    the 


Evangelical  Churches    in    the    United  States 
have  a  gross  income  of  $2,000,000,000. 

For  such  vast  openings  on  every  side,  tor 
such  munificent  material,  surely  all  Christians 
should  render  to  God  thanksgiving,  and  set 
themselves  at  using  for  His  sake  what  God 
has  given  so  abundantly. — H.  R. 


MERCIES 

By  E,  Mellor 
Lam.  Hi:  22-23 


I.  There  is  no  greater  evil  committed  by 
any  of  us  than  a  practical  forgetfulness  of  the 
common  mercies  of  life :  mercies,  which  be- 
cause of  their  commonness,  cease  to  be  re- 
garded as  mercies.  The  Psalmist  calls  upon 
us  to  "  forget  not  all  God's  benefits,"  and  he 
thus  indicates  our  perpetual  danger,  a  danger 
which  he  himself  felt,  and  against  which  he 
had  to  guard  his  own  soul.  There  are  two 
gieat  causes  which  may  be  said  to  account 
for  our  forgetfulness  of  the  mercies  of  God, 
which  are  new  every  morning.  The  first  is 
that  the  hand  of  the  Giver  is  invisible ;  and 
the  second  is  that  they  come  to  us  with  such 
marvelous  regularity. 

II.  Notice  a  few  of  the  common  mercies 
which  we  are  most  prone  to  forget :  ( i ) 
Take,  as  the  first  illustration,  sleep.  There 
are  thousands  who  never  kneel  down  and 
thank  God  for  sleep.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
m.an  who  finds  sleep  an  easy  thing  has  ever 
calculated  rightly  its  inestimable  value.  It  is 
when  pain   or  overwork  chases  sleep  away, 


when  he  lies  upon  his  bed  and  waits  for  its 
coming  but  it  comes  not,  when  he  begins  to 
dread  the  nights  lest  he  should  have  the  same 
wretched  experiences  again  and  again — a  fear 
which  prepares  the  way  for  its  own  fulfilment 
— it  is  then  that  he  begins  to  learn  what  is 
meant  by  sleep,  and  what  high  rank  it  takes 
among  the  common  mercies  of  life.  It  is  a 
mercy  which  no  money  can  buy,  which  no 
rank  can  command.  (2)  Our  reason.  When 
we  consider  how  closely  the  reason  is  allied 
with  the  brain  and  with  the  whole  nervous 
system,  it  is  a  surprising  circumstance  that 
insanity  is  not  a  more  widespread  evil  than 
it  is.  The  possession  of  reason  should  stir 
us  up  to  daily  thanksgiving  to  Him  whose 
mercies  are  new  to  us  every  morning.  (3) 
The  power  of  motion  and  action,  and  speech, 
is  another  mercy  which  is  new  every  morning. 
We  live  not  upon  old  mercies,  but  upon  new 
ones  fresh  from  the  Divine  hand,  fresh  from 
the  Divine  heart. — S.  B.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  270. 


THANKSGIVING  AND  THANKSLIVING 

By  E.  J.  Banks 
Eph.  v:  15-20 


Thanksgiving  without  thanksliving  comes 
under  condemnation  both  from  the  prophets 
and  the  Lord  Je.^us.  Isaiah  says  (xxiv:  13), 
"  The  Lord  said  .  .  .  this  people  draw 
nigh  with  their  mouth,  and  with  their  lips  do 
honor  me,  but  have  removed  their  heart  far 
from  me."  And  our  Savior's  complaint  was, 
"  Why  call  ye  me.  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not 
the  things  which  I  say?"    (Luke  vi:46). 

Eph.  v:  15-20.  Here  we  have  the  thanks- 
living  shown  in  the  first  verses,  and  the 
thanksgiving  described  in  the  last.  Verse  15. 
"  Look  carefully  how  ye  walk,"  let  your  walk 
be  accurate,  exact  (verses  9,  10),  not  as  un- 
wise, but  wise.  Thus  shall  we  bring  honor  to 
Him  whose  name  we  bear — this  will  be  the 
thanksgiving  He  will  prize.  Verse  16.  Seiz- 
ing every  opportunity,  because  the  days  will 
soon  be  past,  and  the  evil  of  the  times  calls 
for  urgency.  Verse  17.  "  Be  not  foolish.''  It 
is  the  height  of  foolishness  not  to  under- 
stand our  Lord's  will,  or  to  know  the  Lord's 
will  and  do  it  not   (Luke  xii:47;    i  Thess. 


iv  :  3  ;  v:  18).  Verse  18.  The  world  seeks  its 
exhilaration  from  the  use  of  strong  drinks ; 
the  Christian  gets  it  from  being  filled  with 
the  Spirit,  and  should  honor  his  God  by  ab- 
staining from  that  which  the  worldling 
needs.  God's  Holy  Spirit  will  not  dwell  in 
a  mind  which  is  unbalanced  by  excitement 
produced  by  excess.  Throughout  this  whole 
passage  there  is  the  contrast  between  the  life 
of  a  heathen  and  that  of  a  Christian.  Verse 
19.  The  indwelling  Spirit  so  fills  our  hearts 
with  unrestrainahle  joy  that  we  must  give 
vent  to  our  feelings  with  our  voice.  True 
thanksgiving  thus  expresses  itself  in  sacred 
song  (Col.  iii :  15-17).  Verse  20.  Thanksgiv- 
ing for  the  trials  as  well  as  the  joys,  for  the 
pain  as  well  as  the  pleasure,  in  time  of  ad- 
versity as  well  as  prosperity.  Thanksliving 
by  our  grateful  acceptance  of  all  that  comes, 
be  it  weal  or  wo,  knowing  it  is  from  the  hand 
of  a  loving  Heavenly  Father.  The  only  med- 
ium through  whom  our  thanks  can  be  offered 
is  the  Lord  Jesus  (Acts  iv:  12). — P.  M. 


364 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


THANKSGIVING  THEMES  AND  OUTLINES 

[From  the  Homilctic  Review] 


Christian  Citizenship.— /^r.  xxxi:  38.  Be- 
hold the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  the 
city  shall  be  built  to  the  Lord. 

This  Puritan  festival  shows  us : 

L  Our  nation  founded  in  the  fear  of 
God;  rulers  devout,  and  Church  members 
vv^orshiping  with   guns  over  their   shoulders. 

IL  A  good  citizen  above  the  selfish  and 
stupid  indifference  which  lets  politicians  rule 
for  him. 

in.  That  civic  character,  the  revival  of 
which  is  our  hope.  If  we  are  indeed  awaken- 
ing to  a  civic  revival,  it  is  ground  for  devout 
thanksgiving. 

Christ  the  Crown  of  Our  Blessings. — 2 

Cor.  ix:  15.     Thanks  be  to  God  for  his  un- 
speakable gift: 

The  heathens  have  their  autumn  festivals : 
the  universal  Father  has  not  left  Himself 
without  witness  even  to  them,  "  filling  their 
hearts  with  food  and  gladness."  But  Christ 
alone  crowns  the  natural  revelation  of  the 
Father ;  assures  us  w-e  are  at  home  in  our 
Father's  house ;  and  wakes  in  us  the  con- 
fident gladness  of  children  accepted. 

Gains    That   the   People   Have   Made. — 

Psalm  xxx:  14.     Offer  unto  God  thanksgiv- 

If  in  the  spirit  of  reverence  for  our 
fathers  we  climb  the  heights  of  thanksgiving 
for  an  outlook  upon  the  tendencies  of  the 
Republic,  we  shall  discern  a  scene  of  great 
beauty  in  the  plains  below : 

1.  The  glorious  fruitfulness  of  our  land. 
See  in  the  markets  of  the  city  what  God  has 
given  us  for  food.  Travel  over  valleys  and 
plains,  and  see  how  the  great  harvests  make 
pessimism  impossible. 

2.  The  high  courage,  hope,  and  good  cheer 
of  the  people.  Enterprise  and  thrift  in  the 
North;  wonderful  paying  off  of  mortgages 
in  the  West. 

3.  The  advance  of  the  working  people  into 
better  conditions.  Never  were  the  common 
people  so  bountifully  fed,  so  beautifully 
housed,       so       comfortably      clad. — Newell 

DWIGHT  HiLLIS,  D.D. 

God  Abides  Bestfully  with  a  Thankful 
People. — Psalm  xxii:  34.  Thou  that  inhab- 
itest  the  praises  of  Israel." 

As  God  accepts  the  prayers  of  His  people, 
rising  to  Him  like  sweet  incense,  so  He  is 
satisfied  in  our  thanksgivings;  and  makes 
them  His  abode. 

God,  Heaven  and  Earth  Harmonized  in 
the  Praise  of. — Habak.  Hi:  3.  His  glory 
covered  the  heavens,  and  the  earth  was  full 
of  his  praise. 

His  heavenly  glory  is  undimmed;  discern- 
ing eves  may  always  see  it.  As  we  secure 
His  earthly  praise,  we  fulfil  the  vision  of  the 
prophet  that  the  earth  too  shall  praise  Him. 


God,     Nature    Praises. — Psalm     Ixix:  34. 

Let  the  heaven  and  earth  praise  him. 

In  a  season  of  natural  bounty  we  are 
drawn  "  near  to  nature's  heart " ;  we  catch 
the  expression  of  the  glad  season,  make  it  the 
utterance  of  our  hearts,  and  call  upon  na- 
ture to  enter  into  the  higher  emotions  which 
strictly  belong  only  to  intelligent  souls. 

Gratitude  to  One  Another. — Am  I  suffi- 
ciently thankful  to  my  fellow  men?  There 
must  be  now  living  hundreds,  yes,  thousands, 
of  my  fellow  beings — mechanics,  manufactur- 
ers, artists,  merchants,  and  sailors — to  whom 
I  am  indebted  for  the  things  about  me  that 
minister  to  my  bodily  comfort,  to  my  intel- 
lectual growth,  and  to  my  spiritual  enjoy- 
ment. 

1.  I  might  be  a  better  man  if  I  took  my 
pad  and  began  with  the  articles  nearest  to 
me — the  Turkish  rug  under  my  feet,  and  the 
easy-chair  in  which  I  am  sitting,  one  sent  me 
from  Asia,  and  one  given  in  New  York — 
and  then  made  an  inventory  not  only  of  the 
things  that  are  presents,  but  of  those  things 
for  which  I  have  paid  money,  but  which  no 
money  could  have  procured  if  my  fellow  men 
had  not  wrought  to  produce  them. 

2.  I  ought  to  be  profoundly  thankful  that 
I  live  as  a  member  of  our  great  thinking, 
working,  pushing  humanity.  I  ought  to  be 
thankful  that  I  did  not  live  in  any  preceding 
century,  but  that  I  live  now,  when  any  man 
can  do  more  for  himself  and  his  fellow  man 
in  any  one  week  than  he  could  have  accom- 
plished any  month  eighty  years  ago.  Plainly, 
then,  I  ought  to  be  thankful  to  my  fellow 
men  who  lived  in  the  preceding  centuries, 
and  who  so  wrought  as  to  make  it  possible 
for  my  generation  to  do  more  for  society  in 
the  last  fifty  years  than  others  have  been  able 
to  do  in  any  five  preceding  centuries. 

3.  I  have  had  some  terrible  battles  to 
fight  and  some  bitter  cups  to  drink ;  but  I 
ought  this  day  to  be  thankful  that  ever  I 
was  born,  even  when  I  regard  only  the  past. 
When  I  think  how  that  past  has  put  me  on 
the  road  toward  the  future  in  which  there 
may  be  thousands  of  blessed  hours  in  this 
world,  and  in  which  I  know  there  is  a  place 
being  prepared  for  me  as  I  pass  out  of  this 
mansion  to  the  Father's  house,  I  ought  to  be 
profoundly  thankful. — M    R.  ■ 

Paul's  Idea  of  Enough. — /   Tim.  vi:  18.      ■ 
Having  food  and  raiment  let  us  be  therewith 
content. 

"  Raiment,"— "  covering  "  (R.  V.).  "Be 
content" — "have   enough"    (marginal    V&3.A- 

i"S)-  .... 

The  apostle,  living  in  his  own  hired  house, 

and   paying    his   rent   from   the   proceeds   of 

tent-making,  was  as  independent  a  gentleman 

as  walked  the  streets  of  Rome.     He  differed 

from  most  people  in  that  he  was  wise  enough 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


365 


to  see  that,  in  order  to  get  on  top,  it  was 
folly  to  begin  by  getting  under  the  mass  of 
worldliness  and  then  try  to  burrow  up.  He 
balanced  his  mind  with  a  sublime  philosophy 
and  sat  down  above  the  world,  with  as  little 
care  for  the  shape  secular  things  assumed 
as  a  king  has  for  the  mere  carvings  of  his 
throne. 

Fichte,  the  German  philosopher,  wrote : 
"  Since  I  could  not  alter  what  was  without 
me,  I  resolved  to  try  to  alter  what  was  within 
me." 

Descartes  laid  down  as  one  of  the  practical 
rules  of  life  :  "  I  must  not  seek  to  gratify  my 
desires  so  much  as  I  seek  to  restrain  them." 

Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  in  his  journal : 
"  I  make  it  my  business  to  wish  as  little  as 
I  can,  except  that  I  were  wiser  and  better." 

Plato  taught  his  disciples :  "  We  should 
not  demand  that  things  should  be  as  we  wish, 
but  we  should  wish  that  things  should  be  as 
they  are." 

Horace  said  of  the  money-scrambling  Ro- 
mans :  "  What  they  have,  that  they  are."  The 
Christian  idea  is  just  the  reverse;  a  man 
really  possesses,  enjoys  the  world,  in  accord- 
ance with  what  Jic  is  in  himself.  Faith  makes 
the  whole  world  "Our  Father's  house;'' 
takes  away  every  solicitude  for  the  future, 
for  we  are  "  heirs  of  God."  A  good  con- 
science before  God  brightens  everything  with 
the  reflection  from  our  hearts  of  "  the  light 
of  his  countenance." 

Praise    Gives    God    Glory. — Psalm  I:  23. 

Whoso  offcretli  praise  glorifieth  me. 

Glorify  is  kindred  with  declare:  to  glorify 
God  is  to  declare  or  manifest  Him ;  and 
what  men  most  need  to  know  of  Him  is  that 
goodness  which  wakens  our  hearts  to  praise. 
When  they  hear  sincere  praise  from  our  lips, 
they  have  evidence  that  He  has  been  good 
to  us,  and  so  He  is  glorified  as  the  harvest 
glorifies  the  fertile  fields. 

Remembrance. — Psalm  xxxviii:  Title. 
To  bring  to  remembrance ;  and  /  Chron. 
xvi:  4.  And  he  appointed  certain  of  the  Le- 
vites  to  minister  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord, 
and  to  record  (bring  to  remembrance),  and  to 
thank  and  praise  the  Lord  God  of  Israel. 

The  annual  appointment  is  based  upon  our 
danger  of  losing  right  feelings  we  once  had. 
We  stay  for  a  little  the  attention  of  common 
cares,  and  remind  one  another  of  what  we 
are  losing,  and  open  our  hearts  to  its  re- 
newal and  strengthening. 

"  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we   forget — lest  we  forget !  " 

Kipling. 

Tears    Mingled    with    Thanksgiving. — 

E::ra  Hi:  13.  The  people  could  not  discern 
the  noise  of  the  shout  of  joy  from  the  noise 
of  the  weeping  of  the  people'. 

1.  Thanksgiving  is  preeminently  the  family 
day;  and  as  we  rejoice  in  our  family  re- 
unions there  are  few  circles  where  some 
break  has  not  come.  The  joy  of  gathering 
is  mixed  with  the  sorrow  of  some  absent. 

2.  Thanksgiving  is  the  day  of  the  bountiful 
harvest.    We  sit  at  tables  of  plenty,  we  dwell 


in  happy  communities,  in  a  land  richer  than 
any  other;  but  there  are  regions  famine- 
struck,  there  are  starving  poor,  there  is 
pinching  want. 

3.  Thanksgiving  "  crowns  the  year,"  is  the 
culminating-point  where  we  look  back  at  a 
time  on  the  whole  blest  with  great  favor 
from  God;  but  the  year  has  had  its  trials 
which  we  are  glad  to  be  past.  We  would 
not  live  the  year  over  again.  Our  glad  thank- 
fulness in  its  blessings  is  mingled  with  a  rue- 
ful gladness  that  some  of  its  experiences  are 
over,  and  not  to  be  endured  again. 

4.  A  truly  happy  and  devoutly  thankful 
spirit  does  not  doubt  that  the  best  thing 
about  our  thankfulness  here  is  its  power  to 
look  toward  the  xntmingled  thanksgivings  of 
heaven : 

"  To   where  beyond  these   shadows  there  is 
peace." 

Thankful  Deeds. — But  how  shall  we  give 
thanks  ?  Words  are  good  and  necessary ;  but 
deeds  are  imperative.  "  As  ye  did  it  unto 
these  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  Let 
us  first  look  around  us  upon  o^r  immediate 
neighbors.  Possibly  some  of  them  may  give 
us  opportunity  for  thankfulness  by  deeds. 
All  of  them  will  afford  us  opportunity  for 
thankfulness  by  kindness.  Very  often  those 
who  have  no  lack  of  food  are  starving  for 
encouragement  and  sympathy.  And  there 
may  be  cases  in  which  this  will  cost  us  a 
greater  sacrifice  than  we  could  make  in 
money.  One  can  put  thankfulness  to  God 
into  his  manner  by  saying  "  Good-morning  " 
to  a  neighbor.  Indeed,  one  does  not  need  to 
go  out  of  his  own  household  to  find  a  way 
of  thanking  God  by  words  not  addressed  to 
Him,  and  by  deeds  that  are  for  Him  only 
as  they  may  be  for  his  sake. — In. 

Thankful  Thoughts.—/  Chron.  xvi:  8. 
Give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  call  upon  his 
name,  make  known  his  deeds  among  the 
people: 

1.  Thanksgiving  in  spite  of  sorrow.  The 
autumn  is  a  time  of  decay,  as  well  as  of 
harvest.  There  is  a  minor  key  struck  in  the 
soul  as  the  summer  dies ;  yet  there  is  rest  in 
the  gathered  fruits,  and  we  feel  that  all 
things  work  for  our  good. 

2.  There  is  more  light  than  shadow. 
There  is  the  light  of  home,  country,  love, 
and  worship. 

3.  The  harvest  came  with  toil.  God 
watched  it  and  gave  the  increase ;  but  only 
to  the  faithful  worker.  The  idler  has  a  har- 
vest of  weeds. 

4.  What  harvest  have  we  gathered?  Is 
it  ripened  purpose,  or  vacant  irresolution? 

5.  It  is  right  to  rejoice  in  God's  gifts.  If 
we  have  not  deserved  them,  we  may. 

Thanks  for  What,  Give. — i.  For  a  boun- 
tiful harvest. 

2.  For  a  national  prosperity. 

3.  For  religious  prosperity. 

4.  For  a  united  people. 

5.  For  growing  sympathy  between  the  two 
great  English-speaking  nations. 


366 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


6.  For  the  removal  of  an  oppressive  gov- 
ernment from  the  Western  hemisphere. 

7.  For  the  courage,  heroism,  and  patriotism 
of  the  American  people. 

8.  For  a  splendid  national  outlook. — C.  A. 

Thanksgiving     Day     Harpstrings. — Ps. 

civ:  33,  34.  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord  as  long 
as  I  live;  I  will  sing  praises  to  my  God  while 
I  have  my  being.  My  meditation  of  him 
shall  be  sweet. — Acts  xxviii:  15:  Whom 
when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked  God  and  took 
courage. 

Thanksgiving  Day  is  the  harp  of  the 
American  home  year.  In  order  that  we  may 
awaken  its  proper  music  let  us  touch  some  of 
the  strings  of  our  text. 

1.  Meditation  on  the  goodness  of  God: 
"  My  meditation  of  him  shall  be  sweet." 

That  note  will  lead  to  the  second. 

2.  Gratitude:  "I  will  sing  praises  to  my 
God." 

Gratitude  naturally  bursts  forth  in  song. 

3.  Song  :    "  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord." 
All  these  strings  lead  to  a  result. 

4.  Courage  :  "  He  thanked  God  and  took 
courage." 

If  we  touch  all  these  harpstrings  to-day 
it  will  be  a  happy  and  fruitful  Thanksgiving. 
— Louis  Albert  Banks,  D.D. 

Thanksgiving  Day,  How  Shall  We 
Spend  Our. — Psalm  cxvi:  12.  What  shall  I 
render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  his  benefits  to- 
ward me? 

How  shall  we  spend  our  day  of  Thanks- 
giving? 

1.  Spend  it  joyously.  Nehemiah  said: 
"  The  day  is  holy  to  the  Lord  your  God ; 
mourn  not,  nor  weep.  .  .  .  Neither  be  ye 
sorry,  for  the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your 
strength." 

2.  Spend  it  religiously.  Read  such  a 
psalm  of  gratitude  as  the  103d,  or  of  con- 
fidence as  the  91st,  or  such  comforting  words 
as  John  xiv.  Speak  your  gratitude  to  God, 
and  sing  to  His  praise. 

3.  Spend  it  helpfully.  Specially  try  to  serve 
every  one  you  touch  during  the  day.  Speak 
gently  to  those  of  your  family.  Make  the 
household  glad.  Reach  out  to  the  poor  and 
the  lonel3^     You  may  help  one  ready  to  fall. 

Thanksgiving  Day,  the  Home  Festi- 
val.— I.  If  there  has  been  a  decline  in  the 
strictly  religious  observance  of  the  holiday, 
it  is  no  less  than  in  the  past  a  home  festival. 
If  the  sons  are  too  distant  from  the  ancestral 
homestead  to  travel  back,  they  yet  make  in 
each  several  household  a  center  of  simple 
hospitality. 

2.  We  do  not  forget  industrial  oppression, 
growing  monopolies,  and  municipal  corrup- 
tion; but  the  large  majority  of  our  popula- 
tion maintain  the  home.  We  are  a  nation  of 
homes.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  divine  in- 
stitution of  the  family  is  decaying  in  our 
land. 

3.  Yet  vigilant  protection  of  the  home  is 
necessary.  We  must  fight  easy  divorce  and 
sins  against  the  family ;  exalt  the  positive 
value  of  home  and  rouse  parental  responsi- 


bility and  filial  loyalty;  guard  against  trifling 
discords  which  grow  into  disruption  of  the 
family ;  beware  of  so  crowding  Sunday  with 
religious  work  that  home  rest  and  association 
suffers. 

4.  In  serving  the  home  we  serve  the  nation, 
(o)  in  rearing  good  citizens,  {b)  in  maintain- 
ing high  social  ideals.  Patriotism  is  close  kin 
to  family  affection. — St. 

Thanksgiving     for     Christian    Men. — / 

Cor.  i:  4-j.  I  thank  my  God  akvavs  on 
your  behalf,  for  the  grace  of  God  which  is 
given  you  by  Jesus  Christ;  that  in  every- 
thing ye  are  enriched  by  him,  in  all  utter- 
ance, and  in  all  knowledge ;  even  as  the  testi- 
mony of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you;  so 
that  ye  come  behind  in  no  gift;  waiting  for 
the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

1.  It  is  reason  for  national  thanksgiving 
that  so  many  of  our  public  men — president, 
admirals,  generals — are  God-fearing  men. 

2.  Such  men  are  the  strength  of  every  town 
and  Church.  They  make  banks  trustworthy, 
courts  incorruptible,  and  business  honorable 
and  truly  prosperous. 

3.  The  growth  of  this  highest  class  is  a 
feature  of  our  time,  and  calls  out  our  thanks- 
givings, as  it  called  out  Paul's. 

4.  Their  character  is  a  blessed  confirmation 
of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel. 

5.  They  forbid  vain  hero-worship,  and 
carry  our  regard  on  to  those  principles  of 
right  and  blessing  which  will  triumph  com- 
pletely in  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 

Thanksgiving  for  Common  Blessings, 
The  Common  Duty  of. — There  are  certain 
blessings  which  are  enjoyed  alike  by  Protes- 
tant and  Catholic,  Republican,  Democrat, 
Populist,  and  Prohibitionist :  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people,  the  supremacy  of  law,  the  com- 
mon sense  of  patriots,  the  universal  submis- 
sion to  the  authority  of  the  majority,  the  re- 
spect for  the  rights  of  the  minority. 

God  takes  care  that  neither  corruption,  nor 
monopolies,  nor  the  liquor  traffic  thwart  the 
destiny  of  the  nation.  We  may  trust  that  He 
will  preserve  and  maintain  the  essentials  of 
our  national  life. 

That  He  has  maintained  them  so  far,  and 
so  gives  assurance  for  the  future,  is  reason 
why  all,  of  whatever  religious  or  political 
faith,  should  join  to  give  Him  thanks. 

Thanksgiving  for  Everything. — Ephcs. 
v:  20.     Giving  thanks  ahvays  for  all  things. 

1.  When  the  day  has  been  contrary  to  my 
wishes  and  expectations,  I  will  thank  God 
for  the  love  that  considered  my  welfare  rather 
than  my  desires.  I  will  try  to  make  the 
day  bright  with  pleasant  words,  and  I 
will  thank  God  that  I  can  brighten  the  lives 
of  others.  , 

2.  If  I  am  sick,  I  will  make  as  little  trouble 
as  possible,  and  try  to  forget  my  pain  in 
speaking  a  good  word,  and  thank  God  that 
"  all  things  work  together  for  good." 

3.  I  will  thank  God  for  the  joys  of  others; 
for  the  prosperity  of  my  neighbors. 

4.  I  will  thank  God  for  past  good  things 
for  which  He  has  never  been  thanked. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


367 


5.  Along  with  my  thanksgivings  I  will  pray- 
earnestly;  (o)  for  a  deeper  and  wider  ap- 
preciation of  His  goodness;  (b)  for  help  to 
tell  the  good  to  all.  saying  nothing  about  the 
evil ;  (c)  for  faith  to  see  good  in  everything ; 
(d)  for  help  to  magnify  the  good  and  make 
the  evil  as  small  as  possible. — From  a  sermon 
by  Rev.  George  W.  Dell. 

Thanksgiving  for  Fresh  Affections. — 2 

Tim.  i:  j.  /  tliank  God  tliat  without  ceas- 
ing I  Jiave  remembrance  of  thee. 

No  doubt  God  keeps  our  hearts  warm  by 
giving  us  lovable  friends,  and  surrounding 
us  with  happy  influences.  But  He  also  moves 
within  our  hearts,  and  quickens  us  to  appre- 
ciate what  is  good  and  lovable.  Sometimes 
He  opens  our  hearts  with  gladness,  and  some- 
times with  sorrow,  and  the  chief  value  of 
these  is  in  their  effect  within  us. 

Our  affections  apart  from  God  may  mis- 
lead us.  but  if  we  take  them  to  Him  in  prayer 
they  will  always  help  us.  This  is  a  day  for 
the  sanctifying  in  worship  of  all  that  is  in 
our  hearts. 

Loving  affections  brought  gratefully  before 
God  make  our  present  life  most  like  heaven, 
and  lift  us  above  the  world's  temptations  as 
well  as  sorrows. 

This  thought  is  the  touch  of  nature  that 
makes  all  the  world  kin,  and  so  this  festival 
breaks  down  the  barriers  between  rich  and 
poor. 

Thanksgiving  for  God's  Wise  and 
Strong  Rule. — Rev.  xi:  17.  We  give  thee 
thanks,  0  Lord  God  Almighty,  which  art  and 
wast  and  art  to  come,  because  thou  hast 
taken  to  thee  thy  great  power  and  hast 
reigned. 

Thanksgiving  Granted  TJs  Through 
the  Gospel. — Rom.  i:  8.  I  thank  my  God 
tlirougli  Jesus  Christ. 

We  have  substantial  reason  for  heart-felt 
gratitude  to  God  as  we  know  Christ. 

This  is  not  only  for  our  personal  assur- 
ance of  pardon  and  eternal  life,  but  to-day 
especially  for  the  social  value  of  the  gospel, 
which  gives  us  (i)  Christian  home,  (2) 
Christian  civilization,  and  (3)  a  Christian 
state. 

Thanksgiving,  Paul's  in  Trial. — Acts 
xxvii:  35.  He  gave  thanks  in  the  presence 
of  them  all. 

It  was  a  mere  grace  at  meat,  but  full  of 
meaning  to  the  shipwrecked  crew. 

A  brave  soul  is  not  blinded  by  present  evil, 
but  sees  the  deeper  good  and  blessing. 

Thanksgivings,  Christ's. — (a)  Matt,  xv: 
36.  And  he  took  the  seven  loaves  and  the 
fishes,  and  gave  thanks,  and  brake  them,  and 


gave  to  his  disciples,  and  the  disciples  to  the 
multitude. 

The  thanksgiving  at  daily  meat,  like  the 
autumnal  thanksgiving,  is  an  expression  of 
habitual  gratitude  for  God's  care. 

(b)  Luke  xix:  37 .  The  whole  multitude 
of  tlie  disciples  began  to  rejoice  and  praise 
God  with  a  loud  voice  for  all  the  mighty 
works  which  they  liad  seen. 

This  was  one  thanksgiving  day  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  on  earth,  tho  it  was  also  dashed  with 
tears  as  He  wept  over  the  city. 

Thanksgiving  Spirit,  The. — Prov.  xvii: 
22.  A  merry  heart  doeth  good  like  a  medi- 
cine. 

It  is  customary  to  deliver  political  dis- 
courses on  Thanksgiving  Day ;  but  instead  of 
politics  we  offer  both  a  prescription  and  a 
provision. 

I.  The  value  of  a  cheerful  spirit.  Not 
jollity,  but  joy;  not  the  gladness  dependent 
on  outward  circumstances,  but  the  sunshiny 
frame  which  comes  from  health  of  heart. 

1.  It  helps  bodily  health.  A  good  dose  of 
divine  grace,  with  a  few  grains  of  gratitude 
for  His  mercies,  and  a  frequent  bracing  walk 
of  benevolence  in  helping  other  people,  is 
better  than  all  the  drugs  of  the  apothecary. 

2.  It  is  a  clarifier  and  invigorator  of  the 
mind.  Many  giants  in  the  Christian  Church 
have  been  men  of  exuberant  cheerfulness. 
Luther,  Lyman  Beecher,  Spurgeon,  Phillips 
Brooks,  Newman  Hall,  and  Guthrie  are  ex- 
amples. 

3.  It  lubricates  the  wearing  machinery  of 
business  and  daily  care.  The  cheerful  heart 
is  a  "  continual  feast  " — Thanksgiving  Day 
every  day  in  the  year. 

II.  How  attain  this  spirit? 

1.  Look  at  your  mercies  with  both  eyes; 
your  troubles  with  only  one  eye. 

2.  Learn  Paul's  secret.  "  In  whatsoever 
state  I  am.  therewith  to  be  content." 

3.  Be  useful.  Light  somebody's  torch,  and 
your  own  will  burn  brighter. 

4.  Make  God  your  trustee.  Believe  in  His 
care  of  your  welfare. — From  a  sermon  by 
T.  L.  CuYLER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Thanksgiving,  We  Go  on  with  New 
Heart  from. — Acts  xxviii:  13.  He  thanked 
God  and  took  courage. 

A  certain  sense  of  fulness  and  strength  we 
need  as  a  starting-point  for  every  new  ad- 
vance. We  thank  God  that  we  have  finished 
the  sea  journey,  and  now  we  can  undertake 
the  land  journey.  We  thank  God  that  we 
have  seen  the  brethren,  and  now  we  can 
move  forward  to  help  them  and  perhaps  lead 
them. 


368 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


SUGGESTIVE  THOUGHTS  AND  ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


BASKETS,  The  Two. — Our  petition*  for 
favors  are  likely  to  greatly  outnumber  our 
thanks  for  blessings  received.  There  is  an 
old  legend  that  tells  of  two  angels  sent  to 
earth,  each  with  a  basket,  the  one  to  gather 
up  the  prayers  of  the  people,  and  the  other 
their  thanksgiving.  When  they  returned, 
they  grieved  to  find  that  the  first  was  filled 
to  overflowing,  while  the  other  was  nearly 
empty.  Our  blessings  are  usually  equal  to 
our  needs,  and  far  outnumber  our  misfor- 
tunes. 

BLESSEDNESS. — When  we  give  up  look- 
ing for  happiness,  we  find  blessedness. — 
Carlyle. 

BLESSINGS,    Private.—      .      .      .      The 

private  blessings— the  blessings  of  immunity, 
safeguard,  liberty  and  integrity — which  we 
enjoy,  deserve  the  thankfulness  of  a  whole 
life. — J.  Collier. 

BLESSINGS,  Vicarious. — "  David  said, 
Mephibosheth  .  .  .  Fear  not;  for  I  will 
show  thee  kindness  for  Jonathan  thy  father's 
sake,  and  will  restore  thee  all  the  land  of 
Saul  thy  father,  and  thou  shalt  eat  bread  at 
my  table  continuously.'' — 2  Sam.  ix:6,  7. 

BLESSING,  The  Perspective  of. — Eph. 
in:  17-19.  We  get  the  perspective  ot  nature 
objects  and  the  visible  world  because  of  light 
and  the  three  dimensions  of  space— length, 
breadth,  and  thickness.  So  the  favors  and 
blessings  of  God  become  impressive  and  sub- 
stantial to  faith  when  the  light  of  His  sav- 
ing love  shines  in  our  hearts,  "  to  give  the 
light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  Then  also  are 
we  "  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints  what 
is  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and 
height  "  of  the  blessings  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  of  Christian  civilization. — C.  G. 

CONTENT  AND  DISCONTENT.— Con- 
tentment furnishes  constant  joy.  Much 
covetousness,  constant  grief.  To  the  con- 
tented, even  poverty  is  joy.  To  the  discon- 
tented, even  wealth  is  a  vexation. — MiNG 
Sum  Paou  Keen.  In  Chinese  Repository. 
(Trans,  by  Dr.  Milne.) 

CONTRAST,  A  Historic— Our  first 
Thanksgiving  Day  in  this  country  was  that 
appointed  by  Governor  Bradford,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1623.  Contrast  common  life 
then  with  that  we  enjoy  in  1886. 

Henry  VIH.  was  upbraided  for  wanton 
extravagance  in  having  a  bed-tick  stuffed 
with  feathers. 

Saw- mills  enabled  common  people  to  have 
wooden  floors,  instead  of  stone  or  earth, 
about  1666. 

Anthracite  coal  utilized  for  warming  and 
manufacturing  purposes  in  1770. 


Coal-gas  light,  1792. 
Electric  light,  1874. 
Stoves,  The  Franklin,  1745. 
Cotton   goods — muslins,    calicoes — used   by 
English   not   before   the    eighteenth   century. 
Common  dress  of  men  made  of  leather. 
Glass  mirrors  in  England,  1673. 
Watches,  1658. 
Coffee,    1 64 1. 
Tea,   1666. 

Potatoes  not  commonly  used  before   1754. 
Meats  not  within  the  ordinary  purse-limit 
until  the  eighteenth  century.    Says  Macaulay : 
"  It  is  the   fashion  to  place  the  golden  age 
of   England   in   times   when   noblemen   were 
destitute    of    comforts,    the    want    of    which 
would  be  intolerable  to  a  modern  footman; 
when  farmers  and  store-keepers  breakfasted 
upon  loaves,  the  very  sight  of  which  would 
raise  a  riot  in  a  modern  workhouse." 
Sewing  machines,  1849. 
Newspapers    introduced    by    Roger    L'Es- 
trange  in  1663. 

Medicine — "Starve    'em    and    bleed    'em" 
practice  until  recently. 
Anesthetics,  1844. 

Death-rate  in  seventeenth  century,  one  in 
every  17  persons  annually;  in  nineteenth 
century,  one  in  40.  Macaulay  says  of  the 
former  period :  "  Men  died  faster  in  the 
purest  country  air  than  they  now  do  in  the 
most  pestilential  lanes  of  our  towns,  and 
men  died  faster  in  the  lanes  of  our  towns 
than  they  now  do  on  the  coast  of  Guinea." 
Production  to  the  acre  in  seventeenth  cen- 
tury averaged  less  than  seven  bushels.  The 
advance  of  agricultural  knowledge  has  ad- 
vanced the  average  to  thirty  bushels. 

The  majority  of  occupations  now  followed 
were  unknown  two  centuries  ago;  estimate 
the  limitation  of  enterprise. 

Recent  inventions  have  given  to  each 'per- 
son a  help  in  the  way  of  comfortable  living 
equal  to  a  half  a  dozen  servants  who  should 
labor  gratuitously. 

Traveling — Coaching  in  seventeenth  cen- 
tury versus  steam-rail  and  steam-boat. 

Old  writers  speak  of  the  incessant  danger 
from  traveling.  Statistics  show  that  a  man 
may  now  ride  100,000  miles  every  year  for 
forty  years  without  chance  of  injury. 

Men  formerly  limited  for  life  to  their 
neighborhood ;  the  world  now  open  for  in- 
spection. 

Pianos,  1717. 
Studies  in  science,  art,  etc. 
Respect  for  Clergy.  Lord  Clarendon  com- 
plained that  in  his  day  there  was  such  con- 
fusion of  rank  that  damsels  of  much  cul- 
ture had  married  clergymen.  Queen  Eliza- 
beth gave  special  command  that  servant-girls 
should  not  marry  ministers  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  master  or  mistress.     A  "  young 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


369 


Levite's  "  salary  was  called  fair  at  ten  pounds 
a  year. 

To  carry  out  this  contrast,  read  Macaulay's 
History,  Chapter  III.,  and  Ludlow's  Chart, 
page,   "  Useful  Arts." — H.  R. 

GRATEFUL  MAN,  The.— Qui  gratus 
futurus  est  statim  dum  accipit  de  reddendo 
cogitet. 

Let  the  man,  who  would  be  grateful,  think 
of  repaying  a  kindness,  even  while  receiving 
it. — Seneca. 

GBATITUDE.— Gratitude  is  the  fairest 
blossom  which  springs  from  the  soul ;  and 
the  heart  of  man  knoweth  none  more  fra- 
grant.— HosEA  Ballou — MS.  Sermons. 

Gratitude  is  expensive. — Gibbon — Decline 
and  Fall  of  tlie  Roman  Empire. 

HEART,  The  ThankfuL— Gratus  animus 
est  una  virtus  non  solum  maxima,  sed  etiam 
mater  virtutum  omnium  reliquarum. 

A  thankful  heart  is  not  only  the  greatest 
^■'  virtue,  but  the  parent  of  all  the  other  vir- 
tues.— CiCEKO. 

RELIGION,  A  Phase  of.— It's  part  of  my 
religion  to  look  well  after  the  cheerfulness  of 
life,  and  let  the  dismals  shift  for  themselves, 
believing  with  good  Sir  Thomas  More  that  it 
is  wise  to  be  "  merrie  in  God." — Louisa  May 
Alcott. 

/  THANKFULNESS.— Our  whole  "life 
should  speak  forth  our  thankfulness ;  every 
condition  and  place  we  are  in  should  be  a 
witness  of  our  thankfulness.  This  will  make 
the  times  and  places  we  live  in  better  for  us. 
When  we  ourselves  are  monuments  of  God's 
mercy,  it  is  fit  we  should  be  patterns  of  His 
praises,  and  leave  monuments  to  others.  We 
should  think  it  given  to  us  to  do  something 
better  than  to  live  in.  We  live  not  to  live : 
our  life  is  not  the  end  of  itself,  but  the  praise 
of  the  giver. — R.  Libbes. 

THANKFULNESS,   Christian.— Rev.   T. 

Collins  writes  of  an  invalid  thankful  for  in- 
tervals of  ease,  but  doubtful  of  God's  mighty 
mercy  in  Jesus.  He  said  to  him,  "  Thomas, 
suppose  I  plunged  into  the  Severn  to  save 
you  from  drowning,  got  you  out,  led  you 
home,  and  parting  on  your  door  step  gave 
you  a  lozenge.  What  would  rise  to  your 
mind  ever  after  when  you  thought  of  me, 
the  lozenge?"  "The  lozenge?  O  no  sir! 
the  rescue !  "  "  Well,  let  it  be  so  concerning 
Jesus.  You  tell  me  of  just  one  of  His  little 
gifts.  Speak  as  Paul  did  of  His  dying  love. 
Say  '  He  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for 
me.'  Think  of  that  till  it  sets  your  soul  on 
fire ;  think  of  that  till  a  passion  for  Him 
swells  within  you." — F.  II. 

THANKFULNESS,  Emblem  of.— The 
circulations  of  the  ocean  constitute  a  plain 
and  permanent  picture  of  these  relations  be- 
tween a  human  soul  and  a  redeeming  God. 
The  sea  is  always  drawing  what  it  needs 
down  to  itself,  and  also  always  sending  up 
of  its  abundance  into  the  heavens.  It  is 
always  getting,  and  always  giving.  So,  when 
in  the  covenant  the  true   relation  has  been 


constituted,  the  redeemed  one  gets  and  gives, 
gives  and  gets ;  draws  from  God  a  stream  of 
benefits,  sends  up  to  God  the  incense  of 
praise. — Arnot. 

THANKFULNESS  TO  BE  DECLARED. 

— Luke  xvii:  16.  It  is  not  enough  to  feel 
thankful  to  God.  He  wants  us  to  tell  our 
thankfulness.  It  was  the  cleansed  leper  who 
returned  and  gave  thanks  for  his  cure,  and 
not  the  nine  who  went  on  without  a  word, 
who  best  pleased  his  healer.  No  doubt 
that  the  others  felt  grateful  that  they 
had  been  cured,  and  could  again  enter 
their  homes  and  sanctuary,  but  they  grieved 
Him  who  so  richly  blessed  them  beca  i.-e 
the  gratitude  did  not  have  a  tongue.  God 
is  not  satisfied  with  emotions  only.  He 
would  have  feelings  clothed  in  language,  sen- 
timents embodied  in  words  and  life.  It  is  not 
the  love  the  husband  feels  but  that  which  he 
tells  that  encourages  the  worn  wife.  As  it  is 
not  the  knowledge  we  possess  but  that  which 
we  make  known  to  others  that  makes  the 
world  the  wiser,  so  it  is  not  the  grateful  feel- 
ing but  the  gratefulness  revealed  that  in- 
spires the  one  who  bestows  the  favor.  It  is 
the  mouth  that  is  opened  to  praise  that  often- 
est  tastes  Heaven's  sweets,  and  the  hand  that 
carries  thanks  that  is  fullest  laden  with  love's 
choicest  gifts. — Rev.  W.  W.  Dawley. 

THANKFUL,       Not      Brutish      But.— 

Thanksgiving  is  the  natural  outcome  of 
thoughtgiving.  "  Thank  "  and  "  think,"  the 
philologists  say,  are  the  same  word  at  bottom. 
It  is  the  careless,  heedless  attitude  which  is 
thankless.  When  mere  habit  and  wont  have 
brought  us  to  take  without  thinking,  we 
easily  take  without  thanking,  as  we  lose  sight 
of  the  Giver  in  the  very  constancy  of  His 
gifts.  The  Psalmist,  in  the  grand  psalm 
which  begins,  "  It  is  a  good  thing  to  give 
thanks  unto  the  Lord  !  "  specifies  the  reasons 
for  thanksgiving  in  what  God  is,  and  in  what 
He  does  for  us,  but  adds,  "  A  brutish  man 
knoweth  not ;  neither  doth  a  fool  understand 
this." 

So,  in  the  brutish  and  foolish  moods  of  the 
mind,  we  do  not  feel  how  good  it  is  to  give 
thanks.  We  do  not  see  into  the  grand  econo- 
mies of  nature  and  of  grace ;  but,  if  we  think, 
we  can  see  that  God  incessantly  gives  Him- 
self, His  life.  His  help.  His  watchfulness,  to 
everything  that  hath  life ;  and  most  of  all  to 
man,  in  whom  the  power  to  receive  is  the 
greatest.     Think,  and  be  thankful ! — S.  S.  T. 

THANKS    ARE    DUE,    Where.— Gratia 

pro  rebus  merito  debetur  inemtis. 

Thanks  are  justly  due  for  things  got  with- 
out purchase. — Ovid. 

THANKSGIVING.— Thanksgiving  makes 
our  prayers  bold  and  strong  and  sweet; 
feeds  and  enkindles  them  as  with  coals  of 
fire. — Luther. 

THANKSGIVING.— Let  us  give  thanks 
to  God  upon  Thanksgiving  Day.  Nature  is 
beautiful,  and  fellow-men  are  dear,  and  duty 
is  close  beside  us,  and  God  is  over  us  and  in 
us.    We  want   to  trust   Him  with  a   fuller 


370 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


trust,  and  so  at  last  to  come  to  that  high  life 
where  we  shall  "  be  careful  for  nothing,  but 
in  everything,  by  prayer  and  supplication, 
with  thanksgiving,  let  our  request  be  made 
known  unto  God ;  "  for  that,  and  that  alone, 
is  peace. — Phillips  Brooks. 

THANKSGIVING.— I  said,  "  I  will  give 
thanks  unto  the  Lord.'  Then  like  a  peep 
with  a  candle  into  an  empty  barrel,  I  saw  my 
own  heart  a  startling  void.  I  could  sing  and 
smile  and  work,  I  could  pray  and  give  and 
weep,  but  I  could  not  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord.  The  "  I  received  '"  would  always  seem 
to  weigh  more  than  the  "  Thou  hast  given." 

I  counted  the  mercies  over  one  by  one, 
until  lost  in  the  maze  of  their  plenitude; 
I  said  to  my  heart,  "  Heart  of  mine,  the  ap- 
pliances are  all  invented,  and  every  wheel 
and  spring  fits  into  its  own  little  place,  now 
give,  give,  give  thanks."  But  the  result  was 
like  the  voice  of  a  consumptive,  or  the  pale, 
cold  face  of  the  dead.  I  thought  of  God.  It 
was  National  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  I  said, 
"  He  is  all  good,  and  He  is  good  unto  all. 
Each  little  providence  is  jeweled  with  His 
goodness."  I  heard  the  Thanksgiving  an- 
thems, I  heeded  the  words  of  the  preacher's 
message.  I  greeted  my  friends  with  joy  and 
remembered  my  enemies  with  kindness,  but 
thanksgiving — real,  deep,  heartfelt  thanks- 
giving— it  eluded  my  grasp.  I  could  not 
attain  it. 

Then  I  mused :  "  Shall  trouble  come,  shall 
God  sends  losses  and  bereavements  to  break 
the  fallow  nature  up  and  cause  the  seeds  of 
grace  to  sprout  and  grow  ?  "  A  voice  of  holy 
sweetness  whispered,  "  In  everything  give 
thanks,  for  this  is  the  will  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  concerning  you."  Then  those  three 
phrases  chanted  up  and  down  the  pathway 
of  my  ?oul.  "  The  will  of  God,"  "  In  Christ 
Jesus,"  "  Concerning  you."  I  heard  their 
music  until  I  could  no  more  forbear  to  cry, 
"  O  God,  Thy  will  be  done  !  "  Now  found  I 
why  my  deep  concern  had  been.  The  Holy 
Spirit  had  so  patiently  been  pressing  the  key 
to  gratitude  into  my  hand  that  He  had  kept 
my  attention  to  the  precious  theme,  and 
when  I  cried,  "  Thy  will  be  done,"  He  en- 
tered, O  precious  wonder.  He  entered  in, 
and  He  filled  my  life.  Then  the  dear  re- 
sponse came  flooding  all  my  being.  The 
heart  stood  giant  while  the  words  seemed 
really  dwarf.  Then  I  said,  reverently,  ex- 
ultantly, "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  all 
that  is  zvitliin  me.  bless  His  holy  name." — 
Rev.  Henry  Qstrom. 

THANKSGIVING  CRESCENDO.— Lam. 

Hi:  22;  Ps.  ciii:i-5.  Carlyle  has  somewhere 
said,  that  a  man  should  put  himself  at  zero, 
and  then  reckon  every  degree  ascending  from 
that  point  as  an  occasion  for  thanks.  Pre- 
cisely on  this  scale  do  the  Scriptures  com- 
pute our  mercies.  Demerit  places  us  at  the 
very  nadir.  Every  step  we  take  from  the 
point  where  conscious  unworthiness  would 
consign  us,  should  call  for  an  offering  of 
gratitude,  whatever  envied  heights  may  tower 
unreached,  above  us.     "  It  is  of  the  Lord's 


mercies  that  we  are  not  consumed."  "  Why 
should  a  living  man  complain?"  So  begins 
the  anthem  of  thanks,  at  its  lowest  note  of 
all,  "  We  are  alive — we  are  not  consumed." 
We  are  all  of  us  far,  far  above  the  extremest 
point ;  therefore,  let  each,  from  the  place 
where  he  stands,  strike  in  with  his  own 
melody,  till  the  accumulated  song  rises  higher 
and  higher,  like  the  lark  circling  towards  the 
skies.  "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  who  for- 
giveth  all  thine  iniquities,  who  healeth  all 
thy  diseases,  who  redeemeth  thy  life  from  de- 
struction, who  satisfieth  thy  mouth  with  good 
things,  who  crowneth  thee  with  loving  kind- 
ness and  tender  mercies." — Wm.  Adams,  D.D. 

THANKSGIVING  DAY  MEDITATION, 

A. — Wants  a  night's  lodging,  does  he?  We 
do  not  keep  an  inn.  Let  him  go  on  to  the 
next  town !  Probably  he  has  no  money.  We 
have  no  place  v/here  he  can  lie.  He  would  be 
frozen  to  death  in  the  old  barn,  and  the  spare 
bedroom  is  not  to  be  thought  of. 

An  old  man,  his  clothes  in  tatters.  The 
snow  and  ice  lie  thickly  over  the  ground.  As 
he  turned  away  he  asked  only  if  there  were 
many  houses  near,  if  they  stood  close  to- 
gether. As  he  leaves  I  see  that  he  is  foot- 
sore and  weary.  He  does  not  look  back.  I 
may  not  leave  the  fireside  to  follow  him.  He 
passes  away.     He  has  not  returned. 

But  he  returns  in  the  night  watches,  en- 
tering through  the  barred  door.  He  is  with 
me ;  yet  not  he,  but  another ;  no  longer  the 
Beggar,  but  the  Accuser.  He  will  not  leave 
me  in  the  morning.  Shall  I  ever  be  rid  of 
him?  His  sad  eyes  tell  me  that  I  have  done 
a  vile  thing.  O  my  heart,  is  it  not  so?  Did 
not  He  who  made  me  make  this  wretch  also? 
"  Of  one  blood."  This,  perhaps,  a  better 
man  than  I  am. 

But  in  those  clean  sheets — a  beggar !  Mv 
spare  room  is  altogether  too  good  for  him, 
who  did  not  know  where  to  lay  his  head. 
There  are  moneys  in  my  house  needed  for  my 
children,  some  portable  valuables  also,  heir- 
looms and  relics.  Suppose  the  stranger 
should  rob  me ! 

It  would  be  an  ill  thing  if  I,  now  at  least 
hospitably  inclined,  should  be  soured  against 
my  fellows.  And,  if  he  turned  out  well  and 
in  the  morning  went  on  his  way  blessing  me 
and  telling  of  my  goodness,  might  not  that 
bring  more  needy  visitors,  among  them  some 
unworthy,  who  would  impose  upon  my  weak- 
ness? Does  it  not  become  a  man  to  be  pru- 
dent, careful  first  of  his  own  household?  So 
the  wayfarer  remains  in  the  darkness  and  the 
cold.  He  need  not  perish  if  he  can  find  one 
more  charitable  and  less  prudent. 

After  all  I  am  a  good  citizen  and  a  kindly 
man,  paying  my  proportion  and  gladly  giving 
more.  Why  did  this  man  come  to  my  door- 
step? The  state  should  care  for  the  poor, 
the  rich  giving  of  their  abundance. 

"  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
unto  you,  that  do  ye  unto  them  !  " 

On  a  winter  night,  the  man  scarce  seen  in 
darkness,  I  turned  my  brother  from  my  door, 
afraid  to  let  him  in,  afraid  of  personal  con- 
sequences.    Take  that  sad  look  from  me !     It 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


371 


tells  me  I  am  a  coward.  "  Afraid !  "  is  in 
its  rebuke. 

A  savage  would  have  been  hospitable.  A 
poor  man  might  have  shared  his  bed  with 
him.     But  I  am  a  gentleman  and  have  goods. 

God  help  me !  For  I  too  am  in  the  cold, 
and  the  night  is  dreary,  and  the  way  is  long 
and  unknown.  Out  in  such  darkness  and 
inclemency  that  I  dare  not  and  cannot  help 
my  brother.  Hast  Thou  redeemed  us  yet, 
O  Christ.— W.  J.  Linton.     (I.) 

THANKSGIVING  DINNER,  An  Old.— 

How  well  I  remember  that  old  Thanksgiving 
dinner !  Father  at  one  end,  mother  at  the 
other  end,  the  children  between  wondering 
if  father  will  ever  get  done  carving  the 
turkey.  O,  that  proud,  strutting  hero  of 
the  barnyard,  upside  down,  his  plumes  gone 
and  minus  his  gobble !  Stuffed  with  that 
-which  he  can  never  digest.  The  day  before, 
at  school,  we  had  learned  that  Greece  was 
south  of  Turkey,  but  on  the  table  we  found 
that  turkey  was  bounded  by  grease.  The  brown 
surface  waited  for  the  knife  to  plunge  astride 
the  breast-bone,  and  with  knife  sharpened  on 
the  jambs  of  the  fire-place,  lay  bare  the  folds 
of  white  meat.  Give  to  the  disposed  to  be 
sentimental,  the  heart.  Give  to  the  one  dis- 
posed to  music,  the  drumstick.  Give  to  the 
one  disposed  to  theological  discussion,  the 
"  parson's  nose."  Then  the  pies !  For  the 
most  part  a  lost  art.  What  mince  pies !  in 
which  you  had  all  confidence  fashioned  from 
all  rich  ingredients,  instead  of  miscellaneous 
leavings  which  are  only  short  of  glorified 
hash !  Not  mince  pies  with  profound  mys- 
teries of  origin !  But  mother  made  thenj, 
sweetened  them,  flavored  them,  and  laid  the 
lower  crust  and  the  upper  crust,  with  here 
and  there  a  puncture  by  the  fork  to  let  you 
look  through  the  light  and  flaky  surface  into 
the  substance  beneath. — T.  De  Witt  Tal- 
MAGE,  D.D. 

THANKSGIVING,  Enter  His  Gates 
"With. — Ps.  c:  4.  There  is  a  self-opening  gate 
which  is  often  used  in  country  roads.  It  stands 
fast  and  firm  across  the  road  as  a  traveler  ap- 
proaches it ;  it  won't  open.  But  if  he  will 
drive  right  at  it,  his  wagon  wheels  press  the 
springs  below  the  roadway,  and  the  gate 
swings  back  to  let  him  through.  So  the 
spirit  of  thanksgiving  pushes  the  way  of  all 
approach  to  God's  favor,  through  all  the 
gates  of  privilege,  with  all  the  assurance  of 
faith  that  no  good  thing  of  blessing  and  of 
knowledge  and  power  shall  be  withheld.  Try 
it.— C.  G. 

THANKSGIVING,  Public— Pj.  xxxiv: 
3.  Why  not  confine  our  thanksgiving  to 
specific  individual  blessings  or  to  the  privacy 
of  our  homes  and  hearts?  Why  should  there 
be  public  or  national  thanksgiving?  As  well 
might  we  ask  why  not  let  the  great  musical 
conceptions  of  master  composers  be  confined 
to  their  own  enjoyment  or  to  their  own 
private  rendering?  Why  gather  instruments 
of  various  capacity,  players  of  great  skill,  an 
audience  of  fine  musical  taste  and  sympathy? 
We  answer,  the  musical  ideas  themselves  re- 


quire an  adequate  instrumentation  and  skill, 
in  order  to  their  full  interpretation  and  com- 
munication. Thus  all  musical  souls  are  or 
may  be  lifted  up  to  the  high  level  of  joy  of 
the  master  composer  himself. 

So  our  blessings  being  divine,  human,  his- 
toric, international,  voluminous,  public,  they 
require  an  adequate  recognition  and  cele- 
bration. The  great  souls  that  are  best  able 
to  catch  the  magnificent  harmonies  of  God's 
character  and  providence,  in  the  very  nature 
of  praise  and  worship^  are  the  ones  to  com- 
municate their  heavenly  joy  to  others,  crying 
with  the  psalmist,  "  Let  the  people  praise  the 
Lord,  let  all  the  people  praise  him ;  O  mag- 
nify the  Lord  with  me,  and  let  us  exalt  his 
name  together." — See  Ps.  ciii :  20-22. — C.   G. 

THANKSGIVING,    Reason    for.— When 

our  national  independence  had  been  triumph- 
antly achieved,  the  colonies  held  general  jubi- 
lee. King  George,  who  had  been  sadly 
worsted  in  the  conflict,  thinking  himself  quite 
as  pious  as  his  disloyal  subjects,  and  not  to 
be  outdone  in  godliness  by  such  rebels  against 
the  divine  right,  appointed  also  a  day  of 
thanksgiving  for  the  restoration  of  peace  to 
his  long-disturbed  empire.  In  the  vicinity 
of  the  monarch's  residence,  then  Windsor 
Castle,  dwelt  a  most  estimable  member  of 
the  Church,  who  shared  his  sovereign's  in- 
timacy, and  conversed  with  him  freely.  On 
this  occasion  the  worthy  divine  ventured  to 
say,  "  Your  Majesty  has  sent  out  a  proclama- 
tion for  a  day  of  thanksgiving.  For  what  arg 
we  to  give  thanks?  Is  it  because  your 
Majesty  has  lost  thirteen  of  the  fairest  jewels 
from  your  crown?"  "No,  no,"  replied  the 
monarch,  "  not  for  that."  "  Well,  then,  shall 
we  give  thanks  because  so  many  millions  of 
treasure  have  been  spent  in  this  war,  and  so 
many  millions  added  to  the  public  debt?" 
"  No,  no,"  again  replied  the  King.  "  not  for 
that."  "  Shall  we,  then,  give  thanks  that  so 
many  thousands  of  our  fellow-men  have 
poured  out  their  life-blood  in  this  unhappy 
and  unnatural  struggle  between  those  of  the 
same  race  and  religion  ? "  "  No,  no,"  ex- 
claimed the  King  for  the  third  time,  "  not 
that."  "  For  what,  then,  may  it  please  your 
Majesty  are  we  to  give  thanks?"  asked  the 
pious  divine.  "  Thank  God !  "  cried  the 
King,  most  energetically,  "  thank  God  it  is 
not  any  worse."  Yes,  and  here  is  a  reason 
for  thankfulness  in  all  circumstances,  since 
it  is  never  so  bad  with  us  as  it  might  be ; 
and  even  if  God  be  pouring  out  the  vials  of 
His  anger,  yet,  blessed  be  His  name.  He 
never  empties  them  to  the  uttermost ! — Dr. 
Charles  Wadsworth. 

THANKSGIVING  SER^VICE.— How  to 
keep  a  feast  day. — "  Go  your  way,  eat  the  fat, 
and  drink  the  sweet,  and  send  portions  unto 
them  for  whom  nothing  is  prepared :  for  this 
day  is  holy  unto  our  Lord,"  etc. — Neh.  viii: 
10,  II.  I.  The  universal  custom  in  Scripture 
times,  and  with  all  nations  since,  to  give 
grateful  offerings  to  the  great  Protecting 
Power  on  holy  days.  2.  Our  special  reasons 
for  thankfulness.     He  has  provided   for  us 


372 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  "  fat  "  and  "  sweet.'"  3.  God  delights  to 
have  us  express  our  thankfulness  by  relieving 
the  distress  of  others.  "  Send  portions  for 
them  for  whom  nothing  is  prepared  " — the 
sadly  afiiicted  people  of  the  South — the  poor 
in  our  midst.  4.  A  day  of  rejoicing.  They 
grieved  not  but  made  great  mirth. 

See  the  thanksgiving  sermons : 

"  The  crowning  of  the  year,"  by  Dr.  Ryl- 
lance,  in  Complete  Preacher,  January  Num- 
ber, 1878. 

"  Divine  Forces  in  Human  History,"  by 
Prof.  Nelson,  in  same,  March  Number,  1878. 

'■  The  Hard  Times  God's  Pruning  Knife," 
by  Dr.  Wadsworth,  in  the  Metropolitan 
Pulpit  and  Homiletic  Monthly,  January 
Number,  1878.— H.  R. 

THANKSGIVING  THEMES.— Thanks- 
giving IN  PERILOUS  TIMES. — Dan.  vi:  10. 
When  Daniel  knew  that  the  writing  was 
signed,  he  went  into  his  house,  and  his  win- 
dows being  open  in  his  chamber  towards 
Jerusalem,  he  kneeled  three  times  a  day,  and 
prayed  and  gave  thanks  before  his  God,  as  he 
did  aforetime. 

An  appeal  to  gratitude. — /  Sam.  xix:  4, 
5.  And  Jonathan  spake  good  of  David  unto 
Saul  his  father  and  said  .  .  .  For  he  did 
put  his  life  in  his  hand  and  slew  the  Philis- 
tine, and  the  Lord  wrought  a  great  salva- 
tion for  all  Israel :  thou  sawest  it  and  didst 
rejoice;  wherefore  then  wilt  thou  sin  against 
innocent  blood  to  slay  David  without  a 
cause? 

Forgotten  mercies  remembered. — Gen.  xli: 
g-i2.  Then  spake  the  chief  butler  unto  Pha- 
raoh, saying,  I  do  remember  my  faults  this 
day  .  .  .  there  was  there  with  us  a  young 
man,  a  Hebrew  .  .  .  and  he  interpreted 
to  us  our  dreams. 

Gratitude  proclaimed. — Mark  v:  20.  And 
he  departed  [the  man  out  of  whom  Christ 
had  cast  an  unclean  spirit],  and  began  to 
publish  in  Decapolis  how  great  things  Jesus 
had  done  for  him,  and  all  men  did  marvel. 

The  MOST  unpromising  sometimes  the 
MOST  thankful. — Luke  xvii:  15,  16.  And 
one  of  them  [the  ten  lepers  whom  Christ  had 
healed]  when  he  saw  that  he  was  healed, 
turned  back  and  with  a  loud  voice,  glorified 
God,  and  fell  down  on  his  face  at  his  feet, 
giving  him  thanks ;    and  he  was  a  Samaritan. 

With  the  spirit  of  song. — Psalm  xcv:  2. 
Let  us  come  before  his  presence  with  thanks- 
giving, and  make  a  joyful  noise  unto  him 
with  psalms. 

With  charity. — Psalm  xli:  i.  Blessed  is 
he  that  considereth  the  poor. 

Rising  superior  to  our  troubles. — Psalm 
cxix:  62.  At  midnight  will  I  rise  to  give 
thanks  unto  thee. 

Compare  the  mingled  thanksgiving  and 
weeping  in  Ezra  iii :  11-13. 

Not  in  a  self-righteous  spirit. — Luke 
xviii:  11.  Lord,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am 
not  as  other  men,  ...  or  even  as  this 
publican. 

The  universality  of  mercy  in  the  expe- 
rience OF  Christians. — Eph.  v:  20.  Giving 
thanks  always  for  all  things  unto  God  and 


the  Father  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  holiness  of  God  an  inspiration  to 
gratitude. — Psalm  xcvii:  12.  Rejoice  in  the 
Lord,  ye  righteous  :  and  give  thanks  at  the 
remembrance  of  his  holiness. 

The  divine  agency  in  national  develop- 
ment.— Isa.  xxvi:  15.  Thou  hast  increased 
the  nation,  O  Lord,  thou  hast  increased  the 
nation :  thou  art  glorified :  thou  hadst  re- 
moved it  far  unto  all  the  ends  of  the  earth 
[or  hast  extended  it  unto,  etc.]. 

The  secret  of  municipal  and  national 
stability.— /.ya.  xxvi:  i,  2.  We  have  a 
strong  city ;  salvation  will  God  appoint  for 
walls  and  bulwarks.  Open  ye  the  gates  that 
the  righteous  nation  which  keepeth  the  truth 
enter  in. — H.  R. 

THANKSGIVING  THOUGHTS.—"  They 
that  cannot  have  what  they  like  should  learn 
to  like  what  they  have."  A  tough  lesson  but 
well  worth  learning. — Spurgeon. 

To  receive  honestly  is  the  best  thanks  for 
a  good  thing. — George  MacDonald — Mary 
Marston.     Ch.   V. 

Christians  thank  God  that  He  hath  created 
them  after  His  own  image ;  that  He  hath 
called  them  out  of  the  common  crowd  of 
this  world  and  made  them  Christians ;  that 
among  those  that  bear  the  name  of  Christ 
He  hath  made  them  faithful  ones,  like  a  few 
quick-sighted  men  among  a  company  of  blind 
ones ;  like  the  light  in  Goshen,  when  all 
Egj'pt  was  dark  besides,  or  like  Gideon's 
fieece,  only  watered  with  the  dew  of  heaven, 
while  the  rest  of  the  earth  was  dry  and 
destitute  of  His  favor ;  great  cause  of  thank- 
fulness indeed ! — H.  Spencer. 

As  flowers  carry  dewdrops,  trembling  on 
the  edges  of  the  petals,  and  ready  to  fall  at 
the  first  waft  of  wind  or  brush  of  bird,  so  the 
heart  should  carry  its  beaded  words  of 
thanksgiving,  and  at  the  first  breath  of 
heavenly  flavor,  let  down  the  shower  per- 
fumed with  the  heart's  gratitude. — Beecher. 

I  thank  God  that  I  was  born  a  man,  and 
not  a  beast ;  that  I  was  born  a  Grecian  and 
not  a  barbarian. — Plato. 

There  is  this  difference  between  a  thank- 
ful and  an  unthankful  man :  the  one  is  always 
pleased  in  the  good  he  has  done,  and  the 
other  only  in  what  he  has  received';  but  there 
are  some  men  who  are  never  thankful. — A. 
Monod. 

Non  est  diuturna  possessio  in  quam  gladio 
ducimus ;  beneficiorum  gratia  sempiterna  est. 

That  possession  which  we  gain  by  the 
sword  is  not  lasting:  gratitude  for  benefits  is 
eternal. — Quintus    Curtius    Rufus. 

Inasmuch  as  we  are  sinners,  and  have 
forfeited  the  blessings  which  we  daily  re- 
ceive, what  can  be  more  suitable  than  that 
we  should  humbly  thank  that  Almighty 
Power  from  whom  comes  such  an  inex- 
haustible supply  of  goodness  to  us  so  utterly 
undeserving? — Francis  Wayland. 

TROUBLE.— Some  folks  are  so  fond  of 
trouble  they  can't  enjoy  honey  for  thinking 
of  what  might  have  happened  if  the  bee  had 
stung  'em. — Selected. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


373 


POETRY 


A  Harvest  Canticle 

By   Theron    Brown 

What  is  bounty  but  love  in  the  giver, 

That  waits  for  no  plea  to  bestow, 
The  evergreen  boon  of  the  river 

To  the  fields  that  are  blessed  by  its  flow? 
Does  the  light  when  the  morning  uncloses. 

Count  the  leagues  of  its  flight  on  the  plain  ? 
Does  the  sky  call  the  roll  of  the  roses 

Ihat  hold  up  their  lips  for  its  rain? 

God  is  never  at  loss  with  His  plenty, 

And  Nature,   His  handmaid,  no  more 
Ripens  sweets  for  the  feast  of  the  dainty 

Than  bread  for  the  fare  of  the  poor. 
'Tis  a  loan  with  no  burden  thereafter, 

'Tis  a  grace  never  measured  nor  weighed; 
If  the  banquet  turns  weeping  to  laughter 

The  debt  of  the  eater  is  paid. 

O  Goodness  so  grand  in  its  doing ! 

Are  there  gluttons  who  starve  at  its  board ; 
Craven   souls,   whose   insatiable   suing 

Has  poisoned  the  comforts  they  hoard. 
Who,   insane  with  the  joy  of  receiving, 

Are  glad  for  no  sake  but  their  own. 
Who  are  deaf  to  the  song  of  Thanksgiving 

And  tongueless  to  utter  its  tone? 

Give  us  want,  give  us  nothingness  rather 

Than  this ;  better  never  be  born 
Than  to  harvest  the  fields  of  our  Father 

And  leave  Him  unthanked  for  the  corn, 
The  just  will  pay  measure  for  measure 

And  the  selfish  give  love  for  a  fee; 
But  they  squander  an  infinite  treasure 

Who  sin  against  love  that  is  free. — I. 

In  Glad  Content 
By   Frank   L.    Stanton 

The  world,  they  say,  is  gettin'  old  an'  weary 
as  can  be; 

But  write  me  down  as  sayin'  it's  good  enough 
for  me ! 

It's  good  enough,  with  all  its  grief,  its  pleas- 
ure, an'  its  pain ; 

An'  there's  a  ray  of  sunshine  for  every  drop 
o'  rain ! 

They  stumble  in  the  lonesome  dark,  they  cry 

for  light  to  see; 
But  write  me  down  as  sayin'  it's  light  enough 

for  me ! 
It's  light  enough  to  lead  us  on  from  where 

we  faint  an'   fall, 
An'    the    hilltop    nearest    heaven    wears    the 

brightest  crown  o'  all ! 

They  talk  about  the  fadin'  hopes  that  mock 

the  years  to  be; 
But  write  me  down   as   sayin'   there's   hope 

enough  for  me ! 
Over    the    old    world's    wailin'    the    sweeter 

music  swells; 
In  the  stormiest  night  I  listen  an'  hear  the 

bells— the  bells  1 


This  world  o'  God's  is  brighter  than  we  ever 

dream  or  know; 
Its  burdens  growin'  lighter — an'  it's  Love  that 

makes  'em  so ! 
An'  I'm  thankful  that  I'm  livin'  where  Love's 

blessedness  I  see, 
'Neath  a  heaven  that's  forgivin',   where  the 

bells  ring  "  Home  '  to  me  ! — C.  E.  W. 

rive  Kernels  of  Corn 
By  Hezekiah  Butterworth 
(A  Thanksgiving  Tradition.) 

"  Out  of  small  beginnings  great  things  have  been 
produced,  as  one  small  candle  may  light  a  thousand." 
—Gov.  Bradford, 


'Twas  the  year  of  the  famine  in  Plymouth  of 

old. 
The  ice  and  the  snow  from  the  thatched  roofs 

had  rolled. 
Through  the  warm  purple  skies  steered  the 

geese  o'er  the  seas. 
And   the   woodpeckers   tapped  in   the   clocks 

of  the  trees ; 
The  boughs  on  the  slopes  to  the  south  winds 

lay  bare. 
And  dreaming  of  summer  the  buds   swelled 

in  air, 
The  pale  Pilgrims  welcomed  each  reddening 

morn; 
There  were  left  for  rations  but  Five  Kernels 

of  Corn. 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

But  to  Bradford  a  feast  were  Five  Kernels 

of  Corn ! 

II 

"  Five    Kernels    of   Corn !     Five    Kernels    of 

Corn ! 
Ye  people  be  glad  for  Five  Kernels  of  Corn !  " 
So  Bradford  cried  out  on  bleak  Burial  Hill. 
And    the   thin    women    stood    in   their    doors 

white  and  still. 
"  Lo  the  Harbor  of  Plymouth  rolls  bright  in 

the  spring, 
The  maples  grow  red,  and  the  wood  robins 

sing. 
The   west   wind   is  blowing,   and   fading  the 

snow, 
And  the  pleasant  pines  sing,  and  arbutuses 

blow. 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

To  each  one  be  given  Five  Kernels  of  Corn !  " 

III 

O  Bradford  of  Austerfield,  haste  on  thy  way, 

The  west  winds  are  blowing  o'er  Province- 
town  Bay, 

The  white  avens  bloom,  but  the  pine  domes 
are  chill. 

And  new  graves  have  furrowed  Precisioners' 
Hill! 


374 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


"  Give  thanks  all  ye  people,  the  warm  skies 

have  come, 
The  hilltops  are  sunny,  and  green  grows  the 

holm, 
And  the  trumpets  of  winds,  and  the  white 

March  is  gone, 
And  ye  still  have  left  you  Five  Kernels  of 

Corn. 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn! 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn! 

Ye  have  for  Thanksgiving  Five  Kernels  of 

Corn !  " 

IV 

"  The   raven's  gift  eat   and  be  humble  and 

pray, 
A   new    light   is   breaking,   and   Truth  leads 

your  way. 
One  taper  a  thousand  shall  kindle:    rejoice 
That  to  you  has  been  given  the  wilderness 

voice !  " 
O  Bradford  of  Austerfield,  daring  the  wave. 
And  safe  through  the  sounding  blasts  leading 

the  brave. 
Of  deeds  such  as  thine  was  the  free  nation 

born, 
And  the  festal  world  sings  the  "  Five  Kernels 

of  Corn." 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn ! 

The  nation  gives  thanks  for  Five  Kernels  of 

Corn ! 
To  the  Thanksgiving  Feast  bring  Five  Ker- 
nels of  Corn ! 

Y.  C. 

November's  Gift 
By  Emma  C.  Dowd 

However  flowerless  the  ways 

Of  grim  November, 
However  dull  and  drear  her  days, 

We  should  remember 
One  happy  time  she  sets  apart 

For  royal  living, 
A  gift  to  cheer  and  bless  each  heart, — 

It  is  Thanksgiving  ! — Y.  C. 

All  the  People  Praise  Him 

By  Will  Carleton 

Let   all   pleasures   be   more   pleasant,   let  all 

griefs  with  help  be  nerved. 
Let  all  blessings  praise  their  sources,  with  the 

thanks  that  are  deserved! 
Every  spirit  should  look  heavenward,  every 

heart  should  tribute  pay. 
To  the  Soul  of  souls  that  treats  us  to  the 

Grand  Old  Day ! 

Thanks  be  to  God 
By  Frances  Ridley  Havergal 

Thanks  be  to  God !  to  whom  earth  owes 

Sunshine  and  breeze, 
The  heath-clad  hill,  the  vale's  repose, 

Streamlet  and   seas. 
The  snowdrop  and  the  summer  rose. 

The  many-voiced  trees. 


Thanks  for  the  darkness  that  reveals 

Night's   starry   dower; 
And  for  the  sable  cloud  that  heals 

Each    fevered   flower ; 
And  for  the  rushing  storm  that  peals 

Our  weakness  and  Thy  power. 

Yet  thanks  that  silence  oft  may  flow 

In  dewlike  store ; 
Thanks  for  the  mysteries  that  show 

How   small   our   lore ; 
Thanks  that  we  here   so  little  know, 

And  trust  Thee  all  the  more. 

Thanks  for  the  gladness  that  entwmes 

Our  path  below ; 
Each  sunrise  that  incarnadines 

The  cold,  still  snow ; 
Thanks  for  the  light  of  love,  that  shines 

With  brightest  earthly  glow. 

Thanks  for  the  sickness  and  the  grief 

That  none  may  flee ; 
For  loved  ones  standing  now  around 

The  crystal  sea ; 
And  for  the  weariness  of  heart 

That  only  rests  in  Thee. 

Thanks  for  Thine  own  thrice-blessed  Word 

And  Sal;bath  rest ; 
Thanks  for  the  hope  of  glory  stored 

In  mansions  blest ; 
And  for  the  Spirit's  comfort  poured 

Into  the  trembling  breast. 

Thanks — more  than  thanks — to  Him  ascend 

Who  died  to  win 
Our  life,  and  every  trophy  rend 

From   death  and   sin ; 
Till,  when  the  thanks  of  earth  shall  end. 

The  thanks  of  heaven  begin. — C.  E.  W. 

Thanks  for  Sorrows  and  Joys 
By  Will  Carleton 

We  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  for  all  that  is 
bright — 

The  gleam  of  the  day  and  the  stars  of  the 
night. 

The  flowers  of  our  youth  and  the  fruits  of 
our  prime, 

And  the  blessings  that  march  down  the  path- 
way of  time. 

We  thank   Thee,    O   Father,    for  all  that   is 

drear — 
The  sob  of  the  tempest,  the  flow  of  the  tear ; 
For  never  in  blindness,  and   never  in  vain, 
Thy  mercy  permitted  a  sorrow  or  pain. 

We  thank  Thee,  O  Father  of  all,  for  the 
power 

Of  aiding  each  other  in  life's  darkest  hour; 

The  generous  heart  and  the  bountiful  hand 

And  all  the  soul-help  that  sad  souls  under- 
stand. 

We  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  for  days  yet  to  be ; 
For  hopes  that  our  future  will  call  us  to  Thee. 
Let  all  our  eternity  form,  through  Thy  love, 
One  Thanksgiving  Day  in  the  mansions 
above. — W.  C.  M. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


375 


A  Song  of  the  Thankful  Time 

By  Rose  Hartwick  Thorpe 

We  think  of  Thanksgiving  at  seeding  time — 
In  the  swelling,  unfolding,  budding  time. 
When  the  heart  of  nature  and  hearts  of  men 
Rejoice  in  the  earth  grown  young  again. 
We  dream  of  the  harvest,  of  field  and  vine. 
And    granaries    full,    at    Thanksgiving    time. 

We  think  of  Thanksgiving  in  growing  time — 
In  the  time  of  flowers,  and  in  vintage  prime ; 
When  the  palms  of  the  year's  strong  hands 

are  filled 
With   fruitage,   with   grain  and   with   sweets 

distilled. 
With  the  dream  of  hope  is  a  truth  sublime, 
Then  our  hearts  make  room  for  the  thankful 

time. 

We  think  of  Thanksgiving  in  harvest  time — 
In  the  yielding,  gathering,  golden  time ; 
When  the   sky  is   fringed   with  a   hazy  mist, 
And  the  blushing  maples  by  frost  lip  kissed ; 
When  the   barns    are   full    with   the   harvest 

cheer, 
And  the  crowning,  thankful  day  draws  near. 

We  think  of  Thanksgiving  at  resting  time — 
The  circle  completed  is  but  a  chime 
In  the  song  of  life,  in  the  lives  of  men  ; 
We  harvest  the  toils  of  our  years,  and  then 
We  wait  at  the  gate  of  the  King's  highway, 
For  the  dawn  of  our  soul's  Thanksgiving 
Day.— Y.    L.   J. 

Give  Thanks 

By  Carlotta  Perry 

For  sweet  hopes  born  and  for  sorrows  dead ; 
For  true  songs  sung  and  for  fond  words  said ; 
For  the  ready  cup,  for  the  daily  bread ; 

For  the  race  that  the  faithful  feet  have  run ; 
For  the  bitter  strife,  for  the  battle  won ; 
For  brave  deeds  planned  and  for  brave  deeds 
done; 

For  the  truth  that  liveth  forevermore; 
For  mercy's  graciously  open  door; 
For  the   light   that   shines    from    the    other 
shore, — 

Give   thanks,    give   thanks !      Lo !    the    Spirit 

saith, 
Let  everything  that  hath  voice  or  breath 
Give  thanks  for  life — for  life  and  death. 

In  Everything  Give  Thanks 

By  Zitella  Cocke 

"  In  everything  give  thanks  " — nay.  Lord, 
To  bleeding  hearts  dost  speak  that  word? 
Not  in  the  trial's  furnace  glow, 
Not  in  the  crucible  of  wo. 
May  sweet  incense  of  thanks  arise  . 
Durst  we  but  lift  our  streaming  eyes, 
Thy  help.  Thy  pity  to  implore, 
Almighty  Lord,  what  can  we  more? 


"  In  everything  give   thanks  " — yea.   Lord, 
The  chastened  soul  adores  Thy  word. 
Ay,  swing  the  heavenly  censers  low, 
Receive  the  heart's  rich  overflow 
Of  glad  thanksgiving  for  the  pain, 
The  loss,   which  wrought  its  surer  gain, 
The  cross,  which  proves  its  claim  and  share 
With  Thee,  O  Lord  and  Christ,  joint  heir!— I. 

Giving  Thanks 

By  Elizabeth  Lord  Condit 

A  little  strength  was  lost  each  day, 
A  little  hope  dropped  by  the  way. 
The  feet  dragged  slowly  up  the  road, 
The  shoulders  bent  beneath  their  load, 
Courage  seemed  dying  in  the  heart. 
The  will  played  but  a  feeble  part. 

Night  brought  no  ease 

Day  no  surcease 
From  heavy  cares  or  wearying  smart, 

Then  why  give  thanks? 

Somehow    strength   lasted   through    the   day, 
Hope  joined  with  courage  in  the  way; 
The  feet  still  kept  the  up-hill  road. 
The  shoulders  did  not  drop  their  load, 
An   unseen  power   sustained   the  heart 
When  flesh  and  will  failed  in  their  part. 

While  God   gave   light 

By  day  and  night 
And  also  grace  to  bear  the  smart. 

For  this  give  thanks. 

Thanks  for  the  daily  bread  which  feeds 
The  body's  wants,  the  spirit's  needs  ; 
Thanks   for   the  keen,   the   quick'ning  word, 
"  He  only  lives  who  lives  in  God," 
Whether  his  time  on  earth  is  spent 
In   lordly  house  or  labor's  tent. 

Thanks  for  the  light 

By  day  and  night 
"Which  shows  the  way  the  Master  went. 

— And  He  gave  thanks. — I. 

Thanksgiving 
By  Mrs.  L.  B.  Hall 

Along  the  hills  that  autumn's  grace 
Hath  lit  with  sudden  tints  of  flame. 

One  comes,  with  sweet,  uplifted  face, 
Singing  her  praises  to  His  name, 

Whose  hand  the  ready  blessings  heap. 

Whose  endless  love  a  world  doth  keep. 

A  spirit  of  thanksgiving,  born 

Of  grateful  people,  blessed  of  God, 

Whose  barns  He  fills  with  golden  corn; 
Whose  level  fields  of  lifeless  sod. 

His  sunshine  and  His  fragrant  rains, 

Have  quickened   into   fruitful  plains. 

E'en  should  the  angry  clouds  uplift 
Dark  faces  on  the  trembling  days, 

The  seeming  ill  is  yet  God's  gift; 
Out  of  the  shadows  lift  His  praise. 

Calm  as  the  child  who,  smiling,  hears 

The  footsteps  of  advancing  years. 


376 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Above  is  God,  come  joy  or  ill, 

Come  life  or  death,  come  want  and  wo. 
Changeless  His  love  exists,  and  still 

Boundless  His  great  compassions  flow, 
O  people,  by  His  mercy  crowned, 
Through  thy  full  lives  His  praises  sound  I 

Thanksgiving 

Lord,  for  the  erring  thought 
Not  into  evil  wrought; 
Lord,   for  the  baffled  will 
Betrayed,  and  baffled  still ; 
For  the  heart  from  itself  kept 
Our  thanksgiving  accept. 

For  ignorant  hopes  that  were 
Broken  to  our  blind  prayer; 
For  pain,  death,  sorrow,  sent 
Unto  our  chastisement; 
For  all  loss  of  seeming  good 
Quicken  our  gratitude. — C.  G. 

Thanksgiving 
By  Hattie  Whitney 

Happy  the  days  when  the  cowslips  tipped  their 

caps  to  the  friendly  sun, 
Happy  the  days  when  the  merry  work  of  the 

year  was  just  begun. 
And  happy  days  are  these,  my  love,  when  the 

work  of  the  year  is  done. 

Sweet  was  the  time  when  showers  of  scent 
from  the  lilac  tops  were  tossed. 

And  sweet  when  the  dancing  feet  of  spring 
in  the  summer  paths  were  lost ; 

And  cheerisome  times  are  these,  my  love, 
when  the  air  is  sharp  with  frost. 

The  summer  wrought  with  a  diligence,  and 

her  needle  flashed  amain. 
Her  thread  was  red  with  the  rosy  sun,  and 

white  with  the  pearls  of  rain; 
And  her  needle  is  thrust  in  a  folded  case — 

the  thread  is  snapped  in  twain. 

The  sun  is  faded— Heigho !    What  then?  For 

the  fire's  heart   is   clear. 
And  cellar  and  storehouse  are  brimming  full 

— and  have  ye  then  no  cheer? 
So  let  her  sit  in  the  chimney  light  and  rest 

her — ^the  tired  year. 

Who  would  wish  for  the  light  to  last  till  it 

dazzled  the  weary  eye? 
Live    and   give,    and   carol    away— when   the 

winds  are  piercing  and  high. 
And  let  the  soul  of  the  rose  live  on,  when 

its  day  has  drifted  by. 

The  grass   will   dry  and  the  fruit  will  fall, 
and  the  sun  will  slip  away. 

But    the    "  merry    heart,"    it    "  doeth    good," 
when  the  days  are  short  and  gray. 

And  the  soul  that  sings  in  the  storm   shall 
find  the  true  Thanksgiving  day. 

Y.  C. 


Thanksgiving 
By    Paul    Laurence    Dunbar 

Don't  talk  to  me  of  solemn  days 
In  autumn's  time  of  splendor, 

Because  the  sun  shows  fewer  rays 
And  these  grow  slant  and  slender. 

Why,  it's  the  climax  of  the  year — 
The  highest  time  of  living! 

Till  naturally  its  bursting  cheer 
Just  melts  into  thanksgiving. — C.  G. 

Thanksgiving 
By   Zoeth    Howland 

We're  thankful  for  the  winter  frost 

That  made  the  snowflakes  fall. 
For  every  snowball  that  we  tossed. 

And  sleds  and  skates  and  all. 
We're   thankful   for  the    flowers   we    found 

In  May-time,  long  ago ; 
Spring-beauty   peeping   from   the   ground, 

And  bloodroot   white   as   snow. 
We're  thankful  for  the  holidays 

That  came  with  summer  heat, 
And  all  the  happy  summer  plays 

In  grandma's  garden  sweet. 
We're  thankful  for  the  autumn's  store, 

When  fields  are  bare  and  gray, 
And  all  the  year  that  brings  once  more 

Our  dear  Thanksgiving  Day. — Y.  C. 

Thanksgiving 

By  Mary  F.  Butts 

That  fields  have  yielded  ample  store 

Of   fruit  and   wheat   and   corn, 

That  nights  of  restful  blessedness 

Have  followed  each  new  morn ; 

That   flowers   have   blossomed   by   the  paths 

That  thread  our  working  days. 

That  love  has  filled  us  with  delight, 

We  offer  heartfelt  praise. 

What  shall  we  say  of  sorrow's  hours. 

Of  hunger  and  denial, 

Of  tears,  and  loneliness,  and  loss, 

Of  long  and  bitter  trial? 

Oh,  in  the  darkness  have  not  we 

Seen  new,   resplendent   stars? 

Have  we  not  learned  some  song  of  faith 

Within  our  prison  bars? 

Not  only  for  the  Earth's  rich  gifts, 

Strewn  thick  along  our  way. 

Her   looks   of  constant   loveliness. 

We  thank  our  God  to-day ; 

But  for  the  spirits  subtle  growth. 

The  higher,  better  part. 

The  treasures  gathered  in  the  soul — 

The  harvest  of  the  heart. — Y.  C. 

Thanksgiving 

By  J.  Zitella  Cocke 

One  cycle  more,  with  rich  fruition  crowned. 
Hastes  to  fulfilment  of  its  perfect  round, — 
Great  year  of  wonder,  and  of  vast  emprise ! — 
For  all  its  gifts,  ay,  let  Thanksgiving  rise. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


377 


The  hero's  prowess — bloodless  victory  won; 
The  martyr's  patience,  sternest  duty  done, — 
Yet,  loftier  paeans  still,  for  war's  surcease, — 
For  God's  best  gift, — the  precious  boon  of 
peace ! 

For  garnered  opulence  of  flock  and  field, 
Joys  ever  new,  revolving  seasons  yield, — 
For  those  bright  presences  of  radiant  night, — 
The  garment-hem   of  Glory  Infinite, — 
Blithe  speech  of  birds,  and  bloom  of  sunny 

bower. 
Health,  home,  and  love, — the  best  of  earthly 

dower, — 
Yet  in  this  gracious  time  of  strife's  release. 
Thank  God,  ye  people,  for  His  gift  of  peace ! 

Y.  C. 
Thanksgiving 

By  William  Lambie 

Good  crops  all  gathered  in  the  barn, 
All  safe  from  rain  and  snow  and  harm, 
Bring  joy  and  pleasure  on  the  farm. 

Thanksgiving  for  sweet  buds  and  flowers, 
For  balmy  winds  and  sunny  showers, 
Through  all  the  rich,  grand  summer  hours: 

For  health  and  friends  coming  kindly, 
For  the  crops  that  grow  so  finely, 
For  all  blessings  sent  divinely; 

For  autumn  with  her  glories  on. 
Now  all  the  golden  leaves  are  gone, 
The  fields  are  desolate  and  lone. 

Over  the  cribs  heaped  full  of  corn 
We  hear  the  robins  peep  at  morn 
Farewell  before  the  winter's  storm. 

Gathering  round  abundance  spread. 
Asking    for   blessings    on   our   head, 
For   health   and   peace   and   daily  bread. 

With  all  the  harvest  treasure  stored. 
And  young  and  old  around  the  board. 
To  praise  the  goodness  of  the  Lord. 

Gay  young  toddlers  run  round  the  floor. 
With  Willie  in  a  glad  uproar 
In  the  first  boots  he  ever  wore. 

Old  age  enjoying  youthful  mirth, 
In  useful  lives  of  honest  worth. 
Making  the  best  of  life  and  earth. — E. 

Thanksgiving 

By  Joel  Benton 

Bloom  of  spring  and  summer's  glow 
Joyful  come  and  swiftly  go ; 
Not  a  hint  you  find  to-day 
Of  the  aureole  of  May. 

Dead  are  all  the  flowers  of  June, 
Changed  the  cooing  brooklet's  tune; 
Summer's  singing  birds  have  flown 
To  some  far  off,  tropic  zone. 


The  gorgeous  show  October  gave 
Nature   would  not  pause  to   save; 
But,  hastening  on,  the  rapid  year 
Stands  in  desolation  drear. 

How  the  North  wind  moans  and  grieves 
Over   carpets   of  dead   leaves; 
But  in  cellar,  barn,  and  bin 
Harvests  rich  are  gathered  in. 

War's  grim  face,  a  specter  drear. 
Trembling,  feels  its  finish  near; 
It  came  that  Tyranny  might  cease 
And  Justice  bring  enduring  peace. 

Thanks  fill  the  hearts  for  halcyon  skies, 
And  bettered  human   destinies ; 
For  the  swift  years,  which,  as  they  fly 
Lift  up  mankind  in  passing  by. — I. 

Thanksgiving 
By  Mrs.  M.  E.  Leonhardt 

Our  heartful  thanks  we  offer  Thee, 

Our  Father,  God, 
For  all  the  blessings  full  and  free. 

By  Thee  bestowed. 

For  the  year's  great  prosperity. 

Our  praise  ascends. 
And  sweeter  comforts  lent  by  Thee — 

A  home  and  friends. 

The   full   and  plenteous  harvest  store. 
And  fruitage  fair. 
All  with  unnumbered  tokens  more. 
Thy  love  declare. 

For  blessings  of  each  passing  hour — 

Things  fair  to  see — 
The  sunshine  and  refreshing  shower. 

As  sent  by  Thee. 

For  all  of  nature's  beauties  bright. 

In  grand  array — 
All  the  fair  glory  of  the  night, 

And  fairer  day. 

And  Thou  wilt  be  our  sure  defense. 

When  death  draws  near — 
E'en  pain  assumes  a  sweeter  sense. 

If  Thy  grace  cheer. 

And  so  our  thanks  to  Thee  we  bring. 

And  filial  love — 
And  join  with  heart  and  voice,  to  sing 

With  saints  above. — P.  J. 

Thanksgiving  Day 

By  Susan  Coolidge 

For  what  do  we  thank  Thee,  O  Father  and 
King, 
As  through  highroads  and  streets  and  leaf- 
scattered  ways, 
Thy   people   come   flocking  in   reverence   to 
bring, 
At  the  close  of  the  year,  the  year's  harvest 
of  praise? 


378 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


So  many,  so  various  the  gifts  of  Thy  hand, 
Some   sweet,   some  bitter,   some   dark,  and 
some  bright. 
The  cross  to  upbear  and  the   staff  of  com- 
mand, 
The    weariful    march    and    the    dance    of 
delight. 

The  joy  so  intense  that  it  pierced  like  a  pain, 
The   sorrow   so   deep  that  it   grew  wholly 
sweet. 
The  love  that  was  crowned  and  the  love  that 
was  vain. 
The  strength  and  the  hope  that  were  born 
of  defeat. 

Shall  we  thank  Thee  for  these  and  not  thank 
Thee  for  those  ? 
Shall  we  love  Thee  for  blessings  and  chide 
Thee  for  ill? 
And  chafe  at  Thy  thorn  while  we  seize  on 
Thy  rose, 
And  praise  while  our  hearts  are  unsatis- 
fied still? 

No,  we  bless  Thee  for  all,  for  in  all  we  have 
Thee,      ' 
And  all  is  from  Thee;  who  can  never  do 
wrong, 
And  feeble  and   faint  tho  our  utterance  be. 
No   murmur    discordant   shall    sadden   our 
song. 

For  life  then,  for  death  then,  for  good  and 
for  ill. 
For  storm  as  for  sunshine,  for  harvest  and 
blight, 
In  glad  days,  in  sad  days,  we  worship  Thee 
still. 
The   Lord    of   the   darkness,   the   Lord   of 
the  light. 

A  Psalm  Meet  for  Thanksgiving  Day 

By  Henry  van   Dyke 

O  Thou  whose  boundless  love  bestows 
The  joy  of  life,  the  hope  of  heaven ; 

Thou  whose  unchartered  mercy  flows 
O'er  all  the  blessings  Thou  hast  given; 

Thou  by  whose  light  alone  we  see; 

Thou  by  whose  truth  our  souls  set  free 

Are  made  imperishably  strong; 

Hear  Thou  the  solemn  music  of  our  song. 

Grant  us  the  knowledge  that  we  need 
To  solve  the  questions  of  the  mind ; 

Light  Thou  our  candle  while  we  read. 
And  keep  our  hearts  from  going  blind; 

Enlarge  our  vision  to  behold 

The  wonders  Thou  hast  wrought  of  old ; 

Reveal  Thyself  in  every  law, 

And  gild  the  towers  of  truth  with  holy  awe. 

Be  Thou  our  strength  when  war's  wild  gust 
Rages  around  us,  loud  and  fierce ; 

Confirm  our   souls   and   let   our  trust 
Be  like  a  wall  that  none  can  pierce; 

Give  us  the  courage  that  prevails, 

The  steady  faith  that  never  fails, 

Help  us  to  stand  in  every  fight 

Firm  as  a  fortress  to  defend  the  right. 


O  God,  make  of  us  what  Thou  wilt ; 

Guide  Thou  the  labor  of  our  hand ; 
Let  all  our  work  be  surely  built 

As  Thou,  the  architect,  hast  planned ; 
But  whatsoe'er  Thy  power  shalt  make 
Of  these  frail  lives,  do  not  forsake 
Thy  dwelling.     Let  Thy  presence  rest 
Forever  in  the  temple  of  our  breast. 

A  Sacramental  Thanksgiving  Hymn. 

By  T.  M.  Niven 

Hosannas  let  us  sing 

To  our  Redeemer,  God, 
Who  ofifered  up  His  life, 
And  freely  shed  His  blood; 
That  we  by  Him  might  ransom'd  be 
From  the  Law's  curse  and  penalty. 

Hosannas  sing  aloud 

To  him  who  left  His  throne, 
And  in  a  human  garb 

"  The  wine-press  trod  alone." 
'Twas  God  and  man,  the  two  in  one. 
That  must  undo  what  sin  had  done. 

Hosannas  we  will  raise 

To  Him  to  whom  we  owe 
Our  hopes  of  heaven  above, 
Our  mercies  here  below. 
To  Him  our  all  we  consecrate, 
Tho  'tis  but  small  for  love  so  great. 

Hosannas  shout  aloud 

While  we're   sojourning  here: 
His  Spirit  and  His  Word 
Will  make  our  pathway  clear. 
In  Guide  so  safe  we  will  confide, 
Nor  life  nor  death  from  Christ  divide. 

Hosannas  we'll  repeat 

While  we  on  earth  remain ; 
But  in  the  Church  above 
We'll  join  the  glad   refrain 
To  Him  who  washed  us  in  His  blood, 
"  And  made  us  Kings,  and  Priests  to  God." 

Hosannas,   Jesus,   come. 

Thy  pledge  we've  had  to-day 
Which  should  our  faith  confirm, 
And   all   our   doubts   allay. 
Lord  Jesus,   come.   Thy   foes   subdue. 
The  curse  remove,  make  all  things  new. — E. 

A  Song  of  Thanksgiving 

By  Clinton  Scollard 

Thanksgiving !     Thanksgiving !     Of  yore, 

In  the  youth  of  the  nation, 
When  the  harvest  had  yielded  its  store 

There  was  feast  and  oblation. 
Or  when  danger  had  lifted  its  hand 

From  the  lips  of  the  living 
There  rang  through  the  length  of  the  land 

A  Thanksgiving  !     Thanksgiving ! 

Our  home  was  a  wilderness  then 

With  the  floods  to  enfold  it; 
To-day  with  its  millions  of  men. 

We  rejoice  to  behold  it. 


THANKSGIVING  DAY 


\79 


From  the  sea  to  the  surge  of  the  sea, 

We  have  all  for  treasure ; 
We  are  blest  in  the  promised  To-be 

In  a  manifold  measure. 

War  flaunts  not  a  red  pennon  now, 

For  the  olive  is  regal ; 
Like  the  birds  that  are  twin,  on  one  bough 

Sit  the  dove  and  the  eagle. 
The  clash  of  the  conflict  that  cleft 

We  in  sorrow  remember. 
But  the  fire  of  the  great  feud  has  left 

In  the  ash  scarce  an  ember. 

For  the  fruit  of  the  time  of  our  toil ; 

For  whate'er  we  have  fought  for ; 
Whether  born  of  the  brain  or  the  soil 

Be  the  meed  we  have  sought  for ; 
For  the  gifts  we  have  had  from  His  hand 

Who  is  Lord  of  the  living. 
Let  there  ring  through  the  length  of  the  land 

A  Thanksgiving  !     Thanksgiving ! 

— L.  H.  J. 

A  Song  of  Thanksgiving 
By  Helen  Whitney  Clark 

Give  thanks  for  the  year,  ere  it  closes, 
The  fruitful  and  prosperous  year; 

Give  thanks  for  the  summer's  red  roses. 
That  blossomed  our  pathway  to  cheer. 

Give  thanks  for  the  seed-time  and  harvest 
That  brought  us  the  sheaves  and  the  shocks ; 

Give  thanks  for  the  vine  and  the  fig-tree, 
Give  thanks  for  the  herds  and  the  flocks. 

Give  thanks  for  the  spring-time  that  brought 
us 

Her  lap  full  of  May  flowers  gay; 
Give  thanks  for  the  song  of  the  robin, 

The  thrush  and  the  blue-feathered  jay. 

Give  thanks  for  the  morn's  rosy  dawning. 
The  dew-gems  that  blaze  on  her  breast; 

Give  thanks  for  the  night's  purple  awning 
That  folds  us  in  slumber's  sweet  rest. 

Give  thanks  for  the  loved  ones  who  gather 
To  welcome  our  coming  at  night — 

Whether  mansion  or  cot  be  our  dwelling, 
Give  thanks  that  our  heart-fires  are  bright. 

And  if,  weary-hearted,  we  struggle 
.  Alone  through  the  battle  of  life. 
Give  thanks  to  the  Power  that  leads  us 
In  safety  through  peril  and  strife. 

Nature's  Thanksgiving 

By  J.   H.   BOMBERGER 

The  sunlight  on  the  meadows  is  the  smile  of 

Christ  my  Lord; 
The  raging  of  the  tempest  is  the  thunder  of 

His  word ; 
The   snow-capped   mountain-summits,   which 

pierce  the  upper  blue, 
Are  symbols  of  His  promises  unchangeable 

and  true. 


The   silver  stars  that  sparkle  in  the  purple 

depths  of  night 
Are  His  signals  flashing  earthward  from  the 

battlements  of  light ; 
The    birds    whose    tuneful    melody    resounds 

through  wood  and  glen, 
Are   His   messengers   of   trust   and   hope   to 

weary,  baffled  men. 

The  falling  rains  remind  us  of  the  showers 

of  His  grace; 
The  clouds,  with  trailing  shadows,  are  thin 

veils  that  hide  His  face : 
The  changing   seasons  whisper  of  His  own 

unchanging  love. 
And    everything    in    nature    tells    of    better 

things  above. 

The  ocean's  surging  billows  with  their  crests 
of  snowy  foam. 

And  the  murmuring  brooklet's  echoes  'mid 
the  glades  where  shadows  gloam. 

The  spotless  fleecy  mantle  spread  by  winter's 
drifting  snow. 

The  grain-fields  turning  golden  'neath  sum- 
mer's ardent  glow. 

The   winds   that   chant  their   music   through 

autumn's  trees,  stripped  bare 
Of  summer's  fruits  and  foliage,  when  a  chill 

is  in  the  air. 
All   speak   the   same   assurance   of  a   loving 

Father's  hand, 
To    all    that    Father's    children    who    have 

learned  to  understand. 

For  all  the  world  is  vocal  with  the  music  of 

His  praise, 
And  in  mighty  swelling  chorus  breaks  forth 

in  grateful  lays. 
And  from  all  those  myriad  voices  comes  not 

one  discordant  strain 
To  mar  the  blessed  melody  of  nature's  glad 

refrain. — C.  E.  W. 

Thanksgiving  Reunion 
By  Charles  Sprague 

We  are  all  here ! 

Father,  mother. 

Sister,  brother. 
All  who  hold  each  other  dear; 
Each  chair  is  filled,  we're  all  at  home, 
To-night  let  no  cold  stranger  come; 
It  is  not  often  thus  around 
Our  old  familiar  hearth  we're  found; 
Blessed  then  the  meeting  and  the  spot; 
For  once  be  every  care  forgot ; 
Let  gentle  peace  assert  her  power. 
And  kind  afi^ection  rule  the  hour : 
We're  all — all  here. 

We're  not  all  here ! 
Some  are  away — the  dead  ones  dear. 
Who  thronged   with   us  this   ancient  hearth, 
And  gave  the  hour  to  guiltless  mirth. 
Fate,  with  stern,  relentless  hand, 
Looked  in,  and  thinned  our  little  band; 


380                                          HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 

Some  like  a  night  flash  passed  away; 

Unchipt,  unflead ; 

And  some  sank,  lingering  day  by  day; 

Some  brittle  sticks  of   thorn  or  briar 

The  quiet  graveyard — some  lie  there; 

Make  me  a  fire. 

And  cruel  Ocean  has  his  share; 

Close  by  whose  living  coal  I  sit, 

We're  not  all  here. 

And  glow  like  it. 

Lord,  I  confess  too,  when  I  dine, 

We  are  all  here ! 

The  pulse  is  Thine, 

Even  they,  the  dead;    tho  dead,  so  dear; 

And,  all  those  other  bits  that  be 

Fond  memory,  to  her  duty  true, 

There  placed  by  Thee ; 

Brings  back  their  faded  forms  to  view. 

The  worts,  the  purslain,  and  the  mess 

How  life-like,  through  the  mist  of  years, 

Of  water-cress, 

Each  well-remembered  face  appears ! 

Which  of  Thy  kindness  Thou  hast  sent; 

We  see  them  as  in  times  long  past, 

And  my  content 

From  each  to  each  kind  looks  are  cast ; 

Makes  those,  and  my  beloved  beet, 

We  hear  their  words,  their  smiles  behold; 

To  be  more  sweet. 

They're  round  us  as  they  were  of  old; 

'Tis  Thou  that  crown'st  my  glittering  hearth 

We  are  all  here. 

With  guiltless  mirth, 

And  giv'st  me  wassail  bowls  to  drink, 

We  are  all  here  ! 

Spiced  to  the  brink. 

Father,  mother, 

Lord,  'tis  Thy  plenty-dropping  hand 

Sister,  brother; 

That  soils  my  land, 

You  that  I  love  with  love  so  dear. 

And  giv'st  me  for  my  bushel  sown. 

This  may  not  long  of  us  be  said; 

Twice  ten  for  one ; 

Soon  must  we  join  the  gathered  dead; 

Thou  mak'st  my  teeming  hen  to  lay 

And  by  the  hearth  we  now  sit  round, 

Her  egg  each  day ; 

Some  other  circle  may  be  found. 

Besides,  my  healthful  ewes  to  bear 

0  then  that  wisdom  may  we  know, 

Me  twins  each  year ; 

Which  yields  a  life  of  peace  below; 

The  while  the  conduits  of  my  kine 

So,  in  the  world  to  follow  this. 

Run  cream  for  wine; 

May  each  repeat  in  words  of  bliss. 

All  these,  and  better.  Thou  dost  send 

We're  all— all  hcre.—E. 

Me,  to  this  end, — 

That  I  should  render,  for  my  part, 

A  Thanksgiving  to  God 

A  thankful  heart; 

Which,  fired  with  incense,  I  resign. 

By  Robert  Herrick 

As  wholly  Thine; — 

But  the  acceptance,  that  must  be. 

Lord,  Thou  hast  given  me  a  cell, 

My  Christ,  by  Thee. 

Wherein  to  dwell ; 

A  little  house,  whose  humble  roof 
Is  weather  proof; 

The  Heritage  of  Thanksgiving 

Under  the  spars  of  which  I  lie 

By  George  T.  Packard 

Both  soft  and   dry ; 

Where  Thou,  my  chamber  for  to  ward. 

Our   songs  are  sweetest  for  the  songs  they 

Hast  set  a  guard 

lifted. 

Of  harmless  thoughts,  to  watch  and  keep 

Our  praises  higher  for  their  praises  given; 

Me  while  I  sleep. 

And    tho    the    firelight    show    their    vacant 

Low  is  my  porch,  as  is  my  fate; 

places. 

Both  void  of  state ; 

Heart  cleaves  to  heart,   in  bonds  of  song 

And  yet  the  threshold  of  my  door 

unriven. 

Is  worn  by  the  poor, 

Who  thither  come,  and  freely  get 

So  at  the  feasts  when   some  will   miss  our 

Good  words,  or  meat. 

faces, 

Like  as  my  parlor,  so  my  hall 

Our  notes  from  far-off  days  will  meet  their 

And  kitchen's  small ; 

own ; 

A  little  buttery,  and  therein 

The  past  and  present  in  one  chorus  blending 

A  little  bin, 

To  swell  Thanksgiving  hymns  around  the 

Which  keeps  my  little  loaf  of  bread 

Throne!— Y.  C. 

\ 


ADVENT  381 


ADVENT 

ADVENT  (Latin,  the  coming)  is  a  holy  season  rather  than  a  holy  day.  It  is 
observed  more  especially  by  the  Lutheran,  English,  Protestant  Episcopal, 
Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  churches.  St.  Andrew's  Day  falls  on  November  30th, 
and  Advent  Sunday  is  the  one  neare^,  before  or  after,  that  day,  introducing  the 
Advent  season,  ^hich  lasts  four  weeks)  closing  with  the  Sunday  preceding  Christ- 
mas Day.  "  Originally,  and  with  stricter  verbal  propriety  than  now,  the  word 
Advent  was  taken  to  mean  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christ — His  arrival,  or  having 
come,  rather  than  His  coming.  But  the  Church  has  always  loved  dutifully  to 
cultivate  the  idea  of  preparation  for  seasons  of  uncommon  sanctity ;  and  one  effect 
of  this  disposition  has  been  to  throw  back  Advent  over  a  season  of  three  or  four 
weeks,  intended  to  be  spent  as  a  long  Christmas  Eve  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
incidents  of  which  the  approaching  festival  is  commemorative,  and  in  devout  and 
self-questioning  anticipation  of  the  Day  of  Judgment."  */ 

From  very  early  times  the  coming  of  Christ  (the  central  thought  of  Advent) 
was  regarded  as  fourfold:  (i)  "His  first  coming  in  the  flesh ;  "  (2)  His  com- 
ing to  Christians  at  their  death;  (3)  His  coming  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
(Matt,  xxiv:  30),  and  (4)  His  coming  at  the  day  of  judgment.  Only  the  first 
and  last  of  these  thoughts,  however,  have  received  general  attention.f 

Tradition  carries  the  origin  of  the  observance  of  Advent  as  far  back  as  St. 
Peter.  But  reliable  history  takes  us  back  to  the  fifth  century,  when  it  is  referred 
to  by  Maximus  Tourmensis  in  a  homily  on  the  subject.  The  Synod  of  Lerida  (524 
A.  D.),  speaks  of  it  as  a  Church  appointment,  marriages  being  forbidden  from 
the  beginning  of  Advent  until  Christmas. 

The  Nestorians  observe  a  fast  of  twenty-five  days  at  this  season;  but  with 
that  exception,  the  Eastern  Church  has  no  Advent. 

As  observed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  and  English  Churches,  this  season  was 
probably  introduced  into  the  calendar  by  Gregory  the  Great.  In  the  former  it  is 
observed  by  fasting,  and  by  abstaining  from  public  amusements  and  festivities. 
As  it  comes  just  before  the  time  celebrating  our  Lord's  nativity,  it  is  considered 
an  appropriate  time  for  penitence  in  preparation  for  that  event.  The  Protestant 
Episcopal  and  English  Churches  observe  it  by  special  services,  and  it  is  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Church  year. 

The  Rev.  A.  J.  Mason,  in  a  sermon  on  i  The§s.  v :  2,  referring  to  our  Lord's 
second  advent  and  the  final  judgment,  says :  T'  The  date  at  which  the  great 
Advent  will  take  place  is  entirely  unknown  to  us.  It  cannot  be  calculated  from 
the  symbolical  numbers  of  St.  John ;  nor  can  the  most  spiritual  discernment  be 
sure  of  reading  unerringly  the  signs  of  its  approach.  If  in  reaction  from  the 
profane  curiosity  which  delights  to  make  out  the  day  and  hour,  we  hold  that  it  is 
still  far  distant,  our  very  thinking  so  is  more  of  a  sign  that  it  is  at  hand  than 
otherwise;  for  the  one  thing  certain  about  the  date  is  that  it  will  throw  out  all 
computations,  '  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,' 
(Matt,  xxiv:  44.)     Assuredly  Christ  will  not  come  till  the  very  moment  of  the 

♦  THE  Church  SEASONS,  page  21.    A.H.Grant.    New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker. 

+  As  "Christ's  coming  in  the  flesh  "  is  emphasized  under     Christmas,    the  selections  in  this  department 
bear  chiefly  on  His  final  coming  to  Judgment. 


382 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


fulness  of  the  times  any  more  than  at  the  first  coming.  ^  But  if  the  world 
does  not  yet  appear  ripe  for  the  end,  no  one  can  calculate  how  long  or  short  a 
time  might  be  needed  for  the  ripening.  /^One  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand 
years  (2  Pet.  Hi:  8) ;  and  events  might  move  with  an  appalling  rush  if  it  pleased 
Him  to  give  the  impulse.^  The  ingredients  are  all  in  the^cup;  it  only  needs  the 
addition  of  some  drop  to  resolve  and  precipitate  them.  /There  is  but  one  lesson 
which  Our  Lord  inculcates  on  every  mention  of  His  Commg — always  to  be  watch- 
ing for  it,  and  never  to  acquiesce  in  the  belief  that  it  is  far  away."\ 


CHRIST'S  SECOND  COMING 

By  John  Hall,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


The  unrest  in  some  sincere  minds  regard- 
ing the  expected  appearance  of  the  Messiah, 
and  the  conventions  of  ministers  and  others 
from  time  to  time  for  its  discussion  renders 
consideration  of  the  subject  appropriate. 
There  is  only  one  passage  in  the  Bible  in 
which  is  mentioned  a  period  of  1,000  years 
during  which  Christ  is  to  reign  on  earth. 
What  relations  has  this  millennium  to  the 
coming  of  the  Lord?  The  majority  of  peo- 
ple believe  that  the  Lord  would  come  a  sec- 
ond time  only  as  a  judge.  The  minority  be- 
lieve that  He  would  come  in  His  glory  and 
reign  1,000  years.  This  latter  class  is  known 
as  the  pre-millenniumites,  because,  in  order 
to  establish  such  a  religion,  the  Lord  must 
come  before  the  actual  beginning  of  the  mil- 
lennium. But  may  not  the  passages  in  refer- 
ence to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  be  interpreted 
in  a  different  way? 

It  is  not  advisable  to  attach  too  much  im- 
portance to  the  utterances  upon  the  subject 
in  the  early  Christian  literature.  The  early 
Christians  had  suffered  terrible  persecutions 
from  the  civil  government.  It  was  only  natu- 
ral that  they  should  take  refuge  in  the  hope 
that  Christ  would  come  again  and  give  them 
satisfaction  on  earth  for  the  trials  which  they 
had  borne.  When  the  Roman  Empire  had 
been  converted,  these  persecutions  ended.  The 
enthusiastic  hope  called  out  by  the  persecu- 
tions then  expired,  because  the  cause  had 
ceased  to  operate.  The  Roman  Church  has 
been  comparatively  silent  upon  the  subject. 
That  is  easy  to  explain.  The  Church  of  the 
Dark  Ages  was  not  occupied  so  much  with 
the  study  of  God's  holy  oracles.  The  Church 
has  been  the  main  thing  with  which  men 
concerned  themselves.  As  long  as  truth  was 
silent,  Satan  always  let  it  alone.  When  it 
became  living,  then  he  tried  to  kill  it. 

The  discussion  of  the  pre-millennium  be- 
came active  again  during  the  Reformation, 
and  a  little  later,  when  the  persecutions  of 
the  Huguenots  and  Puritans  began.  The 
cause  was  the  same  as  had  led  to  its  discus- 
sion in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era.  It  began  again  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, and  became  so  general  that  in  Germany 
even  the  place  of  the  Lord's  coming  has  been 
fixed.  In  comparatively  recent  years,  it  has 
iieen  taken  up  also  by  the  English-speaking 


race.  The  extreme  conception  of  the  subject 
led  to  the  founding  of  the  Adventists.  Even 
the  Mormon  movement  may  be  regarded  as 
the  outcome  of  that  same  fanaticism. 

It  is  not  wise  to  interpret  the  statements  of 
the  Old  Testament  otherwise  than  as  they 
are  interpreted  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
not  wise  to  take  obscure  and  difficult  portions 
of  God's  Word,  and  explain  by  them  the 
teachings  of  the  Lord.  The  Book  of  Revela- 
tion is  full  of  mysteries  to  most  people  and 
will  continue  to  be  so.  Why,  then,  had  they 
been  given?  The  answer  is  that  it  was  with 
the  Churches  as  with  the  disciples.  Jesus 
said  to  them  that,  altho  they  did  not  under- 
stand Him  then,  a  time  would  come  when 
they  would  understand  Him.  The  time  would 
come  when,  in  the  light  of  history,  the  mys- 
teries would  be  revealed.  It  is  not  wise  to 
insist  that  all  of  God's  Word  should  be  in- 
terpreted literally.  If  the  Hebrew  people 
interpreted  literally  the  statement  that  the 
Messiah  was  to  be  a  king  upon  a  throne,  they 
had  reason  to  object  to  Jesus.  We  did  not 
interpret  literally  the  sayings  of  ordinary  in- 
tercourse. Words  were  to  be  interpreted  ac- 
cording to  their  connection,  according  to 
the  conditions  which  gave  them  birth,  and  ac- 
cording to  their  spirit.  If  the  word  millen- 
nium was  to  be  interpreted  literally,  there 
could  be  no  unanimitj^  of  interpretation.  Was 
the  Lord  to  come  before  the  Jews  had  been 
converted?  Was  He  to  come  at  Jerusalem? 
Were  there  to  be  generations  of  men  living 
after  His  millennial  reign?  These  questions 
might  all  be  asked  if  the  word  was  to  be  in- 
terpreted literally. 

What,  then,  is  meant  by  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  Jesus?  In  answering  it,  the  heart  and 
mind  must  be  exercised.  First  of  all,  the 
King  of  Zion  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  com- 
ing in  His  grace,  in  His  spirit,  not  in  a  visible 
way.  He  had  promised  "  to  come "  to  all 
believers  in  spirit,  to  comfort  them.  All 
Christians  believed  in  that  coming.  They 
prayed  for  it  daily.  That,  then,  is  the  first 
coming  of  the  Lord,  which  is  alluded  to  fre- 
quently in  the  Scriptures.  He  had  promised 
the  Hebrews  in  the  Old  Testament  that  He 
would  "  come "  where  His  name  was  re- 
corded. 


ADVENT 


383 


Secondly,  the  King  of  Zion  is  coming  for 
administrative  purposes.  He  had  said  that 
all  power  was  given  to  Him  in  heaven  and  on 
earth.  He  is  to  carry  out  the  purpose  of  the 
Divine  Father  and  defeat  the  purposes  of  the 
devil.  In  that  sense  He  comes  to  set  up  a 
kingdom.  That  is  not  a  visible  coming  either. 
He  meant  to  found  a  kingdom  by  dying  on 
the  cross.  The  administrative  character  of 
Christ's  coming  is  referred  to  also  in  other 
places  in  the  Bible.  He  comes  to  defend  His 
people. 

Thirdly.  Jesus  comes  to  take  away  His  be- 
loved people  one  by  one.  He  comes  to  re- 
lieve suffering.  Many  a  man  has  said  on  his 
deathbed,  "  Lord,  come  quickly."  When  the 
Lord  said  to  wait  until  He  should  come,  He 
had  not  meant  to  come  in  a  visible  sense,  but 


to  come  to  relieve  the  suffering  of  His  people. 
When  He  said  that  He  would  come  to  "  smite 
the  stiff-necked  people,"  He  had  meant  to 
come  in  the  administrative  sense  and  not  in  a 
visible  sense.  Jesus  Christ  carried  on  His 
work,  and  in  time  would  develop  that  millen- 
nial period  for  which  Christians  hoped.  He 
would  thus  come  in  His  glory  to  take  to 
Heaven  those  who  loved  Him.  That  was  the 
second  coming.  It  was  a  coming  for  judg- 
ment. It  was  not  a  coming  to  set  up  a  throne 
on  earth.  It  was  for  "  concluding  purposes." 
It  was  to  bring  His  kingdom  in  its  present 
form  to  an  end  forever.  He  would  then  de- 
liver up  that  kingdom  to  the  Father.  If  He 
did  not  have  that  kingdom  to-day  He  could 
not  deliver  it  up.  That  was  the  only  Second 
Advent  which  the  Bible  taught.— P.  T, 


THE  SECOND  ADVENT 


ITS  PREPARATIONS  ACCORDING  TO  THE  APOCALYPTIC  FORE- 
VIEW  IN  REVELATION  XIX,  ETC. 

By  Sir  John  William  Dawson,  C.M.G.,  F.R.S.,  LL.D. 


In  interpreting  fulfilled  prophecy,  we  have 
the  guiding  light  of  history ;  but  we  lose  this 
so  soon  as  we  enter  the  region  of  the  un- 
fulfilled. It  is  here,  therefore,  that  those  who 
follow  the  historical  method  show  most  differ- 
ence of  opinion ;  and  in  treating  of  this  it  is, 
therefore,  wise  to  avoid  too  much  confident 
assertion,  and  to  cultivate  reserve  and  hu- 
mility, keeping  closely  to  the  terms  of  the 
inspired  Word.  If  we  are  now  nearing  the 
close  of  that  vast  septenary  of  chastisement 
symbolized  by  the  seven  vials  (Rev.  xix), 
we  have  next  before  us  events  immediately 
preparatory  to  the  second  coming  of  our 
Lord,  which  in  many  parts  of  Scripture  we 
are  taught  to  regard  as  sudden  and  unex- 
pected, and  to  be  watched  for  earnestly  by 
Christians.  See  especially  our  Lord's  com- 
parison of  it  to  the  deluge  of  Noah  (Matt. 
xxiv:27),  and  Paul's  intimations  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  chapters  of  his  First  Epistle 
to  the  Thessalonians. 

Yet  in  the  more  detailed  foreview  given  in 
the  closing  chapters  of  the  Revelation  of 
John,  we  find  indicated  by  remarkable  sym- 
bols, certain  great  movements  which  are  to 
intervene  between  the  closing  of  the  vials  and 
the  actual  establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom 
in  the  world,  and  which  we  should  now  be 
better  able  to  understand  than  our  prede- 
cessors, however  gifted. 

The  first  of  these  (chap,  xix)  is  the  open- 
ing of  heaven  and  the  descent  therefrom  of  a 
white  horse,  the  symbol  of  victory,  bearing 
a  rider  who  represents  the  power  and  influ- 
ence of  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  now  mani- 
fested in  a  new  and  more  evident  aspect. 
This  heavenly  rider  is  called  "  faithful  and 
true,"  and  is  said  to  judge  and  make  war 
in  righteousness,  and  to  wear  many  diadems, 
in  anticipation  of  the  vast  extent  of  His  rule. 


He_  is  said  to  have  a  secret  name  written, 
which  we  are  afterward  told  is  the  "  Word 
of  God,"  the  Logos,  that  mysterious  and  in- 
scrutable name  by  which  Christ  is  introduced 
to  us  in  the  first  chapter  of  John's  Gospel. 
He  is  identified  with  the  Savior  by  being 
clothed  in  a  garment  sprinkled  with  blood, 
and  with  the  Son  of  God  by  being  entitled 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords. 

He  is  destined  to  smite  with  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  proceeding  from  His  mouth,  the 
nations  that  serve  the  beast,  and  to  tread  the 
wine-press  of  the  fierceness  of  the  wrath  of 
Almighty  God,  as  well  as  to  rule  the  disobe- 
dient nations  with  an  iron  scepter.  He  is  not 
alone,  but  is  followed  by  the  "  armies  that 
are  in  heaven,"  mounted  on  white  horses  and 
clad  in  pure  white  garments.  These  armies 
are  not  composed  of  angels,  who  when  intro- 
duced in  the  Revelation  are  specially  desig- 
nated as  such.  They  must  symbolize  re- 
deemed and  glorified  men,  and  especially 
those  who  have  been  the  agents  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  revealed  Word  of  God.  This, 
as  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  has  all  through  the 
work  of  redemption  been  His  great  weapon, 
and  still  continues  to  be  such,  even  in  this 
grand  vision  of  the  appearance  of  Christ  as 
a  conqueror.  There  Feems  in  this  a  special 
appropriateness,  for  in  His  absence  since  the 
ascent  from  Olivet,  the  written  Word  and  the 
Spirit  have  been  His  representatives,  and 
have  had  to  bear  all  the  violent  assaults  of 
Satan  and  the  Apostasy.  They  are  thus  en- 
titled to  be  manifested  and  vindicated  when 
the  Divine  Word  is  about  to  appear  as  Con- 
queror of  the  world. 

Even  in  our  own  time  we  have  too  often 
seen  all  the  inspired  authors  of  the  Bible — 
from  Moses,  "  the  man  of  God,"  to  John, 
"the    beloved    disciple," — sitting,    like    Bun- 


384 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


yan's  pilgrims  in  Vanity  Fair,  with  their  feet 
fast  in  the  stocks  of  a  cruel  and  heartless 
criticism,  and  pelted  with  mire  by  the  rabble 
of  the  ungodly  world ;  but  now  it  is  to  be 
their  turn  to  be  exalted,  as  shown  by  their 
riding  in  the  train  of  their  glorified  Master. 
If  we  ask,  What  does  all  this  import  in  literal 
fact?  it  clearly  means  at  least  the  entire  vic- 
tory of  the  inspired  Word  of  God  over  its 
opponents,  and  its  practical  conquest  of  the 
civilized  world  in  anticipation  of  the  advent 
of  the  Son  of  God  Himself. 

If  we  ask.  With  what  bodies  do  they  come? 
we  can  give  no  definite  reply,  as  we  have  no 
mention  here  of  any  resurrection  of  earthly 
bodies.  We  may,  however,  refer  back  to  an 
earlier  period  (chap,  viiirg),  where  we  shall 
find  a  multitude  of  redeemed  men,  being  the 
souls  of  those  beheaded  in  the  early  heathen 
persecutions,  and  who,  tho  their  earthly 
bodies  are  not  raised,  have  not  only  distinct 
personality,  but  white  robes  and  palms  in 
their  hands,  and  have  functions  of  service 
assigned  to  them  in  the  heavenly  world.  As 
the  armies  here,  however,  are  seen  to  descend 
from  Heaven  and  act  on  earth,  we  may  sup- 
pose them  to  symbolize  a  new  development  of 
power  and  energy  on  behalf  of  God  by  means 
of  their  writings  in  aid  of  the  mission  of  their 
great  leader,  the  Divine  Word. 

However  this  may  be,  their  mission  is  not 
to  be  unopposed.  The  beast  and  the  false 
prophet  gather  their  forces,  physical  and  po- 
litical, to  maintain  their  sway.  They  meet, 
however,  with  a  signal  defeat,  while  the  vul- 
tures are  summoned  to  prey  on  the  flesh  of 
their  armies.  It  is  to  be  noted  here,  that 
while  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet,  which 
are  the  organized  forces  of  evil,  are  taken 
prisoners  and  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  their 
individuals  followers,  from  "  cJiiliarchs"  or 
colonels  down  to  the  rank  and  file,  are  slain 
and  their  flesh  given  to  the  vultures,  which 
may  mean  their  entire  withdrawal  from  the 
service  of  their  former  masters. 

The  next  act  in  the  great  drama  (chap,  xx) 
introduces  an  angel,  who  seizes  the  great 
dragon  or  old  serpent,  the  Satanic  head  of  all 
forrfts  of  false  religion  and  infidelity,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  apostate  Christianity,  and 
chains  him  in  the  abyss  or  outer  space,  be- 
yond nominal  Christendom,  as  a  helpless  cap- 
tive, for  a  thousand  years  (the  millennium), 
the  description  of  which  is  given  in  the  fol- 
lowing verses  of  chap.  xx.  In  the  millennial 
age  Christ  is  said  to  reign,  and  with  Him  the 
souls  of  the  martyrs,  whether  slain  under  pa- 
gan Rome  or  the  Antichrist ;  and  this  is 
said  to  be  the  "  first  resurrection,"  which 
some  regard  as  a  revival  of  pure  religion,  like 
that  called  a  resurrection  in  the  case  of  the 
two  witnesses  in  chap,  x,  while  others  regard 
it  as  a  literal  resurrection  of  all  the  deceased 
saints. 

Whichever  view  we  adopt,  the  religion  of 
Christ  is  dominant  in  this  happy  period,  and 
the  power  of  Satan,  whether  as  tempter  or 
persecutor,  is  in  abeyance  for  a  time.  But 
"  God's  mill  grinds  slowly,"  and  even  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Messiah's  kingdom  has 
more  than  once  had  to  await  the  growth  and 


decay  of  hostile  powers.  So  the  thousand 
years  of  peace  and  prosperity  draw  to  a  close, 
and  perhaps  before  the  end  the  saints  begin 
to  decline  from  their  first  love.  Then  Satan 
is  loosed  from  his  prison,  and  goes  forth, 
perhaps  with  renewed  energy  and  new  de- 
vices, to  deceive  the  nations.  The  chief  seat 
of  his  revived  activity  seems  to  be  in  the  re- 
mote parts  of  the  world,  and  among  those 
barbarous  peoples  known  in  ancient  times  as 
Gog  and  Magog,  who  may  probably  during 
the  thousand  years  of  peace  have  become  very 
numerous.  He  is  so  successful  with  these 
peoples  that  he  is  able  to  encompass  or  sur- 
round that  part  of  the  world  occupied  by 
Christ's  people,  called  here  the  "  Camp  of  the 
Saints,"  with  its  capital,  the  "  Beloved  City." 

It  must  have  seemed  to  the  Seer  as  if  the 
power  of  evil  were  now  to  be  victorious ;  but 
the  long-suflfering  of  God  has  at  length 
reached  its  limit,  and  He  now  intervenes 
directly  to  destroy  the  invaders  with  fire  from 
Heaven,  while  Satan  is  finally  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire. 

We  are  next  introduced  (chap,  xx:  11)  to 
the  general  judgment  and  resurrection  of  the 
righteous  and  wicked.  This  is  so  often  re- 
ferred to  in  Scripture,  and  so  plainly  de- 
scribed here,  that  we  may  leave  it  without 
other  comment  than  that  of  the  Prophet  him- 
self. We  may,  however,  add  a  few  words  as 
to  the  practical  bearing  of  these  last  things 
on  the  present  attitude  of  the  Church  and  the 
world. 

I.  The  above  intimations  of  the  Prophet 
serve  to  harmonize  Christ's  great  commission 
to  His  disciples,  as  given  in  the  last  chapter 
of  Matthew  and  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  with  the  frequent  injunctions 
to  watch  for  the  return  of  Christ,  as  an  event 
that  might  come  unexpectedly  at  any  time. 
Christ  commissions  His  disciples  to  evan- 
gelize the  world,  but  He  did  not  promise  that 
they  should  succeed  in  wholly  converting  it 
before  His  return.  Still,  when  He  comes  it 
will  be  necessary  at  least  that  the  Gospel 
should  be  universally  known,  because  Christ's 
kingdom  is  not  an  external  one,  but  founded 
in  men's  hearts;  hence  it  becomes  proper  that 
the  revealed  Word  of  God  should  be  His 
forerunner  at  His  second  coming,  and  He  has 
left  this  preparation  in  the  hands  of  His  peo- 
ple, who  are  bound  to  see  that  all  nations 
should  have  the  Bible  and  be  able  to  read  it 
before   Christ  comes   again. 

II.  There  is  thus  an  urgent  call  on  us  for 
the  universal  distribution  of  the  Scriptures 
and  for  missionary  effort  in  advance  of  the 
advent  of  the  Personal  Word.  On  this  must 
depend  in  some  degree  the  geographical  area 
of  the  Millennial  reign  itself,  and  also  that 
spiritual  unity  of  Christ's  people  which  fits 
the  Church  to  be  the  Bride  of  the  Lamb.  It 
may  also  determine  the  amount  of  unevan- 
gelized  population  available  for  the  schemes 
of  Satan  at  the  close  of  the  Millennium. 

A  little  reflection  on  these  points  should 
convince  any  thoughtful  Christian  of  the  fun- 
damental unity  of  all  the  prophetical  intima- 
tions of  the  second  advent  and  the  final  king- 
dom of  God,  and  of  the  connections  of  watch- 


ADVENT 


3^5 


ing  for  ChriF-t's  coming  and  working  toward 
it  at  the  same  time;  and  in  both  attitudes  we 
can  manifest  our  "  love  of  his  appearing." 

III.  In  conclusion,  while  the  Prophet  dwells 
on  the  beautiful  pictures  of  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  earth  and  the  New  Jerusalem, 
he  does  not  hesitate  to  warn  the  finally  im- 
penitent of  the  fate  which  awaits  those  who 
despise  God's  forbearance  and  reject  the  sal- 
vation of  Christ.  But  in  the  remarkable  state- 
ment in  chap,  xxii,  beginning  with  the  words 
"  he  that  is  unrighteous,  let  him  be  unright- 
eous still,"  he  throws  the  whole  responsibil- 
ity on  themselves.  Still  even  after  this  he 
closes  with  a  final  invitation  to  them  from 


the  Savior,  who  calls  Himself  here  the  "  root 
and  offspring  of  David,  the  bright  and  morn- 
ing star :  "  "  And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride 
say,  Come.  And  he  that  heareth,  let  him  say, 
Come.  And  he  that  is  athirst,  let  him  come : 
he  that  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life 
freely." 

A  peculiar  solemnity  attaches  to  these  clos- 
ing words — the  last  Gospel  invitation  before 
the  Bridegroom  finally  closes  the  door  of 
entrance  to  the  marriage  feast.  If  these  lines 
are  read  by  any  who  have  not  yet  accepted 
Christ  as  their  Savior,  I  beg  them  to  remem- 
ber that  the  door  is  still  open,  but  the  time 
is  short. — H.  R. 


SERMONS  AND   OUTLINES 

A  BLESSED  ADVENT  SEASON 

By  Pastor  Hermann  Kunze 


Behold,  I  will  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me:  and  the  Lord, 
whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  his  temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant, 
whom  ye  delight  in:    behold,  he  shall  come,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  etc. — Mai.  Hi:   1-4 


Advent !  He  comes,  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
thy  Lord  and  thy  King,  thy  Savior !  This  is 
the  cry  that  to-day  again  resounds  from 
Heaven  above  and  out  of  the  houses  of  the 
Lord  into  our  homes  and  our  hearts.  How 
clearly  and  joyfully  it  re-echoes  in  a  Christ- 
mas spirit  on  the  streets  of  Zion  to-day,  the 
New  Year  of  the  Church,  when  the  King  of 
Zion,  amid  the  crying  of  hosannas  and  strew- 
ing of  palms  and  spreading  of  garments,  en- 
ters the  great  city. 

And  what  a  contrast  with  the  sad  memories 
of  one  week  ago,  the  last  Sunday  of  the  old 
Church  year,  the  memorial  day  of  our  be- 
loved dead !  Then  we  heard  of  the  coming 
of  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  the  angel  of  death, 
who  comes  to  cut  down  the  human  race  and 
convey  the  souls  of  men  before  the  judgment- 
seat  of  their  God. 

And  yet  on  both  occasions,  both  amid  the 
echoes  of  the  Advent  trumpets  and  the  tolling 
of  the  bell  in  the  memorial  day  of  the  dead, 
both  on  the  first  Advent  day  and  on  the  last 
day,  it  is  the  voice  of  the  same  Lord  that 
reaches  us,  of  Him  who  comes  to  us  both  as 
a  just  Judge  and  as  a  Savior,  as  a  righteous 
Ruler  and  a  Deliverer,  in  order  that,  through 
judgment  and  grace,  He  may  save  our  souls 
and  bring  the  Zion  pilgrims  home  to  the 
Jerusalem  above,  to  what  is  His  Father's 
house  in  truth. 

And  what  can  my  sermon  be  to-day,  on 
the  New  Year  of  the  Church,  except  an  Ad- 
vent-New-Year greeting,  a  blessing  asked 
down  upon  you,  beloved  congregation?  My 
prayer  is,  "  A  blessed  Advent."  We  bless  you 
who  are  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.  The  Lord 
bless  your  coming  in.  May  His  word  and 
His  will  grow  and  rule  in  this  congregation ; 
may    His    image    dwell    in    your    hearts    and 


sanctify  you,  and  enable  you  to  become  His 
disciples  in  truth,  so  that  in  the  true  faith  and 
a  holy  life  you  may  follow  your  Advent  King 
unto  the  final  Advent  season  in  the  eternity 
of  the  blessed. 

A   Blessed  Advent  Season. —  For  this  we; 
need. 

1.  Blessing  Advent  messengers. 

2.  Blessed  Advent  hearts. 

Malachi,  the  last  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophets,  stands  upon  his  prophetic  outpost. 
His  heart  burns  within  him.  Before  him  he 
sees  the  holy  temple  of  his  God ;  before  him 
the  people  which  in  olden  times  the  Lord  had 
chosen  as  His  own.  The  temple  had  indeed 
been  built  up  anew,  and  had  arisen  out  of 
its  ashes  in  great  magnificence ;  but  a  curse 
rested  upon  the  people.  The  holy  places  of 
the  Lord  are  desecrated  because  the  people 
have  broken  the  covenant,  have  blasphemed 
their  God,  and  have  pursued  the  idols  of  a 
false  righteousness.  Then  it  is  that  the  Lord 
opens  his  spiritual  eye,  and  the  prophet  looks 
beyond  and  sees  the  days  to  come,  and 
prophesies  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  verse  i : 
"  Behold,  I  send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall 
prepare  the  way  before  me :  and  the  Lord, 
whom  ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  his 
temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant, 
whom  ye  delight  in:  behold  he  shall  come, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts." 

Malachi,  himself  a  messenger  of  the  Lord, 
as  his  name  signifies,  here  predicts  the  com- 
ing of  two  messengers  of  the  Lord.  The  one 
he  calls  the  angel,  or  the  messenger  who 
shall  prepare  the  way  before  the  Lord ;  the 
other  he  calls  the  angel  of  the  covenant. 

You  Advent  Christians  know  them  both 
from  the  early  history  of  our  faith,  these  two 
mighty  Advent  forms.     On  the  one  hand  is 


386 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  Advent  herald,  the  voice  of  the  one  crying 
in  the  vi^ilderness ;  on  the  other  is  the  greatest 
of  Advent  bringers.  the  Messiah  Himself,  the 
Son  who  has  proceeded  from  the  Father. 
And  these  two  are  the  messengers  that  bring 
to  us  the  Advent  blessings. 

I.  It  was  neces?ary  that  John  the  Bap- 
tist, with  the  fire  of  an  Elias,  should  come  to 
prepare  the  way  before  the  gentle  Prince  of 
Peace,  Christ,  could  enter  upon  His  calling. 
Thus  say  the  prophets,  thus  say  all  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  thus  saith  our  own  heart.  First 
comes  the  Law,  with  its  demand  for  repent- 
ance, which  does  away  with  all  self-righteous- 
ness ;  then  comes  the  Gospel,  with  the  sweet 
comfort  of  its  grace  and  faith.  First  comes 
the  schoolmaster,  then  comes  the  heavenly 
Master.  Judgment  and  grace — these  two  are 
ever  the  blessed  gifts  of  the  Advent  messen- 
gers to  the  Church,  the  home,  and  the  heart. 

Let  us,  then,  this  day  too  give  a  warm 
welcome  to  these  two  blessing  Advent  mes- 
sengers. 

There  he  stands,  the  Advent  herald.  John, 
in  the  desert,  the  firm  prophet,  with  his  brow 
of  iron  turned  against  all  unrighteousness  and 
all  hypocrisy,  the  holy  priest  of  the  people 
in  the  rugged  garment  of  a  hermit ;  the  fiery 
preacher  of  repentance,  but  at  the  same  time 
also  proclaiming  the  near  advent  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  This,  then,  is  the  double  Ad- 
vent way  preached  by  John,  to  do  away  with 
sin  by  repentance,  and  to  prepare  the  heart 
for  the  grace  that  is  coming. 

This  day,  at  the  threshold  of  the  new 
Church  year,  the  preacher  of  repentance 
again  appears  before  the  Advent  congrega- 
tion. With  one  hand  he  points  backward  to 
the  sins  of  the  old  year,  to  the  transgressions 
of  God's  law.  to  the  neglect  of  the  Gospel 
privileges,  to  the  want  of  zeal  in  the  doing 
of  the  Lord's  will,  and  says,  "  These  things 
ye  have  done."  With  the  other  hand  he 
points  forward  to  the  future,  to  the  righteous 
Judge,  and  says,  "  This  is  thy  reward.  The 
ax  has  been  laid  at  the  roots  of  the  tree;  let 
it  be  cast  into  the  fire." 

In  the  face  of  such  a  settlement  all  self- 
deception  must  fall  away;  and  the  mere  fact 
that  we  are  baptized  and  are  Abraham's  chil- 
dren, and  have  gone  through  the  rite  of  con- 
firmation, will  avail  us  nothing.  Nothing  re- 
mains for  us  but  to  say,  "  Lord,  cover  up  my 
shortcomings,  and  direct  Thou  my  life  in  the 
future."  We  hear  the  words  of  the  Baptist, 
"  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord.  Make 
straight  in  the  desert  the  highway  of  our  God. 
Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every 
mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made  low.  and  the 
crooked  «hall  be  made  straight,  and  the  rough 
places  plain."  This  is,  indeed,  hard  work,  to 
make  the  hills  and  mountains  of  self-right- 
eousness and  self-satisfaction  low ;  to  fill  up 
the  valleys  of  weak  faith  and  hearts  without 
courage,  and  to  make  these  level  by  the  com- 
fort of  the  Gospel.  And  yet  all  this  must  be 
done  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  entrance  of 
the  Savior  and  the  Lord. 

But  even  if  we  close  our  ears  and  hearts  to 
the  cry  of  John,  the  Lord  still  has  other  mes- 
sengers  after   John's   kind — namely,    misfor- 


tune and  death,  two  Advent  messengers  with 
stern  face  and  rough  hands,  that  testify  to 
us,  "  Behold.  I  come  quickly,  and  my  reward 
is  with  me.'" 

John's  disciples  are  also  recognized  in  days 
of  penance  and  prayer.  This  year  too  these 
will  come  and  admonish  us  and  say,  "  Thou 
art  the  man !  "  An  Advent  preparer  thou, 
too,  beloved  congregation,  should -t  be,  to 
prepare  the  way  all  the  better  in  your  midst 
for  the  entrance  of  the  King  of  Glory.  Every 
member  should  help  prepare  the  way,  to  help 
put  his  heart  and  family  in  a  condition  to 
welcome  the  Lord  constantly. 

"Behold,  the  King  comes  also  to  you!" 
This,  again,  is  an  Advent  messenger  that 
brings  us  His  blessings.  It  is  the  Advent 
Bringer,  the  Advent  King  Himself.  When 
the  way  has  been  prepared,  when  the  heart 
has  been  made  ready  by  the  thunder  of  God's 
own  law,  then  comes  the  Advent  Bringer 
with  His  sweet  gospel  of  grace  and  truth. 
The  prophet  says,  "  Soon  [suddenly]  shall 
the  Lord  come  whom  ye  seek ;  "  and  yet  four 
hundred  years  elapsed  before  the  promise  be- 
came a  reality.  Here,  however,  stands  John 
and  says,  "  He  is  in  your  midst.  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world !  "  And  the  angel  on  that  holy 
night  sings,  "  Behold,  I  bring  you  tidings  of 
great  joy ;  for  unto  you  is  born  this  day,  in 
the  city  of  David,  a  Savior."  And  His  dis- 
ciples rejoice,  saying,  "  And  the  Word  be- 
came flesh  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we  be- 
held his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begot- 
ten from  the  Father),  full  of  grace  and 
truth."  Now  He  has  come ;  the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future  all  join  together  in 
this  wonderful  Advent  King. 

Ask  j^ou.  Who  is  He?  The  prophet  calls 
Him  "  the  Messenger  (or  angel)  of  the  cove- 
nant." He  is  the  Mediator  of  the  covenant 
of  grace  between  God  and  His  people.  God 
has  built  a  tabernacle  in  Israel,  the  taber- 
nacle of  the  Old  Testament,  the  law  covenant 
through  Moses.  But  the  covenant  of  Moses 
was  broken  by  the  people.  Then  God  erected 
a  new  tabernacle  in  the  time  of  the  fulfil- 
ment— namely,  the  New  Testament.  He  has 
erected  it  through  the  true  angel  of  the  cove- 
nant, His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  Out  of  this 
tabernacle  shines  forth  the  true  sun  of  right- 
eousness and  grace,  and  casts  its  rays  beyond 
the  limits  of  Israel  and  over  all  mankind. 
For  "  Gospel  "  is  the  name  of  the  law  of  the 
new  covenant ;  it  is  the  glad  tidings  of  great 
joy,  telling  us  that  God  will  not  have  us 
covenant-breaking  people  be  destroyed  in  our 
sins,  but  that  the  only-begotten  Son  has  come 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost. 

In  Christ  the  new  covenant  of  God  with 
mankind  has  become  a  living  and  personal 
reality,  for  in  Him  are  found  united  divinity 
and  humanity.  He  is  the  Immanuel,  the 
God  with  us.  Now  it  is  no  longer  a  covenant 
of  hard  laws,  but  of  heart-conquering  grace; 
no  longer  fear,  but  love.  Now  we  have  a 
Mediator  through  whom  we  come  to  the  Fa- 
ther, through  whom  God  and  all  salvation 
come  to  us. 


ADVENT 


387 


"  To  his  temple,"  says  our  text,  "  the  angel 
of  the  covenant  will  come " — i.  e.,  to  the 
Church  of  the  Lord,  the  corner-stone  and 
foundation  of  which  is  Jesus  Christ.  The 
temple  of  the  Lord  thou  art,  beloved  congre- 
gation ;  this  temple  thou  art,  O  my  soul,  for 
He  has  saved  and  delivered  thee,  and  has 
made  thee  His  own. 

Ever  does  He  come  to  this  His  temple, 
and  before  Him  go  His  words  of  love  and 
mercy,  and  with  Him  come  the  two  Jesus 
messengers,  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  whom 
He  sends  to  deliver  all  those  who  are  bound ; 
and  through  Word  and  Sacrament  He  Him- 
self enters. 

2.  And  now,  since  He  is  again  announcing 
His  Advent,  and  is  beginning  His  judgment 
in  the  temple  of  God,  who  shall  stand  when 
He  appears?  This  is  what  the  text  asks: 
from  the  text  let  us  hear  also  the  answer. 
In  order  to  appropriate  and  appreciate  true 
Advent  blessings  we  must  also  have  Advent 
hearts,  in  which  Jesus  can  become  an  actual 
reality  and  a  living  power.  This  is  done, 
says  our  text,  in  three  ways — namely,  first, 
when  they  seek  and  desire  Jesus  in  faith ; 
secondly,  when  they  are  sanctified  and 
cleansed  as  by  fuller's  soap ;  and  thirdly,  when 
they  are  selected  and  are  purified  in  the  fire 
of  the  true  Refiner. 

First,  then,  to  seek  and  to  desire  Jesus  in 
faith.  He  who  seeks  Him  shall  also  find 
Him,  for  Christ  is  ever  near  to  the  soul. 
He  is  to  be  found  in  His  Word.  When  the 
soul  thirsts  for  salvation,  then  it  can  quench 
its  thirst  at  the  fountain  of  God's  Word. 
There  it  will  find  the  High  Priest  that  atones 
for  its  sins;  there  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  man ;  there  the  love  of  God  be- 
comes manifest  to  the  heart.  To  the  Word 
of  God  and  in  the  heart  of  Jesus  faith's  an- 
chor must  cling,  and  then  we  are  saved. 

Alas !  that  the  seekers  of  Jesus  and  those 
who  strive  to  find  the  Savior  are  so  few.  If 
they  would  seek  Jesus  as  ardently  as  they 
strive  after  riches  and  earthly  goods,  they 
would  soon  find  Him ;  and  yet  He  is  the 
greatest  of  all  treasures.  May  God  give  us 
this  New  Year's  gift,  that  with  burning  zeal 
we  in  this  new  Church  year  seek  the  Lord 
as  never  before,  and  that  the  love  of  Christ 
become  a  consuming  fire  in  our  hearts.  Be 
careful,  then,  beloved  congregation,  and  let 
us,  as  Mary  did,  diligent  and  quiet  and 
blessed,  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord.  Ye  chil- 
dren, seek  the  Lord,  for  if  ye  seek  Him 
early  ye  shall  find  Him.  Ye  young  men  and 
maidens,  learn  from  the  Word  of  God  how  a 
young  man  and  a  maiden  shall  walk  accept- 
ably before  the  Lord.  Ye  fathers  and 
mothers,  do  not  forsake  the  assemblages  of 
the  saints,  for  the  Lord  has  given  our  services 
the  promise  that  where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  His  name,  there  He 
would  be  in  the  midst  of  them.  Ye  aged  men 
and  women,  may  the  fire  of  faith  lighten  up 
and  brighten  your  declining  years,  so  that  ye 
can  say,  with  Simeon,  "  Lord,  now  lettest 
thou  thv  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine 
eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation." 


Out  of  true  faith  is  born  hope.  Christ's 
true  believers,  indeed,  no  longer  sin  purposely 
and  intentionally;  but  yet  they  do  so  out  of 
weakness,  being  surrounded  by  a  world  of 
temptations  without  and  within.  Therefore 
they  cleanse  themselves  daily  by  sorrow  and 
repentance  for  their  evil  deeds  of  darkness. 
But  there  is  a  more  complete  purification  than 
the  self-purification  of  repentance,  and  that 
is  the  sanctification  through  Jesus  Christ. 
He  purifies  us  also  from  the  dead  works  of 
our  self-righteousness,  and  even  more.  He 
gives  us  holy  courage  and  power  and 
strength,  that,  in  following  the  Lord,  we  be- 
come sanctified,  and  live  as  the  children  of 
God  in  righteousness  and  Christian  virtues. 
Then  we  learn  from  Him  how  to  deny  our- 
selves, to  adhere  to  Him  in  true  faith,  to  be- 
come strong  in  love,  joyful  in  hope. 

This  heavenly  washer  has  an  exceedingly 
fine  soap  with  which  He  cleanses  us  and 
makes  us  acceptable  to  God.  The  pale  water 
of  mere  human  sympathetic  tears  does  not 
suffice ;  He  makes  use  of  His  Holy  Word, 
which  removes  all  falsehood,  and  desires, 
and  uncleanness,  and  wickedness. 

Do  not,  ye  saved  of  the  Lord,  forget  the 
Word.  Without  holiness  no  man  shall  see 
God.  Strive  after  this  that  ye  may  enter  the 
narrow  gate,  for  the  portal  is  narrow  which 
leads  to  eternal  life.  Ever  must  ye  remember 
with  Paul  that  ye  have  not  yet  attained  per- 
fection, but  that  ye  strive  ever  to  become  more 
and  more  Christlike. 

But  when  a  man  has  been  cleansed  in  this 
way  by  the  blood  of  redemption,  then  is  he 
thoroughly  and  entirely  clean.  But  the  Lord 
will  do  even  more  than  this  for  him.  This  is 
beautifully  expressed  in  our  text,  verse  3, 
"  And  he  shall  sit  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of 
silver,  and  he  shall  purify  the  sons  of  Levi 
and  purge  them  as  gold  and  silver ;  and  they 
shall  offer  unto  the  Lord  offerings  in  right- 
eousness." 

There  sits  the  purifier  at  His  work  and 
stirs  the  fire,  and  watches  closely  until  the 
silver  makes  its  appearance.  When  this  has 
been  done,  then  the  metal  becomes  separated 
from  the  dross,  and  it  is  pure  and  perfect. 

This  is  the  way  which  the  heavenly  smelter 
adopts  in  dealing  with  the  souls  of  men.  In 
His  eyes  these  are  the  most  precious  gold 
and  silver ;  but  they  are  not  yet  pure.  There- 
fore He  stirs  the  fire  to  separate  all  this  dross 
— that  of  self-righteousness  and  injustice— 
and  burns  these  to  ashes.  Into  this  fire  of 
purification  all  the  faithful  are  placed,  even 
the  favorites  of  the  Lord.  How  often  do  not 
trials  and  tribulations  and  misfortunes  over- 
take us  in  the  providence  of  our  God ;  but  all 
these  have  the  one  purpose  and  end  of  purify- 
ing our  faith,  of  purging  off  the  unclean  ele- 
ments, and  making  us  ever  more  worthy  to  be 
the  holy  temples  of  our  God. 

Such  will  be  a  blessed  Advent  season  to 
our  hearts.  Whenever  we  look  in  us  or 
around  about  us  we  see  only  and  everywhere 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  coming  as  the  King 
and  the  Savior.  Let  it  ever  be  said  of  us, 
"  And  they  saw  none  save  Jesus  alone !  " 
Amen. — H,  R. 


388 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


CHRIST'S  SECOND  ADVENT 

By  H.  Melvill,  D.D. 


/  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone;  and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me;  for  I  zvill 
tread  them  in  mine  anger,  and  trample  them  in  my  fury;  and  their  blood  shall  be 
sprinkled  upon  my  garments,  and  I  will  stain  all  my  raiment. — Isaiah  Ixiii:  3 


I.  Consider  what  Scripture  reveals  to  us  in 
regard  to  Christ's  second  advent.  There  is  a 
time  appointed  in  the  history  of  our  world, 
when  that  very  Jesus  who  appeared  on  earth, 
"  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief,"  shall  reappear  with  all  the  circum- 
stances of  majesty  and  power,  "  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords."  We  are  led  to  ex- 
pect a  day  when  Christ  shall  find  a  home  in 
the  remotest  hearts  and  families,  and  the  earth 
in  all  its  circumference  be  covered  with  the 
knowledge  and  the  power  of  the  Lord.  In  ef- 
fecting this  sublime  revolution,  we  are  taught 
that  the  Jews  shall  be  God's  mightiest  instru- 
ments. But  it  shall  not  be  without  opposition, 
nor  without  convulsion,  that  Satan  is  driven 
from  his  usurped  dominion.  Previously  to  this 
great  consummation,  and  in  order  to  the  pro- 
duction of  this,  is  to  be  what  Scripture  calls 
the  second  advent  of  Christ;  and  the  judg- 
ments with  which  this  second  coming  shall 
be  attended  and  followed  constitute  that  tre- 
mendous visitation  which  prophecy  associates 
with  the  last  times,  and  delineates  under 
every  figure  of  wo,  of  terror,  and  of  wrath. 


II.  The  Redeemer,  as  exhibited  in  our  text, 
is  returning  from  the  slaughter  of  His  ene- 
mies, and  He  describes  Himself  as  "  speaking 
ill  righteousness,  mighty  to  save."  His  ac- 
tions have  just  proved  Him  mighty  to  de- 
stroy, and  His  words  now  announce  Him 
mighty  to  save ;  so  that  He  is  able  to  con- 
found every  foe  and  uphold  every  friend. 
The  two  grand  principles  which  we  expect  to 
see  maintained  in  every  righteous  govern- 
ment are  that  none  of  the  guilty  shall  escape, 
and  that  none  of  the  innocent  shall  perish. 
And  in  the  reply  given  to  the  challenge  of 
the  prophet  there  is  a  distinct  assertion  that 
He  who  comes  with  the  dyed  garments  from 
Bozrah  maintains  these  principles  of  govern- 
ment, which  cannot  be  maintained  but  by  an 
Infinite  Judge.  This  agrees  admirably  with 
Christ's  second  advent;  for  that  is  the  only 
season  at  which  men  living  on  the  earth  shall 
be  accurately  divided  into  the  evil  and  good — 
into  those  who  are  to  be  consumed,  and  those 
who  are  to  be  untouched  by  the  visitations  of 
wrath. — S.  B.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  199. 


HOW  TO  PROVIDE  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

By  Rev.  Charles  Cross 


Matt,  xxv:  31-46 


This  description  of  the  general  judgment 
is  not  a  parable  but  a  prophecy,  altho  to  a 
great  extent  couched  in  symbolic  language. 

I.  "What  to  provide  for  the  future: 

1.  A  good  character. — "  The  right-hand 
group  will  consist  of  those  who  have  done 
right  and  are  right,  and  the  left-hand  group 
of  those  who  have  done  wrong  and  are 
wrong"  (Jas.  Morison).  A  good  character 
includes  righteousness  :  "  The  righteous  " 
(verses  T,y,  46).  Character  "is  moral  meet- 
ness  for  everlasting  glory"  (Jas.  Morison). 
A  good  character  includes  fitness  for  Christ's 
Kingdom  :  "  Inherit  the  kingdom  "  (verse 
34).  Sheep  or  goats  (verses  32,  33).  There 
are  no  alpacas.  The  separation  is  "  with  un- 
erring penetration  and  with  infinite  equity" 
(Richard  Watson).  Similar  metaphor  in 
Ezek.  xxxiv :  17. 

2.  A  good  record. — Faith  in  Christ  must  be 
shown  by  Christ-like  works.  "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it,"  etc.  (verse  40).  Good 
works  are  a  manifestation  of  genuine  faith. 
Dr.  Morison  says :  "  Their  faith,  '  without 
works,'  is  the  only  condition  on  which  they 
get  the  benefit  of  the  great  propitiation  (Rom. 


iii  r  20-21 ;  iv:  5,  6).  But  still  their  faith  was 
never  meant  to  continue  without  works 
(Jas.  ii :  17).  It  would  be  of  no  worth  if  it 
did  not  work.  It  was  meant  to  work ;  and  it 
does  work  diligently  (Gal.  v:6).  It  efflor- 
esces and  bears  fruit  in  works  (Rom.  vi : 
22) ." 

II.    How  TO   PROVIDE  FOR  THE  FUTURE: 

1.  A  good  character. — By  learning  to  love 
the  right  and  hate  the  wrong.  Love  leads  to 
action.  By  learning  to  submit  to  Christ  "  the 
King"  (verses  34-40).  Let  "the  King" 
rule,  govern,  and  influence  your  life.  Be 
loyal  to  Him.  "  They  who  serve  the  devil 
must  share  with  him  in  the  end"  (Alford). 
If  you  will  not  submit  to  the  King  while  you 
are  on  earth,  you  will  be  a  rebel  in  the  next 
world. 

2.  Provide  a  good  record,  by  doing  good 
as  well  as  by  being  good.  Study  and  imitate 
the  character  of  Christ,  "  who  went  about  do- 
mg  good"  (verses  35.  36).  Cf.  Isa.  Jvii:7; 
Ezek.  xviii :  7 ;  Jas.  i :  27 ;  Heb.  xiii :  2  ;  3 
John  v:8;  Jas.  ii:i5.  16;  2  Tim.  i:i6; 
Prov.  xiv:3i,  and  xix:i7;  Matt,  x :  42 ; 
Mark  iv:4i;     Heb.   vi:io).      "Who   would 


ADVENT 


389 


not  run  to  prisons  and  hospitals  on  errands 
of  mercy,  if  assured  that  Christ  was  there? 
Yet  Christ  Himself  tells  us  so,  and  we  turn 
a  deaf  ear  to  Him"  (P.  Quesnel).    "  When 


benevolence  is  shown  to  the  least  of  the  hu- 
man brotherhood,  because  he  is  a  brother  and 
a  man,  Christ  is  honored  and  God  is  glori- 
fied."—James   MORISON.     (P.   M.) 


THE  PROBLEM  ABOUT  ADVENT 

By  F.  D.  Maurice,  D.D. 

Be  ye  therefore  ready  also:   for  the  Son  of  man  cometh  at  an  hour  when  ye  think  not. — 

Luke  xii:  40 


What  is  the  problem  about  Advent?  You 
hear  of  the  Son  of  Man  coming.  Sometimes 
you  hear  of  His  coming  as  a  thief  in  the 
night :  sometimes  you  hear  of  His  returning 
as  a  bridegroom  from  the  wedding.  In  the 
passage  from  which  my  text  is  taken  both 
these  forms  of  speech  are  combined.  What 
do  they  signify ;  are  they  merely  figures  which 
point  to  the  necessity  of  preparation  for  death? 

I.  The  first  coming  of  Christ  in  great  hu- 
mility imports  a  continual  lordship  of  His 
over  the  being  and  faculties  of  man.  His  pur- 
pose, the  apostles  teach  us,  was  not  accom- 
plished till  He  rose  from  the  dead,  and  as- 
cended on  high,  till  He  had  claimed  the  glory 
whicli  He  had  had  with  His  Father  before  the 
worlds  were.  That  was  the  vindication  of 
His  title  to  be  Lord.  That  was  the  beginning 
of  a  society  which  could  be  nothing  but  imi- 
versal,  because  it  stood  in  the  Name  of  the 
Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man.  That  was 
necessary  that  the  promise  might  be  thor- 
oughly accomplished,  "  The  Lord  God  shall 
dwell  among  you,  and  He  shall  be  your  Fa- 
ther, and  ye  shall  be  His  children."  By  this 
language  we  are  able  to  understand  that  other 
language  which  refers  to  the  coming,  or  to 
the  appearing  and  unveiling  of  the  Son  of 
Man  after  His  ascension.  We  may  very  well 
admit  that  when  our  Lord  says,  "  In  such  an 
hour  as  ye  think  not  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh,"  He  gives  us  all  and  more  than  all 
the  warning  respecting  the  hour  of  death 
which  preachers  have  ever  drawn  out  of  His 
words.  Assuredly  it  is  no  contradiction  of 
His  other  teaching  to  say  that,  tho  on  earth 
we  may  fancy  Ourselves  under  a  law  of  self- 
ishness, tho  here  we  may  act  as  if  we  had 
nu  ties  and  relationships  to  those  who  sur- 
round us,  when  we  close  our  eyes  on  the 
things  with  which  they  have  been  familiar, 
we  pass  into  a  region  where  we  shall  know 
assuredly  that  the  Son  of  Man  is  reigning, 
where   it    will   be   impossible   any    longer   to 


think  that  we  are  out  of  His  Presence,  or  to 
escape  from  that  Divine  law  of  love  which 
binds  man  to  man,  which  binds  earth  and 
Heaven  together.  The  lie  upon  which  we 
have  acted  must  then  be  laid  bare,  the  whole 
scheme  of  our  existence  must  be  exposed  and 
broken  in  pieces ;  we  must  confess  Him  who 
gave  Himself  for  men  to  be  the  Lord  of  all. 
II.  If  this  be  the  idea  of  Christ's  coming, 
whether  to  the  world  or  to  individuals,  which 
the  New  Testament  sets  before  us,  what  is 
to  make  us  ready  for  His  coming?  What  is 
to  save  us  from  that  sleep  into  which  our 
Lord  warns  us  that  we  may  fall?  What  is  to 
arouse  us  if  it  has  overtaken  us?  Surely  we 
must  be  reminded  of  His  Presence  with  us. 
The  natural  notion  that  what  is  invisible  is 
unreal ;  that  He  does  not  govern  us  because 
our  eyes  do  not  see  Him ;  that  He  does  not 
govern  the  world  because  the  world  fancies 
that  it  governs  itself,  this  must  be  set  at 
nought.  We  have  an  assurance  that  the 
senses  are  as  little  judges  of  what  is  true  in 
morals  as  they  are  in  physics ;  that  self,  which 
appears  to  be  the  center  round  which  every- 
thing here  revolves,  is  no  more  really  the 
center  than  our  earth  is  the  center  round 
which  the  heavenly  bodies  revolve.  What 
shall  give  us  this  assurance?  In  the  Eu- 
charist we  declare  that  our  hope  is  in  a  Lamb 
of  God  which  has  taken  away  the  sin  of  the 
world  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself:  therefore, 
we  ask  that  we  may  be  ready  when  the  Son 
of  Man  comes  to  claim  us  as  sacrifices  to 
God :  and  that  we  may  not  be  found  choosing 
another  master  for  ourselves,  and  shutting 
ourselves  up  in  a  hell  of  selfishness  and  de- 
spair. In  the  Eucharist  we  give  thanks  for  a 
death  not  for  ourselves  only,  but  for  the 
whole  world,  therefore  in  it  we  look  forward 
to  a  redemption,  which  shall  be  not  for  our- 
selves only,  but  for  the  world,  when  Christ 
shall  appear  without  sin,  unto  salvation. — 
S.  B.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  199. 


FAITH  AT  OUR  LORD'S  COMING 

By  Howard  Crosby,  D.D. 
Nevertheless  when  the  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall  he  iind  faith  on  the  earth? — Luke  xviii:  8 


This  is  one  of  the  favorite  passages  of  our 
pre-millenarian  brethren,  teaching,  as  they 
say,  that  at  our  Lord's  coming  there  will  be 
very  few  found  believing  in  Christ.  Those 
of  us  who  reject  the  pre-millenarian  view  be- 


lieve that  when  our  Lord  comes  again,  it  will 
be  at  the  judgment,  and  that  the  world  will 
then  be  full  of  His  glory.  We  believe  that 
the  gospel  will  conquer  the  world,  and  that 
its  preaching  is  not  to  be  in  vain.     We  find 


390 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


too  many  passages  like  Is.  xi :  9;  "  The  earth 
shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea,"  used  in  direct 
connection  with  Messiah's  first  coming,  the 
stem  of  Jesse,  the  Branch  out  of  his  roots, 
that  would  have  to  be  explained  away,  if  we 
adopted  the  theory  that  the  world  is  to  grow 
worse  and  worse  till  Christ  comes  again  to 
renew  it. 

Well,  then,  what  are  we  to  do  with  this 
text  from  Luke?  We  simply  call  attention 
to  the  context  and  to  the  Greek. 

Our  Lord  was  teaching  His  disciples  that 
they  ought  always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint, 
and  He  shows  how  a  woman  perseveres  even 
with  an  unjust  judge  till  she  gets  justice,  and 
then  by  contrast  He  teaches  that  God's  own 
cho-en  ones  ought  certainly  to  persevere  in 
calling  upon  God,  the  righteous  Judge,  to 
avenge  them  of  their  wicked  adversaries 
(compare  Rev.  vi :  10).  It  is  not  an  unholy 
and  selfish  vengeance  that  is  sought,  but  the 
release  of  the  Church  from  its  enemies,  the 
holy  action  of  divine  justice  against  the 
powers  of  evil  that  have  ever  assaulted  the 
Church  and  have  wrought  it  such  damage. 

So  much  for  the  context.  Now  for  the 
Greek.  It  reads  thus:  rtXr^v  6  yibg  tov 
dvBfidjitov   eXQoav  dpa  evprfdsi  vrfv   Ttidriv 


kifi  rfjQyfjg  :  Note  that  Tcidrtv  has  the  article 
This  .^hows  that  the  faith  mentioned  is  a  faith 
somewhere  described  in  the  context.  The 
definite  article  here,  as  so  often,  has  the  force 
of  a  demonstrative  pronoun.  If  persons  have 
been  mentioned  before  as  the  main  subject, 
then  it  often  has  the  force  of  a  possessive  pro- 
noun. Here  the  faith  referred  to  is  the  faith 
in  God's  avenging  the  Church's  enemies.  It 
is  not  saving  faith  in  God  as  to  personal  sal- 
vation, and  therefore  synonymous  with  piety 
or  godliness.  Our  Lord  does  not  say,  "  When 
the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  he  find  piety  on 
the  earth  ?  "  but  He  says :  "  When  the  Son 
of  Man  cometh,  shall  he  find  in  his  own 
chosen  ones  this  confidence  of  a  speedy  ven- 
geance on  the  Satanic  forces?"  The  coming 
will  be  a  delightful  surprise  to  them,  for  they, 
tho  God's  faithful  ones,  will  be  halting  in 
this  particular  confidence. 

This  is  certainly  the  only  meaning  that  a 
sound  exegesis  can  derive  from  the  text. 
Our  English  rendering  has  led  many  astray. 
The  revision  has  put  the  true  rendering  in  the 
margin,  altho  it  would  be  still  better  to  say 
"  this  faith  "  instead  of  "  the  faith."  Our 
pre-millenarian  brethren  must  give  up  this 
text.— H.  R. 


THE  DAY  OF  THE  LORD 

By  S.  a.  Brooke 
The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand. — Rom.  xiii:  12 


It  is  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years 
since  the  apostle  uttered  this  exulting  cry. 
We  cannot  repeat  it  to-day  when  once  more 
we  come  to  our  Advent  time  without  some 
sense  of  hopelessness.  For  what  has  come  of 
it?  we  ask;  is  the  night  gone,  is  the  day  at 
hand?  Century  after  century,  with  the  in- 
destructible aspiration  of  the  heart,  has  this 
note  of  joy  been  taken  up.  and  the  aspiration 
has  been  disappointed  and  the  joy  unreached. 
The  drama  of  mankind  has  been  charged  with 
so  much  action,  apparently  wasted,  and  so 
much  suffering,  apparently  squandered,  on 
the  ground  of  this  incessant  hope,  and  yet 
the  great  end  seems  no  nearer.  On  and  on, 
stumbling  in  the  night  with  bleeding  feet 
and  wearied  brain,  the  great  world  has  strug- 
gled forward,  hoping  for  the  dawn.  "  There 
is  no  radiance,"  it  mutters,  "  on  the  moun- 
tains yet.  I  hope  for  ever,  that  is  my  doom ; 
but  the  night  is  deep,  and  the  day  delays. 
Would  10  God  I  could  see  the  morning 
glow !  " 

I.  St.  Paul  was  wrong  when  he  expected 
the  final  close  in  his  own  time ;  but  he  was 
right  in  this — that  a  new  day  was  near  at 
hand.  We  are  wrong  when  we  think  we  are 
near  to  the  last  great  hour  of  time ;  but  we 
are  right  when  our  heart  tells  us  that  God  is 
coming  to  bring  light  to  our  own  souls,  to 
awaken  our  nation  out  of  wrong  into  right, 
to  set  on  foot  new  thoughts  which  will  renew 


t'ne  life  of  mankind,  for  that  is  His  contin- 
uous and  Divine  work.  The  reason,  then, 
denies  the  nearness  of  the  time  when  God 
will  close  this  era  of  the  world,  and  denies 
it  on  account  of  the  slowness  of  God's  work. 
In  reality  God's  work  is  never  slow  or  fast ; 
it  always  marches  at  a  constant  pace ;  but  to 
our  sixty  or  seventy  j'ears  it  seems  of  an 
infinite  tardiness.  We  live  and  grasp  our 
results  so  hurriedly,  and  we  have  so  short  a 
time  in  which  to  work,  that  we  naturally 
find  ourselves  becoming  impatient  with  God. 
To  w^ork  quickly  seems  to  us  to  work  well. 
But  we  forget  how,  even  in  our  little  life, 
we  lose  the  perfection  of  results  by  too  great 
rapidity.  We  seclude  no  hours  of  wise  quiet, 
and  our  thought  is  not  matured.  God  never 
makes  these  mistakes,  the  mistakes  of  haste. 
He  never  forgets  to  let  a  man.  a  nation,  the 
whole  of  mankind  rest  at  times,  that  they 
may  each  assimilate  the  results  of  an  era  of 
activity. 

II.  But  tho  that  great  day  is  far  away,  the 
heart  asserts,  and  truly,  that  when  there  is 
deepest  night  over  nations  and  the  world 
and  men,  a  day  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand :  that 
a  dawn  is  coming — not  the  last  day  nor  the 
final  dawn,  but  the  uprising  of  Christ  in  light, 
deliverance,  knowledge,  and  love.  The  be- 
lief is  born  not  only  out  of  our  natural  hatred 
of  evil  and  suffering  and  the  desire  to  be 
free,  but  out  of  actual  experience.    Again  and 


ADVENT 


391 


again  have  these  days  of  the  Lord  come,  has 
the  night  vanished  and  the  sunlight  burst  on 
the  world,  not  only  in  religion,  but  in  the 
regeneration  of  societies,  in  the  revolutions 
of  nations,  in  the  rush  of  great  and  creative 
thoughts   over    the    whole    of    the   civilized 


world.  Men  sunk  in  misery,  ignorance,  and 
oppression  cried  to  the  watchers,  and  the 
prophets  answered,  "  The  night  is  far  spent," 
we  see  the  coming  day.  And  never  has  their 
answer  been  left  unfulfilled. — S.  B.,  vol.  ix., 
P    237. 


NIGHT  AND  DAY 


Romans  xiii:  11 


This  admonition  is  addressed  to  those  who 
know  the  time,  the  season.  To  those  who 
know  something  by  serious  meditation  of  the 
rapid  flight  of  seasons,  and  their  precious  op- 
portunities, of  the  irrecoverableness  of  sea- 
sons, and  of  the  momentous  issues  which  de- 
pend upon  the  diligent  and  faithful  use  of 
them. 

I.  The  retrospect  of  the  past.  "  The 
night  is  far  spent." 

1.  The  spiritual  night  of  the  world  has 
been  passing  away,  for  Christ,  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  has  arisen  upon  mankind. 

2.  The  night  of  time  is  fast  passing ;  out 
of  its  gloom  the  generations  are  fast  emerg- 
ing into  the  free  light  of  eternity. 

3.  The  night  of  life  is  nearly  spent :  it 
may  be  so  with  any ;  it  is  manifestly  so  with 
the  aged.     Immortality  is  near. 

II.  The  prospect  of  the  future. 

1.  "  The  day  is  at  hand."  The  day  breaks, 
the  shadows  flee  away.  Our  ignorance,  our 
doubts,  our  temptations,  our  fears,  are  all 
for  a  season,  and  shall  soon  be  left  behind. 
We  shall  see  Him  as  He  is,  whom  now  we 
see  not,  tho  we  trust  and  love  Him. 

2.  "  Our  salvation  is  nearer  than  when  we 
believed."     The   figure   is   of   a   beleaguered 


fortress ;  the  garrison  is  besieged,  in  straits, 
feeble,  and  despondent.  Yet  relief  is  planned, 
and  approaches,  and  now  that  the  morning 
breaks,  and  the  weary  and  discouraged  de- 
fenders look  from  the  walls,  and  over  the 
camp  of  their  assailants,  they  behold  the  ban- 
ners of  the  deliverer,  and  hear  the  welcome 
music  of  His  march.  So  gazes  the  weary 
and  harassed  Church  of  Christ  and  so  ap- 
pears to  her  vision  the  approach  of  the  De- 
liverer, the  deliverance,  at  hand. 

III.  The  duty  of  the  present.  These 
things  being  so,  this  is  no  time  for  the  in- 
dulgence of  sentiment  or  sloth. 

1.  It  is  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep — of  in- 
difference, of  inactivity,  of  unbelief. 

2.  To  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness — the 
impediments  to  active  service,  the  sin  which 
doth  so  easily  beset  us. 

3.  To  put  on  the  armor  of  light.  We  are 
as  Christians,  not  only  children  of  light ;  we 
are  soldiers  of  light.  Let  the  soldier  see  to 
his  weapons,  the  servant  to  his  work,  the 
steward  to  his  trust.  Thus,  when  the  Lord 
cometh,  shall  He  find  us  prepared  to  receive 
and  to  welcome  Him ! — H.  L.  S.  E.,  vol.  i., 
p.  12. 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  POSITION  AND  DUTY 


Romans  xiii:  12 


Second  advent  of  Christ  great  theme  of 
Christian  hope. — His  first  coming  longed  for, 
even  hy  the  heathen. — When  He  came,  a 
faithful  few  welcomed  Him. — But  He  came 
only  to  depart,  promising  to  come  again. — 
For  the  fulfilment  of  that  promise  the  Church 
watches. — Christian  hopes  excited  by  events 
which  seem  to  corresDond  with  what  Christ 
foretold  should  be  signs  of  His  coming. — Yet 
scoffers  still  cry,  "  Where  is  the  promise  of 
His  coming?" — But  the  Church  knows  His 
promise  will  be  fulfilled. 

I.  Our  present  position.  To  estimate 
force  of  these  words  place  ourselves  in  apos- 
tle's position. — Writing  to  Christians,  wri- 
ting under  persecution. — Jewish  fanaticism 
and  heathen  superstition  arrayed  against 
them. — "  The  Christians  to  the  lions,"  ever 
ringing  in  their  ears.— How  eagerly  look  for 
cessation  of  such  a  night. — Long  for  time 
when  fulfilled.  Isaiah  ix :  18. — In  Christ's 
death  and  resurrection  they  found  key  to  ex- 


plain prophecy. — Their  hopes  strengthened 
by  what  already  saw  fulfilled. — Rejoice  in 
confirmation  of  their  hope  furnished  by  this 
epistle. — Europe  greatly  changed  since  then. 
— Christianity  has  established  itself. — Point 
out  benefits  it  has  conferred  on  mankind. 
Compare  society  now  with  that  of  Pagan 
Rome,  and  may  we  not  say  "  the  night  is 
past,  the  day  has  dawned?" — But  other  con- 
siderations contradict  this. — What  is  the  real 
condition  of  the  world  now? — Eph.  vi :  12. — 
Darkness  the  element  congenial  to  it. — Edu- 
cation and  science  may  foretell  "  a  good  time 
coming,"  but  this  doomed  world  is  shrouded 
in  a  moral  night. — Yes,  its  doom  is  pro- 
nounced.— 2  Peter  iii :  to. — That  sentence 
confirmed  by  men's  own  acts. — John  iii :  19. — 
Desire  continuance  of  darkness,  as  the  thief. 
— Job  xxiv :  17. — What  a  melancholy  picture 
of  the  world. — But  the  apostle  says  this  is 
fast  coming  to  an  end. — Destruction  shrunk 
from  by  organized  beings. — Worldly  persons 


392 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


cannot  contemplate  world's  end  without  a 
pang. — But  disturbs  not  serenity  of  believer's 
confidence. — Before  it  is  to  take  place,  proph- 
ecy points  to  terrible  convulsions. — War  be- 
tween France  and  Germany,  overthrow  of 
Papacy. — Seem  to  stand  at  close  of  1260  days. 
• — Think  of  solemn  events  immediately  to 
follow. — "  The  day  is  at  hand." 

II.  Our  duty  arising  out  of  it. — Such  a 
day  can  afford  no  satisfaction  to  sinners. — 
Slaves  of  rulers  of  darkness,  doing  works  of 
darkness. — We  charged  to  put  off  these. — 
What  are  they? — Evil  works,  fruit  of  cor- 
rupt minds. — Works  wrought  from  impulse 
of  self-interest,  having  no  reference  to  God's 
glory. — Nearness  of  eternity  should  operate 
as  motive  for  increased  purity. — Lusts  of 
flesh,  are  the  night-dress  of  the  world. — An 
indecency  about  them. — As  subject  going  to 
sovereign's  levee,  careful  of  his  dress,  so 
text. — Scripture  represents  Christian  as  a 
warrior. — Armor  not  worn  in  times  of  peace. 
— The  sinner  it  is  that  is  unarmed. — Satan 
is  armed,  but  "  his  goods  are  in  peace  "  lulled 


by  opiates. — Not  so  with  those  who  have  been 
taught  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."7-Need 
armor  against  devil,  world,  and  their  own 
hearts.— Need  it  too  for  attack.— As  Chris- 
tians without  excuse  if  not  buckled  on  armor. 
— Charge  to  us  is  Josh.  '\:g;  2  Tim.  ii :  i. — 
Eminently  need  armor  now. — 2  Tim.  iii :  i. — 
Is  not  truth  despised,  and  falsehood  rampant? 
— Is  not  commerce  too  often  a  gigantic  sys- 
tem of  deceit? — Even  clergymen  guilty  of 
pitiful  evasions,  traitors  to  articles. — In  dan- 
ger of  being  carried  away  by  the  lax  morality 
of  present  day. — Our  profession  of  Christian- 
ity must  be  no  lip  service. — Warnings  loud 
and  frequent  of  Master's  approach. — 

"  Faith's  ear,  with  awful,  still  delight, 
Counts  them  like  minute-bells  at  night, 
Keeping   the   heart   awake   till    dawn   of 

morn, 
While  to  her  funeral  pile  this  aged  world 

is  borne." 

But  it  is  ours  to  be  up  and  doing. — H.  A. 
C.  Y. 


PREPARATION    FOR    THE    SECOND     COMING     OF 

CHRIST 


By  Rev.   Canon  Liddon 


Looking  for  and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God. — 2  Pet.  iii:  12 


I.  One  effect  of  a  true  love  of  our  Lord, 
which  expects  Him  to  come  to  judgment  at 
the  last  great  day,  will  be  to  keep  the  mind 

AND    HEART    OF     MAN    FREE    FROM    DISTRACTING 

FORMS  OF  E.xciTEMENT.  "  The  day  of  the 
Lord  "  has  in  all  times  been  to  men  believing 
in  Christ,  but  not  loving  Him,  an  occasion  of 
disorderly  walking,  of  idleness,  and  disobedi- 
ence. 

II.  And  AGAIN,  A  TRUE  LOVE  OF  OUR  LoRD  IN 

VIEW  OF  His  coming  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment IS  GREATLY  CONCERNED  TO  BE  DOING  THE 
BEST  IT  CAN  WITH  WHAT  He  HAS  GIVEN  IN 
THE     WAY     OF     ABILITY     AND     OF     OPPORTUNITY. 

This  is  our  Lord's  own  teaching  in  the  para- 
ble of  the  talents.  In  that  parable  there  is 
one  lesson  which  we  cannot  lay  too  seriously 
to  heart.    It  is  the  temptation  to  do  nothing, 


to  which  the  man  with  one  talent  yielded, 
and  because  he  had  only  one  talent. 

III.  One  OTHER  RESULT  OF  THE  LOVE  OF  OUR 

Lord,  of  waiting  for  and  hasting  unto 
His  coming,  will  be  to  make  much  of 
pr.\yer,  private  and  public,  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  it.  In  one  aspect,  worship  is  a 
mode  of  accustoming  the  eye  and  ear  of  the 
soul  to  the  sights  and  sounds  of  the  coming 
life. 

IV.  It     may,     indeed,     be     asked     how, 

strictly  speaking,  we  CAN  HASTEN  TOWARD 
THE  DAY  OF  GoD  IN  ANY  OF  THE  WAYS  DE- 
SCRIBED? We  can  make  it  nearer  to  us  by 
duty,  prayer,  love — through  which  we  ap- 
proach the  secret  of  eternal  life,  in  which  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day. — H.  R. 


THE  BOOKS  OPENED 


By  Rev.  A.  G.  Houghton 
Rev.  XX -.12 


Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  a  uni- 
versal judgment;  whether  we  consider  (a) 
the  character  of  God,  (h)  the  powers  with 
which  we  are  endowed :  (c)  the  present  un- 
equal distribution  of  things,  (d)  the  judg- 
ments inflicted  on  nations  and  individuals,  or 
(e)  the  general  feeling  of  mankind  through- 
out the  world  of  the  need  of  a  judgment.     If 


justice  is  to  be  done,  reliable  evidence  must 
be  forthcoming.  We  cannot  know  to  the 
fullest  extent  what  this  evidence  will  be,  but 
suggestions  are  not  wanting  in  the  Scriptures 
of  the  direction  in  which  we  may  look  for  it. 
Certain  books  will  be  opened. 

I.  The    book    of    Providence.     God    is    al- 
ways working  to  bring  about   man's  highest 


ADVENT 


393 


good.  He  controls  time,  matter,  and  will, 
with  this  end  in  view.  When  this  book  is 
opened  it  will  be  shown  how  many  conjunc- 
tions of  circumstances  there  have  been  to  se- 
cure our  salvation. 

II.  The  book  of  Memory.  The  Chinese 
artist,  it  is  said,  has  no  india-rubber.  Every 
line  he  sketches  must  remain.  So  the  actions 
of  life  are  indelible.  And  as  the  actions  can- 
not be  obliterated,  so  the  knowledge  of  them 
can  never  be  lo.t.  Out  of  siglit  it  may  be, 
but  not  really  out  of  mind.  In  the  day  of 
judgrnent  when  God  says,  "  Son,  remem- 
ber!  "  memory  will  play  its  part  unfettered 
by  the  flesh,  and  every  act  of  our  life  will 
come  flashing  back  once  more  into  vivid- 
ness. 

III.  The  book  of  Conscience.  Every 
man's  soul  has  something  to  say  about  the 
moral  government  of  God.  In  the  day  of 
judgment  conscience  will  be  interrogated  and 
its  verdicts  on  human  action  recorded.  One 
of  the  Swedish  kings  could  never  bear  to  lie 
awake   in  the   night  without   music   playing, 


while  another  king  declared  that  he  lived,  yet 
for  his  mii^deeds  he  died  daily.  In  an  op- 
posite strain  one  of  God's  servants  said, 
"  How  pleasant  it  is  to  have  the  bird  in  the 
bosom  sing  sweetly." 

IV.  The  Bible.  In  view  of  the  open  Bible, 
with  its  commands  and  promises  the  question 
will  be  asked,  "  What  did  you  do  with  this 
Book?"  The  Bible  is  the  final  court  of  ap- 
peal, and  to  despise  or  neglect  it,  knowing  its 
value,  is  to  choose  eternal  death.  Where  the 
Bible  is,  the  individual  is  without  excuse. 
(See  Luke  xvi:  29-31.) 

V.  The  Book  of  Life.  This  will  be 
opened  to  see  if  our  names  are  inscribed 
therein.  As  soon  as  there  is  any  real  change 
of  heart  toward  God,  our  names  are  entered 
there.  Wherever  else  they  may  be  (in  the 
class-book  or  on  the  Church  roll)  if  they  are 
not  found  in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life  we  are 
not  safe.  Let  me  ask  if  you  are  living  within 
sight  of  the  open  books?  and  how  it  will  be 
with  you  in  the  Day  of  Judgment?  (2  Cor. 
v:  10.)     P.  M.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  363, 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS   AND    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ADVENT,  Christ's  Second.— It  is  de- 
scribed by  many  figures  and  in  many  ways  in 
the  Bible.  The  Bridegroom  going  forth  to 
meet  the  Bride,  Matt.  xxv:i-i3.  The  Mas- 
ter returning  to  distribute  His  awards,  Luke 
xix:  12;  Matt,  xxiv:  43-51;  xxv :  14-30.  The 
Time  of  Harvest,  Matt,  xiii :  30 ;  Rev.  xiv : 
15;  and  of  Vintage,  Rev.  xiv:  17-20.  The 
Breaking  forth  and  dawn  of  day  (Cant,  ii : 
17;  iv:6)  ;  2  Pet.  i:  19.  The  IMarriage  Sup- 
per of  the  Lamb,  Matt,  xxii :  1-14;  Rev.  xix: 
6-9.  The  Times  of  Refreshing,  Acts  iii :  19. 
The  Times  of  the  Restitution  of  all  things. 
Acts  iii:  21.  The  Times  of  Separation — when 
the  gospel  net  shall  be  brought  to  shore, 
Matt,  xiii:  47-50;  and  the  Shepherd  shall 
divide  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  Matt,  xxv : 
31-46.     "  The  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 

I  Cor.  i :  8,  spoken  of  emphatically  as  the  one 
great  day  ("  the  day  for  which  all  other  days 
were  made").  Hence  described  as  "that 
day"  three  times  in  one  epistle,  2  Tim.  i:  12- 
18;  iv:8;  see  also  Mark  xiii :  32.  "That 
hour,"  Mark  xiii :  32  ;  John  v  :  28.  The  very 
frequent  recurrence  of  the  expression  "  in 
that  day,"  through  the  prophets,  may  be  seen 
by  the  Concordance.  It  constantly  refers  to 
the  great  and  final  day.  As  an  example  see 
Zach.  xii :  14,  where  the  expression  occurs 
fifteen  times.  The  day  of  the  manifestation 
of  the  Son  of  God,  Rom.  viii :  19;    2  Cor.  v: 

II  (Greek),  when  "the  Chief  Shepherd  shall 
appear,"  and  His  saints  shall  appear  with 
Him  in  glory,  i  Pet.  v:4;  Col.  iii :  4.  The 
suddenness  of  Christ's  coming  is  illustrated 
by  the  lightnfng  flash,  alike  sudden,  terrible, 
irresistible.  Matt,  xxiv :  27.  A  snare  or  trap, 
Luke  xxi :  35  ;  surprising  the  secure  and  un- 
suspecting.    A  thief  in  the  night.  Matt,  xxiv : 


43;  I  Thess.  v:2;  Rev.  xvi:  15.  It  will  be 
unlooked  for  by  a  gay  and  scoffing  world. 
"  As^  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,"  and  "  of 
Lot,"  Luke  xvii :  26-30.  See  also  Luke  xviii : 
8;  2  Pet.  iii:  3-10.  Nevertheless  there  is  a 
waiting  for  it.  The  whole  creation  is  ear- 
nestly expecting  the  great  day  of  liberation 
(expecting,  as  the  Greek  word  imports,  like 
one  stretching  out  the  neck  with  longing 
looks),  Rom.  viii:  19-22.  The  Church  of 
Christ  is  waiting — groaning  for  complete  re- 
demption, Rom.  viii :  23.  The  members  of 
Christ's  Church  are  now,  and  will  be,  "  look- 
ing," "  watching,"  "  praying,"  "  waiting  "  for 
His  appearance— loving  the  anticipation,  and 
hasting  toward  it ;  like  the  wise  virgins 
waiting  for  the  Bridegroom,  Matt,  xxv:  1-13; 
like  the  wise  servant  waiting  for  the  Master, 
Matt,  xxiv  :  45  ;  Luke  xii :  35,  36 ;  like 
patient  laborers  waiting  for  the  earth's  ripe 
fruits,  Jas.  v  :  7,  8 ;  like  those  night  watchers 
who  keep  their  garments,  and  are  not  like 
watchmen  sleeping  at  their  posts.  Rev.  xvi: 
15. — BowES. 

ADVENT,  Expected.— It  is  a  very  re- 
markable fact,  that  God's  prophecies  respect- 
ing the  Advent  of  His  Son  seem  to  have 
spread  athwart  the  whole  habitable  globe,  and 
in  the  shape  of  traditional  echoes  to  have 
been  dispersed  over  all  the  world  The  great 
promise  of  a  Messiah,  which  was  the  grand 
truth  that  the  Jew  clung  to  in  his  most  des- 
perate fortunes,  found  itself  translated  into 
heathen  tongues,  and  accepted  even  by 
heathen  men.  For  instance,  the  poet  Virgil 
dedicates  a  poem  to  Pollis,  his  patron,  in 
which  he  says  that  one  would  soon  be  born 
into  the  world  who,  it  was  expected,  would 


394 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


bring  in  the  golden  age.  Suetonius,  an  an- 
cient historian,  states,  too,  what  is  a  remark- 
able proof  of  the  spread  of  this  idea,  that 
a  certain  and  settled  persuasion  prevailed  in 
the  East,  that  the  cities  of  Judea  would  bring 
forth,  about  this  time,  a  person  who  should 
obtain  universal  empire.  And  Tacitus,  the 
eloquent  historian,  but  the  very  incredulous 
one,  who  called  the  Christian  religion  exccra- 
hilis  superstitio,  states  that  it  was  contained 
in  the  ancient  books  of  the  Jewish  priests 
that  the  East  should  prevail,  and  that  a  power 
should  proceed  from  Judea  that  should  pos- 
sess universal  dominion.  These  were  scat- 
tered lights  that  went  out  from  Judea,  their 
reuniting  center,  and  gave  the  heathen  an  an- 
ticipation and  persuasion  that  some  great  and 
illustrious  deliverer  was  about  to  be  born  in 
the  world. — Trench. 

ADVENT,    Faith    in   the.— I    die    in   the 

faith  of  the  speedy  accomplishment  of  those 
glorious  things  which  are  spoken  concerning 
the  city  of  God  and  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 
"  Amen.  Even  so,  Lord  Jesus  !  Come  quick- 
ly !  " — Increase  Mather. 

ADVENT,  Glory  of  the.— There  is  an  ac- 
count come  of  the  arrival  of  King  George  II.* 
and  a  great  rejoicing  for  it  in  Edinburgh.  I 
see  the  fires  and  illuminations  of  that  city 
reflected  on  the  skies.  O,  how  will  the  heav- 
ens reflect  and  shine  with  illuminations,  when 
the  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of  Lords,  shall 
erect  His  tribunal  in  the  clouds,  and  come  in 
His  own  glory,  and  His  Father's  glory,  and 
in  the  glory  of  the  holy  angels  !  O,  what  a 
heartsome  day  will  that  be !  When  Christ, 
who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall  we 
appear  with  Him  in  glory.  We  shall  then 
lift  up  our  heads  with  joy,  because  it  shall 
be  a  time  of  refreshing  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord. — Ebenezer  Erskine. 

ADVENT,  Joy  at  the.— "  I  remember," 
says  the  writer  of  Mr.  John  Janeway's  life, 
"  once  there  was  a  great  talk  that  one  had 
foretold  that  doomsday  should  be  on  such  a 
day.  Altho  he  blamed  their  daring  folly  that 
could  pretend  to  know  that  which  was  hid, 
yet,  granting  their  suspicion  to  be  true, 
"What  then?"  said  he;  "what  if  the  day 
of  judgment  were  come,  as  it  will  most  cer- 
tainly come  shortly?  If  I  were  sure  the  day 
of  judgment  were  to  come  within  an  hour, 
I  should  be  glad  with  all  my  heart.  If,  at 
this  instant,  I  should  hear  such  thunderings, 
and  see  such  lightnings,  as  Israel  did  at 
Mount  Sinai,  I  am  persuaded  my  very  heart 
would  leap  for  joy.  But  this  I  am  confident 
of.  through  infinite  mercy,  that  the  very  medi- 
tation of  that  day  hath  even  ravished  my 
soul,  and  the  thought  of  the  certainty  and 
nearness  of  it  is  more  refreshing  to  me  than 
the  comforts  of  the  whole  world." — F.  II. 

ADVENT,  Looking  for  the. — I  was  told 
of  a  poor  peasant  on  the  Welsh  mountains 
who,  month  after  month,  year  after  year, 
through  a  long  period  of  declining  life,  was 
used  every  morning,  as  soon  as  he  awoke,  to 
open  his  casement  window  toward  the  east, 
and  look  out  to  see  if  Jesus  Christ  was  com- 


ing. He  was  no  calculator,  or  he  need  not 
have  looked  so  long ;  he  was  no  student  of 
prophecy,  or  he  need  not  have  looked  at  all ; 
he  was  ready,  or  he  would  not  have  been  in 
so  much  haste ;  he  was  willing,  or  he  would 
rather  have  looked  another  way ;  he  loved, 
or  it  would  not  have  been  the  first  thought  of 
the  morning.  His  Master  did  not  come,  but 
a  messenger  did,  to  fetch  the  ready  one  home. 
The  same  preparation  sufficed  for  both ;  the 
longing  soul  was  satisfied  with  either.  Often 
when,  in  the  morning,  the  child  of  God 
awakes,  weary  and  encumbered  with  the 
flesh,  perhaps  from  troubled  dreams,  perhaps 
with  troubled  thoughts,  his  Father's  secret 
comes  presently  across  him,  he  looks  up,  if  not 
out,  to  feel,  if  not  to  see,  the  glories  of  that 
last  morning  when  the  trumpet  shall  sound, 
and  the  dead  shall  arise  indestructible ;  no 
weary  limbs  to  bear  the  spirit  down ;  no 
feverish  dreams  to  haunt  the  vision ;  no  dark 
forecasting  of  the  day's  events,  or  returning 
memory  of  the  griefs  of  yesterday. — Fry. 

ADVENT,  Prayers  for  the.— The  words 
"  Come,  Lord  Jesus,"  have  often  been  on  the 
lips  of  departing  believers.  They  were  the 
last  uttered  by  Burkitt.  They  were  the  clos- 
ing prayer  of  Bishop  Abbott,  who  died  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  "  It  is  death :  It 
is  death,"  exclaimed  Robert  Hall,  ''  Oh,  the 
sufferings  of  this  body !  "  His  wife  then 
asked  him,  "  But  you  are  comfortable  in  your 
mind?"  He  answered,  "Very  comfortable," 
adding,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come."  He  then 
hesitated,  as  if  unable  to  utter  the  next  word, 
and  one  of  his  daughters  added,  "  Quickly;  '' 
whereupon  her  dying  father  gave  her  a  look 
expressive  of  the  utmost  delight.  Lady 
Colquhoun  seemed  to  long  for  her  release, 
and  frequently  repeated  the  words  "  Come, 
Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly."  Dr.  Andrew 
Eliot,  of  Boston,  in  his  last  sickness,  ex- 
pressed unshaken  confidence  in  the  doctrines 
of  grace  which  he  had  preached,  and  would 
frequently  breathe  the  ejaculation,  "  Come, 
Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly."  Under  similar 
circumstances,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Sewall 
was  sometimes  heard  to  say,  with  great 
pathos,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly." 
The  last  words  of  the  pious  Henry  Holmes, 
of  Boston,  were,  "  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly." 
In  their  primary  sense,  as  referring  to  Christ's 
personal  and  glorious  advent,  these  words 
have  often  dropped  from  the  lips  and  pens  of 
earnest  believers.  In  a  somewhat  despond- 
ing mood,  Martin  Luther  broke  out,  "  May 
the  Lord  Jesus  come  at  once !  Let  Him  cut 
the  whole  matter  short  with  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment ;  for  there  is  no  amendment  to  be  ex- 
pected." The  martyr  Ridley  wrote :  "  The 
world,  without  doubt — this  I  do  believe,  and 
therefore  say  it — draws  toward  an  end.  Let 
us  with  John,  the  servant  of  God,  cry  in  our 
hearts  unto  our  Savior,  Christ,  '  Come,  Lord 
Jesus,  come.'  " — Dr.  A.  C.  Thompson. 

ADVENT,  The  Second. — As  every  student 
of  the  Greek  New  Testament  knows,  there 
are  three  words  which  are  employed  with 
reference  to  the  return  to  earth  of  our  Savior 
Jesus  Christ.     All  the  three  are  so  frequently 


ADVENT 


395 


used  that  they  have  become  almost  English 
words.  The  first  of  these  is  parousia,  which 
Thayer  defines  as  "'  the  presence  of  one  com- 
ing, hence  the  coming,  arrival,  advent."  He 
goes  on  to  say  that  it  is  "  employed  in  the 
New  Testament  especially  of  the  advent,  that 
is  the  future  visible  return  from  Heaven  of 
Jfcsus  the  Messiah  to  raise  the  dead,  hold  the 
last  judgment,  and  set  up  formally  and  glori- 
ously the  kingdom  of  God."  The  second 
word  is  cpipliancia  from  which  we  have  the 
English  word  "  epiphany."  Thayer  says  it 
means  "  in  the  New  Testament  the  '  advent ' 
of  Christ — not  only  that  which  has  already 
taken  place,  2  Tim.  i :  10;  but  also  that  illus- 
trious return  from  Heaven  to  earth  hereafter 
to  occur.  I  Tim.  vi:  14;  2  Tim.  iv:  i,  8;  Titus 
ii :  13.'"  He  also  translates  the  word  in  2 
Thess.  ii :  8,  as  meaning  "  the  breaking  forth  " 
of  His  coming.  The  third  word  is  apokalup- 
sis,  which  we  have  in  English  as  "  apoca- 
lypse," or  revelation.  Thayer  states  that  it 
means  the  return  of  Christ  in  2  Thess.  1:7; 
I  Cor.  i:7;  i  Peter  i:7,  13;  and  that  in  i 
Peter  iv  :  13  it  refers  to  "  the  glory,  clothed 
with  which  he  will  return." — Selected. 

ADVENT,  The  Second.— Did  you  ever 
hear  the  sound  of  the  trumpets  which  are 
blown  before  the  judges  as  they  come  into  a 
city  to  open  the  assizes?  Did  you  ever  re- 
flect how  different  are  the  feelings  which 
those  trumpets  awaken  in  the  minds  of  dif- 
ferent men  ?  The  innocent  man,  who  has  no 
cause  to  be  tried,  hears  them  unmoved.  They 
proclaim  no  terrors  to  him.  He  listens  and 
looks  on  quietly,  and  is  not  afraid.  But  often 
there  is  some  poor  wretch  waiting  his  trial, 
in  a  silent  cell,  to  whom  those  trumpets  are  a 
knell  of  despair.  They  tell  him  that  the  day 
of  trial  is  at  hand.  Yet  a  little  time,  and  he 
will  stand  at  the  bar  of  justice,  and  hear 
witness  after  witness  telling  the  story  of  his 
misdeeds.  Yet  a  little  time  and  all  will  be 
o\er, — the  trial,  the  verdict,  the  sentence;  and 
there  will  remain  nothing  for  him  but  punish- 
ment and  disgrace.  No  wonder  the  prison- 
er's heart  beats  when  he  hears  the  trumpet's 
sound  !  So  shall  the  sound  be  of  the  arch- 
angel's trump. — J.  C.  Ryle. 

ADVENT,     Welcoming     the.— No     man 

rightly  desires  Chrisfs  coming,  but  he  that 
hath  assurance  of  benefit  at  His  coming.  To 
him  the  day  of  Christ  is  as  the  day  of  harvest 
to  the  husbandman ;  as  the  day  of  deliver- 
ance to  the  prisoner ;  as  the  day  of  corona- 
tion to  the  king ;  the  day  of  wedlock  to  the 
bride ;  a  day  of  triumph  and  exultation,  a 
day  of  freedom  and  consolation,  a  day  of 
rest  and  satisfaction.  To  him  the  Lord 
Jesus  is  all  sweetness,  as  wine  to  the  palate, 
and  ointment  to  the  nostrils,  saith  Solomon ; 
honey  to  the  mouth,  saith  St.  Bernard;  music 
in  the  ear,  and  a  jubilee  in  the  heart.  Get 
assurance  of  Christ's  coming,  as  a  ransomer 
to  redeem  you,  as  a  conqueror  to  subdue  all 
your  enemies  under  you,  as  a  friend  to  com- 
fort you,  as  a  bridegroom  to  marry  you,  and 
then  shall  you  with  boldness  and  confidence. 
with   joy   and   gladness,   with   vehement  and 


holy  longings,  say,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus." — 
Grosse. 

CHRIST  TO  JUDGE  THE  WORLD,  The 

Second  Coming  of.— And  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  those  things  zvhich  were  writ- 
ten in  the  books  according  to  their  works. — 
Rev.  xx:  13.  The  judgment  then  to  be  given 
will  be  perfectly  fair,  for  it  will  be  based  on 
the  light  and  opportunities  which  each  one 
has  received.  The  African  savage,  the  slave 
in  Chinatown,  and  the  heathen  at  home  or 
abroad,  who  are  groping  their  way  in  the 
darkness  of  superstition,  will  not  be  judged 
by  the  same  standard  as  the  Christian  who 
walks  in  the  white  light  of  truth.  Whoso 
has  been  offered  the  truth  and  rejects  it  be- 
cause he  prefers  to  walk  in  darkness,  will  be 
strictly  judged.  All  will  appear  before  the 
Son  of  Man,  who  reads  every  heart  and  will 
judge  aright. 

Our  whole  lives  will  be  judged ;  not  a  part 
only.  Do  not  think  we  may  sin  with  im- 
punity now  if  only  we  repent  before  we  die. 
Do  not  suppose  we  may  sow  our  wild  oats 
in  youth  without  a  fearful  reaping  by  and  by. 
Every  sin  committed  enters  into  the  quality 
of  our  character,  and,  even  if  repented  of, 
lessens  our  capacity  for  enjoying  the  spiritual 
delights  of  the  future  state.— Rev.  W.  H. 
MORELAND.      (H.  R.) 

DUTY,  Faithful  to.— During  the  dark 
day  of  1780,  in  Connecticut  the  candles  were 
lighted  in  many  houses,  and  domestic  fowls 
went  to  their  roost.  The  people  thought  the 
day  of  judgment  had  come.  The  legislature 
was  then  in  session  in  Hartford.  The  house 
of  representatives  adjourned.  In  the  council, 
it  was  also  proposed.  Col.  Davenport  ob- 
jected, saying,  "The  day  of  judgment  is 
either  approaching,  or  it  is  not.  If  it  is  not, 
there  is  no  cause  for  adjourning;  if  it  is,  I 
choose  to  be  found  doing  my  duty.  I  wish, 
therefore,  that  candles  may  be  brought." — F.  I. 

FREEDOM,  Watching  for.— In  the  year 
1830,  on  the  night  preceding  the  ist  of  Au- 
gust, the  day  the  slaves  in  our  West-Indian 
colonies  were  to  come  into  possession  of  the 
freedom  promised  them,  many  of  them,  we 
are  told,  never  went  to  bed  at  all.  Thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  them  assembled  in 
their  places  of  worship,  engaging  in  devo- 
tional duties,  and  singing  praises  to  God, 
waiting  for  the  first  streak  of  the  light  of  the 
morning  of  that  day  on  which  they  were  to 
be  made  free.  Some  of  their  number  were 
sent  to  the  hills,  from  which  they  might  ob- 
tain the  first  view  of  the  coming  day,  and,  by 
a  signal,  intimate  to  their  brethren  down  in 
the  valley  the  dawn  of  that  day  that  was  to 
make  them  men,  and  no  longer,  as  they  had 
hitherto  been,  mere  goods  and  chattels, — men 
with  souls  that  God  had  created  to  live  for- 
ever. How  eagerly  must  these  men  have 
watched     for    the     morning! — Rev.     T.     W. 

AVELING. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,    Appeal    to    the.— J 

am  content  to  wait  till  the  judgment-day  for 
the  clearing  up  of  my  character;  and,  after 
I  am  dead,  I  desire  no  other  epitaph  than  this, 


396 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


"Here  lies  George  Whitefield."  What  sort 
of  a  man  he  was  the  great  day  will  discover. 
— Whitefield. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,  Awards  of  the.— 
There  is  a  machine  in  the  Bank  of  England 
which  receives  sovereigns,  as  a  mill  receives 
grain,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  whole- 
sale whether  they  are  of  full  weight.  As  they 
pass  through,  the  machinery,  by  unerring 
laws,  throws  all  that  are  light  to  one  side, 
and  all  that  are  of  full  weight  to  another. 
That  process  is  a  silent  but  solemn  parable 
for  me.  Founded  as  it  is  upon  the  laws  of 
Nature,  it  affords  the  most  vivid  similitude 
of  the  certainty  which  characterizes  the  judg- 
ment of  the  great  day.  There  are  no  mis- 
takes or  partialities  to  which  the  light  may 
trust :  the  only  hope  lies  in  being  of  standard 
weight  before  they  go  in. — Arnot. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,    Certainty  of  the.— 

The  bringing  into  judgment  is  a  thing  which 
is  known  by  reason,  and  is  clear  by  the  light 
of  nature ;  wherefore,  in  Austria,  one  of  the 
nobles  dying,  who  had  lived  fourscore  and 
thirteen  years,  and  had  spent  all  his  life  in 
pleasures  and  delights,  never  being  troubled 
with  any  infirmity,  and  this  being  told  to 
Frederick  the  emperor,  "  From  hence,"  saith 
he,  "  we  may  conclude  the  soul's  immortality; 
for  if  there  be  a  God  that  ruleth  this  world, 
as  divines  and  philosophers  do  teach,  and 
that  He  is  just  no  one  denieth,  surely  there 
arc  other  places  to  which  souls  after  death 
do  go,  and  do  receive  for  their  deeds  either 
reward  or  punishment ;  for  here  we  see  that 
neither  rewards  are  given  to  the  good,  nor 
punishment  to  the  evil." — Brooks. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,    Disclosures   of  the. 

—The  philosophic  historian  i.^  expected  not 
only  to  tell  us  that  certain  events  occurred, 
but  also  to  trace  them  to  their  origin,  and  tell 
how  it  was  they  were  brought  about;  the 
skilful  physician  is  expected  not  only  to  dis- 
cern the  marks  of  disease,  but  also  to  trace 
it  to  its  source,  and  tell  us  what  functions 
are  deranged;  but,  in  arguing  from  the  seen 
and  known  to  the  unseen  and  the  unknown, 
how  often,  how  grievously  do  they  err.  A 
time,  however,  is  coming  when  there  shall  be 
a  great  bringing  together  of  causes  and 
efl'ects,  of  motives  and  actions,  and  when  no 
mistake  shall  be  made— that  time  is  the  judg- 
ment-day; then  it  shall  be  seen  not  only 
what  men  did,  but  why  they  did  it.— Power. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,  Discoursing  on  the. 

— When  Jonathan  Edwards  preached  at  En- 
field, there  was  "  such  a  breathing  of  dis- 
tress," that  he  was  compelled  to  stop,  and 
request  the  people  to  retain  their  composure. 
He  discoursed  on  the  judgment  to  come,  as 
if  he  were  standing  on  "  the  sides  of  eter- 
nity," and  the  people  heard  him  as  if  they 
were  listening  to  the  sound  of  "  the  last 
trump,"  or  to  their  own  sentences  of  con- 
demnation from  the  lips  of  the  Son  of  God. — 

TURNBULL. 

JUDGMENT-DAY,  Universal. — As  some 
go  to  the  assizes  to  receive  their  judgment 


and  condemnation,  and  others  to  give  evi- 
dence against  them ;  so  shall  it  be  at  the  last 
day.  As,  at  the  bar  of  an  earthly  judge,  the 
malefactor  is  brought  out  of  prison,  and  set 
before  the  judge  for  examination;  so,  in  that 
great  day,  shall  every  man,  without  excep- 
tion, be  brought  before  the  Lord  to  be  tried. 
— Cawdray. 

JUDGMENT,  Indifference  to  the.— 
When  Channing  was  a  boy  of  ten  years,  he 
heard  Dr.  Hopkins  preach  a  forcible  sermon 
on  the  reasonableness  of  a  future  judgment. 
He  was  deeply  impressed,  and  expected  his 
father,  who  was  a  deacon  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church,  to  speak  to  him  about  his  soul's 
salvation.  He  did  not  utter  a  word  in  regard 
to  the  sermon,  or  his  danger,  but,  on  reaching 
home,  sat  down  to  read.  Dr.  Channing  says, 
"  I  made  up  my  mind  that  my  father  did  not 
believe  one  word  that  he  had  heard.  He  was 
not  alarmed,  why  should  I  be?  and  I  dis- 
missed the  whole  subject  from  my  thoughts." 
His  father's  thoughtlessness  drove  him  into 
the  ranks  of  heterodoxy,  and  he  became  the 
champion  of  Unitarianism. — F.  H. 

JUDGMENT,  Lesson  of  the. — A  young 
man  who  graduated  at  West  Point  said,  so 
intense  was  the  feeling  and  anxiety  felt  with 
regard  to  the  final  examination  at  the  close 
of  the  course,  that  the  first  scholar  in  his 
class  fainted  and  fell  at  the  first  question 
asked  him.  He  felt  that  his  standing  in  the 
profession  he  had  chosen  was  now  at  stake, 
that  his  future  position  depended  upon  the 
manner  in  which  he  acquitted  himself.  If 
the  loss  or  gain  of  a  little  worldly  distinction 
could  so  move  a  man,  what  must  be  the  feel- 
ing of  the  soul  as  it  stands  alone  at  the  bar 
of  God?  We  shall  be  judged  as  individuals. 
West  Point  honors  are  but  for  the  little  mo- 
ment of  time  here,  but  the  results  of  this 
final  examination  are  for  eternity.  The  cadet 
keeps  this  examination  constantly  in  view. 
He  studies  and  drills  with  the  wrestler's  ear- 
nestness to  attain  a  high  standing  at  the  close. 
How  strange  that  we  so  lose  sight  of  this 
solemn  hour !  There  are  often  mistakes  made 
in  worldly  judgment,  but  there  will  be  no  mis- 
take there. — S.  S.  T. 

JUDGMENT,  Prejudice  in.  —  Nero 
thought  no  person  chaste,  because  he  was  so 
unchaste  himself.  Such  as  are  troubled  with 
the  jaundice  see  all  things  yellow.  Those 
who  are  most  religious,  are  least  censorious. 
"  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's 
servant !  "  Those  who  are  fellow  creatures 
with  men,  should  not  be  fellow  judges  with 
God. — Secker. 

JUDGMENT,     Slighting     the.— A     man 

would  be  counted  a  fool  to  slight  a  judge 
before  whom  he  is  to  have  a  trial  of  his  whole 
estate.  The  trial  we  have  before  God  is  of 
otherwise  importance ;  it  concerns  our  eternal 
happiness  or  misery ;  and  yet  dare  we  affront 
Him? — BuNYAN. 

JUDGMENT,  Storm  of.— As  that  storm 
rears  the  loudest  which  has  been  the  longest 
gathering,  so  God's  reckoning  day  with  sin- 


ADVENT 


397 


ners,  by  being  long  coming,  will  be  the  more 
terrible  when  it  comes. — Guthrie. 

JUDGMENT,  The  Sinner  at  the.— At  the 
day  of  judgment,  the  attention  excited  by  the 
surrounding  scene,  the  strange  aspect  of  na- 
ture, the  dissolution  of  the  elements,  and  the 
last  trump,  will  have  no  other  efifect  than  to 
cause  the  reflections  of  the  sinner  to  return 
with  a  more  overwhelming  tide  on  his  own 
character,  his  sentence,  his  unchanging  des- 
tiny; and  amidst  the  innumerable  millions 
who  surround  him.  he  will  mourn  apart.  It 
is  thus  the  Christian  minister  should  endeavor 
to  prepare  the  tribunal  of  conscience,  and 
turn  the  eyes  of  every  one  of  his  hearers  on 
himself. — Robert  Hall. 

JUDGMENT,  The  Worldling  at  the.— 
Chosroes,  King  of  Persia,  in  conversation 
with  two  philosophers  and  his  vizier,  asked, 
"  What  situation  of  man  is  most  to  be  de- 
plored?" One  of  the  philosophers  main- 
tained that  it  was  old  age,  accompanied  with 
extreme  poverty ;  the  other,  that  it  was  to 
have  the  body  oppressed  by  infirmities,  the 
mind  worn  out,  and  the  heart  broken  by  a 
heavy  series  of  misfortunes.  "  I  know  a  con- 
dition more  to  be  pitied,"  said  the  vizier, 
"  and  it  is  that  of  him  who  has  passed 
through  life  without  doing  good,  and  who, 
unexpectedly  surprised  by  death,  is  sent  to 
appear  before  the  tribunal  of  the  sovereign 
Judge." — Whitecross. 


WORLD,  Destruction  of  the. — The  cool 
night  arrived,  and,  about  half-past  eight,  I 
was  lying  half  asleep.  I  fancied  I  heard  a 
rumbling  like  distant  thunder.  I  had  not 
heard  such  a  sound  for  months ;  but  a  low, 
uninterrupted  roll  appeared  to  increase  in 
volume,  altho  far  distant.  Hardly  had  I 
raised  my  head  to  listen  more  attentively, 
when  a  confusion  of  voices  arose  from  the 
Arab's  camp  with  a  sound  of  many  feet; 
and,  in  a  few  minutes,  they  rushed  into  my 
camp,  shouting  to  my  men  in  the  darkness, 
"El  bahr!  El  bahr!"  "The  river,  the 
river  !  "  We  were  up  in  an  instant ;  and  my 
interpreter,  Mahomed,  in  a  state  of  con- 
fusion, explained  that  the  river  was  coming 
down,  and  that  the  supposed  distant  thunder 
was  the  roar  of  the  approaching  water.  Many 
of  the  people  were  asleep  on  the  clean  sand 
of  the  river's  bed :  these  were  awakened  by 
the  Arabs,  who  rushed  down  the  steep  bank 
to  save  the  skull  of  my  two  hippopotami  that 
were  exposed  to  dry.  Hardly  had  they  de- 
scended, when  the  sound  of  the  river  in  the 
darkness  beneath  told  us  that  the  water  had 
arrived;  and  the  men  had  just  sufficient 
time  to  drag  their  heavy  burdens  up  the  bank. 
All  was  darkness  and  confusion ;  everybody 
was  talking,  and  no  one  listening ;  but  the 
great  event  had  occurred, — the  river  had  ar- 
rived "  like  a  thief  in  the  night,"  as  it  is 
said  the  end  of  the  world  shall  come. — 
Baker. 


POETRY 


Suddenness  of  the  Advent 

By  H.  H.  Milman 

Matthew  xxiv:  ST- 39 

Even  thus  amid  thy  pride  and  luxury, 

O  earth  !  shall  that  last  coming  burst  on  thee, 

That  second  coming  of  the  Son  of  man. 
When    all    the    cherub-throning   clouds    shall 

shine. 
Irradiate  with  His  bright  advancing  sign : 
When  that  Great  Husbandman  shall  wave 

His  fan. 
Sweeping,    like   chaflF,  thy   wealth  and  pomp 

away : 
Still  to  the  noontide  of  that  nightless  day, 
Shalt   thou    thy    wonted    dissolute   course 

maintain. 
Along  the  busy  mart  and  crowded  street. 
The  buyer  and  the  seller  still  shall  meet. 
And    marriage    feasts    begin    their    jocund 

strain : 
Still  to  the  pouring  out  the  cup  of  wo; 
Till  earth,  a  drunkard,  reeling  to  and  fro, 
And  mountains  molten  by  His  burning  feet, 
And  heaven.  His  presence  own,  all  red  with 

furnace  heat. 

The  hundred-gated,  cities,  then, 

The  towers  and  temples,  named  of  men, 

Eternal,  and  the  thrones  of  kings ; 
The  gilded  summer  palaces, 


The  courtly  bowers  of  love  and  ease, 

Where  still  the  bird  of  pleasure  sings: 
Ask  ye  the  destiny  of  them? 
Go  gaze  on  fallen  Jerusalem  ! 
Yea.  mightier  names  are  in  the  fatal  roll, 
'Gainst  earth  and  heaven  God's  standard  is 
unfurled, 
The  skies  are  shriveled  like  a  burning  scroll, 
And  the  vast   common  doom  ensepulchers 
the  world. 

Oh!  who  shall  then  survive? 
Oh!  who  shall  stand  and  live? 

When  all  that  hath  been  is  no  more : 
When  for  the  round  earth  hung  in  air. 
With  all  its  constellations  fair. 
In  the  sky's  azure  canopy : 
When  for  the  breathing  earth,  and  spark- 
ling sea. 

Is  but  a  fiery  deluge  without  shore, 

Heaving  along  the  abyss  profound  and 
dark, 

A  fiery  deluge,  and  without  an  ark. 

Lord  of  all  power,  when  Thou  art  there 

alone 
On  Thy  eternal  fiery-wheeled  throne, 

That  in  its  high  meridian  noon 

Needs  not  the  perished  sun  nor  moon: 
When  Thou  art  there  in  Thy  presiding 

state, 


398 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Wide-sceptered  monarch  o'er  the  realm  of 

doom : 
When   from   the   sea   depths,    from   earth's 
darkest  womb, 
The  dead  of  all  the  ages  round  Thee  wait: 
And    when    the    tribes    of    wickedness    are 
strewn 
Like  forest  leaves  in  the  autumn  of  Thine 
ire: 
Faithful  and  true  Thou  still  wilt  save  Thine 
own ! 
The  saints  shall  dwell  within  th'  unharm- 
ing  fire. 
Each  white    robe    spotless,    blooming  every 
palm. 
Even   safe  as   we,   by   this   still   fountain's 

side, 

So  shall  the  Church,  Thy  bright  and  mystic 

bride. 

Sit  on  the  stormy  gulf  a  halcyon  bird  of  calm. 

Yes,  'mid  yon  angry  and  destroying  signs. 

O'er  us  the  rainbow  of  Thy  mercy  shines, 

We  hail,  we  bless  the  covenant  of  its  beam, 

Almighty  to  avenge,  Almightiest  to  redeem ! 

"Waiting  for  the  Second  Advent 

Anonymous 

What  of  the  night,  watchman,  what  of  the 
night? 
The  wintry  gale  sweeps  by, 
The  thick  shadows  fall,  and  the  night-bird's 
call 
Sounds  mournfully  through  the  sky. 

The  night  is  dark,  it  is  long  and  drear. 

But  who,  while  others  sleep, 
Is  that  little  band,  who  together  stand, 

And  their  patient  vigils  keep? 

All  awake  is  the  strained  eye. 

And  awake  the  listening  ear : 
For  their  Lord  they  wait,  and  watch  at  the 
gate 

His  chariot-wheels  to  hear. 

Long  have  they  waited — that  little  band. 

And  ever  and  anon 
To  fancy's  eye  the  dawn  seemed  nigh. 

The  night  seemed  almost  gone. 

And  often,  through  the  midnight  gale, 
They  thought  they  heard  at  last 

The   sound   of   His   train,   and  they  listened 
again, 
And  the  sound  died  away  on  the  blast. 

Ages  have  rolled,  and  one  by  one 
Those  watchers  have  passed  away; 

They  heard  the  call  on  their  glad  ear  fall, 
And  they  hastened  to  obey. 

And  in  their  place  their  children  stand, 

And  still  their  vigils  keep. 
They  watch  and  pray  for  the  dawn  of  day, 

For  this  is  no  time  for  sleep. 

What  of  the  night,   watchman,  what  of  the 
night? 

Tho  the  wintry  gales  sweep  by, 
When  the  darkest  hour  begins  to  lower 

We  know  that  the  dawn  is  nigh. 


Courage,  ye  servants  of  the  Lord, 

The  night  is  almost  o'er ; 
Your  Master  will  come  and  call  you  home, 

To  weep  and  to  watch  no  more. 

*F.  II. 

Approaching  Advent 

By  Horatius  Bonar 

Revelation  xxii:  20 

He  is  coming;  and  the  tidings 
Are  rolling  wide  and  far ; 

As   light   flows  out  in  gladness, 
From   yon   fair   morning-star. 

He  is  coming ;  and  the  tidings 
Sweep  through  the  willing  air, 

With  hope  that  ends  forever 
Time's  ages  of  despair. 

Old  earth  from  dreams  and  slumber 
Wakes  up  and  says.  Amen ; 

Land  and  ocean  bid  Him  welcome 
Flood  and  forest  join  the  strain. 

He  is  coming ;  and  the  mountains 

Of  Judea  ring  again ; 
Jerusalem  awakens. 

And  shouts  her  glad  Amen. 

He  is  coming;  wastes  of  Horeb, 

Awaken    and    rejoice! 
Hills  of  Moab,  cliffs  of  Edom, 

Lift  the  long  silent  voice ! 

He  is  coming,  sea  of  Sodom, 

To  heal  thy  leprous  brine. 
To  give  back  palm  and  myrtle. 

The  olive  and  the  vine. 

He  is  coming,  blighted  Carmel, 
To  restore  thy  olive  bowers. 

He  is  coming,  faded  Sharon, 
To  give  thee  back  thy  flowers. 

Sons  of  Gentile-trodden  Judah, 
Awake,  behold.  He  comes ! 

Landless  and  kingless  exiles, 
Re-seek  your  long-lost  homes. 

Back  to  your  ancient  valleys 

Which  your  fathers  loved  so  well. 

In  their  now  crumbled  cities 

Let  their  children's  children  dwell. 

Drink  the  last  drop  of  wormwood 
From  your  nation's  bitter  cup; 

The  bitterest  but  the  latest. 
Make  haste  and  drink  it  up. 

For  He  thy  true  Messiah, 
Thine  own  anointed  King, 

He  comes,  in  love  and  glory, 
Thy  endless  joy  to  bring. 

Yes,  He  thy  King  is  coming 
To  end  thy  woes  and  wrongs, 

To  give  thee  joy  for  mourning. 
To  turn  thy  sighs  to  songs; 


ADVENT 


399 


To  dry  the  tears  of  ages, 
To  give  thee    as  of  old, 

The  diadem  of  beauty, 
The  crown  of  purest  gold; 

To  lift  thee  from  thy  sadness. 
To  set  thee  on  the  throne, 

Messiah's  chosen  nation, 
His  best-beloved  one. 

The  stain  and  dust  of  exile 
To  wipe  from  thy  weary  feet; 

With  songs  of  glorious  triumph 
Thy  glad  return  to  greet. 


*F.  II. 
Advent  Hymn 
By  F.  B.  D. 

I  John  in:  2 

"  We  shall  see  Him  as  He  is," 

Not  as  once  He  came  to  earth, 
When  the  angel  chorus  sang, 
At  His  lowly  human  birth. 

Seated  on  the  eternal  throne, 
On  His  vesture  and  His  thigh. 

Is  a  name  forever  writ. 
Holiness  to  God  Most  High. 

Yet  the  pierced  hand  is  there, 

And  the  wound-print  in  His  side. 

Whence  there  flows  the  healing  stream, 
In  a  never  ending  tide. 

Very  God  and  very  man, 

Thus  He  rose  from  Judah's  plain. 
Thus  He  lives  and  reigns  on  high, 

Thus  at  last  He  comes  again. 

Sing  we  then  with  joyful  song, 
Tho  His  form  on  earth  we  miss. 

Be  the  waiting  short  or  long, 

"  We  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." — E. 

Prayer  for  the  Advent 

By  Horatius  Bonar 

Revelation  xxii:  20 

The  Church  has  waited  long. 

Her  absent  Lord  to  see ; 
And  still  in  loneliness  she  waits, 

A  friendless  stranger  she. 

Age  after  age  has  gone. 

Sun  after  sun   has   set, 
And  still,  in  weeds  of  widowhood. 

She  weeps,   a   mourner  yet. 

Come,  then,   Lord  Jesus,  come  I 

Saint   after   saint  on   earth 

Has  lived  and  loved  and  died; 
And  as  they  left  us  one  by  one, 

We  laid  them   side  by  side. 

We  laid  them  down  to  sleep, 

But  not   in  hope  forlorn ; 
We  laid  them  but  to  ripen  there, 

Till  the  last  glorious  morn. 

Come,  then,  Lord  Jesus,  come ! 


The  serpent's  brood  increase. 

The  powers  of  hell  grow  bold. 
The  conflict  thickens,  faith  is  low, 

And  love  is  waxing  cold. 

How  long,  O  Lord  our  God ! 

Holy  and  true  and  good. 
Wilt  Thou  not  judge  Thy  suffering  Church 

Her  sighs  and  tears  and  blood? 

Come,  then,  Lord  Jesus  come ! 

We  long  to  hear  Thy  voice, 

To  see  Thee  face  to  face. 
To  share  Thy  crown  and  glory  then, 

As  now  we  share  Thy  grace. 

Should  not  the  loving  bride 

Her  absent  bridegroom  mourn  ? 
Should  she  not  wear  the  signs  of  grief 

Until  her  Lord  return? 

Come,  then.  Lord  Jesus  come ! 

The  whole  creation  groans, 

And  waits  to  hear  that  voice, 
That  shall  restore  her  comeliness, 

And  make  her  wastes  rejoice. 

Come,  Lord,  and  wipe  away 

The  curse,  the  sin,  the  stain, 
And  make  this  blighted  world  of  ours 

Thine  own  fair  world  again. 

Come,  then.  Lord  Jesus,  come! 

*F.  II. 

The  First  Sunday  in  Advent 

By  John  Keble 

Now  it  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep: 
for  now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  zvhen 
we  believed. — Rom.  xiii:  11. 

Awake !  again  the  gospel-trump  is  blown. 
From  year  to  year   it   swells    with   louder 

tone. 
From  year  to  year  the  signs  of  wrath 
Are  gathering  round  the  Judge's  path, 
Strange   words    fulfilled,    and   mighty   works 

achieved. 
And  truth  in  all  the  world  both  haled  and 
believed. 

Awake !  why  linger  in  the  gorgeous  town. 

Sworn    liegemen    of    the    Cross    and    thorny 

crown? 

Up  from  your  beds  of  sloth  for  shame. 

Speed  to  the  eastern  mount  like  flame. 

Nor   wonder,    should   ye   find   your   King   in 

tears, 
Even  with  the  loud  Hosanna  ringing  in  His 
ears. 

Alas !  no  need  to  rouse  them :  long  ago 

They  are  gone  forth  to  swell  Messiah's  show : 

With   glittering   robes   and   garlands   sweet 

They  strew  the  ground  beneath  His  feet : 

All  but  your  hearts  are  there — O  doom'd  to 

prove 
The  arrows  winged  in  Heaven  for  Faith  that 
will  not  love ! 

Meanwhile    He    paces    through    the    adoring 
crowd. 

Calm  as  the  march  of  some  majestic  cloud 
That  o'er  wild  scenes  of  ocean  war 
Holds  its  still  course  in  heaven  afar : 


400 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Even  so,  heart-searching  Lord,  as  years  roll 
on, 

Thou  keepest  silent  watch  from  Thy  trium- 
phal throne : 

Even  so,  the  world  is  thronging  round  to 
gaze 

On  the   dread  vision  of  the  latter   days, 
Constrained  to  own  Thee,  but  in  heart 
Prepared  to  take  Barabbas'  part : 

"  Hosanna  "   now,   to-morrow   "  Crucify," 

The  changeful  burden  still  of  their  rude  law- 
less cry. 

Yet  in  that  throng  of  selfish  hearts  untrue 

Thy  sad  eye  rests  upon  Thy  faithful  few; 
Children  and  childlike  souls  are  there, 
Blind  Bartimeus'  humble  prayer. 

And  Lazarus  wakened  from  his  four  days' 
sleep, 

Enduring  life  again,  that  Passover  to  keep. 

And  fast  beside  the  olive-bordered  way 
Stands  the  blest  home  where  Jesus  deigned 
to  stay, 
The  peaceful  home,  to  Zeal  sincere 
And  heavenly   Contemplation  dear. 
When  Martha  loved  to  wait  with  reverence 

meet. 
And  wiser  Mary  lingered  at  Thy  sacred  feet. 

Still  through  decaying  ages  as  they  glide, 
Thou  lovest  Thy  chosen  remnant  to  divide ; 
Sprinkled  along  the  waste  of  years 
Full  many  a  soft  green  isle  appears : 
Pause  where  we  may  upon  the  desert  road. 
Some   shelter  is   in   sight,    some   sacred   safe 
abode. 

When    withering   blasts   of   error    swept   the 

sky,* 
And  Love's  last  flower  seemed  fain  to  droop 
and  die, 
How  sweet,  how  lone  the  ray  benign 
On  sheltered  nooks  of  Palestine ! 
Then  to  his  early  home  did  Love  repair.f  _ 
And    cheered    his    sickening    heart    with    his 
own  native  air. 

Years  roll  away !  again  the  tide  of  crime 
Has   swept  Thy  footsteps   from  the  favored 
clime, 
Where  shall  the  holy  Cross  find  rest? 
On  a  crowned  monarch's  mailed  breast,  t 
Like    some    bright    angel    o'er    the    darkling 

scene, 
Through  court  and  camp  he  holds  his  heaven- 
ward course  serene. 

A  fouler  vision  yet ;  an  age  of  light. 
Light    without    love,    glares    on    the    aching 
sight : 
O  who  can  tell  how  calm  and  sweet, 
Meek  Walton !    shows  thy  green  retreat,^ 
W^hen  wearied  with  the  tale  thy  times  dis- 
close. 
The   eye   first   finds   thee   out   in   thy   secure 


repose ; 


♦  Arianism  in  the  fourth  century.  t 

X  St.  Louis  in  the 


Thus  bad  and  good  their   several   warnings 

give 
Of  His  approach,  whom  none  may  see  and 
live : 
Faith's  ear,  with  awful  still  delight. 
Counts  them  like  minute-bells  at  night,     • 
Keeping  the  heart  awake  till  dawn  of  morn, 
While  to  her  funeral  pile  this  aged  world  is 
borne. 

But  what  are  Heaven's  alarms  to  hearts  that 

cower 
In  wilful  slumber,  deepening  every  hour, 
That  draw  their  curtains  closer  round, 
The  nearer  swells  the  trumpet's  sound! 
Lord,  ere  our  trembling  lamps  sink  down  and 

die. 
Touch  us  with  chastening  hand,  and  make  us 
feel  Thee  nigh. 

Two  Advents 

By  William  C.  Doane 

He  came  not  with  His  heavenly  crown,  His 

scepter  clad  with  power : 
His  coming  was  in  feebleness,  the  infant  of 

an  hour; 
An  humble  manger  cradled,  first,  the  Virgin's 

holy  birth. 
And    lowing    herds    companioned    there    the 

Lord  of  heaven  and  earth. 

He  came  not  in  His  robe  of  wrath,  with  arm 

outstretched  to  slay. 
But  on  the  darkling  paths  of  earth  to  pour 

celestial  day ; 
To   guide   in  peace   the   wandering  feet,   the 

broken  heart  to  bind ; 
And   bear,   upon   the  painful   cross,   the  sins 

of  human  kind. 

Yet  once  again  Thy  sign  shall  be  upon  the 

heavens  displayed, 
And    earth    and    its    inhabitants    be    terribly 

afraid ; 
For  not  in  weakness  clad  Thou  com'st  our 

woes,  our  sins,  to  bear. 
But  girt   with  all   Thy   Father's  might.   His 

vengeance  to  declare. 

The    terrors    of    that    awful    day,    oh !    who 

shall  understand? 
Or    who    abide    when    Thou    in    wrath    shalt 

lift  Thy  holy  hand? 
The   earth    shall    quake,    the   sea    shall    roar, 

the  sun  in  heaven  grow  pale. 
But  Thou  hast  sworn,  and  wilt  not  change, 

Thy  faithful  will  not  fail. 

Then  grant  us,  Savior !  so  to  pass  our  time 
in  trembling  here, 

That  when  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven  Thy 
glory  shall  appear, 

Uplifting  high  our  joyful  heads  in  triumph 
we  may  rise. 

And  enter,  with  Thine  angel  train,  Thy  tem- 
ple, in  the  skies! 

See  St.  Jerome's  Works,  i.  123.    Edit.  Erasm. 
thirteenth  century. 


ADVENT 


401 


Dies  Irae 

Tr.  by  William  J.  Irons 

Day  of  wrath  !  O  day  of  mourning  ! 
See  once  more  the  cross  returning, 
Heaven  and  earth  to  ashes  burning ! 

0  what  fear  man's  bosom  rendeth, 
When  from  heaven  the  Judge  descendeth, 
On  whose  sentence  all  dependeth ! 

Wondrous  sound  the  trumpet  flingeth ; 
Through  earth's  sepulchers  it  ringeth; 
All  before  the  throne  it  bringeth. 
Death  is  struck,  and  nature  quaking, 
All  creation  is  awaking, 
To  its  Judge  an  answer  making. 

What  shall  I,  frail  man,  be  pleading? 
Who  for  me  be  interceding. 
When  the  just  are  mercy  needing? 
King  of  majesty  tremendous. 
Who  dost  free  salvation  send  us, 
Fount  of  pity !  then  befriend  us ! 

Think,  good  Jesus,  my  salvation 

Cost  Thy  wondrous  incarnation ; 

Leave  me  not  to  reprobation ! 

Faint  and  weary  Thou  hast  sought  me. 

On  the  cross  of  suffering  bought  me. 

Shall    such    grace    be    vainly    brought    n: 

Day  of  sorrows,  day  of  weeping, 
when,  in  dust  no  longer  sleeping, 
Man  awakes  in  Thy  dread  keeping ! 
To  the  rest  Thou  didst  prepare  him ; 
By  Thy  cross,  O  Christ,  upbear  him ; 
Spare,  O  God,  in  mercy  spare  him. 

The  Voice  of  Jesus 

Anonymous 

1  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say 
"Go  thro',  go  throf'  the  gates: 

A  work  of  faith,  a  work  of  love 

For  thee  outside  awaits." 
I  left  my  ease,  I  left  my  sloth, 

I  left  my  trifling  care ; 
I  found  my  work  upon  the  way 

And  He  has  met  me  there. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say — 

"  Prepare  for  all  a  road 
That  wandering  feet  may  gladly  turn 

And  find  their  way  to  God." 
I  sought  my  task,  my  lot  I  found, 

I  spake  of  Him  the  Way 
The  Truth,  the  Life,  the  All  in  all : 

The  words  He  bade  me  say. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say — 

"  Cast  up,  cast  up  the  path ; 
That  all  who  will  may  enter  in 

The  covert  from  God's  wrath." 
The  flesh  was  weak,  the  toil  was  long, 

But  strength  was  close  at  hand, 
And  on  the  path  the  wanderers  came 

A  joyous,  sheltered  band. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say — 

"  The  stones  afar  cast  out ; 
No  stumbling  blocks  to  work  offense 

Leave  thou  in  Zion's  route." 


. 1, 

The   stones   lay  thick,  both  great  and  small 

The  workers  were  but  few ; 
I  looked  above,  a  helping  host 

Of  angels  met  my  view. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say — 

"  The  standard  lift  on  high, 
That  all  may  see  the  Savior,  God, 

Who  came  to  earth  to  die." 
I  spake  no  more  of  self  or  cares. 

Of  joys  or  worldly  goal: 
I  spake  of  Christ,  the  living  Bread, 

And  He  has  fed  my  soul. — E. 

The  Judgment 

By  Martin  Luther 

Great  God,  what  do  I  see  and  hear! 

The  end  of  things  created ! 
The  Judge  of  mankind  doth  appear 

On  clouds  of  glory  seated  ! 
The  trumpet  sounds ;  the  graves  restore 
The  dead  which  they  contained  before ; 

Prepare,  my  soul,  to  meet  Him ! 

The  dead  in  Christ  shall  first  arise 

At  the  last  trumpet's  sounding. 
Caught  up  to  meet  Him  in  the  skies. 

With  joy  their  Lord  surrounding: 
No  gloomy   fears  their   souls   dismay. 
His  presence  sheds  eternal  day 

On  those  prepared  to  meet  Him. 

But  sinners,   filled  with  guilty  fears. 

Behold  His  wrath  prevailing; 
For  they  shall  rise,  and  find  their  tears 

And  sighs  are  unavailing: 
The  day  of  grace  is  past  and  gone ; 
Trembling,  they  stand  before  the  throne, 

All  unprepared  to  meet  Him. 

Great  God,  to  Thee  my  spirit  clings, 

Thy  boundless  love  declaring. 
One  wondrous  sight  my  comfort  brings. 

The  Judge  my  nature  wearing. 
Beneath  His  cross  I  view  the  day 
When    Heaven    and    earth    shall    pass    away, 

And  thus  prepare  to  meet  Him. 

The  Coining  of  the  King 

By  Susan  Coolidge 

Slowly  the  night  draws  on  to  dawn ; 

Slowly  the  darkness  thins  and  pales ; 
And  faint  gray  lines,  all  silver-drawn, 

Creep  shimmering  through  the  misty  veils. 
The  pallor  of  the  new-born  day 

Flushes  to  rose-bloom,   deepening  slow : 
Then,  suddenly,  a  long,  bright  ray 

Of  bannered  gold  waves  to  and  fro. 
As  signaling  a  guest :  "  Make  room ; 
The  King  is  coming !  " — Let  Him  come. 


Slowly  the  dim  eyes  of  the  heart. 
The  heart  too  young  to  know  the 

Tremble,  and  open  with  a  start. 
To  find  its  day  of  life  begun. 

Amazed  and  tremulous,  it  sees 
The  glory  grow,  the  passion  stir, 


sun, 


402 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


And  rouses  from  its  childish  peace 

To  greet  the  unknown  visitor, 
Half  happy,  half  amazed  and  dumb: 
"  The  King  is  coming !  " — Let  Him  come ! 

Slowly  the  closed  eyes  of  the  soul, 

The  soul  which  long  in  sleep  has  lain, 
Open,  to  find  a  new  control, 

A  mastery  blent  of  joy  and  pain. 
Compelling,  strenuous,  urgent,  kind, 

Has  dawned  upon  its  drowsy  skies, 
And  starting  up  from  slumber  blind, 

With  lips  made  newly  eloquent,  cries 
(Life  pulsing  in  the  veins  once  numb), 
"  The  King  is  coming !     Let  Him  come !  " 

Slowly  the  eyes  that  love  the  light 

Perceive  that  light  is  on  the  wane. 
And.   shivering,  through  the  growing  night 

Confront  the  darkling  shade  of  pain; 
Confront  a  dim-seen,  hovering  shape. 

With  eyes  inexorable  and  dread. 
And  grasp  from  which  is  no  escape; 

But  still  Faith  rears  her  dauntless  head. 
And  cries,  tho  flesh  and  heart  be  dumb, 
"  The  King  is  coming !     Let  Him  come !  " 

G.  R. 

Come  to  TJs,  Lord 
By  Margaret  E.  Sangster 

Come   to    us.    Lord,    as    the    daylight    comes 
When  the  darkling  night  has  gone, 

And  the  quickened  East  is  tremulous 
With  the  thrill  of  the  wakened  dawn. 

Come  to  us,  Lord,  as  the  tide  comes  in 
With  the  waves  from  the  distant  sea ; 

Come,  till  our  desert  places  smile. 
And  our  souls  are  filled  with  Thee. 

Come  to  us,  Lord,  on  our  beds  of  pain. 

And  soothe  the  fevered  smart ; 
Come  to  our  grief  and  our  loneliness, 

And  pillow  our  heads  on  Thy  heart. 

Come  to   us.    Lord   when  the  tempter  dares 

Our  faltering  faith  to  smite ; 
Come,  that  the  powers  of  Satan  then 

May  haste  to  take  their  flight. 

Come  to  us.  Lord,  we  watch  for  Thee; 

We  shall  never  feel  surprise, 
If  sudden  we  lift  our  eyes  and  see 

The  dayspring  o'er  us  rise. — C.  G. 

The  New  Pentecost 

By   William    E.    Barton 

Every   man   heard   them   speak   in   his   own 
language. — Acts  ii:  6 

"  Multae  terricolis  linguae,  coelestibus  una." 

From  lands  afar  the  story 

To-day  we  gladly  hear. 
Of  Pentecostal  glory 

That  brings  the  kingdom  near; 
How   men   of   every   nation 

Hear  gladly  preached  and  sung 
The   message   of   salvation. 

Each  in  his  native  tongue. 


O  lands  that  greet  the  dawning 

Of  heaven's  glad  orb  of  day, 
Too  long  for  this  glad  morning 

In  darkness  still  ye  stay ! 
From  all  your  plains  and  highlands 

Let  Jesus'    praise  be   rung ! 
Praise  Him,  all  shores  and  islands, 

Each  in  your  native  tongue  ! 

From  every  land  they  gather, 

The  thousands  round  the  throne; 
Children  of  one  same  Father, 

One  language  there  is  known. 
Yet  earthly  songs  ascending 

All  blend  in  heaven  above 
With  anthems  there  unending 

In  one  glad  song  of  love. — C.  E.  W. 

Our  Lord's  Return 

By  Rev.  A.   N.  Raven 

Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  not  what  hour 
your   Lord    doth    come. — Matt,    xxiv:  42 

When  the  morn  of  life  is  beaming 
And  our  hearts  are  full  of  joy. 
And  we  long  for  some  endeavor 
Which  shall  all  our  powers  employ ; 
When  'tis  sweet  to  live  with  dear  ones 
Round  about  us  in  our  home. 
We  should  watch  as  He  commanded 
For  perhaps  our  Lord  will  come. 

When  our  sun  has  reached  the  zenith 

Of  its  glory  and  its  power. 

And  the  fruits  of  toil  are  ripening 

From  the  early  bud  and  flower, 

When  we  stand  at  life's  bright  noontide, 

Ere  decline  has  yet  begun, 

We  should  watch  as  He  commanded 

For  perhaps  our  Lord  will  come. 

When  the  golden  sun  is  sinking 
'Neath   the  rosy-tinted  west. 
And  we're  standing  on  the  border 
Of  the  land  of  peace  and  rest, 
When  the  eye,  undimmed  by  watcl'ing. 
Looks  toward  our  eternal   home. 
We  should  watch  as  He  commanded 
For  perhaps  our  Lord  will  come. 

If  we  watch  for  His  appearing 

We  shall  never  watch  in  vain, 

For  He  promised  His  disciples 

He  would  surely  come  again  ; 

Tho  our  eyes  may  not  behold  Him 

Coming  with  the  angel  throng. 

In  our  hearts  He  is  begotten 

While  we  watch  with  prayer  and  song. 

If  His  coming  be  at  morning. 

At  the  noontide  or  the  night. 

May  He  find  His  children  watching 

In  the  thickest  of  the  fight ; 

With   our   faces   turned   toward   Zion 

Let  us  watch  and  labor  on. 

Never  doubting  or  discouraged. 

Knowing  that  our  Lord  will  come. 


CHRISTMAS 


403 


CHRISTMAS 

(December) 

CHRISTMAS  is  a  Christian  festival  celebrated  in  memory  of  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Originally  we  find  the  feast  was  celebrated  by  the  Eastern  Church 
as  Epiphania,  January  6,  and  by  the  Western  Church  as  Natalis,  December  25. 
While  December  25  was  in  all  probability  not  the  actual  date  of  Christ's  birth, 
its  selection  by  the  Western  Church  was  by  no  means  arbitrary. 

Precisely  at  this  season  of  the  year  occurred  a  series  of  Pagan  festivals,  closely 
connected  with  the  civil  and  social  life  of  the  Romans,  and  from  the  nature  of 
their  observance,  easily  capable  of  being  spiritualized  and  made  symbolic.  This 
series  culminated  in  the  festival  of  the  winter  solstice,  the  birthday  of  the  new 
sun  about  to  return  once  more  toward  the  earth.  In  this  feast  the  transition  to 
the  Christian  point  of  view  easily  presented  itself,  and  hence  it  came  about  that 
in  the  Christian  cycle  of  holidays  December- 25  was  set  to  celebrate  the  birthday 
of  Jesus,  the  Sun  of  the  spiritual  world  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  away  Christian 
people  from  heathen  festivities,  and  of  purifying  eventually  these  heathen  customs 
and  ideas. 

In  the  fourth  century,  through  the  influence  of  Chrysostom,  it  is  believed,  the 
Eastern  Church  transferred  its  celebration  to  the  same  date,  and  the  day  being 
thus  uniformly  accepted,  Christmas  became  one  of  the  three  great  annual  festivals 
of  the  Church. 


CHRISTMAS,  HISTORIC  AND  LEGENDARY 


For  several  centuries  after  the  birth  of 
Jesus  Christ,  Christmas.,  our  happiest  season, 
was  to  His  followers  one  of  heroic  ordeal. 
His  birthday  was  first  celebrated  in  the 
second  century,  it  is  said,  by  order  of  Teles- 
phorus,  seventh  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  shortly 
after  suffered  martyrdom,  the  observance  of 
the  anniversary  of  Christ's  nativity  being  one 
of  his  offenses.  But  tho  the  initiator  of  the 
observance  died,  the  observance  lived — lived 
through  flame  and  sword.  After  two  hun- 
dred years,  in  the  reign  of  Diocletian  we 
read  of  a  vast  multitude  of  Christians  as- 
sembled.— of  windows  and  doors  barred  by 
the  Pagan  emperor's  order — of  torches  ap- 
plied to  the  crowded  building,  and  the  burn- 
ing alive  of  hundreds  of  worshipers  as- 
sembled to  celebrate  the  birthday  of  Christ. 

Six  hundred  years  after  the  martyrdom  of 
the  man  who  is  reported  to  have  instituted 
the  Christmas  observance,  the  man  to  whom 
tradition  assigns  the  ideas  of  the  Christmas 
tree  suffered  a  like  fate  at  the  hands  of  the 
Pagan  tribes  of  Germany. 

The  legend  of  St.  Boniface  and  the  first 
Christmas  tree  has  been  beautifully  told.  The 
scene  lives  before  us  : — the  wintry  night,  the 
swelling  hillock  crowned  with  the  great  oak 
tree — the  "  Thunder  Oak,"  sacred  to  the  Pa- 
gan god,  Thor, — the  tongues  of  ruddy  flame, 
the  fountains  of  ruby  sparks  from  the  great 
fire  kindled   near  the   altar  at  its   foot,   the 


curved  ranks  of  white-clad  warriors,  women 
and  children  facing  the  altar,  the  hoary  High 
Priest  and  kneeling  child — the  victim  doomed 
to  die  by  the  blow  of  the  hammer,  a  sacrifice 
to  Thor,  the  Hammerer. 

Then  the  coming  of  Boniface,  the  blow 
from  the  Hammer  turned  aside  by  the  Cross, 
the  rescue  of  the  boy,  the  fall  of  the  oak  be- 
fore the  mighty  blows  of  the  apostle,  the 
story  of  Jesus  simply  told  and  how  sin,  not 
human  life,  is  the  sacrifice  He  asks. 

"  '  And  here,'  said  the  apostle,  as  his  eyes 
fell  on  a  young  fir  tree,  standing  straight  and 
green  with  its  top  pointing  towiard  the  stars, 
amid  the  divided  ruins  of  the  fallen  oak, 
'  here  is  the  living  tree,  with  no  stain  of 
blood  upon  it,  that  shall  be  the  sign  of  your 
new  worship.  See  how  it  points  to  the  sky. 
Let  us  call  it  the  tree  of  the  Christ-child. 
Take  it  up  and  carry  it  to  the  Chieftain's 
hall,  for  this  is  the  birth-night  of  the  White 
Christ.  You  shall  go  no  more  into  the 
shadows  of  the  forest  to  keep  your  feasts 
with  secret  rites  of  shame.  You  shall  keep 
them  at  home  with  laughter  and  song  and 
rites  of  love.'  " 

Thus  did  "  the  hour  of  darkness,  the  power 
of  winter,  of  sacrifice,  and  mighty  fear  " 
vanish  before  the  glad  radiance  of  redeem- 
ing love,  and  the  Pagan  oak,  whose  roots 
were  fed  with  blood,  fall  before  the  fir  tree 
which  "  points  to  the  stars." — P.  Tid. 


404 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


CHRISTMAS  AT  BETHLEHEM 


By  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.D. 


I  remember  sitting  on  one  of  the  old  marble 
pillars  lying  now,  for  who  knows  how  many- 
centuries,  on  the  open  ground  beside  the 
Church  of  the  Nativity  at  Beth- 
The  Hori-  lehem,  and  letting  my  thoughts 
zon  near  wander  back  till  the  haze  of  mil- 
Bethlehem  lenniums  sent  them  home  to  me 
again,  like  Noah's  dove,  wearied 
with  vain  attempts  to  find  anything,  in  those 
dim  regions,  on  which  to  alight.  The  horizon 
must  have  been  very  much  the  same  ever 
since  the  age  when  the  soft  white  chalky 
limestone  which  once  covered  all  Palestine, 
from  Lebanon  to  the  southern  desert,  fell  in 
a  snow-like  shower  of  microscopic  particles, 
through  the  waters  of  the  then  superincum- 
bent ocean,  and  in  the  course  of  untold 
thousands  of  years  heaped  up  the  strata 
which  gave  Lebanon  its  name, — the  White 
Mountains, — and  sealed  all  Palestine  besides 
under  the  same  pure  winding-sheet. 

Since    then    the    chalky    sandstone    of    the 
coast  plain  has  been  deposited,  and  the  curi- 
ous "  nummulite  "   limestone  which  runs  be- 
hind  it,    sweeping   on   round   what 
The      remains   of   the   earlier    soft   lime- 
Lime-     stone  of  Lebanon,  to  the  edge  of 
stone    the  plateau  of  the  Sinai  mountains, 
and  off  into  Egvpt,  to  yield,  long 
eons   after,   the    stone   made   up   of   coin-like 
fossils,   which  built   the   Pyramids,   and   gave 
the  stone  itself  its  name — "  nummus."  mean- 
ing "  money."    But  all  t'^ese  beds  are  washed 
away  from  Central   Palestine,  excepting  at  a 
spot   round   Kadesh,   where   Moses   encamped 
so  long,   about   fifty   miles   south   of  Hebron. 
To-day,   Bethlehem   sits  high   up.  on  the  flat 
top  of  a  narrow  ridge  of  this  soft  limestone, 
white  as  milk,  when  fresh  cut,  as  one  sees  in 
the  walls  of  the  nicely  built,  flat-roofed,  one- 
story  houses  of  the  village. 

When  we  first  hear  of  this  old  place,  the 
landscape  must  have  shown  the  same  table- 
land, sawn  into  valleys  by  the  winter  storms 
of  millions  of  years  ;  the  hills  thus 
The       left  rounded  atop  by  long  weather- 
Land-     ing ;   the  valleys  small  but  fertile ; 
scape     the    prospect    everywhere    one    of 
height   beyond   height,   all   running 
up,  however,  to  nearly  the  same  level,  except 
to  the  east,  where  the  country  sinks  in  great 
steps,   from   ancient  volcanic  disturbance,   to- 
wards   the    Dead    Sea ;    here,    white ;    there, 
brown    with    thin   herbage    and    shrubs ;    and 
yonder,  light  yellow.     Fifteen  miles  off,  east- 
ward, and  more  than  four  thousand  feet  be- 
low Bethlehem,  the  deep  blue  waters  of  the 
Dead   Sea  have  met  the  eye  ever  since  man 
existed,  to  look  down  on  them,  while  to  the 
southeast  the  utterly  barren  hills  of  the  wil- 
derness  of   Judea,    thickly    seamed    with    fis- 
sures  and   narrow   gorges  and   ravines,   have 
been  desolate  and  uninviting  for  as  long. 


We  first   meet   with   Bethlehem   in  human 

story   to   find    ourselves   beside    the   tents    of 

Jacob,  as  he  bears  out,  atnidst  loud  wailing, 

the  loved  form  of  Rachel,  the  joy 

The       of  his  life,  to  lay  her  in  the  grave 

Tomb  which  one  still  sees  marked  by  a 
of         square,    rough-stone,    low,    domed 

Rachel  building,  at  the  side  of  the  road, 
even  then  the  same  as  now,  just 
before  it  turns  to  the  left  in  a  white,  scarped 
bend,  to  go  into  Bethlehem.  Jesus  must  often 
have  passed  it,  never,  we  inay  be  sure,  with- 
out a  tender  thought  for  her  who  lay  sleep- 
ing there,  amidst  her  children,  so  many  cen- 
turies. 

The   next   picture   of  this   old-world  place 

we  have  is   when   Naomi,   with   her  husband 

and  two  sons,  is  forced  to  leave  it,  the  failure 

of  the  rains  having  made  living 

Naomi  in  it  beyond  their  means,  in  spite 
and  Ruth  of  its  name — Bethlehem,  "  The 
House  of  Bread."  In  Moab, 
across  the  Jordan,  and  behind  the  Dead  Sea, 
a  long  journey  for  the  famished  villagers, 
they  were  to  find  the  humble  maintenance 
which  their  own  mountain  home  could  not, 
for  the  time,  yield.  Then  comes  the  story 
of  the  return  of  Naomi  and  Ruth,  leaving 
the  dear  forms  of  husband  and  sons  in  the 
graves  of  their  temporary  land  of  refuge. 
But  the  cloud  lifts  after  they  have  reached 
the  loved  hamlet,  with  its  sweet  little  valleys 
on  both  north  and  south,  and  the  breezy  air 
of  its  height,  nearly  three  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea ;  which,  however,  lies  beyond  their 
horizon  about  forty  miles  to  the  west.  The 
episode  of  Ruth's  courtship  of  Boaz.  their 
marriage,  and  her  connection,  in  consequence, 
with  the  noblest  annals  of  Judah,  as  ances- 
tress of  David,  keeps  Bethlehem  still  in  our 
view.  Then  we  see  the  town  fathers — the 
elders — in  terror  at  the  sudden  appearance 
of  the  judge,  Samuel;  but  he  appeases  their 
fears  without  telling  them  his  real  errand, 
and  leaves,  after  having  anointed  David  as 
successor  to  Saul,  whose  sons  were  thus 
superseded  and  whose  dynasty  was  forever 
set  aside. 

There  is,  and  could  have  been,  at  any  time, 

only    one    long    winding    row    of    houses    in 

Bethlehem,    tho    a    second    short    street,    or 

rather  line  of   isolated  buildings, 

The         modest     enough,     runs     parallel 

Country  with  this  for  a  little  way,  side 
of  David  openings  leading  froin  the  one 
to  the  other.  The  ridge  is  too 
narrow  for  any  change  in  the  limits  of  the 
village.  We  may  fancy  young  David  grow- 
ing up  in  this  sequestered  spot ;  wandering 
as  a  boy  into  the  valleys  on  each  side ;  away, 
east,  along  that  on  the  north  side  of  it,  to  the 
upward  slope,  to  be  called,  ages  after,  the 
Hill  of  Shepherds,  as  famous  for  the  vision 


CHRISTMAS 


405 


of  angels  on  the  Christmas  that  saw  the  birth 
of  the  Savior.  Or  he  may  have  strayed  up 
the  sides  of  the  hills,  towards  the  then 
Jebusite  town  of  Jerusalem,  or,  on  the  south, 
down  the  long-drawn  glen  that  leads  to- 
wards Hebron,  the  flowers,  the  bird?,  and  the 
butterflies  pleasing  the  child  as  well  then  as 
they  do  his  successors  of  similar  age  to-day. 
To  see  these  little  Bethlehemites  at  play  be- 
fore the  Church  of  the  Nativity  carried  back 
my  thoughts  to  the  time  when  the  boys  of 
Jesse  were  happy  on  the  same  spot,  with  the 
same  childish  light-heartedness,  amidst  the 
same  landscape ;  they  so  long  vanished ;  it 
the  same  as  when  they  were  busy  with  their 
boyish  games  ! 

But  the  time  was  to  come  when  a  greater 
than  David,  tho  sprung  from  his  "  root,"  was 
to  make  Bethlehem  sacred  forever  by  His 
birth,  within  its  humble  bounds. 
The  Date  The  exact  time  of  the  nativity  of 
of  Christ's  Christ  can  never  be  known,  for 
Birth  it  has  been  disputed  from  the 
earliest  ages  of  the  Church.  The 
twenty-fifth  day  of  December,  which  was  at 
last  accepted  as  the  date  on  which  it  should 
be  celebrated,  has  little  in  its  favor  beyond 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  day  on  which,  in 
antiquity,  the  return  of  the  sun  from  its  win- 
ter absence  was  kept,  such  a  festivity,  as  it 
well  appeared,  suiting  the  feast  of  the  nativ- 
ity of  Him  who  was  to  be  the  Light  of  the 
World,  the  victorious  Sun  of  righteousness, 
rising  on  a  world  long  sunk  in  darkness  to 
restore  spiritual  day  to  mankind.  It  could 
hardly  have  been  at  that  season,  however,  for 
such  a  time  would  surely  not  have  been 
chosen  by  the  authorities  for  a  public  enrol- 
m.ent,  which  necessitated  the  population's 
traveling  from  all  parts  to  their  natal  dis- 
tricts, storms  and  rain  making  journeys  both 
unsafe  and  unpleasant  in  winter,  except  in 
specially  favorable  years.  Snow  is  not  at  all 
uncommon  at  Jerusalem  in  the  winter 
months,  and  I  have  even  known  it  so  deep 
that  people  lost  their  way  outside  the  gates, 
and  Bethlehem  lies  even  higher  than  the 
Holy  City.  Then  there  is  no  provision  for 
heating  houses  in  Palestine,  and  the  suffering 
from  cold  is,  in  proportion,  great,  especially 
to  a  population  accustomed  to  great  heat  for 
most  of  the  year.  One  knows  how  wretched 
even  Rome  is  in  winter,  and  Palestine  is 
much  worse  during  hard  weather.  Nor  is  it 
likely  that  shepherds  would  lie  out  through 
the  night,  except  during  unseasonably  fine 
weather. 

But  it  matters  little  on  what  precise  day 
the  Savior  deigned  to  take  our  nature  upon 
Him ;  the  great  thing  is  to  commemorate  the 
amazing  event  on  some  day  accepted  by 
Christians  at  large. 

Mary's  journey  from  Nazareth  was  a  long 
one,  and  must  have  been  made  easier,  we  may 
suppose,  as  such  family  journeys  are  still,  by 
the  services  of  an  ass, — the  general  riding- 
beast  of  Palestine  since  the  earliest  times. 
Simple  food,  of  bread,  with  figs,  and  perhaps 
the  soft  cheese  of  the  country,  would  be 
enough;     water    sufficing    for    drink,    except 


where  hospitality  offered  a  cup  of  the  wine 
then  made  by  nearly  all  households. 

We   must   not,   moreover,   think   of   Joseph 

seeking   out    an    inn   at    Bethlehem^    for   inns 

were  unknown  ainong  the  Jews,  and   indeed 

useless,    where   the    only   accom- 

The         modation    usually    required    was 

Events      leave  to  sleep  on  the  floor,  or  on 

Following  one's  own  mat  brought  with  him 

the  Birth  —as   in   the   khans   we   still   find 

over  the  East.     It  was  a  sacred 

obligation  on  every  Jew  to  give  shelter  to  his 

countryman   when  on   a   journey,   and  hence, 

instead   of   "  an   inn,"    the   real   sense   of   the 

gospel  is  that  there  was  no  room  in  any  house 

for  the  weary  Nazarene  "  to  loosen  "  the  girth 

of  the  ass  and  make  his  stay  there. 

A  Hebrew  house  in  those  days  would  be 

like  a  peasant's  house  now :    a  living-room  of 

four  walls  and  a  bare  floor,  which  served  for 

sleeping  on  at  night  and  for  eat- 

A  Hebrew  ing  on  by  day.     No  one  sits  in 

House  the  house  except  in  bad  weather, 
so  that  the  open  air  serves  for  ? 
gossiping-place,  the  ground  being  the  usual 
seat  of  a  cross-legged  Oriental  to  this  day. 
Behind  the  living  part  of  the  house  there  is 
a  somewhat  lower  floor,  also  of  mud,  this 
part  of  the  establishment  being  given  over  to 
the  household  ass,  a  goat  or  two,  or  perhaps 
a  sheep,  and  to  the  poultry  of  the  house- 
mother. 

In  a  place  built,  like  Bethlehem,  in  many 

cases,  against  the  soft  limestone  rock,  it  often 

happens  that  the  existence  of  a  cave,   where 

the  house  was  to  be,  was  a  great 

Where  attraction,  since  it  offered  a 
Christ  ready-made,  dry,  above-ground 
Was  Born  cellar,  as  well  as  a  specially 
suitable  spot  for  the  household 
animals  and  for  a  storeroom.  It  would  seem 
that  Joseph  was  at  last  able  to  get  room  in 
some  such  back  portion  of  a  house,  and  there, 
we  are  told,  Mary  bore  her  divine  Son.  A 
cave,  below  the  high  altar  of  the  Church  of 
the  Nativity,  is  now  shown  as  the  very  place 
where  this  august  event  transpired ;  a  little 
recess,  shaped  like  a  clam-shell,  its  floor  of 
marble  wrought  into  a  star  in  the  center, 
bearing  in  Latin  the  words,  "  Here  Jesus 
Christ  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary."  A 
row  of  lamps  hangs  round  the  outer  edge, 
the  right  to  attend  to  them  being  a  jealously 
watched  matter,  each  of  the  ancient  churches, 
the  Greek,  the  Latin,  the  Armenian,  and,  I 
think,  the  Coptic,  having  one  or  more  of 
these  under  their  care.  , 

The  evidence  for  this  site  is  so  strong  that 
I,  for  one,  accept  it  as  sufficient,  reaching  up, 
as  it  does,  to  within  living  memory  of  the 
days  of  the  apostles.  But  even  if  this  be  an 
illusion,  the  fact  remains  that  in  this  petty 
village  the  Savior  of  the  world  was  tnade 
man  for  our  redemption.  No  wonder  that 
we  read  of  the  anthem  of  the  angels,  for 
surely  nothing  could  draw  forth  the  in- 
terest of  the  heavenly  population  like  the 
exceeding  grace  God  was  showing  to  sinful 
man. 

The  scene  of  the  visit  to  the  shepherds  is 


4o6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


pointed  out  as  on  a  rough  slope,  facing  the 
village,  at  some  distance  to  the  east,  Bethle- 
hem   lying,    far    above,    on    its 
The        mountain-seat.     One   can   follow 
Journey    the  shepherds  in  their  journey  to 
of  the       see     the     unspeakable     wonder. 
Shepherds  They    would    go   along    the    rich 
valley  of  Boaz,  and  then  up  the 
terraced  hill,  by  a  path  still  in  use ;    nor  is  it 
uninstructive    to    reflect    that,    while    simple 


shepherds  were  led  by  angels  to  the  manger, 
the  High-Priests  and  the  great  of  Jerusalem, 
so  near,  slept  through  that  most  illustrious 
night  of  all  history,  quite  unconscious  of 
what  had  happened.  But  we  know  of  it ; 
and  may  God  grant  that  if  we  cannot  go  with 
the  shepherds  to  Bethlehem,  we  may,  one 
day,  go  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  wor- 
ship Him  there,  who  that  night  lay,  a  little 
child,  in  Mary's  arms ! 


CHRISTMAS  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE 


By  Cyrus  Hamlin,  D.D. 


There  are  more  kinds  of  Christmases  bril- 
liantly kept  in  the  great  Osmanli  Capital  than 
in  any  city  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge. 
It    is   a  day  to   which   even  the 
The        Moslems     are     lenient,     because, 
Moslems    altho  hostile  to  Christians,  they 
and        honor  Jesus ;   and  Mohammedan 
Christ      theology    maintained    the    sinless 
birth    of    Mary,    the    mother    of 
Jesus,  centuries  before  it  was  adopted  in  the 
Romish  Church.     The  message  of  the  angel 
to  Mary,  as  given  in  the  third  Sura  of  the 
Koran,    is,    "  O    Mary,    verily    God    sendeth 
thee  good   tidings,   that  thou   shalt  bear  the 
Word,  proceeding  from  Himself.     His  name 
shall  be  Christ  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary,  hon- 
orable in  this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come, 
and  one  of  those  who  approach  near  to  the 
presence  of  God."     There  is  no  other  Chris- 
tian festival  to  which  the  Moslems  look  with 
the  same  regard  as  to  that  which  celebrates 
the  birth  of  "  Christ  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary." 
I  will  sketch,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the  four 
chief   Christmases   of   the    Capital,   and   they 
will    stand    for    the    observances    throughout 
the   Empire. 

First  comes  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  with 
its    numerous     large,     magnificent    churches. 
The    Christmas   adorning   of   these    churches 
can    hardly    be    excelled    in    any 
The        part   of  the   world.     The   supply 
Christmas  of    flowers    of    every    hue    and 
of    the      vines     of     every     leaf     is     inex- 
Roman    haustible.     The      open      gardens 
Catholics   still    yield    a    rich    variety,    and 
the    conservatories    of    the    rich 
refuse   none   of   their   treasures.     The    large 
numbers  of  the  clergy,   the  Brothers  of   St. 
Paul,  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  crowds  of 
volunteers,  soon  transform  the  churches  with 
the  most  gorgeous  array  of  flowers  and  vines. 
The  splendid  procession  of  boys  and  of  maid- 
ens from  the  schools  and  nunneries,  the  vari- 
ous religious  associations  with  their  banners 
and  badges,  make  the  scene  a  gorgeous  one. 
It  is  more  magnificent  than  any  mere  floral 
exhibition  can  be ;  for  you  see  at  every  step 
that   it   is   religious.     You   meet   everywhere 
the  Virgin   and  the   Child,   in   statues,   statu- 
ettes, and  paintings.     They  are  embowered  in 
floral   chapels,    or    in    side    chapels    of  the 
churches.      Before    them    are    clouds    of    in- 
cense and    crowds    of    prostrate   suppliants. 


Theatrical  display,  religious  fervor,  and  the 
jovialities  of  youth  are  all  commingled.  But 
above  all  this  is  the  music.  The  Roman 
Church  is  never  wanting  in  the  attraction  of 
glorious  music.  The  hymns,  being  in  Latin, 
cannot  be  enjoyed  by  a  Protestant  without 
the  book,  and  with  the  book  he  is  astounded 
at  the  worship  offered  to  the  Virgin. 

After   church    service,    which    occupies    the 
morning   hours,   come   the    Christmas    social- 
ities.    They    are    like    our    Thanksgiving    so- 
cialities,  with  the   added   excite- 
Christmas  ment  of  gifts  to  all  the  children. 
Pleasures   Nor  are  the  poor  by  any  means 
neglected.     The    evening    is    de- 
voted to  balls,  to  the  theater,  and  to  carous- 
ings  which  often  have  an  unpleasant  ending. 
As    the    Greek    Church    retains    the    "  Old 
Style,"    her    Christmas    comes    twelve    days 
later.     It  is  quite  different  from 
The  Christ-  the     Christmas     of     the     Latin 
mas  of  the  Church.     The  clergy  of  the  Lat- 
Greek       in    Church    are    chiefly    Italians 
Church     and   French,   educated  at  Rome. 
They    control    the    fashions    and 
forms  of  their  Church. 

The  Greek  Church  is  purely  Oriental :  and, 
altho  it  is  making  great  progress  in  general 
cultivation,  its  Christmas  is  very  different,  or 
at  least  zvas,  some  twenty  years  ago ;  I  have 
not  entered  a  Greek  Church  in  the  midst  of  its 
joyous  Christmas  festivities  at  a  later  date.  Its 
devotion  to  the  worship  of  the  Virgin,  how- 
ever, is  quite  equal  to  that  of  the  Latin  Church. 
There  is  a  large,  wealthy,  and  higlily  cul- 
tivated Greek  society  in  Constantinople,  and 
also  an  immense  population  of  the  common 
people.  It  is  the  multitude  that  governs 
Christmas.  If  their  churches  are  less  elabo- 
rately adorned,  it  is  a  matter  of  necessity. 
For  the  crowd  is  compact,  and  fills  every  part. 
The  "  congregation  joins  "  in  the  Christmas 
hymn.  An  immense  volume  of  sound  is 
poured  forth ;  but  how  much  artistic  music 
there  is,  I  am  not  prepared  to  judge. 

Every  man  and  every  woman  holds  a 
lighted  wax  taper.  You  are  expected  to  buy 
one  on  entering ;  and,  with  this  in  your  hand, 
your  orthodoxy  will  not  be  questioned.  The 
smoke  and  dripping  of  the  candles  make  the 
atmosphere  nearly  suffocating;  but  everybody 
is  joyous  and  happy,  without  a  thought  of 
suffocation. 


CHRISTMAS 


407 


For  boys  it  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
our  Fourth  of  July.  They  begin  soon  after 
midnight  to  fire  oflf  crackers  and  pistols,  but 
not  in  the  Turkish  quarter.  They  also  play 
shy  of  the  police,  except  within  the  courts  of 
the  churche.-,  which,  being  surrounded  by 
high  walls,  give  a  free  space  for  "  scaring 
away  the  devil !  "  This  is  the  declared  pur- 
pose of  the  firing.  To  interdict  it  wholly 
would  be  religious  persecution !  The  boys 
evidently  "  go  in  "  for  making  a  noise.  It  is 
their  "  Fourth,"  and  they  improve  it. 

I  once  entered  the  great  Greek  Church  of 
Galata,  in  the  very  height  of  the  celebration, 
to  find  a  physician.  A  short  cannon  was  be- 
ing fired,  every  few  minutes,  in  the  court; 
and  the  concussion,  under  the  high  walls,  was 
anything  but  pleasant.  Fiery  serpents  some- 
times went  hissing  among  the  crowd,  to  their 
no  small  annoyance.  As  every  Greek  knew 
the  doctor  whom  I  wanted.  I  worked  through 
the  mass  of  people,  asking  for  him.  At 
length  I  found  him  with  a  tall  candle  in  his 
hand,  singing  as  lustily  as  any  of  them.  I 
was  glad  to  escape  with  only  a  moderate  drip 
of  tallow  and  wax. 

After    church    the    social    interchanges    are 

very  pleasant.     Presents   of  fruit,   cake,   and 

flowers   are   sent   from   house   to 

Christmas  house;     and    the    poor    are    not 

Pleasures   left     without     a     good     dinner. 

There  is  perfect  abandon  in  the 

Greek  multitude  and  perfect  good  nature. 

In  the  evening  the  wine-shops  are  crowded, 
and  there  is  much  drinking  and  jollity,  with, 
of  course,  the  results  which  always,  in  every 
land,  follow  excessive  drinking. 

The  Armenian  Church  has  its  own  Christ- 
mas.    In   general    dogma   and   worship   it   is 
the   same   with   the   Greek;    but 
The        it    holds    to    its    own    language, 
Christmas  national     customs,     and     nation- 
of  the      ality.     Its     Christmas     is     more 
Armenian  sober.     As   a    race,    the    Armen- 
and         ians   are   less  given  to   extrava- 
Bulgarian  gances.     As    a    social    and    jolly 
Churches  time,  it  is  equally  pleasant  with 

the  Greek  Christmas. 
And  now  the  Bulgarians,  having  their  own 
churches  and  their  own  language — the  Slavic 
— have  their  own  Christmas  as  separate  as 
possible  from  all  others.  Thus  we  have  four 
Christmases — the  Latin,  the  Greek,  the  Arme- 
nian, and  the  Bulgarian — as  entirely  separate 


as  though  a  thousand  miles  intervened.  In 
all  these  the  Virgin  Mary  is  worshiped. 

There  is  one  more  Christmas,  which,  in 
time,  accords  wilh  the  Latin.  It  is  the  Prot- 
estant Christmas. 

Many    years    ago,    outside    the    Episcopal 

Church,    we    paid    very    little    attention    to 

Christmas.      But   we   have   changed  all   that. 

We    now   enter    into   the   joy   of 

The        the    Christian    world,    and    in    a 

Protestant  much  more  reasonable  way.     In 

Christmas  the    East,    I   think,    we   all    keep 

Christmas,  and  keep  it  joyfully. 

I  will  describe  it  as  kept  in  our  missionary 

families.     Others — English,   German,   French 

— keep  it  in  the  same  general  way. 

Dr.  Schauffler's  house  was  the  central 
Christmas  house  for  all  who  could  unite  their 
families  with  his.  As  a  German,  he  entered 
into  it  with  all  the  love  and  memories  of  the 
Fatherland.  In  preparation  one  room  would 
be  closed  and  locked  some  days  before  Christ- 
mas. No  child  could  enter  or  pry  into  it. 
When  the  children  were  all  away  or  in  bed 
the  mysterious  preparations  were  made. 

The  Christmas  tree  stood  in  the  center, 
reaching  the  ceiling,  its  branches  adorned 
with  festoons  of  tinsel,  multitudinous  tapers, 
and  gifts  for  every  child.  The  bigger  chil- 
dren— all  became  children  then— also  had' 
many  choice  presents  for  one  another.  There 
were  little  side  shows  to  please  the  children  ;  a. 
grotto;  a  castle  among  the  hills,  with  a  lake- 
let in  which  white  swans  were  floating.  These 
would  remain  for  days  after  the  tree  was 
taken  away,  to  be  the  delight  of  all  visitors. 

The  evening  comes.  The  children,  old  and 
young,  assemble.  First,  they  repeat  Christ- 
mas passages  which  they  have  learned  from 
the  Old  and  New  Testament,  also  hymns. 
Christmas  songs  are  sung.  Dr.  Schauffler 
talks  in  his  inimitable  way  to  the  children, 
and  offers  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving.  Then 
the  door  is  opened,  and  the  eager  children, 
almost  awe-struck,  enter.  Exclamations  of  de- 
light burst  from  their  lips.  The  scenic  won- 
ders are  admired,  and  then  the  distribution 
begins,  amid  shouts  of  merriment  and  ex- 
pressions of  gratitude.  At  length  the  work 
is  done,  and  calm  succeeds.  Perhaps  the 
oldest  ore  present  tells  a  pleasant  story  of  his 
boyhood.  The  Doxology  is  sung,  and  the 
happy  crowd  disperses. 

Such  Christmases  leave  memories  for  all 
the  remainder  of  this  earthly  life. — C.  U. 


CHRISTMAS  CUSTOMS  THE  WORLD  AROUND 

By  Will  M.  Clemens 


There    is     always     something    fascinating 

about  the  folklore  of  the  seasons ;  and  when 

such    legends    are    based    upon 

Quaint     pleasant    conceits,    they    become 

Ideas  in     of  double  interest.     Despite  the 

Ungland    whirligig  of  time,   the  good  old 

and         traditions    linger    with    us. 
Scotland        A    quaint    belief,    peculiar    to 
England,  holds  that  any  person 


turning  a  mattress  on  Christmas  Day  will 
die  within  a  year;  but  it  is  praiseworthy  to 
bake  bread  on  Christmas  Eve,  and  loaves 
baked  then  will  never  go  moldy. 

The  Scotch  hold  it  to  be  very  unlucky  for 
any  but  a  dark-haired  person  to  first  cross 
the  threshold  on  Christmas  Day,  the  reason 
assigned  being  that  Judas  had  red  hair!  In 
parts   of  Lancashire,  and  in   Worcestershire 


4o8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


and  Gloucestershire,  no  one  would  dream  of 
giving  matches,  fire,  or  light  out  of  a  house 
on  Christmas  Day ;  but  what  trouble  is  to 
ensue  if  the  rule  be  violated  is  not  very 
clear. 

Of  course  bees  are  not  exempt  from  special 
observance.  They  must  be  wished  the  com- 
pliments of  the  season  in  the  same  way  that 
they  are  told  of  births  and  deaths ;  and  a 
sprig  of  holly  must  adorn  the  hive,  just  as 
white  ribbon  or  crape  does  duty  upon  other 
occasions.  Devonshire  folk  say  that  the  bees 
sing  all  night  through  on  Christmas  Eve ; 
but  as  bees  are  seldom  quiet,  there  is  nothing 
remarkable  about  that. 

All  over  England  and  Wales  some  grace- 
ful tradition  prevails,  not  the  least  touching 
being  the  pretty  general  belief  amongst  coun- 
try folk  that  persons  who  die  upon  Christmas 
Eve  are  certain  of  immediate  and  eternal 
happiness. 

In  Germany,  on  Christmas  Eve,  the  whole 
household  prepares  for  church,  where  a  sim- 
ple but  impressive  service  is  always  held. 
The  worshipers  are  always  armed 
In  with    lighted    candles,    and    the 

Germany  first  comer  will  find  the  Church 
in  darkness.  He  places  his 
lighted  candle  before  him ;  and,  as  one  after 
another  appears,  fresh  candles  flash  out,  till 
the  building  resembles  a  large  parterre  of 
single  flames.  The  service  over,  the  season 
is  supposed  to  have  fairly  begun,  and  Christ- 
mas greetings  are  heard  on  every  side. 

In  Sweden  and  Norway  the  "  Julafred,"  or 

peace   of    Christmas,    is    publicly    proclaimed. 

Quite  early  in  the  day  the  children  hasten  to 

the    churches,    which    are   appro- 

In  Nor-     priately  decorated,  and  later  the 

■way  and    adults  attend.     The  time  out-of- 

Sweden  mind  custom  of  telling  stories 
and  legends  around  a  blazing 
hearth  is  still  most  popular,  and  a  really  good 
raconteur  is  ever  welcome.  Both  Norwegians 
and  Swedes  are  noted  for  their  hospitality, 
which  extends  not  only  to  domestic  pets  but 
to  wild  birds  : — 


"  From    gable,    barn,   and    stable 
Protrudes  the  birdie's  table 
Spread  with  a  sheaf  of  corn." 

A  like  custom  of  feeding  the  birds  prevails 
also  in  Switzerland,  Montenegro,  and  other 
places. 

At  Lyons,  in  France,  it  has  long  been  the 
rule  for  the  first  infant  received  at  the  Found- 
ling Hospital   on   Christmas   Day  to  be   wel- 
comed   with    special    honor.     A 
In  France  handsome  cradle  is  in  readiness, 
softest  clothing  is  provided,  and 
the  kindest  solicitude  is  evinced.    The  object 
of  the  ceremony  is  to  mark  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  lot  of  the   Savior  and  one  of  the 
most  helpless  and  forlorn  of  His  creatures  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  the  great 
renunciation.     It   is   a   lesson   in   charity   that 
is  not  lightly  forgotten. 

A  very  singular  custom  prevails  in  Servia 

and    Bulgaria    amongst   the   orthodox.      If   it 

can   possibly   be   avoided,    no    one   crosses   a 

strange   threshold   on   the   morn- 

In  Servia  ing  of  Christmas  Day. 

and  An   early   ceremony   has  to  be 

Bulgaria  performed  by  the  head  of  each 
household.  Before  breakfast  is 
thought  of,  corn  is  placed  in  a  stocking,  and 
the  chief  of  the  family  sprinkles  a  little  be- 
fore the  house  door,  saying,  "  Christ  is 
born ;  "  to  which  one  of  the  inmates  replies, 
"  He  is  born  indeed.''  Then  the  house-father 
has  to  "  wish,"  and,  advancing  to  the  hearth, 
where  logs  are  burning  in  readiness,  strikes 
them  till  sparks  fly  out,  with  a  good  wish  for 
the  horses,  another  for  the  cows,  another  for 
the  goats,  and  so  on  through  the  whole  farm- 
ing stock,  winding  up  with  an  extra  blow  for 
a  plenteous  harvest.  Then  the  ashes  are  col- 
lected, a  coin  is  placed  amongst  them,  and 
the  whole  is  hidden,  or.  in  some  districts, 
burned.  As  for  the  Yule  logs,  they  are  not 
permitted  to  smolder  quite  away,  but  are 
carefully  garnered,  and  the  burnt  ends  placed 
in  clefts  of  the  fruit-trees,  so  as  to  ensure  a 
bountiful  crop. — G.  R. 


QUEER  CHRISTMAS  CUSTOMS 


Among  the  Christmas  observances  that 
grew  up  by  degrees  all  over  Europe,  many 
of  them  grotesque  and  absurd,  and  some  with 
profuse  and  unseemly  accompaniments,  were 
also  not  a  few  of  a  more  pleasing  and  human- 
izing kind,  and  among  the  rural  population 
the  brute  creation  was  included  as  interested 
parties.     Shakespeare  tells  how 

"  Some    say    that    ever,    'gainst    that    season 
comes. 
Wherein  our  Savior's  birth  is  celebrated. 
The   bird     of    dawning     singeth     all    night 
long." 

Among  the  fancies  of  this  kind  that  long- 
est survived  in  Europe,  and  even  became 
naturalized  in  our  own  prosaic  land,  was  one 
that  the  cattle,  at  one  o'clock  on  Christmas 


morning,  whenever  they  were  free  to  do  so, 
would  turn  their  heads  to  the  eastward,  and 
get  down  upon  their  knees  to  worship  the 
King  that  was  born  in  a  stable ;  and  still 
another,  which  continued  to  comparatively  re- 
cent times,  that  during  the  Qiristmas  season 
the  barnyard 'cocks  were  accustomed  to  crow 
with  more  than  usual  force  and  frequency, 
both  by  day  and  by  night. 

The  early  inhabitants  of  the  great  Scan- 
dinavian peninsula  were  accustomed  to  cele- 
brate, at  this  season,  the  great  festival  of 
their  gods.  When  the  people  of  the  peninsula 
become  Christians,  altho  no  less  zealous  for 
their  Christmas  observances,  they  retained 
some  of  the  old  practices,  and  are  to  this  day 
careful  to  associate  with  themselves  in  its 
festivities    every    living    thing    about    them. 


CHRISTMAS 


409 


The  author  of  The  Land  of  the  Midnight 
Sun  tells  us,  in  his  account  of  a  Christmas 
in  Norway : 

"  The  Christmas  feeding  of  the  birds  is 
prevalent  in  many  of  the  provinces  of  Nor- 
way and  Sweden.  Bunches  of  oats  are  placed 
on  the  roofs  of  houi^es,  on  trees  and  fences, 
for  them  to  feed  upon.  Two  or  three  days 
before,  cartloads  of  sheaves  are  brought  into 
the  towns  for  this  purpose,  and  both  rich  and 
poor  buy  and  place  them  everywhere.  Every 
poor  man  and  every  head  of  a  family  had 
saved  a  penny  or  two,  or  even  one  farthing, 


to  buy  a  bunch  of  oats  for  the  birds  to  have 
their  Christmas.  On  this  day,  on  many 
farms,  the  dear  old  horse,  the  young  colt, 
the  cattle,  the  sheep,  the  goats,  and  even  the 
pig  receive  double  their  usual  amount  of  food. 
It  is  a  beautiful  custom,  and  speaks  well  for 
the  natural  goodness  of  heart  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian." 

But  our  matter-of-fact  times  and  modes  of 
thinking  are  rapidly  driving  away  all  of  these 
pleasant  illusions,  until  nations  as  well  as  in- 
dividuals have  reason  sometimes  to  sigh  to . 
be  children  again. — S.  C. 


NOEL 


MIDNIGHT  MASS  AT  THE  MADELEINE 

By  Mrs.  A.  M.  Gardiner 


The  night  is  set  with  stars.  All  the  eve- 
ning the  Place  de  la  Madeleine  has  been 
thronged  with  merry  Christmas  folk,  eager 
to  assist  at  the  gorgeous  ceremony  of  the 
Midnight  Mass. 

The  place  which  surrounds  this  temple — 
modeled  after  the  Greek  Parthenon — is 
bounded  by  the  grand  boulevards,  and  is  the 
center-piece  of  modern  Paris.  On  almost  any 
day,  standing  here,  you  may  see  men  and 
women  from  every  civilized  clime ;  but  to- 
night, under  the  canopy  of  the  stars,  and 
amid  the  blaze  of  electric  burners,  there  is 
gathered  a  host  that  comes  but  once  a  year. 

It  is  nearing  the  solemn  hour  of  mid- 
night, and  the  people  await  the  opening  of 
the  portals.  Ah !  there  is  the  signal  light 
from  within,  and.  pressing  forward,  the  mul- 
titude ascend  the  marble  stairs.  There  is 
neither  noise  nor  confusion,  and  the  large 
concourse  is  seated  without  apparent  aid  or 
suggestion. 

Precisely  as  the  great  clock  on  the  boule- 
vard rings  on  the  crisp  air  its  twelve  notes, 
announcing  the  midnight  hour,  the  lights  of 
the  temple  flash  upon  our  vision,  and,  simul- 
taneously, the  grand  organ  thunders  trium- 
phant welcome. 

The  interior  of  the  Madeleine  is  a  work  of 
high  art.  In  form  it  is  a  vast  parallelogram, 
without  nave  or  transept.  The  walls  are  po- 
etic frescoes.  The  ceiling,  too  lofty  to  be 
studied  from  the  main  floor,  reveals  its  glories 
of  brush  and  coloring  to  the  few  who  have 
received  cards  for  the  narrow  side  galleries, 
that  are  opened  only  on  the  occasion  of  high 
festivals.  The  altar  is  studded  with  burn- 
ing candles  and  generous  flowers  that  mingle 
their  perfumes  with  the  holy  incense.  One 
hundred  surpHced  boys  chant  the  measured 
music  that  precedes  the  celebration.  The 
priests,  clad  in  richest  vestments,  approach 
the  shrine  of  their  devotions.  Away  to  the 
left  of  the  altar  a  sound  comes  floating  to- 
ward the  people.  Is  it  voice  of  man  or  spirit 
that  fills  the  mighty  space  with  a  melody 
that  rises  and  falls  in  sweetest  cadence?    We 


catch  a  single  word,  "  Bethlehem."  It  is 
not  spoken.  It  is  a  cry,  an  exultant  cry.  A 
chorus  of  trained  singers  now  breaks  forth 
in  that  matchless  refrain : 

"  Venite  adoremus,  venite  adoremus, 
Venite  adoremus,  Dominum." 

Again  the  solo  is  carried  with  harp  and 
flute  from  what  seems  to  be  the  very  altar ; 
and,  again,  responsive  from  organ-loft,  comes 
the  swell  of  the  grand  chorus.  It  is  the 
hymn.  "  Adeste  Fideles,"  sung  for  centuries 
on  Christmas  morning.  It  is  one  of  those 
grand  old  hymns  that  is  married  to  one 
melody;  we  know  it  everywhere  as  the  Por- 
tuguese. And  now  the  gospel  recitation  of 
"  Peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men  "  is 
harmoniously  chanted  by  the  priests.  It  is 
the  story  of  "  Jesus  and  His  love."  How  the 
shepherds  watched  by  night,  how  the  miracu- 
lous Star  "  stood  over  the  place  where  the 
young  child  lay,"  how  the  wise  men  brought 
gifts  of  gold,  frankincense  and  myrrh,  and 
how  in  a  manger  cradle  is  fulfilled  that  glori- 
ous prophecy,  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born, 
unto  us  a  son  is  given." 

Brilliant  and  subdued  is  the  great  congre- 
gation. We  are  in  Judea.  The  soul  is  hushed 
in  adoration.  We  have  found  a  common 
shrine,  Jesus,  unto  whom  "  every  knee  shall 
bow."  And  now  the  silence  opens  and  the 
Benedictus  is  sung,  standing.  Slowly  the 
massive  doors  swing  backward.  A  refresh- 
ing breeze  tells  us  that  there  is  an  outer 
world.  But  we  are  in  no  haste  to  depart. 
Memories,  thick  as  flowers,  cluster  around 
the  service,  while  at  every  step,  some  mosaic 
or  a  fresco  of  surpassing  beauty  challenges 
the  eye.  And  so,  as  we  come  to  the  very 
portal  we  discover  that  the  army  of  wor- 
shipers has  departed,  and  we  stand  gazing 
out  into  the  clear-cut  atmosphere,  beholding 
a  scene  down  the  Rue  Royale  and  out  upon 
the  boulevards  that  can  only  be  witnessed  in 
the  early  morn  of  Christmas  in  the  streets  of 
the  City  of  Paris. — I. 


4IO 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


THE  CHIMES 


By  David  James  Burrell,  D.D. 


"  For  unto  us  a  Child  is  born,  unto  us  a 
Son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall  be 
upon  his  shoulders ;  and  his  name  shall  be 
called  Wonderful,  Counselor,  the  mighty 
God,  the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of 
Peace." 

"  Ring  out,   wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky, 
The  flying  cloud,  the  frosty  night !  .  .  . 
Ring  out,  wild  bells !  " 

Long  ago — seven  hundred  years  before 
the  first  Christmas — it  was  the  darkest  hour 
of  the  night — stars  fading;  people  groping 
like  the  blind,  stumbling,  falling ;  lights  out 
in  the  sanctuary ;  no  open  vision ;  silence :  a 
prophet  standing  with  his  face  toward  the 
east,  shading  his  eyes. 

Hark !  The  clear  note  of  a  bell ;  again  and 
again ;  five  times  it  strikes  the  air.  In  the 
distance  it  is  answered  by  the  song  of  an- 
gels. And  now  the  shadows  flee  before  the 
sun  !    Welcome  the  day ! 

"  Joy  to  the  world,  the  Lord  has  come ! 
Let  earth  receive  her  King !  " 

First  bell:  "  His  name  shall  be  called  Won- 
derful !  "  Here  is  mystery  at  the  threshold  of 
life ;  as  it  is  written,  "  Great  is  the  mystery 
of  godliness,  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh.'" 
In  Lerolle's  "  Nativity "  a  group  of  rustics 
stand  peering  in  at  the  stable  door,  overawed, 
agape.  So  stand  we  all  before  this  marvel : 
"  The  angels  desire  to  look  into  it."  Nor 
does  the  wonder  cease  as  the  Christ-child 
grows  in  wisdom  and  stature.  His  life  is  as 
unique  as  His  person;  His  doctrine  bewil- 
ders; His  death  is  strangest  of  all.  Daniel 
Webster,  on  being  asked  whether  he  under- 
stood Christ,  answered:  "  No,  how  should  I? 
I  could  not  believe  in  Him  if  I  understood 
Him."  It  is  easier  for  the  infinite  to  be  bound 
with  swaddling  bands  than  to  come  within 
the  compass  of  a  finite  mind.  Can  a  man 
hold  the  ocean  in  his  palm?  God  is  always 
wonderful,  whether  He  dwells  in  glory  un- 
approachable or  in  a  carpenter's  shop; 
whether  He  thunders  from  Sinai  or  sleeps 
upon  His  mother's  breast. 

Second  bell:  "  His  name  shall  be  called 
Counselor ! "  Many  a  soul  bewildered  at 
life's  crossroads  gives  grateful  heed  to  the 
sweet  reverberation  of  this  bell.  The  world 
needs  guidance.  "  We  are  floating  on  a  raft 
upon  an  open  sea,"  said  Plato ;  "  whence  we 
came  or  whither  we  go  we  know  not."  We 
dream  dreams  and  see  visions ;  we  face  great 
problems  and  entertain  glorious  hopes ;  but. 
What  is  truth?  There  is  a  path  which  no 
fowl  knoweth  and  which  the  vulture's  eye 
hath    not    seen.      Where    shall    wisdom    be 


found?  A  voice  from  Heaven  answers: 
"  This  is  my  beloved  Son.  Hear  ye  him." 
He  teacheth  not  as  the  scribes,  but  with  au- 
thority. Here  is  no  if  or  perhaps,  but 
"  verily,  verily."  Never  man  spake  like  this 
Man.  Blessed  Counselor !  Is  sin  the  bur- 
den? He  lifts  it.  Are  our  eyes  blinded  with 
sorrow?  He  gives  the  garment  of  praise  for 
the  spirit  of  heaviness.  Are  we  troubled  by 
"  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment?  " 
Hear  Him :  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled, 
neither  let  it  be  afraid."  Blessed  Counselor, 
Thou  givest  liberally  and  upbraidest  not ! 

Third  bell:  A  deep,  majestic  note — "  He 
shall  be  called  the  mighty  God !  "  If  ever 
the  polemic  argument  for  Christ's  divinity 
is  in  order  it  is  surely  not  here  nor  now. 
There  is  a  better  way  at  Christmas  tide.  The 
air  is  laden  with  the  truth,  "  Emmanuel,  God 
with  us."  A  bright  morning  asks  no  explana- 
tion, calls  for  no  analysis  of  light.  It  is 
enough  that  the  shadows  flee  away,  that  birds 
awake,  that  flowers  glisten  with  the  dew, 
that  the  sun  "  flames  in  the  forehead  of  the 
sky."  What  means  this  gathering  at  the 
family  board,  this  laughter  of  children,  this 
sweet  content,  this  glorious  freedom,  if  not 
that  the  Sun  of  Righteousness — the  mighty 
God — hath  risen  upon  us  with  healing  in  His 
beams  ? 

Fourth  bell:  "  He  shall  be  called  the  ever- 
lasting Father !  "  The  heart  longs  for  a 
glimpse  of  the  ineffable  One ;  but  no  man 
hath  ever  seen  God.  He  makes  Himself 
visible,  however,  in  the  person  of  His  Son. 
Jesus  said : 

"  If  ye  had  known  me,  ye  should  have 
known  my  Father  also.  Philip  saith  unto 
him :  Lord,  show  us  the  Father  and  it  suffi- 
ceth  us.  Jesus  saith :  Have  I  been  so  long 
time  with  you  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known 
me,  Philip?  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen 
the  Father.  Believest  thou  not  that  I  am  in 
the  Father  and  the  Father  in  me?  '" 

It  was  observed  by  Madame  de  Stael  that 
"  if  the  Founder  of  Christianity  had  done 
no  more  than  to  say  '  Our  Father  which  art 
in  Heaven,'  He  would  have  conferred  an  in- 
estimable boon  upon  the  children  of  men." 

Fifth  bell:  "  He  shall  be  called  the  Prince 
of  Peace !  "  Here  is  the  sweetest  note. 
"  Names  name  Him  not,"  yet  Shiloh  is  best 
of  all.  The  burden  of  unrest  is  upon  us. 
The  Master  stretches  forth  His  pierced 
hands  over  our  passions  and  heartaches,  say- 
ing "  Peace,  be  still." 

"  God  rest  ye,  merrie  gentlemen, 
Upon  this  Christmas  morn ; 
The  God  of  all  good  Christians 
Was  of  a  woman  born." 


CHRISTMAS 


411 


His  name  is  Shiloh,  His  blessing  is  Salaam, 
His  bequest  is  shalom,  and  His  home  in  the 
heavens  is  Salem,  the  City  of  Peace.  Peace 
alway.  "  My  peace  I  give  unto  you."  Open 
no  more,  ye  gates  of  Janus ;  for  swords  shall 
be  beaten  into  plowshares  and  spears  into 
pruning  hooks.  Be  loosed  of  thy  terrors,  O 
Judgment,  for  Christ  has  sprung  an  arch  over 
the  '■  great  gulf  fixed."  You  that  were  alien- 
ated, now  hath  He  reconciled.  Midway  be- 
twixt earth  and  Heaven  the  red-cross  banner 
meets  a  flag  of  truce.  Peace,  peace  forever! 
And  a   merry,   merry   Christmas!     In  the 


message  of  the  chimes  let  us  rejoice  and  be 
glad.  The  joy  of  salvation  is  ours.  The 
waste  places  of  our  life  below  blossom  as  the 
rose;  each  morning  brings  a  new  promise  of 
life,  and  at  every  sunset  the  crimson  gates 
of  Heaven  roll  back. 

"  Ring  and  swing. 
Bells    of  joy !     On    morning's   wing 
Send  the   song  of  praise  abroad  I 
Tell  the  nations  that  He  reigns 
Who  alone  is  God !  " 


WHERE  WAS  CHRIST  BEFORE  CHRISTMAS  ? 

By  David  Gregg,  D.D. 


I.  He  was  in  the  genealogies.  God  framed 
the  history  of  the  world  in  view  of  the  com- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  very  beginning 
He  chose  a  family  whose  line  of  descent 
should  run  directly  from  Eden  to  Bethle- 
hem. This  family  God  took  into  covenant 
with  Himself,  and  the  promi'^e  of  the  cove- 
nant was  that  of  its  seed  Christ  should  he 
horn  in  the  fulness  of  time.  This  covenant- 
line  runs  through  the  whole  of  the  Old 
Testament  as  the  golden  thread  runs  through 
the  beautiful  fabric.  Everything  centers  in 
this  covenant-line.  It  unifies  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. It  is  the  cord  upon  which  the  pearls 
of  history  are  strung.  Keep  this  in  mind,  and 
it  will  explain  a  thousand  mysteries  and  per- 
plexities in   reading  the   Old   Testament. 

Let  me  illustrate !  Dark  pages,  which  we 
would  not  read  in  public,  are  in  the  Holy 
Book."  They  chronicle  the  worst  .'ins  of 
humanity — the  sin  of  Lot ;  the  lust  of  Judah 
and  Thamar.  Why  are  these  pages  here? 
Ingenuity  answers :  "  To  show  the  truthful- 
ness and  impartiality  of  the  sacred  writers. 
Without  these  shadows,  their  portrait-narra- 
tives would  be  eulogies  and  not  histories." 
It  is  answered :  "  These  dark  incidents  are 
recorded  to  reveal  the  wonderful  mercy  of 
God,  and  thus  create  hope  for  despairing 
sinners  of  every  age."  These  answers  have 
their  value,  but  they  are  not  sufficient.  The 
real  reason  these  dark  things  are  in  the  Book 
is  this  :  The  Bible  is  a  Messianic  record,  and 
these  things  pertain  to  the  ancestors  of  Christ. 
The  fruit  of  Lot's  sin  was  Moab.  In  the  line 
of  Moab,  Ruth,  the  grandmother  of  David, 
was  born.  Christ  is  called  the  Son  of  David. 
As  the  human  ancestry  of  Christ  ran  through 
the  sin  of  Lot,  in  like  manner  also  it  ran 
through  the  sin  of  Judah  and  Thamar.  The 
fruit  of  that  sin  was  Phares.  When  we 
come  to  make  up  the  genealogy  of  Christ, 
we  need  the  name  of  PJiarcs,  else  the  line 
will  be  broken  and  the  claims  of  Christ  fail 
of  establishment.  Do  you  not  see  the  reason 
for  these  dark  pages  in  the  old  Book?  They 
are  necessary  to  the  fulness  of  the  history 
of  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  steps  in  the  march 
of  events   toward    Bethlehem.     Christ    is   in 


them,  and  nothing  pertaining  to  Christ  can 
be  omitted  from  the  Bible. 

It  is  an  interesting  study  to  trace  the  differ- 
ent streams  of  humanity  which  run  into  the 
human  ancestry  of  the  Christ.  Here  the  sin- 
ful life  of  Thamar  flows  into  it;  there  the 
life  of  Rahab  the  harlot;  yonder  the  life  of 
Bathsheba.  Different  elements  from  Gentile 
quarters  as  well  as  from  Jewish  quarters 
enter  His  humanity,  so  that  He  is  not  the 
son  of  any  one  tribe,  but  the  son  of  all  tribes. 
He  is  not  exclusively  the  son  of  the  Jew,  He 
is  the  son  of  the  Gentile  as  well.  He  had 
Gentile  mothers  and  brothers  and  sisters  as 
well  as  Jewish  mothers  and  brothers  and 
sisters.  He  was  a  man  of  the  human  race, 
"  the  Son  of  Man." 

But  what  is  the  use  of  all  this?  I  answer. 
The  true  humanity  of  Christ  is  established ; 
the  grand  work  which  Christ  can  do  for  our 
human  nature  is  made  known.  He  dwelt  in 
a  human  nature  representing  the  human  race, 
and  He  exalted  that  nature  to  the  highest 
heavens.  Standing  in  the  persence  of  the 
work  which  Christ  did  for  His  own  human 
nature,  we  say  to  ourselves:  "What  if  our 
nature  has  been  derived  from  sinning  ances- 
tors, what  if  we  have  downward  hereditary 
tendencies ;  the  Son  of  God  can  do  for  hu- 
man nature  what  He  did  for  His  own ;  He 
can  incarnate  Himself  in  us,  and  dwell  in 
us,  and  make  us  holy,  and  at  last  lift  us  into 
the  glory  of  Heaven." 

The  genealogies  of  the  Holy  Book  help  us 
to  understand  Christ;  hence  it  is  that  His 
biographers  gather  and  write  the  genealogies 
on  the  first  page  of  His  history.  This  is  what 
Matthew  and  Luke  do.  The  fact  that  these 
genealogies  are  here  should  be  enough  to 
teach  us  that  they  serve  an  important  use,  for 
God  is  a  severe  economist  in  writing  His 
Book.  In  the  past,  Christ  was,  in  the  geneal- 
ogies, stepping  Bethlehemward.  Every  time 
a  new  descendant  *in  the  covenant-line  was 
born,  the  voice  of  prophecy  shouted :  "  Christ 
is  coming!"  As  ancestor  was  added  to  an- 
cestor, the  voice  waxed  louder  and  louder. 
Thus  the  shout  was  repeated  and  repeated 
until  at  last  the  angels  and  the  magi  and  the 


412 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


shepherds  and  the  watchers  in  the  Temple 
answered  back  that  shout  with  the  gladder 
and  louder  shout,  "Christ  has  come!" 
That  is  the  Christmas  shout  which  to-day- 
Church  of  God  throws  to  Church  of  God  all 
through  Christendom. 

n.  He  was  in  the  ideal  manhood  which  the 
Old  Testament  lifted  before  the  world.  We 
know  the  power  of  an  ideal  manhood,  for  we 
sec  it  in  the  Christ  who  walks  in  history, 
the  Emperor  of  the  ages.  Humanity  is  shot 
through  and  through  with  the  influence  of 
His  beautiful  and  perfect  life.  To  His 
earthly  life  is  traceable  all  that  is  best  in  our 
nineteenth  century  civilization.  My  point  is 
this :  This  life  of  the  New  Testament  page, 
which  is  the  transfiguring  power  in  society 
to-day,  was  the  transfiguring  power  in  society 
in  the  Old  Testament  day.  Does  the  New 
Testament  produce  it,  the  Old  Testament 
forecasts  it.  It  vivifies  both  pages.  On  the 
one  page  it  is  history,  on  the  other  page  it 
is  prophecy.  In  the  New  Testament,  Christ 
is  an  actuality ;  in  the  Old  Testament,  Christ 
is  an  ideal.  Contemplate  Him  as  an  ideal 
seen  in  the  Old  Testament !  He  was  the 
highest  conception  in  all  the  literature  and 
thought  of  the  Hebrew  people.  His  predicted 
career  stood  for  all  that  was  grand  and  sub- 
lime in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world.  Hence 
out  of  the  Old  Testament  economy  came 
lives  which  for  nobility  and  grandeur  and 
sacrifice  and  power  it  is  hard  to  match  in  our 
age.  What  produced  these  characters? 
The  power  of  the  coming  Christ.  The  real 
essential  Christ  was  in  the  Old  Book.  Every 
attribute  of  His  grand  character  was  there. 
He  was  the  most  intense  reality  in  the  king- 
dom of  the  Jews.  They  of  the  olden  times 
talked  of  the  deeds  He  would  do,  and  of  the 
sacrifices  He  would  make,  and  of  the  burdens 
He  would  bearj  and  of  the  spirit  He  would 
breathe,  and  of  the  character  He  would  build 
up,  and  of  the  life  He  would  live.  As  they 
talked  of  these  sublime  things,  they  said  the 
one  to  the  other :  "  Let  us  incorporate  these 
sublimities  into  our  lives,  that  we  may  be 
Messianic  men  when  the  Messiah  comes." 
And  this  they  did.  He  made  Moses.  The 
life  of  the  Hebrew  lawgiver  was  the  result 
of  the  inspiration  of  the  predicted  Messiah. 
Under  this  inspiration  he  "  esteemed  the  re- 
proach of  Christ  greater  riches  than  all  the 
treasures  of  Egypt."  The  face  of  Christ 
looked  out  at  the  men  of  old  from  every 
holy  commandment,  and  from  every  spiritual 
song,  and  from  every  sacred  type  and  symbol. 
By  anticipation  He  was  a  real,  present  and 
practical  power  in  the  commonwealth  of  God. 
By  anticipation  His  human  life  was  an  edu- 
cational, a  molding,  a  spiritualizing  and  an 
uplifting  force  hundreds  of  years  before  it 
was  lived. 

III.  He  was  in  the  Godhead.  John  gives  us 
light  here.  He  says  :  "  In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and 
the  Word  was  God !  "  According  to  these 
words  Christ  was  coeternal  with  the  Father. 
He  antedated  time  and  creation.  He  made 
the  world,  and  prior  to  His  advent  He  was 
busy  building  up  the  providences.     He   was 


the  active  person  of  the  Godhead  in  dealing 
with  mankind.  All  revelations  from  God 
came  through  Him.     He  was  tlie  Word. 

He  did  not  always  maintain  invisibility; 
He  fellowshiped  with  man.  It  was  He  who 
walked  with  Adam  in  the  garden,  and  com- 
muned with  him  in  the  cool  of  the  day.  Just 
as  in  New  Testament  times  He  had  special 
friends,  Peter  and  James  and  John ;  so  in 
Old  Testament  times  He  had  special  friends, 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  With  Abraham 
He  talked  face  to  face  as  a  friend  talks  with 
his  friend.  He  was  as  tender  and  as  kind  to 
Abraham  before  His  incarnation  as  He  was 
tender  and  kind  to  John  after  His  incarna- 
tion. He  visited  his  tent  and  ate  of  the  kid 
which  he  dressed  and  of  the  cakes  which  his 
wife  Sarah  baked.  He  dealt  with  Jacob  much 
as  He  dealt  with  Peter.  He  bore  long  with 
his  faults  and  patiently  trained  him. 

There  is  a  correspondence  between  the  Son 
of  God  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Son  of 
God  in  the  New  Testament.  He  is  the  same 
Son  of  God  in  both  Testaments.  In  both 
Testaments  He  does  similar  acts.  In  Exodus 
He  executes  the  plagues ;  in  Revelation  He 
pours  out  the  vials ;  in  the  Pentateuch  He 
watches  over  the  Old  Testament  saints ;  in 
the  Book  of  the  Acts  He  watches  over  the 
New  Testament  Church.  In  the  days  of  His 
flesh  He  mingles  with  men ;  in  the  days 
before  His  incarnation  He  frequently  puts 
on  the  form  of  a  man  and  makes  visits  to 
His  own;  or  else  He  wraps  Himself  up  in 
the  Pillar  of  Cloud  and  Fire,  and  from  it  talks 
with  men  and  communicates  to  them  the  will 
of  God.  "  As  a  Guest,  as  a  nameless  pres- 
ence, as  a  wrestling  angel,  as  an  eye  in  the 
wheel  of  the  chariot  of  Israel,  He  was  among 
men.'  On  one  occasion  He  was  seen  by 
seventy  elders ;  upon  two  occasions  by  a 
man  and  his  wife ;  then  by  Joshua,  then  by 
Gideon,  then  by  Ezekiel,  and  then  by  Daniel. 

Christians,  stand  at  Bethlehem  and  open 
every  door  and  window  of  your  being  Christ- 
ward.  Look  backward.  Look  forward.  Mag- 
nify Bethlehem.  Recount  to  your  souls  the 
things  for  which  it  stands.  It  stands  for  the 
"  fulness  of  time."  It  stands  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  glorious  predictions.  It  stands  for 
the  realization  of  those  burning  hopes  which 
made  the  heroic  men  of  the  past.  It  stands 
for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself 
into  our  nature.  It  stands  for  the  glorious 
past  and  for  the  more  glorious  future.  As 
the  dawn  carries  in  it  the  full  day,  it  carries 
in  it  the  salvation  of  man,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  right  over  the  wrong,  and  the  coming 
millennial  glory  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

When  we  comprehend  the  backward  and 
forward  reach  of  Bethlehem,  we  do  not  won- 
der that  all  that  is  grand  crowds  around 
the  Cradle-Manger.  It  is  worthy  of  all.  Let 
the  Star  shine.  Let  the  Magi  give  gifts.  Let 
the  Shepherds  worship.  Let  the  angel-faces 
flash  out  from  the  great  dome  overhead.  Let 
the  church-bells  chime.  Let  the  sacred  harps 
and  organs  respond  to  the  masterhand  that 
sweeps  their  strings  and  flies  over  their  keys, 
and  let  them  turn  the  common  air  into  praise. 


CHRISTMAS 


413 


Let  Christmas  carols  roll  over  this  wide  earth, 
and  echo  among  the  stars.  Let  the  great  uni- 
verse of  God  jubilate.  Let  everything  in 
Heaven  and  earth  shout,  "  Hosanna  to  the 
Son  of  David ;  blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord ;    Hosanna  in  the  High- 


est." While  all  this  takes  place,  see  to  it,  O 
m>  soul,  that  thou  carriest  thyself  to  Bethle- 
hem, to  receive,  and  to  love,  and  to  trust,  and 
to  worship.  Be  thou  certainly  there ;  and 
while  there  recognize  Christ,  honor  Christ, 
reincarnate  Christ,   and  call   Christ  God. — L 


THE  MOTHER  OF  THE  CHRISTMAS  BABE 


When  God  would  give  the  world  a  great 
man — a  man  of  rare  spirit  and  transcendent 
power,  a  man  with  a  lofty  mission — He  first 
prepares  a  woman  to  be  his  mother.  When- 
ever in  history  we  come  upon  such  a  man,  we 
instinctively  begin  to  ask  about  the  character 
of  her  on  whose  bosom  he  nestled  in  infancy 
and  at  whose  knee  he  learned  his  life's  first 
lessons.  We  are  sure  of  finding  here  the  se- 
cret of  the  man's  greatness.  When  the  time 
drew  nigh  for  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of 
God,  we  may  be  sure  that  into  the  soul  of 
the  woman  who  should  be  His  mother,  who 
should  impart  her  own  life  to  Him,  who 
should  teach  Him  His  first  lessons  and  pre- 
pare Him  for  His  holy  mission,  God  put  the 
loveliest  and  the  best  qualities  that  ever 
were  lodged  in  any  woman's  life. 

We  need  not  accept  the  teaching  that  exalts 
the  mother  of  Jesus  to  a  place  beside  or  above 
her  divine  Son.  We  need  have  no  sympathy 
whatever  with  the  dogma  that  ascribes  wor- 
ship to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  teaches  that  the 
Son  on  His  throne  must  be  approached  by 
mortals  through  His  more  merciful,  more 
gentle-hearted  mother.  But  we  need  not  let 
these  errors  concerning  Mary  obscure  the 
real  blessedness  of  her  character.  We  re- 
member the  angel's  greeting,  "  Blessed  art 
thou  among  women."  Hers  surely  was  the 
highest  honor  ever  conferred  upon  any 
woman. 

"  Say  of  me  as  the  heavenly  said,  '  Thou  art 
The   blessedest   of   women !  ' — blessedest. 
Not  holiest,  not  noblest, — no  high  name, 


Whose  height  misplaced  may  pierce  me  like 

a  shame. 
When  I  sit  meek  in  heaven !  " 

We  know  how  other  men,  men  of  genius, 
rarely  ever  have  failed  to  give  to  their  moth- 
ers the  honor  of  whatever  of  greatness  or 
worth  they  had  attained.  But  somehow  we 
shrink  from  saying  that  Jesus  was  influ- 
enced by  His  mother  as  other  good  men  have 
been ;  that  He  got  from  her  much  of  the 
beauty  and  the  power  of  His  life.  We  are 
apt  to  fancy  that  His  mother  was  not  to  Him 
what  mothers  ordinarily  are  to  their  chil- 
dren; that  He  did  not  need  mothering  as 
other  children  do ;  that  by  reason  of  His 
deity  indwelling.  His  character  unfolded 
from  within,  without  the  aid  of  home  teach- 
ing and  training,  and  the  other  educational 
influences  which  do  so  much  in  shading  the 
character  of  children  in  common  homes. 

But  there  is  no  Scriptural  ground  for  this 
feeling.  The  humanity  of  Jesus  was  just 
like  our  humanity.  He  came  into  the  world 
just  as  feeble  and  as  untaught,  as  any  other 
child  that  ever  was  born.  No  mother  was 
ever  more  to  her  infant  than  Mary  was  to 
Jesus.  She  taught  Him  all  His  first  lessons. 
She  gave  Him  His  first  thoughts  about  God, 
and  from  her  lips  He  learned  the  first  lisp- 
ings  of  prayer.  Jewish  mothers  cared  very 
tenderly  for  their  children.  They  taught  them 
with  unwearying  patience  the  words  of  God. 
One  of  the  rabbis  said,  "  God  could  not  be 
everywhere,  and  therefore  He  made  moth- 
ers.''— F. 


CHRISTMAS 

By  Cardinal  Gibbons 


To-day  the  whole  Christian  world  pros- 
trates itself  in  adoration  around  the  crib  of 
Bethlehem  and  rehearses  in  accents  of  love 
a  history  which  precedes  all  time  and  will 
endure  throughout  eternity.  As  if  by  an 
instinct  of  our  higher,  spiritual  nature,  there 
well  up  from  the  depths  of  our  hearts,  emo- 
tions which  challenge  the  power  of  human 
expression.  We  seem  to  be  lifted  out  of  the 
rphere  of  natural  endeavor  to  put  on  a  new 
life  and  to  stretch  forward  in  desire  to  a 
blessedness  which,  tho  not  palpable,  is  emi- 
nently real. 

If  asked  to  explain  the  rapturous  influence 
which  controls  us,  we  have  no  other  words 


than  the  evangel  of  joy  which  the  angel  gave 
unto  earth :  "  For  this  day  is  born  unto  you 
a  Savior  who  is  Christ  the  Lord."  We  re- 
joice in  anticipation  of  a  new  outpouring  of 
God's  blessed  life,  for  the  scope  of  the  Di- 
vine Infant's  mission  is  "  to  enlighten  them 
who  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death ;  to  direct  our  feet  into  the  way  of 
peace."  He  is  in  our  midst  to  flood  the 
world  with  the  light  of  God's  truth ;  to  re- 
store to  us  our  lost  birthright  of  joy ;  to  set 
the  discordant  wail  of  humanity  to  new  har- 
monies ;  to  attune  to  the  music  of  heavenly 
hope  hearts  which  for  ages  had  been  swept 
by  the  wild  notes  of  despair. 


414 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  message  of  Christmas  morning  is  as 
universal  as  it  is  personal  and  present.  It 
is  addressed  to  each  man;  it  is  addressed  to 
all  men.  It  is  destined  to  shape  private  con- 
duct and  to  impress  and  mould  the  life  of 
society.  Divine  in  its  content,  it  has  an 
earthly  relation  and  significance.  Whilst 
holding  out  a  promise  of  the  greater  things 
which  shall  be  revealed  in  us  hereafter,  it  is 
not  without  action  in  time  and  influence 
upon  the  world  around  us. 

Indeed  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being  in  the  midst  of  a  civilization  which  is 
the  legitimate  offspring  of  the  religion  of 
Christ. 

The  blessings  resulting  from  our  Christian 
civilization  are  poured  out  so  regularly  and 
so  abundantly  on  the  intellectual,  moral,  and 
social  world,  like  the  sunlight  and  the  air 
of  heaven  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  that 
they  have  ceased  to  excite  any  surprise,  ex- 
cept to  those  who  visit  lands  where  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  is  little  known.  In  order 
to  realize  adequately  our  favored  situation, 
we  should  transport  ourselves  in  spirit  to 
ante-Christian  times  and  contrast  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Pagan  world  with  our  own. 

Before  the  advent  of  Christ  the  whole 
world,  with  the  exception  of  the  secluded 
Roman  province  of  Palestine,  was  buried  in 
idolatry.  Every  striking  object  in  nature 
had  its  tutelary  divinities.  Men  worshiped 
the  sun  and  moon  and  stars  of  heaven.  They 
worshiped  their  very  passions.  They  wor- 
shiped everything  except  God  only,  to  whom 
alone  divine  homage  is  due.  In  the  words  of 
the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles :  "  They  changed 
the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  into  the 
likeness  of  the  image  of  a  corruptible  man, 
and  of  birds,  and  of  four-footed  beasts,  and 
of  creeping  things.  .  .  .  They  worshiped 
and  served  the  creature  rather  than  the  Crea- 
tor, who  is  blessed  forever." 

Christ,  the  Light  of  the  world,  proclairned 
unto  all  men  in  its  fulness  the  truth  which 
had  hitherto  been  hidden  in  Judea.  He 
taught  mankind  to  know  the  one  true  God, 
a  God  existing  from  eternity  unto  eternity,  a 
God  who  created  all  things  by  His  power, 
who  governs  all  things  by  His  wisdom,  and 
whose  superintending  providence  watches 
over  the  affairs  of  nations  as  well  as  of  men, 
"  without  whom  not  even  a  bird  falls  to  the 
ground."  He  proclaimed  a  God  infinitely 
holy,  just,  and  merciful.  The  idea  of  the 
Deity,  so  consonant  to  our  rational  concep- 
tions, was  in  striking  contrast  with  the  low, 
sensual  notions  which  the  Pagan  world  had 
formed  of  its  divinities. 

The  religion  of  Christ  imparts  to  us  not 
only  a  sublime  conception  of  God,  but  also 
a  rational  idea  of  man  and  of  his  relations 
to  his  Creator.  Before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
man  was  a  riddle  and  a  mystery  to  hirnself. 
He  knew  not  whence  he  came  nor  whither 
he  was  going.  He  was  groping  in  the 
dark.  All  he  knew  for  certain  was  that  he 
was  passing  through  a  brief  phase  of  exist- 
ence. 


The  past  and  the  future  were  enveloped  in 
a  mist  which  the  light  of  philosophy  was 
unable  to  penetrate.  Our  Redeemer  has  dis- 
pelled the  cloud  and  enlightened  us  regard- 
ing our  origin  and  destiny  and  the  means  of 
attaining  it.  He  has  rescued  man  from  the 
frightful  labyrinth  of  error  in  which  Pagan- 
ism had  involved  him. 

The  Gospel  of  Christ,  first  heralded  by  an- 
gels, has  brought  not  only  light  to  the  in- 
tellect, but  also  comfort  to  the  heart.  It 
has  given  us  "  that  peace  of  God  which  sur- 
passeth  all  understanding;"  the  peace  which 
springs  from  the  conscious  possession  of  the 
truth.  It  has  taught  us  how  to  enjoy  that 
triple  peace  which  constitutes  true  happiness 
as  far  as  it  is  attainable  in  this  life — peace 
with  God  by  the  observance  of  His  Com- 
mandments ;  peace  with  our  neighbor  by  the 
exercise  of  justice  and  charity  toward  him, 
and  peace  with  ourselves  by  repressing  our 
inordinate  appetites  and  by  keeping  our  pas- 
sions subject  to  the  law  of  reason  and  our 
reason  illumined  and  controlled  by  the  law 
of  God. 

The  message  of  Christmas  Day  is  intended 
for  all  men,  for  all  times,  for  all  conditions 
of  existence.  Christ  alone  of  all  religious 
founders  has  the  courage  to  say  to  His  dis- 
ciples :  "  Go,  teach  all  nations."  "  Preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature."  "  You  shall  be 
witnesses  to  me  in  Judea  and  Samaria  and 
even  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of  the  earth." 
Be  not  restrained  in  your  mission  by  national 
or  state  lines.  Let  My  Gospel  be  as  free  and 
universal  as  the  air  of  heaven.  "  The  earth 
is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof."  AH 
mankind  are  the  children  of  My  Father  and 
My  brethren.  I  embrace  all  in  My  charity. 
Let  the  whole  human  race  be  your  au- 
dience and  the  world  be  the  theater  of 
your  labors. 

These  then  are  in  broad  outline,  some  of 
the  grand  truths  and  consoling  experiences 
which  "  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy "  re- 
veal in  their  unfolding.  Only  by  stern  ad- 
hesion to  the  principles  therein  contained 
can  individuals  and  nations  hope  to  share 
in  that  peace  which  has  been  promised 
to  men  of  good  will.  To  violate  them  is 
to  reverse  the  order  established  by  God, 
and  disorder  is  the  synonym  for  sin  and 
strife. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  beauty  is  the  splen- 
dor of  order,  so  peace  is  the  tranquillity  of 
order  or  joy  in  repose. 

Whilst,  therefore,  we  rejoice  in  our  Chris- 
tian privileges,  we  should  ever  remember  that 
by  the  grace  of  God  our  Savior  hath  ap- 
peared to  all  men,  instructing  us  that,  deny- 
ing ungodliness  and  worldly  desires,  we 
should  live  soberly  and  justly  and  godly  in 
this  world,  looking  for  the  blessed  hope  and 
coming  of  the  glory  of  the  great  God  and 
our  Savior  Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  Him- 
self that  He  might  redeem  us  from  iniquity 
and  might  cleanse  us  to  Himself  a  people 
acceptable  and  pursuers  of  good  works. — 
N.  Y.  W. 


CHRISTMAS 


415 


CHRISTMAS  AND  ORIENTAL  SCENES 

By  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D. 


A  Bethlehem  shepherd's  task. — "  Shep- 
herds abiding  in  the  field,  keeping  watch  over 
their  flocks  by  night."  Very  different  is  the 
shepherd's  Hfp  in  the  East  from  the  prosaic 
ta.^k  of  the  sheep-farmer  of  western  lands. 
Bethlehem  stands  on  the  shoulder  of  a  hill 
which  descends  abruptly  into  a  rich,  un- 
fenced,  corn  plain,  stretching  eastward.  In 
that  plain  each  villager  has  his  plot,  indi- 
cated by  the  well-known  stones,  placed  here 
and  there — the  neighbor's  landmark.  Be- 
yond this  tillage  land,  where  Boaz  had  his 
reapers,  and  where  Ruth,  the  Moabitess 
gleaned,  a  walk  of  two  miles  brings  us  to 
the  picture  land,  on  the  hilly  fringe  of  the 
wilderness  of  Judea,  where  David  valiantly 
watched  his  father's  sheep,  and  where  a 
thousand  vears  later,  the  shepherds  of  Beth- 
lehem received  the  angelic  news  of  the  Mes- 
siah's birth.  The  wide,  flat  valley  soon  breaks 
out  into  white,  stony  slopes  on  either  side. 
After  the  corn-fields  end,  the  whole  is  treated 
as  common  land,  where  the  flocks  of  the  vil- 
lagers pasture  together.  But  they  need  the 
shepherd's  constant  care.  The  labyrinth  of 
rocky  valleys,  or  wadies,  on  all  sides,  form  a 
convenient  lurking-place  for  the  wolf,  the 
jackal,  and  the  thief,  tho  the  lion  and  the 
bear  of  David's  time  are  extinct.  It  is  im- 
possible to  trust  the  flock  in  the  open  at 
night ;  they  are  led  to  some  of  the  many 
shallow  caves  with  which  the  hillsides  are 
studded,  with  a  rude,  dry  stone  wall,  and  a 
narrow  entrance  in  front.  The  shepherds 
themselves,  in  parties  of  from  three  to  six  or 
eight,  sleep  outside.  They  arrange  an  ob- 
long circle  of  stones,  which  remains  from 
year  to  year,  and  place  inside  a  thick  layer 
of  brushwood,  on  which  they  spread  straw 
for  their  bed,  and  lie  surrounded  by  their  dogs. 

Watching  by  night. — These  watchful 
guardians  are  ever  on  the  alert,  and  wake 
the  echoes  of  night  as  they  detect  the  prowl- 
ing wolf,  or  hear  the  howling  of  the  jackals, 
on  their  search  for  some  hapless  stray  sheep. 
It  was  in  front  of  such  a  cave  that  the  shep- 
herds were  keeping  watch  when  the  heavenly 


host  accosted  them,  and  roused  them  to  leave 
their  charge  for  a  time,  that  they  might  be 
the  first  to  do  homage  to  the  infant  Savior. 
The  habits  of  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem 
are  still  unchanged,  a  steady,  resolute  set  of 
men ;  and  we  may  see  to-day  their  humble 
douars,  and  the  stone  circles,  in  front  of 
many  a  hillside  cave. 

"  Lying  in  a  manger." — The  monks  of 
Bethlehem  show  a  grotto  beneath  the  great 
Christian  Church,  lined  with  marble,  which 
they  claim  to  be  the  stable  where  the  infant 
Christ  was  laid.  I  believe  that  this  tradition 
is  better  grounded  than  those  of  most  holy 
places.  The  caravanserai,  or  inn,  would 
naturally  be  where  this  is,  just  outside  of  the 
little  town.  It  was  founded  by  Chimham,  son 
of  Barzillai.  in  the  days  of  David,  and  was 
scarcely  likely  to  be  changed  up  to  the  time 
of  Roman  rule,  when  the  early  Christians 
consecrated  it  as  a  Church.  There  are  many 
natural  grottoes  on  the  slope  of  the  hill ;  and 
we  frequently  see  in  other  places  that  the 
caves  near  a  caravanserai  have  been  enlarged 
and  used  as  stables.  The  stable  is  very  un- 
like ours.  At  the  end  farthest  from  the  door 
is  always  an  elevated  dais  or  platform,  usu- 
ally made  by  enlarging  the  cavern,  but  leav- 
ing the  floor  of  the  platform  about  three  or 
four  feet  higher  than  the  area.  In  front  of 
it  a  long  trough  is  hollowed  out,  reaching 
from  end  to  end — the  manger.  The  forage 
is  stored  on  this  platform,  out  of  reach  of  the 
cattle,  and  is  pushed  into  the  long  manger  as 
required.  Here  the  camel-drivers  usually 
sleep,  close  to  their  animals.  Now  the  inn 
being  full,  Joseph  and  Mary  would  be  com- 
pelled to  avail  themselves  of  this  shelter, 
and  to  sojourn  on  the  platform.  Naturally, 
when  the  child  was  born,  the  manger  \vould 
suggest  itself  as  the  only  cradle  available 
where  His  mother  could  tend  Him  lying  by 
His  side  and  wrapped,  as  is  still  the  uni- 
versal Eastern  custom,  in  a  series  of  band- 
ages from  head  to  foot,  like  a  mummy,  till 
the  babe  Icoks  like  some  limb  newly  set  and 
bandaged  with  surgical  skill. — P.  T. 


A  CHRISTMAS  DAY  PRINCIPLE 

By  a.  p.  Stanley 


Born  in  the  first  century,  Christ  belongs 
more  to  the  full  development  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  than  He  does  to  the  imper- 
fections of  the  first. 

This,  then,  is  the  principle  of  which  the 
event  of  Christmas  Day  is  the  most  striking 
example ;  external  circumstances  are  some- 
thing, but  they  are  not  everything.  The  in- 
ward life  is  the  essential  thing;  but  for  its 
successful  growth  it  needs  external  circum- 
stance. The  main  element  in  the  foundation 
— the  main  pledge  for  the  future  progress  of 


Christianity — was  the  character,  the  per- 
sonal character,  of  its  Founder.  Had  Christ 
been  other  than  He  was,  had  He  been  a  mere 
specter  or  phantasm,  however  Divine,  such 
as  He  is  represented  in  some  well-known 
systems,  without  human  affection,  or  per- 
suasive words,  or  energetic  actions,  or  con- 
straining will,  the  course  of  the  empire  would 
have  rolled  on  its  way,  and  His  place  in  his- 
tory and  in  the  hearts  of  men  would  have 
been  unknown. 
But  being  what  He  was — the  impersonation 


lito. 


4i6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


of  goodness  and  truth,  containing  within 
Himself  all  those  elements  of  character  which 
win,    convince,    stimulate    mankind — His    re- 


ligion, so  far  as  it  was  derived  from  Himself, 
became  all-pervading  and  all-embracing. — S. 
B.,  vol.  vii..  p.  23. 


WE  THREE  KINGS  OF  ORIENT  ARE 

By  David  James  Burrell,  D.D. 

Seek  and  ye  shall  find. — Matt,  vii:  7 

Run  ye  to  and  fro,  and  see  now  if  there  be  any  that  seeketh  the  truth. — Jer.  v:  i 

For  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God  our  Savior,  who  will  have  all  men  to  come 

unto  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. — /  Tim.  ii:  3,  4 
Jesus  saith,  I  am  the  truth. — John  xiv:  6 
Now  when  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judca  in  the  days  of  Herod  the    king,  behold 

there  came  zvise  men  from  the  east  to  Jerusalem,  saying.  Where  is  he  that  is  born  king 

of  the  Jeivs?   for  we  have  seen  his  star  in  the  east  and  are  come  to  worship  him.— Matt. 

ii:  I,  2 


The  king  of  Judea  was  troubled.  It  was 
rumored  that  about  this  time,  ia  fulfilment 
of  prophecy,  a  Prince  was  to  be  born,  who 
would  assume  the  Jewish  throne.  Tacitus 
declares  that  the  opinion  was  prevalent  in  the 
East  that  the  Messiah  of  Israel  was  about  to 
appear.  Vergil  had  written  his  fourth  Ec- 
log,  in  which  he  announced  the  near  ap- 
proach of  the  golden  age.  A  feeling  of  ex- 
pectancy was  prevalent  everywhere.  Herod 
was  an  old  man,  but  still  tenacious  of  his' 
ill-gotten  power.  He  was  an  apostate  Jew. 
who  long  ago  had  forsaken  the  religion  of 
his  fathers  to  enter  the  service  of  the  Roman 
government.  His  career  had  been  a  brilliant 
one :  a  protege  of  Antony,  he  had  at  a  very 
early  age,  been  made  governor  of  Galilee  and 
afterward  tetrarch  of  Judea.  He  was  a  man 
of  vast  ambition ;  shrewd,  cunning,  and  of 
violent  passions;  not  above  the  trick  of  a 
demagog,  he  was  nevertheless  possessed  of 
much  cleverness  and  a  vast  executive  ability. 
To  please  his  royal  master,  he  built  the 
splendid  city  of  Csesarea.  To  conciliate  the 
Jews,  whom  he  hated,  he  rebuilt  their  temple 
and  splendidly  adorned  it. 

In  the  porch  of  this  temple  the  old  king 
was  walking  on  a  February  morning  nearly 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago.  His  purple 
robes  sparkled  with  gems  and  precious 
stones  ;  a  glorious'  ruby  blazed  in  his  turban  ; 
but  his  restless  eyes  betrayed  a  troubled 
heart.  Off  yonder,  beyond  the  Kedron,  a 
group  of  venerable  strangers  drew  near, 
their  long  garments  covered  with  dust.  They 
would  have  attracted  attention  anywhere. 
Entering  at  the  eastern  or  Shushan  gate,  they 
climbed  the  marble  stairway  of  the  temple, 
entered  Solomon's  porch,  and  would  have 
passed  on  into  the  inner  courts  but  for  the 
admonition  of  a  Levite,  who  pointed  to  an 
inscription  on  the  middle  wall  of  partition. 
"  Let  no  Gentile  or  unclean  person  enter  here 
under  penalty  of  death."  Arrested  by  this 
rebuff,  they  said.  "  We  have  come  from  the 
far  East,  seeking  Him  who  is  born  King  of 
the  Jews.  Tell  us  where  we  may  find  Him." 
A  moment  later  they  were  engaged  in  con- 
versation with  Herod.  "  Whence  come  ye?  " 
"From  the  East."  "And  your  errand?" 
"  To  find  the  promised  King  of  the  Jews." 


"  It's  a  fool's  errand ;  I  alone  am  king  of 
the  Jews."  "  Nay,  we  cannot  be  mistaken, 
for  we  have  come  under  Divine  guidance." 
And  thereupon  they  told  their  story^iow 
as  they  were  watching  the  stars  according 
to  their  custom,  and  meditating  on  the  great 
promise  of  the  coming  Deliverer,  a  new 
luminary  wheeled  into  view  and  seemed  to 
beckon  to  them.  Was  this  a  harbinger  of 
that  event  for  which  they  looked?  While 
they  wondered,  it  moved  on  toward  the  West 
and  they  arose  and  followed  it.  Their  hope 
had  been  that  the  Jewish  Prince  would  be 
found  in  the  Holy  City,  and  they  were 
amazed  to  find  that  nothing  was  here  known 
of  Him.  The  wise  men  were  detained  while 
at  Herod's  order  the  members  of  the  San- 
hedrin  came  together  to  consult  as  to  the 
rumored  birth  of  this  Prince.  They  agreed 
as  to  the  prophecy ;  the  event  was  to  occur 
in  Bethlehem :  "  And  thou  Bethlehem,  in  the 
land  of  Judah,  are  not  the  least  among  the 
princes  of  Judah,  for  out  of  thee  shall  come 
a  governor  that  shall  rule  my  people  Israel." 
The  wise  men  were  then  permitted  to  re- 
sume their  journey,  with  a  parting  injunc- 
tion that  they  should  return  and  report  as 
to  the  success  of  their  singular  quest.  As 
they  resumed  their  journey,  lo,  yonder  in  the 
heavens  a  star  moved  along  before  them, 
and  they  followed  with  great  joy. 

We  may  find  profit  in  the  contemplation  of 
the  deed  of  these  pilgrims  on  this  Christ- 
mas Sunday.  From  time  immemorial  they 
have  been  regarded  as  kings : 

"  We  three  kings  of  orient  are. 

Bearing  gifts,   we  journey  afar; 
O'er  field  and  fountain,  moor  and  mountain, 
Following  yonder  star." 

In  the  cathedral  at  Cologne  there  is  a 
golden  reliquary  in  which  are  preserved,  in 
the  odor  of  sanctity,  the  relics  of  these  men. 
I  said  to  the  venerable  monk  in  attendance, 
"  Do  you  really  believe  that  these  are  the 
relics  of  the  wise  men?"  "Oh,  yes,"  he 
replied.  "  There  is  no  question  whatever  as 
to  their  genuineness ;  we  know  their  names — 
Caspar,  Melchior,  and  Balthazar.  The  ven- 
erable Bede  tells  all  about  them."     There  is, 


CHRISTMAS 


417 


however,  confiderable  doubt — to  put  it  mildly 
— a?  to  the  trustworthiness  of  the  legends 
which  have  gathered  about  these  Magi.  We 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  they  were  kings, 
but  we  know  they  were  truth-seekers ;  and, 
as  Cromwell  said  to  his  daughter,  "  To  be  a 
truth-jeeker  is  to  be  one  of  the  best  sect 
next  to  a  truth-finder." 

I.  The  quest. — Wisdom  is  the  principal 
thing,  and  there  is  nothing  better  than  to  get 
understanding.  All  truth  is  worth  having. 
We  blame  our  children  for  being  inquisitive. 
But  why?  John  Locke  said,  "The  way  to 
get  knowledge  is  to  ask  questions."  A  wiser 
still  has  said,  "  Seek,  and  ye  shall  find."  The 
cure  for  doubt  is  not  a  hoodwink,  but  a  tele- 
scope. All  truth  is  worth  the  having,  and, 
therefore,  worth  the  seeking.  "Eureka!  ' 
cried  Archimedes  over  a  certain  mathemati- 
cal discovery.  In  all  the  world  there  is  no 
pursuit  so  ennobling,  so  inspiring,  and  so 
gladdening  as  the  pursuit  of  truth.  This 
holds  in  all  the  provinces,  but  especially  in 
the  province  of  spiritual  things. 

It  is  related  of  Edmund  of  Canterbury, 
who  was  deeply  interested  in  secular  re- 
searches, that  one  night  as  he  was  poring 
over  an  ancient  parchment,  the  spirit  of  his 
dead  mother  came  to  him  and  made  three 
circles  upon  the  palm  of  his  hand,  in  token 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  saying  as  she  vanished. 
"  Be  this  the  purpose  of  thy  life."  Three 
circles  do  indeed  embrace  all.  The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom — and  the 
end  also.  God  is  Alpha  and  Omega,  the 
beginning  and  the  end.  To  know  Him  is 
life  eternal. 

A  man  is  in  his  noblest  attitude  when 
confronting  the  great  spiritual  verities.  In 
this  we  are  distinguished  from  the  lower 
orders  of  life.  We  are  able  to  touch  the 
tremendous  problems  and  measurably  to  solve 
them;  and  herein  is  the  sweetest  of  life's  de- 
lights. Lord  Bacon  said :  "  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  stand  upon  the  shore  and  see  ships  tossing 
far  away  upon  the  sea ;  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
stand  in  the  castle  window  and  look  down 
upon  the  battle  and  the  adventures  thereof ; 
but  no  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  stand- 
ing upon  the  vantage-ground  of  truth  and 
beholding   spiritual   things." 

II.  The  harbinger. — God  helps  every  man 
who  earnestly  desires  to  solve  the  problem 
of  destiny.  To  these  wise  men  He  gave  the 
guiding  star.  A  vast  amount  of  erudition 
has  been  spent  in  the  attempt  to  get  rid  of 
the  supernatural  on  these  premises.  It  is 
said  that  a  remarkable  conjunction  of  certain 
planets  occurred  at  about  this  time.  In  1604 
Kepler  saw  in  the  heavens  a  phenomenon 
which  occurs  only  once  in  nearly  a  thousand 
years:  Saturn  and  Jupiter  were  in  conjunc- 
tion ;  presently  Mars  also  wheeled  into  line, 
thus  forming  "  a  fierv  Trygon  in  Pisces." 
The  constellation  of  Pisces,  or  the  fish,  was 
regarded  as  symbolical  of  Judea.  The  fish 
was  also  used  by  the  early  Christians  as  an 
anagram  of  Christ.  Thus  the  "  fiery  Try- 
gon "  was'  identified  with  the  star  of  Bethle- 
hem. It  is  a  fascinating  hypothesis,  but  un- 
fortunately  (i)   it  did  not  occur  at  the  pre- 


cise time  of  the  advent;  and  (2)  bemg  at 
an  altitude  of  fifty-seven  degrees,  it  could  not 
have  paused  over  a  village  or  a  particular 
home.  We  are,  therefore,  led  to  regard  the 
star  as  a  special  messenger — an  angel  with 
a  torch,  as  it  were — sent  to  direct  these  wise 
men  in  their  earnest  quest.  So  God  inter- 
poses in  behalf  of  every  sincere  seeker  for 
truth.  "  Seek,  and  ye  shall  find.'  Seek, 
good  friend,  and  you  shall  find,  God  is  on 
yoar  side.     Be  of  good  courage. 

It  was  many  years  ago  that  a  butcher's  boy 
went  singing  ribald  songs  about  the  streets 
of  Nottingham.  A  taste  for  knowledge 
brought  him  to  Cambridge  University,  where 
he  distinguished  himself  not  only  for  his 
cleverness  as  a  student  but  as  a  reviler  of 
Christ.  By  the  unexpected  death  of  a  com- 
panion he  was  brought  to  think  seriously  of 
eternal  things  ;  his  sins  weighed  heavily  upon 
him ;  but  at  Calvary  he  found  pardon.  In  the 
early  flush  of  his  conversion  he  wrote  his 
gratitude  in  the  familiar  hymn: 

"  Once  on  the  raging  seas   I   rode ; 

The  storm  was  loud,  the  night  was  dark, 
The  ocean  yawned,  and  rudely  blowed 

The  wind  that  tossed  my  foundering  bark. 
Deep  horror  then  my  vitals  froze ; 

Death-struck,  I  ceased  the  tide  to  stemj 
When  suddenly  a  star  arose : 

It  was  the  Star  of  Bethlehem! 

"  It  was  my  guide,  my  light,  my  all ; 

It  bade  my  dark  forebodings  cease. 
And  through  the   storm  and  danger's  thrall 

It  led  me  to  the  port  of  peace. 
Now  safely  moored,  my  perils  o'er, 

I'll  sing,  first  in  night's  diadem, 
For  ever  and  forevermore. 

The  Star,  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  I  " 

God  never  yet  left  a  man  in  the  lurch  who 
sincerely  desired  to  solve  the  problem  of 
destiny.  It  is  a  true  saying,  "  A  seeking  sin- 
ner finds  a  seeking  Savior."  Somewhere  in 
heaven  the  star  is  set  that  calls  and  beckons 
to  the  fountain  of  life. 

III.  The  treasure-trove. — The  wise  men 
have  reached  their  destination.  All  the  di- 
vinely kindled  stars  lead  to  Bethlehem.  Here 
is  the  end  of  the  great  quest.  The  star  that 
guided  the  Magi  rested  over  a  humble  cot- 
tage. They  entered  and  found  the  Christ- 
child — a  child  upon  its  mother's  breast !  Is 
that  all?  Ay,  all — everything!  In  this  child 
all  the  streams  of  prophecy  converge.  From 
this  child  radiate  all  the  glowing  lines  of  his- 
tory. On  the  walls  of  the  palace  at  Ver- 
sailles, in  a  series  of  magnificent  battle 
scenes,  are  portrayed  the  glories  of  France. 
In  this  humble  home  at  Bethlehem  all  the 
hopes  of  Abraham,  the  dreams  of  David,  and 
the  visions  of  Isaiah  are  realized.  This  cot- 
tage is  the  center  of  the  world. 

Are  you,  friend,  seeking  the  truth  ?  Fol- 
low your  star.  Hearken  when  God  speaks. 
"  There  are  so  many  voices,  and  none  of 
them  is  without  significance."  It  is  easy  to 
quench  all  lights ;  to  hush  all  voices ;  but 
hearken  and  give  heed.  Bethlehem  is  not 
far  ahead.     "  Press   on !  "  as   Cromwell,   the 


4i8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Lord  Protector,  said  to  his  daughter,  "  press 
on,  dear  heart,  and  thou  shalt  find  the  satisfy- 
ing portion.  Let  nothing  cool  thy  ardor 
until  thou  find  it." 

So  here  are  the  Magi  opening  their  packs 
before  the  Christ-child.  The  search  is  over; 
the  problem  of  destiny  is  solved.  Here  is 
gold  for  the  King;  here  is  myrrh  for  the 
Victor;  here  is  frankincense  for  very  God  of 


very  God.  We  are  passing  through  the  days 
of  giving.  We  are  celebrating  now  the  in- 
finite grace  that  lavished  upon  us  the  un- 
speakable gift,  and  what  shall  we  render  in 
return?  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  His 
great  mercy,  that  ye  present  yourselves,  a 
living  sacrifice;  which  is  your  reasonable 
service.  The  best  is  none  too  good  for  God. 
— H.  R. 


THE  TIME,  MANNER,  AND  PURPOSE    OF  CHRIST'S 

ADVENT  * 

By  William  M.  Taylor,  D.D. 

But  when  the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law,  to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the  adoption 
of  sons. — Gal.  iv:  4,  5 


These  words  occur  in  connection  with  a 
labored  argument  by  which  the  apostle  es- 
tablishes the  proposition  that  they  who  are  of 
faith  are  the  children  of  Abraham.  The  Gos- 
pel is  thus  a  reproduction,  only  in  fuller  and 
more  intelligible  terms,  of  the  promise  made 
to  the  father  of  the  faithful,  and  sinners  now 
are  to  be  justified  precisely  as  he  was.  not 
by  the  works  of  law,  but  by  the  hearing  of 
faith.  And  if  that  be  the  case,  what  is  the 
use  of  the  law?  And  to  his  inquiry,  "  Where- 
fore, then,  serveth  the  law?''  the  answer  is, 
"  It  was  added  because  of  transgressions  un- 
til the  seed  should  come  to  whom  the  promise 
was  made."  The  law  was  thus  not  a  contra- 
diction of  the  promise,  but  an  addition  to  it, 
designed  for  its  protection  until  the  time 
came  when  it  could  be  fully  revealed. 

Believers  have  been  God's  children  always, 
but  under  the  law  they  were  like  children  in 
the  nursery  under  the  care  of  the  pedagog, 
who  exercised  restraint  upon  them  and  kept 
watch  over  them.  When  Christ  came,  how- 
ever, the  pedagog  was  discharged,  and  the 
children,  having  now  arrived  at  mature  age, 
were  transferred  from  the  nursery  to  the 
parlor,  and  admitted  to  the  status  of  that 
full-grown  sonship  whose  glorious  liberty  is 
elsewhere  by  the  apostle  so  ravishingly  ex- 
patiated upon.  God's  true  people  were  al- 
ways heirs,  according  to  the  promise  made 
to  Abraham;  but  under  the  law  of  Moses 
they  were  heirs  in  boyhood,  and  so  subject 
to  tutors  and  governors.  When,  however, 
at  the  time  appointed  by  the  Father,  Christ 
came  into  the  world.  He  proclaimed  the  full 
sonship — in  modern  phrase,  the  majority,  the 
coming  of  age — of  the  children  of  God,  and 
gave  them  their  position  in  the  home  as  that 
of  those  who  are  grown  up  into  spiritual 
manhood.  Thus  Paul  here  views  the  advent 
of  Christ  in  its  bearing  upon  those  who  had 
been  under  the  Jewish  law.  But.  while  we 
keep  his  standpoint  clearly  in  sight,  we  may 
also  make  his  words  the  germ  of  a  few 
thoughts  appropriate  to  this  interesting  sea- 
son. 


We  have  here,  then,  brought  before  us,  in 
the  first  place,  the  period  at  which  Christ 
appeared  when  the  fulness  of  the  time  was 
come.  Now  here  the  question  at  once  pre- 
sents itself.  Why  did  not  tlie  Redeemer  ap- 
pear sooner  upon  the  earth?  and  few  ob- 
jections have  been  more  persistently  made  to 
the  whole  system  of  redemption  which  the 
Gospel  reveals  than  this :  that  it  was  un- 
worthy of  God  to  let  four  thousand  years  of 
the  history  of  the  race  go  by  before  He  sent 
His  Son  into  the  world  to  deliver  men.  To 
the  devout  Christian  it  is  enough  that  the 
time  selected  was  God's  time,  but  one  of  two 
statements  may  be  made — first,  in  opposition 
to  the  position  taken  up  by  the  objector,  and, 
second,  in  vindication  of  that  which  he  as- 
sails. 

It  is  pertinent  to  say,  then,  to  one  who 
rejects  the  Savior  on  the  ground  which  we 
have  heard,  that  to  refuse  to  believe  on 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  for  any  such 
reason  is  eminently  unphilosophical.  The 
great  principle  of  modern  inductive  philos- 
ophy is  that  we  ought  not  to  object  to  in- 
vestigate anything  which  claims  to  rest  on  a 
basis  of  fact.  No  allegation  of  accident,  im- 
probability, or  even  impossibility,  is  to  keep 
us  from  examining  phenomena.  Now  the 
Gospel  sets  before  us  what  purports  to  be 
a  series  of  facts  all  tending  to  show  that  He 
in  whom  they  center  is  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  Savior  of  the  world ;  and  what  the  in- 
quirer has  to  determine  is.  Are  these  al- 
leged facts  true?  Is  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the 
Word  made  flesh?  And  if  these  questions 
must,  on  full  and  candid  investigation,  be 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  there  is  but  one 
course  left — viz. :  to  accept  Him  as  the  Re- 
deemer. See  where  the  principle  of  the 
objector  would  carry  him  in  other  depart- 
ments. To  be  consistent,  he  must  reject  the 
whole  system  of  the  Copernican  astronomy 
and  all  the  discoveries  of  modern  science, 
because  of  the  late  date  in  the  history  of  the 
world  in  which  they  were  made.  To  be  con- 
sistent, he  must  reject  the  relief  that  chloro- 


*  Reported. 


CHRISTMAS 


419 


form  or  ether  would  give  him  in  submitting 
to  a  serious  surgical  operation,  on  the  ground 
that,  if  it  were  a  real  anesthetic,  it  would 
have  been,  under  the  providence  of  God,  dis- 
covered as  soon  as  pain  was  felt.  But,  fur- 
ther, it  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  no 
mere  man  is  in  a  position  to  form  any  ac- 
curate judgment  on  such  a  matter  as  this. 
We  know  some  little  of  the  history  of  the 
past,  but  we  know  little  or  nothing  concern- 
ing that  of  the  future.  For  anything  that 
we  can  tell,  there  may  be  hundreds  of  mil- 
lenniums yet  in  store  for  the  human  race, 
and  in  comparison  with  these  the  past  six 
thousand  years  shall  seem  but  as  the  morn- 
ing twilight  to  the  day  of  which  it  is  the 
prelude.  No  idea  of  the  contemplated  build- 
ing can  be  formed  by  one  who  only  sees  the 
foundations  laid  out  for  it;  and  when  the 
work  of  God  shall  be  finished,  we  may  rest 
assured  we  shall  see  the  wisdom  of  the 
whole.  Meanwhile,  the  proper  attitude  of 
our  souls  in  the  contemplation  of  the  question 
I  have  suggested  is  that  of  Paul  when  he 
cries :  "  O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of 
the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How 
unsearchable  are  His  judgments,  and  His 
ways  past  finding  out !  " 

Still,  while  all  this  is  most  true,  I  think 
I  can  see  one  or  two  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  why  the  coming  of  the  Lord  was 
delayed  until  what  Paul  here  calls  the  ful- 
ness of  time.  For  one  thing,  some  such  de- 
lay would  seem  to  have  been  needed  for  the 
accumulation  of  prophetic  evidence,  so  that 
when  the  Messiah  did  come  there  should  be 
no  doubt  whatever  of  His  identity.  It  will  be 
seen  in  a  moment  that,  if  the  Son  of  God 
tvas  to  come  in  human  nature  at  all.  there 
was  need  for  some  special  marks  by  which 
He  should  be  recognized.  It  will  be  ad- 
mitted, also,  that  the  nature  of  these  marks 
was  conditioned  by  the  limitations  of  the 
humanity  in  which  He  came.  He  might, 
indeed,  have  enshrouded  Himself  in  majesty, 
as  on  Sinai — but,  then,  that  would  have  been 
God  in  His  glory;  so  that  His  appearance  in 
the  flesh  necessitated  some  other  kind  of 
evidence,  and,  as  miracles  were  wrought  by 
other  divinely  commissioned  one,  there  was 
needed  something  else  by  which  to  distin- 
guish the  Christ  when  He  came.  This  some- 
thing else  was  prophecy:  but  prophecy  from 
its  very  nature  requires  time  to  give  it 
weight.  The  man  who  takes  it  upon  himself 
to  say  what  shall  be  to-morrow,  next  week, 
or  next  year,  may  very  likely  be  right ;  yet 
no  one  thinks  of  attributing  anything  but 
great  human  shrewdness  to  him.  When, 
however,  things  are  described  hundreds  of 
years  before  they  come  to  pass,  and  a  person 
is  minutely  and  graphically  portrayed  half  a 
millennium  before  he  appears,  the  conclusion 
is  irresistible  that  God  has  drawn  the  por- 
trait, and  that  he  who  comes  and  fulfils  the 
conditions  of  the  prediction  is  all  that  the 
prophecy  proclaims  him  to  be.  The  fulfil- 
ment thus  not  only  authenticates  the  mes- 
senger who  utters  the  prophecy,  but  identi- 
fies him  in  whom  the  prophecy  has  been  ful- 
filled. 


Now,  such  being  the  case,  the  further  the 
date  of  the  giving  of  the  prophecy  is  from 
that  of  its  fulfilment,  the  more  cogent  and 
convincing  is  the  evidence  it  gives;  just  as 
the  wider  the  span  of  the  arch,  the  greater 
is  the  skill  of  the  engineer  who  has  con- 
structed it.  And  so  it  seems  to  me  that  one 
reason  for  the  delay  of  Christ's  appearance 
was  to  allow  time  for  the  accumulation  of 
such  a  body  of  predictions,  all  centering  in 
Him,  as  should  make  it  clear  beyond  all  pos- 
sibility of  cavil  that  He  is  the  sent  of  God. 
Of  course,  every  one  sees  that,  after  the 
predictions  had  been  given,  they  had  to  be 
fulfilled ;  but  my  argument  is  now  not,  that 
Christ  came  when  He  did  in  order  to  fulfil 
prophecy.  I  am  seeking  to  go  behind  the 
prophecies  themselves  to  the  principle  upon 
which  they  are  constructed,  and,  if  I  have 
been  correct  in  supposing  that  the  further 
the  time  the  giving  of  a  prediction  is  from 
the  date  at  which  it  was  to  be  fulfilled,  the 
stronger  is  the  evidence  which  it  furnishes 
of  the  divinity  of  its  origin  and  the  identity 
of  Him  to  whom  it  refers.  You  will  see  at 
once  how  it  came  that  a  long  lapse  of  years 
was  needed  before  the  advent  of  the  Christ. 
But,  when  He  did  come,  the  key  which  He 
brought  fitted  into  every  ward  of  the  pro- 
phetic lock ;  for  it  was  when  the  stem  of 
Jesse  was  to  human  view  a  withered  root  that 
the  Christ  sapling  sprang  out  of  it ;  it  was 
when  the  scepter  was  fallen  from  Juda's  hand 
that  Shiloh  appeared ;  it  was  when  Daniel's 
seventieth  week  ( ?)  was  hastening  to  the 
close  that  Messiah  the  Prince  came,  and  came 
in  such  a  peculiar  manner  as  to  interpret  as 
well  as  to  fulfil  the  primeval  and  paradisial 
prophecy  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent. 

But  yet  another  reason  for  the  delay  of 
Christ's  appearance  might  be  to  make  evi- 
dent the  utter  inability  of  men  by  them-^^elves 
to  find  their  way  back  to  God.  This  seems 
to  me  to  be  more  than  hinted  at  by  Paul  in 
those  words  written  by  him  to  the  Corin- 
thians :  "  For  after  that  in  the  wisdom  of 
God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching 
to  save  them  that  believed."  It  was,  there^ 
fore,  a  part  of  the  plan  of  God  to  show  that 
the  tendency  of  sin  is  ever  downward,  and 
that  without  His  direct  intervention  there 
was  no  possibility  of  salvation  for  mankind. 
This  same  truth  seems  to  me  to  be  the 
prominent  feature  of  Daniel's  vision  of  the 
four  empires,  as  described  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  his  book.  These  kingdoms,  you 
may  remember,  were  symbolized  to  him  by 
beasts,  to  show  that  earthly  power  left  to 
itself  always  runs  to  brutality.  The  first  was 
like  a  lion,  but  still  it  had  the  feet  of  a  man, 
and  a  man's  heart  was  given  to  it.  The 
second  was  like  a  bear  devouring  much  flesh. 
The  third  was  like  the  fierce-  and  blood- 
thirsty leopard,  and  the  fourth  was  a  strange 
and  terrible  animal,  having  iron  teeth  and 
stamping  with  its  feet  everything  which  it 
did  not  destroy  with  its  mouth.  Men  talk  of 
development  theories  ;  that  is.  the  development 
of  worldly  power   when   left  to   itself — and. 


420 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


observe,  it  is  the  development  of  cruelty. 
Each  of  these  empires  was  worse  than  that 
which  went  before  it;  and  the  deterioration 
would  have  gone  on  and  on,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  Him  like  unto  the  Son  of  man,  who 
came  with  the  clouds  of  Heaven,  and  who 
received  from  the  Ancient  of  days  dominion 
and  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  peoples, 
ration?,  and  languages  should  serve  Him. 
What,  I  ask,  could  better  describe  the  history 
of  the  Babylonian,  the  Persian,  the  Grecian, 
and  the  Roman  empires?  Altho  there  was 
an  apparent  rise  in  merely  intellectual  cul- 
ture from  the  one  to  the  other,  there  was  at 
the  same  time,  parallel  to  that,  a  constantly 
increasing  immorality;  and  at  the  very  era 
of  the  Advent  the  cruelty  of  Rome  was  at 
its  height.  Some  there  were,  even  in  these 
old  days,  that  saw  with  eagerness  the  truth. 
The  philosophers  of  Greece,  as  mere  intel- 
lectual giants,  were  among  the  greatest  of 
men;  but,  tho  they  discarded  for  them- 
selves the  polytheism  of  the  vulgar,  they 
could  not  put  anything  better  in  its  place. 
The  old  faiths  were  losing  their  hold,  even 
upon  the  most  thoughtful  of  heathen.  In 
the  words  of  Milton  in  his  hymn  on  the 
Nativity : 

"  The  oracles  are  dumb. 
No  voice  or  hideous  hum 
Runs  through  the  arched  roof  in  words  de- 
ceiving. 

Apollo  from  his  shrine 
Can  no  more  divine. 
With  hollow  shriek  the  steep  of  Delphos  leav- 
ing. 
No  mighty  trance  of  breathed  spell 
Inspires  the  pale-eyed  priest   from  the  pro- 
phetic cell." 

Heathenism  had  proved  unequal  to  the  wants 
of  men;  and  it  was  when  the  most  thought- 
ful among  the  Pagans  were  turned  away 
from  its  hollow  mockeries  and  misleading 
altars  that  the  anthem  of  the  angels  broke 
clear  and  loud  above  the  slopes  of  Bethle- 
hem :  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest !  ^  Peace 
on  earth  and  good  will  toward  men !  " 

Still  again,  the  coming  of  the  Lord  may 
have  been  delayed  so  long  a  time  for  the 
preparation  of  the  world  for  the  diffusion  of 
the  Gospel.  Geologists  tell  us  that  long  ages 
must  have  elapsed  while  stratum  was  rising 
above  stratum  on  the  crust  of  the  earth  ere 
yet  it  was  fit  for  the  abode  of  man ;  and  much 
in  the  same  way  centuries  passed  away  while 
each  empire  rose  and  fell  and  left  its  own 
stratum  of  deposit  until  a  fair  platform  was 
erected  for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  Who 
does  not  see  that  if  the  Lord  had  come  in 
the  early  days — for  example,  of  the  kings  of 
Israel — there  would  have  been  little  oppor- 
tunity for  the  propagation  of  His  message 
of  mercy  to  mankind?  Petty  states  were 
then  continually  striving  for  the  mastery  over 
each  other,  and  no  one  had  arisen  with  re- 
sources sufficient  to  conquer  and  control  the 
rest.  Then,  when  Babylon  had  gained  the 
mastery,  Palestine  became  in  a  remarkable 
way    the    battlefield    of    the    world    whereon 


Persia,  and  afterward  Greece,  strove  for  the 
supremacy,  and  there  was  no  point  at  which 
the  Savior  could  have  come  with  the  oppor- 
tunity of  reaching  immediately  the  race  as  a 
whole ;  but  at  length  Rome  built  up  her  ter- 
ritory, and  without  thinking  at  all  about 
anything  else  than  the  holding  of  those  far- 
away regions  on  which  she  had  laid  her  iron 
hand,  she  made  such  a  system  of  roads  that 
from  Parthia,  in  the  east,  to  Britain,  in  the 
west,  the  man  who  was  privileged  to  call 
himself  a  Roman  citizen  could  go  with 
safety.  Nay,  more,  the  language  of  Greece 
had  well-nigh  vanquished  the  conquerors  of 
the  Greeks,  and  he  who  was  acquainted  with 
that  could  make  himself  understood  wherever 
he  went.  Never  before  had  it  been  so  easy 
for  the  heralds  of  truth  to  pass  from  land 
to  land ;  never  before  had  the  world,  as  a 
whole,  been  so  accessible ;  never  before  had 
the  confusion  of  tongues  been  so  largely 
counteracted.  Who  does  not  see  in  all  this 
the  fore-arranged  hand  of  God?  And  when 
we  add  that  at  the  moment  of  the  Advent, 
the  Temple  of  Janus  was  shut  because  then, 
for  the  first  time  in  many  years,  peace  did 
reign  o'er  all  the  earth,  we  are  constrained 
again  to  take  refuge  in  the  words  of  Mil- 
ton: 

"  No  war.  or  battle's  sound. 
Was    heard    the    world    around, 
The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  uphung ; 
The  hooked  chariot  stood 
Unstained   with   hostile   blood, 
The  trumpet  spake  not  to  the  armed  throng: 
And  kings  sat  still  with  awful  eye, 
As  if  they  surely  knew  their  Sovereign  Lord 
was  by." 

But  we  must  turn  now,  in  the  second  place, 
to  consider  the  Person  who  came  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time.  He  was  the  Son  of  God. 
These  words  describe  His  origin  and  in- 
herent dignity.  They  are  not.  as  some,  even 
of  those  who  believe  in  His  Deity,  would  as- 
sert, a  mere  title  belonging  to  His  media- 
torial office.  He  did  not  become  God's  Son 
by  being  sent  into  the  world,  but  He  was  sent 
into  the  world  because  He  was  the  Son  of 
God.  If  anything  were  needed  to  convince 
us  that  this  is  the  correct  account  of  the 
matter,  it  is  furnished  by  His  own  parable 
of  the  vineyard,  in  which,  when  one  deputa- 
tion of  servants  after  another  had  been 
shamefully  illtreated  by  the  husbandmen,  the 
lord  of  the  vineyard  is  represented  as  last  of 
all  sending  his  son,  saying :  "  They  will 
reverence  my  son." 

But.  while  we  thus  claim  that  the  words 
of  the  Son  of  God  are  descriptive  of  an 
eternal  and  divine  relationship,  we  must  be- 
ware of  robing  the  idea  which  they  express 
with  all  the  material  dress  of  a  mere  earthly 
significance.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
everything  which  is  true  of  a  human  son  as 
related  to  his  father  is  true  of  the  Son  of 
God  in  His  filial  position  in  the  Godhead. 
The  son  of  a  man  derives  his  existence  from 
his  father,  and  has  an  existence  that  began 
subsequent  to  that  of  his  parent ;  but  when 


CHRISTMAS 


421 


we  speak  of  the  Deity,  both  of  these  ideas 
must  be  eliminated  from  sonship.  In  using 
the  word  "  son  "  God  has,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press it,  accommodated  Himself  to  the  limi- 
tations of  human  speech.  No  earthly  term 
could  give  us  an  absolutely  correct  idea  of 
a  divine  relationship  because  no  finite  mind 
could  coin  a  word  for  an  infinite  idea.  Hence 
the  phrase.  "  God  sent  forth  his  Son,"  does 
not  imply  that  the  Son  so  sent  was  in  every 
respect  to  Him  what  a  man's  son  is  to  his 
father.  Sonship  on  earth  is  that  which  comes 
nearest  to  it ;  but,  from  the  very  necessities 
of  the  case,  the  ideas  of  derivation  of  being 
and  posteriority  of  existence  must  be  ex- 
cluded from  it,  and  when  that  is  done  there 
remain  identity  of  nature  and  intensity  of 
affection.  The  Son  of  God,  therefore,  is  a 
partaker  of  the  Divine  nature  and  essence, 
and  an  object  of  the  Divine  love  and  com- 
placency; for,  when  God  introduced  Him  to 
man.  He  said :  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
hear  ye  him  !  " 

If  you  ask  me  to  distinguish  or  define  any 
further,  I  declare  myself  unable  to  proceed. 
There  is  a  distinction  of  some  kind  between 
Father,  Son.  and  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Godhead. 
They  are  three  in  one  sense,  but  they  are 
not  three  in  the  same  sense  as  that  in  which 
God  is  one.  And  so,  while  there  is  mystery, 
there  is  no  contradiction ;  and  the  difficulties 
which  men  have  found  have  all  arisen,  in 
my  judgment,  not  from  the  statement  of  the 
fact  as  I  now  put  it,  but  from  the  unwise  at- 
tempts which  have  been  made  to  explain  the 
mode  of  the  fact.  So  soon  as  we  step  out  of 
the  Word  of  God  we  find  ourselves  more 
and  more  astray,  and  by  our  very  efforts  to 
remove  perplexity  we  only  the  more  increase 
the  bewilderment  of  the  inquirer.  I  content 
myself,  therefore,  with  the  mere  statement 
of  the  truth  as  it  has  been  revealed,  and  re- 
fuse to  be  drawn  into  any  vain  inquiry  as  to 
those  things  which  have  not  been  made 
known,  probably  for  the  very  reason  that 
they  could  not  be  made  known  to  our  finite 
intelligences.  Sufficient  for  us  it  is  to  be 
assured  that  He  who  came  to  earth  as  our 
Redeemer  is  the  Son  of  God,  partaker  with 
the  Father  of  the  Divine  essence,  and  the 
object  of  the  Father's  love  and  complacency. 
He  brings  the  help  we  need.  He  is  not  a 
man  merely  on  a  level  with  ourselves.  He 
is  God,  and  so  He  is  mighty  to  save.  He 
could  have  been  no  deliverer  for  us  if  He 
had  not  been  something  different  from  us. 

I  know  not.  for  my  own  part,  while  I  have 
great  regard  for  the  honesty  and  sincerity  of 
the  Unitarians,  how  they  can  speak  of  Jesus 
as  a  Savior  who  denied  His  Deity,  for  it  is 
His  Deity  which  gives  Him  ability  to  save. 
If  He  were  only  a  man,  then  He  is  no  more 
to  me  than  any  other  of  the  great  men  of 
antiquity,  and  all  this  Christmas  festivity  in 
honor  of  His  birth  is  only  an  absurdity.  If 
He  were  only  a  man,  then  He  was  a  deliverer 
of  a  race  simply  as  Washington  was  the  fa- 
ther of  his  country ;  and  churches  and  the 
Lord's  supper  and  missions  are  a  huge  mis- 
take. If  He  were  only  a  man,  then  the  story 
of  other  men  might  be  supposed  to  be  equally 


helpful  to  the  human  race  with  His.  But, 
no !  no !  The  instinct  of  humanity  cannot 
be  thus  deceived.  In  its  passionate  longing 
for  deliverance  the  soul  cries,  "O  God!  my 
God !  "  for  it  recognizes  that  there  can  be 
no  help  for  it  except  in  God.  And  in  the 
contemplation  of  Christ,  it  has  ever  ex- 
claimed, "My  God!"  No  candid  man  will 
ever  put  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospel  on  the  same 
level  as  a  philosopher.  There  is  a  difference, 
not  only  in  degree,  hut  in  nature,  between  the 
two,  and  in  that  difference  known  and  recog- 
nized is  the  quality  that  fits  Him  to  be  the 
Redeemer. 

That  which  /  cling  to  for  support  must  be 
something  different  from  myself,  and 
stronger  than  myself;  otherwise,  in  the  time 
of  my  necessity  I  shall  be  no  better  than  if 
I  were  leaning  on  a  broken  reed.  When  in 
the  irresistible  whirlwind  the  waves  are  break- 
ing over  the  vessel  and  sweeping  the  deck 
from  stem  to  stern,  it  will  not  do  for  the 
sailor  to  stand  alone;  neither  will  it  do  for 
him  to  lay  hold  on  his  fellow,  for  they  to- 
gether may  be  swept  into  the  ocean.  Far 
wiser  he  who  lays  hold  upon  the  iron  bul- 
wark of  the  ship,  making  for  the  moment  the 
strength  of  the  iron  as  his  own,  and  is  by 
that  upheld  ;  and  so,  amid  the  storms  of  life, 
it  will  not  do  for  me  to  stand  alone;  it  will 
not  do  for  me  even  to  cling  to  a  fellow- 
man.  I  must  have  some  one  higher  and 
stronger  than  myself  lest  I  be  swept  from  my 
foothold;  and  I  find  that  loftiness,  that 
might,  that  strength,  in  the  Deity  of  Christ, 
and  it  is  because  He  is  my  God  that  He  is 
my   Savior. 

But,  now,  let  us  look  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  Son  of  God  came  into  the  world : 
He  was  made  of  a  woman — made  under  the 
law.  That  is  to  saj',  He  became  a  man  and 
a  Jew.  He  took  on  Him  human  nature. 
Now,  what  does  that  imply?  Not.  certainly, 
that  He  ceased  to  be  divine,  but  that,  in  ad- 
dition to  what  He  had  been  before.  He  be- 
came a  partaker  of  flesh  and  blood.  He  as- 
sumed humanity,  that  through  His  manhood 
He  might  give  to  men  a  manifestation  of 
Deity.  He  took  not  only  a  human  body — 
for  that  is  only  a  part  of  manhood ;  it  is 
only  the  tabernacle  in  which  the  better  part 
of  man  dwells — but  He  took  human  nature 
into  union  with  His  Deity.  If  you  ask  me 
how  that  is  possible,  again  I  reply  that  I  can- 
not tell  any  more  than  I  can  explain  how  (he 
soul,  of  which  I  am  conscious,  is  united  to 
the  body  which  I  know  to  be  not  mind,  but 
only  mine.  But,  while  I  cannot  make  the 
mystery  plain,  I  think  I  can  see  that  this 
union  of  Deity  and  humanity  must  have 
conditioned  both.  It  made  it  necessary,  for 
one  thing,  that  His  humanity  should  be  pure : 
and  so  that  accounted  for  the  peculiar  man- 
ner of  His  birth,  wherein  for  Him  the  en- 
tail of  sin  was  broken,  and  His  very  body 
was  a  holy  thing.  It  made  it  necessary  also 
that  His  Deity  should  be  manifested  under 
certain  limitations.  That  is  the  very  diffi- 
culty of  the  Incarnation,  for  it  was  to  be 
manifest  through  His  manhood.  That  is 
what    Paul    refers   to   when    he   said :    "  Tho 


422 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


he  was  rich,  for  our  sakes  he  became  poor ;  " 
and  in  another  connection,  that  "  he  made 
himself  of  no  reputation,"  or,  as  it  is  liter- 
ally, He  emptied  Himself.  His  Deity  was  in 
some  sort  veiled  by  His  humanity,  and  that 
explains  what  is  said  in  the  Gospel  about 
the  limitations  of  it,  as  when  we  are  informed 
that  He  increased  in  wisdom,  and  that  He 
knew  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour  of  a  cer- 
tain event.  The  Incarnation  to  the  eyes 
of  men  was  indeed  a  revelation  of  God,  but 
to  the  eyes  of  angels  it  was  rather,  for  the 
time  being,  the  veiling  of  Deity — the  taber- 
nacle of  the  flesh  curtaining,  as  it  were,  the 
glory  of  the  Godhead.  Still  through  that 
which  to  the  eyes  of  angels  was  a  curtain, 
men  saw  more  of  God  than  they  ever  did  be- 
fore. Indeed,  but  for  the  curtain  they  could 
have  seen  nothing  at  all  of  Him. 

If  you  want  to  look  at  the  sun  through  a 
telescope,  you  must  be  very  careful  to  put  a 
smoke  glass  before  that  which  you  look 
through ;  for,  if  you  do  not,  the  light  of  the 
sun  through  that  of  the  mirror  on  which  you 
look  will  strike  into  your  eye  and  make  you 
utterly  blind.  And  so,  in  like  manner,  no 
man  can  behold  the  unveiled  God  and  live. 
There  would  come  from  the  unveiling  an 
excess  of  light  that  would  blast  him.  But.  if 
we  contemplate  God  as  He  has  veiled  Him- 
self in  the  humanity  of  Christ,  we  see  Him 
without  being  destroyed  by  it,  and  the  sight 
of  Him  imparts  salvation  to  us.  Or,  as  John 
says :  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the 
glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Fa- 
ther ;  "  and  lo !  it  was  a  glory  not  full  of  de- 
struction, but  rather  "  full  of  grace." 

But  the  Savior  was  also  made  under  the 
law— that  is.  He  became  a  Jew.  It  behooved 
Him  to  fulfil  all  righteousness :  and  so  He 
was  circumcised.  He  lived  under  the  re- 
strictions of  the  Mosaic  Law,  and  in  all 
forms  of  conduct  conformed  to  the  discipline 
under  which  the  children  of  Abraham  were 
placed.  The  purpose  of  this  was  that  He 
might  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law. 
He  took  the  place  of  those  whom  He  came 
to  deliver;  and  the  same  principle  that  re- 
quired that  He  should  become  a  man  in 
order  to  deliver  men,  made  it  needful  that 
He  should  become  a  Jew  in  order  to  redeem 
the  Jews. 

The  law  that  is  satisfied  by  a  redeemer 
must  be  the  law  that  was  broken  by  those 
whom  he  wishes  to  redeem.  In  the  abstract, 
indeed,  law  is  always  the  same  thing.  Law 
is  always  that  which  God  requires  of  His 
creatures;  but  for  different  creatures  the 
law  is  different,  being  conformed  to  the  na- 
ture which  they  possess.  Thus,  if  I  have 
any  right  conception  of  the  nature  of  angels, 
I  cannot  conceive  how  they  can  conform,  or 
can  be  required  to  conform,  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Decalog.  These  commandments  are 
for  creatures  with  a  human  nature;  and  so, 
when  these  were  broken,  the  obedience  of  an 
angel  to  the  law  by  which  angels  were  held 
could  not  satisfy  them.  They  could  be 
obeyed  only  by  one  who  is  himself  human. 
Hence,  if  it  were  needful  for  our  Redeemer 


to  satisfy  the  law  which  we  had  broken,  it 
was  needful  for  Him  to  become  a  man  before 
He  could  do  it.  But  in  the  same  way  the 
Jewish  law  was  laid  by  God  upon  the  de- 
scendants of  Abraham  for  special  reasons, 
and  it  was  different  from  that  law  under 
which  other  men  were  held.  Hence,  if  it 
were  needful  for  the  Redeemer  of  the  Jews 
to  satisfy  the  law  which  they  had  broken,  it 
was  needful  that  He  should  become  a  Jew. 
By  His  Jewish  birth  He  became  subject  to 
the  Jewish  law.  under  the  curse  of  which  the 
laws  were  held ;  and  so  through  the  honor- 
ing of  the  law.  He  has  redeemed  both  Jew 
and  Gentile  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being 
made  a  curse  for  us,  as  it  is  written :  "  Ac- 
cursed be  every  one  that  hangeth  upon  a 
tree." 

Now  see  the  glorious  result  of  this,  in  the 
closing  words  of  my  text :    "  That  we  might 
receive  the  adoption  of  sons."     As  I   stated 
in   the   outset,   this   "  adoption "    means,   pri- 
marily,   not    the    taking    into    the    family    of 
those  who  formerly  did  not  belong  to  it,  but 
the  raising  to  the  position  of  full-grown  son- 
ship  of  those  who  had  formerly  been  under 
tutors  and  governors.     Still,  as  the  Gentiles 
were  placed   on   a   footing  of  equality   with 
Jews — if  in  Christ,  as  Paul  has  told  us  in  the_ 
immediate  neighborhood  of  my  text,   "  there 
is   neither  Jew   nor   Gentile  " — we   may   take 
the  words  as  signifying  that  the  grand  out- 
come  of   redemption    for   us   is   the   making 
of  us  sons  of  God  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,    And  what  does  it  mean,  my  brethren, 
when  we  say  of  ourselves  that  we  are  sons 
of  God?     It  means  that  we  have  been  born 
again  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  into  God's  family, 
having  His  nature  imparted  to  us ;    so  that, 
whereas   before   we   were   prone   to   evil   and 
averse  to  good,  we  are  now  inclined  to  holi- 
ness, and  turn  away  from  sin.     It  means  that 
God  is  now  the  object  of  our  filial  affection 
— that  we   are  the   subjects  of  His   fatherly 
regard.     It    means    that    we    hold    ourselves 
under  His  authority,   and  that   He  will   pro- 
vide for  us  and  protect  us  as  His  children. 
It_  means  that  we  have  liberty  of  fellowship 
with  Him,  and  walk  with  Him  in  the  enjoy- 
ment   of    that    highest    kind    of    intercourse 
which  the  world  knows,  viz. :    the  confiden- 
tial   friendship    which    subsists    between    the 
father  and  the  son  when  the  father  becomes 
the  companion  of  the  son,  and  the  son  grows 
up    to    be    the    associate    of    the    father.     It 
means   that   His  house   is   our   home,   round 
which   our   highest  and   holiest   and   fondest 
associations  cluster,  and  in  which,  at  last,  we 
are  to  find  our  eternal  abode. 

Sons  of  God !  Sons  of  God !  What  an 
honor,  what  a  passion,  what  a  privilege  it  is 
to  be  the  outcome  of  the  Savior's  advent  to 
our  world,  that  we  might  receive  the  adop- 
tion of  sons !  He  came  to  secure  for  us 
God's  forgiveness  and  blessing ;  and,  by  tak- 
ing us  by  the  hand  and  leading  us  into  the 
very  mercy-seat,  to  teach  us  to  say,  "  Our 
Father."  He  came  to  put  new  life  into  our 
devotions,  new  joy  into  our  hearts,  new  ho- 
liness into  our  lives,  new  significance  into 
our  trials,  and  new  attraction  into  our  heaven. 


CHRISTMAS 


423 


This  was  the  object  He  had  in  view  when  He 
was  born  into  our  earth  a  little  babe. 

But,  O  my  hearers !  it  is  not  accomplished 
in  you  until  He  is  born  into  your  hearts. 
For,  look  what  Paul  says  in  the  twenty- 
sixth  verse  of  the  chapter  preceding  that 
from  which  my  text  is  taken :  "  Ye  are  all 
the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Through  faith,  then,  Christ  is  born  within 
us,  and  we  become  the  sons  of  God,  enter- 
ing into  His  family. 

And  so,  after  the  wide  sweep  we  have 
taken  this  morning,  we  now  come  again  to 
the  old  question :  "  Dost  thou  believe  in  the 
Son  of  God  ? "  That  is  for  me  and  thee 
the  question  of  this  recurring  anniversary. 
When  Christ  was  born  in  Bethlehem  a  new 
era  in  the  world's  history  was  rung  in,  and 
when,  by  faith.  He  shall  be  born  again  in 
your  heart  a  new  era  in  your  life  shall  be 
begun.  "  As  many  as  received  him,  to  them 
gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God, 
even  to  them  that  believe  in  his  name." 


Wilt  thou,  my  hearer,  receive  Him  now? 
O,  let  the  joy-bells  of  thy  heart  ring  out  thy 
soul's  great  Christmas  peal !  It  is  a  time  of 
giving  of  gifts.  Ah,  yes !  and  here,  my 
beloved,  is  God's  best  gift  to  thee — sonship, 
through  the  birth  of  Christ  within  thee.  Wilt 
thou  accept  it  at  His  hands?  Put  it  not,  I 
beseech  thee,  away  from  thy  heart,  but  make 
room  for  Jesus  there.  Ah !  you  remember 
how  it  is  written  in  the  beautiful  story,  that 
comes  up  year  after  year  at  this  joyful  sea- 
son :  "  And  there  was  no  room  for  him  in 
the  inn.''  How  many  human  hearts  there  are 
to-day  like  that  caravansary  in  the  Bethlehem 
of  old!  Room  for  this  and  that  of  business, 
and  pleasure,  and  domestic  joy — room  for 
everything  but  Christ !  O,  make  room,  make 
room  this  morning,  my  hearers,  for  the  Christ- 
child  in  your  heart,  no  matter  what  must  be 
dislodged  to  secure  His  entrance.  Put  every 
intruder  out,  and  let  the  Christ-child  to-day 
be  born  within  thee.  May  God  add  His 
blessing,  and  to  His  name  be  praise ! — H.  R. 


WHY  THE  MAGI  EXPECTED  CHRIST 


By  James  Mulcahey,  D.D. 

/  shall  see  him,  but  not  now;   I  shall  behold  him,  but  not  nigh:    there  shall  come  a  Star  out 
of  Jacob,  and  a  Sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel. — Num.  xxiv:  17 


Our  lesson  has  reference  to  the  wise  men 
who  came  from  the  East  seeking  Christ.  Who 
were  these  men,  who  had  doubtless  learned 
to  look  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God, 
who  were  moved  by  appearances  in  nature 
to  spiritual  thoughts?  They  were  not  Jews. 
The  East,  from  which  they  came  was  be- 
yond the  boundary  of  the  Holy  Land — per- 
haps Arabia  or  Persia.  The  Magi  were  men 
to  whom  were  entrusted  the  sacred  books. 
They  were  the  leaders  of  the  people  in  re- 
ligion. They  studied  astronomy.  It  is  not 
strange  that  the  appearance  of  a  new  star 
attracted  their  attention,  or  that  they  should 
have  connected  it  with  some  new  revelation 
from  Heaven.  There  was  at  this  time  an 
expectation  that  a  great  deliverer  would 
come.  This  feeling  was  widespread  among 
the  Eastern  nations.  Now,  whence  this  ex- 
pectation? For  an  answer  to  this  we  must 
look  to  the  prophecy  of.  the  text. 

Balaam  was  a  soothsayer.  He  did  not 
scruple  even  to  receive  the  rewards  of  his 
divination.  But  he  was  more  than  a  sooth- 
sayer. He  was  a  prophet  and  a  servant  of 
God.  Several  times  it  is  declared  that  the 
word  of  the  Lord  was  in  his  mouth.  He  had 
the  gift  of  prophecy.  He  was  constrained 
to  speak  as  the  spirit  moved  him.  This  Ba- 
laam was  of  the  land  of  Abram,  a  land  in 
which  there  was  a  knowledge  of  the  true 
God.  Let  us  listen  to  this  prophecy  and  its 
import : 

I.  Of  whom  was  it  made?  The  words  of 
the  text  cannot  refer  to  the  covenants  of 
David  or  other  kings  of  Israel.  Their  sol- 
emnity carry  the  conviction  that  they  refer 


to  One  beyond  David.  "  I  shall  see  him, 
but  not  now ;  I  shall  behold  him.  but  not 
nigh."  Who  is  that  Him?  How  emphatic 
and  solemn  the  reference  !  We  cannot  doubt 
but  that  it  refers  to  Him  in  whom  all 
prophecy  converged,  and  to  whom  all  the 
ends  of  the  world  shall  look  for  salvation.  Is 
it  not  likely  that  the  words  of  a  prophet  so 
prominent  as  was  Balaam  in  the  East  would 
have  been  treasured  carefully,  and  that  the 
star  that  was  to  arise  out  of  Jacob  would 
have  been  anxiously  awaited?  For  cen- 
turies the  Magi  watched  for  that  mystic 
star. 

II.  Who  were  to  be  blessed  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  prophecy?  It  was  a  promise  of 
salvation  for  the  Gentiles.  What  a  longing 
do  the  words  express !  "  I  shall  see  him, 
but  not  now,  I  shall  behold  him,  but  not 
nigh."  How  quickly  these  wise  men  arose 
when  the  star  appeared  and  entered  the  land 
of  Jacob ! 

An  important  question  arises:  Why  the 
seeming  injustice  of  selecting  a  compara- 
tively insignificant  people  to  be  the  deposi- 
taries of  sacred  truth?  Then,  why  the  seem- 
ingly greater  inconsistency:  the  rejection  of 
the  chosen  people  for  two  thousand  years, 
and  the  keeping  of  the  truth  from  all  but  a 
small  fragment  of  the  human  race?  As  the 
Jews  were  made  to  understand  that  it  was 
because  of  their  narrow  misconception  of  the 
nature  of  the  religion  revealed  to  them,  and 
their  consequent  self-complacency,  that  the 
Gentiles  were  kept  from  a  knowledge  of  the 
religion  God  had  revealed  to  them,  so  we  to- 
day, by  our  narrow  and  selfish  view  of  the 


424 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


ends  of  grace,  restrict  its  blessings.  Revela- 
tion is  a  universal,  not  a  partial  gift.  We  are 
not  to  understand  that  we  are  infallibly- 
guided  or  that  the  rest  of  the  world  is  in- 
fallibly wrong.  While  the  means  of  grace 
are  specially  vouchsafed  to  the  Church,  yet 
do  they  belong  to  all  the  world.  There  is 
light  given  to  all  nations.  This  is  no  new 
doctrine,  forced  by  the  inroads  of  modern 
liberalism.  Saint  Clement  of  Alexandria 
held,  that  God  had  revealed  Himself  in  phi- 
losophy to  the  Greeks,  and  that  He  was  a 


Savior  enlightening,  in  manifold  ways,  all  the 
world. 

Two  thousand  years  passed  after  this 
prophecy  of  Balaam  before  its  fulfilment, 
but  the  world  was  not  neglected.  An  educat- 
ing and  disciplining  process  was  all  the  while 
carried  forward.  So  is  the  work  of  God  car- 
ried forward  to-day  throughout  the  world. 

The  star  still  shines  in  the  East.  Let  us 
turn  our  eyes  towards  it,  and  welcome  the 
coming  of  the  nations  guided  by  its  light. — 
H.  R. 


GOD  WITH  US 


By  Wayland  Hoyt,  D.D. 
Matt,  i:  23 


One  day,  years  ago,  the  people  living  near 
Niagara  Falls  were  startled  by  the  cry: 
"  Man  in  Niagara  !    Man  in  Niagara !  " 

So  they  all  ran,  thronging  the  suspension 
bridge  and  crowding  the  cliffs  hard  by. 

"  Where  is  he?  Where  is  he?  "  each  asked 
of  each,  because  at  first  they  could  not  see 
him.  "  Poor  fellow,"  they  said ;  "  he's 
gone !  " 

Then  some  one  cried  out :  "  See ;  see,  yon- 
der— he  is  hanging  on  a  rock !  "  pointing  as 
he  spoke  to  a  low,  waterwashed  rock  about 
sixty  yards  below  the  great  falls  on  the  Am- 
erican side. 

Then  the  question  went  through  all  the 
murmuring  crowd :  "  Can  we  save  him  ? 
Can  we  save  him?" 

Tjjey  got  a  long  rope  ladder.  They  hoped 
they  might  be  able  to  let  it  down  somewhere 
in  the  poor  man's  neighborhood  from  one 
of  the  overhanging  cliffs.  They  threw  the 
ladder  over,  but  there  were  some  bushes 
growing  out  of  a  crevice  down  part  way  in 
the  rocks,  and  as  the  rope  ladder  fell  it  got 
tangled  in  the  bushes,  and  they  could  not 
loosen  it. 

Then  they  asked  this  other  question : 

"  Who  will  go  down  and  clear  the  rope 
ladder  and  try  to  save  that  man?"  It  was 
a  terrible  question  to  ask,  for  it  was  a  terrible 
thing  to  do.  The  man  who  should  dare  do 
it  must  do  so  at  the  greatest  risk  of  his  own 
life. 

At  last  a  brave  young  man  stepped  for- 
ward and  said,  "  I'll  go."  Carefully  he 
climbed  down  the  rope  ladder  to  the  bushes. 
There  he  waited  for  some  time  seeking  to 
get  the  ladder  clear.  With  difficulty,  he  got 
it  clear,  and  then  the  rope  ladder  fell  down 
near  to  where  that  imperiled  man  was  cling- 
ing for  his  life  to  that  wet.  low  rock. 

Then  this  man  who  had  descended  from 
the  cliff  began  himself  to  go  down  farther. 
It  was  a  frightful  thing  to  do.  The  rope 
ladder  swung  and  swayed,  and  below  him 
were  the  dashing,  boiling  waters.  One  loose 
grasp,  one  misstep,  and  nothing  in  God's 
world  could  save  him.  But  he  went  slowly 
and  steadily  down  and  down. 


At  last  he  reached  the  rock  where  tlic 
drenched,  buffeted,  weakening  man  was  cling- 
ing, Holding  with  one  hand  firmly  to  the 
swaying  ladder  and  putting  one  foot  as  firmly 
as  he  could  upon  the  low  rocks  the  waters 
were  dashing  over,  with  the  other  hand  he 
took  hold  of  the  poor  fellow,  and,  saying 
words  of  courage  to  him,  got  him  to  take 
hold  of  the  rope  ladder  and  try  to  climb  up 
it  to  the  cliffs  above. 

This  brave  helper  could  not  carry  the  poor 
man  up.  To  attempt  that  would  be  altogether 
beyond  his  own  strength.  Nor  could  he  tie 
the  poor  fellow  to  the  rope  ladder,  and  let 
him  be  dragged  up,  for  so  he  would  be  dashed 
to  death  against  the  projecting  rocks  above, 
as  the  rope  ladder  would  sway,  now  this  way 
and  now  that. 

So  this  man  who  had  somehow  fallen  into 
the  wild  waters,  with  nearly  all  his  strength 
gone  through  his  terrible  clinging  to  that 
low  rock  against  the  awful  force  of  the  in- 
vading water,  took  hold  of  the  rope  ladder 
and  began  to  climb.  After  he  had  gone  up 
perhaps  a  hundred  feet,  he  had  to  stop  to 
rest.  Those  up  there  on  the  cliffs  were  in 
great  fear  lest  his  small  strength  should 
give  way  entirely  and  he  fall  again  into 
the  raging  waters.  "  Hold  on !  "  they 
shouted  to  him.  "  Hold  on !  "  But  their 
voices  could  not  be  distinctly  heard  amid  the 
thunder  of  the  mighty  falls. 

Then  the  man  climbed  up  another  hundred 
feet,  and  stopped  again  to  rest.  Those  on 
the  cliff  grew  more  hopeful  now.  And  the 
brave  helper  at  the  bottom  stood  there,  get- 
ting what  foothold  he  might  and  steadying 
the  ladder. 

Then,  again,  the  man  began  to  climb,  pain- 
fully, laboriously,  his  strength,  which  had 
been   tasked   so   terribly,   almost   failing   him. 

Then,  at  last,  he  was  in  reach  of  the  top, 
and  some  strong  arms,  reaching  over,  seized 
him  and  lifted  him  into  safety,  amid  the 
tears,  and  shouts,  and  eager  joy  of  the  mul- 
titude. 

And  the  brave  helper  who  had  gone  down 
for  him  and  at  so  great  a  risk  climbed  safely 
to  the  summit  too. 


CHRISTMAS 


425 


I  tliink  the  story  is  a  good  one  for  the 
Christmas  time,  because  it  tells,  tho  in  the 
dimmest  and  in  the  poorest  way,  what  our 
Lord  Jesus  has  done  for  every  one  of  us. 

He  was  the  One  who  came  down  from 
Heaven  to  us,  amid  all  the  storm  and  danger 
and  death  of  our  sad  sins. 

He  came  down  to  us.  He  did  not  stand, 
like  the  people  on  the  cliflFs,  away  off  in  the 
far  heavens  shouting  to  us  to  climb  up.  He 
was  like  the  brave  helper  in  the  story :  from 
the  far  heavens  He  Himself  came  down  to 
us.  and  all  our  risk  and  pain  and  sorrow  and 
death   He   took   upon   Himself. 

He  is  a  great  deal  better  to  us,  too,  than 
was  this  brave  helper,  good  as  he  was  to  the 
poor  man  clinging  for  his  life  to  the  wet, 
treacherous  rock.  Our  Lord  Jesus  does  not 
simply  bring  the  ladder  of  escape  to  us,  but 
He  gives  us  His  own  strength  that  we  may 
have  strength  to  climb.  Nay,  He  does  more 
than  that,  for  really  we  have  no  strength. 
If  we  will  only  let  Him,  with  a  deep  trust, 
like  the  shepherd  in  the  parable  of  the  lost 
sheep,  He  lays  us  on  His  own  shoulders  and 
carries  us  up. 

So  our  Lord  Jesus  is  the  one  who  comes 
to  us ;  and  if  we  will  have  it  so,  there  is  not 
one  of  us  who  may  not  be  saved  because  He 
came. 

And  the  Christmas  time  is  the  time  when 
we  think  of  the  fact  and  of  the  way  of  His 
coming  to  us. 

Consider,  first,  the  reality  of  the  Incar- 
nation. Jesus  Christ  is  actually  God  with 
us.  As  another  has  most  truly  and  thought- 
fully said :  "  Everything  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion depends  on  the  truth  of  the  story  of 


Bethlehem.  If  He  who  was  there  born  was 
not  really  God,  then  the  religion  He  set  up 
is  but  human  religion,  and  our  hopes  of  a 
manhood  perfected  in  a  God-man  are 
quenched.  If  He  who  was  there  born  was 
not  really  man,  but  only  phantom  flesh,  the 
religion  He  set  up  is  a  deceitful  religion, 
leaving  to  us,  it  may  be,  nothing  but  a  phan- 
tom God.  I  say,  then,  that  Christianity  from 
center  to  circumference  is  balanced  on  the 
solitary  pivot  of  the  nativity.  Revelation, 
Mediation,  Passion,  Crucifixion,  Resurrec- 
tion, Ascension,  Parousia,  all  revolve  round 
Bethlehem's  manger." 

Consider,  second,  how  sacred  a  thing  is 
childhood.  God  entered  into  our  human  na- 
ture as  a  child ;  and  what  higher  work  than 
the  training  of  this  childhood,  dignified  thus 
by  the  fact  that  our  Lord  and  Savior  was 
once  a  little  child!  Daniel  Webster  at  one 
time  said:  "  If  we  work  upon  marble,  it  will 
perish.  If  we  work  upon  brass,  time  will 
efface  it.  If  we  rear  temples,  they  will  crum- 
ble into  dust.  If  we  work  upon  immortal 
minds,  if  we  imbue  them  with  principles, 
with  the  just  fear  of  God  and  love  for  our 
fellow  men,  we  engrave  on  these  tablets 
something  which  will  brighten  for  eternity." 

Consider,  third,  since  God  is  thus  with  us, 
how  certain  it  is  that  our  Lord  Jesus  can 
enter  into  the  most  real  and  close  sympathy 
with  every  one  of  us. 

Consider,  fourth,  how  the  Babe  in  the 
manger,  who  is  yet  God  with  us,  teaches  us 
that  the  true  life  is  that  of  forgetfulness  of 
self.  He,  thinking  not  His  equality  with  God 
a  thing  to  be  grasped  at,  emptied  Himself. — 
H.  R. 


CONCEALING  CHRIST 


By  J.  Fleming 

But  he  could  not  he  hid. — Mark  vii:  24 


I.  The  Lord  Jesus  is  not  hid. — The  Old 
Testament  contained  one  promise  which  like 
a  thread  of  gold  ran  through  the  whole ;  a 
promise  which  was  oft  repeated,  which  was 
embraced  by  all  believers,  the  blessings  of 
which  were  grandly  unfolded  as  time  rolled 
on ;  and  which,  in  the  fulness  of  time  was 
accomplished.  It  was  the  Messiah.  The 
Dayspring  from  on  high  has  visited  us.  The 
Sun  of  Righteousness  has  arisen  with  heal- 
ing in  His  wings,  and  therefore  the  Lord 
Jesus  is  not  hid.  He  is  plainly  seen  by  those 
who  have  eyes  to  see,  and  plainly  heard  by 
those  who  have  ears  to  hear,  altho  He  is  in 
the  highest  heavens. 

II.  The  Lord  Jesus  ought  not  to  be  hid. — 
Who  shall  declare  how  wicked  is  the  at- 
tempt to  hide  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  said,  "  I 
am  the  light  of  the  world."  Do  any  attempt 
it?  Yes.  many  have  done  so.  The  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  saw  clearly  enough  that  He 
was  the  Christ;  yet  they  tried  to  hide  Him 


by  saying  that  He  wrought  miracles  by  the 
power  of  Beelzebub.  This  our  Lord  de- 
clared, but  nothing  else,  is  the  unpardonable 
sin.  The  Jews  wished  Christ  to  be  hid,  when 
they  quenched  His  costly  life  on  Calvary; 
they  wished  His  words  to  be  hid  when  they 
beat  the  apostles,  and  commanded  them  not 
to  speak  in  His  Name.  Christ  ought  not  to 
be  hid. 

III.  Christ  cannot  be  hid. — All  things 
prepare  for  the  coronation  of  Christ.  All 
things,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  be- 
ing attuned  for  the  glory  of  Christ.  This 
is  God's  mighty  purpose  which  all  events  are 
unfolding.  All  things  are  for  Christ  and 
Christ  in  all  things.  He  cannot  be  hid.  For 
Christ  the  vast  machinery  of  providence  is 
kept  in  beneficent  action ;  all  persons,  all 
things,  all  events,  are  under  His  beneficent 
rule.  Over  all  men's  conscience  His  purpose 
must  prevail.  His  cause  roll  on.  "  He  must 
reign." — S.  B.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  253. 


426 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  SHEPHERDS  OF  JUDEA 

By  Charles  H.  Hall,  D.D. 

And  there  were  in  the  same  country  shepherds  abiding  in  the  Held,  keeping  watch  over  ihe'\r 

Hocks  by  night. — Luke  ii:  8 


In  all  ancient  history,  the  shepherd  is  rep- 
resented as  the  embodiment  of  innocent 
stupidity.  But  we  think  of  these  shepherds 
near  Bethlehem  as  ideal  shepherd?.  This  is 
the  trick  poetry  and  art  have  played.  In 
the  same  way,  Mary  is  taken  out  of  ordinary 
maidenhood,  and  has  offered  to  her  the  in- 
cense that  formerly  was  offered  to  Diana. 
The  fact  is,  God  came  down  through  all 
the  strata  of  society  when  He  came  to  re- 
deem man.  Ignorance  must  cease  to  be  the 
mother  of  devotion.  It  is  possible  so  to 
clothe  Christ  with  the  imagination,  as  to  take 
Him  out  of  the  reach  of  ordinary  men.  Let 
us  look  upon  these  men  as  simple  shepherds. 
The  record  that  is  given  of  them  will  teach 
us  several  lessons. 

I.  It  is  said  they  were  sorely  terrified. 
Their  idea  of  God  was  one  clothed  with 
terror.  When  will  it  be  possible  for  Chris- 
tians to  face  without  fear  the  messenger  of 
God  in  the  dark.  We  cultivate  fear.  The 
air  is  electrical  with  the  divine  presence. 
The  heathen  thought  hy  smearing  their  faces 
with  filth  to  please  their  gods.  Some  such 
idea  still  lurks  in  our  minds.  About  this 
time  there  were  three  angelic  visitations. 
(a)  The  shepherds  were  frightened  out  of 
their  wits,  (b)  Zacharias  was  troubled  at 
sight  of  the  divine  messenger,  and  became 
dumb,  (c)  Mary  was,  doubtless,  surprised, 
but  was  not  afraid.  "  Behold  the  handmaid 
of  the  Lord ;  be  it  unto  me  according  to  thy 
word."  Her  nature  had  been  so  schooled  as 
to  be  able  to  stand,  unterrified,  on  the  verge 
of  the  supernatural. 

II.  The  shepherds  went  to  find  Christ.     I 


give  it  as  my  fancy  that  they  found  Him 
when  they  put  up  their  flocks  in  the  sheep- 
fold.  Christ  was  first  found  in  a  shecpfold. 
Since  then  the  world  has  been  too  apt  to  seek 
for  Christ  only  in  magnificent  temples,  etc. 
The  mystery  of  all  mysteries  in  religion  to 
me  is  God  Himself.  He  who  must  have  mi- 
croscopic vision  to  see  me  at  all,  came  down, 
passing  thrones  of  kings — in  ancient  times 
all  kings  were  gods,  etc.  The  wonder  of 
Christianity  is  its  simplicity.  I  tell  you,  if 
the  Bible  had  been  an  imposition,  it  would 
have  fallen  into  this  trap.  The  world  has 
been  l,8oo  years  coming  up  to  the  idea  of 
democracy  embodied  in  that  wonderful  effort 
of  human  wisdom,  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. The  idea  of  democracy  was  in 
this,  coming  to  a  stable  to  Hnd  Christ. 

III.  The  occasion  must  have  turned  out  as 
one  of  joy  to  the  shepherds,  as  it  was  to  the 
angels.  We  are  too  gloomy  in  our  religion. 
Four-fifths  of  Christendom  still  sing  the 
words  of  a  half-crazy  man,  asking  for  the 
joy  he  felt  when  he  first  knew  the  Lord.  It 
was  once  thought  out  of  harmony  to  celebrate 
the  Lord's  Supper  on  Christmas  day.  Re- 
ligion and  joy  should  go  hand  in  hand. 

Let  us  remember — 

1.  That  there  is  no  place  so  humble  but 
that  Christ  may  be  successfully  sought  there. 
No  home  can  be  inferior  to  a  stable  or  sheep- 
fold. 

2.  God  is  love,  and  should  not  occasion 
fear. 

3.  Then,  also,  they  who  are  in  God,  are  in 
love.     They  will  love  all. 

I  wish  you  all  a  Merry  Christmas. — H.  R. 


THE  SEASON  OF  PEACE 

By  Robert  S.  MacArthur,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
On  earth  peace. — Luke  Hi:  14 


The  whole  air  at  the  first  Christmastide 
was  tremulous  with  joy.  It  was  a  time  for 
holy  song,  for  inspired  paean,  for  seraphic 
song.  Let  joy  come  still  to  our  homes  and 
hearts.  Christ  gives  brightness  and  beauty, 
gladness  and  glory,  to  the  whole  circle  of 
life  and  duty.  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  there  shall 
be  room  for  Thee  in  our  homes.  Once  there 
was  none  in  the  inn,  but  only  in  the  stable ; 
now  our  best  is  Thine.  Only  honor  us  with 
Thy  beneficent  presence ! 

I.  Let  us  away  with  strife  at  this  season ; 
now  is  the  time  to  speak  kindly  words.  Let 
us  not  carry  into  the  new  year  the  enmities 


of  the  old ;  let  not  the  harsh  notes  of  con- 
tention come  into  the  heavenly  song  of  peace. 
II.  Christ  came  to  give  peace,  and  from 
Heaven's  throne  to-day  He  bends  to  give 
peace  to  all  who  trust  Him.  He  was  the 
only  person  ever  born  into  the  world  who 
had  His  choice  as  to  how  He  should  come. 
He  might  have  come  man.  as  did  the  first 
Adam ;  He  came  a  babe.  He  inserted  Him- 
self into  our  race  at  its  lowest  and  weakest 
point.  If  He  were  to  lift  the  race  He  must 
get  under  it.  He  glorified  the  cradle ;  He 
beautified  boyhood ;  He  sanctified  mother- 
hood. 


CHRISTMAS 


427 


III.  But  Chi-ist  must  be  born  in  each  heart 
in  order  that  we  may  have  a  true  Christmas. 
Are  we  rejoicing  in  the  gifts  of  human  love? 
Shall  we  be  unmindful  of  Him  who  is  the 
"  unspeakable   gift  ?  "     Turn   not   the   Christ 


of  God  away  from  the  heart's  inn;  banish 
Him  not  to  the  manger.  Heaven's  gift  is 
now  offered  without  money  and  wiihout 
price.  Receive  Him  with  glad  welcome ! — 
H.  R. 


SONG  OF  THE  ANGELS  AT  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST 

By  Matthew  Simpson,  D.D.,  LL.D, 

And  suddenly  there  was  with  the  angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host,  praising  God,  and 
saying,  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men. — Luke 
ii:  13, 14 


What  an  interest  centered  in  that  babe, 
wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes,  lying  in  a 
manger  at  Bethlehem !  Prophets  were  inter- 
ested, angels  were  interested,  the  ages  have 
been  most  deeply  interested  since.  The  shep- 
herds had,  perhaps,  some'  premonition.  The 
seventy  weeks  of  Daniel's  prophecy  were 
about  fulfilled.  It  may  be,  at  that  very  time, 
they  were  talking  of  the  coming  of  Christ. 
Suddenly  their  attention  was  arrested  by  a 
strange  sight  in  the  heavens.  It  grew 
brighter,  and  took  the  form  of  an  angel,  and 
then  they  heard  a  voice  announcing  the  birth 
of  Christ  as  glad  tidings  for  all  people,  not 
to  the  Jews  only.  Then  suddenly  the  air  was 
filled  with  angels  singing,  as  if  they  had 
come  right  out  from  the  air.  We  know  not 
their  wonderful  song,  but  part  came  to  mor- 
tal ears,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,"  etc. 
I  know  not  who  those  angels  were,  but  I 
fancy  they  were  the  redeemed.  Adam  was 
there.  Eve  was  there.  Eve,  who,  in  her  ma- 
ternal earnestness,  declared  at  the  birth  of  her 
first  born,  "  I  have  gotten  a  man  from  the 
Lord,"  hoping  that  that  was  he  who  should 
bruise  the  serpent's  head.  Now,  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,  she  had  come  to  witness  the 
birth  of  the  babe  who  was  to  be  the  Savior 
of  her  race.  David,  Elijah,  Moses,  the  patri- 
archs, I  believe,  were  with  that  heavenly  host. 
I  think,  if  I  had  lived  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  and  been  in  Heaven  when  Christ  left 
His  throne  to  come  to  earth,  I  would  have 
asked  permission  to  come  down,  etc. 

This  song  reveals  three  things  : 

1.  The  glorification  of  God  through  the  in- 
carnation. God  lias  glory  through  His  vast 
work  in  nature.  His  providence  building  up 
and  casting  down  nations,  etc. 

In  the  incarnation  there  was  special  glory. 
It  was  glory  to  God  in  the  highest.  Highest, 
in  that  it  was  above  all  other  glory,  in  that 
it  extended  to  all  time,  and  in  that  it  wrought 
such  wondrous  good. 

2.  The  great  results  to  the  earth.  It  would 
result  in  peace.  Strifes,  thorns,  and  thistles 
were  abounding.  The  earth  was  torn  and 
bleeding  by  constant  contention.  With  Christ 
came  peace.  The  result  would  be  universal 
peace. 

3.  The  effect  on  the  individual  man. 
"  Good  will  toward  men,"  from  one  another. 


from  God.  Out  of  this  good  will  would  fi- 
nally spring  peace  on  earth,  and  glory  to  God 
in  the  highest. 

These  results  are  obtained  by  certain 
stages. 

From  what  a  small  beginning  the  work 
staned.  It  is  illustrated  by  a  mustard-seed, 
a  bit  of  leaven,  a  little  stone  cut  from  the 
mountain  side.  When  Christ  came,  the  event 
made  little  commotion.  He  came  as  a  little 
babe,  in  an  obscure  country,  among  a  de- 
spised and  conquered  people,  and  of  a  poor 
family.  A  star  showed  the  interest  of  the 
universe,  the  singing  angels  the  interest  of 
Heaven,  in  the  birth  of  that  babe.  On  earth 
there  was  but  a  brief  commotion.  A  little 
potentate  was  made  jealous  for  a  while. 
Then  all  is  quiet  for  thirty  years.  Kings  and 
governors  changed.  Most  of  those  who  re- 
membered anything  of  the  shepherd's  story, 
and  the  massacre  of  the  little  ones  at  Bethle- 
hem, had  died.  At  last  an  unknown  man 
came  for  baptism  at  the  hands  of  John,  and 
a  voice  was  heard  from  Heaven,  and  then  the 
marvelous  work  of  Christ  began.  Opposed 
on  every  side,  crucified  at  last,  and  His  few 
disciples  scattered,  Christ's  death  gave  the 
triumphant  illustration  of  this  good  will. 
The  world  is  no  longer  an  orphan — God  is 
the  Father. 

Another  stage  in  reaching  peace  on  earth, 
and  the  glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  is  in 
this;  if  a  man  has  good  will,  he  begins 
to  act  good  will.  Christ  never  showed  ill- 
will  to  an  enemy,  even.  If  Christ  is  in  us, 
we  will  love  all.  Now,  I  tell  you  from  God 
on  the  eve  of  the  Christmas  day,  that  he 
who  hates  his  brother  is  a  murderer.  No 
matter  where  your  name  is  written  on  earth, 
in  Church  book,  or  class  book,  if  you  bear 
ill-will  to  any  one,  it  is  not  written  in 
Heaven. 

Then  the  Holy  Spirit  is  given,  which  works 
in  men  universal  good  will. 

Now,  when  this  good  will  is  perfect,  you 
have  a  basis  for  lasting  peace.  Permanent 
peace  can  come  in  no  other  way.  Recognize 
every  man  as  a  brother,  and  war  must  cease. 
Then  every  babbling  tongue  will  sing,  Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest. 

Let  us  learn  to  do  good  to  all  people. — 
H.   R. 


428 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  WORD  AMONGST  US 

By  a.  Maclaren 
The  Word  dwelt  among  us. — John  i:  14;  (with  Rev.  vii:  15  and  xxi:  3) 


The  word  rendered  "  dwelt  "  in  these  three 
passages  is  a  peculiar  one.  It  is  only  found 
in  the  New  Testament — in  this  Gospel,  and 
in  the  Book  of  the  Revelation.  The  word 
literally  means  "  to  dwell  in  a  tent  " — or,  if 
we  may  use  such  a  word,  "  to  tabernacle ;  " 
and  there  is,  no  doubt  a  reference  to  the 
Tabernacle  in  which  the  Divine  Presence 
abode  in  the  wilderness  and  in  the  land  of 
Israel  before  the  erection  of  the  Temple.  In 
all  three  passages,  then,  we  may  see  allusion 
to  that  early  symbolical  dwelling  of  God 
with  man. 

I.  Think,  first,  of  the  Tabernacle  for  earth. 
The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt,  as  in 
a  tent,  among  us.  St.  John  would  have  us 
think  that,  in  that  lowly  humanity,  with  its 
curtains  and  its  coverings  of  flesh,  there  lay 
shrined  in  the  inmost  place  the  brightness  of 
the  light  of  the  manifest  glory  of  God.  The 
manifestation  of  God  in  Christ  is  unique,  as 
becomes  Him  who  partakes  of  the  nature  of 
that  God  of  whom  He  is  the  representative 
and  the  revealer.  Like  the  Tabernacle,  Christ 
is  the  dwelling-place  of  God,  the  place  of 
revelation,  the  place  of  sacrifice,  and  the  meet- 
ing-place of  God  and  man. 


II.  We  have  the  Tabernacle  for  the  heav- 
ens. He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall 
spread  his  Tabernacle  above  them,"  as  the 
word  might  be  rendered.  That  is  to  say, 
He  Himself  shall  build  and  be  the  tent  in 
which  they  dwell ;  He  Himself  shall  dwell 
with  them  in  it;  He  Himself,  in  closer  union 
than  can  be  conceived  of  here,  shall  keep 
them  company  during  that  feast. 

III.  Look  at  that  final  vision  which  we 
have  in  these  texts,  which  we  may  call  the 
Tabernacle  for  the  renewed  earth.  "  Behold, 
the  Tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he 
will  tabernacle  with  them."  The  climax  and 
the  goal  of  all  the  Divine  working,  and  the 
long  processes  of  God's  love  for,  and  discip- 
line of,  the  world  are  to  be  this,  that  He  and 
men  shall  abide  together  in  unity  and  con- 
cord. That  is  God's  wish  from  the  begin- 
ning. And  at  the  close  of  all  things,  when 
the  vision  of  this  final  chapter  shall  be  ful- 
filled, God  will  say,  settling  Himself  in  the 
midst  of  a  redeemed  humanity,  "  Lo !  here 
will  I  dwell ;  for  I  have  desired  it.  This  is 
my  rest  for  ever."  He  will  tabernacle  with 
men,  and  they  with  Him. — S.  B.,  vol. vii.,  p. 
363. 


THE  WORD 

By  F.  D.  Maurice 


John  i:  14 


I.  "  The  word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us."  This  is  St.  John's  declaration. 
He  does  not  invent  a  great  many  arguments 
to  prove  it;  he  simply  says  "  so  it  was."  This 
poor  fisherman,  who  was  once  upon  a  time 
sitting  in  his  father's  ship  on  the  Lake  of 
Galilee,  mending  his  nets ;  this  man  who  was 
infinitely  humbler  and  less  self-conceited  now 
than  he  was  then,  says  out  boldly  and  with- 
out hesitation,  "  This  everlasting  Word,  in 
whom  was  life  and  whose  life  was  the  light 
of  men — this  Word,  who  was  with  God  and 
was  God — was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among 
us."  And  he  adds,  "  We  beheld  his  glory — 
the  glory  as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the 
Father."  We  are  sure  that  in  this  poor 
man,  thus  entering  into  our  feelings  and 
circumstances,  we  beheld  the  living  God. 
Not  some  unseen  power,  some  angel  or  Di- 
vine creature  who  might  have  been  sent 
down  on  a  message  of  mercy  to  one  little 
corner  of  the  earth,  or  to  us  poor  fisher- 
men of  Galilee ;  it  is  not  such  a  being  whom 
we  saw  hidden  under  this  human  form  ;  we 
declare  that  we  saw  the  glory  of  the  Fa- 
ther, of  Him  who  made  Heaven  and  earth 
and  the  sea,  of  Him  who  has  been  and  is  and 
is  to  be. 


II.  That  a  meek,  humble  man,  who  believed 
that  nothing  was  so  horrible  as  to  trifle  with 
God's  Name,  should  have  spoken  such  words 
as  these,  so  boldly  and  yet  so  calmly,  with 
such  a  certainty  that  they  were  true,  and  that 
he  could  live  and  act  upon  them,  tMs  is 
wonderful.  But  yet.  this  might  have  been, 
and  the  world  might  have  gone  on  as  if  no 
such  sounds  had  ever  been  proclaimed  in  it. 
What  is  the  case  actually?  These  incredible 
words  have  been  believed.  The  question  was. 
Who  is  the  Ruler  of  the  world?  The  apos- 
tle said,  "  This  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  its 
Ruler."  Their  word  prevailed.  The  masters 
of  the  earth  confessed  that  they  were  right. 
Here  in  England,  at  the  other  end  of  the 
world,  the  news  was  heard  and  received. 
Then  the  day  which  said,  "  The  Word  has 
been  made  flesh,  and  has  dwelt  among  us," 
became  the  Queen  Day  of  the  year.  All  the 
joy  of  the  year  was  felt  to  be  stored  up  in  it. 
Every  man,  woman,  and  child  has  a  right  to 
be  merry  upon  it.  This  is  the  festival  which 
make  us  know,  indeed,  that  we  are  members 
of  one  body :  it  binds  together  the  life  of 
Christ  on  earth  with  His  life  in  Heaven ;  it 
assures  us  that  Christmas  Day  belongs  not 
to  time  but  to  eternity. — S.  B.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  364. 


CHRISTMAS 


429 


SUGGESTIVE  THOUGHTS   AND   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


ADVENT,  Lessons  of  the.-— i.  Christ 
comes  by  the  gateway  of  birth,  appealing  to 
childhood  and  motherhood.  2.  His  humble 
birth  shows  the  humblest  and  poorest  that 
poverty  need  be  no  curse.  3.  His  unnoticed 
arrival  shows  that  "  the  kingdom  of  God 
cometh  not  with  observation."  4.  The  visit 
of  the  Magi  shows  the  affinity  of  Christianity 
for  disciplined  minds.  5.  All  the  manner  of 
His  coming  shows  the  unLounded  wisdom 
and  love  of  God,  who  gives  us  the  Christ  we 
need,  poor  or  rich,  children  or  mature. 
6.  Christ's  coming  was  the  greatest  event  in 
the  world.  7.  His  star  is  shining  for  you. — 
Rev.  S.  M.  Johnson.     (H.  R.) 

ANGELS'  CHORUS,  The.— The  one  an- 
gel voice  has  barely  time  to  tell  its  message, 
when,  as  if  unable  longer  to  be  silent,  "  sud- 
denly "  the  "  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host 
pours  out  its  praise."  I  adhere  to  the  old 
reading  which  divides  the  angel  chorus  into 
three  clauses,  of  which  the  first  and  second 
may  be  regarded  as  the  double  result  of  that 
birth,  while  the  third  describes  its  deepest 
nature.  The  incarnation  and  work  of  Christ 
are  the  highest  revelation  of  God.  The  won- 
drous birth  brings  harmony  to  earth. — Alex- 
ander  MacLaren. 

BETHLEHEM.— Bethlehem  is  a  little, 
lowly  hamlet,  and  Christ  was  born  in  a  com- 
mon, lowly  stable.  The  literal  story  of  the 
Nativity  is,  or  ought  to  be,  engraven  deeply 
on  our  hearts.  Do  we  pause  to  consider  the 
symbolism  of  lowly  Bethlehem  and  the  lowly 
manger?  We  are  disposed  to  reckon  large 
sacrifices,  large  acts  of  beneficence,  large 
deeds  of  heroism,  as  the  means  of  grace  in 
the  building  of  a  Christlike  character.  We 
appreciate  the  fact  that  a  worker  in  the  slums 
is  more  of  a  hero  than  the  hussar  who  rode 
forty  miles  with  a  saber  cut  to  carry  an  im- 
portant message — and  yet — . 

Yes  the  hussar's  deed  was  more  interest- 
ing, but  not  more  glorious,  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word,  than  the  tending  by  night  and 
by  day  of  a  man  suffering  with  a  loathsome 
disease.  Again,  a  millionaire  banker  may 
heavily  endow  a  cripples'  home,  and  a  mother 
at  home  may  wear  the  same  pair  of  shoes  for 
eight  months  that  her  bov  may  be  taught  the 
best  by  the  best.  A  thoughtful  comparison 
brings  out  the  more  noble  deed  with  the 
clearness  of  a  cameo ;  and  yet,  what  heed 
does  the  world  pay  to  the  widow's  sacrifice? 
Let  us  remember  that  the  greatest  love  of 
all  was  born  in  a  lowly  manger. — O.  C.  W. 

CHRIST    APPEARED    ON    EARTH.- 

During  this  month  all  Christians  will  be 
celebrating  the  advent  of  our  Lord  to  this 
vi:orld.  There  was  some  ground  for  rational 
doubts  as  to  whether  the  promise  of  His 
first  coming  would  be  literally  fulfilled. 
Would   the   One   who  deserved   the   title  of 


Emmanuel — God  with  us — stoop  to  be  borti 
of  a  woman?  Would  He  consent  to  be  de- 
spised and  rejected  of  men?  Would  the 
One  who  created  all,  sustained  all,  and  filled 
and  bounded  all,  stoop  to  the  limitations  of 
a  man  whose  days  are  as  grass  and  whose 
greatness  is  that  of  the  worm?  Would  He 
humiliate  Himself  to  be  sold  by  a  traitor,, 
to  be  classed  with  transgressors  and  to  be- 
come a  curse  because  wounded  for  our  trans- 
gressions and  bruised  for  our  iniquities? 
And  yet,  altho  it  seemed  so  irrational,  sO' 
improbable  and  even  impossible,  not  one 
word  of  God's  promises  have  failed  of  fulfil- 
ment. Nineteen  hundred  years  ago  Jesus  was 
born  of  a  Virgin  Mother,  the  Word  who  was 
God  became  flesh — God  was  manifested  in 
the  flesh,  and  His  glory  was  seen,  "  full  of 
grace  and  truth."  He  was  full  of  grace  to 
forgive  and  to  save,  and  full  of  truth  to  en- 
lighten, to  purify,  and  to  guide.  He  has  ap- 
peared on  earth. — P.  J. 

CHRIST,  Birthday  of.— I  have  always 
thought  of  Christmas  time,  when  it  has  come 
round  apart  from  the  veneration  due  to  its 
sacred  name  and  origin,  if  anything  belong- 
ing to  it  can  be  apart  from  that — as  a  good 
time ;  a  kind,  forgiving,  charitable,  pleasant 
time. — Charles  Dickens.  Christmas  Carol;, 
Stave  L 

CHRIST,  Birth  of.— The  death  of  Christ 
is  a  great  mystery;  but  His  birth  is  even  a 
greater.  That  He  should  live  a  human  life 
at  all,  is  stranger  than  that,  so  living.  He 
should  die  a  human  death.  I  can  scarce  get 
past  His  cradle  in  my  wondering,  to  wonder 
at  His  cross.  The  infant  Jesus  is,  in  some 
views,  a  greater  marvel  than  Jesus  with  the 
purple  robe  and  the  crown  of  thorns. — 
Crichton. 

CHRISTMAS.— The  chief  charm  of 
Christmas  is  its  simplicity.  It  is  a  festival 
that  appeals  to  every  one,  because  every  one 
can  understand  it.  ...  A  genuine  fel- 
lowship pervades  our  common  life — a  fellow- 
ship whose  source  is  our  common  share  in 
the  gift  of  the  world's  greatest  Life  which 
was  given  to  the  whole  world. — Arthur 
Reed  Kimball. 

CHRISTMAS     AND     BROTHERHOOD. 

— Last  Christmas  Day,  in  New  York  City, 
a  millionaire  was  driving  down  Fifth  Avenue 
in  his  sleigh,  when  his  high-spirited  horse 
ran  away.  The  sleigh  was  overturned  and 
the  rich  man  and  his  coachman  rolled  in  the 
snow  together.  As  they  struggled  to  their 
feet  and  turned  to  follow  the  runaway  horse, 
they  saw  the  sleigh  strike  a  poor  peddler 
and  knock  him  into  a  heap,  both  runners 
passing  over  his  body.  The  millionaire  ut- 
tered a  cry  of  dismay  when  he  saw  the  ragged 
peddler    fall    in   the    street,    and    leaving   his 


430 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


valuable  trotter  to  vanish  in  the  distance, 
he  cast  himself  on  his  knees  by  the  injured 
man,  and  lifted  his  blood-stained  head  ten- 
derly in  his  arms.  He  got  help  as  soon  as 
possible,  and  himself  assisted  in  carrying  the 
poor  fellow  into  a  fashionable  hotel  near  by, 
and  sent  for  the  doctor.  Later  he  got  him 
a  comfortable  room  in  a  hospital  and  ordered 
that  every  possible  attention  should  be  given 
him.  When  the  peddler  was  seen  by  the 
reporter  at  the  hospital  and  told  that  the 
man  whose  horse  had  run  over  him  was  a 
m'llionaire,  he  replied:  "A  millionaire,  is 
he?  Well,  all  I  can  say  is  that  he's  the 
whitest  man  I  ever  seen  in  me  life,  an'  I'll 
never  say  another  word  agin  millionaires.  I 
tell  yer  wot,  that  man  is  a  wonder.  Why, 
he — he — he  went  down  on  his  marrow-bones 
in  the  snow  alongside  me  an'  took  my  head 
on  his  knee,  same  as  if  I  was  his  brother — 
an'  it  all  bleedin',  too."  O  brotherhood, 
how  great  is  thy  power!  There  is  no  quack 
way  of  bridging  the  so-called  gulf  between 
the  rich  and  poor,  but  with  the  brotherhood 
of  Jesus  Christ,  exemplified  as  in  this  case, 
there  is  no  gulf. — H.   P. 

CHMSTMAS     AND     MISSIONS.— Two 

very  important  events  are  connected  with  the 
Christmas  of  1786,  and  it  is  also  remarkable 
that  they  both  relate  to  missions.  It  was 
on  that  day  that  William  Carey,  the  great 
Baptist  missionary,  and  Charles  Grant,  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  first  formally  set  forth  their  views 
on  the  subject  of  missions,  and  it  was  on 
that  day  also  that  Dr.  Coke  and  his  three 
companions  landed  at  Antigua,  in  the  West 
Indies,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  mis- 
sionary operations  there.  Surely  Dr.  Coke 
and  his  friends  must  have  regarded  it  as 
almost  significant  that  they,  the  messengers 
of  the  go.^pel  of  peace  and  goodwill  to  men 
should  have  reached  the  scene  of  their  fu- 
ture labors  on  the  day  which  commemorates 
the  birth  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. — Rev.  W.  S. 
McTavish,  B.D. 

CHRISTMAS   AND    MOTHERHOOD.— 

On  that  Christmas  night  God  honored 
motherhood.  The  angels  on  their  wings 
might  have  brought  an  infant  Savior  to  Beth- 
lehem without  Mary's  being  there  at  all. 
But,  no;  motherhood  for  all  time  was  to  be 
couFecrated.  and  one  of  the  tenderest  rela- 
tions was  to  be  the  maternal  relation,  and 
one  of  the  5-wcetest  words,  "  mother."  In 
all  ages  God  has  honored  good  motherhood. 
In  a  great  audience,  most  of  whom  were 
Christians,  I  asked  that  all  those  who  had 
been  blessed  with  Christian  mothers  arise, 
and  almost  the  entire  assembly  stood  up. 
Don't  you  see  how  important  it  is  that  all 
motherhood   be   consecrated? — Talmage. 

CHRISTMAS  CUSTOM,  A  Beautiful.— 

T'rere  are  mr\nv  pretty  customs  which  are 
observed  at  Christmas  time  in  different  coun- 
tries. One  of  the  prettiest  of  these  customs 
is  thus  described  for  us  by  a  traveler  in 
Sweden.     He  write : 

"  One  wintry  aft-^rnoon  at  Christmastide  I 
had  been  skating  on  a  pretty  lake  three  miles 


from  Gothenburg.  On  my  \,'ay  home  I  no- 
ticed that  at  every  farmer's  house  there  was 
erected,  in  the  middle  of  the  dooryard,  a 
pole,  to  the  top  of  which  was  bound  a  large, 
full  sheaf  of  grain. 

"  '  Why  is  this  ?  '   I  asked  my  companion. 

'■  '  Oh,  that's  for  the  birds,'  he  answered, 
'  for  the  little  wild  birds.  They  must  have  a 
merry  Christmas,  too,  you  know.' 

"Yes,  so  it  is;  not  a  peasant  in  Sweden 
will  sit  down  with  his  children  to  a  Christ- 
mas dinner,  indoors,  till  he  has  first  raised 
aloft  a  Christmas  dinner  for  the  little  birds 
that  live  in  the  cold  and  snow  without." — 
A.  G. 

CHRISTMAS  HOMILY,  A.— I.  "  He 
emptied  Himself."  This  is  a  truer  transla- 
tion of  the  first  words.  Creation  involves 
the  incarnation.  It  implies  a  love  which  en- 
ables God  to  cast  aside  whatever  was  incom- 
patible with  a  real  humanity. 

II.  His  assumption  of  humanity  meant  the 
assumption  of  servanthood,  for  man  is  de- 
pendent. 

HI.  His  was  no  phantom  life.  All  that  is 
essential  to  humanity.  He  took  upon  Him. 
He  knew  no  sin — but  sin  was  no  element  in 
man's  original  constitution. 

IV.  His  obedience  to  death  was  real,  be- 
cause He  laid  down  His  life.  He  was  obedi- 
ent to  the  law,  and  took  death  as  part  of  the 
experience  of  life. 

V.  He  took  the  death  of  the  cross,  because 
He  meant  death  to  have  no  untasted  bitter- 
ness;  all  its  shame  and  hate  were  parts  of  that 
burden  He  came  to  bear.  Even  God's  wrath 
against  sin  He  would  know,  that  He  inight 
stand  in  the  sinner's  place. — Rev.  Samuel 
McCoMB,  A.M.     (H.  R.) 

CHRISTMAS  JOY.— The  universal  joy  of 
Christmas  is  certainly  wonderful.  We  ring 
the  bells  when  princes  are  born,  or  toll  a 
mournful  dirge  when  great  men  pass  away. 
Nations  have  their  red-letter  days,  their  car- 
nivals and  festivals,  but  once  in  the  year 
and  only  once,  the  whole  world  stands  still 
to  celebrate  the  advent  of  a  life.  Only  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  claims  this  world-wide,  undying 
remembrance.  You  cannot  cut  Christmas 
out  of  the  Calendar,  nor  out  of  the  heart  of 
the  world. — Anon. 

CHRISTMAS  MESSAGES.— A  Message 
of  Love. — John  iii:i6;  xiii :  i  ;  xiv  :  23  ; 
XV  :  9  ;  Gal.  ii:2o;  Eph.  ii :  4.  5  ;  2Thess.  ii: 
16,17;  Tit.  iii:4;  i  John  iv :  8-1 1 ;  xviiip; 
Rev.  i :  S,  6. 

A  Message  of  Life. — John  i:4;  iii :  14-16; 
vi :  35  ;  viii:i2;  x:io;  xi :  25  ;  xiv:  6; 
xvii:2,  3;  xx:3i;  Col.  iii:  4;  2Tim.  i:io; 
I  John  ii :  25  ;    v  :  20 ;    Rev.  xxi :  6. 

A  Message  of  Peace. — Luke  i :  79 ;  xix : 
41,  42 ;  John  xiv :  27 ;  xvi :  33  ;  Rom.  v :  i ; 
xvi:2o;  Eph.  ii:i7,  18;  Col.  i:i9,  20;  2 
Thess.  iii :  16. 

A  Message  of  Salvation. — Isa.  xliv :  22 ; 
Luke  i:68,  69,  77:  xix:  10;  John  iii:  36; 
Acts  iv:  12;  xvi:  31;  Heb.  ii :  3  ;  vii :  25  ;  i 
John  v:  II,   12. 

A  Message  for  all  Men. — Luke  iii:  6;  John 
i :  9,  29 ;    Acts  x :  43 ;    Rom.  v :  6,  8 ;    I  Tim. 


CHRISTMAS 


431 


i:iS;    ii:3,  4;    Tit.  ii:ii;    2  Pet.  iii :  9.— A 
Bible-Study  by  Miss  L.  A.  Wallingford. 

CHRISTMAS,  Heal  Lessons  of.— There 
can  be  no  love  for  God  which  is  unattended 
with  love  for  man.  The  final  test  of  a  Chris- 
tian life  is  not  the  worship  of  God,  but  al- 
ways the  love  of  man  for  man.  If  the  mes- 
sage of  Him  whose  birth  we  celebrate  at 
Christmas  teaches  us  one  thing  above  all 
others,  it  is  not  that  we  shall  try  to  do  for 
Him  as  a  person,  but  that  we  shall  seek  to 
do  for  one  another.  That  is  knowing  Jesus 
and   clearly   understanding   Him. 

And  wherever  this  true  conception  of  His 
life  and  teaching  is  reached,  there  we  find 
men  and  women  thrilled  with  the  passion  for 
giving.  The  little  child  wakes  on  Christmas 
morning  with  its  heart  full  to  overflowing 
with  gladness,  and  by  every  gift  in  stocking, 
or  beside  cradle  or  bed,  is  taught  anew  the 
old.  old  lesson  of  love.  Husband  and  wife, 
brother  and  sister,  lover  and  sweetheart, 
friend  and  friend,  as  they  receive  their  gifts 
are  reminded  once  more  that  love  is  not  a 
dream,  but  a  reality — and  a  reality  which 
grows  more  vital,  more  precious  and  more 
enduring  with  years. 

The  sick,  in  chair  or  in  bed,  as  they  open 
their  Christmas  packages  are  almost  recon- 
ciled to  loneliness  and  pain.  The  friendless, 
the  poor,  the  outcast,  the  waifs  on  the 
streets ;  those  who  have  sinned  and  seem 
shut  out  from  God  and  from  man,  all  begin 
to  feel  strange  thrills  of  hope  and  renewed 
aspiration  as  they  are  taken  up  and  enfolded 
in  the  richness  and  fulness  of  the  Divine 
love  as  it  comes  to  them  through  human  love 
or  attention  on  Christmas  Day.  That  is 
knowing  Christmas  in  its  highest  and  no- 
blest sense  ;  in  its  truest  conception ;  knowing 
it  in  that  spirit  from  which  we  derive  the 
surest  happiness. — Edward  Bok. 

CHRISTMAS  STAND  FOR  PLEAS- 
URE, Let. — Let  Christmas  stand  for  pleas- 
ure, and  for  the  reason  that  it  is  especially 
the  Christian  day.  Then  Christianity  drops 
her  weeds,  and  smiles.  Then  the  whole  world 
takes  up  the  refrain — 

Religion  never  was  designed 
To  make  our  pleasures  less. 

And  even  Dr.  Doddridge  comes  singing  in, 

I  live  in  pleasure  when  I  live  to  Thee. 

The  doctor  must  not  fly  his  own  logic.  Not 
to  live  in  pleasure  is  not  to  live  to  Thee. 
Pure  pleasure  it  must  be,  no  doubt,  but  that 
is  the  pleasure  embodied  in  Christmas. 

If  we  were  to  fancy  a  wholly  Christianized 
world,  it  would  be  a  world  inspired  by  the 
spirit  of  Christmas — a  bright,  friendly,  benefi- 
cent, generous,  sympathetic,  mutually  help- 
ful world.  A  man  who  is  habitually  mean, 
selfish,  narrow,  is  a  man  without  Christmas 
in  his  soul.  Let  us  cling  to  Christmas  all  the 
more  as  a  day  of  the  spirit  which  in  every 
age  some  souls  have  believed  to  be  the  pos- 
sible spirit  of  human  society.  The  earnest 
faith  and  untiring  endeavor  which  see  in 
Christmas  a   forecast  are  more  truly   Chris- 


tian, surely,  than  the  pleasant  cynicism  of 
Atheists,  etc.,  which  smiles  upon  it  as  the 
festival  of  a  futile  hope.  Meanwhile  we  may 
reflect  that  from  good  natured  hopelessness 
to  a  Christmas  world  may  not  be  farther  than 
from  star  dust  to  a  solar  system. — Georgk 
William  Curtis. 

CHRISTMAS,    The    Twelve   Days    of.— 

The  New  England  custom  during  those  early 
years  of  the  present  century  was  to  observe 
Christmas  from  December  25  to  January  5, 
the  twelve  days  being  generally  given  up  to 
receiving  and  returning  family  visits.  Con- 
temporary with  this  custom  was  the  belief, 
inculcated  in  the  minds  of  the  children,  that 
if  they  would  visit  the  cow  stables  at  mid- 
night of  Christmas  eve,  they  would  see  the 
cattle  kneel  before  the  mangers. 

A  poem  of  the  twelve  days  shows  the  gift 
for  the  first  day  of  Christmas  to  be  a  parrot 
on  a  juniper  tree  instead  of  a  "  partridge  on 
a  pear  tree."  The  verse  for  the  twelfth  day, 
which  embodied  the  entire  list  of  days  and 
"gifts,"  was  as  follows: 

The  twelfth  day  of  Christmas  my  true  love 
gave  to  me  twelve  guns  shooting,  eleven 
bears  chasing,  ten  men  hunting,  nine  fiddlers 
playing,  eight  ladies  dancing,  seven  swans 
swimming,  six  chests  of  linen,  five  gold  rings, 
four  coffee  bowls,  three  French  hens,  two 
turtle  doves  and  a  parrot  on  a  juniper  tree. — 
John  Rodemeyer,  Jr.     (N.  Y.  S.) 

CHRIST'S  NATIVITY.— The  earth  won- 
dered at  Christ's  nativity,  to  see  a  new  star 
in  Heaven;  but  Heaven  might  rather  wonder 
to  see  a  new  sun  on  earth  (Ps.  Ixix:  35;  Isa. 
xliv :  23  ;  Matt,  ii  :io).— Dr.  Richard  Clarke. 

DAY,  The  Sun  of  a  Better.— What  im- 
ages do  I  associate  with  the  Christmas  music 
as  I  see  these  images  set  forth  on  the  Christ- 
mas tree?  Known  before  all  others,  keeping 
far  apart  from  all  the  others.  ...  An  an- 
gel, speaking  to  a  group  of  shepherds  in  a 
field;  some  travelers,  with  eyes  uplifted,  fol- 
lowing a  star;  a  baby  in  a  manger;  a  child 
in  a  spacious  temple,  talking  with  grave  men  ; 
a  solemn  figure,  with  a  mild  and  beautiful 
face,  raising  a  dead  girl  by  the  hand;  again, 
near  a  city  gate,  calling  back  the  son  of  a 
widow,  on  his  bier,  to  life;  a  crowd  of  people 
looking  through  the  opened  roof  of  a  cham- 
ber where  He  sits,  and  letting  down  a  sick 
person  on  a  bed,  with  ropes ;  the  same,  in  a 
tempest,  walking  on  the  water  to  a  ship ; 
again,  on  a  seashore,  teaching  a  great  multi- 
tude; again,  with  a  child  upon  His  knee,  and 
other  children  around ;  again,  restoring  sight 
to  the  blind,  speech  to  the  dumb,  hearing  to 
the  deaf,  health  to  the  sick,  strength  to  the 
lame,  knowledge  to  the  ignorant ;  again,  dy- 
ing upon  a  cross,  watched  by  armed  soldiers, 
a  thick  darkness  coming  on,  the  earth  begin- 
ning to  shake,  and  only  one  voice  heard : 
"  Forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do." — Charles  Dickens.    Christmas  Stories. 

DWELT  AMONG  ITS.-"  And  the  Word 
became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us;"  literally 
"pitched  his  tent,"  (edKi'^vaxjsv).  Three 
sorts  of  men  are  described  in  the  Bible  as 


432 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


living  in  tents:  shepherds,  sojourners,  and 
soldiers.  The  phrase  here  used  has  refer- 
ence to  the  calling  of  all  these  three,  and  it 
points  to  Christ's  life  on  earth  as  being  that 
of  a  shepherd,  a  traveler,  and  a  soldier." — 
A.  Arrowsmith. 

GIFT,  The  Divine  Christmas. — For  unto 
us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given, 
etc. — Isa.  ix:  6. 

I.  The  gift  of  Christ  as  a  child,  a  son,  (a) 
a  gift  of  love,  {b)  of  supreme  beauty  and 
joy,  (c)  of  universal  titness  to  our  wants. 
{d)  of  eternal  enrichment,  forever  increasing 
in  value,  {e)  ensures  all  other  gifts  needful. 
"  How  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give 
us  all  things?  " 

n.  The  fitness  of  Christ's  infancy  to  the 
world,  beauty  and  pathos  of  His  being  com- 
mitted, a  babe,  to  a  human  bosom.  Our  child 
relation  intimates  the  fruit  of  the  race's  soul 
travail.  Christ  born  in  every  family  where 
faith  is.  and  in  every  heart  where  love  wel- 
comes.    Marvels  of  His  nature  and  errand. 

HI.  Gift  how  received.  Many  make  merry 
on  Christmas  while  shutting  Christ  out  in  the 
cold.     "  No  place  in  the  inn." 

Happy  those  who  welcome  Him.  Christ 
formed  in  us  the  hope  of  glory. — H.  R. 

GIVING    AND    RECEIVING.— It    may 

indeed  be  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive, but  when  the  former  luxury  is  not 
within  one's  honest  reach,  it  is  blessed  too 
to  receive  from  those  one  thoroughly  loves. — 
George  S.  Merriam. 

HEART,  The  Message  to  the  Blind  in.— 

One  Christmas  eve  a  lady  was  walking  in  the 
beautiful  city  of  Berlin,  enjoying  the  pretty 
sights.  She  stopped  to  look  at  the  large  win- 
dow where  was  laid  out  the  lowly  stable  in 
Bethlehem.  Before  the  window  stood  two 
little  girls,  their  faces  beaming  with  pleasure, 
while  they  talked  to  another  little  girl  be- 
tween them,  and  around  whom  they  had  their 
arms.     This  dear  child  was  quite  blind,  and 


to  her  poor  sightless  eyes  the  pretty  window 
told  no  story.  But  the  loving  little  friends 
told  the  blind  child  of  the  rude  stable,  the  hay, 
the  cows  and  the  sheep,  the  sweet  mother 
beside  the  manger  in  which  the  Christ-child 
was  sleeping,  the  open  door  through  which 
the  wandering  shepherds  were  coming  and 
the  bright  star  alove  which  shed  a  soft  sil- 
very light  over  all  and  the  wise  men  with 
rich  gifts  for  the  little  sleeping  babe,  who 
was  the  Son  of  God  our  Savior.  The  little 
blind  girl  listened  till  her  face  grew  happy 
and  she  clasped  her  hands  together,  saying 
again  and  again,  "Ah!  that  is  beautiful." 

There  are  those  who  have  blind  hearts,  in- 
stead of  blind  eyes,  because  they  do  not  know 
the  blessed  story. — S.  E.  Bull. 

INCARNATE  WORD,  The.— When  the 
eye  gazes  on  the  sun,  it  is  more  tormented 
with  the  brightness  than  pleased  with  the 
beauty  of  it ;  but  when  the  beams  are  trans- 
mitted through  a  colored  medium,  they  are 
more  temperate,  and  sweetened  to  the  sight. 
The  Eternal  Word,  shining  in  His  full  glory, 
the  more  bright,  the  less  visible  is  He  to  mor- 
tal eyes ;  but  the  Incarnate  Word  is  eclipsed 
and  allayed  by  a  veil  of  flesh  (Heb.  x:2o), 
and  so  made  accessible  to  us.  God,  out  of  a 
tender  respect  to  our  frailty  and  fears,  prom- 
ised to  raise  up  a  Prophet,  clothed  in  our 
nature  (Ex.  xx:i8,  19;  Deut.  xviii :  15-19), 
that  we  might  comfortably  and  quietly  re- 
ceive His  instructions  (Job  xxiii :  6,  7;  Luke 
iv:  20-22;  John  i:i8). — A.  P.  L. 

INCARNATION,  Mystery  of.— For  the 
sun  to  fall  from  its  sphere,  and  be  degraded 
into  a  wandering  atom ;  for  an  angel  to  be 
turned  out  from  heaven,  and  be  converted 
into  a  fly  or  a  worm,  had  not  been  such 
abasement ;  for  they  were  but  creatures  be- 
fore, and  so  they  would  abide  still,  tho  in  an 
inferior  rank.  But  for  the  infinite  glorious 
Creator  of  all  things  to  become  a  creature, 
is  a  mystery  exceeding  all  human  under- 
standing.— John  Flavel. 


POETRY 


Bells,  Christmas 

I  heard  the  bells  on  Christmas  Day 
Their   old,   familiar   carols  play, 
And  wild  and  sweet 
The  words  repeat 
Of  peace  on  earth,  good-will  to  men! 
H.  W.  Longfellow — Flower  de  Luce. 
Christmas  Bells. 
Bethlehem 

Dear  Bethlehem,  the  proud  repose 
Of  conscious  worthiness  is  thine. 

Rest  on !     The  Arab  comes  and  goes, 
But  farthest  Saxon  holds  thy  shrine 

More  sacred  in  his  stouter  Christian  hold 

Than  England's  heaped-up  iron  house  of  gold. 
Joaquin  Miller. 

Bethlehem  Exalted 

Hill  with  the  olives  and  the  little  town! 

If  rivers  from  their  crystal  founts  flow  down. 


If  'twas  the  dawn  which  did  day's  gold  unbar. 
Ye  were  beginnings  of  the  best  we  are, 
The  most  we  see,  the  highest  that  we  know. 
The  lifting  heavenward  of  man's  life  below. 
Edwin  Arnold. 

Child  is  Born,  TJnto  us  a 

To  us,  who  look  with  anxious  gaze 

On    coming    lonely,    burdened    days — 

To  us,  who  cower  deep  in  shame. 

Unable  e'en  to  speak  His  name — 

To  us,  the  tempted,  who  within 

Still  feel  the  throb  of  inbred  sin — 

To  us,  sore  laden  and  distressed, 

He  comes,  our  comfort,  joy  and  rest. 

To  all  earth's  weary,  struggling  men. 

The  world's  sole  Hope  seems  born  again 

When  breaks  the  light   of   Christmas  morn. 

Lo,  "  Unto  us  a  Child  is  born." 

Mary  Isabella  Forsyth. 


CHRISTMAS 


433 


Christ  Came^  How 

Not  sheltered  by  a  gleaming  palace-roof, 
Or   hedged   about   with   glittering   thorns   of 

spears, 
Or  shadowed  by  a  jewel -blazoned  court, 
Was  Jesus  born ! — no  babe  could  humbler  lie 
Within  the  precincts  of  a  hovel-home. 
Yet  wise  men  came  afar  to  worship  Him, 
Their  guide  a  star  whose  wealth  outmatched 

the  world. 
Thus  did  He  clasp  all  man  in  His  embrace ! 
Otto  Sinclair. 

Christmas  Comes  but  Once  a  Year 

At    Christmas    play    and    make    good    cheer. 
For  Christmas  comes  but  once  a  year. 

Thomas  Tusser — 1515-1580. 

Christmas,  Eternal 

In  the  pure  soul,  altho  it  sing  or  pray. 
The  Christ  is  born  anew  from  day  to  day; 
The  life  that  knoweth  Him  shall  bide  apart 
And  keep  eternal  Christmas  in  the  heart. 
Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps. 

Christmas  Joys 

We  ring  the  bells  and  we  raise  the  strain, 
We   hang   up   garlands   everywhere 
And  bid  the   tapers  twinkle  fair. 
And  feast  and  frolic — and  then  we  go 

Back  to  the  same  old  lives  again. 

Susan    Coolidge — Christmas. 

Christmas  Tree,  The  World 

The    whole    world    is    a    Christmas-tree, 

And  stars  its  many  candles  be. 
Oh!  sing  a  carol  joyfully 

The  year's  great  feast  in  keeping. 

S.  N. 
Courage,  Take 

Take  courage,  soul,  in  grief  cast  down, 

Forget  the  bitter  dealing ; 

A  Child  is  born  in  David's  town, 

To  touch  all  souls  with  healing. 

Then  let  us  go  and  seek  the  Child, 

Children  like  Him,  meek,  undefiled. 

Hans  Christian  Andersen. 

Day  Dawn  of  the  Heart 

'Tis  not  enough   that   Christ  was  born 

Beneath  the  star  that  shone. 
And  earth  was  set  that  morn 

Within  a  golden  zone. 
He  must  be  born  within  the  heart 

Before  He  finds  His  throne. 
And  brings  the  day  of  love  and  good. 

The  reign  of  Christ-like  brotherhood. 
Mary  T.  Lathrop 

Glory  to  the  King 

Hark !   the  herald  angels   sing, 
Glory  to  the  new-born  King : 
Peace  on  earth,  and  mercy  mild, 
God  and  sinners  reconciled. 

Charles   Wesley. 

God,  Glory  to 

Like    Him    be   true,    like    Him   be   pure, 
Like  Him  be  full  of  love; 


Seek  not  thine  own,  and  so  secure 

Thine  own  that  is  above. 

And  still,  as  Christmas-tide  draws  nigh, 

Sing  then  of  Jesus'  birth ; 

Glory  be  to  God  on  high. 

And  peace   to   men   on   earth. — Selected. 

God,  Glory  to 

Like   circles   widening  round 

Upon  a  clear  blue  river, 
Orb  after  orb.  the  wondrous  sound 

Is  echoed  on  forever : 
Glory  to  God  on  high,  on  earth  be  peace, 
And  love  towards  men  of  love — salvation  and 
release. 

Keble. — Christmas  Day. 
God  Rest  You 

God  rest  you,  merry  gentlemen. 

Let  nothing  you  dismay. 
For  Jesus  Christ  our  Savior 

Was  born  upon  this  day. 
To  save  us  all   from   Satan's  power 

When   we   were  gone  astray. 
O  tidings  of  comfort  and  joy. 

For  Jesus  Christ  our  Savior  was 
Born  on  Christmas  day. 

Old  English  Carol. 
Man  Divine,  The 

But  lead  me,  Man  divine. 
Where'er  Thou  will'st;    only  that  I  may  find 
At  the  long  journey's  end  Thy  image  there, 
And  grow  more  like  to  it.     For  art  not  Thou 
The  human  shadow  of  the  infinite  Love 
That  made  and  fills  the  endless  univer.'^e? 
The    very    Word    of    Him,    the    unseen,    un- 
known. 
Eternal  Good  that  rules  the  summer  flower 
And  all  the  worlds  that  people  starry  space? 
Richard  Watson  Gilder. 

Mistletoe,   The 

The  mistletoe  hung  in  the  castle  hall. 
The  holly  branch  shone  on  the  old  oak  wall. 
Bayly, — The  Mistletoe  Bough. 

Month,  The 

This  is  the  month,  and  this  the  happy  morn. 
Wherein  the  Son  of  Heaven's  eternal  King, 
Of  wedded  maid,  and  virgin  mother  born, 
Our  great  redemption  from  above  did  bring, 
For  so  the  holy  sages  once  did  sing. 
That  He  our  deadly  forfeit  should  release. 
And   with   His   Father   work  us  a  perpetual 
peace. 
Milton. — On  the  Morning  of  Christ's 
Nativity.     St.   i. 
Prince  of  Peace,  The 

And  they  who  do  their  souls  no  wrong, 
But  keep,  at  eve,  the  faith  of  morn, 
Shall  daily  hear  the  angel-song, 
"  To-day  the  Prince  of  Peace  is  born." 
James   Russell   Lowell. 

Salvation   Tidings 

All  hailed  with  uncontrolled  delight, 
And  gentle  voice,  the  happy  night. 
That  to  the  cottage,  as  the  crown. 
Brought  tidings  of  Salvation  down. 

Walter  Scott. 


434 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


6avior,  The  Presence  of  the 

O    Savior !     Whom   this   holy   morn 

Gave  to  our  world  below ; 
To  mortal  want  and  labor  born, 

And  more  than  mortal  wo ! 

If  gaily  clothed   and  proudly  fed, 
In  dangerous  wealth  we  dwell. 

Remind  us  of  Thy  manger  bed 
And  lowly  cottage  cell. 

If   pressed   by   poverty   severe. 

In  envious  want  we  pine. 
Oh  may  Thy  Spirit  whisper  near, 

How  poor  a  lot  was  Thine. 

Reginald  Heber. 

Season,  The  Full 

Now  that  the  time  is  come  wherein 
Our  Savior  Christ  was  born. 
The  larders  full  of  beef  and  pork, 
The  garners  filled  with  corn; 
As  God  hath  plenty  to  thee  sent, 
Take  comfort  of  thy  labors, 
And  let  it  never  thee  repent 
To  feast  thy  needy  neighbors. 

Selected. 

Season,   The  Joyous 
This  happy  day,  whose  risen  sun 

Shall  set  not  through  eternity, 
This  holy  day  when  Christ  the  Lord, 

Took  on  Him  our  humanity. 
For  little  children  everywhere 

A  joyous  season  still  we  make, 
We    bring    our    precious    gifts    to   them. 

Even  for  the  dear  Child  Jesus'  sake. 

Phoebe  Gary. 

Shepherds'  Singing 

Shepherds  at  the  grange, 

Where  the   Babe   was   born. 
Sang  with  many  a  change, 
Christmas    carols    until    morn,._ 
H.  W.  Longfellow. — By  the  Fireside. 

A  Christmas  Carol. 

Sin,  The  Price  of 

What  comfort  by  Him  do  we  win,_ 
Who  made  Himself  the  price  of  sin. 
To  make  us  heirs  of  glory? 
To  see  this  babe  all  innocence; 
A  martyr  born  in  our  defense; 
Can  man  forget  the  story? 

Ben  Jonson. 

Sleep,  Holy  Babe 

Upon  Thy  mother's  breast; 

Great   Lord   of   earth   and   sea   and   sky, 

How  sweet  it  is  to  see  Thee  lie 

In  such  a  place  of  rest. 

Sleep.  Holy  Babe, 
O  take  Thy  brief  repose- 
Too  quickly  will  Thy  slumbers  break. 
And   Thou  to   lengthened   pains  awake 
That  death  alone  can  close. 

Edward  Casvstell. 


Songs  Raise  on  High 

Sound  over  all  waters,  reach  from  all  lands. 

The  chorus  of  voices,  the  clasping  of  hands; 

Sing  hymns  that  were  sung  by  the  stars  of 

the  morn, 
Sing  songs  of  the  angel  when  Jesus  was 
born  ! 

With  glad  jubilations 
Bring   hope   to   the   nations ! 
The  dark   night   is  ending  and   dawn  has 

begun  ; 
Rise,  hope  of  the  ages,  arise  like  the  sun. 
All  speech  flow  to  music,  all  hearts  beat  as 
one. 
Blow  bugles  of  battle,  the  marches  of  peace; 
East,  west,  north  and  south,  let  the  quarrels 

all  cease, 
Sing  the  song  of  great  joy  that  the  angels 

began. 
Sing  of  glory  to  God,  and  of  good  will  to 
man ! 

Hark,  joining  the  chorus 
The  heavens  bend  o'er  us. 

J.  G.  Whittier. 

Spheres,  The  Crystal 

Ring  out,  ye  crystal   spheres. 
Once  bless  our  human  ears, 

(If  ye  have  power  to  touch  our  senses  so:) 
And  let  your  silver  chime 
Move  in  melodious  time, 
And  let  the  bass  of  Heaven's  deep  organ 
blow. 
And  with  your  ninefold  harmony 
Make   up    full   consort   to   the   angelic   sym- 
phony. 

Milton. — On  the  Morning  of 
Christ's  Nativity.     St.  13. 

O  Little  Town  of  Bethlehem  1 

By  Phillips  Brooks 

O  little  town  of  Bethlehem! 

How  still  we  see  thee  lie ; 

Above  thy  deep  and  dreamless  sleep, 

The  silent  stars  go  by. 

Yet,  in  thy  dark  street  shineth 

The  everlasting  Light ; 

The  hopes  and  fears  of  all  the  years. 

Are  met  in  thee,  to-night. 

How  silently,  how  silently, 

The  wondrous  gift  is  given ! 

So  God  imparts  to  human  hearts. 

The  blessings  of  His  Heaven. 

No  ear  may  hear  His  coming, 

But  in  this  world  of  sin, 

When  meek  souls  will  receive  Him  still, 

The  dear  Christ  enters  in. 

O  holy  Child  of  Bethlehem ! 
Descend  to  us,  we  pray ; 
Cast  out  our  sin  and  enter  in 
Be  born  in  us  to-day. 
We  hear  the  Christmas  angels 
The  great  glad-tidings  tell ; 
Oh  come  to  us,  abide  with  us. 
Our  Lord  Emmanuel. 


CHRISTMAS 


435 


>/ 


A  Christinas  Carol 
By  Dinah  Maria  Mulock  (Craik) 

God  rest  ye,  merry  gentlemen ;    let  nothing 

you  dismay. 
For  Jesus   Christ  our   Savior,   was  born  on 

Christmas  Day. 
The  dawn  rose  red  o'er  Bethlehem,  the  stars 

shone  through  the  gray, 
For  Jesus   Christ  our   Savior,   was  born  on 

Christmas  Day. 

God  rest  ye,  little  children ;    let  nothing  you 

affright. 
For  Jesus  Christ,  your  Savior,  was  born  this 

happy  night; 
Along  the   hills  of  Galilee  the  white  flocks 

sleeping  lay 
When    Christ,    the    Child    of    Nazareth,   was 

born  on  Christmas  Day. 

God  rest  ye,  all  good  Christians ;    upon  this 

blessed  morn 
The  Lord   of  all  good   Christians  was  of  a 

woman  born ; 
Now  all  your  sorrows  He  doth  heal,  your  sins 

He  takes  away ; 
For  Jesus   Christ  our  Savior,  was  born  on 

Christmas  Day. — I. 

Christmas  Carol 

By  Phillips  Brooks 

The  earth  has  grown  old  with  its  burden  of 
care, 
But  at  Christmas  it  always  is  young. 
The  heart  of  the  jewel  burns   lustrous  and 

fair. 
And  its  soul  full  of  music  breaks  forth  on  the 
air. 
When  the  song  of  the  angels  is  sung. 

It  is  coming,  old  earth,  it  is  coming  to-night! 

On  the  snowflakes  that  covered  thy  sod 
The  feet  of  the  Christ-child  fall  gentle  and 

white. 
And  the  voice  of  the  Christ-child  tells  out 

That  mankind  are  the  children  of  God. 

On  the  sad  and  the  lonely,  the  wretched  and 
poor. 
The  voice  of  the  Christ-child  shall  fall ; 
And  to  every  blind  wanderer  open  the  door 
Of  a   hope   that   he   dared  not   to  dream   of 
before. 
With  a  sunshine  of  welcome  for  all. 

The  feet  of  the  humblest  may  walk  in  the  field 

Where  the  feet  of  the  holiest  have  trod. 
This,  this  is  the  marvel  to  mortals  revealed 
When  the  silvery  trumpets  of  Christmas  have 
pealed. 
That  mankind  are  the  children  of  God. 

Blessed  Christmas  Day 

By  Charles  Kingsley 

O  blessed  day  which  giv'st  the  eternal  lie 
To  self,  and  sense,  and  all  the  brute  within; 
O  come  to  us  amid  this  war  of  life; 
To  hall  and  hovel  come !    to  all  who  toil 


In  senate,  shop,  or  study !    and,  to  those 

Ill-warned  and  sorely  tempted — 

Come  to  them,  blest  and  blessing,  Christmas 

Day! 
Tell  them  once  more  the  tale  of  Bethlehem, 
The  kneeling  shepherds,  and  the  Babe  Divine; 
And  keep  them  men,  indeed,  fair  Christmas 

Day! 

The  Little  Christ  is  Coming  Down  I 

By  Harriet  F.  Blodgett 

The  little  Christ  is  coming  down 

Across  the  fields  of  snow ; 
The  pine  trees  greet  Him  where  they  stand 
The  willows  bend  to  kiss  His  hand, 
The  mountain  laurel  is  ablush 
In  hidden  nooks,  the  wind,  ahush 
And  tiptoe,  lest  the  violets  wake 
Before  their  time  for  His  sweet  sake 
The  stars,  down  dropping,  form  a  crown 

Upon  the  waiting  hills  below, — 
The  little  Christ  is  coming  down 

Across  the  fields  of  snow. 

The  little  Christ  is  coming  down 

Across  the  city  street ; 
The   wind   blows   coldly   from   the   north, 
His  dimpled  hands  are  stretching  forth, 
And  no  one  knows,  and  no  one  cares. 
The  priests  are  busy  with  their  prayers, 
The  jostling  crowd  hastes  on  apace, 
And  no  one  sees  the  pleading  face, 
None   hears   the   cry  as   through   the  town 

He  wanders  with  His  small  cold  feet, — 
The  little  Christ  is  coming  down 

Across  the  city  street. — I. 

The  Christmas  Peal 

By  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford 

Swinging  across  the  belfry  tower 

The  bells  rang  backward  all  the  hour ; 

They    rang,    they    reeled,    they    rushed,    they 

roared  : 
Their  tongues  tumultuous  music  poured. 
The  old  walls  rocked,  the  peals  outswept. 
Far  up  the  steep  their  echoes  leapt, 
Soaring  and  sparkling  till  they  burst 
Like  bubbles  round  the  topmost  horn 
That  reddens  to  the  hint  of  morn 
That  halts  some  trembling  star  the  first. 
And  all  the  realms  of  ice  and  frost 
From  field  to  field  those  joy  bells  tossed. 
They  answered  from  their  airy  height ; 
They  thrilled ;    they   loosed   their  bands  for 

flight ; 
They  knew  that  it  was  Christmas  Night ! 

Where  awful  absence-  of  sound 
The  gorge  in  death's  dumb  rigor  bound, 
Below,  and  deep  within  the  wood, 
Windless  and  weird  the  black  pines  stood, 
The  iron  boughs  slow-swaying  rose 
And  fell  and  shook  their  sifted  snows, 
And  stirred  in  every  stem  and  branch 
To  the  wild  music  in  the  air 
From  far  lone  upper  regions  where 
Loose  plunged  the  silver  avalanche. 
All  up  and  down  the  valley-side 


436 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


These  iron  boughs  swayed  far  and  wide; 
They  heard  the  cry  along  the  height ; 
They  pulsed  in  time  with  that  glad  flight : 
They  knew  that  it  was  Christmas  Night ! 

You  who  with  quickening  throbs  shall  mark 
Such  swells  and  falls  swim  on  the  dark, 
As  crisp  as  if  the  clustered  rout 
In  starry  depths  sprang  chiming  out, 
As  if  the  Pleiades  should  sing, 
Lyra  should  touch  her  tenderest  string, 
Aldebaran  his  spear-heads  clang. 
Great  Betelgeuse  and  Sirius  blow 
Their  mighty  horns,  and  Fomalhaut 
With  wild  sweet  breath  suspended  hang — 
Know  'tis  your  heart-beats,  with  those  bells. 
Loosen  the  snow-clouds'  vibrant  cells, 
Stir  the  vast  forest  on  the  height, 
Your  heart-beats  answering  to  the  light 
Flashed  earthward  the  first  Christmas  Night ! 

H. 

Christmas  Boses 
By  R.  J.  O. 

Pale  Winter  roses,  the  white  ghosts 

Of  our  June  roses. 
Last  beauty  that  the  old  year  boasts', 

Ere  his  reign  closes ! 
I  gather  you,  as  farewell  gift 

From  parting  lover. 
For  ere  you  fade,  his  moments  swift 

Will  all  be  over. 
Kind  ghosts  ye  are,  that  trouble  not, 

Nor  fright,  nor  sadden, 
But  wake  fond  memories  half  forgot, 

And  thoughts  that  gladden. 
O  changeless  past !    I  would  the  year 

Left  of  lost  hours 
No  ghosts  that  brought  more  shame  or  fear, 

Than  these   white  flowers  ! — Sp. 

A  Christmas  Song 
By  Florence  Evelyn  Pratt 

Oh,  Christmas  is  a  jolly  time 
When  forests  hang  with  snow, 

And  other  forests  bend  with  toys, 
And  lordly  Yule-logs  glow. 

And  Christmas  is  a  solemn  time 

Because,  beneath  the  star. 
The  first  great  Christmas  Gift  was  given 

To  all  men  near  and  far. 

But  not  alone  at  Christmas  time 

Comes  holiday  and  cheer. 
For  one  who  loves  a  little  child 

Hath  Christmas  all  the  year. 

The  Christmas  Spectrum 

By  Amos  R.  Wells 

Seven  points  hath  the  Christmas  star; 
One  is  the  love  that  shines  afar 
From  God  to  man ;   and  one  is  the  love 
That  leaps  from  the  world  to  the  Lord  above ; 
And  one  is  good  will  on  the  happy  earth; 


And  one  is  purity,  one  is  peace, 

And  two  are  the  joys  that  never  cease, — 

God's  joy, 

Man's  joy, — 
Aflame  in  the  star  of  the  wonderful  Birth. 

And  the  light  of  God's  love  is  a  golden  light, 
And  man's  love  to  man  is  crimson  bright, 
And  man's  love  to  God  is  an  azure  ray, — 
Alas,  when  it  flickers  and  dies  away  ! 
And  the  seven  rays  through  the  worshiping 

night 
Like  the  flash  of  all  jewels,  exult  and  play, — 
God's  joy, 
Man's  joy, — 
Yet  they  shine  as  one,  and  the  star  is  white. 

ToUowing  the  Star 
By  Frederic  E.  Weatherly 

It  was  the  eve  of  Christmas,  the  snow  lay 

deep  and  white ; 
I  sat  beside  my  window  and  looked  into  the 

night ; 
I  heard  the  church-bells  ringing,  I  saw  the 

bright  stars  shine. 
And  childhood  came  again  to  me,  with  all  its 

dreams  divine. 
Then,  as  I  listened  to  the  bells  and  watched 

the  skies  afar. 
Out  of  the  East  majestic  there  rose  one  radi- 
ant star : 
And  ev'ry  other  star  grew  pale  before  that 

heav'nly  glow. 
It  seemed  to  bid  me  follow,  and  I  could  not 

choose  but  go. 

From  street  to  street  it  led  me,  by  many  a 

mansion  fair. 
It  shone  through  dingy  casement  on  many  a 

garret  bare ; 
From  highway  on  to  highway,  through  alleys 

dark  and  cold. 
And  where  it  shone  the  darkness  was  flooded 

all  with  gold. 
Sad  hearts  forgot  their  sorrow,  rough  hearts 

grew  soft  and  mild. 
And  weary  little  children  turned  in  their  sleep 

and  smiled ; 
While   many   a   homeless   wanderer   uplifted 

patient  eyes. 
Seeming  to  see  a  home  at  last  beyond  those 

starry  skies. 

And  then  methought  earth  faded ;    I  rose  as 

borne  on  wings 
Beyond  the  waste  of  ruined  lives,  the  press 

of  human  things ; 
Above  the  toil  and  shadow,  above  the  want 

and  wo : 
My  old  self  and  its  diarkness  seemed  left  on 

earth  below. 
And  onward,  upward  shone  the  star,  until  it 

seemed  to  me 
It  flashed  upon  the  golden  gates  and  o'er  the 

crystal  sea. 
And  then  the  gates  rolled  backward,  I  stood 

where  angels  trod ; 
It  was  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  had  led  me  up 

to  God! 


CHRISTMAS 


437 


The  Holy  Month 

By  J.  K.  HoYT 

Shout  now !     The  Months,  with  loud  acclaim, 

Take  up  the  cry  and  send  it  forth : 

May.  breathing  sweet,  her  spring  perfumes. 

November,  thundering  from  the  North ; 

With  hands  upraised,  as  with  one  voice, 

They  join  their  notes,  in  grand  accord; 

'■  Hail  to  December  !  "  say  they  all, 

"  It  gave  to  Earth  our  Christ  the  Lord !  " 

Down  from  the  spheres  a  peal  rang  forth ; 

Angels  and  men  their  incense  poured ; 

"  Hail  to  the  month !     Hail  to  the  day ! 

Which  gave  all  worlds  our  Christ  the  Lord." 

Mary  in  the  Cave 
By  Louise  Dunham  Goldsberry 

Little   Child,   Little   Child,  Thy   silken  head 

lying 

Between  my  breasts, 
Thou  art  the  Promise  to  the  broken  reed  of 

Israel. 
My  body  cradled  Thee,  my  heart  sung  o'er 

Thee, 
Under  the  solemn  witness  stars  alone  I  bore 

Thee — 
Oh.  what  is  this  that  I  should  be  the  nursing 

mother 

Of  my  God ! 

Little  Son,  Little  Son,  I  hear  the  cold  winds 

crying 

Around  a  tree. 
And  Thou  and  I.  we  twain  carry  a  gruesome 

load; 
Shut  Thy  sad  eyes.  Thy  mother's  kisses  falling 
Shall  hush   to  Thee  the  piteous  dead  voices 

calling — 
Oh,  what  is  this  that  I  shall  pluck  the  nails 

from  these  sweet  hands 
And  baby  feet ! 

Little  Child,  Little  Child,  the  milk  dries  on 

Thy  lips ; 

All  in  my  bosom 
Thy  naked  limbs  lie  warm  upon  my  heart. 
Breath    to    breath    we    sleep,    the    clamoring 

world  afar. 
Thou  and  I,  we  twain  under  the  keeping  star — 
Oh,    what   is   this   that   Thou   art    Son   and 

Savior, 

My  little  Child! 


that 


The  Star  in  the  East 

Anonymous 

The  hearts  of  all  mankind  are  turned 
Toward  lowly  Bethlehem; 

For    in    the    East    the    wondrous    star, 
burned, 

In  days  of  old 
Still  beckons  them. 

Back  o'er  the  centuries, 

Storm  swept  and  bare 

It  moves,  until,  behold! 
It  stands  above  the  manger  where 

The  young  child  lies. 

Star-Beams 

While  stars  of  Christmas  shine, 

Lighting  the  skies. 
Let  only  loving  looks 

Beam  from  your  eyes. 

While  bells  of  Christmas  ring, 

Joyous  and  clear. 
Speak  only  h::ppy  words 

All  mirth  and  cheer. 

Give  only  loving  gifts. 

And  in  love  take; 
Gladden  the  poor  and  sad, 

For  love's  dear  sake. 

S.  N. 

The  Watchers  That  Fear 

Frank  Walcott  Hutt 

Over  the  snow-covered  hills  hear  ye  the  bells 

of  the  morn, 
Speeding  the  shade  of  the  past,  hailing  the 

Babe  that  is  born. 
Who  for  the  old  and  the  lost  droppeth  a  sor- 
rowful tear? 
Who,  with  a  shiver  and  sigh,  welcomes  the 

birth  of  the  year? 
Glad  is  the  singer  whose  song  praiseth  the 

tried  and  the  true  : 
Sweet  is  the  soul  that  with   smiles  lighteth 

the  way  of  the  new. 
White  are  the  pathways  of  earth,  white  for 

thy  coming,  O  Year ! 
Angels   and   holy    ones,   pray,    pray    for   the 

watchers  that  fear  I — C.  G. 


438 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 

(December  31) 

OLD  YEAR  DAY  is  to  be  found  neither  in  the  lists  of  legal  holidays  nor  in  the 
church  calendars.  The  same  is  true  of  Old  Year  Sunday,  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  in  the  home,  in  the  church,  and  in  society.  Old  Year  Day,  especially  the 
night  on  which  the  year  goes  into  the  past,  and  the  Sunday  following,  are  receiving 
greater  attention  every  year.  Throughout  Christendom,  thousands  of  families  sit 
up,  and  with  story  and  music  and  conversation  "  watch  the  old  year  die."  "  Watch 
Night "  services  in  the  churches  are  held  with  growing  frequency  and  deepening 
interest.  And  there  is  scarcely  a  pulpit  in  the  world  in  which  the  thoughts  in- 
evitably suggested  by  the  season  are  not  expressed  and  emphasized  on  the  last 
Sunday  of  the  year,  Old  Year  Sunday.  Poets,  essayists,  and  preachers  are  invari- 
ably stirred  by  the  dying  of  the  old  year  to  the  noblest  use  of  their  arts  and  the 
highest  exercise  of  their  talents. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  abound  in  passages  appropriate  to  the  thoughts  of  the 
day.  The  most  prominent  theme  is  Time :  Its  flight,  value,  improvement,  loss, 
irrecoverableness,  and  end.  (Ps.  xxxix:  4-6;  Ps.  xc.  4,  6,  g,  10;  Job  vii:  6,  y,  p; 
Job  ix:  25,  26;  Ps.  xc:  12;  Eph.  v:  15,  16;  Col.  iv:  5;  Joel  ii:  25;  Rev.  x:  5,  6.)  This 
line  of  thought  naturally  suggests  the  contemplation  of  Life :  its  brevity,  frailty, 
uncertainty,  opportunities  neglected  or  improved,  purpose,  departing  youth,  advanc- 
ing old  age,  and  approaching  end.  (2  Cor.  iv:  18;  Ps.  ciii:  14-17 ;  Isa  xl:  6;  i 
Peter  i:  24,  25;  Job  xxix:  2-4;  Deut.  iv:  ^2;  Job  xvii:  11;  Eccl.  Hi:  75;  Jer.  viii:  20; 
I  John  ii:  8;  Heb.  ix:  27.)  The  last  day  of  the  year,  to  the  thoughtful  mind,  is  also 
suggestive  of  the  last  day  of  life.  (Heb.  ix:  27.)  And  Old  Year  thoughts  of 
time,  and  life  and  death  lead  up  to  the  consideration  of  the  Day  of  Judgment, 
Heaven,  Hell,  Eternity,  and  that  God  to  whom  all  His  intelligent  creatures  must 
give  an  account.  (John  vi:  40;  Acts  xvii:  51;  Rom.  ii:  5;  i  Cor.  Hi:  jj;  Heb. 
x:  25;  Jude  6;  2  Cor.  v:  i;  Rev.  xv:  2,  5;  Matt,  xxv:  41 ;  Isa.  Ivii:  75;  2  Cor.  iv: 
18;  Luke  xvi:  p.)  Probably  no  other  holy  day,  unless  we  except  Easter  Sunday, 
ha6  suggested  as  profound  thought,  as  eloquent  expression,  and  as  earnest  and 
noble  living  as  the  last  day  of  the  year. 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


On  January  i,  1900,  we  enter  upon  the  last 
year  of  a  century  that  is  marked  by  greater 
progress  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  material 
well-being  and  enlightenment  of  mankind 
than  all  the  previous  history  of  the  race;  and 
the  political,  social,  and  moral  advancement 
has  been  hardly  less  striking. 

The  century  opened  with  all  Europe  in  a 
state  of  war,  and  after  the  delusive  and 
short-lived  peace  of  Amiens  (1802).  Napo- 
leon as  First  Consul  and  then  as 
Napoleon  Emperor  of  France,  was  for 
thirteen  years  in  almost  contin- 
ual conflict  with  the  great  powers.  The  les- 
ser nations — Spain,  Italy,  Holland,  Belgium, 


Norway,  and  Sweden,  and  some  of  the 
German  States  were  submissive  under 
rulers  of  his  choosing,  but  most  of 
the  time  Austria,  Prussia,  Russia,  and 
England  were  combined  against  him.  His 
design  of  invading  England  was  frus- 
trated by  the  "  sea  power "  and  Nelson's 
victory  in  Trafalgar  in  1805,  but  on  land  he 
seemed  invincible  until  1812,  when  he  under- 
took his  ill-fated  expedition  to  Moscow,  and 
the  English  expelled  his  forces  from  Spain. 
Then  the  tide  turned.  Through  the  varying 
fortunes  of  the  capture  of  Paris,  the  retire- 
ment to  Elba,  and  the  "  hundred  days,"  he 
came   to    Waterloo    in    1815,    and    spent    the 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


439 


remnant  of  his  days  until  1821  at  St.  Helena. 
The  fierce  conflict  between  England  and 
France  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  United 
States,  for  it  was  their  interference  with 
trade  by  Napoleon's  Berlin  decrees  and  the 
English  orders  in  Council,  that  produced  suf- 
fering and  discontent  in  this  country,  and  oc- 
casioned England's  exercise  of  the  right  of 
search,  which  brought  on  the  war  of  1812. 
In  that  contest  we  1  ad  some  triumphs  on  the 
sea  and  only  misfortunes  on  the  land  until 
Jackson's  victory  at  New  Orleans  made  both 
parties  ready  to  end  a  war  for  which  neither 
had  much  relish. 

After  the  Napoleonic  disturbances  of 
boundaries  in  Europe,  the  Congress  of  Vi- 
enna, in  which  Russia,  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
England  had  the  prevailing 
The  Holy  voice,    undertook    to    reconstruct 

Alliance  the  nations  nearly  upon  their  old 
lines  and  to  restore  the  ancient 
forms  and  methods  of  government.  The 
Roman  Empire  was  gone,  and  Austria  now 
headed  a  German  confederation ;  Italy  \yas 
again  dismembered  and  the  Bourbon  mon- 
archs  returned  to  the  thrones  of  France  and 
Spain.  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia  formed 
the  Holy  Alliance  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
peace  of  Europe  and  the  preservation  of  ex- 
isting dynasties.  But  the  subject  peoples, 
who  had  borne  the  cost  and  suffering  of 
twenty-five  years  of  conflict  were  no  longer 
submissive  to  the  old  order  of  things.  The 
lessons  of  American  independence,  the 
French  Revolution,  and  Napoleon's  subver- 
sion of  ancient  traditions  were  bearing  fruit, 
and  a  struggle  began  for  constitutional  lib- 
erty  and   representative  govern- 

Spanish     ment.      An    incidental    effect    of 

Colonies  t'nis,  even  while  the  nations  of 
Europe  were  at  war,  was  the  re- 
volt of  the  American  colonies  of  the  weakest 
of  the  powers,  and  between  1810  and  1821  the 
dependencies  of  Spain,  beginning  with  Buenos 
Ayres  and  ending  with  Mexico,  became  inde- 
pendent. In  1822  Brazil  broke  away  from 
Portugal  and  became  an  empire.  The  dispo- 
sition of  the  Holy  Alliance  to  intervene  and 
bring  these  new-born  States  to  their  old  al- 
legiance, was  checked  by  the  proclamation 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine  in  1823,  in  which  the 
United  States  was  assured  of  the  sympathy 
and  countenance  of  Great  Brit- 
The        ain.     While  engaged  in   his  ag- 

Monroe     gressive  warfare  in  Europe  Na- 

Doctrine  poleon  had  sold  the  vast  terri- 
and  tory  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
Purchase  States  in  1803,  and  in  1821  Spain 
of  gave  up  Florida.    The  first  effort 

Louisiana  to  rise  against  oppression  in  Eu- 
rope was  made  in  Greece  in  1821, 
and  after  a  seven  years'  struggle  England  and 
France  came  to  her  rescue  and  in  the  naval 
battle  of  Navarino  broke  the  Turkish  power 
and  set  Hellas  free.  Its  independence  was 
acknowledged  by  the  Sultan  in  1829.  There 
had  also  been  risings  in  Italy,  but  Austria, 
as  the  chief  power  in  the  Holy  Alliance,  sup- 
pressed them. 

The  history  of  Great  Britain  from  Water- 
loo to  the  middle  of  the  century  was  made 


up  chiefly  of  contests  of  the  people  for  Con- 
stitutional and  parliamentary  re- 
Great  forms.  They  had  had  practically 
Britain  no  voice  in  their  Government  be- 
and  fore.  Two-thirds  of  the  mem- 
Keforms  bers  of  the  House  of  Commons 
were  chosen  by  the  peers  and 
rich  landowners,  and  spoils  and  corruption 
prevailed  in  the  public  service.  There  was  no 
public  education,  criminal  and  poor  laws  were 
grossly  inequitable,  prisons  were  outrage- 
ously managed,  taxation  was  oppressive,  and 
labor  was  in  a  state  of  misery.  Bold  and  per- 
sistent agitation  under  able  leaders  extorted 
remedial  measures  from  Parliament  and  re- 
sulted in  1832  in  the  first  substantial  repre- 
sentation of  the  people  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  extension  of  the  suffrage  gave  a 
new  impetus  to  improvement  in  legislation 
and  administration,  and  the  Chartist  agitation 
made  new  demands  even  after  the  accession 
of  Victoria  in  1837  and  the  fresh  impulse 
which  that  event  gave  to  the  sentiment  of 
loyalty.  The  contest  for  the  repeal  of  the  op- 
pressive corn  laws  and  the  establishment  of 
fiee  trade  culminate!  in  1846.  Meantime 
England  had  made  great  strides  in  industrial 
and  commercial  progress,  while  the  social  and 
moral  condition  of  the  people  advanced  with, 
their  gain  in  political  power.  The  results, 
were  fittingly  celebrated  in  ihe  first  World's. 
Fair  in  London  in  1851. 

The  French  people,  wearied  and  exhausted 
by  the  tremendous  drain  of  Napoleon's  costly 
conquests,  fell  under  the  reactionary  and  op- 
pressive   rule    of    the    Bourbons 
Trance      and    bore    the    burden    with    in- 
and        creasing    discontent    until    1830, 
Constitu-    when    they    had    gained    enough 
tional       strength  and  spirit  to  rise  in  re- 
Govern-     volt  and  drive  Charles  X.  from 
ment        the  throne.    They  won  a  Consti- 
tutional government,   and   Louis 
Philippe  courted  their  favor  for  a  time,  while 
they  gained  a  new  sense  of  popular  power. 
But    the    Government    was    extravagant    and 
costly  and  tended  to  revert  to  arbitrary  ways. 
The  popular  mind  turned  back  to  the  glories 
of  the  empire,  and  when  Napoleon's  remains 
were   brought   to   Paris   in    1840   there   were 
demonstrations  that   boded   ill   for  the   bour- 
geois   monarchy.      Already    Louis    Napoleon 
had  made  his  first  attempt  to  provoke  an  in- 
surrection,  and   a   few  years   later  a   second 
one  sent  him  to  prison.     The  agitation  for  a 
larger  measure  of  popular  rights  went  on  un- 
der such  leaders  as  Arago,  Lamartine,  Thiers, 
and  the  King  grew  more  unpopular,  until  he 
was    forced    to    abdicate    in    1848,    when    the 
shrewd,   persistent,    and    unscrupulous    Louis 
Napoleon    found    his    opportunity    and    con- 
trived to  be   elected   President   of  the   newly 
founded  republic.    He  strengthened  his  power 
on   the   nominal   basis   of  universal    suffrage, 
gaining  control   of  the  police  and  the  army, 
until  in  1851  he  was  able  to  overthrow  a  hos- 
tile  Assembly  and   soon   after   to   set   up   an 
Empire,  with  a  new  Constitution  of  his  own 
making.  He  was  crowned  as  Emperor  in  De- 
cember, 1852, 


440 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


Germany  continued  to  be  a  loose  confed- 
eration of  more  than  thirty  States,  with  a 
growing  rivalry  between  the  Kingdom  of 
Prussia  and  the  Empire  of  Austria  for  the 
ascendancy,  and  a  growing  struggle  of  the 
people  for  Constitutional  privileges.  The  pol- 
icy of  suppression  led  to  violent 
Conti-  outbreaks  in  1848,  the  year  of 
nental  revolution  in  Paris.  Concessions 
Changes  were  made  in  Prussia,  but  after 
an  attempt  to  form  a  new  Ger- 
man Empire  had  failed  in  1849,  there  was  a 
reversion  to  the  policy  of  repression  and  a 
strengthening  of  the  throne  and  the  army  to 
resist  popular  encroachment  upon  royal 
power.  In  Austria  the  revolt  led  to  the  dec- 
laration of  the  independence  of  Hungary  un- 
der the  lead  of  Louis  Kossuth,  first  President 
of  the  Hungarian  Republic  in  1849,  but  Rus- 
sia intervened  to  help  the  Emperor  crush 
out  the  movement  for  self-government.  Italy 
continued  to  consist  of  the  kingdoms  of  Sar- 
dinia, Naples,  and  Sicily,  and  several  duchies 
and  principalities,  while  the  Pope  ruled  at 
Rome,  and  Lombardy  and  Venice  were  ap- 
purtenances of  Austria.  But  the  ardor  of 
Massini  and  the  genius  of  Cavour  were  pre- 
paring the  way  for  a  united  Italy. 

In  1848  there  was  an  insurrection  in  Naples 
which  was  put  down  by  the  King,  Ferdinand 
II.,  and  Sardinia  tried  to  force  Austria  out 
of  Lombardy,  but  without  avail.  For  a  time 
the  popular  movements  were  compelled  to 
subside.  The  northern  nations  were  compar- 
atively quiescent  during  the  first  half  of  the 
century,  tho  Russia  was  extending  her  bor- 
ders both  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Turkey  not 
only  lost  Greece  in  1829,  but  ten  years  later 
her  power  over  Egypt  was  broken ;  otherwise 
her  corrupt  and  oppressive  rule  was  main- 
tained to  the  middle  of  the  century. 

Away  from  home  Britain's  empire  had  been 
growing.      Canada   progressed    peaceably   to- 
ward colonial  freedom ;  Australia,  which  was 
a  heritage  from  Capt.  Cook's  dis- 
England    coveries,  was  passing  from  a  re- 
Abroad     gion  of  exploration  and  a  penal 
colony  to  a  domain  of  flourishing 
dependencies ;  the  English  foothold  in  South 
Africa  was  a  mere  vantage  ground  for  the 
future,  and  the  Indian  Empire,  which  had  its 
beginning  before  the  century  opened  in  a  pos- 
session exploited  by  a  commercial  company, 
was    enlarged   by   the    suppression    of   native 
revolts    and    the    annexation    of   troublesome 
States.     India  was  a  dependency  under  mili- 
tary government  until  after  the  middle  of  the 
century.     English    traders    had    broken    into 
China   before    1840,   and   their  protection   led 
to    what    is    known    as    the    opium    war    and 
to  the  possession  of  Hongkong;    but  Japan 
was  not  opened  to  the  world's  trade  until  after 
the  expedition  of  Commodore  Perry  in  1853. 
The  third  quarter  of  the  century  was  char- 
acterized by  new  wars,  which  brought  polit- 
ical changes  and  adjustments  that  could  have 
been  effected  by  no  other  means. 
The        The  Crimean  war  of  1854-5  grew 
'Crimean    out  of  the  demand  of  the   Em- 
War        peror  of  France  for  certain  priv- 
ileges   for    Latin    Christians    in 


Palestine,  the  interference  of  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  in  behalf  of  the  Greek  Church,  and 
his  claim  to  a  protectorate  over  the  Christian 
population  of  Turkey.  England  joined 
France  on  the  side  of  Turkey,  and  Sardinia 
came  in,  hoping  for  advantage  for  Italy  in 
such  an  alliance.  Russia's  advance  to  the 
Mediterranean  was  stopped  and  Turkey  was 
saved,  to  maintain  the  "  balance  of  power  "  in 
Europe.  Having  France  as  an  ally,  Sardinia 
fought  Austria,  in  1859,  and  after  the  battles 
of  Magenta  and  Solferino,  gained  Lombardy, 
while  France  took  Savoy  and  Nice.  Austria 
and  Prussia  quarreled  over  Schleswig  and 
Holstein,  which  they  had  torn  from  Den- 
mark, and  came  to  blows  in  1866,  when  the 
first  breech-loading  needle  gun 
Forming  settled  the  battle  of  Sadowa  and 
Empires  Austria's  pretensions  as  head  of 
and  the  German  system  were  ended. 
Kingdoms  and  the  North  German  Confed- 
eration was  formed.  Cavour, 
with  the  help  of  Garibaldi  in  Sicily  and  Na- 
ples, had  been  striving  for  united  Italy  ;  the 
opportunity  of  the  war  of  Austria  with  Prus- 
sia was  seized,  and  after  Sadowa  the  Italian 
nation  was  formed  under  Victor  Emmanuel, 
with  the  capital  at  Florence.  Four  years 
later,  when  the  French  bayonets  no  longer 
held  up  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  the 
Papal  States  fell  into  the  union  and  Rome 
became  the  capital  and  Italy  was  a  European 
power.  In  1867  the  Empire  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary  was   formed. 

In  1870  Napoleon  HI.,  needing  distractions 
to  avert  opposition  to  his  corrupt  and  de- 
caying power,  provoked  the  war  with  Ger- 
many, which  created  the  German  Empire  and 
the  Third  French  Republic.  Other  wars  in 
the  la.st  half  of  the  century  have  been  waged 
mainly  to  force  civilization  forward.  The  re- 
volt of  Christian  provinces  aeainst  the  cruel 
oppression  of  Turkey  brought  on  the  con- 
flict between  Russia  and  that  nation  in  1877, 
when,  after  the  fall  of  Plevna,  Roumelia, 
Roumania.  Bulgaria,  Bosnia,  Herzegovina, 
and  Montenegro  were  freed  from  their  vas- 
sal state,  Servia  having  been  enfranchised 
long  before.  England's  contests  in  India  and 
with  the  fierce  peoples  beyond  its  northern 
borders  had  their  serious  episodes,  the  chief 
of  which  was  the  mutiny  of  the  Sepoy  sol- 
diers in  1857,  when  the  greased  cartridges  of 
the  Enfield  rifle  roused  their  superstitious 
frenzy.  After  the  fierce  battles  by  which  the 
consequent  in.surrections  were  quelled,  the 
Government  of  India  was  for  the  first  time 
placed  under  the  British  Crown  direct. 

The  history  of  the  United  States  since  the 
early    years    of    the    century    has    consisted 
mainly    of    territorial    expansion,    industrial 
and  commercial  development,  and  the  settle- 
ment  by   political    agitation    and 
Slavery     the  conflict  of  arms  of  the  prob- 
in  the       lema  entailed  upon  tbe  Republic 
United      by  the  heritage  of  slavery.     Eng- 
States       land    prohibited    the    slave   trade 
in    1807,   and   the   United    States 
followed  the  example,   but  when   the   former 
nation  decreed  emancipation  for  slaves  with 
compensation  to  the  owners  in  1833,  the  "  in- 


OLD   YEAR  DAY 


441 


stitution "  had  become  too  firmly  wrought 
into  our  industrial  and  political  fabric  to  be 
easily  dislodged.  The  anti-slavery  agitation 
began  in  earnest  with  the  starting  of  Garri- 
son's Liberator  in  1831,  but  the  wide  cul- 
tivation of  cotton  in  the  South,  the  invention 
of  the  "  gin,"  the  development  of  the  man- 
ufactures of  cotton  in  the  North,  and  the 
demand  for  the  material  in  England,  made 
the  perpetuation  of  slavery  seem  an  economic 
necessity  and  gave  a  fanatical  zeal  to  its  de- 
fenders. The  annexation  of  Texas,  which 
had  become  independent  of  Mexico  in  1836, 
brought  on  the  ^Mexican  war  of  1845.,  which 
incidentally  increased  the  slave  power.  Upon 
the  close  of  that  war,  in  1848,  the  Free  Soil 
Party  was  formed,  and  the  adoption  of  the 
fugitive  slave  law  in  1850  gave  a  new  inten- 
sity to  the  controversy.  The  publication  of 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  in  1852  added  fuel  to 
the  flames,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  in  1854  made  the  conflict  irre- 
pressible. Then  the  Republican  Party  was 
formed  and  the  country  was  politically  di- 
vided on  the  slavery  question.  When  Lincoln 
was  elected  President,  in  i860,  and  the  ordi- 
nances of  secession  were  adopted,  the  pas- 
sions of  the  people  were  wrought 
The  to  such  a  pitch  that  only  war 
Civil  War  and  the  destruction  of  slavery 
could  save  the  Union.  When  the 
Republic  had  passed  through  that  fiery  ordeal 
her  face  was  set  in  a  new  direction.  The 
Nation  was  reconstructed  with  new  guaran- 
tees of  freedom  and  equal  rights,  and  with 
new  diflSculties  to  overcome.  They  are  not 
all  surmounted  yet,  but  the  movement  has 
been  steadily  forward. 

In  Europe  political  advancement  has  con- 
tinued.    England   began   the   reform   of   her 
civil   service   in    1855.  and   made   new   exten- 
sions of  parliamentary  franchise  in  1867  and 
again  in  1884.    Before  the  last  "  reform  "  act, 
provision  had  been  made  for  the 
Conti-       secret  ballot  and  for  the  punish- 
nental      ment  of  corrupt  practices  at  elec- 
Advances  tions.       Notable     reforms     have 
been  wrought  out  in  the  govern- 
ment  of   cities,   and   legislation   affecting  the 
welfare    of    the    citizen    has    constantly    im- 
proved.    In  spite  of  drawbacks  and  turmoils, 
the   French  Republic   has  grown   in   strength 
and   stability ;   Germany   is   constantly   forced 
toward  a  recognition  of  the  power  of  public 
opinion   and  the   dependence   of   Government 
upon  popular  support,  and  even  Russia  is  not 
wholly  impervious  to  the  enlightening  senti- 
ment  of  the   world.     While   armaments   and 
defenses  have  been   increased,  they  have  be- 
come avowedly  a  means  of  preserving  peace 
by    deterring    from    war,    and    the    tendency 
toward  a  settlement  of  international  disputes 
by  arbitration  resulted  in  a  conference  at  The 
Hague  in  1899.  in  which  all  the  great  powers 
were    represented    at    the    invitation    of    the 
Czar  of  Russia.    Small  as  the  practical  result 
seemed  to  be,  it  is  a  promising  sign  for  the 
I       new  century. 

■  But  what  characterizes  the  nineteenth  cen- 

tury more  than  all  else  is  the  vast  strides  in 
scientific  discovery  and  the  application  of  the 


forces   of   nature   to   the   service 

The        of    man.      The    wave   theory    of 

Advance    light,     the     nebular     hypothesis, 

of  Science  and    the    discovery    of    spectrum 

analysis  have  made  new  revela- 
tions in  the  heavens  and  exalted  our  con- 
ceptions of  time  and  space.  The  atomic  the- 
ory in  chemistry,  the  molecular  composition 
of  gas,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation 
of  energy  have  opened  a  new  avenue  to  the 
understanding  of  the  earth.  The  cell  theory 
of  organisms,  Lamarck's  discoveries  as  to  the 
progressive  development  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, Darwin's  study  of  the  origin  of  species, 
the  doctrine  of  evolution,  and  the  tracing  of 
the  globe's  history  in  the  geological  strata, 
relegate  all  the  science  that  preceded  this 
century  to  the  same  category  as  the  lore  of 
the  Chaldeans  and  the  Egyptians.  Knowl- 
edge of  the  human  frame  and  its  functions 
and  the  treatment  of  its  defects  and  maladies 
have  developed  from  the  rudest  germs  in 
this  century.  The  use  of  anesthetics  and  an- 
tiseptics, improved  surgical  methods  and  ap- 
pliances, and  scientific  sanitation  and  hygiene 
have  prolonged  life  and  added  to  its  com- 
forts. 

But  when  we  think  of  the  mechanical  in- 
ventions, the  applications  of  machinery  to  the 
saving  of  human  labor  and  the  multiplying 
of   its   product,   the   marvel   grows.     Friction 

matches  did  not  exist  until  1827. 
Inventions  Torches,  candles,  rushlights,  and 

rude  oil  lamps  were  not  super- 
seded by  the  argand  burner  until  1830,  and 
petroleum  and  gas  as  illuminants  were  still 
later.  The  steam  engine  and  the  power  loom 
were  invented  in  the  last  century,  but  they 
were  primitive  devices,  and  all  the  vast  and 
complicated  machinery  of  manufacture  which 
so  enormously  increases  man's  power  of  .pro- 
duction and  of  interchange  of  products  has 
been  created  since  the  Napoleonic  wars.  The 
first  experimental  steamboat  was  launched  in 
1807,  but  it  was  1838  before  successful  steam 
navigation  on  the  ocean  began.  The  first 
rude  railway  from  Darlington  to  Stockton, 
in  England,  was  opened  in  1825.  The  Erie 
Canal  brought  the  Great  Lakes  into  com- 
munication with  the  ocean,  and  the  first  sec- 
tion of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  was  com- 
pleted in  1828.  The  modern  locomotive  and 
railroad  train,  and  the  vast  -ystem  of  trans- 
portation that  reticulates  the  face  of  the  earth 
have  had  their  colossal  growth  within  the 
lifetime  of  men  still  surviving.  Electricity  ex- 
cited wonder  and  fear,  but  performed  no 
service  for  men  before  Faraday's  discovery  of 
the  means  of  developing  it  by  magnetism,  in 
1831.  It  was  first  used  for  signalling  on  rail- 
roads in  1837,  and  it  was  in  1844  that  the 
first  telegraphic  message  was  sent  from  Bal- 
timore to  Washington.  A  submarine  cable 
was  stretched  from  Dover  to  Calais  in  1851, 
and  the  first  Atlantic  cable  was  laid  in  1858, 
tho  the  first  to  work  successfully  was  that 
of  1866.  The  first  exhibition  of  the  telephone 
was  ten  years  later.  Electric  lighting  is  not 
a  quarter  of  a  century  old,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  the  subtle  fluid  as  a  heating  and  pro- 
pelling power   is    still   in   its   infancy.      Da- 


442 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


guerre's  first  discovery  of  picture  making  by 
the  sun's  rays  was  made  in  1839,  and  the 
printing  of  photographs  from  negatives  dates 
from  1850.  The  development  of  cheap  and 
profuse  illustration  since  has  been  attended 
by  marvelous  improvements  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  printing  and  the  diffusion  of  intel- 
ligence. 

Attending  the  wonderful  advance  in  the  use 
of  labor-saving  and  product-multiplying  ma- 
chinery and   in   the   means   of  transportation 
and    interchange,    has    been    the 
The  Crea-  growth      of      corporations,      by 
tion  of      which    the   productive  power   of 
Wealth      capital  has  been  massed,  and  the 
development  of  a  vast  system  of 
credit  and  banking  whereby  95  per  cent,  of 
the  exchanges  is  effected  without  the  use  of 
money,  altho  the  volume  of  currency  in  use 
has  enormously  increased.     The  creation  of 
wealth   during  the  present   century  has  been 
prodigious    and    goes    on    with    accelerating 
pace,  and  in  spite  of  complaints  of  unfair  dis- 
tribution,    its    benefits    are    irresistibly    dif- 
fused,  .^o  that  the  condition  of  the  mass   of 
the   people   is   immensely  improved  and  con- 
tmually  improving.       There  is  much  to  do, 
but  the  forces  that  enlighten  and  elevate  hu- 
manity have  gained  tremendous  power  in  the 


century  and  are  dispelling  ignorance,  degra- 
dation, and  misery  as  never  before. 

We  step  upon  the  threshold  of  1900,  which 
leads  to  the  new  century,  facing  a  still 
brighter  dawn  for  human  civilization. 
Through  agitation  and  conflict  European  na- 
tions are  working  toward  an  ultimate  har- 
mony of  intere.-ts  and  purposes,  and  bringing 
awakened  Asia  into  the  sweeping  current  of 
progress.  Light  has  been  let  into  the  "  Dark 
Continent  "  beyond  the  ancient  borders  and 
is  rapidly  spreading.  America  is  facing  west- 
ward and  beginning  to  take  its  part  in  car- 
rying the  regenerating  forces  of  popular  gov- 
ernment to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
Notwithstanding  the  bloody  conflicts  through 
which  some  of  the  steps  of  progress  must  still 
be  made,  the  "  vision  of  the  world "  grows 
clearer  toward  the  time  when — 

The  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and  the 

battle-flags  were  furled 
In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of 

the  world. 
There  the  common  sense  of  most  shall  hold 

a  fretful  realm  in  awe. 
And  the  kindly  earth  shall  slumber,  lapt  in 

universal  law. 

N.  Y.  Ti. 


THE  DYING  YEAR 

By  Alexander  Macaulay 


Sad  and  solemn  are  the  cadences  of  the 
dying  year.  Only  a  few  months  ago,  how  full 
of  life  and  vigor  was  the  new  year,  now 
grown  old  and  ready  to  drop  into  the  irrev- 
ocable past.  It  has  spent  its  life  on  earth, 
for  good  and  ill.  and  its  footprints  are 
eternal.  Nothing  can  be  altered,  nothing  re- 
called. It  has  left  its  ineffaceable  marks, 
and  they  cannot  be  removed.  What  sights  has 
this  year  witnessed  !  Murder  has  unbared  its 
red  right  hand,  and  struck  down  many  a 
noble  man  and  woman,  who  might  else  have 
seen  the  dawning  of  another  year.  Lives  full 
of  worth  and  beauty  have  been  ruthlessly  de- 
stroyed, till  the  very  atmosphere  seemed  to 
reek  with  murder ;  and  yet  men  will  insist 
that  human  nature  is  free  from  depravity,  and 
needs  no  regeneration. 

But  if  this  year  has  witnessed  many  soul- 
harrowing  scenes,  it  has  also  gazed  on  many 
joyous  ones.  How  beautiful  was  the  spring- 
time with  all  its  gladness  and  rapture  and 
beauty !  How  pleasant  the  seaside  and 
mountain  rambles  of  the  summer !  The 
songs  of  birds,  the  happy  voices  of  children 
bidding  defiance  to  dull  care,  the  beautiful 
resignation  of  old  age  about  to  fall  into  the 
grave,  the  happy  brides  and  bridegrooms, 
would  seem  to  convert  life  into  a  glad  holi- 
day. 

But  death  disturbs  the  joyous  scene,  and 
we  mark  the  long  procession  of  the  de- 
parted as  they  are  borne  to  their  last  resting- 
place.     And  this  is  life,  and  these  are  the 


years  that  come  and  go,  and  we  but  wait  for 
the  end,  wondering  what  that  will  be.  We 
greatly  wonder,  of  all  that  have  died,  how 
many  were  prepared  to  go.  To  some,  death 
came  slowly,  and  by  perceptible  degrees.  But 
others  were  found  amid  the  daily  battle  of 
life,  and  there  struck  down.  We  recall  the 
case  of  a  friend,  who  was  ambitious  and 
eager  for  distinction  in  his  calling,  and  had 
been  successful.  To  him  death  came  without 
a  seeming  warning,  and  he  only  lived  long 
enough  to  articulate  a  few  broken  sentences 
indicative  of  his  great  disappointment  at  his 
sudden  taking  off.  Truly,  it  behooves  us  to 
be  ready  for  the  fatal  summons. 

And  nothing  can  prepare  us  for  the  end  like 
a  true  and  benevolent  life.  Repentance  may, 
and  does,  save  many  a  seared  sinner,  but  a 
life  that  finds  little  to  repent  of,  save  for  the 
little  good  accomplished,  is  far  fitter  for  a 
passage  to  the  skies  when  sealed  by  Christ's 
pardon.  "  The  readiness  is  all."  But  the 
world  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  all  these  warnings 
and  examples,  and  plods  on  in  sullen  and 
obstinate  defiance,  as  if  men,  as  of  old,  bore 
charmed  lives,  and  would  never  die.  But, 
nevertheless,  the  day  of  the  stoutest  must 
come,  and  with  faltering  limbs  and  covered 
face  he  will  press  into  the  beyond,  so  dark 
and  dismal  and  replete  with  horror  to  the 
unready  and  unwilling  participant.  The  par- 
able of  the  marriage  feast  depicts  in  awful 
colors  the  fate  of  the  unprepared.  How 
fairly  steeped  in  horror  is  the  doom  of  the 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


443 


"  guest  without  a  garment."  From  among 
the  gay  throng  that  are  participating  in  the 
feast  he  is  suddenly  snatched  and  thrust, 
without    a    moment's    warning,    into    "  outer 


darkness,"  whose  indescribable  gloom  and 
blackness  and  dreariness  stand  in  fearful 
contrast  to  the  warmth,  light,  glory,  and  il- 
lumination of  the  heavenly  mansion. — In. 


SERMONS  AND  OUTLINES 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  D.D. 
Teach  us  to  number  our  days. — Ps.  xc:  12 


Among  the  half  dozen  great  names  of  his- 
tory let  us  include  the  name  of  Moses.  If 
Plato  stands  for  pure  thought  and  Paul  for 
personal  liberty.  Moses  stands  for  law,  pa- 
triotism, and  religion.  The  great  jurist  was 
of  intellect  all  compact.  He  fulfilled  Emer- 
son's ideal,  being  at  once  "  strong  and  true, 
his  every  word  a  cube  of  stone."  Perhaps  no 
single  piece  of  literature  outranks  Moses' 
song  of  the  eternity  of  God  and  the  brevity  of 
man's  earthly  career.  Grown  old,  wearied 
by  much  wandering,  lonely  midst  the  multi- 
tude, with  joy  the  seer  welcomed  the  signals 
hung  out  over  the  heavenly  battlements.  For 
him  at  last  the  end  had  come.  In  that  hour 
his  thought  journeyed  backwards.  How  brief 
and  shrunken  seemed  his  life !  Looking  for- 
ward, youth  enlarges  the  years  to  the  size  of 
radiant  stars.  Looking  backward,  old  age 
shrinks  years  to  the  size  of  beads  strung 
about  the  child's  neck.  Seeking  an  image  of 
the  eternity  of  God,  the  seer  found  it  in  the 
glowing  sun,  unexhausted  and  inexhaustible,  as 
it  pours  forth  the  summers,  and  the  autumns. 
But  as  for  man's  career,  his  days  are  swifter 
than  the  weaver's  shuttle ;  his  years  swifter 
than  the  arrow,  curving  as  it  rises  unto  its 
fall.  What  is  man's  life?  It  is  a  cloud  dis- 
solving in  the  sunshine.  It  is  the  summer's 
brook,  swollen  by  sudden  rains  and  over- 
flowing its  banks,  but  soon  running  out  and 
leaving  the  stones  bare  again.  It  is  a  tale  that 
is  told.  To  the  seer  it  seemed  like  the  flght 
of  a  bird,  like  the  swift  ship  passing  beyond 
the  horizon,  like  the  night  watch  before  the 
morning's  battle,  like  the  new-mown  grass 
soon  withering,  like  the  newly  plucked  flower 
swiftly  fading.  Remembering,  therefore, 
life's  brevity,  Mo.-es  condensed  all  his  wis- 
dom and  research  into  one  prayer.  Teach  us 
to  number  our  days.''  for  time  is  short,  art 
is  long,  and  the  building  of  a  character  more 
than  the  building  of  a  cathedral  or  the  enrich- 
ment of  a  city. 

Astronomers  count  the  completion  of  a  year 
an  event  in  nature ;  but  it  is  not  less  an  epoch 
in  man's  life.  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  the 
completion  of  a  vast  enterprise  like  a  military 
campaign  or  the  termination  of  a  voyage 
made  great  by  its  important  discoveries,  must 
be  accompanied  by  a  certain  quickening  of 
the  pulse  and  a  glow  of  mind  and  heart. 
When  Isaac  Newton,  in  testing  his  theory  of 
gravitation,  approached  his  final  calculations 


and  foresaw  the  establishment  of  his  theory, 
the  astronomer  became  so  agitated  as  to  be 
compelled  to  deliver  to  his  companion  com- 
putations which  he  could  not  compute  him- 
self. The  successful  solution  of  a  lifelong 
problem  overcame  his  tranquillity  and  ex- 
ceeded his  strength.  By  so  much  as  Newton 
is  more  than  the  apple  whose  weight  he  com- 
putes, by  that  much  is  -the  completion  of  a 
year  for  man  toiling  hard  over  his  arts,  his 
industries  and  his  homes,  more  than  the  com- 
pletion of  a  year  for  forests,  trees,  and  riv- 
ers. To  the  shrub  a  year  means  only  a  leaf; 
to  a  vine  it  means  a  cluster ;  to  a  tree  it 
means  a  new  ring  of  wood.  But  to  a  man  a 
year  means  friendships  won,  books  mastered, 
temptations^  met  and  vanquished — sometimes, 
alas  !  means  hearthstones  cold,  a  chair  empty, 
a  grave  in  the  churchyard  freshly  dug! 
Deeply  reverent  should  be  those  few  golden 
days  that  bind  together  the  Christmas  and 
the  New  Year.  Already  the  months  and 
weeks  are  buried.  Each  passing  hour  should 
hold  some  thoughts  of  what  the  years  take 
and  what  the  years  bring.  In  the  olden  time 
when  ambassadors  to  a  foreign  country  re- 
turned home,  the  king  assembled  his  court, 
and  with  solemn  pageantry  received  the  com- 
missioners' report.  Man  also  does  well  in 
signalizing  these  days,  when  memory  makes 
up  her  records,  and  closes  the  books  against 
the  great  age  of  revelation. 

On  this  last  Sunday  of  the  old  year  the 
shortness  of  life  is  a  thought  that  warns  us 
against  overloading  the  future.  These  days, 
so  few  and  brief,  ask  man  to  freight  each  hour 
with  wise  thoughts  and  right  purposes.  Too 
often  the  youth  is  slain  by  his  to-morrows. 
Looking  forward,  the  years  stand  forth  as 
rich  in  materials,  as  forests  and  quarries  for 
building  those  cities  called  ambitions.  For 
youth  the  morrow  will  avail  for  reading 
many  books.  For  youth  the  morrow  will 
avail  for  the  economy  of  thrift  that  gathers 
great  gain.  For  youth  the  morrow  will  avail 
for  habits  and  character.  Soon  the  present  is 
eclipsed  by  the  future.  As  Cervantes  says, 
''  youth  the  morrow  will  avail  for  reading 
in  a  street  called  By  and  By,  in  a  house 
named  Never."  Dazzled  by  the  future  as  by 
the  ignis  fatuus,  the  years  run  out  and  leave 
the  man  an  intellectual  infant  and  a  moral 
feebling.  To  each  young  heart  possessed  of 
great  enthusiasm,  ambition,  aspiration,  qual- 


444 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ities  that  enable  man  to  write  his  greatest 
books,  paint  his  noblest  pictures,  win  his 
greatest  battles^  there  comes  the  seer,  whis- 
pering that  the  years  are  short  and  that  he 
alone  can  look  joyfully  forward  who  can 
wisely  look  back.  For  to-morrow  holds  no 
harvests  that  those  laborers  named  yester- 
days did  not  sow  and  culture  and  garner. 

To-morrow  wins  no  successes  that  yes- 
terday did  not  plan.  To-morrow  is  only  the 
point  where  yesterday  empties  out  its  baskets 
laden  with  treasure.  The  closing  year  asks 
each  youth  to  guard  against  all  idle  sum- 
mers, to  spend  no  winters  killing  time  and 
slaying  the  very  hours  that  wise  men  covet 
so  eagerly.  Martineau  was  deeply  affected  by 
the  thought  that  hours  mean  different  things 
to  a  stone  and  to  a  man.  Over  the  dead  rocks 
the  unending  ages  roll,  only  the  years  are  as 
tho  they  were  not.  But  to  Him  who  knelt 
in  Gethsemane  a  single  night  availed  for  the 
sublimest  crisis  in  history.  To  the  martyr 
waiting  in  his  dungeon  for  the  tyrant's  de- 
cision, not  knowing  whether  it  will  be  "  To 
the  release,"  or  "  To  the  lions,"  a  night  was 
crowded  with  thoughts  that  would  fill  years 
for  other  men.  It  is  the  mother,  hanging  over 
the  dying  couch,  watching  the  ebbing  pulse 
and  treasuring  each  whispered  word ;  it  is  the 
patriot,  Lincoln,  snatching  from  the  courier 
the  news  of  a  battle  lost  or  won ;  it  is  the  wife 
hurrying  to  the  ship's  office  to  ask  the  list  of 
the  crew  lost,  or  saved,  who  can  best  tell  us 
for  what  an  hour  avails,  and  what  issues 
tremble  thereupon.  To  the  insect  a  summer's 
day  of  four  and  twenty  hours  may  seem  a 
career  all  too  long,  but  to  a  man  searching 
out  the  secrets  of  the  rocks,  hunting  for  some 
new  remedy,  some  new  force  or  tool,  to  man 
toiling  upon  his  arts,  his  reforms,  his  indus- 
tries, threescore  years  and  ten  are  all  too 
short  for  his  many  and  sublime  purposes. 

Standing  here  between  the  old  year  and 
the  new,  let  us  dedicate  the  hour  to  retro- 
spection and  aspiration.  The  past  is  valua- 
ble alike  to  the  individual  and  to  the  race. 
Indeed,  the  civilization  of  to-day  does  but 
represent  the  accumulated  treasures  of  yes- 
terday. Man  begins  his  career  an  infant,  but 
memory  gathers  up  the  experience,  the  ob- 
servations and  the  reflections  of  the  yester- 
days and  carries  them  forward  unto  to-day. 
Enriched  thereby,  soon  the  babe  stands  forth 
clothed  with  all  the  qualities  of  a  patriot  or  a 
statesman.  Take  away  his  years  and  the  indi- 
vidual becomes  only  an  infant.  Take  away  the 
years  from  society  and  for  the  city  we  have  a 
group  of  savages.  To-day  each  child  is  born 
into  the  midst  of  a  civilization  wondrously 
rich. 

But  yesterday  gave  the  youth  his  language 
and  his  laws.  Yesterday  built  the  pyramids 
and  the  Parthenon.  Yesterday  fashioned  all 
cathedrals  and  temples.  Yesterday  stored  the 
gallery  with  pictures,  the  libraries  with  their 
books,  the  factories  with  their  tools.  Through 
our  fathers  yesterday  gave  us  this  new  world. 
Not  to-day,  but  yesterday,  subdued  the  for- 
ests, reared  the  orchards,  covered  the  land 
with  villages  and  cities.  Yesterday  gave  us 
the  schoolhouse  and  the  church.     Yesterday 


won  all  the  battles  for  liberty  and  religion. 
Browning  calls  civilization  a  temple.  But 
standing  under  its  lofty  dome,  admiring  its 
wide,  high  walls  and  flaming  altars,  let  us 
remember  that  we  minister  in  a  temple 
built  by  other  hands  and  hearts.  The  en- 
thusiasm mankind  feels  toward  the  patriot  or 
hero,  the  dignity  and  majesty  that  belong  to 
the  seer  or  saint,  are  also  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  past  years,  with  their  battles  and 
victories,  with  their  heroisms  and  self  sacri- 
fices, have  lent  wisdom  and  dignity  unto  each 
Grant  or  Garfield  or  Burke. 

Edward  Everett  tells  us  that  Daniel  Web- 
ster retired  late  and  slept  soundly  the  night 
before  his  celebrated  reply  lo  Haine.  The 
next  day  the  great  statesman  fronted  the 
Senate,  having  in  his  hand  only  a  few  head- 
ings of  his  speech.  Seeking  to  explain  the 
calm  confidence  of  the  orator,  his  biographer 
says :  "  A  full  hundred  oratorical  triumphs 
behind  him  lent  Webster  confidence  and  in- 
tellectual momentum."  If  we  define  a  great 
nation  as  a  people  with  a  noble  history  lying 
back  of  it,  let  us  define  a  great  individual  as 
a  soul  with  years  many  and  great  lying  back 
of  him  and  lending  him  their  intellectual  and 
moral  force.  As  the  gardens  of  Italy  have 
their  treasure  through  the  snows  and  the  min- 
eral stimulants  that  are  washed  down  from 
the  mountain  sides,  so  man's  to-days  are 
made  rich  and  deep  because  many  noble 
thoughts  and  purposes  out  of  the  yesterdays 
have  poured  down  into  his  present. 

But  not  all  yesterdays  are  equally  honor- 
able. There  is  a  past  that  turns  the  present 
into  a  torment  and  a  curse.  It  is  easy  to  un- 
derstand that  he  whose  yesterday  holds  some 
grievous  sin  will  be  slain  by  that  past.  For 
all  such,  yesterday  is  an  avenger.  And  it 
must  needs  be  that  Eugene  Aram  flees  from 
the  memory  of  his  black  deed.  Of  necessity, 
Charles  IX.  strives  to  forget  the  night  when, 
sitting  in  his  palace  window,  he  fired  the  sig- 
nal shot  for  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
For  him  whose  memory  holds  some  dark 
wrong,  "  one  sight  out  of  yesterday,  the  mur- 
mur of  a  stream,  the  ringing  of  a  church  bell, 
the  green  path  in  the  wood  with  the  sunshine 
glinting  upon  it,  the  light  of  the  moon  uoon 
the  waters,"  may,  under  memory's  influence, 
turn  the  heart  to  stone  and  fill  the  mind  with 
a  consecrated  agony  of  remorse.  For  all  such 
memory  becomes  a  chainber  of  horrors.  He 
who  has  betrayed  his  trust  or  his  friend,  he 
who  has  blackened  his  name  with  untruth  or 
dishonor,  will  recall  the  old  year  _  only  as 
Bonaventura  recalled  the  dungeon  in  which 
he  had  been  long  imprisoned,  or  as  the  sleeper 
recalls  the  hideous  nightmare  when  he  seemed 
trembling  and  falling  over  the  precipice. 

Once  there  was  a  youth  who  went  to 
Thebes  to  recover  the  heritage  that  was  his. 
Because  the  boy  was  beloved  of  the  gods,  a 
celestial  friend  went  with  the  youth  for  guid- 
ing him  upon  the  way.  Going  before,  this  in- 
visible friend  made  rough  places  smooth, 
crooked  places  straight,  and  threw  the  bridge 
across  the  deep  chasm.  But,  unfortunately, 
the  youth  lost  his  companion's  friendship. 
He  was  cruel  and  haughty.    Hurling  a  stone 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


445 


at  a  lark  with  its  sweet  song,  the  boy  broke 
the  bird's  wing.  Lifting  a  stick  over  his  dog, 
his  blow  left  a  bloody  mark  upon  the  faithful 
beast.  After  that,  his  invisible  friend  became 
as  an  enemy.  Going  before,  he  twisted  the 
grass  by  tiiC  path  into  wands  that  tripped  the 
boy  and  gave  him  many  heavy  falls.  He  cast 
briars  and  sharp  stones  in  the  way  for  cutting 
the  pilgrim's  feet.  He  sprinkled  deceiving 
grasses  over  the  bog,  and  soon  the  youth  was 
struggling  in  the  black  mud.  Oh,  marvelous 
story,  telling  us  that  our  yesterdays  are  not 
dead.  They  will  take  to  themselves  feet,  and 
journey  forward  with  us  into  the  new  year. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  look  smilingly  forward 
whose  sins  cause  him  to  look  tearfully  back. 

But  some  there  are  whose  yesterdays  be- 
come a  curse  through  misuse.  Here  is  a 
youth  who  has  been  guilty  of  some  error  or 
mistake.  Morbid  reflection  has  magnified  his 
wrong.  Repentance  and  forgiveness  do  not 
avail  to  remove  the  millstone  from  his  neck. 
Memory  slays  his  hope.  It  seems  impossible 
for  him  to  become  again  a  candidate  for  honor 
and  confidence.  Strength  leaves  his  arm,  cour- 
age departs  from  his  heart,  ambition  forsakes 
his  will.  He  seems  a  Peter  who,  after  his 
restoration,  has  no  eloquence  or  courage  to 
retrieve  himself.  He  seems,  a  David,  whose 
lips  are  henceforth  dumb.  Never  again  will 
he  soar  and  see  like  an  eagle. 

The  past  is  only  a  chamber  of  discontent. 
In  the  winter,  when  the  snows  fall  upon  the 
western  cornfields,  the  grouse  come  in  from 
the  swamps  and  prairies.  Then  the  farmers' 
boys  go  forth  to  set  small  steel  traps  beside 
the  cornstalks.  Soon  the  unthinking  bird 
finds  the  cruel  jaws  closing  upon  foot  or 
thigh.  Rising,  the  trap  drags  the  bird  down 
again.  With  wings  broken  and  bleeding,  the 
beautiful  creature  beats  its  life  out  upon  the 
frozen  ground.  Thus  men  are  often  impris- 
oned between  the  jaws  called  yesterdays  and 
need  a  deliverer  from  their  past.  But  no  man 
has  a  right  to  allow  the  errors  of  yesterday 
to  slay  the  hopes  and  plans  of  to-morrow. 
Once  a  sin  has  been  repented  of  and  forgiven, 
it  should  be  forgotten.  The  law  of  seemli- 
ness  forbids  the  householder  casting  the 
wastes  from  the  garret,  the  refuse  from  the 
kitchen  and  pantry,  into  a  hideous  heap  in 
the  library  or  parlor.  Cities  of  the  Orient 
have  their  offal  heaps  outside  the  walls.  The 
law  of  health  forbids  the  preservation  of  the 
refuse  of  life.  And  that  which  is  unseemly 
toward  the  eye  and  the  nostril  outwardly  does 
but  typify  the  unseemliness  of  preserving  in 
memory  the  sins  and  errors  of  yesterday.  In 
the  garden  the  rosebud  is  sheathed  by  certain 
outer  leaves.  But  when  the  rose  blooms  the 
outer  covering  falls  off.  The  leaves  upon  the 
ground,  blackened  bv  blight  and  eaten  by 
worm*^,  have  no  part  with  the  sweet  red  rose 
freshly  bloomed.  Thus,  when  God  forgives, 
He  forgives  utterly.  In  the  beautiful  words 
Oi'  the  seer.  He  "  casts  man's  sins  behind  his 
back."  'Why,  then,  should  man  remember 
what  the  good  God  forgets?  He  casts  man's 
sins  "  into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  "Why,  then, 
should  memorv  thrust  its  hooked  pole  into 
the  sea  to  dredge  the  bottom  and  bring  up 


by  the  locks  some  pale  and  drowned  memory 
that  God  hath  plunged  into  the  ocean  of  for- 
getfulness?  Man's  life  is  not  in  the  past, 
but  in  the  days  to  come. 

The  old  year  slays  others  through  its  fail- 
ures. The  strong  wooden  bow  does  not  lose 
its  spring  when  the  arrow  misses  the  bull's 
eye,  but  strangely  enough  missing  the  mark 
often  takes  the  hope  out  of  the  archer's  heart. 
Here  is  a  business  man.  Events  have  dealt 
hardly  with  him.  He  has  lost  his  vantage 
ground,  and  must  needs  reconquer  the  old 
supremacy  that  had  come  to  seem  his  natural 
right.  It  has  been  eiven  him  to  see  his  pos- 
sessions dissolve  like  snowflakes  in  a  river. 
The  comoetence  gathered  by  years  wastes 
away  in  weeks.  "Where  defeat  did  but  dic- 
tate a  fresh  assault  for  Napoleon's  Old  Guard, 
defeat  of  this  man  dictates  a  retreat.  He  has 
no  heart  to  open  up  new  activities.  As  op- 
timism is  the  cradle  of  progress,  so  pessimism 
is  the  grave  of  success  and  prosperity.  Thus, 
yesterday  threatens  to  slay  this  man's  life  and 
prosperity.  And  here  is  the  man  who  real- 
izes that  he  has  lost  his  opportunity.  The 
time  was  when  books  and  teachers,  when 
leisure  for  travel  and  study  all  were  his.  But 
he  committed  unto  the  morrow  his  scholar- 
ship, his  politics,  his  business  career,  even  his 
conquest  of  men's  good  opinion. 

But  the  morrows  do  for  the  individual 
what  the  passing  years  do  for  houses.  The 
days  and  the  nights  do  not  adorn  the  old 
homestead.  Rather  do  they  dismantle  it. 
The  rains  put  moss  upon  the  shingles.  The 
frosts  eat  holes  in  the  porch.  The  sleets 
cast  a  verdure  of  decay  over  the  old  home. 
The  summers  do  not  repaint  the  clapboards, 
the  winters  do  not  beautify  the  inner  walls. 
Thus  the  mere  passing  of  time  has  no  power 
for  storing  the  mind  with  knowledge  or  the 
heart  with  character.  There  came  a  day  to 
Coleridge  when  he  realized  that  his  life  was 
in  the  past,  and  the  realization  brought  an 
awful  shock.  He  had  within  his  mind  a  full 
hundred  volumes,  poems,  dramas,  philoso- 
phies, ethics,  but  each  volume  existed  only 
in  outline — not  one  was  complete.  The  re- 
alization of  the  much  to  do  and  the  little  time 
to  do  it  paralyzed  his  energies.  The  future 
became  only  the  point  where  his  heart  broke. 
Looking  backward,  also,  poor  Haydn  was 
slain  by  the  memory  of  the  opportunities  for- 
ever gone,  and  in  a  dark  hour  he  went  out 
of  life  of  his  own  calling,  not  waiting  for 
God's  angels  to  bring  him  the  message  of  re- 
lease. And  here  are  those  who  have  stormed 
and  sulked  through  life  and  froze  to  death 
some  heart  that  loved  them  and  made  a  loved 
one  die  as 

Travelers  have  died  o'ertaken  on  an  Alpine 
road. 

By  night  confused  and  bewildered  by  the 
falling  snow ; 

Yet,  'twas  in  the  place  she  called  her  home 
she  died, 

Frozen  by  the  wintry  nature  that  encom- 
passed her. 

Only  when  it  was  too  late  did  the  man 
awaken   to    smite   his   breast,   and   curse    his 


446 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


selfishness  and  murmur  loving  words  over  the 
dust  lying  in  the  churchyard.  Oh,  for  us  all 
alike,  yesterday  holds  many  errors  and  lost 
opportunities,  holds  our  mistaken  plans, 
holds  also  our  sins.  But  the  past  is  irre- 
trievable. Repented  of,  it  cannot  be  altered 
by  tears  and  mournings  and  discontents.  Yes- 
terday's mistakes  should  only  lend  new  force 
to  the  bow,  sending  our  aspirations  the  higher 
and  farther  into  the  future.  Yesterday's  er- 
rors should  be  stimulants  for  to-morrow's 
endeavors. 

But  as  there  is  an  ignoble,  so  is  there  a 
true  use  of  yesterday.  The  past  is  a  granary 
holding  seed  for  to-morrow's  sowing.  The 
past  is  a  library  holding  wisdom  for  to-mor- 
row's emergencies.  The  past  is  an  armory 
holding  weapons  against  to-morrow's  battles. 
The  past  is  a  chest  holding  medicines  against 
to-morrow's  wounds.  For  those  whose  sky 
is  all  beclouded  yesterday  is  a  place  of  refuge, 
sheltering  man  until  the  storm  be  past.  Not 
that  any  man  has  ever  done  enough  for  so- 
ciety. Not  that  any  man  has  a  right  to  sit 
down  in  a  miserly  way  and  count  his  kind- 
nesses to  orphans  or  his  gifts  to  widows.  For 
all  such  pinched  hearts  the  worst  thing  that 
can  happen  is  for  them  to  do  a  good  deed. 
The  memorv  of  one  jgood  deed  done  prevents 
some  from  ever  doing  another.  There  are 
those  who,  never  forgetting  themselves  the 
gift  of  forty  years  ago,  will  not  allow  either 
God  or  man  to  forget  it.  For  all  such  the 
past  is  full  of  deceit,  and  its  light  is  like  the 
will-o'-the-wisp,  the  light  of  selfishness  and 
decay. 

Nevertheless,  if  weakness  or  age  or  blind- 
ness overtakes  some  Milton,  then  surely  the 
old  hero  in  his  weakness  has  a  right  to  re- 
member his  days  oi^  strength,  when  he  with- 
stood the  tyrant  face  to  face,  and  did  brave 
deeds.  For  Kossuth,  weary  with  the  weight 
of  ninety  years,  whose  limbs  refused  to  sup- 
port his  weight,  whose  eyes  refused  to  guide 
his  pen  and  step,  there  was  a  right  to  all 
the  sweets  of  retrospection  as  he  went  back 
to  the  day  when,  as  a  patriot,  he  suffered  unto 
blood  and  filled  the  world  with  his  name  and 
fame.  The  reformer,  overtaken  by  discour- 
agement;  the  patriot,  dispirited  by  defeat; 
the  citizen  through  whose  life  has  passed  the 
plow  of  adversity  midst  their  present  dis- 
couragement have  the  privilege  of  retreating 
into  the  past.  Each  has  a  right  to  think  of 
himself  as  a  pilgrim  who.  in  years  gone  by, 
carried  with  him  seeds  and  roots  and  grains, 
and  cast  them  out  upon  the  right  hand  and 
the  left,  committing  them  to  nature,  that 
never  permits  any  good  thing  to  be  lost ;  and 
now,  looking  back  over  life's  long  way,  and 
perceiving  that  the  way  of  the  wilderness  has 
become  a  place  of  goodly  trees,  beneath  which 
weary  pilgrims  sit,  he  has  a  right  to  shelter 
himself  from  life's  distresses  and  ingratitudes, 
from  its  adversities  and  discouragements. 

But  know,  O  friends  immortal,  that  the 
past  does  not  hold  man's  career,  his  life  is 
all  in  the  future.  Yesterday's  victories  do 
but  dictate  new  struggles  for  to-morrow.  The 
hero's  motto  must  be  ours,  "  He  loses  his 
battle  who  does  not  thrust  his  standard  far- 


ther and  farther  into  the  enemy's  ranks." 
Flushed  with  to-day's  success,  man  may  camp 
down  in  the  tents  of  satisfaction  for  one 
night  only  ;  when  the  morning  comes  he  must 
take  down  his  tents  and  go  on  to  new  ven 
tures.  The  forest  trees,  pushing  oflf  their 
old  leaves  and  enterprising  toward  new  buds 
and  growth,  are  nature's  way  of  bidding  man 
forget  his  past  successes  and  encouraging 
him  to  open  up  new  furrows  and  sow  larger 
harvests.  No  achievement  of  yesterday,  no 
victory  for  liberty  and  humanity  gained  in 
the  past,  no  need  of  service  to  church  or 
city  or  state,  can  ever  give  man  the  right 
to  retire  from  the  battle.  When  Wendell 
Phillips  had  helped  achieve  liberty  for  the 
slave,  he  did  not  say,  "  My  work  is  done," 
but,  rather,  "  Now  let  us  fight  intemperance 
and  expel  the  saloon  from  the  land,  and 
achieve  wisdom  and  happiness  for  each  la- 
borer." When  General  Grant  had  toiled  for 
his  country  by  day  and  by  night,  through 
storm  and  calm,  through  youth  unto  age,  and 
death  at  length  threatened  him,  he  did  not 
cease  toiling  because  of  past  services,  but 
meditated  his  memoirs  and  wrote  two  vol- 
umes, holding  off  death  by  sheer  will  force 
until  the  last  page  was  completed. 

Indeed  as  men  go  upward  toward  great- 
ness they  increasingly  forget  their  past 
achievements,  and,  like  the  knights  of  old, 
plunge  anew  into  the  arena  to  win  victories 
for  humanity.  Forgetting  what  he  had  done 
for  poetry  and  song,  at  eighty,  Tennyson 
meditated  a  new  drama.  Forgetting  his 
achievements  in  prose  and  verse,  at  eighty. 
Holmes  wrote  "  Over  the  Teacups."  For- 
getting his  services  for  liberty,  for  patriotism, 
for  religion,  at  eighty.  Gladstone  translated 
the  odes  of  Horace  and  then  announced 
a  volume  on  Butler's  Analogy.  Always 
heroic  souls  have  been  unwilling  to  point  to 
what  they  did  yesterday,  in  their  enthusiasm 
h")  achieve  new  successes  for  their  fellows. 
Not  disease  nor  age  has  been  able  to  conquer 
their  pas.=ion  to  serve  and  help  humanity. 
These  heroes  seem  like  mountain  streams 
that  run  full  breasted  to  the  sea,  turning  the 
mill  wheels  up  to  the  last  moment  before  they 
leap  forward  into  the  unlimited  sea. 

How  splendid  is  the  roll  of  the  victories 
for  humanity  gained  during  the  past  eight 
and  thirty  years.  This  generation  has  seen 
liberty  widening  and  including  the  slave ;  has 
seen  the  schoolhouse  open  its  doors  to  wel- 
come a  race  that  a  century  ago  had  neither 
language,  literature,  nor  laws :  millions  of 
serfs  rising  up  to  the  dignity  of  citizens ;  in- 
ventors honored  more  than  were  the  an- 
cient warriors;  the  cottage  of  the  peasant 
enriched  with  conveniences  beyond  the  pal- 
ace of  the  ancient  patrician ;  new  methods  of 
travel  and  speech,  increasing  the  happiness  of 
millions  ;  schoolgirls  made  wiser  than  queens 
once  were ;  nations  many  and  separated  com- 
ing together  to  consider  the  improvement  of 
their  arts,  industries,  and  institutions ;  the 
religious  leaders  of  all  races  meeting,  not  to 
war  about  differences,  but  to  meditate  upon 
the  divine  truths  held  in  common. 

Oh,  wondrous  scene !     The  gains  made  by 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


447 


this  ;  ingle  generation  seem  to  equal  in  num- 
ber and  to  surpass  in  splendor  those  of  the 
previous  thousand  years.  But  the  greatness 
of  yesterday  comes  only  to  revelators  of  the 
greater  gains  to  be  achieved  to-morrow. 
There  are  new  tools  to  be  invented,  new 
forces  to  be  discovered,  new  songs  to  be 
written,  new  laws  to  be  enacted,  new  re- 
forms for  humanity  to  be  achieved.  Not 
until  the  sound  of  war  and  strife  has  died 
forever  out  of  the  air,  not  until  the  pauper 
and  the  parasite  and  the  criminal  have  been 
expelled  from  the  land,  will  the  work  be 
completed. 

Soon  we  shall  say  farewell  to  the  old 
year.  Already  the  months  have  gone,  and 
only  hours  remain.  The  years  are  forming 
and  disappearing.  The  months  are  woven 
and  unraveled.  The  days  are  speeding  on. 
Powerless  are  we  to  postpone  that  day  when 
we  shall  pass  forever  from  the  streets  and 
scenes  we  so  dearly  love.  Soon  we  shall  be 
like  dismantled  palaces.  As  in  the  harvest- 
field  men  cast  up  the  bundles  upon  the  wag- 


ons to  be  drawn  to  the  barns  for  winnowing 
and  threshing,  thus,  soon  we  shall  have  cast 
up  the  last  bundle  upon  the  coursers  of  time 
and  the  stars  will  draw  the  load  into  the 
eternal  granary.  The  years  are  going.  Let 
the  chafif  and  the  evil  part  of  this  life  pass 
with  them.  As  men  load  the  wagon  with  the 
sweepings  of  the  street,  and,  carrying  it  far 
to  the  ocean,  cast  it  into  the  deep  abyss,  so 
bring  together  all  your  hatreds,  weaknesses, 
unkindnesses,  jealousies,  all  passions,  mgrati- 
tudes,  and  embittering  memories,  and,  tying 
them  into  one  bundle,  let  the  old  year  sweep 
them  out  and  drop  them  into  the  gulf  of 
oblivion.  Expel  from  your  life  all  sins  and 
sordid  aims.  Carry  into  the  new  year  only 
the  choicest  thoughts  and  aspirations.  As  in 
the  olden  days  when  men  approached  the  Par- 
thenon they  cleansed  theii  persons  and  ar- 
rayed themselves  in  white  robes  before  enter- 
ing that  glorious  temple,  so  cleanse  your 
garments  from  transgression,  clothe  yourserf 
with  aspirations.  Farewell  to  the  past !  Wel- 
come and  all  hail  to  the  future. — B.  E. 


A  MIDNIGHT  DOXOLOGY:   A  WATCH-NIGHT  MES- 
SAGE 


By  Rev.  C.  J.  Greenwood 

At  midnight  I  will  rise  to  give  thanks  unto  thee  because  of  thy  righteous  judgments. — Psalm 

cxix:  62 


Midnight  is  the  time  for  repose.  At 
that  hour  Morpheus  keeps  thousands  of 
eyes  sealed.  It  is  the  hour  when  "  deep 
sleep  falleth  upon  man."  The  busy  brain 
and  active  muscles  relax  and  the  prostrate 
form  presents  the  "  counterfeit  rehearsal  of 
death." 

There  are  slumber  hours  in  Christian  ex- 
perience. The  spiritual  eyes  are  holden.  It 
is  hard  work  to  get  up  in  season  for  church 
Sunday  morning,  too  much  of  an  effort  to 
go  out  to  prayer-meeting.  Drowsiness  para- 
lyzes the  spiritual  activitit_s.  Then  is  the  time 
to  shake  off  the  drowsy  feeling  by  getting 
down  upon  the  knees  and  praising  God.  The 
act  itself  will  arouse.  The  reflex  blessing 
will  set  the  heart  aflame.  The  joy  will 
thrill. 

Midnight  is  a  time  of  revel.  While 
thousands  sleep,  other  thousands  dissipate. 
Hell  empties  itself.  The  saloon  belches  forth 
its  volume  of  sin,  sorrow,  and  suffering. 
Somebody's  boys  and  girls  are  on  the  road 
to  ruin.  This  is  the  welcome  hour  for  the 
thief  and  murderer.  What  can  we  thank  God 
for  as  we  stand  before  this  midnight  picture 
of  doom  ?  Thank  God  that  there  are  churches 
striving  to  save  those  boys  and  girls.  Thank 
God  that  there  are  hundreds  of  consecrated 
men  and  women  going  about  doing  good. 
Thank  God  for  a  rescue  mission  where  scores 
of  prodigals  and  Magdalens  are  being  saved 
every    year.     Thank    God    that    there    is    an 


opportunity  given  for  you  to  throw  your- 
self into  the  heat  of  battle,  and  forget  your 
wounds  and  heartaches  in  healing  the  wounds 
and  heartaches  of  others. 

There  is  midnight  in  the  heart  as  well 
AS  IN  THE  sky.  Those  who  visited  the  Col- 
umbian Art  Gallery  at  Chicago  in  1893  have 
not  forgotten  that  pathetic  picture  by  Josef 
Israel,  entitled  "  Alone  in  the  World."  The 
dear  companion  stretched  upon  the  humble 
bed,  cold  in  death,  the  old  man  sitting  there 
with  head  bowed  between  the  wrinkled  hands. 
The  stars  might  have  s'hone  o'erhead,  but  it 
was  midnight  in  the  old  man's  heart.  You 
and  I  have  sat  under  some  such  experience 
when  we  could  almost  feel  the  darkness,  so 
dense  it  seemed.  In  days  gone  by  the  sun 
of  prosperity  shone  in  unclouded  splendor. 
How  many  the  stars  of  promise  that  looked 
down  from  the  clear  sky !  But  midnight 
came,  and  the  clock  of  adversity  tolled  the 
funeral  knell  of  hope. 

But  AFTER  THE  MIDNIGHT  COMES  THE  DAWN. 

How  the  long  hours  lengthen  as  you  begin 
the  night-watch  beside  the  sick-bed  !  But  the 
clock  in  the  tower  strikes  twelve.  Then  the 
hours  begin  to  shorten.  You  look  out  of  the 
window  for  the  morning  star,  the  herald  of 
the  day.  Presently  "  jocund  day  stands  tip- 
toe on  the  misty  mountain-tons."  After  the 
night  of  tears  comes  the  dawn  of  joy. 
"  Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy 
cometh  in  the  morning."     Oh,  the  calm  after 


448 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


the  fitful  storm,  the  peace  after  the  sighing! 
Midnight  closed  in  upon  your  soul.  You 
thought  God  had  withdrawn  His  presence. 
How  deep  the  gloom!  How  the  wind  beat 
against  the  window-pane  of  your  poor  heart 
in  fitful  gusts  !  But  the  winds  are  dying  out 
now.  The  clock  in  the  tower  has  boomed  the 
last  stroke.  The  morning  star  of  hope  her- 
alds the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day. 

You  men  and  women  in  Christ  are  stronger 
pillars  in  Zion's  temple  because  of  the  mid- 
night experiences.     Then — 

"  Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead ! 
Act — act  in  the  living  present ! 
Heart  within,  and  God  o'erhead  !  " 


The  Israelites  appointed  a  feast  of  thanks- 
giving to  God  for  that  midnight  deliverance 
of  the  fir.-t-born.  Let  this  midnight  hour  be 
a  feast  of  thanksgiving.  The  clock  that  tolls 
the  knell  of  the  dying  year  is  almost  done 
striking.  Dawn  is  breaking  on  the  hills.  Let 
us  thank  God  for  our  deliverance  and  His 
righteous  judgments. 

Florence  Nightingale  wa~  called  "  the  angel 
of  the  Crimea."  At  midnight  as  the  soldier 
lay  tossing,  burning  with  the  fever,  how  he 
listened  for  the  footfall  of  Florence  Nightin- 
gale !  Whenever  the  midnight  hour  of  sor- 
row or  suffering  comes  to  us,  let  us  listei. 
for  the  footfalls  of  God's  angels  of  mercy. — 
H.  R. 


OUR  STEWARDSHIP 

By  Archdeacon  Palmer 


Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship ;    for  thou  may  est  be  no  longer  steward. — Luke  xvi:  2 


We  are  God's  stewards  our  whole  life  long ; 
each  day  of  our  lives,  therefore,  claims  its 
own  account ;  each  year,  as  it  passes,  siife- 
gests  to  us  naturally  such  reflections,  since 
we  reckon  our  life  by  years.  To  many 
thoughtful  men  their  own  birthdays  have 
been  days  of  solemn  self-examination.  To 
many,  the  last  day  of  the  civil  year  brings  a 
like  reminder.  Indeed,  popular  language 
recognizes  in  it  something  of  this  power. 

I.  While  our  life  is  full  of  vigor,  such  an- 
niversaries, however,  invite  us  to  look  for- 
ward as  well  as  backward.  The  end  of  an 
old  year  is  the  beginning  of  a  new  one.  _  To 
look  back  is  for  a  Christian  to  repent,  since 
the  best  of  us  is  but  a  sinner  before  God ; 
but  repentance  should  bear  fruit  in  new  life. 
And  if  we  have  abused  God's  gifts  in  the 
past  year,  the  approaching  festival  of  Christ- 
mas with  the  whole  train  of  holy  seasons  that 
follow  one  after  another,  and  bringing  mani- 
fold reminders  of  God's  love  to  man,  tell  us 
that  there  is  help  in  heaven,  help  ready  for 
us  on  the  earth,  if  we  will  even  now  turn  to 
God  and  amend  our  lives.  Advent,  Christ- 
mas, Passiontide,  Easter,  Ascension  Day,  are 
not  only  thankful  commemorations  before 
God  of  glorious  things  done  for  us  in  past 
time;  they  are  not  only  settings  forth  before 
man  of  great  events  of  which  v^^e  might 
neglect  to  read,  or  read  carelessly,  in  Scrip- 
ture. They  serve  to  remind  us  also  of  a  God, 
ever-living  and  ever-present,  able  and  willing 
to  renew  for  us  daily  those  great  blessings 
which  our  Lord  lived  and  died  on  earth  to 
win  for  us  all. 

II.  But  as  anniversaries  multiply  upon  us. 
as  the  years  behind  us  are  many,  the  years 
to  come  few  in  comparison,  my  text  has  a 
meaning  for  us  which  deepens  continually — 


a  meaning  which  cannot  but  force  itself  on 
the  attention  of  those  who  avoid  generally 
serious  thoughts.  The  end  of  life  is  in  very 
deed  the  end  of  our  stewardship.  We  know 
little  of  the  existence  appointed  for  us  be- 
tween death  and  judgment.  Little  has  been 
told  us,  except  in  brief  and  momentous  out- 
line of  that  which  is  to  come  after  the  Judg- 
ment Day.  But  we  have  no  reason  to  think 
that  in  either  there  will  be  room  for  further 
probation  for  use  or  misuse  of  gifts  and 
opportunities.  As  we  draw  near  to  the  end 
of  this  earthly  life  our  thoughts  are  apt  to 
retrace  the  space  which  we  have  crossed.  We 
find  that  we  have  done  little,  far  less  than  we 
might  have  done,  because  our  own  indolence 
made  us  decline  the  task,  or  private  aims 
warped  and  marred  our  public  action.  And 
yet  another  question  remains  which  we  put 
to  ourselves  as  we  look  back  on  our  past 
life.  How  have  we  done  our  duty  to  God 
in  it?  Ability  to  know  God  and  to  serve 
Him  is  one  portion  assuredly  of  our  stew- 
ardship ;  and  as  we  draw  near  to  the  end 
of  life,  we  cannot  but  ask  ourselves  how 
we  have  used  it.  We  alone  know — I  do 
not  say  that  we  ourselves  know  perfectly — 
whether  we  have  sought  to  draw  near  to 
God,  to  know,  serve,  and  love  Him  in  real 
earnest.  In  the  retrospect  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking,  there  is  more  of  sadness  and 
less  of  hope.  Little  time,  little  ooportunity, 
remain  for  amendment.  But  there  is  hope 
for  us  still.  God's  love,  God's  mercy,  is  in- 
exhaustible. Humbly,  trustfully,  lovingly,  we 
must  cast  all  our  sins  before  the  throne 
and  commit  ourselves  to  God's  mercy  in  the 
Name  of  Him  who  heard  and  accepted  the 
thief  upon  the  cross. — S.  B.,  vol.  vii.,  p. 
248. 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


449 


REDEEMING  THE  TIME 

Ephesians  v:  i6 


This  expression  also  occurs  in  Colossians. 
The  connection  there  is  that  we  are  to  walk 
"  in  wisdom  toward  them  that  are  without." 
Here  there  is  virtually  the  same  connection : 
"  walk  circumspectly,"  etc. ;  with  a  reason 
added :  ''  Because  the  days,"  etc.  The  word 
redeeming  means  the  forestalling  of  a  mar- 
ket— first  buying  up  all  the  goods  of  a  certain 
kind,  and  then  getting  a  large  price.  The 
general  meaning  is,  juaking  the  most  of  every 
opportunity;  seizing  it  and  putting  it  to 
greatest  possible  account.  In  a  literal  sense 
time  cannot  be  redeemed.  Once  gone,  gone 
forever.  But  the  present  may  be  made  the 
utmost  of,  and  that  is  the  meaning  of  the  in- 
junction here  given. 

I.  Some  reasons  for  redeeming  the  time. 

1.  One  reason  is  that  time  is  so  precious  in 
itself.  Would  you  know  the  value  God  sets 
on  time?  Look  up  to  the  heavens.  He  ap- 
pointed those  stars  for  "  signs,"  etc.,  and  for 
days  and  years."  And  how  exactly  that  great 
clock  keeps  time !  Look  on  Nature — "  un- 
hasting,  unresting."  Look  at  the  process  of 
life  in  your  own  bodies.  Beat  by  beat  that 
God  who  giveth  so  royally  doles  out  this  gift 
second  by  second. 

2.  Another  reason  is  that  so  much  of  our 
time  is  gone.  The  close  of  the  year  reminds 
us  that  the  day  is  far  spent  and  the  night  at 
hand.  Gone  are  the  morning  hours,  fore- 
noon, noon,  afternoon.  Now  this  is  apt  to 
make  men  desperate  and  wasteful  rather  than 
diligent.  So  much  gone !  So  many  oppor- 
tunities !  So  many  resolutions  broken,  or 
weakly  kept!  Is  the  rest  worth  minding? 
But  the  Bible  encourages  and  urges  us  to 
make  the  most  of  what  remains.  "  Strength- 
en the  things  that  remain,"  as  workers  in 
gold  preserve  and  sift  their  refuse. 

3.  Another  reason  is,  that  our  hold  on 
what  remains  is  so  uncertain.  Specially  fa- 
vorable times  are  very  uncertain,  such  as 
health,    present   position,    etc.    We   are    like 


harvesters  in  a  short  season  and  a  broken 
one ;  like  traders  in  the  heyday  of  the  mar- 
ket, and  our  entire  time  is  very  uncertain. 
"  In  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,"  etc. 

II.  The  great  uses  for  which  time  is 
TO  be  redeemed.  Some  people  redeem  it  for 
unworthy  uses.  They  cut  and  pare  the  min- 
utes of  honest  and  honorable  work  for  frivo- 
lous pleasure,  or  worse.  As  a  drunkard  will 
save  money  for  drink,  or  a  foolish  woman 
for  absurd  display  in  dress. 

1.  The  sinner  is  to  redeem  tim,e  for  his 
own  salvation.  Men  here  and  now  make  the 
turning  for  future  glory  or  shame.  Redeem 
time  as  shipwrecked  men  redeem  it  when  the 
lifeboat  is  by  the  ship's  side.  "  Behold,  now 
is  the  accepted  time,"  etc.  "  To-day,  if  ye 
will  hear,"  etc. 

2.  The  cliild  of  God  is  to  redeem  it  for 
building  up  a  Christlike  character. — Passing 
opportunities  are  the  stones  beside  the 
builder.  Under  God,  and  in  His  strength, 
we  build  for  ourselves  our  future  mansion. 
You  complain  of  hardships  mid  afflictions? 
They  are  precious  stones  ;  meant  to  beautify 
our  house  with  meekness,  sympathy,  etc. 
Temptations?  They  are  educators,  showing 
us  how  and  where  to  strengthen  the  walls  o£ 
our  house. 

3.  The  servant  of  Christ  is  to  redeem  time 
for  works  of  love  and  helpfulness. — Perhaps 
you  are  very  busy  in  your  worldly  calling. 
That  is  a  special  reason  for  seizing  the  min- 
utes which  you  can  become  possessed  of.  It 
is  wonderful  what  spare  half  hours  and  min- 
utes can  do.  What  beautiful  work  can  deft 
fingers  make  of  parings  of  silk,  inches  of 
wool,  etc.  Pope  wrote  his  poems  on  fly-leaves 
and  scraps  of  paper,  etc.  In  mere  snatches  of 
time,  how  much  may  be  done  for  the  warn- 
ing, instruction,  influencing,  comforting  and 
helping  of  our  fellowmen. — H.  L.  S.  E.,  vol. 
i.,  p.  307. 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  OLD  YEAR 

John  xvii:  7 


What  changes  time  works !  How  impos- 
sible it  is  to  stop  time ! 

When  Napoleon  the  Great  led  his  wearied 
army  to  the  plains  of  Waterloo,  on  the  day 
before  the  battle,  the  shadows  had  lengthened 
far  on  toward  the  evening.  It  was  too  late 
for  him  to  rnake  precisely  the  disposition  he 
desired  and  had  intended.  As  the  light  was 
fading  he  pointed  toward  the  setting  sun,  and 
said : 

"  What  would  I  not  give  to  be  this  day  pos- 
sessed of  the  power  of  Joshua,  and  be  en- 
abled to  retard  thy  march  for  two  hours." 

Lord    Wilmington    said    of    the    Duke    of 


Newcastle,  once  the  prime  minister  of  Eng- 
land: 

"  He  loses  half-an-hour  every  morning, 
and  runs  after  it  during  all  the  day  without 
being  able  to  overtake  it." 

But  the  sun  would  not  wait  at  Waterloo; 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle  could  not  catch  his 
lost  half-hour.  I  heard  an  admirable  defini- 
tion of  time.  Time  is  continuous  succession 
— neither  backward,  nor  to  the  left  hand,  nor 
to  the  right  hand  but  straight  forward.  Yes, 
time  is  continuous  succession,  straight  for- 
ward. And  it  is  impossible  to  stop  the  suc- 
cession forward.    You  cannot  stay  time. 


450 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


And  what  a  really  solemn  thought  it  is ! 
Is  it  not  a  thought  even  the  stupidest  of  us 
cannot  help  heeding  on  the  last  Sunday  of 
the  old  year? — that  time  is  resistlessly  carry- 
ing every  one  of  us  on  somewhither. 

As  one  grows  older,  the  whelming  force 
and  rush  of  time  seems  swifter.  A  year — 
now  it  is,  and  then — is  gone !  and  you  have 
helplessly  gone  with  it.  A  decade  of  years 
— why,  the  whole  ten  of  them  seem  to  pass 
and  take  you  with  them  with  quicker  speed 
than  did  a  single  year  when  the  laggard  sun 
of  youth  was  shining. 

Ah,  the  changing,  unstopping,  resistless 
years !  What  shall  we  think  about  them  ? 
What  shall  we  say  about  them  ?  What  teach- 
ing for  us  is  there  in  the  presence  of  them, 
as  we  stand  here  in  the  last  week  of  another 
year,  almost  utterly  sped  away? 

Three  great  truths  stand  out  of  our  Scrip- 
ture and  its  surroundings — truths  of  com- 
fort, amid  the  passing  years. 

I.  Amid  these  changing,  unstopping,  resist- 
less years,  it  is  the  Lord  who  cares  for  us. 


2.  Amid  these  unstopping,  changing,  resist- 
less years,  it  is  the  Lord  only  who  makes  dis- 
closures for  us.  Mark  some  of  the  elements 
of  this  disclosure  of  the  Lord:  (a)  It  is  a 
disclosure  of  life  beyond  death.  Jesus  had 
died,  but  He  had  risen,  (b)  It  is  the  dis- 
closure of  identity  through  death.  Tho  Jesus 
was  changed.  He  was  still  the  same,  (c)  It 
is  the  disclosure  of  recognition  beyond 
death.  Tho  He  had  died  and  risen,  Jesus 
was  still  cognizant  of  His  disciples,  (d)  It 
is  a  disclosure  of  a  sure  friend  for  us 
when  the  years  bring  us  to  the  change 
to  which  they  hasten  us.  Amid  the  darkness 
of  death  the  risen  Christ  shines  radiantly 
forth. 

3.  It  is  the  Lord,  who,  amid  these  chang- 
ing, unstopping,  resistless  years  demands  our 
service.  Lovest  thou  me?  asked  Christ  of 
Peter.  Then  feed,  shepherd,  my  lambs,  my 
sheep.  The  test  of  love  is  service.  Ah,  it  is 
wise  for  us  to  ask:  have  we  yielded  such 
test  of  love  in  the  past  year  ? — H.  R, 


THOUGHTS  FOR  THE    OLD  YEAR  AND  THE    NEW 


Acts  vii:  17 


Here  the  steamer  in  which  I  was  passenger 
was  sailing  steadily  out  into  the  wide  sea.  I 
do  not  think  any  man  can  begin  a  voyage  at 
sea  and  not  be  just  a  little  wondering  and 
questioning.  The  sea  is  so  uncertain.  There 
are  so  many  contingencies  in  it  of  wave  and 
wind  and  mist  and  current.  You  cannot  at 
all  tell  what  the  voyage  may  bring  you.  You 
say  the  steamer  is  stanch  and  the  captain 
trustworthy,  and  these  secondary  things  are 
right ;  but  I  do  not  think  any  man,  even  tho 
he  may  not  be  distinctively  religious,  can 
help  or  would  help  his  thought  flying  on  and 
up  from  all  these  secondary  things  to  Him 
who  is  the  great,  personal,  primary,  presid- 
ing God,  and  saying  to  himself,  "  Well,  God 
is  as  much  for  the  sea  as  for  the  land;  I  have 
God  to  trust  in." 

And  I  do  not  think  that  any  one  of  us,  as 
we  debark  from  the  ship  of  an  old  year  and 
embark  in  the  ship  of  a  new.  can  help  a  ques- 
tioning wondering.  The  future  is  so  uncer- 
tain. What  tempest  shall  rise  in  it ;  what 
thick  mists  shall  drop  in  it;  what  unusual 
currents  shall  sweep  in  it?  Who  can  tell? 
But  the  comforting  and  steadying  thought, 
after  all,  is  that  of  the  primary  and  presiding 
God. 

This,  then,  is  what  may  be  brought  us  by 
our  Scripture,  as  in  the  ship  of  a  new  year 
we  sail  off  into  the  uncertain  and  untried 
future — some  thoughts  of  God. 

I.  In  this  zvorld  of  ours,  God  has  a  time  for 
things.  "  But  when  the  time  of  the  promise 
drew  nigh,  which  God  had  sworn  to  Abra- 
ham." This  world  of  ours  is  not  a  bit  of 
sea-weed,  tossed  upon  the  tides  of  time.  This 
world  is  steered.  An  infinite  intelligence 
grasps  its  helm,   controls  the  winds,  orders 


or  permits  the  tides.  God  has  a  time  for 
things.    Turn  to  the  history  of  our  world. 

"  It  is  incontrovertible  that  it  was  predicted 
ages  ago  that  a  chosen  man,  called  yonder 
out  of  Ur,  of  the  Chaldees,  should  become  a' 
chosen  family,  and  this  a  chosen  nation ;  and 
that  in  this  chosen  nation  should  appear  a 
chosen  Supreme  Teacher  of  the  race,  and 
that  He  should  found  a  chosen  church,  and 
that  to  His  chosen  people,  with  a  zeal  for 
good  works,  should  ultimately  be  given  all 
nations  and  the  isles  of  the  sea.  In  pre- 
cisely this  order,  world-history  has  unrolled 
itself,  and  is  still  unrolling.  Christianity,  at 
this  hour,  reads  her  Scriptures  and  lifts  her 
anthems  in  two  hundred  languages.  This 
great  gulf-current  has  flowed  in  one  direc- 
tion two  thousand,  three  thousand,  four  thou- 
sand years.  Advance  to-day  is  on  the  side 
of  at  least  the  professedly  Christian  nations. 
Islam  is  losing  her  grasp.  Islam  is  gasp- 
ing. A  power  not  ourselves  makes  for  right- 
eousness. It  has  steadily  caused  the  fittest 
to  survive,  and  thus  has  executed  a  plan 
of  choosing  a  peculiar  people.  The  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  will  ultimately  give  the 
world  to  the  fit.  Are  we  in  our  anxiety  for 
the  future  to  believe  that  this  law  will  alter 
soon,  or  to  fear  that  He  whose  will  the  law 
expresses,  and  who  never  slumbers  nor 
sleeps,  will  change  His  plan  to-morrow  or  the 
day  after?  Let  us  gaze  on  this  gulf-current 
and  take  from  it  heart  and  hope,  harmonious 
with  the  heart  of  Almighty  God.  out  of  which 
the  gulf-current  beats  only  as  one  pulse." 

"  But  when  the  time  of  the  promise  drew 
nigh  which  God  had  sworn  to  Abraham." 
God  has  a  time  for  things  in  this  world  of 
ours.     Over  it,  through  it,  around  it,  there  is 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


451 


intelligent  purpose.  All  this  is  a  thought  to 
sail  into  the  uncertain  future  in  the  ship  of  a 
new  year  with. 

II.  God  docs  not  forget  His  time  for 
tilings. 

But  when  the  times  of  the  promise  drew 
nigh.  Read  the  promise  (Gen.  xv :  13,  14). 
When  the  times  of  the  promise  drew  nigh, 
then — then  the  people  began  to  multiply  in 
Egj'pt ;  then  the  oppression  of  the  king  who 
knew  not  Joseph  began  to  turn  the  Hebrews' 
thoughts  toward  escape  and  deliverance; 
then  Moses  was  born;  then  was  given  him 


that  strange  and  necessary  culture  in  the 
royal  court ;  then  were  the  gateways  of  mir- 
acle opening  toward  the  promised  land.  God 
does  not  forget  His  time  for  things. 

What  better  thought  with  which  to  leave 
the  old  year  and  begin  the  new  than  this  of 
God,  who  has  a  time  for  things  and  who 
does  not  forget  His  time ;  and  as  for  the 
Hebrews  generally,  so  for  you  and  me  spe- 
cifically. For  me  God  has  His  time ;  and 
concerning  me  He  will  not  forget  His  time. 
— H.  R. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  YEAR 


By  H.  Alford,  D.D. 

To  hint  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame,  and 

am  set  down  with  my  Father  in  his  throne. —  Rev.  Hi:  21 


I.  "  He  that  overcometh."  Then  there  is 
light  shining  in  and  struggling  with  the  dark- 
ness— a  conflict  year-long  and  life-long, 
which,  tho  it  has  its  defects,  may  have  its 
victories  also ;  which,  tho  its  outward  aspect 
is  gloomy,  may  issue  in  glory,  and  honor, 
and  immortality.  Years  bring  us  another  les- 
son than  the  lesson  of  discouragement.  Tho 
much  is  taken  away,  much  is  also  gained — 
gained  by  that  very  loss.  The  past  has  be- 
come for  us  full  of  rich  and  precious  store : 
lessons  of  self  distrust;  lessons  of  charita- 
ble thought ;  lessons  of  reliance  on  God.  If 
we  have  lost  bloom,  we  have  gathered  ripe- 
ness. The  future  has  opened  and  widened 
before  us.  It  is  no  longer  the  book  of  dark 
things,  closed  and  put  by  till  our  play  is  over : 
the  page  lies  open  before  us  on  the  desk  of 
life's  business ;  tho  much  in  it  is  hidden,  much 
is  revealed  to  our  inner  sight,  which  sol- 
emnizes us,  and  stirs  us  to  action.  It  is  no 
longer  the  great  unknown  land  talked  of  as 
a  dream  and  a  my?tery,  but  we  are  plying  our 
voyage  thither,  standing  at  watch,  and  hold- 
ing the  helm.     Already  we  begin  to  see  its 


tokens  float  past  us,  and  to  scent  the  gales 
which  come  from  its  fields.  And  the  present 
— we  have  learned  to  distrust  it  and  to  ques- 
tion its  testimony,  have  become  wiser  than  to 
encumber  by  loading  ourselves  with  its  fa- 
ding flowers ;  we  search  for  pearls  that  shall 
endure. 

II.  "  Who  is  he  that  overcometh  the  world 
but  he  that  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
God?"  Here,  again,  as  years  pass  on,  we 
want  more  of  Him,  a  firmer  reliance  on  His 
work  and  His  word,  to  stand  among  things 
visible  and  endure  as  seeing  the  invisible.  If 
we  would  be  gaining  this  victory,  we  must 
labor  hard  for  knowledge  and  obedience,  and 
every  way  for  a  greater  realizing  of  Christ. 
Our  text  is  not  only  an  implication  of  the 
possibility  of  victory :  it  is  also  a  promise  to 
the  victor.  The  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
faith  Himself  proclaims  it,  Himself  offers  to 
the  conquerors  a  prize,  and  pledges  for  it  His 
own  word :  "  To  him  that  overcometh  will 
I  grant  to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne." — S.  B., 
vol.  xii.,  p.  286. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS   AND    ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS 


BEGINNING,  Time  of. — Emma  was  a 
sweet  little  girl  six  years  old.  One  day  she 
said  to  her  mother,  "  Mamma,  I  mean  to 
begin  at  the  new  year  to  love  Jesus." — "  But." 
said  her  mother,  "  how  do  you  know  you  will 
live  till  the  new  year?  "  Emma  sat  some  mo- 
ments without  speaking.  At  length  she  looked 
up,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  and  said,  "  Perhaps 
I  shall  not.  I  will  begin  now;  and  then, 
mamma,  if  God  lets  me  live,  I  shall  be  a 
Christian  when  the  new  year  begins." — F.  I. 

BOOK  or  LIFE,  Enrolled  in  the. — Some 
people    say    they    can't   tell    down   here,    but 


must  wait  till  they  get  to  Heaven  to  know 
whether  their  names  are  written  in  the  Book 
of  Life.  I  believe  it  is  the  privilege  of  every 
Christian  to  know  it  here.  Men  in  China 
tell  me  that  the  greatest  honor  that  can  be 
paid  them  there  is  to  write  their  name  in  one 
of  their  joss  houses,  in  the  house  of  Con- 
fucius. Christ  says,  "  Rejoice  that  your 
names  are  written  in  heaven."  I  was  com- 
ing into  Liverpool  one  night  with  a  party 
of  friends,  and  we  found  the  Northwestern 
Hotel  full,  and  they  told  me  it  had  been  full 
for  days.     I  said  to  my  friends,  "  Let  us  go 


452 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


over  to  the  Adelphi."  "  No,"  they  said,  "  we 
have  a  room  engaged."  "  Why,"  I  said, 
"  they  told  me  the  house  had  been  full  for 
days,  and  now  you  say  you  have  got  a  room." 
They  said,  "  We  sent  our  names  on  ahead 
and  secured  a  room."  "  How  wise,"  thought 
I.  Many  of  you  are  laying  in  wood  for  the 
bleak  winter,  and  food  and  clothing.  Oh, 
prepare  for  the  long,  bleak  night  that  is  com- 
ing! See  that  your  names  are  written  in 
Heaven ;  send  your  names  on  ahead  and  se- 
cure a  room.  And  when  sure  that  our  names 
are  written  there  we  should  see  that  those  of 
our  children  are.  A  friend  said  to  me 
"  Why  talk  of  books  being  kept  in  Heaven." 
I  said,  "  The  Bible  has  a  good  deal  to  say 
about  it."  In  Daniel  xii :  i,  "  every  one  was 
saved  whose  name  was  found  written  in  the 
book."  In  Philippians  iv :  3,  Paul  speaks  of 
those  whose  names  were  written  in  the  book. 
We  ought  to  live  so  that  not  only  we  but 
others  would  know  our  names  are  on  the 
record. — Moody. 

BOOK  OF  LIFE,  Example  of  the.— In 
the  public  registers  all  that  were  born 
of  a  particular  tribe  were  entered  in  the 
list  of  their  respective  families  under  that 
tribe.  This  was  the  book  of  life;  and  when 
any  of  these  died,  his  name  might  be  con- 
sidered as  blotted  out  of  the  list.  "  In  China, 
the  names  of  the  persons  who  have  been  tried 
on  criminal  processes  are  written  in  two  dis- 
tinct books,  which  are  called  the  book  of 
life,  and  the  book  of  death ;  those  who  have 
been  acquitted,  or  who  have  not  been  capi- 
tally convicted,  are  written  in  the  former; 
those  who  have  been  found  guilty,  in  the  lat- 
ter. These  two  books  are  presented  to  the 
emperor  by  his  ministers,  and  he,  as  sov- 
ereign, has  a  right  to  erase  any  name  from 
either :  to  place  the  living  among  the  dead, 
that  he  may  die :  or  the  dead,  that  is,  the  per- 
son condemned  to  death,  among  the  living, 
that  he  may  be  preserved.  Thus  he  blots  out 
of  the  book  of  life,  or  the  book  of  death,  ac- 
cording to  his  sovereign  pleasure,  on  the  rep- 
resentation of  his  ministers,  or  the  interces- 
sion of  friends." — Selected. 

BOOK  OF  LIFE,  Legend  of  the.— St. 
Julian  and  his  wife  Basilissa,  resolved  to  live 
chaste  lives,  as  if  they  had  not  been  married. 
Their  bridal  chamber  became  illuminated,  and 
Jesus,  standing  by  them,  said.  "  Thou  hast 
conquered,  O  Julian !  "  Then  two  angels, 
clothed  in  white  robes,  girded  with  golden 
zones,  having  crowns,  stood  beside  their 
couch.  Thereon  lay  a  book  seven  times 
brighter  than  silver,  wherein  were  various 
names  in  letters  of  gold.  Julian  read  there 
his  name  and  that  of  his  wife,  Basilissa. 
And  one  of  four  witnessing  elders,  who  were 
also  there,  said,  "  In  that  book  are  written 
the  chaste  and  the  sober,  the  truthful  and  the 
merciful,  the  humble  and  the  gentle,  those 
whose  lo\e  is  unfeigned,  bearing  adversities, 
patient  in  tribulation,  and  those  who,  for  the 
love  of  Jesus  Christ,  have  given  up  father, 
and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
lands  for  His  sake,  lest  they  should  impede 
the  progress  of  their  souls  to  perfection,  and 


they  who  have  not  hesitated  to  shed  their 
blood  for  His  name,  in  the  number  of  whom 
you  also  have  merited  to  be  written." — F.  XL 

CHILDHOOD,  Second.— Rev.  Dr.  Nott 
sank  into  a  second  childhood  that  was  pecu- 
liarly tender.  The  last  hours  of  his  life  were 
particularly  impressive.  He  lay  on  his  bed, 
blind,  and  apparently  unconscious.  His  wife 
sat  by  his  bedside,  and  sang  to  him,  day  by 
day,  the  songs  of  his  childhood.  He  was 
hushed  to  repose  by  them,  like  an  infant  on 
its  pillow.  Watts'  cradle-hymn,  "  Hush,  my 
dear !  lie  still  and  slumber,"  always  soothed 
him.  Visions  of  home  floated  before  him, 
and  the  name  of  his  mother  was  frequently 
on  his  lips.  The  last  time  he  conducted  fam- 
ily devotions  with  his  household,  he  closed 
his  prayer  with  the  well-known  lines,  "  Now 
I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,"  etc. — B.  J. 

CONVERSION,  Late.— Conversions  after 
forty  years  of  age  are  very  rare ;  like  the  scat- 
tered grapes  on  the  remotest  branches  after 
the  vintage  is  over,  there  is  only  one  here  and 
there.  I  have  sometimes  seen  an  old  with- 
ered oak  standing  with  its  stiff  and  leafless 
branches  on  the  slopes  of  a  woody  hill,  tho 
the  same  refreshing  rains  and  genial  sunshine 
fell  on  it  as  on  its  thriving  neighbors,  which 
were  green  with  renewed  youth,  and  rich  in 
flowing  foliage :  it  grew  not,  it  gave  no  signs 
of  life ;  it  was  too  far  gone  for  genial  nature 
to  assist.  The  old,  blanched  sapless  oak  is 
an  emblem  of  the  aged  sinner. — Dr.  Thomas. 

DAYS  THAT  ARE  PAST,  The.— As 
"  few  and  evil  "  they  were  regarded  by  even 
the  aged  patriarch.  But  how  many  fine  days 
among  them — days  full  of  means  and  oppor- 
tunities, deliverances  from  evils  and  blessings 
from  Heaven,  the  excitements  of  conscience 
and  the  stirrings  of  the  Spirit  of  God !  Who 
can  tell  what  report  they  have  borne  to 
Heaven  ? 

"  Oh  !    The  dark  days  of  vanity !    while  here. 
How    tasteless !    and    how    terrible    when 


gone 


Gone  I  they  ne'er  go ;  when  past  they  haunt 

us  still; 
The  Spirit  walks  of  every  day  deceased, 
And  smiles  an  angel,  or  a  fury  frowns." 

P.  T. 

END  OF  A  T^STNQ.—Eccles.  vii:  8:  Bet- 
ter is  the  end  of  a  thing  than  the  beginning. 

The  general  principle  is  established  that 
by  the  condition  of  our  existence  here,  a 
conclusion   is   better   than   a   beginning. 

The  fruit  is  better  than  the  blossom ;  the 
reaping  than  the  sowing;  the  enjoyment  than 
the  reaping.  The  second  stage  of  a  journey 
is  better  than  the  first;  the  home  itself  than 
all.  The  victory  is  better  than  the  march  and 
the  battle ;  the  reward  than  the  course  of 
service. 

Let  us  not  shrink  from  a  salutary  exer- 
cise of  review  and  comparison.  Have  our 
affections,  activities,  years,  and  months,  been 
devoted  to  God?  Without  this,  no  year  is 
good  either  in  its  progress  or  in  its  end. — 
John  Foster. 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


453 


FUTURE,  The.— The  great  bell  of  time  is 
striking.  Another  year  is  nearly  gone,  an- 
other milestone  on  life's  journey,  another 
stage  of  our  race  for  the  goal.  Let  the  past 
go.  Its  retrospect  is  gloomy,  at  the  best.  Its 
memory  brings  pain  and  discouragement. 
We  want  all  that  is  hopeful  for  the  future. 
We  ring  bells  for  the  new ;  we  do  not  toll  out 
our  mournful  ding-dongs  over  the  old.  Let 
our  hearts  reciprocate  the  sentiment  of  Ten- 
nyson's New  Year  bells : 

"  Ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new." 

"  Ring  out  the  false,  ring  in  the  true." 

"  Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be." 

C.  A. 

GOODNESS,  Perseverance  in.— The  phi- 
losopher, being  asked  in  his  old  age  why  he 
did  not  give  over  his  practice,  and  take  his 
ease,  answered,  "  When  a  man  is  to  run  a  race 
of  forty  furlongs,  would  you  have  him  sit 
down  at  the  nine  and  thirtieth,  and  so  lose 
the  prize?  We  do  not  keep  a  good  fire  all  day, 
and  let  it  go  out  in  the  evening,  when  it  is 
coldest ;  but  then  rather  lay  on  more  fuel,  that 
w^e  may  go  warm  to  bed."  He  that  slakes  the 
heat  of  his  zeal  in  old  age  will  go  cold  to  bed, 
and  in  a  worse  case  to  his  grave.  Tho  the 
beginning  be  more  than  half,  yet  the  end  is 
more  than  all. — Spencer. 

LIFE,  A  Delusion  of  .—It  is  a  sad  thing  to 
look  at  some  of  the  receiving-hulks  at  the 
navy-yard ;  to  think  that  that  was  the  ship 
which  once  went  so  fearlessly  across  the 
ocean.  It  has  come  back  to  be  anchored  in 
some  quiet  bay,  and  so  roll  this  way  and  that 
with  the  tide.  Yet  this  is  what  many  men  set 
before  them  as  the  end  of  life, — that  they  may 
reach  some  haven,  where  they  will  be  able 
to  cast  out  an  anchor  at  the  bow  and  an 
anchor  at  the  stern,  and  never  move  again, 
but  rock  lazily,  without  a  sail,  without  a 
voyage,  waiting  simply  for  decay  to  take 
apart  their  timbers. — Beecher. 

THINGS  FLEETING.— There  are  four 
things  that  come  not  back, — the  spoken  word, 
the  sped  arrow,  the  past  life,  the  neglected 

opportunity. — Arabian. 

TIME.—"  We,  all  of  us,  complain  of  the 
shortness  of  time,"  saith  Seneca,  and  yet 
have  much  more  than  we  know  what  to  do 
with.  We  are  always  complaining  our  days 
are  few  and  acting  as  tho.  there  would  be  no 
end  of  them. 

I  often  consider  mankind  as  wholly  in- 
consistent in  a  point  that  bears  some  affinity 
to  the  former.  Tho  we  feel  grieved  at  the 
shortness  of  life  in  general,  we  are  wishing 
every  period  of  it  at  an  end.  The  minor 
longs  to  be  of  age,  then  to  be  a  man  of  busi- 
ness, then  to  retire.  Thus,  altho  the  whole 
of  life  is  allowed  by  everyone  to  be  short,  the 
several  divisions  of  it  appear  long  and 
tedious.  We  are  lengthening  our  space  in 
general,  but  would  fain  contract  the  parts  of 
which  it  is  composed. — Addison. 

TIME. — Think  not  thy  time  short  in  this 
world,  since  the  world  itself  is  not  long.    The 


created  world  is  but  a  small  parenthesis  in 
eternity,  and  a  short  interposition,  for  a  time, 
between  such  a  state  of  duration  as  was  be- 
fore, it  may  be  after  it. — Sir  Thomas 
Browne  (Bohn's  edition)  vol.  iii.,  p.  143. 

TIME  A  DESTROYER.— I  saw  a  temple  "^ 
reared  by  the  hands  of  man,  standing  with 
its  high  pinnacle  in  the  distant  plain.  The 
streams  beat  about  it,  the  God  of  Nature 
hurled  His  thunder-bolts  against  it;  yet  it 
stood  as  firm  as  adamant  Revelry  was  in 
the  hall ;  the  gay,  the  happy,  the  young,  the 
beautiful,  were  there.  I  returned,  and,  lo ! 
the  temple  was  no  more.  Its  high  walls  lay 
in  scattered  ruin ;  moss  and  grass  grew  rankly 
there;  and,  at  the  midnight  hour,  the  owl's 
lone  cry  added  to  the  solitude.  The  young 
and  gay  who  had  reveled  there  had  passed 
away.  I  saw  a  child  rejoicing  in  his  youth, 
the  idol  of  his  mother,  and  the  pride  of  his 
father.  I  returned,  and  that  child  had  be- 
come old.  Trembling  with  the  weight  of 
years,  he  stood,  the  last  of  his  generation,  a 
stranger  amidst  all  the  desolation  around 
him.  I  saw  an  old  oak  standing  in  all  its 
pride  upon  the  mountain :  the  birds  were 
caroling  in  its  boughs.  I  returned,  and  saw 
the  oak  was  leafless  and  sapless :  the  winds 
were  playing  at  their  pastime  through  the 
branches.  "Who  is  the  destroyer?"  said  I 
to  my  guardian  angel.  "  It  is  Time,"  said 
he.  "  When  the  morning-stars  sang  together 
for  joy  over  the  new-made  world,  he  com- 
menced his  course,  and  when  he  has  de- 
stroyed all  that  is  beautiful  on  the  earth, 
plucked  the  sun  in  his  sphere,  veiled  the 
moon  in  blood;  yea,  when  he  shall  have 
rolled  the  heavens  and  the  earth  away  as  a 
scroll,  then  shall  an  angel  from  the  throne 
of  God  corne  forth,  and,  with  one  foot  upon 
the  land,  lift  up  his  hand  towards  Heaven, 
and  swear  by  Heaven's  Eternal,  time  was, 
but  time  shall  be  no  more." — Paulding. 

TIME  CLOSING  IN  UPON  US.— There 
is  a  story  of  a  prisoner  in  a  cell  with  con- 
tractile walls.  Day  by  day  his  space  lessens ; 
he  saw  the  whole  of  that  window  yesterday, 
he  sees  only  half  of  it  to-day.  Nearer  and 
nearer  the  walls  are  drawn  together,  till  they 
meet  and  crush  him  between  them.  So  the 
walls  of  time  are  closing  in  upon  us. — Mac- 
laren. 

TIME,  End  of. — There  was  an  ancient  cus- 
tom of  putting  an  hour-glass  into  the  coffin 
of  the  dead  to  signify  that  their  time  had 
run  out,  a  useless  notification  to  them.  Bet- 
ter put  the  hour-glass  into  the  hand  of  every 
living  man  and  show  them  the  grains  gli- 
ding steadily  out.  Soon  all  will  be  gone. — 
F.  I. 

TIME,  Flight  of. — When  young,  our  years    -^ 
are  ages ;  in  mature  life,  they  are  three  hun- 
dred  and    sixty-five    days ;    in   old   age,   they 
have  dwindled  to  a  few  weeks.     Time  is^  in-  i 

deed,  the  messenger  with  wings  at  his  feet. 
Yesterday,  he  took  my  wife ;  to-day,  my  son ; 
to-morrow,  he  will  take  me. — Madame  de 
Gasparin. 


454 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


TIME,  Fragments  of. — In  the  Palace  of 
Industry,  there  were  several  curious  speci- 
mens of  art,  wrought  by  humble  individuals 
out  of  such  fragments  of  time  as  they  could 
secure  from  their  regular  occupations.  Oh 
the  preciousness  of  momenta !  no  gold  or 
gems  can  be  compared  to  them.  Yet  all  have 
them;  while  some  are  thereby  enriched,  and 
others  leave  themselves  in  poverty.  The 
wealth  of  time  is  like  gold  in  the  mine,  like 
the  gem  in  the  pebble,  like  the  diamond  in  the 
deep.  The  mine  must  be  worked,  the  peb- 
ble ground  and  polished,  the  deep  fathomed 
and  searched. — J.  Stoughton. 

TIME,  Improvement  of. — The  learned 
Grotius  had  for  his  motto  Hora  ruit.  By  it 
he  lived,  improving  every  moment ;  yet  so 
great  was  his  sense  of  non-improvement,  that 
at  his  death  he  cried,  "  I  have  wasted  my  life 
in  incessant  toil,  and  have  done  nothing." — 
F.  I. 

TIME,  Influencing. — It  is  notorious  to 
philosophers,  that  joy  and  grief  can  hasten 
and  delay  time.  Locke  is  of  opinion,  that  a 
man  in  great  misery  may  so  far  lose  his 
measure  as  to  think  a  minute  an  hour,  or,  in 
joy.  make  an  hour  a  minute. — Steele. 

TIME,  Irrecoverable. — A  woman  in  the 
agonies  of  despair,  cried  out  to  those  who 
sought  to  comfort  her,  "  Call  back  time 
again !  If  you  can  call  back  time  again,  then 
there  may  be  hope  for  me ;  but  time  is  gone.' 
— F.  I. 

TIME,  Loss  of. — We  are  doomed  to  suffer 
a  bitter  pang  as  often  as  the  irrevocable  flight 
of  our  time  is  brought  home  with  keenness  to 
our  hearts.  The  spectacle  of  a  lady  floating 
over  the  sea  in  a  boat  and  waking  suddenly 
from  sleep  to  find  her  magnificent  ropes  of 
pearl  necklace  by  some  accident  detached  at 
one  end  from  its  fastenings,  the  loose  string 
hanging  down  into  the  water,  and  pearl  after 
pearl  slipping  off  forever  into  the  abyss, 
brings  before  us  the  sadness  of  the  case. 
That  particular  pearl  which  at  the  very  mo- 
ment in  rolling  off  into  the  unsearchable  deep 
carries  its  own  separate  reproach  to  the 
lady's  heart;  but  it  is  more  deeply  reproach- 
ful as  the  representative  of  so  many  other  un- 
counted pearls  that  have  already  been  swal- 
lowed up  irrecoverably  while  yet  she  was 
sleeping,  and  of  many  besides  that  must  fol- 
low before  any  remedy  can  be  applied  to 
what  we  may  call  this  jewelly  hemorrhage. 
— F.  I. 

TIME,  Neglected. — Many  sitting  up  long 
at  play  have  to  go  to  bed  in  the  dark.  Life 
here  is  a  play  whose  bed  is  eternity.  Let  us, 
then,  give  over  play  before  our  candle  is  out, 
and  we,  left  in  darkness,  have  to  take  up 
our  bed  in  hell  to  all  eternity. — Spencer. 

TIME,  Never  Recovered. — Lost  wealth 
may  be  restored  by  industry,  the  wreck  of 
health  regained  by  temperance,  forgotten 
knowledge  restored  by  study,  alienated 
friendship  smoothed  into  forgetfulness,  even 
forfeited  reputation  won  by  penitence  and 
virtue;  but  who  ever  looked  upon  his  van- 


ished hours,  recalled  his  slighted  years, 
stamped  them  with  wisdom,  or  effaced  from 
heaven's  record  the  fearful  blot  of  wasted 
time? — Mrs.  Sigourney. 

TIME,  No  Leisure.— Dionysius  the  Sili- 
cian,  employed  his  time  so  well,  that,  being 
asked  by  one  who  wanted  to  speak  with  him 
if  he  were  at  leisure,  he  answered,  "  Heaven 
forbid  that  I  should  ever  have  any  leisure 
time  !  " — Scraggs. 

TIME,  Picture  of.— It  was  wittily  said,  *^ 
that  by  some  time  was  thus  pictured  of  old: 
Ti»ie  to  come  had  the  head  of  a  fawning  dog ; 
time  present,  the  head  of  a  stirring  lion; 
time  past,  the  head  of  a  biting  wolf;  so 
teaching,  that  tho  silly  souls  fancy  still  their 
best  days  are  to  come,  yet,  if  they  bestir  not 
well  themselves  in  their  present  ones,  they 
will  be  very  miserably  torn  and  bitten  in  their 
future. — Burgess. 

TIME,  Redeeming  the. — A  sibyl  came  to 
the  king  of  Rome,  and  offered  to  sell  unto 
him  three  tomes  of  her  oracles,  but  he,  count- 
ing the  price  too  high,  refused  to  buy  them. 
Away  she  went  and  burned  one  tome  of 
them.  Returning,  she  asked  him  whether  he 
would  buy  the  two  remaining  at  the  same 
rate.  He  refused  again,  counting  her  little 
better  than  frantic.  Thereupon  she  burned 
the  second  tome,  and  peremptorily  asked 
him  whether  he  would  give  the  sum  de- 
manded for  all  the  three  for  the  one  tome 
remaining,  otherwise  she  would  burn  that 
also,  and  he  would  dearly  repent  it.  Tar- 
quin,  admiring  her  constant  resolution,  and 
conceiving  some  extraordinary  worth  con- 
tained therein,  gave  her  her  demand.  There 
are  three  volumes  of  man's  time — youth, 
man's  estate,  and  old  age — and  ministers  ad- 
vise them  to  redeem  this  time  (Eph.  v:  i6). 
But  men  conceive  the  rate  they  must  give  to 
be  unreasonable,  because  it  will  cost  them 
the  renouncing  of  their  carnal  delights. 
Hereupon  one-third  part  of  their  life,  youth, 
is  consumed  in  the  fire  of  wantonness. 
Again,  ministers  counsel  men  to  redeem  the 
remaining  volumes  of  their  life.  They  are 
but  derided  for  their  pains.  And  man's  es- 
tate is  also  cast  away  in  the  smoke  of  van- 
ity. But  preachers  ought  to  press  perempto- 
rily on  old  people  to  redeem,  now  or  never, 
the  last  volume  of  their  life.  Here  is  the 
difference:  the  sibyl  still  demanded  but  the 
same  rate  for  the  remaining  book,  but  aged 
folk  (because  of  their  custom  in  sinning) 
will  find  it  harder  and  dearer  to  redeem  this, 
the  last  volume,  than  if  they  had  been  chap- 
men for  all  three  at  the  first. — Thom.'^s  Ful- 
ler. 

TIME,  Saving.— Said  General  Mitchell  to 
an  army  officer  who  apologized  for  a  little 
delay,  "  Only  a  few  moments  !  I  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  calculating  the  value  of  the 
thousandth  part  of  a  second." — F.  I. 

TIME,  The  Flight  of.— i.  Psalm  xc:  9: 
We  spend   our  years  as  a   tale   that  is  told. 

When  a  tale  is  told,  its  conclusion  ex- 
plains the  plot  and  all  that  precedes.    As  we 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


455 


look  back  from  the  end  of  the  year  do  we 
understand  our  life,  or  is  it  still  confused 
and   incomplete? 

2.  Gen.  xlvii:  8:  How  old  art  thou? 

Li  Hung  Chang  often  asked  this  usual 
Oriental  question.  It  is  a  fitting  question  to 
ask  thoughtfully  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

3.  Jas.  iv:  14:  We  know  not  what  shall 
be  on  the  morrow.  For  what  is  your  life?  It 
is  even  a  vapor,  which  appeareth  for  a  Ut- 
ile time,  and  then  vanisheth  away. 

4.  I  Cor.  vii:  31:  For  the  fashion  of  this 
world  passeth  away. 

TIME,  The  Treasure.— An  Italian  phi- 
losopher expressed  in  his  motto,  "  that  time 
was  his  treasure," — an  estate,  indeed,  which 
will  produce  nothing  without  cultivation,  but 
which  will  always  abundantly  repay  the 
labors  of  industry,  and  satisfy  the  most  ex- 
tensive desires,  if  no  part  of  it  be  suffered  to 
lie  waste  by  negligence,  to  be  overrun  with 
noxious  plants,  or  laid  out  for  show  rather 
than  use. — Dr.  Johnson. 

TIME,  Treasuring. — Boyle  remarks,"  that 
sand-grains  are  easily  scattered ;  but  skilful 
artificers  gather,  melt,  and  transmute  them 
to  glass,  of  which  they  make  mirrors,  lenses, 
and  telescopes.  Even  so,  vigilant  Christians 
improve  parenthetic  fragments  of  time,  em- 
ploying them  in  self-examination,  acts  of 
faith,  and  researches  of  holy  truth ;  by  which 
they  become  looking-glasses  for  their  souls, 
and  telescopes  revealing  their  promised 
heaven."  Jewelers  save  the  very  sweepings 
of  their  shops,  because  they  contain  parti- 
cles of  precious  metal.  Should  Christians, 
whose  every  moment  was  purchased  for  them 
by  the  blood  of  Christ,  be  less  careful  of 
time?  Surely  its  very  minutiae  should  be 
more  treasured  than  grains  of  gold  or  dust 
of   diamonds. — S.   Coley. 

TIME,  Trifling  with. — Every  day,  every 
hour  in  the  day,  is  a  talent  of  time ;  and  God 
expects  the  improvement  of  it,  and  will  charge 
the  non-improvement  of  it  upon  you  at  last. 
Caesar,  observing  some  ladies  at  Rome  to 
spend  a  large  part  of  their  time  in  making 
much  of  little  dogs  and  monkeys,  asked  them 
whether  the  women  in  that  country  had  no 
children  to  make  much  of. — F.  I. 

TIME,  Unnoted.— When  the  famous  Baron 
de  Trench  came  out  of  his  dark  dungeon  in 
Magdeburg,  where  he  could  not  distinguish 
night  from  day,  and  in  which  the  King  of 
Prussia  had  kept  him  imprisoned  for  ten 
years,  he  imagined  that  he  had  been  in  it  for 
a  much  shorter  period,  because  he  had  no 
means  of  marking  how  the  time  had  passed, 
and  he  had  seen  no  new  events,  and  had  had 
even  few  thoughts.  His  astonishment  was 
extreme  when  he  was  told  how  many  years 
had  thus  passed  away  like  a  painful  dream. — 
L.  Gaussen. 

TIME,  TJsed. — Among  the  ancient  Indians 
there  were  a  set  of  men  called  gymnoso- 
phists,  who  had  a  great  aversion  to  sloth  and 
idleness.  When  the  tables  were  spread  for 
their    repasts,    the    assembling    youths    were 


asked  by  their  masters  in  what  useful  task 
they  had  been  employed  from  the  hour  o£ 
sunrise.  One,  perhaps,  represented  himself 
as  having  been  an  arbitrator,  and  succeeded, 
by  his  prudent  management,  in  composing  a 
difference  between  friends.  A  second  had 
been  paying  obedience  to  his  parents'  com- 
mands. A  third  had  made  some  discovery  by 
his  own  application,  or  learned  something 
by  another's  instruction.  But  he  who  had 
done  nothing  to  deserve  a  dinner  was  turned 
out  of  doors  without  one,  and  obliged  to 
work  while  the  others  enjoyed  the  fruits  of 
their  application. — Knowles. 

TIME,  Use  of.— Time  is  life's  freightage, 
wherewith  some  men  trade,  and  make  a  for- 
tune; and  others  suffer  it  to  molder  all 
away,  or  waste  in  extravagance.  Time  is 
life's  book,  out  of  which  some  extract  won- 
drous wisdom ;  while  others  let  it  lie  uncov- 
ered, and  then  die  fools.  Time  is  life's  tree, 
from  which  some  gather  precious  fruit,  while 
others  lie  down  under  its  shadow,  and  perish 
with  hunger.  Time  is  life's  ladder,  whereby 
some  raise  themselves  up  to  honor  and  re- 
nown and  glory ;  and  some  let  themselves 
down  into  the  deeps  of  shame,  degradation, 
and  ignominy.  Time  will  be  to  us  what,  by 
our  use  of  the  treasure,  we  make  it — a  good 
or  an  evil,  a  blessing  or  a  curse. — J.  Stough- 

TON. 

TIME,  Value  of.— Queen  Charlotte  said: 
"  I  am  always  quarreling  with  time :  it  is  so 
short  to  do  something,  and  so  long  to  do 
nothing."  John  Bradford  used  to  say,  "  I 
count  that  hour  lost  in  which  I  have  done  no 
good  by  my  pen  or  tongue."  Seneca  taught, 
that  time  was  the  only  thing  of  which  it  is 
a  virtue  to  be  covetous.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather 
would  express  his  regret  after  the  departure 
of  a  visitor  that  had  wasted  his  time,  "  I  had 
rather  have  given  him  a  handful  of  money 
than  have  been  kept  thus  long  out  of  my 
study."  Henry  Martyn  won  the  honorable 
title,  "  The  man  that  never  wasted  an  hour." 
— F.  I. 

TIME,  Waste  of.— The  amount  of  time 
wasted  in  some  men's  lives  is  fearfully  large. 
Not  to  mention  the  time  which  is  wasted  in 
sleep,  dress,  and  gossip ;  look  at  the  time 
wasted  in  reveries,  absence  of  mind,  air-bal- 
loon imaginations,  and  wild-goose  chases, 
searching  for  new  inventions  without  finding 
them ;  making  schemes,  and  never  executing 
them;  writing  manuscripts  with  a  view  to 
publish,  and  never  publishing  them ;  brood- 
ing over  imaginary  fears,  and  never  realiz- 
ing them  ;  indulging  in  sanguine  hopes  which 
never  ripen  into  fruit;  battling  with  expected 
spectral  anpearances  which  never  were  seen ; 
crossing  bridges  and  streams  and  forests 
which  never  came  in  the  way ;  meeting  ob- 
jections of  opponents  which  were  never 
raised,;  preparing  defenses  of  character  upon 
points  which  were  never  assailed ;  quaking, 
shaking,  moaning,  groaning,  grumbling,  over 
aches,  pains,  losses,  woes,  and  death,  which 
only  existed  in  the  dreams  of  a  diseased  brain. 
—  Bate. 


456 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


^  TIME,  Worth  of.— To  show  us  the  worth 

of  time,  God,  most  liberal  of  all  other  things, 
is  exceedingly  frugal  in  the  dispensing  of 
that;  for  He  never  gives  us  two  moments  to- 
gether, nor  grants  us  a  second  till  He  has 
withdrawn  the  first,  still  keeping  the  third 
in  His  own  hands,  so  that  we  are  in  perfect 
uncertainty  whether  we  shall  have  it  or  not. 
The  true  manner  of  preparing  for  the  last 
moment  is  to  spend  all  the  others  well,  and 
ever  to  expect  that.  We  dote  upon  this 
world  as  if  it  were  never  to  have  an  end,  and 
neglect  the  next  as  if  it  were  never  to  have 
a  beginning. — Fenelon. 

YEAR,  Old  and  New.— A  strange  scene 
was  witnessed  by  an  English  visitor  at  Odessa 
on  the  first  day  of  one  Jewish  year.  Sixty 
thousand  Jews  living  at  Odessa  went  down 
to  the  sea  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  last 
year's  sins  therein,  to  begin  the  New  Year 
with  a  clear  conscience.  They  stood  in 
groups  closely  packed  together,  looking  to- 
ward the  water,  reciting  prayers.  Some  of 
the  people  turned  their  pockets  inside  out 
and  shook  them  towards  the  sea ;  others 
merely  made  a  sign  of  throwing  stones  into 
it.  This  was  a  public  act  of  confession  and 
contrition.  Whether  or  not  it  was  followed 
by  a  better  life  would  depend  on  how  much 
of  sincere  penitence  there  was  in  the  act. 
— C.  G. 

YEAR,   The  End   and  Opening  of  a.— 

How  old  art  thou? — Gen.  xlvii:  8. 
/  _  Amidst  the  fleeting  years  that  are  hurry- 
ing us  to  the  grave,  the  judgment  and  eter- 
nity, it  is  well  for  us  to  consider  the  nature 
of  our  progress.  How  are  we  growing  old? 
As  we  grow  older  we  should  grow  in  grace 
and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Sa- 
vior Jesus  Christ.  As  we  grow  older  it  should 
be  true  of  us  as  it  was  of  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth,  that  we  are  found  "  righteous  be- 
fore God,  walking  in  all  the  commandments 
and  ordinances  of  the  Lord,  blameless."  As 
each    advancing   year    brings    us    nearer    to 


Heaven,  so  each  advancing  year  should  make 
us  more  heavenly.  As  the  journey  of  life 
brings  the  pilgrim  nearer  to  the  grave,  it 
should,  at  the  same  time,  bring  us  nearer  to 
God.  As  the  years  multiply,  graces  should 
multiply  and  our  treasure  in  Heaven  should 
increase.  As  we  walk  in  the  path  that  God 
has  laid  out  for  us,  old  age  will  bring  with 
it  many  spiritual  experiences  in  which  we 
shall  be  cheered  and  encouraged  by  those 
views  of  spiritual  truth  that  will  bring 
Heaven  very  close  to  us  and  make  it  pre- 
ciously real.  You  and  I  may,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  choose  this  path  for  ourselves ;  and  if 
hitherto  we  have  not  walked  in  it.  we  may 
begin  now.  How  old  art  thou?  Old  enough 
to  make  a  right  choice,  and  may  God  help 
you  to  do  it.  How  old  art  thou?  Old 
enough  to  know  that  without  Christ  no  life 
finds  its  perfect  relation  to  God ;  old  enough 
to  know  that  the  Bible  points  out  only  one 
way  of  salvation ;  old  enough  to  know  that 
God  loves  you  and  wants  you. — A.  S.  Gum- 
BART,  D.D. 

YEAR,  Wail  of  the  Dying.— Listen  to 
me,  ye  mortals !  for  I  also  am  of  the  race 
of  the  ephemerals.  I  had  my  sturdy  youth, 
when  it  seemed  that  my  life  would  never 
end ;  and  I  dug,  and  plowed,  and  planted, 
and  enjoyed  my  jocund  prime  and  my  golden 
summer ;  and  I  decked  myself  in  the  gar- 
lands of  May,  and  reaped  the  yellow  harvest, 
and  gathered  the  purple  vintage  of  autumn ; 
but  scarcely  had  I  attained  the  object  of  my 
desires,  and  secured  the  plenty  for  which 
I  labored,  than  I  found  the  shadows  length- 
ening, and  the  days  shortening,  and  my 
breath  growing  short  with  them,  and  de- 
crepitude coming  upon  me.  and  the  days  at 
hand  of  which  I  said,  "  I  have  no  pleasure  in 
them."  I  have  laid  up  riches,  and  know  not 
who  shall  gather  them ;  have  planted  trees 
which  must  shade  far  distant  years,  and 
stored  the  vintage  of  which  other  years  must 
drink.— F.  H. 


POETRY 


Key,  the  Lost 

The  key  of  yesterday 

I  threw  away. 

And  now,  too  late, 

Before  to-morrow's  close-locked  gate 

Helpless  I  stand — in  vain  to  pray ! 

In  vain  to  sorrow ! 
Only  the  key  of  yesterday 

Unlocks  to-morrow. 

Priscilla  Leonard. 
Life 

Life  is  a  battle !     How  these  sayings  trite 
Which     schoolboys     write, — and     know     not 

what   they  write — 
In  after  years  begin  to  burn  and  glow. 

E.  C.  Stedman. 


Life 

Life  is  a  certainty, 

Death  is  a  doubt; 
Men  may  be  dead 

While   they're   walking  about. 

Love  is  as  needful 

To  being  as  breath; 
Loving  is  dreaming — 
And  waking  is  death. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 
Life,  The  True 

Self    reverence,    self    knowledge,    self    con- 
trol, 
These    three    alone,    lead    life    to    sovereign 
power.  Tennyson. 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


457 


Thanksgiving 

Our  fathers'  God  from  out  whose  hand, 
The  centuries  fall  like  grains  of  sand, 
We  meet  to-day,  united,  free. 
And  loyal  to  our  land  and  Thee, 
To  thank  Thee  for  the  era  done, 
And  trust  Thee  for  the  opening  one. 

Whittier. 
Time 

When  time  is  flown,  how  it  fled 
It  is  better  neither  to  ask  nor  tell. 

Leave  the  dead  moments  to  bury  their  dead. 
Owen  Meredith — The  Wanderer.    Bk. 
IV.     Two  out  of  the  Crowd.     St.  17. 

Time 

Time  eftsoon  will  tumble 
All  of  us  together  like  leaves  in  a  gust, 
Humbled  indeed  down  into  the  dust. 
Joaquin  Miller — Fallen  Leaves. 

Down  into  the  Dust.   St.  5. 
Time 

Day  and  night. 
Seed-time  and  harvest,  heat  and  hoary  frost 
Shall    hold   their    course,    till    fire   purge   all 
things. 
Milton — Paradise  Lost.     Bk.   XL 
Line  898. 
Time 

The  never  ending  flight 
Of  future  days. 

Milton — Paradise  Lost.    Bk.  II. 

Line  221. 
Time 

Time   will   run  back,   and   fetch  the  age  of 
gold. 
Milton — Hymn  on   the  Nativity. 

Line  135. 
Time 

Time  still,  as  he  flies,  adds  increase  to  her 

truth. 
And  gives  to  her  mind  what  he  steals  from 
her  youth. 

Edward    Moore — The    Happy    Mar- 
riage. 
Time 

This  day  was  yesterday  to-morrow  nam'd : 
To-morrow  shall  be  yesterday  proclaimed : 
To-morrow  not  yet  come,  not  far  away, 
What  shall  to-morrow  then  be  call'd?     To- 
day. 
Owen — To-Day   and    To-Morrow. 

Bk.   III.     Line  50. 
Time 

Let  time,  that  makes  you  homely,  make  you 
sage. 

Parnell — An  Elegy  to  an  Old 

Beauty.    Line  35. 
Time 

Time,  the  foe  of  man's  dominion, 

Wheels  around  in  ceaseless  flight, 
Scattering  from  his  hoary  pinion 

Shades  of  everlasting  night. 
Still,  beneath  his  frown  appalling, 

Man  and  all  his  works  decay : 
Still,  before  him,   swiftly  falling, 

Kings  and  kingdoms  pass  away. 

Thomas  Love  Peacock — The  Genius  of 
the  Thames.    St.  42. 


Time 

Like  wind  flies  Time  'tween  birth  and  death; 

Therefore,  as  long  as  thou  hast  breath, 

Of  care  for  two  days  hold  thee  free : 

The  day  that  was  and  is  to  be. 

Omar  Khayyam — Bodenstedt, 

Translator. 

Time 

A  handful  of  red  sand,  from  the  hot  clime 

Of  Arab  deserts  brought. 
Within  this  glass  becomes  the  spy  of  Time, 

The  minister  of  Thought. 

H.    W.    Longfellow — Sand    of    the 
_  Desert  in  an  Hour-Glass. 

Time 

Art  is  long  and  Time  is  fleeting. 
H.    W.    Longfellow — A    Psalm    of 

Time 

It  is  too  late !    Ah,  nothing  is  too  late 
Till  the  tired  heart  shall  cease  to  palpitate. 
H.  W.  Longfellow — Morituri  Salu- 

tamus.     Line  240. 
Time 

Even  such  is  Time,  that  takes  on  trust 
Our  youth,  our  joys,  our  all  we  have, 
And  pays  us.  but  with  age  and  dust; 
Who  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 
When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 
Shuts  up  the  story  of  our  days. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh — Verses  Writ- 
ten the  Night  Before  His  Death 
Time 

Come,  gone, — gone  forever, — 
Gone  as  an  unreturning  river, — 
Gone  as  to  death  the  merriest  liver, — 
Gone  as  the  year  at  the  dying  fall, — 
To-morrow,    to-day,    yesterday,    never, — 
Gone  once  for  all. 
Christina  G.  Rossetti — The  Prince's 

Progress.     St.  62. 

Time 

The  long  hours  come  and  go. 
Christina  G.  Rossetti — The  Prince's 
Progress.     St.  i. 
Time 

Forever  haltless  hurries  Time,  the  Durable 
to  gain. 

Be  true,  and  thou  shalt  fetter  Time  with  ev- 
erlasting chain. 

Schiller — The  Immutable. 

Time 

Fate  seemed  to  wind  him  up  for  four-score 

years ; 
Yet  freshly  ran  he  on  ten  winters  more: 
Till  like  a  clock  worn  out  with  eating  time. 
The  wheels  of  weary  life  at  last  stood  still. 
Dryden — Aedipus.     Act  IV.     Sc.   i. 

Time 

"Time  goes,"  you  say?    Ah  no! 
Alas,  Time  stays,  we  go. 

Austin  Dobson. 
Years,  The 

The  years  have  taught  some  sweet. 
Some  bitter  lessons — none  wiser  than  this— 
To  spend  in  all  things  else. 
But  of  old  friends  to  be  most  miserly. 

James  Russell  Lowell. 


458 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Year,  The 

Sin   of  the  year   forgiven; 
Need  of  the  year  supplied; 
Mercy  of  the  year  enjoyed; 
Fears  of  the  year  removed; 
Hopes  of  the  year  fulfilled. 

Spurgeon  (P.  M.). 
Year,  The  Flying 

As  a  dream  when  night  is  done, 
As  a  shadow  flees  the  sun, 
As  a  ship  whose  white  sails  skim 
Over   the  horizon  dim, 
As  a  life  complete  of  days 
Vanisheth  from  mortal  ways, 
As  a  hope  that  pales  to  fear — 
Is  the  dying  of  the  year. 

Christian  Burke. 
Year,  The  Going 
How  stealthily  the  old  year  dies ! 
We  may  not  catch  his  parting  sighs, 
Or  even  on  the  withered  grass 
Hear  a  retreating  footstep  pass. 

And  yet  we  know 
This  old  year  has  reached  his  time  to  go. 
Mrs.  Emma  Frances  Anderson.    (Y.  C.) 

Ending  of  the  Eighteenth  Century 

By  Theodore  D wight 
The  following  poem,  written  on  New 
Year's  Day,  1801,  was  republished  in  the  New 
York  Sun,  and  respectfully  referred  to  the 
President  of  Wellesley,  who  had  maintained 
in  a  communication  that  the  century  ended 
with  1899: 

Precisely  twelve  o'clock  last  night 
The  iSth  century  took  its  flight. 
Full  many  a  calculating  head 
Has  racked  its  brain;  its  ink  has  shed 
To  prove  by  metaphysics  fine 
A  hundred  means  but  ninety-nine. 
While    at   their    wisdom   others   wondered. 
But  took  one  more  to  make  a  hundred. 
Strange  at  the  18th  century's  close 
While  light  in  beams  effulgent  glows, 
When   bright   illumination's   ray 
Has  chased  the  darkness  far  away. 
Heads  filled  with  mathematics  lore 
Dispute  if  two  and  two  make  four. 
Go  on,  ye  scientific  sages, 
Collect  your  light  a  few   more  ages. 
Perhaps  as  swells  the  vast  amount 
A   century    hence    you'll    learn    to    count. 

The  Lost  Days 

By  Susan  Coolidge 
As,  each  in  turn,  the  Old  Years  rise  and  gird 

them  up  to  go, 
The  days,  which  were  their  servitors,  press 

round  them  sad  and  slow^ 
The  happy   days,   the   hard   days,    the   bitter 

and  the  dear ; 
And  they  front  us  with  reproachful  eyes  as 

they  wend  forth  with  the  year. 

The  lost  days  which  except  for  us  so  blessed 

might  have  been, 
Blighted  by  our  perversity,  or  shadowed  by 

our  sin. 


The  vexing  days,  the  moody  days,  the  days 

of  stress  and  pain, 
The  shrill,  perverse,  unhappy  days,  we  face 

them  all  again. 

"  Come  back,  dear  days,"  we  cry ;  "  we  will 
atone  for  all  the  wrong; 

Your  emptiness  shall  be  made  full,  your  dis- 
cords turned  to  song." 

Only  the  echo  answers;  all  vain  the  grieving 
sore. 

The  past  is  past,  the  dead  is  dead,  the  chance 
returns  no  more. 

But,  as  the  sweetest  hopes  are  born  of  sharp- 
est suffering, 

And  midnight  is  the  womb  of  day,  and  win- 
ter of  the  spring, 

So,  winning  blessing  from  despair,  lost  op- 
portunity 

May  serve  to  make  the  fruitful  soil  of  har- 
vests yet  to  be. 

For  each  day  heavy  made  by  us,  some  day 
may  gather  wings. 

Be  every  failure  that  we  mourn  the  germ  of 
happier  things. 

And  all  the  sadness  of  the  past  the  seed  of 
hope  new-born. 

Till  out  of  the  defeated  night  bursts  the  tri- 
umphant morn. 

The  old  years,  stern,  inexorable,  may  go  their 
ways  in  vain ; 

The  days  we  marred  and  mourn  shall  smile 
if  from  their  perished  pain 

Distills  a  perfume,  shines  a  gleam,  to  make 
the  future  way 

The  brighter  and  the  easier  because  of  yes- 
terday.—C.  E.  W. 

If 

By  Ell  wood  Roberts 

How  few  there  are  who  value  time  aright — 
That  treasure  given  by  the  Infinite ! 
In  youth  we   squander  it ;  in  age  we  grieve 
At  sight  of  loss  we  never  may  retrieve. 
If  you  and  I  and  all  were  truly  wise, 
The  fleeting  moments  we  would  highly  prize. 
What  sorrow  and  temptation  would  we  shun ! 
How  many  good  deeds  do  now  left  undone  1 

The  Inn 

By  James  B.  Kenyon 

How  quiet  is  the  mossy  inn 

Where  weary  travelers  lie. 
Unheeding  how  the  morns  begin, 

And  how  the  sunsets  die. 

Here  are  no  sounds  of  reveling, 

Here  is  no  flaring  light ; 
Here  no  fair  maids  with  laughter  bring 

The  tankards  foaming  bright. 

The  guests  sleep  long,  the  lights  are  out. 

No  bustling  landlord  calls 
His  serving-men  with  cheery  shout 

Along  the  echoing  halls. 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


459 


Who  come  to  this  still  inn,  abide 
Through  cycles  deep  and  sweet; 

And  while  the  seasons  o'er  them  slide, 
They  rest  their  tired  feet. 

The  Gauge  of  Life 

They  err  who  measure  life  by  years, 

With  false  or  thoughtless  tongue ; 
Some  hearts  grow  old  before  their  time; 

Others  are  always  young. 
'Tis  not  the  number  of  the  lines, 

On  life's  fast  filling  page. — 
'Tis  not  the  pulse's  added  throbs 

Which  constitute  their  age. 
Some  souls  are  serfs  among  the  free, 

While  others  nobly  thrive ; 
They  stand  just  where  their  fathers  stood; 

Dead  even  while  they  live! 
Others,  all  spirit,  heart  and  sense; 

Theirs  the  mysterious  power 
To  live  in  thrills  of  joy  or  wo, 

A  twelvemonth  in  an  hour ! 
Seize,  then,  the  minutes  as  they  pass; 

The  woof  of  life  is  thought ! 
Warm  up  the  colors ;  let  them  glow 

With  fire  and  fancy  fraught. 
Live  to  some  purpose ;  make  thy  life 

A  gift  of  use  to  thee : 

A  joy,  a  good,  a  golden  hope, 

A  heavenly  Argosy !  G.  T. 

An  Obituary 

By  Curtis  May 

Dead  Year,  upon  whose  bier  I  lean ! 

Dead  Year,  whose  sheeted  features  lie 

Half-formless  in  the  falling  snow ! 

You  brought  such  joys,  such  sorrows  keen. 

Such  mingled  pain  and  ecstasy, 

I  cannot  lightly  let  you  go ; 

But  pause  awhile  to  shed  a  tear 

That  you  should  lie  so  low,  Old  Year. 

How  blithe  you  were  when  first  we  met! 
A  flying  chorus  round  you  sung, 
The  snowdrops  peeped  to  see  you  pass, 
And  where  your  hasty  foot  you  set 
Deep  violets  and  field  daisies  hung 
Their  trembling  blossoms  on  the  grass; 
And  hope,  with  swiftly-moving  wing. 
You   brought   to   make  eternal   spring. 

A  grass-green  kirtle  next  you  wore. 
And  gathered  wild-flowers  in  the  wood, 
Sweet  odors  all  around  you  stole 
Forth  from  the  chalice  that  you  bore. 
Knee-deep  in  tangled  brakes  you  stood; 
The  red  sun  cast  an  aureole 
About  your  golden  head.  Old  Year. 
And  that  glad  vision  brought  me  cheer. 

Then  with  a  sheaf  of  ripened  grain 
Laid  close  against  your  heaving  breast, 
And  crowned  with  purple  grapes,  you  came. 
I  marked  the  brown  and  stubby  plain, 
I  marked  the  forest's  waving  crest. 
With  tufts  and  branches  all  aflame. 
With  every  feature  grown  more  dear, 
I  loved  you  daily  more.  Old  Year. 


At  last  the  solemn  winter  laid 

Its  diamond  crown  upon  your  brow; 

The  icicles  hung  on  the  eaves ; 

And  deep  within  the  beechen  glade 

The  bare  trees  in  the  blast  did  bow 

Their  heads  all  shorn  of  crisp,  brown  leaves. 

You  taught  me  how  old  age  might  be 

Made  grand  by  simple  majesty. 

Now  garbed  and  silent  for  the  tomb, 
You  lie  before  me  still  and  white. 
With  burning  tears  I  say^  "  Good-by," 
And  take  from  out  the  darkened  room 
The  happy  hopes  that  once  were  bright, 
In  guise  of  tender  memory. 
What  most  was  precious  cannot  die, 
Old  Year,  altho  so  low  you  lie ! — Y.  C. 

Death  of  the  Old  Year 

By  M.  C.  C. 

Thy  life  is  ebbing  fast,  thou  aged  Year! 
This  night  that  wintry  sun  of  thine  will  set 
To  rise  no  more.     Thy   days  are  told :   and 

yet 
It  seems  but  yesterday  thou  didst  appear ! 
But  yesternight  we  watched,  all  silent  here, 
The  Old  Year's  dying  hours,  while  backward 

rolled 
Its  story,  page  by  page ;   and  now,  behold ! 
Thy  course  is  run.     Even  now  thy  moments 

wear 
The    fading    hue    of    death.     Farewell,    old 

Friend ! 
Fain  would  we  linger  by  thy  side  awhile. 
And  gather  up  thy  mem'ries  one  by  one. 
While,  in  the  vacant  chairs,  dear  faces  smile 
Upon  us,  as  of  old.     But  ever  on. 
Life's  current  bears  us — swifter  to  the  end! 

C.  J. 

Good-by  to  the  Old  Year 

By  Jennie   Elisabeth   Gates 

Good-by,  Old  Year !    for  twelve  long  months 

together 
We've    traveled    on,    in    bright    and    stormy 

weather ; 
I  hear  thee  like  a  grief-pressed  maiden  sigh, 
As  stand  we  here  beneath  this  wintry  sky. 

I  met  thee  first  as  children  do,  when  weep- 
ing- 
Turn   from   new   friends,   while   for  the   old 

they're  keeping 
Their  warmest  love,  and  sigh  that  they  must 

part 
From  one  they've  loved  so  long  with  tender 
heart. 

But  tho  we  met  in  tears,  we  part  both  smil- 
ing; 

Sweet  memory  is  thy  dying  hour  beguiling 

With  tenderest  treasures  from  her  store- 
house brought, 

That  thy  last  hour  may  with  her  best  be 
fraught. 

I  little  dreamed  what  sacred  gifts  were  hi- 
ding 
Within  thy  breast  for  me — nor  that  abiding 


460 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Within  the  mists  and  clouds  which  veiled  my 

way 
A    light    was    shining — leading   unto   perfect 

day. 

I  only  saw  gray,  leaden  clouds — unbreaking, 
Portending  evil — anxious  fear  awaking; 
Nor   did    I    dream   that   hid    'neath   winter's 

snow 
Slept    wealth    of   bloom    which    must   awake 

and  grow. 

0  dear,  tried  friend,  tholi  dost  forgive  my 

pining; 
In  thy  calm  face  I  see  forgiveness  shining; 

1  catch  the  scent  of  love  from  thy  last  breath. 
And  thou  art  true  and  beautiful  in  death. 

Good-by,  Old  Year !    I  whisper  in  thy  hear- 
ing; 
For  tolling  bell  proclaims  that  we  are  nearing 
The  moment  when  we  part,  and  will  no  more 
Together  walk;    but  I   will  love  thee  ever- 
more; 
A  wreath  of  amaranth  for  thee  I'll  take. 
And  wear  it  on  my  heart,  for  thy  dear  sake. 

C.  A. 

Bemember 

By  Grace  Ellery  Channing 

When  comes  the  sad  year  to  its  close. 
And  leaves  fall  fast  about  thee,  think, 

In  other  gardens  Summer  glows, 

And    others    thirsting,    breathe    and    drink 

The  perfume  of  the  rose ; 

Bethink  thee,  even  in  thy  snows ! 

And  when  thy  rose  is  blossoming,  know, 
Tho  thine  laugh  in  its  rosy  crown. 
In  other  gardens,  stripped  and  brown, 
At  other  feet,  dead  leaves  fall  down: 

Dead  roses  lie  beneath  the  snow. 

Remember,  when  thine  bud  and  blow ! — Y.  C. 

The  Glory  of  Service 

By  John  G.  Whittier 

Who,  looking  backward  from  his  manhood's 

prime. 
Sees  not  the  specter  of  his  misspent  time? 

And,  through  the  shade 
Of  funeral  cypress  planted  thick  behind. 
Hears  no  reproachful  whisper  on  the  wind 

From  his  loved  dead? 
Yet    who,    thus    looking    backward    o'er    his 

years, 
Feels  not  his  eyelids  wet  with  grateful  tears. 

If  he  hath  been 
Permitted,  weak  and  sinful  as  he  was. 
To  cheer  and  aid,  in  some  ennobling  cause. 

His  fellow-men? 
If  he  hath  hidden  the  outcast,  or  let  in 
A  ray  of  sunshine  to  the  cell  of  sin — 

If  he  had  lent 
Strength  to  the  weak,  and  in  an  hour  of  need, 
Over  the  suffering,  mindless  of  his  creed 

Or  home,   hath   bent. 
He  has  not  lived  in  vain,  and  while  he  gives 
The  praise  to  Him,  in  whom  he  moves  and 
lives, 


With  thankful  heart; 
He  gazes  backward,  and  with  hope  before, 
Knowing  that  from  his  works  he  nevermore 

Can  henceforth  part. 

Tlie   Last   of  an   Hundred   Years 

By  Emma  Herrick  Weed 

The  Old  Year  stands  at  the  postern  gate 
And  gropes  for  the  latch  with  his  fingers 
cold. 
Without  the  shades  of  his  kinsmen  wait. 

And  twelve  from  the  belfry  tower  is  tolled. 
While   the   shout   of  acclaim   for  the  young 

king  nears — 
"  The  Year — the  last  of  an  hundred  years !  " 

He    has    doffed    his    crown    and    his    purple 

dress ; 

He  has  handed  over  the  palace  keys : 

Unheeded  slipped  through  the  teeming  press. 

As  a  wreck  down  a  hollow  of  tossing  seas. 

And  the  shout  is  the  shout  that  a  dreamer 

hears — 
"  The  Year — the  last  of  an  hundred  years !  " 

A  moment  he  halts^and  the  dim  eyes  close; 
And  a  goodly  company  round  him  throng; 
Again  through   his  veins  Youth's  hot  blood 
flows. 
It  is  May  in  the  woods  with  shimmer  and 
song! 
And  he  flings  about  him  like  golden  pence, 
The  days,  in  his  splendid  opulence. 

Then  the  houri,  summer,  red-lipped,  comes  by, 
All  sweet  as  the  rose  with  an  hundred 
leaves. 

There  are  jasmine  stars  in  a  perfumed  sky — 
There  are  dawns  of  opal  and  yellow  eves. 

And  she  leans  towards  him  with  lilied  grace. 

And  her  tresses  of  amber  sweep  his  face. 

A  shiver — a  whirl  of  leaves  let  go — 
And  a  wind  with  a  cry  like  the  cry  o£  the 
sea: 

White  dusk  of  a  world  with  falling  snow — 
And  the  tramp  of  the  ebb-tide's  cavalry ! 

And  now  in  a  trance  his  senses  swim. 

And  he  smiles  at  the  voices  calling  him. 

"  All  hail  to  the  heir !  And  again,  all  hail !  " 
Time's  great  key  turns  in  its  massive  lock. 

A  light— like  the  light  of  the  Holy  Grail- 
Gleams    white   on   the   face    of   the    belfry 
clock. 

Then  a  silence  falls.     'Tis  the  charmed  hour 

The  crown  of  the  aloe  has  burst  in  flower ! 

Hark  to  the  clang  of  the  postern  gate ! 

And  the  beating  of  wings  adown  the  night ! 
He    has    gone    where    his    shadowy    kinsmen 
wait. 

In  the  wind  of  his  passing  flares  the  light ! 
And  comes  to  his  reign  of  smiles  and  tears, 
The  Year — the  last  of  an  hundred  years  ! — In. 

The  Old  Year 

By  Lotta  Miller 

Of  its  words  of  comfort  spoken. 
Of  its  joys,  give  we  no  token 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


461 


To  the  swiftly  dying  year? 
While  we  sorrow  o'er  its  sadness, 
Shall  we  pass  by  all  its  gladness, 

All  remembrance  of  its  cheer? 
Nay;    the  sorrows  we  have  known, 
And  the  winds  that  chill  have  blown, 

Only  make  it  the  more  dear. 
And  we,  weeping^  say  adieu. 
As  we  welcome  in  the  new. 

A. 

Old  Year 
By  W.  H.  Burleigh 


M. 


Still  on — as  silent  as  a  ghost ! 

Seems  but  a  score  of  days,  all  told, 
Or  but  a  month  or  two  at  most, 

Since  our  last  New  Year's  song  we  trolled. 

And  lo !   that  New  Year  now  is  Old. 
And  here  we  stand  to  say  "  Good-by !  " 
Brief  words — and  yet,  we  scarce  know  why, 
They  bring  a  moisture  to  the  eye. 

And  to  the  heart  some  quakes  and  aches; 
We  speak  them  very  tenderly, 

With  half  a  sob  and  half  a  sigh — 
"  Old  Year,  good-by !  "  "  Old  Year,  good-by !  " 


Death  of  the  Old  Year 

By  Alfred  Tennyson 

He  frothed  his  bumpers  to  the  brim ; 

A  jollier  year  we  shall  not  see. 
But  tho  his  eyes  are  waxing  dim, 
And  tho  his  foes  speak  ill  of  him, 

He  was  a  friend  to  me. 

Old  Year,  you  shall  not  die ; 
We  did  so  laugh  and  cry  with  you, 
I've  half  a  mind  to  die  with  you, 

Old  Year,  if  you  must  die. 


His  face  is  growing  sharp  and  thin. 

Alack  !     Our  friend  is  gone. 
Close  up  his  eyes ;    tie  up  his  chin ; 
Step  from  the  corpse,  and  let  him  in 

That  standeth  there  alone. 

And  waiteth  at  the  door; 

There's  a  new  foot  on  the  floor, 
My  friend, 

And  a  new  face  at  the  door, 
My  friend, 

A  new  face  at  the  door. 


^olitiaps 


STf  all  t|)c  pear  toete  plapinj  J^DliUaps, 
Co  gport  tDonlH  it  a£t  teUtottfS  ae  to  toork. 

Shakespeare — Henry  IV. 


V 


LEGAL  HOLIDAYS 


465 


LEGAL  HOLIDAYS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


Legal  holiday,  a  day  appointed  by  law  to  be  kept  as  a  holiday,  especially  with  regard  to  the 
closing  of  public  ofifices  and  the  suspension  of  judicial  proceedings  and  general  business.  Such 
appointment  usually  changes  the  time  for  presentment  or  protest  of  negotiable  paper  matur- 
ing on  such  a  day  to  the  preceding  secular  day.  In  the  United  States  legal  holidays  are 
usually  fixed  by  State  statute,  and  their  number  and  purposes  vary.  See  the  following  list,  in 
which  the  sign  *  denotes  the  recognition  of  holidays  : 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES 

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New  York  (d) 

* 

North  Carolina  (>fe),  (f),  (,c) 

North  Dakota 

« 

Ohio , 

Oklahoma  Territory 

•  • .  • 

Oregon  (z) 

* 

Pennsylvania  (r) 

Rhode  Island  (u) 

•  * . . 

South  Carolina 

* 

South  Dakota 

* 

Tennessee  (/'),  (r) 

* 

* 

Utah  Territory  (/),  (r) 

Virginia  (c) , 

• . . . 

* 

West  Virginia 

* 

Wisconsin 

* 

Wyoming 

* 

(a)  New  Year's  Day.— (3)  January  8,  anniversary  of  battle  of  New  Orleans.— (c)  January  19,  Gen.  Robert 
E.  Lee's  birthday.— (O  February  12,  Abraham  Lincoln's  birthday.— (^)  George  Washington's  birthday.— 
{/)  March  2,  anniversary  of  Texan  independence. — (g-)  March  4.  Fireman's  anniversary  :  in  New  Orleans 
only.— (A)  April  21,  anniversary  of  battle  of  San  Jacinto.— (?)  April  22.— (;)  April  26,  Memorial  Day.— (^)  May  10, 
Memorial  Day.— (/)  May  20,  anniversary  of  signing  of  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence.— (?;;)  Dec- 
oration (or  IVlemorial)  Day.— («)  June  3,  Jefferson  Davis'  birthday.— (0)  Independence  Day.— (^)  July  24,  Pio- 
neers' Day.-(^)  September  9.— (r)  Good  Friday.— (.y)  Christmas  Day.— (i')  Mardi  Gras,  or  Shrove  Tuesday.— 
(m)  State  election  day  (first  Wednesday  in  April).— (t;)  The  third  Friday  in  April.— (w)  Date  appointed  by  the 
Governor.— (x)  April  28.— (jv)  Thanksgiving  Day,  Good  Friday,  Christmas,  January  i,  and  July  4  by  banks.— 
(z)  Labor  Day,  first  Saturday  of  June.— (aa)  Friday  after  May  i,—(ab)  In  most  States,  the  first  Monday  in 
September.— (ac)  March  4,  Inauguration  Day.— (at/)  April  19. 

Fast-days  (whenever  appointed)  and  Thanksgiving  day  are  not  uniformly  specified  as  legal  holidays,  but 
the  statutes  often  implicitly  recognize  them  by  adopting  as  holidays  days  so  proclaimed  by  the  President  or 
the  Governor. — St.  D. 


466  HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 

LEGAL  HOLIDAYS  IN  THE  UNITED    KINGDOM  OF 
GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND,  AND  IN  CANADA 

THE  UmTED  KINGDOM  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND 

In  England,  Ireland  and  Wales  the  legal  or  bank  holidays  are  :  Easter  Monday,  Whit- 
Monday,  the  first  Monday  in  August,  and  December  26  :  in  Scotland  the  bank  holidays  are  '■ 
New  Year's  Day,  Christmas  (if  either  fall  on  a  Sunday,  the  following  day),  Good  Friday,  and 
the  first  Mondays  in  May  and  August. — St.  D. 

DOMINION  or  CANADA 

Sunday  ;  New  Year's  Day  ;  The  Epiphany  * ;  Good  Friday  ;  The  Ascension  ;  All  Saints' 
Day  *  ;  Conception  Day  *  ;  Easter  Monday  *  ;  Ash  Wednesday  *  ;  Christmas  Day  ;  the  Birth- 
day, or  day  fixed  by  proclamation  for  Celebration  of  Birthday  of  reigning  Sovereign  ;  Victoria 
Day  ;  Dominion  Day  ;  Labor  Day  ;  and  any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  for  a  general  fast 
or  thanksgiving. 

QUEBEC 

New  Year's  Day;  Epiphany*;  Ash  Wednesday*;  Good  Friday;  Easter  Monday;  The 
Ascension*;  All  Saints'  Day;  The  Conception;  Christmas  Day;  the  Anniversary  of  the  Birth- 
day of  the  Sovereign,  or  day  fixed  by  proclamation;  ist  July,  or  2nd  July,  if  ist  is  a  Sunday; 
any  other  day  fixed  by  Royal  proclamation,  or  by  proclamation  of  Governor  or  Governor- 
General,  as  a  day  of  fast  or  thanksgiving;  Labor  Day. 

NOVA  BCOTIA 

Sunday  ;  New  Year's  Day ;  Epiphany  ;  Ash  Wednesday  ;  Good  Friday  ;  Easter  Monday  ; 
Ascension  Day  ;  Victoria  Day  ;  Conception  Day ;  Dominion  Day  ;  Christmas  Day  ;  day 
appointed  for  the  celebration  of  the  Birthday  of  His  Majesty,  or  any  of  the  Royal  Successors  ; 
Labor  Day  ;  All  Saints'  Day  ;  and  any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  of  Governor-General, 
or  Lieutenant-Governor,  as  a  general  holiday,  or  for  general  fast  or  thanksgfiving. 

MANITOBA 

New  Year's  Day  ;  Good  Friday  ;  Christmas  Day;  Victoria  Day  ;  Dominion  Day  ;  Labor 
Day  ;  the  day  appointed  for  celebration  of  Birthday  of  His  Majesty  or  the  Royal  Successors  ; 
and  any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  for  a  general  thanksgiving  or  general  holiday  ;  Arbor 
Day 

BRITISH  COLUMBIA 

Sunday  ;  New  Year's  Day  ;  Good  Friday ;  Easter  Monday  ;  Victoria  Day  ;  Dominion 
Day  ;  Labor  Day  ;  Christmas  Day  ;  the  days  appointed  for  celebration  of  the  Birthday  of  His 
Majesty,  and  of  His  Royal  Successors  ;  any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  for  a  general  fast 
or  thanksgiving  ;  and  any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  or  order  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
in  Council  as  a  holiday. 

ONTARIO 

Sunday  ;  New  Year's  Day  ;  Good  Friday  ;  Easter  Monday*  ;  Christmas  Day ;  Victoria 
Day  ;  Dominion  Day  ;  Birthday  of  His  Majesty  and  His  Royal  Successors  ;  Labor  Day  ;  and 
any  day  appointed  by  proclamation  of  Governor-General,  or  Lieutenant-Governor  as  a  public 
holiday  or  for  a  general  fast  or  thanksgiving. 

NORTHWEST  TERRITORIES 

Sunday  ;  New  Year's  Day  ;  Ash  Wednesday*  ;  Good  Friday  ;  Easter  Monday  ;  2nd  Friday 
in  May,  known  as  Arbor  Day  ;  Christmas  Day  ;  Birthday  of  reigning  Sovereigns  ;  Victoria 
Day ;  Dominion  Day  ;  Labor  Day  ;  such  days  as  may,  in  each  year,  be  proclaimed  public 
holidays  for  the  planting  of  forest  and  other  trees  ;  and  any  other  day  appointed  by  proc- 
lamation for  a  general  fast  or  thanksgiving. 

Compiled  by  James  Bain  of  Toronto  Public  Library. 

Days  marked  with  •  are  not  observed  as  general  holidays,  but  all  Government  Offices  are  closed. 


I 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


467 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 

(February  12) 

IN  Connecticut,  Illinois,  Minnesota,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  North  Dakota, 
Pennsylvania  and  Washington  (State),  February  12  is  a  legal  holiday.  It  is 
devoted  to  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  sixteenth  President  of  the  United 
States,  who  was  born  at  Nolin  Creek,  Kentucky,  February  12,  1809. 

Not  only  in  the  states  in  which  it  is  a  legal  holiday  is  Lincoln's  Birthday 
observed,  but  in  many  other  states,  by  special  exercises  in  the  public  schools,  in 
clubs  and  societies,  and  in  home  circles,  the  patriotic  people  keep  alive  the  memory 
of  that  plain  but  wise,  witty,  and  great  man,  who  was  in  the  President's  chair 
during  the  Civil  War  of  1860-1865,  and  by  whose  issues  the  Union  was  preserved 
and  slavery  abolished  from  the  United  States. 

The  passing  of  time  so  far  from  detracting  from  Lincoln's  greatness  is  bringing 
out  its  noble  proportions  and  increasing  the  almost  veneration  with  which  he  is  re- 
garded by  the  American  people.  The  event  in  President  Lincoln's  career  which  to 
the  end  of  time  will  be  linked  with  his  name  is  his  issuing,  on  September  2.2,  1862, 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  whereby  he  set  free  five  million  negro  slaves, 
and  relegated  slavery  in  the  United  States  to  the  past.  He  entered  upon  the  war 
with  the  declared  purpose  of  saving  the  Union,  with  slavery  or  without  it.  But 
in  time  his  antagonism  to  slavery  became  more  pronounced,  until  at  last  it 
crystallized  in  his  Emancipation  Proclamation,  a  document  whose  purpose  and 
results  were  such  that  it  must  ever  be  preserved  among  the  most  important  and 
precious  of  the  annals  of  our  people. 

Rising,  as  Lincoln  did,  from  social  obscurity  through  a  youth  of  manual  toil 
and  poverty,  steadily  upward  to  the  highest  level  of  honor  in  the  world,  and  all 
this  as  the  fruit  of  earnest  purpose,  hard  work,  humane  feeling  and  integrity 
of  character,  he  is  an  example  and  an  inspiration  to  youth  unparalleled  in  history. 
At  the  same  time  he  is  the  best  specimen  of  the  possibilities  attainable  by  genius 
in  our  land  and  under  our  free  institutions. 

The  work  which  Abraham  Lincoln  accomplished  should  never  be  forgotten, 
and  will  never  be  forgotten,  for  it  was  unselfishly  wrought  for  all  men  and  all 
time.  As  George  Bancroft  truly  says :  "  He  finished  a  work  which  all  time 
cannot  overthrow.  He  was  followed  by  the  sorrow  of  his  country  to  his  resting- 
place  in  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  to  be  remembered  through  all  time 
by  his  countrymen,  and  by  all  the  peoples  of  the  world." 


HISTORICAL 


MEMORABILIA  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Fourteenth   Elected  President  of  the  United  States 


1809.  Feb.  12.  Abraham  Lincoln  born  in 
Hardin  Co.,  Ky. ;  his  father  was  Thomas  Lin- 
coln, a  farmer,  who  married  Nancy  Hanks. 

1816.     Family   moved    to    Perry    Co.,    Ind. 


1818.     Abraham's  mother  died. 
1820.     Thomas  Lincoln  married  again. 
1825.     Became   ferryman   on  the  Ohio,  re- 
ceiving $6  per  month  as  salary. 


468 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


1826.     Lincoln's  last  attendance  at  school. 

1830.     IMoved  to  Illinois. 

1832.  Captain  of  a  company  in  Black  Hawk 
Indian  War. 

1832.  Ran  for  office  of  State  assemblyman. 
Defeated. 

1832.  Studied  law. 

1833.  Became  postmaster  at  New  Salem. 

1834.  Elected  to  legislature  by  Whig  Party. 

1836.  Reelected  to  legislature. 

1837.  Admitted  to  the  bar.  Business  flour- 
ished. 

1839.     Settled  in  Springfield. 

1839.     Debate  with  Douglas. 

1842.     Married  to  Miss  Mary  Todd. 

1846.     Elected  to  Congress. 

1854.     Took  decided  stand  against  slavery. 

1856.  Republican  Party  of  Illinois  formed, 
and  Lincoln's  eloquent  anti-slavery  speech 
delivered. 

1858-1859.     In  the  lecture  field  ;   no  success. 

i860,  May  19.  Lincoln  and  Hamlin  nomi- 
nated for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States. 

i860,  Nov.  6.    Elected  President. 

1861,  Mar.  4  (Monday).  Inaugurated  Presi- 
dent. 


1861,  Apr.  12.  Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. 

1 861.  Apr.  14.  Lincoln  called  out  75.000 
militia. 

1861,  Apr.  19.  Proclaimed  blockade  of 
Southern  ports. 

1861,  July  21.  Union  forces  defeated  at 
Bull  Run.  McClellan  succeeded  Scott  at  head 
of  Army. 

1862.  Burnside  succeeded  McClellan. 

1862,  Sep.  22  (Monday).  Lincoln  issued 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  freeing  all 
slaves  in  the  United  States. 

1863,  General  U.  S.  Grant  captured  Vicks- 
burg.  and  Meade  defeated  Lee  at  Gettysburg. 

1864,  March.  U.  S.  Grant  appointed  lieu- 
tenant-general of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States. 

1864.     Sherman's  march  to  the  sea. 

1864,  Nov.     Lincoln  reelected  President. 

1865,  Apr.  9.  Lee  surrendered  to  Grant  at 
Appomattox,  and  the  war  was  closed. 

1865,  Apr.  4.  Lincoln  was  shot  through 
the  head  at  Ford's  Theater,  Washington, 
D.  C,  at  II :  30  p.  M.,  by  John  Wilkes  Booth, 
an  actor. 

1865.  Apr.  5,  at  7 :  30  a.  m.,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln died. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EARLY  YEARS 

By  Charles  Carleton  Coffin 


Denton  Offut,  merchant,  of  Springfield, 
Illinois,  in  the  summer  of  1831.  wanted  to 
send  a  lot  of  corn,  pork,  and  live  pigs  to  mar- 
ket. He  could  load  a  flat-boat  on  the  San- 
gamon, float  it  to  the  Illinois,  down  that 
.'^iream  to  the  Mississippi,  and  thence  to  New 
Orleans.  He  could  not  go  himself,  but  must 
have  somebody  whom  he  could  trust.  Just 
how  it  came  about  we  do  not  know,  but  in 
some  way  he  learned  that  Abraham  Lincoln, 
who  had  just  driven  an  ox  team  from  Indi- 
ana, and  who  was  living  near  Decatur,  had 
already  made  a  successful  trip  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  that  he  was  honest  and  could  be 
trusted.  Ofifut  had  no  boat,  and  must  build 
one.  Lincoln  was  just  the  man,  for  he  had 
worked  with  his  father  as  carpenter,  could 
hew  timber,  and  make  mortises. 

A  few  weeks  later,  Lincoln  and  John  Hanks 
were  at  work  on  the  banks  of  the  Sangamon, 
cutting  down  trees,  sawing  planks,  and  build- 
ing the  boat.  They  were  so  diligent  that  in 
four  weeks  from  felling  the  first  tree  it  was 
completed,  launched,  loaded  with  barrels  of 
pork  and  bags  filled  with  corn,  and  floating 
down  the  Sangamon.  It  was  supposed  that 
the  boat  would  glide  over  the  dam  at  New 
Salem,  but  it  grounded  instead,  and  they  were 
obliged  to  obtain  a  canoe,  carry  the  corn  to 
the  shore,  and  reload  it  after  getting  the  boat 
below  the  dam.  Farther  down  stream  they 
were  to  take  a  herd  of  pigs.  But  the  animals 
had  no  intention  of  being  driven  on  board. 
They  could  not  be  coaxed  by  corn  strewn  on 
the  ground.  Lincoln  was  not  to  be  foiled, 
and   by   main   strength   carried   them   in   his 


arms  one  by  one  upon  the  boat.  The  cargo 
completed,  they  floated  into  the  Illinois,  and 
with  the  current  of  that  river  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  thence  to  New  Orleans. 

Planters  are  there  from  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana  to  obtain  slaves  to  work  in  the  cot- 
ton-fields. The  two  boatmen  saunter  into  the 
mart,  and  behold  negro  men,  women,  boys, 
and  girls  standing  on  a  bench  around  the 
walls  of  the  room,  the  planters  looking  into 
their  mouths,  as  they  would  look  at  the  teeth 
of  a  horse.  The  auctioneer  proclaims  their 
good  qualities  as  he  would  those  of  a  horse 
or  mule.  Maybe  they  are  members  of  a 
church — Christians — therefore  regarded  as 
more  valuable  than  irreligious  slaves.  His 
hammer  falls.  A  husband  and  wife  are  for- 
ever separated.  Children  never  again  will 
behold  their  father  and  mother.  Abraham 
Lincoln  goes  out  from  the  auction-room  with 
his  blood  on  fire.  There  is  a  choking  in  his 
throat,  a  quivering  of  his  lips,  as  he  turns  to 
his  fellow-boatman,  "  If  I  ever  get  a  chance 
to  hit  that  thing,  I'll  hit  it  hard,  by  the  eternal 
God!"  _ 

Who  is  he  to  hit  the  "  thing  "  a  blow?  He 
is  a  boatman,  splitter  of  rails,  teamster,  back- 
woodsman,— nothing  more.  His  poverty  is 
so  deep  that  his  clothes  were  in  tatters,  and 
he  could  hardly  appear  in  public  till  Nancy 
Miller  made  him  a  pair  of  trousers.  What 
position  of  influence  or  powder  is  he  likely  to 
attain  to  enable  him  to  strike  a  blow?  The 
"  thing "  which  he  would  like  to  hit  is  in- 
corporated into  the  frame-work  of  society, 
and  legalized  in  half  of  the  States  composing 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


469 


the  Republic.  It  is  intrenched  in  Church  and 
State  alike,  accepted  by  doctors  of  divinity 
as  beneficent  to  the  human  race,  as  authorized 
and  blessed  by  Almighty  God.  It  is  a  politi- 
cal force,  recognized  in  the  Constitution,  en- 
tering into  the  basis  of  representation.  Is 
there  the  remotest  probability  that  he  ever 
will  be  able  to  smite  such  an  institution? 
Why  utter  the  words?  Why  raise  the  right 
hand  toward  heaven  and  swear  a  solemn 
oath?  Was  it  that  he  saw  some  dim  vision 
of  what  might  come  to  him  through  divine 
Providence  in  the  unfolding  years?  Was  it 
an  illumination  of  spirit  that  for  the  moment 
forecast  an  impending  conflict  between  right 
and  wrong  in  which  he  would  take  a  con- 
spicuous part  ?    Was  it  the  whispering  to  him 


by  a  divine  messenger  of  the  unseen  realm 
that  he  was  to  be  a  chosen  one  to  wipe  the 
"  thing  ''  from  the  earth,  and  give  deliverance 
from  bonds  to  millions  of  his  fellow-men? 
If  we  conclude  that  the  words  only  fell  from 
his  lips  by  chance,  their  utterance,  taken  in 
connection  with  what  he  did  in  after  years  in 
giving  freedom  to  four  millions  of  slaves,  is 
very  wonderful. 

The  pigs,  pork,  and  corn  sold  and  the  boat 
disposed  of.  Lincoln  and  Hanks  took  passage 
for  St.  Louis  on  a  steamboat.  There  were 
slaves  on  board.  As  he  saw  their  abject  con- 
dition and  recalled  the  scene  he  had  wit- 
nessed at  New  Orleans,  he  became  silent, 
thoughtful,  and  sad.  Through  life  he  re- 
membered it. — H.  Y.  P. 


LINCOLN'S  FOSTER-MOTHER 

By  Rev.  George  G.  Hepburn 


The  near  return  of  the  12th  of  February, 
the  birthday  of  Lincoln,  brings  to  mind  his 
extraordinary  career  and  his  wonderful  train- 
ing, by  which  means  God  seemed  to  have 
raised  him  up  to  guide  the  destinies  of  this 
Nation  through  the  perilous  storms  of  civil 
war.  A  short  time  since,  the  writer,  in  pass- 
ing a  day  or  two  in  Elizabethtown,  Ky.,  was 
informed  by  the  hotel  proprietor,  in  the  course 
of  a  conversation,  that  Lincoln  was  born 
there.  In  this  statement,  however,  subse- 
quent inquiry  found  him  to  be  not  quite  cor- 
rect. Lincoln  was  born  a  little  less  than 
twelve  miles  from  Elizabethtown,  on  a  spot 
well  known,  and  literally  in  a  house  built  of 
logs,  which  was  afterwards  used  as  a  barn, 
and  then  removed  a  short  distance  and  con- 
verted into  a  slaughter-house.  One  of  the  logs 
of  this  building  was  sent  by  express  to  New 
York  as  a  relic  by  a  gentleman  visiting  that 
locality   some  years  ago. 

I  met  an  aged  gentleman,  Mr.  Haycraft, 
for  forty  years  a  clerk  of  the  county  court 
— Elizabethtown  is  the  county  seat  of  Har- 
din county — who  showed  me  four  letters 
from  Lincoln,  one  written  just  after  his 
nomination,  in  response  to  one  from  Mr. 
Haycraft,  two  after  his  election,  and  one  from 
Washington  in  the  early  part  of  his  presiden- 
tial term.  In  the  first  Lincoln  began  by  say- 
ing, "  I  remembered  your  handwriting,  tho  I 
could  not  recall  your  face  before  I  looked  at 
the  signature,"  and  this  notwithstanding  they 
had  had  no  communication  for  twenty-five 
years,  at  which  time  Lincoln  practised  law  in 
the  county  court.  After  his  election  Mr. 
Haycraft  invited  the  President-elect  to  visit 
Elizabethtown — the  home  of  his  boyhood,  and 
where,  in  later  years,  he  had  practised  his 
profei^sion — en  route  to  Washington,  assuring 
him  that  his  old  friends,  the  boys,  would  give 
him  a  warm  reception  should  he  do  so.  Lin- 
coln facetiously  replied  to  this  courteous  in- 
vitation :  "  It  would  give  me  great  pleasure 
to  do  so,  but  perhaps  the  boys  would  give  me 
too  warm  a  reception." 


Mr.  Haycraft  related  to  the  writer  some 
interesting  reminiscences  of  Lincoln's  early 
history.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  seven  or  eight 
years  old  when  his  father,  Thomas  Lincoln, 
removed  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana,  where,  in 
a  year  or  two,  his  mother  died.  The  year 
following  her  death  his  father  returned  to 
Elizabethtown  to  search  out,  if  possible,  a 
former  neighbor  and  friend,  Mrs.  Sally  John- 
ston, whom,  upon  inquiry,  he  found  still  a 
widow,  and  to  whom  he  at  once  made  a  pro- 
posal of  marriage.  The  quaint  manner  and 
homely  words  used  to  tell  the  simple  narra- 
tive of  that  brief  courtship,  if  courtship  it 
could  be  called,  together  with  the  pith  or 
point  of  the  story,  so  pregnant  with  momen- 
tous issues  in  the  future  of  one  who  was  to 
have  committed  to  him,  one  might  almost  say, 
the  rise  or  fall  of  this  free  government,  made 
a  great  impression  upon  the  writer.  "  On 
entering  Mrs.  Johnston's  humble  dwelling," 
says  Mr.  Haycraft,  "  Mr.  Lincoln  asked  if  she 
remembered  him.  '  Yes,'  replied  she,  '  I  re- 
member you  very  well.  Tommy  Lincoln ;  what 
has  brought  you  back  to  old  Kentucky?' 
'  Well,'  said  he,  in  answer,  '  my  wife  Nancy 
is  dead.'  '  Why,  you  don't  say  so !  '  replied 
Mrs.  Johnston.  '  Yes,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
'  she  died  more  than  a  year  ago,  and  I  have 
come  back  to  Kentucky  to  look  for  another 
wife.  Do  you  like  me,  Mrs.  Johnston?'  said 
Mr.  Lincoln.  'Yes,'  replied  Mrs.  Johnston, 
'  I  like  you.  Tommy  Lincoln.'  '  Do  you  like 
me  well  enough  to  marry  me?'  said  he. 
'  Yes,'  she  answered.  '  I  like  you,  Tommv 
Lincoln,  and  I  like  you  well  enough  to  marry 
you,  but  I  can't  marry  you  now.'  '  Why 
not?  '  said  he.  '  Because.'  said  she,  '  I  am  in 
debt,  and  I  could  never  think  of  burdening 
the  man  I  marry  with  debt :  it  would  not  be 
right.'  'What  are  those  debts?'  said  he— 
and  let  it  be  remembered  all  this  happened 
at  their  first  interview,  on  renewing  their  ac- 
quaintance after  an  absence  of  several  years. 
She  told  him  of  the  sums,  '  which,'  said  she. 


470 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


'  I  have  all  down  here  in  my  account-book,' 
going  towards  a  cupboard  and  taking  out  a 
small  blank-book.  On  looking  it  over  he  saw 
that  her  debts  ranged  in  sums  between  fifty 
cents  and  a  dollar  and  a  quarter,  amounting 
in  the  gross  to  something  less  than  twelve 
dollars — not  a  very  startling  sum  even  in 
those  days  of  small  things.  He  succeeded  in 
putting  the  little  book  into  his  coat  pocket 
without  attracting  her  attention,  and  went 
out,  looked  up  the  various  parties  and 
paid  off  all  those  little  sums  according 
to  the  memorandum,  and  returned  in  the 
afternoon  with  the  acknowledgments,  by 
name  or  with  their  mark,  of  payments  in 
full.  On  returning  her  account-book  to  her, 
she  exclaimed,  on  beholding  the  evidence  of 
what  he  had  done,  '  Why,  Tommy  Lincoln, 
have  you  gone  and  paid  off  all  my  debts  ?  ' 
'Yes,'  he  said;  'and  will  you  marry  me 
now  ? '  '  Yes,'  said  she,  and  they  were 
married  the  next  morning  at  nine  o'clock,' 
and    Mr,    Haycraft,    the    narrator,    told    me 


that  he  was  present  himself  at  the  cere- 
mony. 

They  started  the  next  day  for  Indiana. 
This  woman,  Mrs.  Sally  Johnston,  was  the 
one  who  had  the  training  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln— for  he  said  that  he  had  no  definite 
recollection  of  his  own  mother — and  to  whom 
he  gave  the  credit,  while  he  was  President  of 
the  United  States,  that  he  owed  to  her  the 
principles  of  integrity  which  had  been  the 
guide  of  his  life,  and  that  she  taught  him  all 
that  he  knew  about  the  Holy  Bible.  Lin- 
coln's unswerving  adherence  to  principle,  and 
to  all  the  obligations  which  at  any  time  he 
assumed,  gained  for  him,  before  he  had  at- 
tained the  age  of  forty  years,  the  soubriquet 
of  "  honest  old  Abe." 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  world 
itself  owes  a  very  great  debt  to  one  who  ex- 
erted such  a  molding  influence  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  man  who,  in  these  latter  days, 
may  with  truth  be  said  to  have  directed  the 
course  of  human  history. — C.  U. 


LINCOLN  AND   DOUGLAS 


By  Edson  C.  Dayton 


In  an  article  written  for  The  New  York 
Evangelist  I  observed  that  Mr.  George  Ban- 
croft, in  his  "  Memorial  Address  "  delivered 
before  Congress  in  1886,  conceded  to  Lincoln 
a  tender  conscience  but  denied  him  the  pos- 
session of  acute  sensibilities. 

In  applying  this  negation,  he  asserted  that 
Lincoln  ''  had  no  vividness  to  picture  to  his 
mind  the  horrors  of  the  battle-field  or  the 
suffering  in  hospitals."  Is  there  anything 
finer  in  the  English  language  than  the  Gettys- 
burg speech?  Can  it  be  believed  that  any 
other  living  man  would  have  more  adequately 
responded  to  the  inspirations  of  the  place? 
It  is  true  that  he  did  not  indulge  in  descrip- 
tion of  the  events  which  there  occurred ;  it 
is  doubtful  if  his  great  heart  could  have  felt 
it  other  than  the  severest  strain  to  dwell  in 
public  address  upon  the  scenes  which  had 
there  been  witnessed,  and  so  he  summed  all 
up  when  he  declared :  "  The  world  will  little 
note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here ; 
but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.'' 
The  word  did  compressed  a  vast  amount  of 
memory  and  of  imagination.  That  Gettys- 
burg speech  also  illustrated  a  tender  con- 
science.    ... 

Still  another  experience  on  Lincoln's  part 
discloses  both  a  tender  conscience  and  tender 
feelings.  I  am  indebted  for  it  to  Mrs. 
Granger,  of  Clifton  Springs,  a  sister  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  am  not  aware  that 
it  has  ever  been  published.  Mr.  Bancroft 
has  remarked  that  the  President  "  was  sup- 
ported in  advance  by  Douglas,  who  spoke  as 
with  the  voice  of  a  million."  The  early 
rivalry  of  these  two  men  and  their  final  co- 
operation, if  fully  told,  would  make  a  touch- 
ing and  instructive  chapter  in  our  political 


history.  Mr.  Schuyler  Colfax  is  the  au- 
thority for  the  fact  that  the  President  offered 
a  Major-Generalship  to  Douglas,  and  that 
his  acceptance  of  it  was  taken  under  advise- 
ment. The  incident  which  comes  from  Mrs. 
Granger  shows  the  dependence  in  another 
direction  which  Lincoln  felt  and  made  known. 
It  seems  that  Lincoln  sent  his  carriage 
once  at  midnight  to  the  residence  of  Douglas 
with  a  request  for  his  presence  at  the  White 
House.  In  the  interview  which  followed, 
Lincoln  said,  substantially,  that  there  was 
one  man,  and  only  one,  who  could  save 
Illinois  to  the  Union,  and  that  was  Douglas, 
and  he  urged  upon  him  a  tour  of  the  State 
with  a  closing  address  at  Chicago.  Rumors 
of  personal  assault  did  not  deter  him  from 
meeting  the  engagement.  He  was  acquiring 
control  of  his  audience  when  a  storm  began. 
He  would  have  desisted  and  spoken  another 
time,  but  was  pressed  to  continue  by  the  gen- 
eral cry.  "  We  can  hear  as  long  as  you  can 
talk."  He  kept  on  and  became  overheated. 
The  result  was  first  a  heavy  cold,  and  then 
typhoid  fever,  and  in  less  than  four  weeks 
from  his  arrival  in  the  city,  the  ambitious, 
but  patriotic  Douglas  was  dead.  The  news 
was  of  course  telegraphed  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Mrs.  Granger,  receiving  it  in  her  home, 
prepared  at  once  to  attend  the  funeral  of  her 
brother.  As  she  was  being  driven  to  the 
depot,  she  was  thrown  from  the  carriage, 
her  arm  was  broken,  and  it  was  feared  that 
there  were  internal  injuries.  Word  regard- 
ing her  condition  was  at  once  sent  to  her 
husband,  who  was  connected  with  one  of 
the  departments  in  Washington,  and  he  im- 
mediately  repaired  to   the   White   House  to 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


471 


inform  Lincoln  of  the  necessary  change  in 
his  plans ;  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  go 
to  Clifton  Springs  instead  of  Chicago.  How 
like  Lincoln  it  was  to  say,  with  tears  flow- 
ing down  his  cheeks,  that  he  had  been  "  the 
cause  of  it  all." 

The  Lincoln-Douglas  senatorial  campaign 
one  can  go  over  and  over  again  with  increas- 
ing enjoyment.  There  is  about  Lincoln,  and 
what  he  said,  a  never-failing  humor  and  an 
everpresent  pathos.  The  second  time  that  he 
spoke  at  Springfield  (July  17,  1859),  he  began 
by  enumerating  the  disadvantages  under 
which  his  party  labored,  and  one  of  them  was 
"  the  relative  positions  of  the  two  persons 
who  stand  before  the  State  as  candidates 
for  the  Senate.  Senator  Douglas  is  of  world- 
wide renown.  All  the  anxious  politicians  of 
his  party,  or  who  have  been  of  his  party  for 
years  past,  have  been  looking  upon  him  as 
certain,  at  no  distant  day,  to  be  the  President 


of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  On  the  con- 
trary, nobody  has  ever  expected  me  to  be 
President !  " 

A  little  further  on  in  the  same  speech,  and 
more  in  point  with  my  object  in  writing,  is 
his  expression  of  the  spirit  in  whch  it  was  his 
hope  that  the  campaign  would  be  carried  on : 
"  I  set  out  in  this  campaign,"  remarked  Lin- 
coln, "  with  the  intention  of  conductmg  it 
strictly  as  a  gentleman,  in  substance  at  least, 
if  not  in  the  outside  polish.  The  latter  I  shall 
never  have,  but  that  which  constitutes  the 
inside  of  a  gentleman  I  hope  I  understand, 
and  am  not  less  inclined  to  practise  than 
others." 

Lincoln's  self-estimate  is  our  estimate  of 
him.  We  have  forgotten  the  lack  of  polish, 
but  we  can  never  forget  his  sincerity,  his 
sensitive  conscience,  his  tender  feelings ;  these 
inner  constituents  of  a  true  gentleman  he 
understood  and  practised. — E. 


A  REALISTIC  ACCOUNT  OF  LINCOLN'S  MURDER 

By  General  Hamlin 


Often  a  person's  own  experiences  upon  a 
certain  occasion,  told  simply  and  directly, 
give  us  a  closer  and  more  accurate  picture  of 
it  than  all  the  stilted  formal  accounts,  which 
are  often  somewhat  vague. 

General  Hamlin,  oldest  son  of  the  late 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  was  present  at  the  famous 
Ford's  Theater  on  the  occasion  of  the  shoot- 
ing of  President  Lincoln,  and  related  what  he 
saw  of  the  mournful  affair,  in  the  following 
vivid  manner : 

"  The  night  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  mur- 
dered, I  observed  that  '  The  American 
Cousin '  was  to  be  played,  and  I  took  my 
sister  and  another  lady  to  the  theater.  We 
had  seats  far  down  to  the  front,  only  a  few 
steps  from  the  stage.  Mr.  Lincoln  came  in 
and  proceeded  to  his  box,  which  was  the 
upper  one  on  the  right,  but  he  was  not  visible 
to  the  audience  where  he  sat,  having  a  place 
back  in  the  box,  from  which  he  could  better 
see  the  stage.  Indeed,  from  where  I  sat  below 
I  could  see  no  person  in  the  boxes. 

"  Not  long  before  Mr.  Lincoln  was  shot, 
there  was  a  change  of  scenes  during  an  act, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  the  longest 
time  required  to  change  scenes  that  I  had  ever 
observed  in  a  theater.  It  was  so  noticeably 
long  that  I  afterward  wondered  in  connection 
with  the  murder  if  there  might  not  have 
been  some  irresolution  or  perplexity  on  that 
stage. 

"  Not  long  after,  there  was  a  sound  some- 
what like  the  slapping  of  your  hands  together, 
sharp,  yet  not  very  loud,  but  loud  enough  to 
make  me  turn  my  head  and  wonder  what 
could  have  made  it,  and  whether  it  was  a 
pistol. 

"  The  next  thing  I  saw  was  Booth  getting 
out  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  box.  I  had  seen  him 
play  on  two  occasions,  and  knew  his  face  per-   I 


fectly  well.  There  never  was  a  more  deliber- 
ate thing  than  his  stepping  out  on  the  sill  of 
the  box  and  leaping  from  it.  He  made  as 
pretty  a  jump  as  I  ever  saw.  If  he  had  prac- 
tised that  leap,  it  could  hardly  have  been  more 
elegant.  He  alighted  in  a  crouching  position, 
like  one  who  had  brought  his  body  down  to 
break  the  shock  of  the  fall. 

"  While  it  was  a  good  jump  in  height,  it 
was  not  a  dangerous  one  at  all, — perhaps 
from  where  he  leaped  to  the  stage  nine  to 
twelve  feet.  His  spur  tore  a  flag,  and  that 
seemed  to  bring  him  around  somehow  so  that 
he  alighted  with  his  face  turned  more  to  the 
audience  than  would  have  been  the  case  had 
he  merely  hopped  directly  downward.  He 
was  marble  pale.  In  his  right  hand  he  held 
a  knife,  and  in  a  theatrical  way  he  stretched 
it  upward  and  distinctly  said  the  words :  '  Sic 
semper  tyrannis.'  Then  in  a  very  stagey 
stride,  still  pale,  serious,  and  intense,  he  went 
right  across  the  stage  and  out.  Many  people 
at  this  stood  up,  and  near  me  was  a  naval 
officer  whose  name  I  still  remember,  who, 
hearing  some  one  exclaim,  '  the  President  has 
been  shot ! '  lifted  himself  up  sailor-fashion, 
by  means  of  the  woodwork  and  decorations 
of  the  private  box  under  the  President's,  and 
climbed  into  the  box  above.  He  came  down 
the  same  way  into  the  audience. 

"  Of  course,  the  audience  was  dismissed, 
and  as  I  was  going  up  the  street  a  few  min- 
utes afterward,  I  met  a  friend  in  the  service 
who  said  to  me  :  '  This  is  terrible  news  ;  Mr. 
Stanton  and  Mr.  Seward,  we  fear,  have  been 
mortally  wounded.'  At  this  I  went  immedi- 
ately to  my  office  and  took  the  responsibility, 
as  chief  of  staff  of  the  artillery,  of  ordering 
out  the  field  batteries  we  had  around  Wash- 
ington."— E.  W. 


472 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


ADDRESSES 
THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  LINCOLN* 

By  Lord  Beaconsfield 


There  are  rare  instances  when  the  sympa- 
thy of  a  nation  approaches  those  tenderer 
feelings  which  are  generally  supposed  to  be 
peculiar  to  the  individual  and  to  be  the  happy 
privilege  of  private  life ;    and  this  is  one. 

Under  any  circumstances  we  should  have 
bewailed  the  catastrophe  at  Washington; 
under  any  circumstances  we  should  have 
shuddered  at  the  means  by  which  it  was  ac- 
complished. But  in  the  character  of  the  vic- 
tim, and  even  in  the  accessories  of  his  last 
moments,  there  is  something  so  homely  and 
innocent,  that  it  takes  the  question,  as  it  were, 
out  of  all  the  pomp  of  history  and  the  cere- 
monial of  diplomacy, — it  touches  the  heart 
of  nations  and  appeals  to  the  domestic  senti- 
ment of  mankind.  Whatever  the  various  and 
varying  opinions,  in  this  House,  and  in  the 
country  generally,  on  the  policy  of  the  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  all  must  agree 
that  in  one  of  the  severest  trials  which  ever 
tested  the  moral  qualities  of  man,  he  fulfilled 
his  duty  with  simplicity  and  strength.  Nor 
is  it  possible  for  the  people  of  England  at 
such  a  moment  to  forget  that  he  sprang  from 
the  same  fatherland  and  spoke  the  same 
mother  tongue.  When  such  crimes  are  per- 
petrated, the  public  mind  is  apt  to  fall  into 
gloom  and  perplexity,  for  it  is  ignorant  alike 
of  the  causes  and  the  consequences  of  such 
deeds.  But  it  is  one  of  our  duties  to  reas- 
sure the  public  under  unreasoning  panic  and 
despondency.  Assassination  has  never  changed 
the  history  of  the  world. 


I  will  not  refer  to  the  remote  past,  the  an 
accident  has  made  the  most  memorable  in- 
stance of  antiquity  at  this  moment  fresh 
in  the  minds  and  memory  of  all  around  us. 
But  even  the  costly  sacrifice  of  a  Caesar  did 
not  propitiate  the  inexorable  destiny  of  his 
country.  If  we  look  to  modern  times,  to 
times  at  least  with  the  feelings  of  which  we 
are  familiar,  and  the  people  of  which  were 
animated  and  influenced  by  the  same  interests 
as  ourselves,  the  violent  deaths  of  two  heroic 
men,  Henry  IV.  of  France,  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  are  conspicuous  illustrations  of  this 
truth. 

In  expressing  our  unaffected  and  profound 
sympathy  with  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  on  this  untimely  end  of  their  elected 
chief,  let  us  not,  therefore,  sanction  any  feel- 
ing of  depression,  but  rather  let  us  express  a 
fervent  hope  that  from  out  of  the  awful  trials 
of  the  last  four  years,  of  which  the  least  is 
not  this  violent  demise,  the  various  popula- 
tions of  North  America  may  issue,  elevated 
and  chastened,  rich  with  the  accumulated 
wisdom,  and  strong  in  the  disciplined  energy 
which  a  young  nation  can  only  acquire  in  a 
protracted  and  perilous  struggle.  Then  they 
will  be  enabled  not  merely  to  renew  their 
career  of  power  and  prosperity,  but  they  will 
renew  it  to  contribute  to  the  general  happi- 
ness of  mankind.  It  is  with  these  feelings 
that  I  second  the  address  to  the  crown. — 
W.  B.  O. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

By  Emilio  Castelar 


Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  a  cabin  of 
Kentucky,  of  parents  who  could  hardly  read ; 
born  a  new  Moses  in  the  solitude  of  the 
desert,  where  are  forged  all  the  great  and 
obstinate  thoughts,  monotonous  like  the 
desert,  and,  like  the  desert,  sublime;  grow- 
ing up  among  those  primeval  forests,  which, 
with  their  fragrance,  send  up  a  cloud  of  in- 
cense, and,  with  their  murmurs,  a  cloud  of 
prayers  to  heaven;  a  boatman  at  eight  years 
in  the  impetuous  current  of  the  Ohio,  and  at 
seventeen  a  woodsman,  with  ax  and  arm 
felling  the  immemorial  trees,  to  open  a  way 
to  unexplored  regions  for  his  tribe  of  wan- 
dering workers ;  reading  no  other  book  than 
the  Bible,  the  book  of  sorrows  and  great 
hopes,  dictated  often  by  the  prophets  to  the 
sound  of  fetters  they  dragged  through  Nine- 
veh and  Babylon. 

•  From  a  speech 


A  child  of  Nature,  in  a  word,  by  one  of 
those  miracles,  only  comprehensible  among 
free  peoples,  he  fought  for  his  country,  and 
was  raised  by  his  fellow-citizens  to  the  Con- 
gress at  Washington,  and  by  the  Nation  to 
the  Presidency  of  the  Republic :  and,  when 
the  evil  grew  more  virulent,  when  those 
States  were  dissolved,  when  the  slaveholders 
uttered  their  war  cry  and  the  slaves  their 
groans  of  despair — the  woodcutter,  the  boat- 
man, the  son  of  the  West,  the  descendant  of 
Quakers,  humblest  of  the  humble  before  his 
conscience,  greatest  of  the  great  before  his- 
tory, ascends  the  Capitol,  the  greatest  moral 
height  of  our  time,  and  strong  and  serene 
with  his  conscience  and  his  thought;  before 
a  veteran  army,  hostile  Europe  behind  him, 
England  favoring  the  South,  France  en- 
couraging reaction  in  Mexico,  in  his  hands 
in  Parliament,  1865. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


473 


the  riven  country ;  he  arms  two  million  men, 
gathers  half  a  million  horses,  sends  his  ar- 
tillery twelve  hundred  miles  a  week  from  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  to  the  shores  of  the 
Tennessee;  fights  more  than  six  hundred 
battles,  renews  before  Richmond  the  deeds  of 
Alexander    and    Caesar;     and,    after    having 


emancipated  three  million  slaves,  that  noth- 
ing might  be  wanting,  he  dies  the  very  mo- 
ment of  victory — like  Christ,  like  Socrates, 
like  all  redeemers,  at  the  foot  of  his  work. 
His  work !  sublime  achievement  over  which 
humanity  shall  eternally  shed  its  tears,  and 
God  His  benedictions ! — W.  B.  O. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

By  George  H.  Smyth,  Jr. 


Next  to  Washington,  Lincoln  stands  forth 
as  the  grandest  patriot  in  our  American  life. 
Washington  was  the  "  Father  of  his  Coun- 
try ;  "  Lincoln  was  her  most  loyal  son ;  Wash- 
ington brought  the  United  States  of  America 
into  being;  Lincoln  made  that  being  immor- 
tal ;  Washington  unfurled  a  new  flag  among 
the  nations  of  the  world ;  Lincoln  made  that 
flag  a  mighty  power  among  those  nations. 
Dead  they  yet  speak.  The  good  they  did 
will  last  through  time  and  on  through  eter- 
nity. And  so  our  Nation  has  most  rightly 
and  fittingly  made  the  birthdays  of  these,  her 
illustrious  sons,  legal  holidays,  to  inspire  us 
to  a  purer,  nobler,  holier  manhood. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  like  David  of  old,  was 
divinely  led  from  obscurity  up  to  the  very 
highest  place  in  the  land.  Away  back  there 
in  that  little  log  cabin  God  and  His  angels 
watched  over  that  humble  birth  and  guided 
that  precious  life  until  the  hour  came  and  the 
great  Emancipator  was  called  "  to  set  at  lib- 
erty them  that  were  bound."  Reared  in  the 
forests  of  poverty,  ignorance  and  diarkness, 
Lincoln  cut  his  way  out  step  by  step  until  at 
last  he  stood  in  the  highway  of  success  and 
fame.  He  never  forgot  his  humble  beginning 
nor  his  hard  struggle  to  rise  to  higher  things 
and  he  was  always  ready  and  willing  to  help 
those  engaged  in  that  same  struggle.  Pros- 
perity never  changed  this  noble  character. 
Its  strong  points  were  hofiesty,  sincerity,  sym- 
pathy, fearlessness,  perseverance,  and  a  firm 


belief  in  the  Creator  and  Governor  and  Re- 
deemer of  mankind. 

No  institution  of  learning  had  the  honor  of 
enrolling  upon  its  records  the  name  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln ;  in  God's  great  school  his  mind 
was  developed  and  trained  for  the  mighty 
work  he  was  to  do,  and  earnestly  did  he 
apply  himself  to  those  lessons,  and  courage- 
ously did  he  overcome  those  obstacles  and 
meet  those  trials  which  came  to  him  day  by 
day,  till  at  last  he  who  had  been  faithful  unto 
death  received  his  Master's  Crown  of  Life. 
And  North  and  South,  East  and  West  were 
bowed  together  in  deepest  sorrow  when 
Abraham  Lincoln  passed  from  earth  to 
Heaven. 

Forever  may  the  fires  of  our  hearts  keep 
warm  and  bright  the  memory  of  this  noble 
man  who  was 

"  Rich  in  saving  common  sense, 

And  as  the  greatest  only  are — 

In  his  simplicity  sublime; 

Who  never  sold  the  truth  to  serve  the  hour. 

Nor  paltered  with  Eternal  God  for  power; 

Whose  life  was  work,  whose  language  rife 

With  rugged  maxims  hewn  from  life; 

Who  never  spake  against  a  foe. 

Let  his  great  example  stand 

Colossal,  seen  in  every  land, 

Till  in  all  lands  and  through  all  human  story 

The  path  of  duty  be  the  way  to  glory." — E. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  ADDRESSES  ON  LINCOLN'S 

CHARACTER 


COUNTRY,   Lincoln's  Work  for  the.— 

The  West,  the  child  of  the  Union,  met  the 
slave-power  with  determined  resistance,  and 
its  threat  with  a  defiant  assertion  of  the  in- 
herent powers  of  the  Nation,  and  with  the 
pledge  of  its  young  and  heroic  life  for  their 
enforcement. 

This  double  sentiment  found  its  oracle  and 
representative  in  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  con- 
solidated the  Northwest  by  declaring  that  the 
Mississippi  shall  flow  unvexed  to  the  sea. 
In  the  great  debate  with  Douglas,  his  chal- 
lenge rang  through  the  whole  land,  a  sum- 
mons to  battle. 


"  A  house  divided  against  itself,"  he  said, 
"  cannot  stand.  I  believe  the  government 
cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be 
dissolved ;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall ; 
but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided." 

To  enforce  that  expectation,  he  called  a 
million  men  to  arms,  he  emancipated  four 
millions  of  slaves  by  presidential  proclama- 
tion ;  and,  when  the  victory  was  won  for 
liberty  and  unity,  this  most  majestic  figure  of 
our  time,  clothed  with  the  unlimited  power 
of  a  triumphant  government,  stood  between 
the   passions   of  the   strife   and   commanded 


474 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


peace  and  forgiveness.  When  he  fell  by  the 
hands  of  the  assassin,  the  hundred  years' 
struggle  for  national  existence  was  ended. 
He  throttled  sectionalism  and  buried  it.  The 
republic,  for  which  half  a  million  men  had 
died  and  a  million  been  wounded,  was  so 
firmly  bedded  in  the  hearts,  the  minds,  and 
the  blood  of  the  people,  that  the  question  of 
dissolution  will  never  more  form  part  of  the 
schemes  of  its  politician?,  or  require  the  wis- 
dom of  its  statesmen,  or  the  patriotism  of  its 
people. — From  an  Address  by  Chauncey  M. 
Depew^  February  12,  1888. 

FAITH,  Lincoln's  Change  of. — Inaction 
kills  belief,  while  action  nourishes  it.  Lincoln's 
life  gives  a  notable  example  of  this  truth.  In 
his  pioneer  days  he  was  a  skeptic.  Both  Lamon 
and  Henderson  say,  that  up  to  the  time  Lin- 
coln went  to  Washington  as  President,  he 
was  not  a  professing  believer  in  any  Chris- 
tain  faith.  But  during  the  days  of  the  war, 
when  Lincoln  bore  tremendous  burdens  of 
action  and  anxiety,  embodying  and  enforcing 
the  will  of  the  nation,  he  became  thoroughly 
religious.  It  is  told  that  in  1864,  when  the 
tension  was  at  its  highest,  and  Lincoln's  life 
was  like  the  action  of  the  heart  of  the  whole 
people  in  that  time  the  President  was  found 
more  than  once  on  his  knees  in  prayer._ 

Lincoln's  faith  did  not  come  to  him  by 
reasoning,  but  in  the  stress  and  strain  of  life. 
He  laid  hold  upon  great  truths  with  the  grip 
of  a  hungering  and  thirsting  nature.  It  is 
in  this  way,  I  believe,  that  the  strongest  faith 
is  attained.  With  his  whole  nature  stretched 
to  its  highest  tension,  no  man  can  avoid  con- 
viction. So  long  as  he  merely  rests,  remains 
inactive,  passive,  he  may  get  along  without 
a  faith;  but  when  his  soul  is  awakened  and 
his  feeling  is  aroused,  believe  he  must. — 
P.  S.  M. 

HERO  OF  OUR  TIME,  The  Great.— The 
story  of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  savors 
more  of  romance  than  of  reality.  It  is  more 
like  a  fable  of  ancient  days  than  a  story  of 
a  plain  American  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  names  of  Washington  and  Lincoln  are 
inseparably  associated.  .  .  .  Washington 
could  not  tell  a  story.  Lincoln  always  could. 
.  .  .  But  his  heart  was  not  always  attuned 
to  mirth ;  its  chords  were  often  set  to  strains 
of  sadness.  Yet  throughout  all  his  trials,  he 
never  lost  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
When  he  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
doubting  Thomases,  by  unbelieving  Saracens, 
by  discontented  Catalines,  his  faith  was 
strongest.  As  the  Danes  destroyed  the  hear- 
ing of  their  war  horses  in  order  that  they 
might  not  be  affrighted  by  the  din  of  battle, 
so  Lincoln  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  that  might 
have  discouraged  him,  and  exhibited  un- 
swerving faith  in  the  justice  of  the  cause  and 
the  integrity  of  the  Union. 

It  is  said  that  for  three  hundred  years  after 
the  battle  of  Thermopylae,  every  child  in  the 
public  schools  of  Greece  was  required  to 
recite  from  memory  the  names  of  the  three 
hundred  martyrs  who  fell  in  the  defense  of 
that  pass.     It  would  be  a  crowning  triumph 


in  patriotic  education,  if  every  school-child 
in  America  could  contemplate  each  day  the 
grand  character  and  utter  the  inspiring  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

He  has  passed  from  our  view;  we  shall 
not  meet  him  again  till  he  stands  forth  to 
answer  to  his  name  at  roll-call  when  the 
great  of  the  earth  are  summoned  on  the 
morning  of  the  last  great  reveille.  Till  then 
(apostropliizing  Lincoln's  portrait) — till  then, 
farewell,  gentlest  of  all  spirits,  noblest  of  all 
hearts !  A  child's  simplicity  was  mingled 
with  the  majestic  grandeur  of  your  nature. 
You  have  handed  down  unto  a  grateful  peo- 
ple the  richest  legacy  which  man  can  leave 
to  man — the  memory  of  a  good  name, 
the  inheritance  of  a  great  example. — From 
an  Address  by  Horace  Porter,  Feb.  12, 
1889. 

POWER,  The  Secret  of  His. — What  were 
the  traits  of  character  which  made  him  leader 
and  master,  without  a  rival,  in  the  greatest 
crisis  in  our  history?  What  gave  him  such 
mighty  power?  Lincoln  had  sublime  faith 
ill  the  people.  He  walked  with  and  among 
them.  He  recognized  the  importance  and 
power  of  an  enlightened  public  sentiment, 
and  was  guided  by  it.  Even  amid  the  vicis- 
situdes of  war,  he  concealed  little  from  public 
review  and  inspection.  In  all  he  did  he  in- 
vited rather  than  evaded  examination  and 
criticism.  He  submitted  his  plans  and  pur- 
poses, as  far  as  practicable,  to  public  consid- 
eration, with  perfect  frankness  and  sincerity. 

...  He  had  that  happy  peculiar  habit, 
which  few  public  men  have  attained,  of  look- 
ing away  from  the  deceptive  and  misleading 
influences  about  him— and  none  are  more  de- 
ceptive than  those  of  public  life  in  our  capi- 
tals—straight into  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
He  could  not  be  deceived  by  the  self-inter- 
ested host  of  eager  counselors  who  sought 
to  enforce  their  own  particular  views  upon 
him  as  the  voice  of  the  country.  He  chose 
to  determine  for  himself  what  the  people 
were  thinking  about  and  wanting  him  to  do ; 
and  no  man  ever  lived  who  was  a  more  accu- 
rate judge  of  their  opinions  and  wishes.— 
From  an  Address  by  William  McKinley, 
February  12,  1895. 

PROVIDENCE  AND  LINCOLN.— If  I 
have  any  purpose,  it  is  to  strengthen  the  be- 
lief in  a  Divine  Providence;  and  if  I  have 
any  further  purpose  in  this  time  of  wars  and 
rumors  of  wars,  it  is  to  show  that  God  Al- 
mighty has  made  nations  for  higher  pur- 
poses than  mere  money  making.  I  am  to 
speak  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  simplest,  se- 
renest.  sublimest  character  of  the  age. 
Seventy  millions  of  people  join  in  commem- 
orating his  greatness.  It  is  not  my  purpose 
to  review  his  life;  that  is  too  much  a  part 
of  history.  That  history  should  be  taught  in 
every  public  American  school  and  preached 
from  every  Christian  pulpit.  The  story  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  citizen.  President,  libera- 
tor and  martyr,  should  be  in  the  heart  of 
every  American  child. — Senator  John  M, 
Thurston. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


475 


SERMONS 
LINCOLN  AS  A  TYPICAL  AMERICAN* 

By  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 


While  I  speak  to  you  to-day,  the  body  of 
the  President  who  ruled  this  people,  is  lying, 
honored  and  loved,  in  our  city.  It  is  im- 
possible, with  that  sacred  presence  in  our 
midst,  for  me  to  stand  and  speak  of  ordinary 
topics  which  occupy  the  pulpit.  I  must  speak 
of  him  to-day ;  and  I  therefore  undertake 
to  do  what  I  had  intended  to  do  at  some 
future  time,  to  invite  you  to  study  with  me 
the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  im- 
pulses of  his  life  and  the  causes  of  his  death. 
I  know  how  hard  it  is  to  do  it  rightly,  how 
impossible  it  is  to  do  it  worthily.  But  I 
shall  speak  with  confidence,  because  I  speak 
to  those  who  love  him,  and  whose  ready  love 
will  fill  out  the  deficiencies  in  a  picture  which 
my  words  will  weakly  try  to  draw. 

We  take  it  for  granted,  first  of  all,  that 
there  is  an  essential  connection  between  Mr. 
Lincoln's  character  and  his  violent  and 
bloody  death.  It  is  no  accident,  no  arbitrary 
decree  of  Providence.  He  lived  as  he  did, 
and  he  died  as  he  did,  because  he  was  what 
he  was.  The  more  we  see  of  events,  the  less 
we  come  to  believe  in  any  fate  or  destiny, 
except  the  destiny  of  character.  It  will  be  our 
duty,  then,  to  see  what  there  was  in  the 
character  of  our  great  President  that  created 
the  history  of  his  life,  and  at  last  produced 
the  catastrophe  of  his  cruel  death.  After  the 
first  trembling  horror,  the  first  outburst  of 
indignant  sorrow,  has  grown  calm,  these  are 
the  questions  which  we  are  bound  to  ask  and 
answer. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  even  to  sketch 
the  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  was  born 
in  Kentucky  fifty-six  years  ago,  when  Ken- 
tucky was  a  pioneer  State.  He  lived,  as  a 
boy  and  man,  the  hard  and  needy  life  of  a 
backwoodsman,  a  farmer,  a  river  boatman, 
and,  finally,  by  his  own  efforts  at  self-educa- 
tion, of  an  active,  respected,  influential  citi- 
zen, in  the  half  organized  and  manifold  in- 
terests of  a  new  and  energetic  community. 
From  his  boyhood  up  he  lived  in  direct  and 
vigorous  contact  with  men  and  things,  not 
as  in  older  states  and  easier  conditions  with 
word-  and  theories;  and  both  his  moral 
convictions  and  intellectual  opinions  gath- 
ered from  that  contact  a  supreme  degree  of 
that  character  by  which  men  knew  him ; 
that  character  which  is  the  most  distinctive 
possession  of  the  best  American  nature ;  that 
almost  indescribable  quality  which  we  call, 
in  general,  clearness  or  truth,  and  which 
appears  in  the  physical  structure  as  health, 
in  the  moral  constitution  as  honesty,  in  the 
mental  structure  as  sagacity,  and  in  the  re- 
gion of  active  life  as  practicalness.  This 
one  character,   with   many   sides,   all   shaped 


by  the  same  essential  force  and  testifying  to 
the  same  inner  influences,  was  what  was 
powerful  in  him  and  decreed  for  him  the  life 
he  was  to  live  and  the  death  he  was  to  die. 
We  must  take  no  smaller  view  than  this  of 
what  he  was. 


It  is  the  great  boon  of  such  characters  as 
Mr.  Lincoln's,  that  they  reunite  what  God 
has  joined  together  and  man  has  put  asunder. 
In  him  was  vindicated  the  greatness  of  real 
goodness  and  the  goodness  of  real  greatness. 
The  twain  were  one  flesh.  Not  one  of  all  the 
multitudes  who  stood  and  looked  up  to  him 
for  direction  with  such  a  loving  and  implicit 
trust  can  tell  you  to-day  whether  the  wise 
judgments  that  he  gave  came  most  from  a 
strong  head  or  a  sound  heart.  If  you  ask 
them,  they  are  puzzled.  There  are  men  as 
good  as  he,  but  they  do  bad  things.  There 
are  men  as  intelligent  as  he,  but  they  do 
foolish  things.  In  him,  goodness  and  intelli- 
gence combined  and  made  their  best  result  of 
wisdom.  For  perfect  truth  consists  not 
merely  in  the  right  constituents  of  character, 
but  in  their  right  and  intimate  conjunction. 
This  union  of  the  mental  and  moral  into  a 
life  of  admirable  simplicity  is  what  we  most 
admire  in  children ;  but  in  them  it  is  unset- 
tled and  unpractical.  But  when  it  is  pre- 
served into  manhood,  deepened  into  relia- 
bility and  maturity,  it  is  that  glorified  child- 
likeness,  that  high  and  reverend  simplicity, 
which  shames  and  baffles  the  most  accom- 
plished astuteness,  and  is  chosen  by  God  to 
fill  His  purposes  when  He  needs  a  ruler  for 
His  people,  of  faithful  and  true  heart,  such 
as  he  had,  who  was  our  President. 

Another  evident  quality  of  such  character 
as  this  will  be  its  freshness  or  newness,  if  we 
may  so  speak ;  its  freshness  or  readiness, — 
call  it  what  you  will, — its  ability  to  take  up 
new  duties  and  do  them  in  a  new  way,  will 
result  of  necessity  from  its  truth  and  clear- 
ness. The  simple  natures  and  forces  will  al- 
ways be  the  most  pliant  ones.  Water  bends 
and  shapes  itself  to  any  channel.  Air  folds 
and  adapts  itself  to  each  new  figure.  They 
are  the  simplest  and  the  most  infinitely  active 
things  in  nature.  So  this  nature,  in  very 
virtue  of  its  simplicity,  must  be  also  free, 
always  fitting  itself  to  each  new  need.  It 
will  always  start  from  the  most  fundamental 
and  eternal  conditions,  and  work  in  the 
straightest,  even  tho  they  be  the  newest  ways, 
to  the  present  prescribed  purpose.  In  one 
word,  it  must  be  broad  and  independent  and 
radical.  So  that  freedom  and  radicalness  in 
the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  were  not 


•  Delivered  in  Philadelphia  as  a  Funeral  Oration. 


476 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


separate  qualities,  but  the  necessary  results 
of  his  simplicity  and  childlikeness  and 
truth. 

Here  then  we  have  some  conception  of  the 
man.  Out  of  this  character  came  the  life 
which  we  admire  and  the  death  which  we  la- 
ment to-day.  He  was  called  in  that  charac- 
ter to  that  life  and  death.  It  was  just  the 
nature,  as  you  see,  which  a  new  nation  such 
as  ours  ought  to  produce.  All  the  condi- 
tions of  his  birth,  his  youth,  his  manhood, 
which  made  him  what  he  was,  were  not  ir- 
regular and  exceptional,  but  were  the  normal 
conditions  of  a  new  and  simple  country.  His 
pioneer  home  in  Indiana  was  a  type  of  the 
pioneer  land  in  which  he  lived.  If  ever  there 
was  a  man  who  was  a  part  of  the  time  and 
country  he  lived  in,  this  was  he.  The  same 
simple  respect  for  labor  won  in  the  school  of 
work  and  incorporated  into  blood  and  mus- 
cle ;  the  same  unassuming  loyalty  to  the  sim- 
ple virtues  of  temperance  and  industry  and 
integrity;  the  same  sagacious  judgment 
which  had  learned  to  be  quick-eyed  and 
quick-brained  in  the  constant  presence  of 
emergency ;  the  same  direct  and  clear  thought 
about  things,  social,  political,  and  religious, 
that  was  in  him  supremely,  was  in  the  people 
he  was  sent  to  rule.  Surely,  with  such  a 
type-man  for  ruler,  there  would  seem  to  be 
but  a  smooth  and  even  road  over  which  he 
might  lead  the  people  whose  character  he 
represented  into  the  new  region  of  national 
happiness,  and  comfort,  and  usefulness,  for 
which  that  character  had  been  designed. 


The  cause  that  Abraham  Lincoln  died  for 
shall  grow  stronger  by  his  death,  stronger 
and  sterner.  Stronger  to  set  its  pillars  deep 
into  the  structure  of  our  Nation's  life;  sterner 
to  execute  the  justice  of  the  Lord  upon  his 
enemies.  Stronger  to  spread  its  arms  and 
grasp  our  whole  land  into  freedom ;  sterner 
to  sweep  the  last  poor  ghost  of  slavery  out  of 
our  haunted  homes. 


So  let  him  lie  here  in  our  midst  to-day,  and 
let  our  people  go  and  bend  with  solemn 
thoughtfulness  and  look  upon  his  face  and 
read  the  lessons  of  his  burial.  As  he  paused 
here  on  his  journey  from  the  Western  home 
and  told  us  what,  by  the  help  of  God,  he 
meant  to  do,  so  let  him  pause  upon  his  way 
back  to  his  Western  grave  and  tell  us,  with  a 
silence  more  eloquent  than  words,  how  bravely, 
how  truly,  by  the  strength  of  God,  he  did  it. 
God  brought  him  up  as  He  brought  David  up 
from  the  sheep-folds  to  feed  Jacob,  His  peo- 
ple, and  Israel,  His  inheritance.  He  came  up 
in  earnestness  and  faith,  and  he  goes  back 
in  triumph.  As  he  pauses  here  to-day,  and 
from  his  cold  lips  bids  us  bear  witness  how 
he  has  met  the  duty  that  was  laid  on  him, 
what  can  we  say  out  of  our  full  hearts  but 
this :— "  He  fed  them  with  a  faithful  and  true 
heart,  and  ruled  them  prudently  with  all  his 
power." 


The  shepherd  of  the  people!  that  old 
name  that  the  best  rulers  ever  craved.  What 
ruler  ever  won  it  like  this  dead  President  of 
ours?  He  fed  us  faithfully  and  truly.  He 
fed  us  with  counsel  when  we  were  in  doubt, 
with  inspiration  when  we  sometimes  faltered! 
with  caution  when  we  would  be  rash,  with 
calm,  clear,  trustful  cheerfulness  through 
many  an  hour,  when  our  hearts  were  dark. 
He  fed  hungry  souls  all  over  the  country 
with  sympathy  and  consolation.  He  spread 
before  the  whole  land  feasts  of  great  duty 
and  devotion  and  patriotism,  on  which  the 
land  grew  strong.  He  fed  us  with  solemn, 
solid  truths.  He  taught  us  the  sacredness  of 
government,  the  wickedness  of  treason.  He 
made  our  souls  glad  and  vigorous  with  the 
love  of  liberty  that  was  in  his.  He  showed 
us  how  to  love  truth  and  yet  be  charitable — 
how  to  hate  wrong  and  all  oppression,  and 
yet  not  treasure  one  personal  injury  or  insult. 
He  fed  all  his  people,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  from  the  most  privileged  down  to  the 
most  enslaved.  Best  of  all,  he  fed  us  with  a 
reverent  and  genuine  religion.  He  spread 
before  us  the  love  and  fear  of  God  just  in 
that  shape  in  which  we  need  them  most,  and 
out  of  his  faithful  service  of  a  higher  Mas- 
ter, who  of  us  has  not  taken  and  eaten  and 
grow  strong?  "  He  fed  them  with  a  faith- 
ful and  true  heart."  Yes,  till  the  last.  For 
at  the  last,  behold  him  standing  with  hand 
reached  out  to  feed  the  South  with  mercy, 
and  the  North  with  charity,  and  the  whole 
land  with  peace,  when  the  Lord  who  had 
sent  him  called  him,  and  his  work  was 
done! 

He  stood  once  on  the  battlefield  of  our  own 
State,  and  said  of  the  brave  men  who  had 
saved  it,  words  as  noble  as  any  countryman 
of  ours  ever  spoke.  Let  us  stand  in  the 
country  he  has  saved,  and  which  is  to  be  his 
grave  and  monument,  and  say  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  what  he  said  of  the  soldiers  who 
had  died  at  Gettysburg.  He  stood  there  with 
their  graves  before  him,  and  these  are  the 
words  he  said : 

"  We  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot  conse- 
crate, we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The 
brave  men  who  struggled  here  have  conse- 
crated it  far  beyond  our  power  to  add  or  de- 
tract. The  world  will  little  note  nor  long 
remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never 
forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us  the 
living  rather  to  be  dedicated  to  the  unfinished 
work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus 
far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to 
be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining 
before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead  we 
take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  de- 
votion ;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these 
dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  and  this 
nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of 
freedom ;  and  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth." 

May  God  make  us  worthy  of  the  memory 
of  Abraham  Lincoln !— W.  B.  O. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


MT 


EFFECT  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  LINCOLN* 

By  Henry  Ward  Beecher 


Again  a  great  leader  of  the  people  has 
passed  through  toil,  sorrow,  battle,  and  war, 
and  come  near  to  the  promised  land  of  peace, 
into  which  he  might  not  pass  over.  Who 
shall  recount  our  martyr's  sufferings  for  this 
people?  Since  the  November  of  i860,  his 
horizon  has  been  black  with  storms. 

By  day  and  by  night,  he  trod  a  way  of 
danger  and  darkness.  On  his  shoulders  rested 
a  government  dearer  to  him  than  his  own 
life.  At  its  integrity  millions  of  men  were 
striking  at  home.  Upon  this  government 
foreign  eyes  lowered.  It  stood  like  a  lone 
island  in  a  sea  full  of  storms,  and  every  tide 
and  wave  seemed  eager  to  devour  it.  Upon 
thousands  of  hearts  great  sorrows  and  anxi-. 
eties  have  rested,  but  not  on  one  such,  and 
in  such  measure,  as  upon  that  simple,  truth- 
ful, noble  soul,  our  faithful  and  sainted  Lin- 
coln. Never  rising  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
more  impassioned  natures  in  hours  of  hope, 
and  never  sinking  with  the  mercurial,  in 
hours  of  defeat,  to  the  depths  of  despond- 
ency, he  held  on  with  unmovable  patience 
and  fortitude,  putting  caution  against  hope, 
that  it  might  not  be  premature,  and  hope 
against  caution,  that  it  might  not  yield  to 
dread  and  danger.  He  wrestled  ceaselessly, 
through  four  black  and  dreadful  purgatorial 
years,  wherein  God  was  cleansing  the  sin  of 
His  people  as  by  fire. 

At  last,  the  watcher  beheld  the  gray  dawn 
for  the  country.  The  mountains  began  to 
give  forth  their  forms  from  out  the  darkness, 
and  the  East  came  rushing  toward  us  with 
arms  full  of  joy  for  all  our  sorrows.  Then 
it  was  for  him  to  be  glad  exceedingly  that 
had  sorrowed  immeasurably.  Peace  could 
bring  to  no  other  heart  such  joy  and  rest, 
such  honor,  such  trust,  such  gratitude.  But 
he  looked  upon  it  as  Moses  looked  upon  the 
promised  land.  Then  the  wail  of  a  nation 
proclaimed  that  he  had  gone  from  among  us. 
Not  thine  the  sorrow,  but  ours,  sainted  soul. 
Thou  hast,  indeed,  entered  the  promised  land, 
while  we  are  yet  on  the  march.  To  us  re- 
main the  rocking  of  the  deep,  the  storm  upon 
the  land,  days  of  duty  and  nights  of  watch- 
ing; but  thou  art  sphered  high  above  all 
darkness  and  fear,  beyond  all  sorrow  and 
weariness.  Rest,  O  weary  heart!  Rejoice 
exceedingly, — thou  that  hast  enough  suffered  ! 
Thou  hast  beheld  Him  who  invisibly  led  thee 
in  this  great  wilderness.  Thou  standest 
among  the  elect.  Around  thee  are  the  royal 
men  that  have  ennobled  human  life  in  every 
age.  Kingly  art  thou,  with  glory  on  thy 
brow  as  a  diadem.  And  joy  is  upon  thee  for 
evermore.  Over  all  this  land,  over  all  the 
little  cloud  of  years  that  now  from  thine  in- 
finite horizon  moves  back  as  a  speck,  thou 
art  lifted  up  as  high  as  the  star  is  above  the 
clouds  that  hide  us,  but  never  reach  it.  In 
the   goodly   company   of   Mount    Zion   thou 


shalt  find  that  rest  which  thou  hast  sorrow- 
ing sought  in  vain;  and  thy  name,  an  ever- 
lasting name  in  heaven,  shall  flourish  in 
fragrance  and  beauty  as  long  as  men  shall 
last  upon  the  earth,  or  hearts  remain,  to  re- 
vere truth,  fidelity,  and  goodness. 

Never  did  two  such  orbs  of  experience 
meet  in  one  hemisphere,  as  the  joy  and  the 
sorrow  of  the  same  week  in  this  land.  The 
joy  was  as  sudden  as  if  no  man  had  expected 
It,  and  as  entrancing  as  if  it  had  fallen  a 
sphere  from  heaven.  It  rose  up  over  sobri- 
ety, and  swept  business  from  its  moorings, 
and  ran  down  through  the  land  in  irresistible 
course.  Men  embraced  each  other  in  broth- 
erhood that  were  strangers  in  the  flesh.  They 
sang,  or  prayed,  or  deeper  yet,  many  could 
only  thmk  thanksgiving  and  weep  gladness. 

That  peace  was  sure ;  that  government  was 
firmer  than  ever;  that  the  land  was  cleansed 
of  plague ;  that  the  ages  were  opening  to  our 
footsteps,  and  we  were  to  begin  a  march  of 
blessings;  that  blood  was  staunched,  and 
scowlmg  enmities  were  sinking  like  storms 
beneath  the  horizon;  that  the  dear  father- 
land, nothing  lost,  much  gained,  was  to  rise 
up  in  unexampled  honor  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth— these  thoughts,  and  that  undis- 
tmguishable  throng  of  fancies,  and  hopes, 
and  desires,  and  yearnings,  that  filled  the 
soul  with  tremblings  like  the  heated  air  of 
midsummer  days— all  these  kindled  up  such 
a  surge  of  joy  as  no  words  may  describe. 

In  one  hour,  joy  lay  without  a  pulse,  with- 
out a  gleam  or  breath.  A  sorrow  came  that 
swept  through  the  land  as  huge  storms 
sweep  through  the  forest  and  field,  rolling 
thunder  along  the  sky,  disheveling  the  flow- 
ers, daunting  every  singer  in  thicket  or  forest, 
and  pouring  blackness  and  darkness  across 
the  land  and  up  the  mountains.  Did  ever  so 
many  hearts,  in  so  brief  a  time,  touch  two 
such  boundless  feelings?  It  was  the  utter- 
most of  joy;  it  was  the  uttermost  of  sorrow 
— noon  and  midnight,  without  a  space  be- 
tween. 

The  blow  brought  not  a  sharp  pang.  It 
was  so  terrible  that  at  first  it  stunned  sensi- 
bility. Citizens  were  like  men  awakened  at 
midnight  by  an  earthquake,  and  bewildered 
to  find  everything  that  they  were  accustomed 
to  trust  wavering  and  falling.  The  very 
earth  was  no  longer  solid.  The  first  feeling 
was  the  least.  Men  waited  to  get  strength 
to  feel.  They  wandered  in  the  streets  as  if 
groping  after  some  impending  dread,  or  un- 
developed sorrow,  or  some  one  to  tell  them 
what  ailed  them.  They  met  each  other  as  if 
each  would  ask  the  other,  "  Am  I  awake,  or 
do  I  dream?"  There  was  a  piteous  help- 
lessness. Strong  men  bowed  down  and  wept. 
Other  and  common  griefs  belonged  to  some 
one  in  chief ;    this  belonged  to  all.     It  was 


•  Delivered  in  Brooklyn  April  16,  1865. 


478 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


each  and  every  man's.  Every  virtuous  house- 
hold in  the  land  felt  as  if  its  first-born  were 
gone.  Men  were  bereaved  and  walked  for 
days  as  if  a  corpse  lay  unburied  in  their 
dwellings.  There  was  nothing  else  to  think 
of.  They  could  speak  of  nothing  but  that ; 
and  yet  of  that  they  could  speak  only  falter- 
ingly.  All  business  was  laid  aside.  Pleasure 
forgot  to  smile.  The  city  for  nearly  a  week 
ceased  to  roar.  The  great  Leviathan  lay 
down,  and  was  still.  Even  avarice  stood 
still,  and  greed  was  strangely  moved  to  gen- 
erous sympathy  and  universal  sorrow.  Rear 
to  his  name  monuments,  found  charitable  in- 
stitutions, and  write  his  name  above  their 
lintels,  but  no  monument  will  ever  equal  the 
universal,  spontaneous,  and  sublime  sorrow 
that  in  a  moment  swept  down  lines  and  par- 
ties, and  covered  up  animosities,  in  an  hour 
brought  a  divided  people  into  unity  of  grief 
and  indivisible  fellowship  of  anguish. 

This  Nation  has  dissolved — but  in  tears 
only.  It  stands  four-square,  more  solid  to- 
day than  any  pyramid  in  Egypt.  This  people 
are  neither  wasted,  nor  daunted,  nor  dis- 
ordered. Men  hate  slavery  and  love  liberty 
with  stronger  hate  and  love  to-day  than  ever 
before.  The  government  is  not  weakened ; 
it  is  made  stronger.  How  naturally  and 
easily  were  the  ranks  closed !  Another  steps 
forward,  in  the  hour  that  one  fell,  to  take  his 
place  and  his  mantle ;  and  I  avow  my  belief 
that  he  will  be  found  a  man  true  to  every  in- 
stinct of  liberty ;  true  to  the  whole  trust  that 
is  reposed  in  him ;  vigilant  of  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  careful  of  the  laws ;  wise  for  liberty, 
in  that  he  himself,  through  his  life,  has 
known  what  it  was  to  suffer  from  the  stmgs 
of  slavery,  and  to  prize  liberty  from  bitter 
personal  experiences. 

Where  could  the  head  of  government  of 
any  monarchy  be  smitten  down  by  the  hand 
of  an  assassin,  and  the  funds  not  quiver  or 
fall  one-half  of  one  per  cent?  After  a  long 
period  of  national  disturbance,  after  four 
years  of  drastic  war,  after  tremendous  drafts 
on  the  resources  of  the  country,  in  the  height 
and  top  of  our  burdens,  the  heart  of  this 
people  is  such  that  now,  when  the  head  of 
government  is  stricken  down,  the  public  funds 
do  not  waver,  but  stand  as  the  granite  ribs 
in  our  mountains. 

Republican  institutions  have  been  vindi- 
cated in  this  experience  as  they  never  were 
before;  and  the  whole  history  of  the  last 
four  years,  rounded  up  by  this  cruel  stroke, 
seems,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  have  been 
clothed  now,  with  an  illustration,  with_  a 
sympathy,  with  an  aptness,  and  with  a  sig- 
nificance, such  as  we  never  could  have  ex- 
pected nor  imagined.  God,  I  think,  has  said. 
by  the  voice  of  this  event,  to  all  nations  of 
the  earth :  "  Republican  liberty,  based  upon 
true  Christianity,  is  firm  as  the  foundation 
of  the  globe." 

Even  he  who  now  sleeps  has,  by  this  event, 
been  clothed  with  new  influence.  Dead,  he 
speaks  to  men  who  now  willingly  hear  what 
before  they  refused  to  listen  to.  Now  his 
simple  and  weighty  words  will  be  gathered 
like  those  of  Washington,  and  your  children 


and  your  children's  children  shall  be  taught 
to  ponder  the  simplicity  and  deep  wisdom  of 
utterances  which,  in  their  time,  passed,  in 
party  heat,  as  idle  words.  Men  will  receive 
a  new  impulse  of  patriotism  for  his  sake,  and 
will  guard  with  zeal  the  whole  country  which 
he  loved  so  well.  I  swear  you,  on  the  altar 
of  his  memory,  to  be  more  faithful  to  the 
country  for  which  he  has  perished.  They 
will,  as  they  follow  his  hearse,  swear  a  new 
hatred  to  that  slavery  against  which  he 
warred,  and  which,  in  vanquishing  him,  has 
made  him  a  martyr  and  a  conqueror.  I  swear 
you,  by  the  memory  of  this  martyr,  to  hate 
slavery  with  an  unappeasable  hatred.  They 
will  admire  and  imitate  the  firmness  of  this 
man,  his  inflexible  conscience  for  the  right, 
and  yet  his  gentleness,  as  tender  as  a 
woman's,  his  moderation  of  spirit,  which  not 
all  the  heat  of  party  could  inflame,  nor  all 
the  jars  and  disturbances  of  his  country  shake 
out  of  place.  I  swear  you  to  an  emulation 
of  his  justice,  his  moderation,  and  his  mercy. 

You  I  can  comfort ;  but  how  can  I  speak 
to  that  twilight  million  to  whom  his  name 
was  as  the  name  of  an  angel  of  God?  There 
will  be  wailing  in  places  which  no  minister 
shall  be  able  to  reach.  When,  in  hovel  and 
in  cot,  in  wood  and  in  wilderness,  in  the  field 
throughout  the  South,  the  dusky  children, 
who  looked  upon  him  as  that  Moses  whom 
God  sent  before  them  to  lead  them  out  of 
the  land  of  bondage,  learn  that  he  has  fallen, 
who  shall  comfort  them?  O,  thou  Shepherd 
of  Israel,  that  didst  comfort  Thy  people  of 
old,  to  Thy  care  we  commit  the  helpless,  the 
long-wronged,  and  grieved. 

And  now  the  martyr  is  moving  in  triumphal 
march  mightier  than  when  alive.  The  Na- 
tion rises  up  at  every  stage  of  his  coming. 
Cities  and  States  are  his  pall  bearers,  and  the 
cannon  beats  the  hours  with  solemn  progres- 
sion. Dead,  dead,  dead,  he  yet  speaketh.  Is 
Washington  dead?  Is  Hampden  dead?  Is 
David  dead?  Is  any  man  that  was  ever  fit 
to  live  dead?  Disenthralled  of  flesh,  and 
risen  in  the  unobstructed  sphere  where  pas- 
sion never  comes,  he  begins  his  illimitable 
work.  His  life  now  is  grafted  upon  the 
infinite,  and  will  be  fruitful  as  no  earthly 
life  can  be. 

Pass  on,  thou  that  hast  overcome.  Your 
sorrows,  O  people,  are  his  peace.  Your  bells 
and  bands  and  muffled  drums  sound  triumph 
in  his  ear.  Wail  and  weep  here ;  God  made 
it  echo  joy  and  triumph  there.     Pass  on. 

Four  years  ago,  O  Illinois,  we  took  from 
your  midst  an  untried  man,  and  from  among 
the  people.  We  return  him  to  you  a  mighty 
conqueror.  Not  thine  any  more,  but  the  Na- 
tion's; not  ours,  but  the  world's.  Give  him 
place,  O  ye  prairies.  In  the  midst  of  this 
great  continent  his  dust  shall  rest,  a  sacred 
treasure  to  myriads  who  shall  pilgrim  to  that 
shrine  to  kindle  anew  their  zeal  and  patriot- 
ism. Ye  winds  that  move  over  the  mighty 
places  of  the  West,  chant  his  requiem.  Ye 
people,  behold  a  martyr  whose  blood,  as  so 
many  articulate  words,  pleads  for  fidelity, 
for  law.  for  liberty.— W.  B.  O. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


479 


THE    RELIGIOUS   CHARACTER  OF  ABRAHAM  LIN- 
COLN 


By  B.  B.  Tyler,  D.D. 


In  1865,  the  bullet  of  an  assassin  suddenly- 
terminated  the  life  among  men  of  one  who 
was  an  honor  to  his  race.  He  was  great  and 
good.  He  was  great  because  he  was  good. 
Lincoln's  religious  character  was  the  one 
tiling  which,  above  all  other  features  of  his 
unique  mental  and  moral  as  well  as  physi- 
cal personality,  lifted  him  above  his  fellow 
men. 

Because  an  effort  has  been  made  to  parade 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  an  unbeliever,  I  have 
been  led  to  search  carefully  for  the  facts  in 
his  life  bearing  on  this  point.  The  testimony 
seems  to  be  almost  entirely,  if  not  altogether. 
on  one  side.  I  cannot  account  for  the  state- 
ment which  William  H.  Herndon  makes 
in  his  life  of  the  martyred  President,  that, 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  faith."  For  twenty-five 
years  Mr.  Herndon  was  Abraham  Lincoln's 
law  partner  in  Springfield,  111.  He  had  the 
best  opportunities  to  know  Abraham  Lincoln. 
When,  however,  he  affirms  that  "  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  no  faith,"  he  speaks  without  warrant.  It 
is  simply  certain  that  he  uses  words  in  their 
usually  accepted  signification,  altho  his  state- 
ment concerning  Lincoln  is  not  true. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  profound 
faith.  He  believed  in  God.  He  believed  in 
Christ.  He  believed  in  the  Bible.  He  be- 
lieved in  men.  His  faith  made  him  great. 
His  life  is  a  beautiful  commentary  on  the 
words,  "  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh 
the  world,  even  our  faith."  There  was  a  time 
in  Lincoln's  experience  when  his  faith  fal- 
tered, as  there  was  a  time  when  his  reason 
tottered ;  but  these  sad  experiences  were 
temporary,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  neither 
an  infidel  nor  a  lunatic.  It  is  easy  to  trace  in 
the  life  of  this  colossal  character  a  steady 
growth  of  faith.  This  grace  in  him  increased 
steadily  in  breadth  and  in  strength  with  the 
passing  years,  until  it  came  to  pass  that  his 
last  public  utterances  show  forth  the  confi- 
dence and  the  fire  of  an  ancient  Hebrew 
prophet. 

It  is  true  that  Lincoln  never  united  with 
the  Church,  altho  a  lifelong  and  regular  at- 
tendant on  its  services.  He  had  a  reason  for 
occupying  a  position  outside  the  fellowship 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  as  it  existed  in  his 
day  and  in  his  part  of  the  world.  This  rea- 
son Lincoln  did  not  hesitate  to  declare.  He 
explained  on  one  occasion  that  he  had  never 
become  a  churchmember  because  he  did  not 
like  and  could  not  in  conscience  subscribe  to 
the  long  and  frequently  complicated  state- 
ments of  Christian  doctrines  which  charac- 
terized the  confessions  of  the  Churches.  He 
said :  "  When  any  Church  will  inscribe  over 
its  altar  as  its  sole  qualification  for  member- 
ship the  Savior's  condensed  statement  of  the 
substance    of   both    law    and    gospel,    '  Thou 


shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  that 
Church  will  I  join  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul." 

Abraham  Lincoln  in  these  words  recog- 
nizes the  central  figure  of  the  Bible,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  as  "  the  Savior."  He  recognizes 
God  as  the  supreme  Lawgiver,  and  expresses 
readiness,  while  eschewing  theological  sub- 
tleties, to  submit  heart  and  soul  to  the  su- 
preme Lawgiver  of  the  universe.  His  faith, 
according  to  this  language,  goes  out  man- 
ward  as  well  as  Godward.  He  believed  not 
only  in  God,  but  he  believed  in  man  as  well, 
and  this  Christianity,  according  to  Christ, 
requires  of  all  disciples  of  the  great  Teacher. 

About  a  year  before  his  assassination  Lin- 
coln, in  a  letter  to  Joshua  Speed,  said :  "  I 
am  profitably  engaged  in  reading  the  Bible. 
Take  all  of  this  book  upon  reason  that  you 
can  and  the  balance  on  faith,  and  you  will 
live  and  die  a  better  man."  He  saw  and  de- 
clared that  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  had  a 
tendency  to  improve  character.  He  had  a 
right  view  of  this  sacred  literature.  Its  pur- 
pose is  character  building. 

Leonard  Swett,  who  knew  Abraham  Lin- 
coln well,  said  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Chi- 
cago monument  that  Lincoln  "  believed  in 
God  as  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  universe, 
the  guide  of  men,  and  the  controller  of  the 
great  events  and  destinies  of  mankind.  He 
believed  himself  to  be  an  instrument  and 
leader  in  this  country  of  the  force  of  free- 
dom." 

From  this  it  appears  that  his  belief  was  not 
merely  theoretical,  but  that  it  was  practical. 
He  regarded  himself  as  an  instrument,  as 
Moses  was  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
almighty  God,  to  lead  men  into  freedom. 

It  was  after  his  election,  in  the  autumn  of 
i860,  and  but  a  short  time  before  his  inau- 
guration as  President  of  the  United  States, 
that  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Joseph  Gillespie,  he 
said :  "  I  have  read  on  my  knees  the  story  of 
Gethsemane,  where  the  Son  of  God  prayed 
in  vain  that  the  cup  of  bitterness  might  pass 
from  Him.  I  am  in  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane now,  and  my  cup  of  bitterness  is 
full  and  overflowing." 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  he  believed  the 
Jesus  of  the  Gospels  to  be  "  the  Son  of  God." 
And  what  a  sense  of  responsibility  he  must 
at  the  time  of  writing  this  letter  have  ex- 
perienced to  cause  him  to  declare,  "  I  am  in 
the  garden  of  Gethsemane  now.  and  my  cup 
of  bitterness  is  full  and  overflowing !  "  Only 
a  superlatively  good  man,  only  a  man  of 
genuine  piety,  could  use  honestly  such  lan- 
guage as  this.  These  words  do  not  indicate 
unbelief  or  agnosticism.     If  ever   a  man   in 


48o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


public  life  in  these  United  States  was  re- 
moved the  distance  of  the  antipodes  from  the 
coldness  and  bleakness  of  agnosticism,  that 
man  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  This  confession 
of  faith,  incidentally  made  in  a  brief  letter 
to  a  dear  friend,  is  not  only  orthodox  ac- 
cording to  the  accepted  standards  of  ortho- 
doxy, but,  better,  it  is  evangelical.-  To  him 
the  hero  of  the  Gospel  histories  was  none 
other  than  "  the  Son  of  God."  By  the  use 
of  these  words  did  Lincoln  characterize  Jesus 
of  Nazareth. 

Herndon  has  said  in  his  life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  that  he  never  read  the  Bible, 
but  Alexander  Williamson,  who  was  em- 
ployed as  a  tutor  in  President  Lincoln's  fam- 
ily in  Washington,  said  that  "  Mr.  Lincoln 
very  frequently  studied  the  Bible  with  the 
aid  of  Cruden's  Concordance,  which  lay  on 
his  table."  If  Lincoln  was  not  a  reader  and 
student  of  the  inspired  literature  which  we 
call  the  Bible,  what  explanation  can  be  made 
of  his  language  just  quoted,  addressed  to 
Judge  Gillespie,  "  I  have  read  on  my  knees 
the  story  of  Gethsemane,  where  the  Son  of 
God  prayed  in  vain  that  the  cup  of  bitterness 
might  pass  from  Him  "  ? 

I  have  admitted  that  in  Lincoln's  experi- 
ence there  was  a  time  when  his  faith  faltered. 
It  is  interesting  to  know  in  what  manner  he 
came  to  have  the  faith  which  in  the  maturity 
of  his  royal  manhood  and  in  the  zenith  of  his 
intellectual  powers  he  expressed.  One  of  his 
pastors — for  he  sat  under  the  ministry  of 
three  men,  chiefly  in  Springfield,  111. — Rev. 
James  Smith,  has  told  in  what  way  Lincoln 
came  to  be  an  intelligent  believer  in  the  Bible, 
in  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  in  Chris- 
tianity as  Divine  in  its  origin,  and  a  mighty 
rnoral  and  spiritual  power  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  men  and  of  the  race.  Mr.  Smith 
placed  before  him.  he  says,  the  arguments 
for  and  against  the  Divine  authority  and  in- 
spiration of  the  Scriptures.  To  the  argu- 
ments on  both  sides  Lincoln  gave  a  patient, 
impartial,  and  searching  investigation.  He 
himself  said  that  he  examined  the  arguments 
as  a  lawyer  investigates  testimony  in  a  case 
in  which  he  is  deeply  interested.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  investigation  he  declared  that 
the  argument  in  favor  of  the  Divine  author- 
ity and  inspiration  of  the  Bible  is  unanswer- 
able. 

So  far  did  Lincoln  go  in  his  open  sym- 
pathy with  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  that 
on  one  occasion,  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
assembly,  he  delivered  the  address  at  an  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  Springfield.  Illinois, 
Bible  Society.  In  the  course  of  his  address  he 
drew  a  contrast  between  the  decalog  and  the 
most  eminent  lawgiver  of  antiquity,  in  which 
he  said:_  "  It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  short 
of  infinite  wisdom  could  by  any  possibility 
have  devised  and  given  to  man  this  excellent 
and  perfect  moral  code.  It  is  suited  to  men 
in  all  the  conditions  of  life,  and  inculcates  all 
the  duties  they  owe  to  their  Creator,  to  them- 
selves, and  their   fellow   men." 

Lincoln  prepared  an  address,  in  which  he 
declared  that  this  country  cannot  exist  half- 


slave  and  half-free.  He  affirmed  the  saying 
of  Jesus,  "  A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  Having  read  this  address  to 
some  friends,  they  urged  him  to  strike  out 
that  portion  of  it.  If  he  would  do  so,  he 
could  probably  be  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate;  but  if  he  delivered  the  address  as 
written,  the  ground  taken  was  so  high,  the 
position  was  so  advanced,  his  sentiments 
were  so  radical,  he  would  probably  fail  of 
gaining  a  seat  in  the  supreme  legislative  body 
of  the  greatest  republic  on  earth. 

Lincoln,  under  those  circumstances,  said : 
'■  I  know  there  is  a  God,  and  that  He  hates 
the  injustice  of  slavery.  I  see  the  storm 
coming,  and  I  know  that  His  hand  is  in  it. 
If  He  has  a  place  and  a  work  for  me,  and  I 
think  He  has,  I  believe  I  am  ready.  I  am 
nothing,  but  truth  is  everything.  I  know  I 
am  right,  because  I  know  that  liberty  is 
right,  for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is 
God." 

And  yet  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  a  man 
who  could  express  himself  in  this  way  and 
show  this  courage  was  a  doubter,  a  skeptic, 
an  unbeliever,  an  agnostic,  an  infidel.  "  Christ 
is  God."  This  was  Lincoln's  faith  in  i860, 
found  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Hon.  New- 
ton Bateman. 

Lincoln's  father  was  a  Christian.  Old  Uncle 
Tommy  Lincoln,  as  his  friends  familiarly 
called  him,  was  a  good  man.  He  was  what 
might  be  called  a  ne'er-do-well.  As  the  world 
counts  success,  Thomas  Lincoln,  the  father 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  not  successful,  but 
he  was  an  honest  man.  He  was  a  truthful 
man.  He  was  a  man  of  faith.  He  worshiped 
God.  He  belonged  to  the  church.  He  was 
a  member  of  a  congregation  in  Charleston, 
111.,  which  I  had  the  honor  to  serve  in  the 
beginning  of  my  ministry,  known  as  the 
Christian  Church.  He  died  not  far  from 
Charleston,  and  is  buried  a  few  miles  distant 
from  the  beautiful  little  town,  the  county  seat 
of  Coles  county.  111. 

During  the  last  illness  of  his  father.  Lin- 
coln wrote  a  letter  to  his  step-brother.  John 
Johnston,  which  closes  with  the  following 
sentences :  "  I  sincerely  hope  that  father 
may  recover  his  health,  but  at  all  events  tell 
him  to  remember  to  call  upon  and  confide  in 
our  great,  and  good,  and  merciful  Maker, 
who  will  not  turn  away  from  him  in  any  ex- 
tremity. He  notes  the  fall  of  the  sparrow, 
and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads,  and  He 
will  not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his 
trust  in  Him.  Say  to  him  that  if  we  could 
meet  now  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  would 
not  be  more  painful  than  pleasant,  but  that  if 
it  be  his  lot  to  go  now  he  will  soon  have  a 
joyful  meeting  with  loved  ones  gone  before, 
and  where  the  rest  of  us,  through  the  mercy 
of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join  them." 

From  this  it  appears  that  Lincoln  cherished 
a  hope  of  life  everlasting  through  the  mercy 
of  God.  This  sounds  very  much  like  the  talk 
of  a  Christian. 

Altho  Lincoln  was  not  a  church  member, 
he  was  a  man  of  prayer.  He  believed  that 
God  can  hear,  does  hear,  and  answer  prayer. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


481 


Lincoln  said  in  conversation  with  General 
Sickles  concerning  the  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
that  he  had  no  anxiety  as  to  the  result.  At 
this  General  Sickles  expressed  surprise,  and 
inquired  into  the  reason  for  this  unusual  state 
of  mind  at  that  period  in  the  history  of  the 
war.  Lincoln  hesitated  to  accede  to  the  re- 
quest of  General  Sickles,  but  was  finally  pre- 
vailed upon  to  do  so,  and  this  is  what  he 
said: 

"  Well,  I  will  tell  you  how  it  was.  In  the 
pinch  of  your  campaign  up  there,  when  every- 
body seemed  panicstricken,  and  nobody  could 
tell  what  was  going  to  happen,  oppressed  by 
the  gravity  of  our  affairs,  I  went  into  my 
room  one  day  and  locked  the  door,  and  got 
down  on  my  knees  before  Almighty  God,  and 
prayed  to  Him  mightily  for  victory  at  Gettys- 
burg. I  told  Him  this  was  His  war,  and  our 
cause  His  cause,  but  that  we  could  not  stand 
another  Fredericksburg  or  Chancellorsville. 
And  I  then  and  there  made  a  solemn  vow  to 
Almighty  God  that  if  He  would  stand  by  our 
boys  at  Gettysburg  I  would  stand  by  Him. 
And  He  did  and  I  will.  And  after  that  (I 
don't  know  how  it  was,  and  I  can't  explain 
it)  but  soon  a  sweet  comfort  crept  into  my 
soul  that  things  would  go  all  right  at  Gettys- 
burg, and  that  is  why  I  had  no  fears  about 
you." 

Such  faith  as  this  will  put  to  the  blush 
many  who  are  members  of  the  church. 

It  was  afterward  that  General  Sickles  asked 
him  what  news  he  had  from  Vicksburg.  He 
answered  that  he  had  no  news  worth  men- 
tioning, but  that  Grant  was  still  "  pegging 
away  "  down  there,  and  he  thought  a  good 
deal  of  him  as  a  general,  and  had  no  thought 
of  removing  him  notwithstanding  that  he 
was  urged  to  do  so :  and  "  besides,"  he  added, 
''  I  have  been  praying  over  Vicksburg  also, 
and  believe  our  Heavenly  Father  is  going  to 
give  us  victory  there  too,  because  we  need  it, 
in  order  to  bisect  the  Confederacy  and  have 
the  Mississippi  flow  unvexed  to  the  sea." 

When  he  entered  upon  the  task  to  which 
the  people  of  the  United  States  had  called 
him,  at  the  railway  station  in  Springfield  on 
the  eve  of  his  departure  to  Washington  to 
take  the  oath  of  office,  he  delivered  an  ad- 
dress. It  is  a  model.  I  quote  it  entire.  It 
is  as  follows : 

"  My  friends,  no  one  not  in  my  position 
can  realize  the  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting. 
To  this  people  I  owe  all  that  I  am.  Here  I 
have  lived  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
Here  my  children  were  born,  and  here  one 
of  them  lies  buried.  I  know  not  how  soon  I 
shall  see  you  again.  I  go  to  assume  a  task 
more  than  that  which  has  devolved  upon  any 
other  man  since  the  days  of  Washington. 
He  never  would  have  succeeded  except  for 
the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he 
at  all  times  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot  suc- 
ceed without  the  same  Divine  blessing  which 
sustained  him,  and  on  the  same  almighty 
Being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support.  And 
I  hope  you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I 
may  receive  that  Divine  assistance,  without 
which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  suc- 


cess is  certain.     Again,  I  bid  you  an  affec- 
tionate farewell." 

At  the  time  of  Lincoln's  assassination  these 
words  were  printed  in  a  great  variety  of 
forms.  In  my  home  for  a  number  of  years, 
beautifully  framed,  these  parting  words  ad- 
dressed to  the  friends  of  many  years  in 
Springfield.  111.,  ornamented  my  humble  resi- 
dence. And  yet  one  of  his  biographers  refers 
to  this  address  as  if  its  genuineness  may  well 
be  doubted.  At  the  time  of  its  delivery  it 
was  taken  down  and  published  broadcast  in 
the  papers  of  the  day. 

But  it  would  be  wearisome  to  you  to  recite 
all  the  evidences  bearing  on  the  religious 
character  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  John  G. 
Nicolay  well  says :  "  Benevolence  and  for- 
giveness were  the  very  basis  of  his  charac- 
ter; his  world-wide  humanity  is  aptly  em- 
bodied in  a  phrase  of  his  second  inaugural : 
'  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all.'  His  nature  was  deeply  religious,  but  he 
belonged  to  no  denomination ;  he  had  faith 
in  the  eternal  justice  and  boundless  mercy  of 
Providence,  and  made  the  Golden  Rule  of 
Christ  his  practical  creed." 

In  this  passage  Mr.  Nicolay  refers  espe- 
cially to  Lincoln's  second  inaugural  address. 
This  address  has  the  ring  of  an  ancient  He- 
brew prophet.  Only  a  man  of  faith  and  piety 
could  deliver  such  an  address.  After  the 
struggles  through  which  the  country  had 
passed  Lincoln's  self-poise  his  confidence  in 
God,  his  belief  in  and  affection  for  his  fellow 
men,  remained  unabated.  In  Lincoln's  sec- 
ond inaugural  nddr'^ss  he  used  these  words: 

"  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the- 
magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has  al- 
ready attained :  neither  anticipated  that  the' 
cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease  when  or 
even  before  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  re- 
sult less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both 
read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God, 
and  each  invokes  His  aid  against  the  other. 
It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should 
dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wring- 
ing their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's 
faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be 
answered;  that  of  neither  has  been  answered 
fully. 

"  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes. 
'  Wo  unto  the  world  because  of  offenses,  for 
it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come ;  but  wo 
to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh.' 
If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery 
is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which, 
having  continued  through  His  appointed  time. 
He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives 
to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war, 
as  the  wo  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense 
came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure 
from  those  divine  attributes  which  the  be- 
lievers in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to 
Him?  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we 
pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may 
speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that 
it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 


482 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


bondsman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  with  a  lash  shall  be 
paid  with  another  drawn  by  a  sword,  as  was 
said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must 
be  said.  '  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are 
true  and  righteous  altogether.' 

"  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity 
for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God 
gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to 
finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind  up  the 
Nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and 
his  orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  our- 
selves and  with  all  nations." 

The  spirit  of  this  address,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, is  intensely  Christian,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  speeches  in  the 
literature  of  the  world. 

When  Lincoln  was  urged  to  issue  his 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  he  waited  on 
God  for  guidance.  He  said  to  some  who 
urged  this  matter,  who  were  anxious  to  have 
the  President  act  without  delay:  "I  hope  it 
will  not  be  irreverent  for  me  to  say  that,  if 
it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  His  will 
to  others  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my 
duty,  it  might  be  supposed  He  would  reveal 
it  directly  to  me,  for,  unless  I  am  more  de- 
ceived in  myself  that  I  often  am,  it  is  my 
earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of  Providence 
in  this  matter,  and  if  I  can  learn  what  it  is, 
I  will  do  it." 

Stoddard,  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  gives 
attention  beyond  any  of  his  biographers  to 
the  religious  side  of  Lincoln's  character. 
Commenting  on  the  inaugural  from  which  I 
have  quoted,  Mr.  Stoddard  said : 

"  His  mind  and  soul  had  reached  the  full 
development  in  a  religious  life  so  unusually 
intense  and  absorbing  that  it  could  not  other- 
wise than  utter  itself  in  the  grand  sentences 


of  his  last  address  to  the  people.  The  knowl- 
edge had  come,  and  the  faith  had  come,  and 
the  charitv  had  come,  and  with  all  had  come 
the  love  of  God  which  had  put  away  all 
thought  of  rebellious  resistance  to  the  will 
of  God  leading,  as  in  his  earlier  days  of 
trial,  to  despair  and  insanity." 

I  wish  to  call  special  attention  to  Lincoln's 
temperance  habits.  He  was  a  teetotaler  so 
far  as  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  as  a 
beverage  was  concerned.  When  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Chicago  convention  waited  upon 
Lincoln  to  inform  him  of  his  nomination  he 
treated  them  to  ice-water  and  said : 

"  Gentlemen,  we  must  pledge  our  mutual 
healths  in  the  most  healthy  beverage  which 
God  has  given  to  man.  It  is  the  only  bev- 
erage I  have  ever  used  or  allowed  in  my 
family,  and  I  cannot  conscientiously  depart 
from  it  on  the  present  occasion.  It  is  pure 
Adam's  ale  from  the  spring." 

Mr.  John  Hay,  one  of  his  biographers, 
says :  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  exceed- 
ingly temperate  habits.  He  made  no  use  of 
either  whisky  or  tobacco  during  all  the  years 
that  I  knew  him." 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  model  in  every  re- 
spect but  one.  It  was  a  mistake  on  the  part 
of  this  great  and  good  man  that  he  never 
identified  himself  openly  with  the  Church.  I 
know  what  can  be  said  in  favor  of  his  posi- 
tion. It  is  not,  however,  satisfactory.  If  all 
men  were  to  act  in  this  matter  as  Lincoln 
did,  there  would  be  no  Church.  This  is  ob- 
vious. Hence  the  mistake  which  he  made. 
Otherwise,  as  to  his  personal  habits ;  as  to 
his  confidence  in  God ;  as  to  his  faith 
in  man ;  as  to  his  conception  and  use  of 
the  Bible;  as  to  his  habits  of  prayer;  as 
to  his  judicial  fairness;  as  to  his  sympathy 
with  men — in  all  these  respects,  as  in  many 
others,  Abraham  Lincoln  is  a  character  to  be 
studied  and  imitated. — H.  R. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


ANECDOTE,  An.— When  Lincoln  was  a 
young  man  he  developed  that  liking  for  tell- 
ing stories  which  will  be  remembered  as 
long  as  his  courage  and  statesmanship.  He 
is  said  to  have  kept  a  grocery  store  audience 
spellbound  with  his  story-telling  and  his 
jokes,  on  court  days,  until  midnight. 

However,  as  Lincoln  found  time  about 
these  days  to  master  and  practise  the  law, 
and  to  delve  into  literature  and  perfect  his 
skill  in  the  use  of  the  English  language,  he 
could  hardly  have  wasted  much  time  in  this 
amiable  diversion. 

A  senator  of  the  United  States  recently  re- 
lated an  incident  which  illustrates  Lincoln's 
aptness  in  quaint  and  vigorous  allegory. 
The  senator  said  that  Lincoln's  son  had 
given  him  copies  of  two  letters,  both  ad- 
dressed to  a  certain  corps  commander  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  on  the  eve  of  a  for- 


ward movement,  one  of  them  written  by 
General  Halleck,  chief  of  staff,  and  the  other 
by  President  Lincoln. 

General  Halleck's  letter  was  full  of  formal 
and  military  technical  terms,  and  contained 
a  warning  couched  in  this  fashion: 

"  In  undertaking  to  place  your  command 
on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Rappahannock 
River,  you  will  exercise  extreme  caution  in 
affording  full  protection  to  advance,  rear 
and  flanks,  in  order  that  the  enemy  may  not 
be  encouraged  to  make  an  attack  while  your 
forces  are  separated  in  the  act  of  cross- 
ing." 

This  was  good  advice.  Lincoln  gave  it  to 
the  same  commander  in  the  note  which  he 
wrote  to  him ;  but  this  was  the  form  in 
which  he  expressed  it : 

"  Look  out,  when  you  cross  the  river, 
that    you    don't    hang    yourself    up    in    the 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


483 


middle  like  a  steer  on  a  fence,  neither  able 
to  hook  with  your  horns  nor  kick  with  your 
hoofs." 

Lincoln's  comments  on  men  and  things 
during  his  presidency  often  had  a  piquancy 
which  forced  them  deep  into  men's  minds. 
This  very  quality  of  distinct  and  concise 
utterance  undoubtedly  saved  many  hours  of 
time  which  might  otherwise  have  been  spent 
in  explanations.  It  was  well  adapted,  too, 
to  the  rough  and  perilous  times  of  the  Civil 
War.— Y.  C. 

CAMP,  Lincoln  in. — On  the  morning  after 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  was  in  a  sorry  condition.  Officers 
were  looking  after  their  men,  and  men  were 
looking  after  their  officers.  A  cold,  drizzling 
rain  was  falling,  tents  and  rations  were  want- 
ing, and  worse  yet,  the  army  had  been  beaten, 
and  had  not  had  time  to  recover  itself.  The 
chronicler  of  the  Seventy-ninth  New  York 
Regiment  pictures  the  scene  as  he  saw  it, 
and  in  the  same  connection  relates  a  charac- 
teristic anecdote  of  President  Lincoln. 

During  the  forenoon  a  few  of  us  had 
gathered  in  a  barn,  where  we  sat  nursing 
our  woes.  "  I  want  to  go  home  "  was  pic- 
tured on  every  countenance. 

Colonel  Sherman — the  future  general-in- 
chief  of  the  army — came  in  while  we  were 
talking,  accompanied  by  two  or  three  mem- 
bers of  his  staff,  and  in  what  appeared  to  us 
a  gruff  and  unsympathetic  tone,  wanted  to 
know  what  we  were  doing  here. 

"  Keeping  out  of  the  rain,"  was  the  reply. 
"  We  have  no  tents,  and  few  of  us  have 
blankets ;    and  we  have  nothing  to  eat." 

"  Well,  you  had  better  go  down  in  the 
woods  and  build  bush  huts.  I  want  to  put 
my  horses  in  here." 

We  were  in  no  condition  to  remonstrate, 
but  we  had  our  opinion  of  an  officer  who 
would  turn  men  out  of  shelter  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  it  to  dumb  brutes. 

Colonel  Sherman's  object  was  no  doubt  a 
good  one.  He  knew  that  brooding  over  our 
troubles  would  do  us  more  harm  than  good. 
But  he  might  have  advised  us  in  a  more 
kindly  manner. 

Next  morning  we  moved  to  a  better  situa- 
tion, and  in  the  afternoon  were  honored  by 
a  visit  from  the  President.  As  his  carriage 
drove  up  we  noticed  Colonel  Sherman  occu- 
pying a  seat  by  his  side. 

There  was  no  formal  reception  given  the 
President ;  he  merely  drove  through  the 
camp,  and  as  he  stopped  before  each  regi- 
ment the  men  gathered  round  his  carriage 
and  listened  to  a  few  words  of  sympathy  and 
encouragement. 

"  Now,  boys,  keep  up  a  good  heart,  and  all 
will  yet  be  well,"  was  his  concluding  sen- 
tence. 

As  he  motioned  the  driver  to  go  on,  one 
of  our  men  thought  it  a  good  opportunity  to 
get  even  with  Colonel  Sherman. 

"  Mr.  President,"  said  he.  "  we  don't  think 
Colonel  Sherman  has  treated  us  very  well ;  " 
and  he  went  on  to  relate  the  incident  of  the 
barn. 


President  Lincoln  listened  patiently  till  the 
story  was  ended,  and  then,  half-turning  to- 
ward Colonel  Sherman,  who  had  sat  like  a 
statue  during  the  recital,  he  said : 

"  Well,  boys,  I  have  a  great  deal  of  re- 
spect for  Colonel  Sherman,  and  if  he  turned 
you  out  of  the  barn  I  have  no  doubt  it  was 
for  some  good  reason.  I  presume  he  thought 
you  would  feel  better  if  you  went  to  work 
and  tried  to  forget  your  troubles." 

With  a  bow  and  a  wave  of  his  hand  he  told 
the  driver  to  go  on  to  the  next  camp. 

It  was  wonderful  how  much  good  that 
thoughtful  visit  of  the  President  worked  in 
the  minds  of  the  men.  In  the  grave,  serious, 
yet  kindly  face  of  Lincoln  we  each  saw  a 
sympathizing  friend,  and  our  own  burden 
became  lighter  as  we  reflected  on  the  terrible 
load  our  chief  magistrate  was  carrying  on 
his  own  heart. — Y.  C. 

FREEDOM'S  MEMORIAL.— The  name 
of  Mrs.  Charlotte  Scott,  a  colored  woman, 
which  at  one  time  was  doubtless  upon  the 
lips  of  every  man  and  woman  in  the  United 
States,  is  now  read  by  the  thousands  who 
annually  visit  the  Lincoln  statue  in  Lincoln 
Park.  Inscribed  upon  one  of  the  bronze 
tablets  resting  upon  the  base  is  the  follow- 
ing: 

FREEDOM'S  MEMORIAL. 
In  grateful   memory  of 
Abraham  Lincoln 
This  monument  was  erected 
By  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission 
Of  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
With  funds  contributed  solely  by 
Emancipated  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
Declared  free  by  his  proclamation 
January  i,  a.  d.  1863. 
The    first    contribution    of    five    dollars    was 
made  by  Charlotte  Scott,  a  freed  woman  of 
Virginia,  being  her  first  earnings  in  free- 
dom,  and   consecrated   by   her   sugges- 
tion and  request  on  the  day  she  heard 
of    President    Lincoln's    death    to 
build  a  monument  to  his  memory. 

The  woman  whose  name  is  thus  honored 
died  at  her  home,  Reusens,  a  little  railroad 
station  about  four  miles  from  Lynchburg, 
Va..  in  the  109th  year  of  her  age.  As  stated 
in  the  inscription,  she  was  the  first  to  con- 
tribute to  the  erection  of  a  monument  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  at  that  time  lived  in 
Marietta,  Ohio.  It  is  said  that  when  she 
heard  of  the  assassination  of  the  President, 
she  exclaimed :  "  Lord,  have  mercy — and 
Massa  Lincoln  is  killed !  He  ought  to  have 
a  monument,  and  I  am  going  to  give  the  last 
cent  I  have  for  it ;  "  and  immediately  con- 
tributed—perhaps through  Professor  J.  M. 
Langston,  who  was  living  in  Marietta  at  the 
time  and  knew  her  intimately — the  sum  of 
$5.  The  "  St.  Louis  Commission,"  as  it  is 
known,  was  soon  afterward  formed,  and 
taking  this  $5  as  a  nucleus,  collected  the  fund 
for  the  erection  of  the  famous  emancipation 
group  that  now  adorns  Lincoln  Park.— W,  S. 

LINCOLN.— His  was  a  vigorous  mind. 
He    possessed    that    quality    we    call    genius. 


484 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Franklin  had  it  and  lassoed  the  lightnings. 
Webster  had  it,  and  expounded  the  Constitu- 
tion. Morse  had  it,  and  sent  electricity  with 
his  messages.  Edison  has  it,  and  machinery 
talks  for  him.  Longfellow  and  Holmes  and 
Whittier  had  it.  Heaven  robed  them  with  a 
mantle  of  song.  They  made  the  land  "  a 
nest  of  singing  birds."  Clay  and  Phillips 
and  Beecher  had  it,  and  their  words  "  fell 
like  the  winter's  snows."  Lincoln  had  it, 
and  his  passion  for  thought  and  learning 
consumed  him.  He  sought  both  truth  and 
power  to  pen  and  voice  truth.  His  genius 
and  training  sent  him  forth  equipped  as  an 
eloquent  orator,  an  able  advocate,  a  skilful 
debater,  an  illustrious  statesman.  "  He  won 
that  high  honor  all  great  leaders  have  cov- 
eted. He  was  the  shepherd  of  his  people. 
He  fed  the  North  with  charity,  the  South 
with  mercy,  and  the  whole  land  with  peace." 
—Rev.  Charles  E.  Allison.     (P.  M.) 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  BIBLE.— Except 
the  instructions  of  his  mother,  the  Bible  more 
powerfully  controlled  the  intellectual  devel- 
opment of  the  son  than  all  other  causes  com- 
bined. He  memorized  many  of  its  chapters 
and  had  them  perfectly  at  his  command. 
Early  in  his  professional  life  he  learned  that 
the  most  useful  of  all  books  to  the  public 
speaker  was  the  Bible.  After  i8S7  he  seldom 
made  a  speech  which  did  not  contain  quota- 
tions from  the  Bible.— L.  E.  Chittenden. 

LINCOLN'S  FIGHT.— When  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  twenty-five  years  old,  his  life 
appeared  to  have  been  a  failure.  He  had  re- 
tired from  keeping  a  country  store  and  from 
surveying  land,  loaded  with  debt.  Nomi- 
nated for  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  he  had 
been  badly  defeated.  But  at  the  age  of  twen- 
ty-five he  was  again  nominated,  and  this  time 
he  was  elected.  He  was  re-elected  three  times, 
and  in  1840  devoted  himself  to  the  prac- 
tise of  law.  L.  E.  Chittenden,  in  his  Personal 
Reminiscences,  expresses  the  opinion  that 
the  turning-point  in  Lincoln's  career  was  a 
fight,  and  that  his  success  in  life  dates  from 
his  winning  it. 

In  those  primitive  days  Lincoln  was  looked 
upon  as  the  champion  of  New  Salem,  he 
being  the  tallest  and  strongest  man  in  the 
township,  its  best  wrestler  and  jumper.  He 
was  not  a  fighting  man,  but  the  bragging  of 
his  townsmen  caused  him  to  be  challenged 
by  the  champion  of  Clary's  Grove,  the  neigh- 


boring village — one  Jack  Armstrong,  a  good- 
natured  giant. 

The  contest  to  determine  who  was  the 
better  man  had  only  two  rules.  There  was 
to  be  "  no  grasping  or  hitting  below  the 
belt,"  and  he  who  should  first  "  down  "  the 
other  man  was  to  be  the  victor. 

The  male  population  of  the  two  villages 
gathered  to  see  the  two  men  strive  for  the 
honor  of  their  respective  localities. 

Armstrong  was  supposed  to  be  invincible 
as  a  wrestler.  Grasping  Lincoln's  body,  he 
tried  to  throw  him.  Lincoln  kept  himself 
upright,  tho  Armstrong  moved  him  from 
right  to  left,  forward  and  backward,  and  tried 
in  vain  to  trip  him. 

Excited  by  his  failure  and  by  the  shouts  of 
his  friends,  Armstrong  grasped  Lincoln  far 
below  the  hips — a  foul  hold.  Lincoln  pro- 
tested against  the  unfairness,  but  his  adver- 
sary, disregarding  the  remonstrance,  tried  to 
throw  him. 

Then  Lincoln,  whose  arms  were  unusually 
long,  shot  out  his  right  arm,  caught  Arm- 
strong by  the  throat,  forced  him  to  release 
his  hold,  and  holding  him  at  arm"s  length, 
shook  him  as  a  terrier  shakes  a  rat.  The 
Clary's  Grove  boys,  seeing  that  their  cham- 
pion was  beaten,  rushed  to  assist  him. 

"  No,  no,  boys !  "  shouted  honest  Jack,  in 
spite  of  the  grasp  on  his  throat.  "  Abe  Lin- 
coln has  whipped  me  fair  and  square !  He's 
the  best  man.  If  he'll  let  me  up,  the  man 
that  wants  to  whip  him  has  first  got  to  whip 
Jack  Armstrong." 

This  manly  expression  ended  the  contest. 
The  two  men  became  warm  friends.  Arm- 
strong's house  was  one  of  Lincoln's  homes. 
Armstrong's  wife  became  his  good  angel ; 
her  children  cliinbed  up  his  knees  and  kissed 
the  sadness  away  from  his  melancholy  face. 
Armstrong  helped  to  elect  him  to  the  Legis- 
lature, and  years  after  Lincoln  successfully 
defended  one  of  the  sons  who  had  sat  on  his 
knee,  when  tried  for  murder. — Y.  C. 

WORK,  One's. — I  know  there  is  a  God 
and  that  He  hates  injustice  and  slavery.  I 
see  the  storm  coming  and  I  know  that  His 
hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has  a  place  and  work 
for  me— and  I  think  He  has— I  believe  I  am 
ready.  I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  every- 
thing. I  know  I  am  right  because  I  know 
that  liberty  is  right,  for  Christ  teaches  it,  and 
Christ  is  God. — Abraham  Lincoln. 


POETRY 


Abraham  Lincoln 

By  Joel  Benton 

Some  opulent  force  of  genius,  soul  and  race, 

Some  deep  life-current  from  far  centuries 

Flowed  to  his  mind,   and  lighted  his  sad 

eyes. 

And  gave  his  name,  among  great  names,  high 

place. 


But  these  are  miracles  we  may  not  trace — 
Nor  say  why  from  a  source  and  lineage 

mean 
He  rose  to  grandeur  never  dreamt  or  seen, 

Or  told  on  the  long  scroll  of  history's  space. 

The  tragic  fate  of  one  broad  hemisphere 
Fell    on    stern   days   to   his    supreme   con- 
trol, 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


485 


All  that  the  world  and  liberty  held  dear 
Pressed   like   a   nightmare    on   his   patient 
soul. 
Martyr   beloved,    on    whom,    when   life   was 

done 
Fame  looked,  and  saw  another  Washington! 

L 
Lincoln 

By  John  Vance  Cheney 

The  hour  was  on  us;    where  the  man? 
The  fateful  sands  unfaltering  ran, 

And  up  the  way  of  tears 

He  came  into  the  years, 

Our   pastoral    captain.     Forth    he   came. 
As  one  that  answers  to  his  name; 
Nor  dreamed  how  high  his  charge, 
His  work  how  fair  and  large, — 

To  set  the  stones  back  in  the  wall 
Lest  the  divided  house   should  fall. 

And  peace   from   men   depart, 

Hope  and  the  childlike  heart. 

We  looked  on  him ;    "  'Tis  he,"  we  said, 
*'  Come  crownless  and  unheralded, 
The  shepherd  who  will  keep 
The  flocks,  will  fold  the  sheep." 

Unknightly,  yes;   yet  'twas  the  mien 
Presaging  the  immortal  scene, 

Some  battle  of  His  wars 

Who  sealeth  up  the  stars. 

Not  he  would  take  the  past  between 
His  hands,  wipe  valor's  tablets  clean, 

Commanding  greatness  wait 

Till  he  stand  at  the  gate; 

Not  he  would  cramp  to  one  small  head 
The  awful  laurels  of  the  dead. 

Time's  mighty  vintage  cup. 

And  drink  all  honor  up. 

No  flutter  of  the  banners  bold 
Borne  by  the  lusty  sons  of  old, 

The  haughty  conquerors 

Set  forward  to  their  wars; 

Not  his  their  blare,  their  pageantries, 
Their  goal,  their  glory,  was  not  his; 

Humbly  he  came  to  keep 

The  flocks,  to  fold  the  sheep. 

The  need  comes  not  without  the  man; 
The  prescient  hours  unceasing  ran. 

And  up  the  way  of  tears 

He  came  into  the  years, 

Our  pastoral  captain,  skilled  to  crook 
The  spear  into  the  pruning  hook. 

The  simple,  kindly  man, 

Lincoln,  American. 

In. 

Abraham  Lincoln 
By  Florence  Evelyn  Pratt 

Lincoln,  the  woodsman,  in  the  clearing  stood, 
Hemmed  by  the  solemn   forest   stretching 
round ; 

Stalwart,  ungainly,  honest-eyed  and  rude, 
The  genius  of  that  solitude  profound. 


He  clove  the  way  that  future  millions  trod, 
He   passed,    unmoved   by   worldly   fear   or 
pelf; 

In  all  his  lusty  toil  he  found  not  God, 
Tho  in  the  wilderness  he  found  himself. 

Lincoln,    the    President,    in   bitter    strife. 

Best-loved,  worst-hated  of  all  living  men, 
Oft  single-handed,  for  the  nation's  life 

Fought  on,  nor  rested  ere  he  fought  again. 

With  one  unerring  purpose  armed,  he  clove 

Through    selfish    sin;     then    overwhelmed 

with  care. 

His  great  heart  sank  beneath  its  load  of  love : 

Crushed  to  his  knees,  he  found  his  God  in 

prayer. 

Y.  C. 
Lincoln 

By  Maurice  Thompson 

His  was  the  tireless  strength  of  native  truth, 
The   might   of   rugged,    untaught    earnest- 
ness. 
Deep-freezing  poverty  made  brave  his  youth, 
And  toned  his   manhood   with   its   winter 
stress. 

Y.  C. 
Abraham  Lincoln 

THE   LIFE    MASK 

At  the  National  Museum  in   Washington 
By  Stuart  Sterne 

Ah,  countless  wonders,  brought   from  every 
zone, 
Not  all  your  wealth  could  turn  the  heart 

away 
From  that  one  semblance  of  our  common 

clay. 
The  brow  whereon  the  precious  life,  long 
flown. 
Leaving  a  homely  glory  all   its  own. 

Seems  still  to  linger  with  a  mournful  play 
Of   light   and   shadow !— His,   who   held   a 

sway 
And  power  of  magic  to  himself  unknown. 
Through  what  is  granted  but  God's  chosen 
few. 
Earth's   crownless,   yet   anointed  kings, — a 

soul 
Divinely  simple  and  sublimely  true 
In  that  unconscious  greatness  that  shall  bless 
This  petty  world  while  stars  their  courses 

roll, 
Whose   finest    flower   is   self-forgetfulness. 

C.  M. 
The  Cenotaph 

By  James  T.  Mackay 

And   so  they  buried  Lincoln?     Strange  and 

vain ! 
Has  any  creature  thought  of  Lincoln  hid 
In  any  vault,  'neath  any  coffin-lid, 
In  all  the  years  since  that  wild  spring  of 

pain? 
'Tis  false, — he  never  in  the  grave  hath  lain. 
You  could  not  bury  him  altho  you  slid 
Upon  his  clay  the  Cheops  pyramid 
Or    heaped   it    with    the    Rocky    Mountain 

chain. 


486 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


They  slew  themselves ;    they  but  set  Lincoln 
free. 
In  all   the   earth  his  great  heart  beats   as 

strong, 
Shall   beat   while   pulses   throb   to  chivalry 
And  burn  with  hate  of  tyranny  and  wrong. 
Whoever  will  may  find  him,  anywhere 
Save  in  the  tomb.     Not  there, — he  is  not 
there. 

C.  M. 
The  Proclamation 

By  John  G.  Whittier 

Saint  Patrick,   slave  to  Milcho  of  the  herds 
Of  Ballymena,    wakened  with   these   words : 

"  Arise,  and  flee 
Out  from  the  land  of  bondage,  and  be  free !  " 

Glad  as  a  soul  in  pain,  who  hears  from  heaven 
The  angels  singing  of  his  sins  forgiven, 

And,  wondering,   sees 
His  prison  opening  to  their  golden  keys, 

He  rose,  a  man  who  laid  him  down,  a  slave, 
Shook  from  his  locks  the  ashes  of  the  grave, 

And  outward  trod 
Into  the  glorious  liberty  of  God. 

He  cast  the   symbols  of  his   shame  away ; 
And,  passing  where  the  sleeping  Milcho  lay, 

Tho  back  and  limb 
Smarted  with  wrong,  he  prayed,  "  God  par- 
don him !  " 

So  went  he  forth ;   but  in  God's  time  he  came 
To  light  on  Uilline's- hills  a  holy  flame; 

And,  dying,  gave 
The  land  a  saint  that  lost  him  as  a  slave. 

O  dark,  sad  millions,  patiently  and  dumb. 
Waiting   for    God,   your   home,    at   last,    has 

come, 
And  freedom's  song 
Breaks    the    long    silence    of   your    night    of 

wrong. 

Arise  and  flee !    shake  off  the  vile  restraint 
Of  ages ;    but,  like  Ballymena's  saint, 

The  oppressor  spare. 
Heap  only  on  his  head  the  coals  of  prayer. 

Go  forth,  like  him  !   like  him  return  again, 
To  bless  the  land  whereon  in  bitter  pain 

Ye  toiled  at  first. 
And   heal   with   freedom  what  your   slavery 
cursed. 

Abraham  Lincoln 

By   James    Russell   Lowell 

Such  was  he,  our  Martyr-Chief, 
Whom  late  the  nation  he  had  led, 

With  ashes  on  her  head. 
Wept   with   the  passion   of  an   angry  grief; 
Forgive  me,  if  from  present  things  I  turn 
To  speak,   what  in  my  heart  will  beat  and 

burn, 
And  hang  my  wreath  on  his  world-honored 
urn. 

Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote, 

And  cannot  make  a  man 


Save  on  some  worn-out  plan. 

Repeating  us  by  rote : 
For    him    her    Old    World    molds   aside    she 
threw. 

And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West. 
With  stufif  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and 
true : 

How  beautiful  to  see 
Once  more  a  shepherd  of  mankind  indeed, 
Who  loved   his  charge,   but  never   loved   to 

lead; 
One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be. 

Not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth, 
But   by   his   clear-grained   human   worth. 
And  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity ! 

They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust; 

They  could  not  choose  but  trust 
In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 

And  supple-tempered  will 
That  bent  like  perfect  steel  to  spring  again 
and  thrust. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain-peak  of  mind. 
Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 
A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind; 
Broad  prairie   rather,   genial,   level-lined, 
Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 
Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest 
stars. 

Nothing  of  Europe  here. 
Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still 

Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer 
Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface ; 
Here  was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race, 
And  one  of  Plutarch's  men  talked  with  us 
face  to  face. 

I  praise  him  not ;    it  were  too  late ; 
And  some  innative  weakness  there  must  be 

In  him   who  condescends   to  victory 
Such  as  the  Present  gives,  and  cannot  wait, 

Safe  in  himself  as  in  a  fate. 

So  always  firmly  he : 
He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 
And  can  his  fame  abide. 
Still  patient  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 

Till  the  wise  years  decide. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 
Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 

But  at  last  silence  comes; 
These    all    are    gone,    and,    standing    like    a 

tower. 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame. 

The     kindly — earnest,     brave,      foreseeing 
man. 
Sagacious,     patient,     dreading     praise,     not 

blame. 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  Ameri- 


The  Moral  Warfare 

By  John  G.  Whittier 

When  Freedom,  on  her  natal  day. 
Within  her  war-rocked  cradle  lay, 
An  iron  race  around  her  stood, 
Baptized    her    infant    brow    in    blood ; 
And,    through    the    storm    which    round   her 

swept. 
Their  constant  ward  and  watching  kept. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


487 


Then,  where  our  quiet  herds  repose, 
The  roar  of  baleful  battle  rose, 
And  brethren  of  a  common  tongue 
To  mortal  strife  as  tigers  sprung, 
And   every   gift   on    Freedom's    shrine 
Was  man  for  beast,  and  blood  for  wine ! 

Our  fathers  to  their  graves  have  gone; 
Their  strife  is  past — their  triumph  won ; 
But  sterner  trials  wait  the  race 
Which    rises   in  their   honored  place, 
A  moral  warfare  with  the  crime 
And  folly  of  an  evil  time. 

So  let  it  be.     In  God's  own  might 

We  gird  us   for  the  coming  fight, 

And.   strong  in  Him  whose  cause  is  ours 

In  conflict  with  unholy  powers. 

We  grasp  the  weapons   He  has   given, — 

The  Light,  and  Truth,  and  Love  of  Heaven. 

O  Why   Should  the   Spirit  of  Mortal  Be 
Proud 

(President  Lincoln's  Favorite  Poem.) 

By  William  Knox 

O  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 
Like    a    fast-flitting    meteor,    a    swift-flying 

cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
Man    passeth    from    life    to   his    rest   in   the 

grave. 

The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall 

fade. 
Be  scatter'd  around,  and  together  be  laid : 
And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and 

the  high. 
Shall  molder  to  dust  and  together  shall  lie. 

The  infant  a  mother  attended  and  loved, 
The     mother    that     infant's     affection     who 

proved. 
The   husband   that   mother    and   infant    who 

blessed — 
Each,  all,  are  away  to  their  dwellings  of  rest. 

The  maid  on  whose  cheek,  on  whose  brow,  in 

whose  eye, 
Shone    beauty    and    pleasure — her    triumphs 

are  by : 
And  the  memory  of  those  who  loved  her  and 

praised. 
Are    alike    from    the    minds    of  the    living 

erased. 

The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  scepter  hath 

borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  miter  hath 

worn. 
The  eye  of  the  sage,  and  the  heart  of  the 

brave. 
Are    hidden   and  lost   in   the   depths   of  the 

grave. 

The  peasant  whose  lot  was  to  sow  and  to 

reap. 
The   herdsman   who  climb'd   with  his  goats 

up  the  steep. 
The  beggar  who  wandered  in  search  of  his 

bread. 
Have  faded  away  like  the  grass  that  we  tread. 


The    saint    who   enjoyed   the   communion   of 

heaven, 
The  sinner  who  dared  to  remain  unforgiven. 
The  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  guilty  and  just, 
Have    quietly    mingled    their    bones    in    the 

dust. 

So  the  multitude  goes,  like  the  flower  and 
weed. 

That  wither  away  to  let  others  succeed ; 

So  the  multitude  comes,  even  those  we  be- 
hold. 

To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told. 

For  we  are  the  same  that  our  fathers  have 

been. 
We   see   the    same    sights    our    fathers    have 

seen ; 
We    drink   the    same    stream,    and   view   the 

same  sun. 
And  run  the   same  course  that  our   fathers 

have  run. 

The   thoughts    we   are   thinking  our   fathers 

would   think ; 
From  the  death  we  are  shrinking  from,  they 

too  would  shrink ; 
To   the   life    we   are   clinging   to,    they,    too, 

would  cling ; 
But  it  speeds  from  the  earth,  like  a  bird  on 

the  wing. 

They  loved,  but  that  story  we  cannot  unfold ; 

They  scorn'd,  but  the  heart  of  the  haughty 
is  cold ; 

They  grieved,  but  no  wail  from  their  slum- 
bers will  come ; 

They  joy'd,  but  the  voice  of  their  gladness  is 
dumb. 

They  died — ay !  they  died ;  and  we  things 
that  are  now. 

Who  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their 
brow. 

Who  make  in  their  dwelling  a  transient 
abode. 

Meet  the  changes  they  met  on  their  pilgrim- 
age road. 

Yea !     hope   and   despondency,    pleasure   and 

pain. 
Are  mingled  together  in  sunshine  and  rain, 
And  the  smile  and  the  tear,  the  song  and  the 

dirge. 
Still  follow  each  other,  like  surge  upon  surge. 

'Tis  the  wink  of  an  eye,  'tis  the  draught  of  a 

breath. 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness 

of  death, 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the 

shroud — 
O  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud? 

Funeral  of  Lincoln 

By  Richard  Henry   Stoddard 

Peace !     Let   the    long   procession   come. 
For,  hark! — the  mournful,  muffled  drum, 

The  trumpet's  wail  afar; 

And  see  !    the  awful  car ! 


488 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Peace !     Let  the  sad  procession  go, 
While  cannon  boom,  and  bells  toll  slow. 

And  go  thou  sacred  car, 

Bearing  our  wo  afar! 

Go,  darkly  borne,  from  State  to  State, 
Whose  loyal,  sorrowing  cities  wait 
To  honor  all   they  can. 
The  dust  of  that  good  man ! 

Go,  grandly  borne,  with  such  a  train 
As  greatest  kings  might  die  to  gain: 

The  just,  the  wise,  the  brave 

Attend  thee  to  the  grave ! 

And  you,  the  soldiers  of  our  wars, 
Bronzed    veterans,    grim    with    noble    scars, 
Salute  him  once  again, 
Your  late  commander, — slain. 


So  sweetly,  sadly,  sternly  goes 

The  fallen  to  his  last  repose. 

Beneath  no  mighty  dome, 
But  in  his  modest  home. 

The  churchyard  where  his  children  rest, 
The  quiet  spot  that  suits  him  best. 
There  shall  his  grave  be  made, 
And  there  his  bones  be  laid ! 

And  there  his  countrymen  shall  come. 
With  memory  proud,  with  pity  dumb, 
And  strangers,  far  and  near. 
For  many  and  many  a  year ! 

For  many  a  year  and  many  an  age, 
While  History  on  her  ample  page 

The  virtues  shall  enroll 

Of  that  paternal  soul! 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY  489 

WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 

(February  22) 

THE  traveler  in  Germany,  leaving  Cologne  on  the  Rhine  steamer,  sees  a  few 
ordinary  houses  near  the  pier.  But  as  the  city  recedes  in  the  distance,  the 
Cathedral  spires  are  seen,  then  its  roof,  and  then  its  body,  apparently  growing 
larger  with  the  increase  of  distance.  All  ordinary  houses  are  soon  unnoticed, 
and  the  Cathedral  seems  to  stand  alone  in  sublime  harmony  and  vastness  of  pro- 
portions, silhouetted  against  the  blue  background  of  the  sky.  Similarly,  in  the 
eyes  of  his  contemporaries,  George  Washington  was  a  great  man ;  but  it  has  been 
only  as  he  has  receded  down  the  stream  of  history  that  the  greatness  and  sym- 
metry of  the  proportions  of  his  achievements  and  character  have  been  realized: 
his  physical  strength  and  fearlessness,  his  mental  penetration,  prudence  and  power ; 
his  moral  integrity,  and  religious  devotion. 

George  Washington,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Continental  forces  in  the 
war  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  first  President  of  the  United  States,  was 
born  February  22,  1732,  in  Westmoreland  County,  Virginia.  He  was  the  oldest 
son  of  Augustine  Washington,  by  his  second  wife,  Mary  Ball.  The  story  of 
his  steady  rise,  by  dint  of  hard  work  and  faithfulness,  to  the  position  of  "  First 
in  War,  First  in  Peace,  and  First  in  the  Hearts  of  his  Countrymen,"  is  a  twice- 
told  tale.  Every  year  since  the  successful  close  of  the  Revolution,  has  seen  a 
growth  in  the  respect  and  affection  in  which  Washington  has  been  held,  not  only 
by  his  countrymen,  but  by  the  wise  and  good  men  of  every  land. 

Washington's  Birthday  in  the  process  of  time  has  been  made  a  legal  holiday 
by  the  various  states,  until  now,  except  in  Mississippi,  it  is  such  in  every  state 
in  the  Union,  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  is  an  anniversary  when,  in  our 
homes  and  public  schools,  and  at  banquets  under  the  auspices  of  social  and  political 
societies,  the  people  delight  to  recall  the  simple  greatness  of  his  character,  and  the 
far-reaching  influence  of  his  deeds ;  and  to  learn  the  lessons  that  he  lived  to  teach 
his  country  and  his  race.  He  ever  stands  for  mankind  as  the  incarnation  of  the 
holy  sentiment  of  patriotism.  This  is  why  at  gatherings  assembled  to  honor  his 
memory  on  his  birthday,  among  the  words  spoken  in  his  praise,  some  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  are  those  of  the  representatives  of  the  governments  of  China  and 
Japan,  as  well  as  of  the  European  nations. 

Rufus  Choate,  in  his  eloquent  eulogy  of  Washington,  well  expresses  the 
sentiments  of  all  loyal  Americans,  as  he  exclaims : 

"  The  birthday  of  the  '  Father  of  his  Country ! '  May  it  ever  be  freshly 
remembered  by  American  hearts !  May  it  ever  reawaken  in  them  a  filial  venera- 
tion for  his  memory;  ever  rekindle  the  fires  of  patriotic  regard  for  the  country 
which  he  loved  so  well,  to  which  he  gave  his  youthful  vigor  and  his  youthful 
energy,  during  the  perilous  period  of  the  early  Indian  warfare;  to  which  he 
devoted  his  life  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  in  the  field;  to  which  again  he 
offered  the  counsels  of  his  wisdom  and  his  experience,  as  president  of  the  con- 
vention that  framed  our  Constitution ;  which  he  guided  and  directed  while  in  the 
chair  of  state,  and  for  which  the  last  prayer  of  his  earthly  supplication  was  offered 


490 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


up,  when  it  came  the  moment  for  him  so  well,  and  so  grandly,  and  so  calmly, 
to  die.  He  was  the  first  man  of  the  time  in  which  he  grew.  His  memory  is 
first  and  most  sacred  in  our  love,  and  ever  hereafter,  till  the  last  drop  of  blood 
shall  freeze  in  the  last  American  heart,  his  name  shall  be  a  spell  of  power  and 
of  might." 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY:  EARLY  CELEBRATIONS 

By  Frank  W.  Crane 


The  celebration  of  Washington's  Birthday, 
like  the  Fourth  of  July,  is  an  event  which,_it 
is  a  pleasure  to  say,  has  lost  none  of  its 
patriotic  sentiment  with  the  advance  of  years 
and  the  rapid  and  wonderful  growth  of  our 
country.  As  long  as  the  name  America  shall 
stand  for  the  principles  put  forth  in  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  the  twenty-second 
day  of  February  ought  always  to  be  remem- 
bered, and  the  indications  are  that  its  future 
will  be  happy  in  this  respect. 

It  is  rather  a  singular  fact  that  in  Wash- 
ington's voluminous  correspondence  there  is 
hardly  any  mention  of  his  birthday  and  the 
many  honors  paid  to  him  on  its 
The  First  occurrence.     About  the  only  no- 
Celebra-     tice  is  found  in  a  letter  written 
tion        to     Count    de    Rochambeau,    in 
1781.     The    occasion    of    Wash- 
ington's   reply    is    of    particular    interest    in 
American  history,  as  it  marks  the  first  nota- 
ble celebration  of  his  birthday,  and  that,  too, 
by  Frenchmen.     The  credit  belongs  wholly  to 
Count  de  Rochambeau,  and  it  was  a  graceful , 
acknowledgment    of    the    friendship    between 
the  two  countries  for  the  French  officers  to 
observe  the  birthday  of  the  American  army's 
commander  with  every  evidence  of  patriotic 
ardor.    The  French  count  had  been  in  Amer- 
ica barely  six  months,  and  was  stationed  with 
his  force  at  Newport,  R.  I.    He  had,  however, 
met  Washington,  and  a  warm  friendship  had 
sprung  up  between  them.     At  that  time  the 
old   calendar   system   was   still   generally   ad- 
hered to,  and  Washington's  Birthday,  there- 
fore,  was  February   11;    but  about   1790  the 
22d  of  the  month   was  universally  observed. 
Count    de    Rochambeau's    letter    to    General 
Washington,  acquainting  him  of  the  celebra- 
tion at   Newport,  must  have  been  a  genuine 
and    cheerful    surprise.     It    was    dated    from 
Newport.  February  12,  1781,  and  among  other 
things  the  count  says:  "Yesterday  (Sunday) 
was    the    anniversary    of    your    Excellency  s 
birthday.     We   have  put   off  celebrating  that 
holiday  till  to-day,  by   reason  of  the   Lord's 
Day,  and  we  will  celebrate  it  with  the  sole  re- 
gret that  your  Excellency  be  not  a  witness  of 
the  effusion  and  gladness  of  our  hearts.'"  _ 

Washington  received  this  letter  in  his  win- 
ter quarters  at  New  Windsor,  N.  Y.,  from 
which  place  he  was  closely  watching  the 
movements  of  the  enemy,  anxiously  awaiting 
the  time  to  strike  a  decisive  blow,  which  op- 
portunity came  the  following  October  at 
Yorktown.     The  reply  of  Washington,  dated 


February  27,  is  interesting  from  this  allusion 
to  the  celebration :  "  The  flattering  distinc- 
tion paid  to  the  anniversary  of  my  birthday 
is  an  honor  for  which  I  dare  not  attempt  to 
express  my  gratitude.  I  confide  in  your  Ex- 
cellency's sensibility  to  interpret  my  feelings 
for  this  and  for  the  obliging  manner  in  which 
you  are  pleased  to  announce  it." 

After  the  Revolution  the  people  had  more 
leisure  to  think  of  holiday  celebrations,  and 
the  highest  honors  were  paid  alike  to  Wash- 
ington's Birthday  and  the  Fourth 
Early  of  July.  In  a  certain  measure 
Celebra-  the  natal  day  of  Washington, 
tion  in  took  the  place  of  the  King's* 
New  York  Birthday,  which  had  always  been 
observed  with  varying  degrees 
of  festivity.  These  royal  holidays  being  rele- 
gated to  abject  insignificance  with  the  retire- 
ment of  the  British  from  our  shores,  it  was 
but  natural  that  the  birthday  of  America's 
great  leader  should  occupy  a  position  of  na- 
tional prominence.  The  citizens  of  New 
York,  just  as  soon  as  they  regained  control 
of  their  town,  did  not  lose  any  time  in  mani- 
festing a  proper  regard  both  for  the  day  and 
the  man.  The  first  popular  celebration  of 
the  day  in  this  city  was  in  1784,  less  than 
three  months  after  the  departure  of  the  Brit- 
ish. Altho  a  large  part  of  the  city  was  in 
ashes,  as  the  result  of  the  great  fire  in  1776, 
these  scenes  of  desolation  were  for  the  time 
forgotten  in  the  happier  events  of  the  day. 
Church  bells  rang  out  their  joyful  peals,  flags 
and  bunting  decorated  the  houses,  while  from 
the  old  fort  on  the  Battery,  patriotic  salutes 
were  fired  at  frequent  intervals.  In  the  eve- 
ning an  entertainment  was  given  on  board  an 
East  Indian  ship  in  the  harbor  "  to  a  very 
brilliant  and  respectable  company."  A  dis- 
charge of  thirteen  cannon  was  fired,  and  all 
the  exercises  of  the  day,  we  are  informed, 
were  characterized  "  with  that  hilarity  and 
manly  decorum  ever  attendant  on  the  Sons 
of  Freedom." 

It    is    interesting  to   notice   the    important 
part  played  bj'  the  number  thirteen  in  all  of 
these    early   celebrations.     The    salutes    were 
always  thirteen  in  number,  and 
Birthday    thirteen    toasts    were    invariably 
Dinners     drunk    at    the    banquets.      Later, 
as   new   states   were   added,    the 
number  increased  proportionately,   but  grad- 
ually this  custom  of  having  a  toast  for  each 
state  died  out,  possibly  because  the  drinking 
capacities  of  the  diners  were  unable  to  keep 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


491 


pace  with  the  rapid  increase  of  additions  to 
the  political  body.  The  members  of  promi- 
nent clubs  and  societies  could  always  look 
forward  to  at  least  two  sumptuous  dinners 
every  year,  on  Washington's  Birthday,  and 
the  Fourth  of  July.  Toward  the  closing  years 
of  the  last  century,  when  party  feeling  ran 
high,  these  dinners  partook  of  a  strong  politi- 
cal stamp,  and,  while  patriotism  and  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Union  were  toasted  in  highly  col- 
ored phrases,  the  men  and  opinions  of  the 
opposite  party  were  denounced  in  violent  and 
sometimes  vituperative  language.  No  better 
idea  of  the  social  customs  and  amusements  of 
our  eighteenth-century  ancestors  can  be  ob- 
tained than  by  a  study  of  their  holiday  cele- 
brations, and  the  many  incidents  of  Washing- 
ton's Birthday  recorded  in  the  papers  of  the 
time  are  full  of  amusing  as  well  as  historical 
interest. 

One  of  these  celebrations  of  over  a  century 

ago  that  should  appeal  with  peculiar  interest 

to  New  Yorkers  was  that  given  by  Tammany 

Hall  in  1790.    The  Society  of  St. 

Tammany  Tammany  had  organized  the  pre- 

Celebra-  vious  year,  and  its  members 
tion  nobly  improved  the  opportunity 
of  paying  their  respects  to  the 
man  who,  as  first  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  then  living  in  New  York  City. 
The  loyal  Tammanyites,  moreover,  adopted  a 
resolution  that  Washington's  Birthday  should 
always  be  remembered  by  the  society.  The 
account  of  this  interesting  event  as  published 
in  the  New  York  Gazette  a  few  days  after 
the  affair  is  as  follows  : 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Society  of  St.  Tam- 
many, at  their  wigwam  in  this  city,  on  Mon- 
day evening  last,  after  finishing  the  ordinary 
business  of  the  evening,  it  was  unanimously 
resolved :  That  the  22d  day  of  February  be 
from  this  day  and  ever  after  commemorated 
by  this  society  as  the  birthday  of  the  Illus- 
trious George  Washington,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  society  then 
proceeded  to  the  commemoration  of  the 
auspicious  day  which  gave  birth  to  the  dis- 
tinguished chief,  and  the  following  toasts 
were  drunk  in  porter,  the  product  of  the 
United  States,  accompanied  with  universal 
acclamations  of  applause : 

"  '  I.  May  the  auspicious  birthday  of  our 
great  Grand  Sachem,  George  Washington, 
ever  be  commemorated  by  all  the  real  sons 
of  St.  Tammany. 

"  '  2.  The  birthday  of  those  chiefs  who 
lighted  the  great  Council  Fire  in  1775. 

"  '  3.  The  glorious  Fourth  of  July,  1776,  the 
birth  of  American  Independence. 

"  '  4.  The  perpetual  memory  of  those  Sa- 
chems and  warriors  who  have  been  called  by 
the  Kitchi  Manitou  to  the  Wigwam  above 
since  the  Revolution. 

"  '  5.  The  birth  of  the  Sachems  and  war- 
riors who  have  presided  at  the  different  Coun- 
cil Fires  of  the  thirteen  tribes  since  1776. 

"  '  6.  Our  Chief  Sachem,  who  presides  over 
the  council  fire  of  our  tribe. 

"  '  7.  The  I2th  of  May.  which  is  the  birth- 
day of  our  titular  saint  and  patron. 


"  '  8.  The  birth  of  Columbus,  our  secondary 
patron. 

"  '  9.  The  memory  of  the  great  Odagh 
'Segte,  first  Great  Sachem  of  the  Oneida  Na- 
tion, and  all  its  successors. 

"  '  10.  The  friends  and  patrons  of  virtue 
and  freedom,  from  Tammany  to  Washington. 

"'11.  The  birth  of  the  present  National 
Constitution,    17th  of  September,    1787. 

"  '  12.  The  Sachem  and  warriors  who  com- 
posed that  council. 

"  '  13.  May  the  guardian  genius  of  freedom 
pronounce  at  the  birth  of  all  her  sons — Where 
Liberty  dwells,  there  is  his  country.' 

"  After  mutual  reciprocations  of  friendship 
on  the  joyous  occasion,  the  society  adjourned 
with  their  usual  order  and  harmony." 

The  year  1790  seems  to  have  called  out  a 
particularly  large  number  of  elaborate  cele- 
brations, undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that 
Washington    had    been    inaugu- 

Celebra-     rated   President   in   April   of  the 

tion  in  previous  year,  and  his  birthday 
1790  of  1790  was  the  first  time  that  it 
had  been  possible  for  the  people 
to  honor  him  as  their  chief  executive.  The 
newspapers,  for  weeks  after  the  occurrence, 
were  full  of  accounts  detailing  at  consider- 
able length  the  methods  employed  by  resi- 
dents of  other  localities  in  remembering  the 
day,  the  toasts  they  drank,  and  the  senti- 
ments they  expressed.  The  New  York  Daily 
Advertiser  copies  the  following  account  from 
a  Philadelphia  paper,  the  day  being  cele- 
brated there  according  to  the  old  style  : 

"Thursday,  the  nth,  being  the  birthday  of 
His  Excellency,  George  Washington,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  of  America,  the 
Volunteer  Company  of  Artillery  and  two 
companies  of  infantry  paraded  and  fired  a 
fell  de  joie.  Posterity  will  long  remember 
the  day  which  gave  to  America  its  political 
savior.  They  will  not  celebrate  it  as  the 
birthday  of  a  monarch  whose  annals  can  say 
no  more  than  that  he  was  born,  that  he  suc- 
ceeded his  father,  and,  dying,  left  his  king- 
dom to  his  son,  or  perhaps  contain  a  long 
catalog  of  those  black  vices  which  disgrace 
human  nature.  No — they  will,  with  grateful 
hearts,  return  thanks  to  the  Divine  Being 
who  raised  up  a  man  to  rend  asunder  the 
shackles  of  slavery  endeavored  to  be  imposed 
upon  a  free  people,  and.  after  delivering  them 
from  the  tyrants  of  a  powerful  nation,  to  save 
them  from  destruction  from  a  greater,  which 
they  little  suspected — danger  from  them- 
selves. They  will  rehearse  his  virtues  to 
their  attentive  offspring,  exhorting  them  to 
the  practise  of  them,  and  endeavor  to  set 
them  the  glorious  example." 

The   Philadelphians  of   1792  were  honored 

by  the  company  of  the  President  himself,  at 

a  ball  given  by  the  New  Dancing  Assembly, 

in  Chestnut  Street.    Mrs.  Wash- 

Celebra-     ington     was     also     there,     Vice- 

tion  in      President      John      Adams,      the 

1792        French  Minister,  and  many  other 

prominent    officials.     The    ladies 

added  largely  to  the  pleasure  of  the  evening 

by  the  originality  of  their  ideas  in  arranging 


492 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


various  patriotic  sentiments,  wrought  in  gold 
letters,  in  their  headdresses.  After  the  dance 
there  was  a  supper,  at  which  the  President 
and  his  wife  remained,  but  when  half  the 
toasts  had  been  given  the  former  rose,  drank 
the  health  of  the  company,  and,  with  Mrs. 
Washington,  retired.  Some  of  the  toasts  on 
this  occasion  were : 

"  The  land  we  live  in.  May  temperance  and 
industry  continue  to  be  characteristics  of  its 
inhabitants ;  patriotism  form  the  cement  of 
the  Union,  and  its  hospitality  open  an  uni- 
versal asylum  for  the  oppressed  and  meritori- 
ous. 

"  The  daughters  of  Columbia.  May  their 
virtues  insure  respect,  their  charms  awaken 
love,  and  Hymen  crown  them  with  domestic 
bliss. 

"  Peace  and  friendship  between  the  United 
States  and  all  the  powers  on  earth." 

The  observance  of  the  day   in   New  York 
City  in  1798  is  thus  described  in  one  of  the 
newspapers :    "  Yesterday  the  great,  the  vir- 
tuous,   the    beloved    Washington 
New  York  entered  his  sixty-fifth  year.    The 
1798      citizens  of  New  York  observed 
it  with  a  dignified  temperance,  a 
becoming  zeal !     At  ten  o'clock  a  salutatory 
discharge   of   cannon   was   fired,   and   in   the 
evening  upwards  of  four  hundred  ladies  and 
gentlemen  attended  a  grand  ball  and  supper 
at  the  Tontine  City  Assembly  rooms,  Broad- 
way.    Washington's   full-length  portrait  was 
exhibited  at  the  same  place  in  the  evening, 
which  showed  to  great  advantage."' 

That  the  college  students  of  the  time  were 
not  unmindful  of  the  return  of  patriotic  an- 
niversaries   is    shown    from    an    interesting 
newspaper      description      telling 
At  how   the  boys  of  Harvard  Col- 

Harvard  lege  honored  the  day  in  1798 : 
College  "  The  sons  of  our  University 
never  let  slip  any  opportunity  of 
doing  honor  to  the  character  they  so  much 
admire.  In  one  of  the  circles  met  to  cele- 
brate the  birthday  of  the  Hero  of  Mount 
Vernon,  among  other  toasts  was  the  follow- 
ing: George  Washington.  A  man  brave 
without  temerity,  laborious  without  ambition, 
generous  without  prodigality,  noble  without 
pride,  and  virtuous  without  secrecy.  Three 
cheers  in  pantomime  for  fear  of  disturbing 
the  peace." 

This  fear  of  disturbing  the  peace  on  spe- 
cial occasions  is  surely  not  shared  by  the 
Harvard  students  of  the  present  time,  or,  in- 
deed, by  the  students  of  any  other  college, 
judging  from  their  proclivity  to  exuberant 
outbursts  of  feeling  on  almost  every  possible 
occasion. 

The  22d  day  of  February,   1800,  was  cele- 
brated in  a  very  different  way  from  that  of 
the  previous  years.     The  death  of  America's 
great  patriot  was  still  too  fresh 
February  in    the    minds    of   the   people   to 
22,  1800   allow  of  extravagant  demonstra- 
tions  of   festivity.     The   beloved 
Washington   died   December   14,   1799.   m  his 
beautiful  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  and.  m  due 
sense  of  their  great  loss,  the  day  of  his  birth 


was  in  1800  generally  observed  as  a  day  of 
mourning.  President  Adams  issued  a  proc- 
lamation in  accordance  with  a  resolution  of 
Congress,  "  That  it  be  recommended  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  assemble  on 
the  226.  day  of  February  next,  in  such  num- 
bers and  manner  as  may  be  convenient,  pub- 
licly to  testify  their  grief  for  the  death  of 
General  George  Washington,  by  suitable  eulo- 
gies, orations,  and  discourses,  or  by  -pubfic 
prayers ;  and  that  the  President  be  requested 
to  issue  a  proclamation  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  the  foregoing  resolution  into  ef- 
fect." 

The  New  York  State  Society  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati paid  fitting  honors  to  their  departed 
chieftain  by  marching  in  solemn  procession 
to  the  New  Dutch  Church.  They  were  ac- 
companied by  the  mayor,  many  other  oflS- 
cials,  and  the  clergy  of  the  city.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Linn  delivered  a  eulogy  on  General 
Washington,  and  so  exnressive  was  it  of 
noble  and  patriotic  sentiments  that  the  New 
York  Gazette  and  General  Advertiser  in 
printing  a  portion  of  the  address  also  says : 
"  This  oration  exceeds  all  praise.  All  were 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  all  in  tears !  The 
message  from  the  tomb  of  Washington  was 
original,  bold,  and  striking.  Ye  Cincinnati, 
his  companions  in  arms,  and  sharers  in  his 
glory,  what  scenes  does  this  day  bring  to 
your  remembrance !  In  imagination  you  suf- 
fer all  the  toils  and  fight  the  battles  over 
again.  Before  you  moves  the  majestic  and 
graceful  man  ;  graceful  when  he  steps,  more 
graceful  when  he  mounts  the  prancing  steed. 
Serene  at  all  times,  most  serene  in  misfor- 
tunes and  dangers.  The  cares  of  America 
appear  on  his  brow,  and  he  wears  her  de- 
fense by  his  side.  Ah,  had  he  been  captured 
by  the  enemy,  your  gleaming  swords  would 
have  been  drawn  for  his  rescue.  Or  had  he 
been  exposed  in  the  front  of  battle,  you 
would  have  shielded  him  with  your  bodies. 
And  had  he  fallen,  a  thousand  victims  had 
avenged  his  death.  Against  natural  death 
you  could  interpose  ^o  shield.  Seek  not  to 
restrain  your  tears.  ?Tis  soldierlike  now  to 
weep.  True  courage  and  sensibility  are  in- 
timately connected.  Your  General,  your  Fa- 
ther, and  your  Friend,  is  no  more.  The  last 
time  he  and  his  band  of  brothers  were  all 
together,  you  followed  him  with  pensive 
countenances  to  the  banks  of  the  Hudson, 
and  on  his  entering  the  barge  he  turned 
towards  you,  and  by  waving  his  hat  bade 
you  a  silent  adieu.  He  now  bids  you  an 
adieu  forever.  Imitate  him  in  his  love  of 
country,  in  all  his  public  and  private  vir- 
tues, and  then,  like  him,  you  will  live  beloved 
and  die  lamented." 

Many  other  orations  were  given  of  a  simi- 
lar nature,  not  only  in  New  York  but  in  other 
cities  throughout  the  country.  The  people 
on  this  occasion  showed  their  patriotism,  not 
by  outward  gaieties,  but  in  attending  the 
numerous  church  exercises  and  suitably  re- 
membering the  death  of  their  great  leader — 
George  Washington. — O. 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


493 


HISTORICAL 

MEMORABILIA  OF  WASHINGTON 

Compiled  by  H.  B.  Carrington,  LL.D. 


1732,  February  22  (February  11,  O.  S), 
Born. 

1748.  Surveyor  of  lands  at  sixteen  years  of 
age. 

1 75 1.  Military  inspector  and  major  at 
nineteen  years  of  age. 

1752.  Adjutant-general  of  Virginia. 
1753-     Commissioner  to  the  French. 

1754.  Colonel,  and  commanding  the  Vir- 
ginia militia. 

1755.  Aide-de-camp  to  Braddock  in  his 
campaign. 

1755-  Again  commands  the  Virginia 
troops. 

1758.  Resigns  his  commission. 

1759.  January  6.     Married. 

1759.  Elected  member  of  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses. 

1765.  Commissioner  to  settle  military  ac- 
counts. 

1774- 

1775- 

1775. 
chief. 

1775.  July  2. 

1776,  March 
Boston. 

1776,  August  27.     Battle  of  Long  Island. 
1776,  August  29.     Masterly  retreat  to  New 
York. 

September 


In  First  Continental  Congress. 
In  Second  Continental  Congress. 
June     15.     Elected     commander-in- 


In  command  at  Cambridge. 
17.     Expels  the  British  from 


15.     Gallant,    at    Kipp's 
Battle     of     Harlem 


27, 

29.    Battle     near     White 


1776, 
Bay. 

1776,      October 
Heights. 

1776.     October 
Plains. 

1776,  November  15.     Enters  New  Jersey. 

1776,  December  5.     Occupies  right  bank  of 
the  Delaware. 

1776,    December    12.     Clothed    with    "  full 
power." 

1776,    December    14.    Plans    an    offensive 
campaign. 


1776,  December  26.    Battle  of  Trenton. 
^777,  January  3.     Battle  of  Princeton. 
^777^  July.     British  driven  from  New  Jer- 
sey during. 

1777.  July  13-     Marches  for  Philadelphia. 
1777.  September  11.     Battle  of  Brandy  wine. 
1777,  September  15.     Offers  battle  at  West 

Chester. 

1777,  October  4.     Battle  of  Germantown. 

1778.  Winters  at  Valley  Foj;ge. 
1778,  June  28.     Battle  of  Monmouth. 

1778.  British  again  retire  from  New  Jer- 
sey. 

1778.*     Again  at  White  Plains. 

1779.  At    Middlebrook,    New   Jersey,    and 
New  Windsor. 

1780.  Winters   at   Morristown,    New   Jer- 


sey. 

1781. 
plans. 

1781. 
July. 

1 781. 


Confers    with    Rochambeau    as    to 

Threatens   New   York   in   June  and 

Joins  Lafayette  before  Yorktown. 
1781,  October  19.     Surrender  of  Cornwal- 


lis. 

1783,  November  2.     Farewell  to  the  army. 

1783,  November  25.     Occupies  New  York. 

1783,  December  4.     Parts  with  his  officers.^ 

1783,  December  23.     Resigns   his   commis-- 
sion. 

1787. 
tion. 

1789,  March   4.     Elected   President  of  the 

United  States. 

1789,  April  30. 

1793,  March  4. 

1796,  September  17. 
pie. 

1797,  March  4.     Retires  to  private  life. 

1798,  July    3.     Appointed    commander-in- 
chief. 

1799,  December  14.    Died  at  Mount  Ver- 
non.— Col.  S. 


Presides   at   Constitutional   Conven-  — 


Inaugurated  at  New  York. 
Re-elected  for  four  years. 
Farewell  to  the  peo- 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHPLACE 

By  Grace  B.  Johnson 


Seldom  visited  and  almost  unknown  is  the 
Wakefield  Farm  in  Virginia,  the  birthplace 
of  our  first  president.  Recent  attempts  have 
been  made  to  popularize  the  place,  but  there 
is  little  to  attract  the  ordinary  traveler;  and 
its  distance  from  a  city  makes  excursions 
impracticable. 


Lying  on  the  Potomac  River  about  seventy 
miles  below  the  city  of  Washington,  one  edge 
of  the  estate  reaches  down  a  steep,  wooded 
bank  to  dip  into  the  water,  while,  stretching 
back,  it  rambles  on  in  grassy  meadows  and 
old  stubble-fields  to  the  corn-lands  and  or- 
chards of  the  adjoining  plantations.    Skirting 


*  On  the  return  of  Washington  to  White  Plains,  after  an  absence  of  two  years,  he  took  occasion  to 
^r.^^^1,  \^^\^^^jT\oAsrt^vk%irxtmK-  "  The  hand  of  Providence  has  been  so  conspicuous  that  he  must 
be  worse  thlnln  infidel  ?hat"lacks  faith,  and  more  than  wicked  that  has  not  gratitude  enough  to  acknowl- 
edge  his  obligation." 


494 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


thf  land  at  one  side  is  Pope's  Creek,  formerly 
Bridges'  Creek,  which  in  Washington's  time 
was  used  as  the  main  approach  to  the  es- 
tate. On  this  side  there  is  an  easy,  undula- 
ting slope ;  but  this  entrance  has  been  aban- 
doned. Only  at  high  tide  can  small  boats 
enter  the  creek,  and  another  way  had  to  be 
adopted.  An  iron  pier  nearly  two  miles  away 
has  been  built,  and  is  the  landing-place  for 
large  and  small  craft. 

All  is  quiet  here  now.  There  is  only  the 
rustle  of  the  leaves,  the  drowsy  hum  of  in- 
sects, and  the  interrupted  discourse  of  the 
pieacher-bird  in  the  clump  of  trees  near 
which  stood  the  first  home  of  Washington, 
to  break  the  stillness  on  a  summer  day.  No 
one  lives  here.  Indeed,  no  one  has  lived 
here  since  the  fire  which  destroyed  the  house 
and  negro  cabins,  in  Washington's  boyhood. 


But  here  the  baby  life  was  spent,  in  the 
homestead  founded  by  his  great-grandfather, 
John  Washington,  who  came  from  England 
in  1657. 

Only~a  heap  of  broken  bits  grown  over 
with  catnip  showed  the  place  of  the  great 
brick  chimney  the  first  time  I  visited  the 
farm ;  and  the  second  time  these,  too,  were 
gone.  Now  a  plain,  graceful  shaft,  bearing 
the  simple  inscription,  "  Washington's  Birth- 
place,'' and  below,  "  Erected  by  the  United 
States,  A.  D.  1895  "  marks  the  place. 

From  the  monument,  through  the  trees,  can 
be  seen  the  gleaming  river,  rippling  its  way 
silently  to  the  bay,  and  over  all  rests  the 
same  brooding  sense  of  peace  and  quietness 
which  one  feels  at  Mt.  Vernon  or  at  Arling- 
ton, the  city  of  our  nation's  dead. — C.  E.  W. 


SOMETHING     OF    GEORGE     WASHINGTON'S     BOY- 
HOOD 


George  Washington  was  born  at  a  time 
when  savagery  had  just  departed  from  the 
country,  leaving  freshness  and  vigor  behind. 
The  Indian  had  scarcely  left  the  woods,  and 
the  pirate  the  shore  near  his  home.  His 
grandfather  had  seen  his  neighbor  lying 
tomahawked  at  his  door-sill,  and  his  father 
had  helped  to  chase  beyond  the  mountains 
the  whooping  savages  that  carried  the  scalps 
of  his  friends  at  their  girdle.  The  year  his 
brother  was  born,  John  Maynard's  ship  had 
sailed  up  the  James  River  with  the  bloody 
head  of  Blackbeard  hanging  to  the  bowsprit. 

He  had  only  one  uncle,  a  brother  Law- 
rence and  a  cousin  Augustine,  all  older  than 
he,  but  the  youngest  of  his  older  brothers  was 
twelve  years  of  age  when  George  was  born, 
while  his  cousin  Augustine  was  only  four 
years  older,  and  his  cousin  Lawrence  six 
years  older  than  himself.  When  he  was 
seven  years  old  his  sister  Betty  was  a  little 
lass  of  six.  Two  brothers,  Samuel  and  John, 
were  nearing  their  fourth  and  fifth  birthdays. 
Charles,  his  baby  brother,  was  still  in  his 
nurse's  arms.  Early  the  shadow  of  death 
crossed  his  boyish  path,  for  his  baby  sister, 
Mildred,  born  soon  after  he  was  seven,  died 
before  he  was  nine. 

The  first  playmate  Washington  had,  out  of 
his  own  immediate  family,  was  another  Law- 
rence Washington,  a  very  distant  cousin,  who 
lived  at  Chotauk  on  the  Potomac,  and  who, 
with  his  brother,  Robert  Washington,  early 
won  Washington's  regard,  and  kept  it  through 
life.  When  Washington  made  his  will  _  he 
remembered  them,  writing,  "  to  the  acquaint- 
ances and  friends  of  my  juvenile  years,  Law- 
rence Washington  and  Robert  Washington, 
I  give  my  other  two  gold-headed  canes  hav- 
ing my  arms  engraved  on  them." 


It  was  at  Chotauk,  with  Lai  and  Bob 
Washington  that  George  Washington  first 
met  with  traffic  between  the  old  world  and 
the  new.  There  was  no  money  used  except 
tobacco  notes,  which  passed  among  merchants 
in  London  and  Amsterdam  as  cash.  For- 
eign ships  brought  across  the  ocean  goods 
that  the  Virginians  needed,  and  the  captains 
sold  the  goods  for  these  tobacco  notes.  Much 
of  Washington's  time  was  spent  with  these 
boys,  and  when  he  grew  old  he  recalled  the 
young  eyes  of  the  Chotauk  lads,  as  they,  with 
him,  had  stood  on  the  river-bank  vainly  try- 
ing to  see  clearly  some  object  beyond  vision, 
and  in  memory  of  the  time  he  wrote  in  his 
will,  "  To  each  I  leave  one  of  my  spy-glasses 
which  constituted  part  of  my  equipage  dur- 
ing the  late  war." 

Of  Washington's  first  school  there  is  no 
record  or  tradition  other  than  that  gathered 
by  Parson  Weems.  He  says :  "  The  first 
place  of  education  to  which  George  was  ever 
sent  was  a  little  old  field  school  kept  by  one 
of  his  father's  tenants,  named  Hobby,  an 
honest,  poor  old  man,  who  acted  in  the  double 
capacity  of  sexton  and  schoolmaster.  Of  his 
skill  as  a  grave  digger  tradition  is  silent ; 
but  for  a  teacher  of  youth,  his  qualifica- 
tions were  certainly  of  the  humbler  sort, 
making  what  is  generally  called  an  A.  B, 
C  schoolmaster.  While  at  school  under  Mr. 
Hobby  he  used  to  divide  his  playmates  into 
parties  and  armies.  One  of  them  was  called 
the  French  and  the  other  American.  A  big 
boy  named  William  Bustle  commanded  the 
former ;  George  commanded  the  latter,  and 
every  day  with  cornstalks  for  muskets  and 
calabashes  (gourds)  for  drums,  the  two 
armies  would  turn  out  and  march  and  fight." 
— E. 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


495 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  WASHINGTON 


Washington  began  to  be  a  soldier   in  his 
boyhood.     During      the      British      campaign 
against  the  West  Indies,  Lawrence  Washing- 
ton, George's  half-brother,  made 
Von         the  acquaintance  of  a  Dutchman, 
Braam      named    Jacob    von    Braam,    who 
and  Wash-  afterwards     came     to     Virginia. 
ington      These  young  men  were  great  he- 
roes to  the  ten-year-old  George. 
Von  Braam  took  the  lad  in  hand  and  began 
his    military    education.     He    drilled    him    in 
the  manual  of  arms  and  sword  exercise,  and 
taught  him  fortification  and  engineering.    All 
the  theory  of  war  which   Washington  knew 
was  gained   from  von   Braam ;     the  practise 
he  was  soon  to  gain  in  the  field. 

Many  stories  are  told  which  show  Wash- 
ington's   athletic    skill.     During   a    surveying 
expedition  he  first  visited  the  Natural  Bridge 
in  Virginia.  Standing  almost  di- 
Washing-  rectly  under  it  he  tossed  a  stone 
ton's  Ath-  on  top,  a  distance  of  nearly  five 
letic  Skill  hundred     feet.     He     scaled     the 
rocks  and  carved  his  name   far 
above  all  others.     He  was  said  to  be  the  only 
man    who    could    throw    a    stone    across    the 
Potomac  River.  Washington  was  never  more 
at  home  than  when  in  the  saddle.     "  The  gen- 
eral is  a  very  excellent  and  bold  horseman," 
wrote  a  contemporary,  "  leaping  the  highest 
fences   and   going   extremely   quick,    without 
standing    on    his    stirrups,    bearing    on    his 
bridle  or  letting  his  horse  run  wild." 

After  his  first  battle  Washington  wrote  to 
his  brother,  "  I  heard  the  bullets  whistle 
about  me.  and,  believe  me.  there  is  some- 
thing charming  in  the  sound."  But  years 
after,  when  he  had  learned  all  there  was  to 
know  of  the  horrors  of  war,  he  said,  sadly, 
"  I  said  that  when  I  was  young." 

Punctuality     was     one     of     Washington's 

strong  points.     When   company   was   invited 

to  dinner  he  made  an  allowance  of  only  five 

minutes  for  variation  in  watches. 

Punctu-     If  the  guests  came  late  he  would 

ality        say :    "  We  are  too  punctual  for 

you.     I    have   a   cook  who   does 

not  ask  if  the  company  has  come,  but  if  the 

hour  has  come." 

In  a  letter  to  a  friend  he  wrote :  "  I  begin 
my  diurnal  course  with  the  sun ;  if  my  hire- 
lings are  not  in  their  places  by  that  time  I 
send  them  messages  of  sorrow  for  their  in- 
disposition." 

A  letter  to  his  sister,  Betty,  shows  his  busi- 
nesslike manner :  "  If  your  son  Howell  is 
with  you  and  not  usefully  employed  in  your 
own  affairs  and  should  incline  to  spend  a 
few  months  with  me  in  my  office  as  a  writer 
(if  he  is  fit  for  it),  I  will  allow  him  at  the 
rate  of  300  a  year,  provided  he  is  diligent  in 
discharging  the  duties  of  it  from  breakfast 
till  dinnertime.  ...  I  am  particular  in 
declaring  beforehand  what  I  require,  so  that 
there  may  be  no  disappointment  or  false  ex- 
pectations on  either  side." 


Washington's  relations  with  his  stepchildren 

show  a  very  pleasant  side  of  his  character.    We 

find  him  ordering  from  London  such  articles 

as  "  10  shillings'   worth  of  toys. 

His  Step-  6  little  books  for  children  begin- 

children  ning  to  read,  i  fashionable- 
dressed  baby  to  cost  10  shillings, 
and  a  box  of  gingerbread  toys  and  sugar 
images,  or  comfits."  Later  he  sent  for  "  i 
very  good  spinet,"  for  Patsey,  as  Martha 
Parke  Custis  was  called. 

His  niece,  Hariot,  who  lived  in  the  Wash- 
ington home  from  1785  to  1796,  was  a  great 
trial  to  him.  "  She  has,"  he  wrote,  **  no 
disposition  to  be  careful  of  her  clothes,  which 
she  dabs  about  in  every  hole  and  corner,  and 
her  best  things  always  in  use,  so  that  she 
costs  me  enough." 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  a  truly  great 
man  is  his  readiness  to  ask  pardon.  Once 
when  Nelly  Custis,  Mrs.  Washington's  grand- 
daughter, was  severely  reprimanded  for  walk- 
ing alone  by  moonlight  in  the  grounds  of 
Mount  Vernon,  Washington  tried  to  inter- 
cede for  the  girl. 

"  Perhaps  she  was  not  alcne ;  I  would  say 
no  more,"  he  said. 

"  Sir,"  said  Nelly  Custis,  "  you  have 
brought  me  up  to  speak  the  truth,  and  when 
I  told  grandmamma  that  I  was  alone,  I  hoped 
that  you  would  believe  me." 

_"  My  child,"  said  Washington,  bowing  in 
his  courtly  fashion,  "  I  beg  your  pardon."  _ 

Stuart,   the   portrait   painter,   once   said   to 
General    Lee    that    Washington    had    a    tre- 
mendous  temper,   but   that   he   had   it   under 
wonderful     control.     While     di- 
His         ning  with  the  Washingtons,  Gen- 
Temper     eral   Lee   repeated   the   first   part 
of  Stuart's  remark.    Mrs.  Wash- 
ington flushed,  and  said  that  Mr.  Stuart  took 
a    great    deal    upon    himself.     Then    General 
Lee  said  that  Mr.  Stuart  had  added  that  the 
President   had   his   temper   under   wonderful 
control.     Washington   seemed  to  be  thinking 
for  a  moment,  then  he  smiled  and  said,  "  Mr. 
Stuart  is  right." 

The   popular   idea   that   Washington   never 
laughed   is   well-nigh   exploded.     Nelly   Cus- 
tis said,  "  I  have  sometimes  made  him  laugh 
most     heartily     from     sympathy 
His  Smile  with  my  joyous  and  extravagant 
spirits." 

When  the  news  came  from  Doctor  Frank- 
lin in  France  that  help  was  promised  from 
that  country,  General  Washington  broke  into 
a  laugh,  waved  his  cocked  hat,  and  said  to 
his  officers,  "  The  day  is  ours !  "  Another 
story  is  to  the  effect  that  while  present  at  the 
baptism  of  a  child  of  a  Mr.  Wood  he  was  so 
surprised  to  hear  the  name  given  as  George 
Washington  that  he  smiled.  Senator  Maclay 
tells  of  his  smiling  at  a  state  dinner,  and  even 
toying  with  his  fork.  Various  sources  testify 
that  a  smile  lent  an  unusual  beauty  to  his 
face. 


496 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


At  one  time,  as  Washington  entered  a  shop 
in  New  York,  a  Scotch  nursemaid  followed 
him,  carrying  her  infant  charge.  "  Please, 
sir,  here's  a  bairn  was  named  after  you." 

"What  is  his  name?"  asked  the  Presi- 
dent. .  ,, 
"  Washington  Irving,  sir. 
Washington  put  his  hand  upon  the  child  s 
head  and  gave  him  his  blessing,  little  think- 
ing that  "  the  bairn  "  would  write,  as  a  labor 
of  love,  a  life  of  Washington. 

While  at  his   Newburgh  headquarters  the 

general  was  approached  by  Aaron  Burr,  who 

stealthily   crept    up   as   he   was    writing   and 

looked  over  his  shoulder.     Altho 

Other       Washington    did    not    hear    the 

Character-  footfall,   he   saw  the   shadow   in 

istics       the  mirror.     He  looked  up,  and 

said    only,    "Mr.    Burr!"     But 

the  tone  was  enough  to  make  Burr  quail  and 

beat  a  hasty  retreat. 

A  man,  who,  well  for  himself,  is  nameless, 
made  a  wager  with  some  friends  that  he 
could  approach  Washington  familiarly.  The 
President  was  walking  up  Chestnut  Street,  in 
Philadelphia,  when  the  would-be  wag,  in  full 
view  of  his  companions,  slapped  him  on  the 
back  and  said,  "  Well,  old  fellow,  how  are 
you  this  morning?"  Washington  looked  at 
him,  and  in  a  freezing  tone  asked,  "  Sir, 
what  have  I  ever  said  or  done  which  induces 
you  to  treat  me  in  this  manner?  " 

Altho  Washington  appreciated  the  good 
things  of  life,  he  would  not  tolerate  extrava- 
gance. His  steward  at  one  time  purchased 
the  first  shad  of  the  season,  knowing  it^to  be 
a  favorite  dish  of  Washington's.  "  How 
much  did  you  pay  for  it?"  asked  Washing- 
ton. 

"  Three  dollars." 

"Take  it  away;  I  will  not  countenance 
such  extravagance  in  my  house." 

After    Washington's    retirement    from    the 

presidency,  Elkanah  Watson  was  a  guest  at 

Mount  Vernon.     He  had  a  serious  cold,  and 

after  he  retired  he  coughed  se- 

Thought-  verely.      Suddenly    the    curtains 

fulness     of  his  bed  were  drawn  aside  and 

there  stood  Washington  with  a 

huge    bowl    of    steaming    herb   tea.     "  Drink 

this,"    he    said,    "  it    will    be    good    for    that 

cough." 

Washington  possessed  in  a  peculiar  degree 
the  great  gift  of  remembering  faces.  Once, 
while  visiting  in  Newburyport,  he  saw  at 
work  in  the  grounds  of  his  host  an  old  serv- 
ant whom  he  had  not  seen  since  the  French 
and  Indian  war,  thirty  years  before.  He 
knew  the  man  at  once  and  stopped  and  spoke 
kindly  to  him. 

Any  collection  of  anecdotes  about  Wash- 
ington is  sure  to  refer  to  his  extreme  mod- 
esty.    Upon  one  occasion,  when  the  speaker 
of  the  Assembly  returned  thanks 
Modesty    in    glowing    terms    to     Colonel 
Washington  for  his  services,  he 
rose  to  express  his  acknowledgments,  but  he 
was  so  embarrassed  that  he  could  not  articu- 
late a  word.     "  Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington," 
said  the  speaker,  "  your  modesty  equals  your 


valor,  and  that  surpasses  the  power  of  any 
language  which  I  possess." 

When  Adams  suggested  that  Congress 
should  appoint  a  general,  and  hinted  plainly 
at  Washington,  who  happened  to  sit  near  the 
door,  the  latter  rose,  "  and,  with  his  usual 
modesty,  darted  into  the  library  room." 

Washington's  favorite  quotation  was  Addi- 
son's "  'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command  suc- 
cess," but  he  frequently  quoted  Shakespeare. 
His  taste  for  literature  is  indicated  by  the 
list  of  books  which  he  ordered  for  his  library 
at  the  close  of  the  war :     Life  of  Charles 
THE    Twelfth,    Life    of    Louis 
Taste  for  the  Fifteenth,  Life  and  Reign 
Literature  of    Peter    the    Great,    Robert- 
son's History  of  America,  Vol- 
taire's    Letters,     Vertol's     Revolution     of 
Rome,  Revolution  of  Portugal,  Goldsmith's 
Natural  History,  Campaigns  of  Marshal 
TuRENNE,    Chambaud's    French    and    Eng- 
lish Dictionary,  Locke  on  the  Human  Un- 
derstanding, and  Robertson's  Charles  the 
Fifth.     "  Light    reading."    he    wrote    to    his 
step-grandson,    "  (by   this   I    mean   books   of 
little  importance)  may  amuse  for  the  moment, 
but  leaves  nothing  behind." 

Altho    always    very    particular    about    his 
dress,    Washington   was   no   dandy,   as   some 
have  supposed.     "  Do  not,"  he  wrote  to  his 
nephew,  in   1783,  "  conceive  that 
His  Dress  fine  clothes  make  fine  men   any 
more  than  fine  feathers  make  fine 
birds.     A   plain,    genteel    dress    is   more    ad- 
mired and  obtains  more  credit  than  lace  or 
embroidery  in  the  eyes  of  the  judicious  and 
sensible." 

Sullivan  thus  describes  Washington  at  a 
levee:  "He  was  dressed  in  black  velvet; 
his  hair  full  dress,  powdered  and  gathered 
behind  in  a  large  silk  bag,  yellow  gloves  on 
his  hands ;  holding  a  cocked  hat,  with  a 
cockade  in  it,  and  the  edges  adorned  with  a 
black  feather  about  an  inch  deep.  He  wore 
knee  and  shoe  buckles,  and  a  long  sword. 
.  .  .  The  scabbard  was  of  white  polished 
leather." 

After  Cornwallis's  surrender  at  Yorktown, 
Washington  said  to  his  army :  "  My  brave 
fellows,  let  no  sensation  of  satisfaction  for 
the  triumphs  you  have  gained  induce  you  to 
insult  your  fallen  enemy.  Let  no  shouting, 
no  clamorous  huzzaing  increase  their  morti- 
fication. It  is  sufficient  for  us  that  we  wit- 
ness their  humiliation.  Posterity  will  huzza 
for  us." 

While  there  are  many  stories  which  show 
Washington's  straightforwardness,  here  is 
one  which  shows  much  diplomacy.  He  was 
asked  by  Volney,  a  Frenchman  and  a  revo- 
lutionist, for  a  letter  of  recommendation  to 
the  American  people.  This  request  put  him 
in  an  awkward  position,  for  there  were  good 
reasons  why  he  could  not  give  it,  and  other 
good  reasons  why  he  did  not  wish  to  refuse. 
Taking  a  sheet  of  paper,  he  wrote: 

"  C.  Volney  needs  no  recommendation  from 
"  Geo.  Washington." 


F. 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


497 


PROVIDENTIAL  EVENTS    IN    THE    LIFE   OF  WASH- 
INGTON 

By  Irving  Allen 


At  this  season  of  the  anniversary  of  Wash- 
ington's birth  it  seems  especially  appropriate 
to  recall  certain  singular  circumstances  in  the 
life  of  the  greatest  of  Americans — events  re- 
markable in  themselves  in  whatever  light 
they  may  be  viewed ;  whether,  in  accordance 
with  the  tenets  of  modern  Spiritism  and,  to 
a  certain  extent,  in  harmony  with  the  doc- 
trines of  Swedenborg  and  his  followers,  we 
accept  them  as  proofs  of  the  intervention  in 
human  affairs  of  departed  spirits ;  or  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  adopt  the  simple  teachings 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  acknowledge 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  direct  providen- 
tial dealings  with  men  and  their  affairs. 

Authentic  history  records  no  less  than  six 
marvelous  instances  in  which  the  life  of 
Washington  was  saved  under  circumstances 
seemingly  little  less  than  miraculous.  The 
first  of  these  wonderful  escapes  from  im- 
pending peril  occurred  during  the  period  of 
Washington's  sole  recorded  absence  from  the 
American  continent — when  he  accompanied 
his  brother  Lawrence,  then  fatally  ill  with 
consumption,   to  the  Barbadoes. 

They  sailed  in  September  of  175 1,  George 
being  then  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age. 
Before  the  brothers  had  been  a  fortnight  in 
the  island  the  younger,  the  fu- 
Smallpox  ture  hero  of  the  Revolution,  was 
attacked  with  smallpox  in  its 
"  natural  "  and  virulent  form.  This  disease 
was  not  then  the  fangless  monster  with  which 
we  are  familiar,  but  was  terrific  in  its  as- 
saults and  almost  invariably  fatal ;  yet  Wash- 
ington recovered  in  something  less  than  three 
weeks,  and  retained  through  his  life  but 
slight  marks  of  the  malady. 

One  of  General  Washington's  biographers 
well  says,  in  reference  to  this  incident,  in  the 
life  of  the  first  President,  that  "  it  may  well 
be  doubted  whether  in  any  of  his  battles  he 
was  in  equal  danger.  If  the  disease  entered 
an  army,  it  was  a  foe  more  to  be  dreaded  than 
embattled  hosts.  .  .  .  But  it  belongs  to 
that  class  of  diseases  of  which,  by  a  mys- 
terious law  of  our  nature,  our  frames  are, 
generally  speaking,  susceptible  but  once.  .  .  . 
Thus  it  came  to  pass  that,  in  the  morning  of 
his  days,  Washington  became  (humanly 
speaking)  safe  from  all  future  danger  from 
this  formidable  disease." 

The  reader  of  American  history  will  re- 
member that  the  smallpox  appeared  among 
the  British  troops  in  Boston  in  the  fall  of 
1775;  that  it  ravaged  our  army  in  Canada 
in  the  following  spring;  that  it  prevailed  the 
same  year  at  Ticonderoga,  and  in  1777  at 
Morristown.  Regarding  this  last  occasion  of 
its  appearance,  Washington  said,  in  a  letter 
to  Governor  Henry,  of  Virginia,  where  vac- 
cination was  not  permitted: 

"  You    will    pardon    my    observations    on 


smallpox,  because  I  know  it  is  more  destruc- 
tive to  the  army  than  the  enemies'  sword  and 
because  I  shudder  whenever  I  reflect  upon 
the  difficulties  of  keeping  it  out." 

This  was  the  tremendous  peril  from  which 
Washington  was  comparatively  safe  after  his 
twentieth  year.  "  If,"  says  a  very  eminent 
writer,  "  to  refer  this  to  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence be  a  superstition,  I  desire  to  be  ac- 
counted superstitious." 

The  next  imminent  danger  to  which  Wash- 
ington was  exposed,  and  from  which  his  es- 
cape was   well-nigh  miraculous,   was  on  the 
occasion   of  his   historic   expedi- 
The  Jour-  tion  to  the  headquarters  of  the 

ney  to  French  Governor  at  Venan- 
Venango,    go,  in  1753.     The  journey  itself, 

1753  in  the  winter  season,  of  five  or 

six  hundred  miles  through  an 
unsettled  country,  most  of  it  constantly  trav- 
eled by  natives  at  enmity  with  the  English, 
was  one  continued  story  of  danger  and  es- 
cape. It  was  but  two  years  after  this  trip  of 
Washington's  to  Venango  that  English  sol- 
diers— surrendered  prisoners  of  war — were 
tortured  to  death  by  the  savage  natives  within 
sight  of  Fort  Duquesne.  On  his  return  from 
the  fulfilment  of  his  mission,  Washington 
traversed  the  forest  with  a  single  companion 
and  an  Indian  guide.  Just  at  nightfall,  on 
one  of  the  days  of  their  perilous  journey, 
their  savage  attendant  suddenly  turned,  and, 
at  a  distance  of  but  fifteen  paces  fired  on 
Washington,  happily  without  evil  result. 

After  this  alarming  experience  the  two 
companions  pursued  their  way  alone,  footsore 
and  weary,  through  the  woods,  with  the  sure 
knowledge  that  the  savages  were  on  their 
trail.  Reaching  the  Alleghanv  River  on  a 
night  of  December,  they  found  it  encum- 
bered with  drifting  ice,  and  only  to  be  crossed 
by  means  of  a  raft  which,  with  only  "  one 
poor  hatchet,"  cost  them  an  entire  day's  labor 
to  construct.  When  crossing  the  river,  Wash- 
ington, while  using  the  setting  pole,  was 
thrown  violently  into  the  water  at  a  depth  of 
ten  feet,  and  saved  his  life  by  grasping  a  log. 
They  spent  the  night,  in  their  frozen  clothing, 
on  a  lit.le  island  on  which,  had  they  been 
forced  to  stay  till  sunrise,  they  would,  beyond 
question,  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Indians ;  but  the  intense  cold  which  froze 
the  feet  of  Washington's  companion,  also 
sealed  the  river  and  enabled  them  to  escape, 
on  the  ice.  A  devout  poet,  writing  of  this^ 
journey  of  the  youthful  Washington,  thus 
expresses  his  faith  in  the  designs  of  Provi- 
dence, 

"To  exercise  him  in  the  Wilderness; 
There  shall  he  first  lay  down  the  rudiments 
Of  his  great  warfare,  ere  I  send  him  forth 
To  conquer." 


498 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  year  following  the  mission  to  Venango 
(1754)  Colonel  Washington  was  sent  in  com- 
mand of  a  small  force  in  the  same  direction ; 
but  by  reason  of  the  greatly  su- 
Another     perior    strength    of    the    enemy, 
Mission     the  expedition  resulted  in  a  ca- 
lamitous retreat.     By  a  singular 
coincidence,    the    compulsory    evacuation    of 
the    English    stronghold—"  Fort    Necessity," 
as  it  was  called — occurred  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,    1754 — a    date   afterward   made    forever 
glorious,  in  great  measure  by  the  inestimable 
services    of    the    young    commander    of    this 
earlier  and  ill-fated  military  expedition.     But 
such    was    the    ability,    energy,    and    power 
evinced  by  its  youthful  commander,  that  the 
disaster  resulted  in  his  own  greatly  enhanced 
reputation  as  a  born  leader  of  men. 

In  the  following  year  (i755),  a  gigantic 
effort  was  made  by  England  to  recover  lost 
ground,  and  to  repair  the  military  misadven- 
tures of  1754.  The  history  of 
Braddock  Braddock's  disastrous  expedition 
and  Wash-  is  familiar  to  every  schoolboy  in 
ington  the  land.  At  this  period.  Col- 
onel Washington  had  retired 
from  the  army  in  disgust  at  the  unjust  regu- 
lations which  gave  undue  preference  to  offi- 
cers holding  commissions  from  the  Crown 
over  abler  men — some  of  them  their  seniors 
of  the  same  rank — in  the  service  of  the  prov- 
inces. He  was,  however,  at  length  induced 
— in  great  measure  from  motives  of  the 
purest  patriotism,  and  partly,  no  doubt,  from 
his  strong  leaning  toward  a  military  career — 
to  accept  a  position  on  the  staff  of  the  com- 
manding General,  Braddock,  a  soldier  of 
courage  and  large  experience,  but,  as  events 
afterward  proved,  a  haughty,  self-willed  and 
passionate  man. 

During  the  passage  of  Braddock's  forces 
through  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  Washing- 
ton was  attacked  by  so  violent  and  alarming 
a  sickness  that  its  result  was  for  a  time  ex- 
tremely uncertain;  on  his  partial  recovery 
the  General  caused  him  to  move  with  the  re- 
serve, which  proceeded  slowly  with  the  heavy 
artillery  and  baggage.  In  this  position  Wash- 
ington remained  two  weeks,  returning  to  the 
General's  headquarters  on  the  eighth  of  July, 
the  day  preceding  the  fatal  battle  of  the  Mo- 
nongahela. 

On  the  morning  of  this  day— forever  and 
sadly  memorable  in  American  annals— Wash- 
ington mounted  his  horse,  weak  and  worn  by 
sickness,  but  strong  in  hope  and  courage. 
These  are  his  own  words,  uttered  in  other 
and  better  days : 

"  The  most  beautiful  spectacle  I  had  ever 
beheld  was  the  display  of  the  British  troops 
on  that  eventful  morning.  .  .  .  The  sun 
gleamed  from  their  burnished  arms,  the  river 
flowed  tranquilly  on  their  right,  and  the  deep 
forest  overshadowed  them  with  solemn  gran- 
deur on  the  left." 

It  is  needless  to  repeat  here  the  tale  of  that 
day  of  defat  and  slaughter.    His- 
Defeat      torians  have  recorded  its  events, 
Braddock's  and   poets   have   sung   its   story. 
Throughout  the  action  Washing- 
ton   was    in    the    thickest    of    the    fight.     "  I 


expected  every  moment  to  see  him  fall."  wrote 
Dr.  Craik,  his  physician  and  friend.  It  was 
during  this  disastrous  battle  that  Washing- 
ton escaped  perhaps  the  most  imminent  peril 
of  his  life.  In  company  with  Dr.  Craik.  in 
the  year  1770,  he  descended  the  Ohio  River 
on  a  journey  of  observation  to  the  Great  Ka- 
nawha, and  it  was  there  that  an  incident  oc- 
curred, which  is  thus  described  by  Irving: 

"  Here  Washington  was  visited  by  an  old 
sachem,  who  approached  him  with  great  rev- 
erence and  addressed  him  through  Nicholson, 
the  interpreter.  He  had  come,  he  said,  a 
great  distance  to  see  him.  On  further  dis- 
course, the  sachem  made  known  that  he  was 
one  of  the  warriors  in  the  service  of  the 
French,  who  lay  in  ambush  on  the  banks  of 
the  Monongahela,  and  wrought  such  havoc 
to  Braddock's  army.  He  declared  that  he 
and  his  young  men  had  singled  out  Washing- 
ton, as  he  made  himself  conspicuous  riding 
about  the  field  of  battle  with  the  General's 
orders,  and  fired  at  him  repeatedly,  but  with- 
out success ;  whence  they  concluded  that  he 
was  under  the  protection  of  the  Great  Spirit, 
that  he  had  a  charmed  life,  and  could  not  be 
slain  in  battle." 

Washington  himself  wrote  thus  to  his 
brother : 

"  By  all  the  powerful  dispensations  of 
Providence,  I  have  been  protected  beyond  all 
human  probability  and  expectation ;  for  I 
had  four  bullets  through  my  coat  and  two 
horses  shot  under  me ;  yet  I  escaped  unhurt, 
altho  death  was  leveling  my  companions  on 
every  side." 

His  marvelous  preservation  was  the  sub- 
ject of  general  remark;  Mr.  Davies — later, 
President  of  Princeton  College,  used  these 
words  in  an  address  a  few  weeks  -after  the 
Braddock  defeat : 

"  That  heroic  youth.  Colonel  Washington, 
whom  I  cannot  but  hope  Providence  has 
hitherto  preserved  in  so  signal  a  manner  for 
some  important  service  to  his  country." 

The  next  apparently  providential  interven- 
tion in  the  affairs  of  the  hero  of  the  Revolu- 
tion  is  connected  with  very  different   scenes 
from  those  of  battle  and  carnage  ; 

Escape      it    may,    perhaps,    be    fairly    de- 

from  a  scribed  as  a  narrow  escape  from 
Marriage  a  marriage  which,  while  it  might 
have  proved  a  happy  alliance  in 
so  far  as  Washington  himself  was  concerned, 
would  almost  certainly  have  resulted  in  the 
loss  of  his  inestimable  services  to  his  coun- 
try. 

Washington's  attachment  to  Mary  Philipse 
is  a  fact  beyond  reasonable  question ;  his 
offer  of  marriage  to  that  young  lady  is  some- 
what traditional.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
during  his  necessary  absence  on  military 
duty,  Captain  Morris,  his  associate  aid-de- 
camp in  the  Monongahela  engagement,  be- 
came a  successful  suitor  for  the  hand  of  Miss 
Philipse. 

What  is  far  less  generally  known  is  the 
fact  that,  had  Washington  been  successful  in 
his  early  matrimonial  aspirations,  he  would 
certainly  have  remained  a  loyal  adherent  of 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


499 


the  royal  cause,  and  would  thus  have  been  lost 
to  his  native  land.  Evidences  of  the  justice 
of  this  theory  are  by  no  means  lacking.  The 
relatives  and  friends  of  the  lady  were  nearly 
all  devoted  to  the  cause  of  England ;  Wash- 
ington was  the  associate  of  many  of  them; 
and  Captain  Morris,  his  successful  rival,  re- 
mained in  the  British  service  during  his  life. 
There  can  be,  I  think,  little  doubt  that,  in  the 
event  of  his  marriage  with  Miss  Philipse, 
Washington,  like  Captain  Morris,  would  have 
returned  to  England  and  been  forever  lost 
to  America.  Mrs.  Morris  survived  her  illus- 
trious admirer  twenty-five  years,  dying  about 
the  year  1825. 

A  striking  historical  fact — as  strange  as  it 
is  authentic — is  the  treatment  of  Washington 
by  the  English  Government  after  the  death 
of  Braddock.  Had  General  Brad- 
Washing-  dock  survived  his  terrible  mis- 
ton  Un-  fortune  the  result  might  well 
rewarded  have  been  very  different ;  for  it 
is  matter  of  history  that  the 
youthful  officer  had  the  undivided  confidence 
of  his  commander.  But  by  the  British  Min- 
istry, and  even  by  the  King  himself,  the 
young  hero  of  the  fatal  battle  was  treated 
with  scarcely  disguised  contempt  and  neglect. 

In  a  letter  to  the  British  War  Minister, 
Governor  Dinwiddie  speaks  of  Colonel 
Washington  as  a  man  of  great  merit  and 
resolution,  adding : 

"  I  am  confident  that,  if  General  Braddock 
had  lived,  he  would  have  recommended  him 
to  the  royal  favor,  which  I  beg  your  interest 
in  recommending." 

The  sole  results  were  a  half-rebuke  from 
the  King,  and  a  malicious  fling  from  the  lips 
of  Horace  Walpole.  For  more  than  three 
years  Washington  labored  incessantly,  by 
personal  effort  and  by  means  of  influential 
intercessors,  to  secure  a  royal  commission. 

In  view  of  what  the  world  knows  now  of 
Washington's  well-nigh  matchless  ability  as 
a  soldier,  and  remembering  especially  the 
reputation  he  had  already  acquired — amazing 
in  so  youthful  an  officer — his  persistent  neg- 
lect by  the  military  authorities  "  at  home," 
and  particularly  the  stubborn  and  doltish  de- 
termination on  the  part  of  the  King  to  ignore 
the  man  and  his  almost  unexampled  services, 
suggests  the  theory  that  the  heart  of  King 
George,  of  England,  was  as  truly  and  provi- 
dentially "  hardened "  as  was  that  of  his 
royal  prototype  Pharaoh,  of  ancient  times. 
For,  finding  that  all  his  efforts  were  inef- 
fectual, and  believing  that  the  chief  object  of 
the  war  was  attained  by  the  capture  of  Fort 
Duquesne  and  the  final  defeat  of  the  French 
on  the  Ohio,  the  young  hero  retired,  after 
five  years  of  arduous  and  ill-requited  service, 
in  the  words  of  a  great  writer  of  our  own 
land  and  time  : 

"  The  youthful  idol  of  his  countrymen,  but 
without  so  much  as  a  civil  word  from  the 
fountain  of  honor.  And  so,  when  after  seven- 
teen years  of  private  life  he  next  appeared  in 
arms,  it  was  as  the  '  Commander-in-Chief  of 


the  Army  of  the  United  Colonies,  and  of  all 
the  forces  now  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  by 
them.'  " 

The  same  writer  elsewhere  remarks : 

"  Such  was  the  policy  by  which  the  Horse 
Guards  occasionally  saved  a  Major's  com- 
mission for  a  fourth  son  of  a  Duke,  by  which 
the  Crown  lost  a  continent ;  and  the  people 
of  the  United  States  gained  a  place  in  the 
family  of  nations.  The  voice  of  history  cries 
aloud  to  powerful  Governments,  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  their  colonies  :  '  Discite  jus- 
titiain  moniti.'  " 

The  last   of  the   six   marvelous   escapes  of 

our  hero  from  impending  and  fatal  disaster 

occurred  during  the  historic  night  march  of 

Washington    and    the    American 

A  Furious  Army   on    Princeton,    where,    on 

Conflict  the  third  of  July,  1776,  he  com- 
passed the  entire  destruction  of 
one  regiment  of  the  enemy,  and  captured  or 
forced  to  ignoble  retreat  two  others.  This  bat- 
tle was  the  subject  of  one  of  Colonel  Trum- 
bull's most  famous  paintings ;  and  it  was 
during  this  engagement — as  Washington  him- 
self told  the  illustrious  artist — that  he  was  in 
greater  peril  than  even  at  the  time  of  Brad- 
dock's  defeat. 

In  the  height  of  the  battle  the  two  armies 
were  for  a  brief  season  in  furious  conflict, 
and  Washington  between  them  within  range 
of  both  fires.     Washington  Irving  writes  : 

"  His  Aid,  Colonel  Fitzgerald,  losing  sight 
of  him  in  the  heat  of  the  fight  when  en- 
veloped in  smoke  and  dust,  dropped  the  bridle 
on  the  neck  of  his  horse  and  drew  his  hat 
over  his  eyes,  giving  him  up  for  lost.  When 
he  saw  him,  however,  emerging  from  the 
cloud,  waving  his  hat,  and  beheld  the  enemy 
giving  way,  he  spurred  up  to  his  side : 
'  Thank  God,'  cried  he,  '  your  Excellency  is 
safe ! '  '  Away,  my  dear  Colonel,  and  bring 
up  the  troops,'  was  Washington's  reply ;  '  the 
day  is  our  own.'  " 

Trumbull's  immortal  picture  shows  us  the 
hero  of  that  decisive  battle  standing  on  the 
memorable  day  of  Princeton  by  the  side  of 
his  white  war-horse.  Says  an  eloquent 
writer : 

"  Well  might  he  exult  in  the  event  of  the 
day,  for  it  was  the  last  of  a  series  of  bold 
and  skilful  maneuvers  and  successful  actions, 
by  which,  in  three  weeks,  he  had  rescued 
Philadelphia,  driven  the  enemy  from  the 
banks  of  the  Delaware,  recovered  the  State  of 
New  Jersey,  and,  at  the  close  of  a  disastrous 
campaign,  restored  hope  and  confidence  to 
the  country." 

Such  are  the  six  memorable  events  which 
it  well  becomes  the  American  people  to  recall 
with  devout  gratitude  and  awe,  realizing  anew 
the  Providence  that  watches  alike  over  human 
beings  and  the  affairs  of  nations,  and  recog- 
nizing the  solemn  truth  that  ever,  as,  signally, 
in  those  times  that  tried  the  souls  of  men, 

"  God  fulfils  Himself  in  many  ways." 

I. 


500 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


WASHINGTON'S  INAUGURATION 

By  Edward  Everett  Hale 


On  the  fourth  of  March.  1789,  Elbridge 
Gerry,  who  had  been  chosen  to  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  wrote  thus  from  New 
York  to  John  Adams: 

"  My  dear  Friend  :— I  find,  on  inquiry,  that 
you  are  elected  Vice-President,  having  three 
or  four  times  the  number  of  votes  of  any 
other  candidate.  Maryland  threw  away  their 
votes  on  Colonel  Harrison,  and  South  Caro- 
lina on  Governor  Rutledge,  being,  with  some 
other  states  which  were  not  unanimous  for 
you,  apprehensive  that  this  was  a  necessary 
step  to  prevent  your  election  to  the  chair.  On 
this  point  they  were  mistaken,  for  the  Presi- 
dent, as  I  am  informed  from  pretty  good 
authority,  has  a  unanimous  vote.  It  is  the 
universal  wish  of  all  that  I  have  conferred 
with,  and  indeed  their  expectation,  that  both 
General  Washington  and  yourself  will  ac- 
cept ;  and  should  either  refuse,  it  will  have  a 
very  disagreeable  effect.  The  members  pres- 
ent met  to-day  in  the  City  Hall,  there  being 
about  eleven  Senators  and  thirteen  Repre- 
sentatives, and  not  constituting  a  quorum  in 
either  house,  they  adjourned  till  to-morrow. 

"  Mrs.  Gerry  and  the  ladies  join  me  m 
sincere  regards  to  yourself,  your  lady.  Col- 
onel and  Mrs.  Smith,  and  be  assured  I  Re- 
main,   etc.  E.    Gerry. 

So  slow  was  the  movement  of  news  in 
those  days,  and  so  doubtful,  even  after  the 
election,  were  all  men  as  to  its  results,  Adams 
would  not  start  from  Braintree,  his  home, 
till  he  knew  he  was  elected,  nor  Washmgton 
from  Mt.  Vernon.  Charles  Thompson,  the 
Secretary  of  the  old  Congress,  arrived  at  Mt. 
Vernon  on  the  fourteenth  of  April  and  corn- 
municated  to  Washington  the  news  of  his 
election.  No  quorum  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives had  been  formed  until  the  first 
of  April,  nor  of  the  Senate  until  the  sixth. 
These  bodies  then  counted  the  electoral  vote, 
with  the  result  predicted  by  Gerry  in  his 
letter  written  two  days  before. 

Washington  waited  a  day  before  starting 
to  the  seat  of  Government.  On  the  sixteenth 
of  April  he  started  for  New  York.  He  writes 
in  his  diary : 

"  About  ten  o'clock  I  bade  adieu  to  Mount 
Vernon,  to  private  life  and  to  domestic  felic- 
ity;  and  with  a  mind  oppressed  with  more 
anxious  and  painful  sensations  than  I  have 
words  to  express,  set  out  for  New  York  in 
company  with  Mr.  Thompson  and  Colonel 
Humphries,  with  the  best  dispositions  to  ren- 
der service  to  my  country  in  obedience  to  its 
call,  but  with  less  hope  of  answering  its  ex- 
pectations." 

The  journey  began  with  a  public  dinner  at 
Alexandria.  Said  the  gentlemen  of  Alexan- 
dria in  their  address  to  him : 

"  Farewell !  .  .  .  Go !  .  .  .  and  make 
a  grateful  people  happy,  a  people  who  will  be 


doubly  grateful  when  they  contemplate  this 
recent  sacrifice  for  their  interest." 
And  Washington  in  his  reply  said : 
"  At  my  age,  and  in  my  circumstance,  what 
prospects  or  advantages  could  I  propose  to 
myself,  for  embarking  again  on  the  tempestu- 
ous and  uncertain  ocean  of  public  life?" 

The  journey  went  on  with  similar  inter- 
ruptions. The  rule  so  often  laid  down  by 
the  Virginians  afterward  that  that  is  the  best 
government  which  governs  least  was  cer- 
tainly well  kept  until  the  thirteenth  of  April. 
To  this  hour  the  adventurous  cyclist,  stop- 
ping at  some  wayside  inn  to  refresh  himself, 
may  find  upon  the  wall  the  picture  of  the 
maidens  and  mothers  of  Trenton  in  New 
Jersey.  Here  Washington  met  a  deputation 
sent  to  him  by  Congress.  A  triumphal  arch 
had  been  erected,  and  a  row  of  young  girls 
dressed  in  white,  a  second  row  of  young 
ladies,  and  a  third  of  their  mothers  awaited 
him.  As  he  passed,  the  girls  scattered  flow- 
ers, and  sang  the  verses  which  Judge  Mar- 
shall has  preserved : 

"  Welcome,  mighty  chief,  once  more 
Welcome  to  this  grateful  shore; 
Now  no  mercenary  foe 
Aims  again  the  fatal  blow — 
Aims  at  thee  the  fatal  blow. 

"  Virgins    fair   and   matrons    grave, 
These   thy  conquering  arm   did   save. 
Build   for  thee  triumphal   bowers. 
Strew,   ye    fair,   his   way   with   flowers — 
Strew  your   Hero's   way   with   flowers." 

His  progress  through  New  Jersey  was 
everywhere  accompanied  by  similar  festivi- 
ties— "  festive  illuminations,  the  ringing  of 
bells,  and  the  booming  of  cannon."  He  had 
written  to  Governor  Clinton  that  he  hoped 
he  might  enter  New  York  without  ceremony ; 
but  this  was  hardly  to  be  expected.  A  com- 
mittee of  both  Houses  met  him  at  Elizabeth- 
town  ;  he  embarked  in  a  splendid  barge 
manned  by  thirteen  pilots,  masters  of  vessels, 
and  commanded  by  Commodore  Nicholson ; 
other  barges  and  boats  fell  in  in  the  wake,  and 
a  nautical  procession  swept  up  the  Bay  of 
New  York.  On  board  two  vessels  were  par- 
ties of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  sang  odes 
as  Washington  appeared.  The  ships  in  the 
harbor  were  dressed  in  colors  and  fired  sa- 
lutes as  he  passed.  On  landing  at  Murray's 
Wharf  he  was  welcomed  by  Governor  Clin- 
ton and  General  Knox.  It  is  of  the  landing 
at  this  point  that  the  anecdote  is  told  that  an 
officer  asked  Washington's  orders,  announc- 
ing himself  as  commanding  his  guard. 
Washington,  with  his  ready  presence  of  mind, 
begged  him  to  follow  any  directions  he  had 
already  received  in  the  arrangements,  but  said 
that  for  the  future  the  affection  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  was  all  the  guard  that  he  required. 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


501 


At  the  end  of  the  day,  in  his  diary,  the  sad 
man  says : 

"  The  acclamations  of  the  people  filled  my 
mind  with  sensations  as  painful  as  pleasing."' 

It  was  some  days  before  the  formal  in- 
auguration. The  two  houses  of  Congress 
did  not  know  by  what  title  they  should  ad- 
dress him,  and  a  committee  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  discuss  this  subject.  It  was  finally 
agreed  that  the  address  should  be  simply, 
"  To  the  President  of  the  United  States  "—a 
form  which  has  remained  to  the  present  day. 

The  inauguration  finally  took  place  on  the 
thirtieth  of  April. 

On  the  thirtieth,  at  last  all  things  were 
ready,  and  the  inauguration  went  forward. 
The  place  was  at  what  they  then  called  Fed- 
eral Hall,  in  New  York,  and  Chancellor  Liv- 
ingstone administered  the  oath  : 

"  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  I  will  faithfully 
administer  and  execute  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  will,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  1 

A  salute  of  thirteen  guns  followed,  amid 
the  cheers  of  thousands  of  people.  Wash- 
ington then  delivered  his  inaugural  speech  to 
both  houses  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  After 
this  ceremony  he  walked  to  St.  Paul's 
Church,  where  the  Bishop  of  New  York  read 
prayers.  Maclay,  who  was  a  Senator  in  the 
first  Congress,  says : 

"  He  was  agitated  and  embarrassed  more 
than  he  ever  was  by  the  leveled  cannon  or 
pointed  musket.  He  trembled,  and  several 
times  could  scarce  make  out  to  read  his 
speech,  tho  it  must  be  supposed  he  had  often 
read  it  before." 

Fisher  Ames  says : 

"  He  addressed  the  two  houses  in  the  Sen- 
ate Chamber.  It  was  a  very  touching  scene, 
and  quite  of  a  solemn  kind.  His  aspect,  grave 
almost  to  sadness,  his  modesty,  actually  shak- 
ing, his  voice  deep,  a  little  tremulous,  and  so 
low  as  to  call  for  close  attention." 

John  Adams  had  taken  his  place  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate  two  days  before.  As  he 
did  not  always  in  after  life  speak  any  too 
cordially  of  Washington,  it  is  worth  noting 
that  at  this  critical  period  he  said  that  he 
congratulated  the  people  of  America  on  "  the 
prospect  of  an  executive  authority  in  the 
hands  of  one  whose  portrait  I  shall  not  pre- 
tend to  draw.  .  .  .  Were  I  blessed  with 
powers  to  do  justice  to  his  character,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  increase  the  confidence  or 
affection  of  his  country,  or  make  the  smallest 
addition  to  his  glory.  This  can  only  be  ef- 
fected by  a  discharge  of  the  present  exalted 
trust  on  the  same  principles,  with  the  same 
abilities  and  virtues  which  have  uniformly 
appeared  in  all  his  former  conduct,  public  or 
private.  May  I  nevertheless  be  indulged  to 
inquire,  if  we  look  over  the  catalog  of  the 
first  magistrates  of  nations,  whether  they 
have  been  denominated  presidents  or  consuls, 
kings  or  princes,  where  shall  we  find  one 
whose     commanding     talents     and     virtues, 


whose  overruling  good  fortune,  have  so 
completely  united  all  hearts  and  voices  in 
his  favor?  who  enjoyed  the  esteem  and  ad- 
miration of  foreign  nations  and  fellow-citi- 
zens with  equal  unanimity?  Qualities  so  un- 
common are  no  common  blessings  to  the 
country  that  possesses  them.  By  these  great 
qualities  and  their  benign  effects  has  Provi- 
dence marked  out  the  head  of  this  Nation, 
with  a  hand  so  distinctly  visible  as  to  have 
been  seen  by  all  men,  and  mistaken  by 
none." 

Whether,  on  this  occasion,  there  were  too 
much  ceremony  was  a  question  discussed  at 
the  time,  in  connection  with  the  heated  dis- 
cussion as  to  the  etiquette  of  the  new  Admin- 
istration. There  is  a  correspondence  between 
Washington  and  an  old  friend,  Stuart,  of 
Virginia,  who  had  told  him  that  the  people 
of  that  State  accused  him  of  "  regal  man- 
ners." 

Washington's  reply,  with  his  usual  good 
sense,  answers  a  good  many  questions  which 
are  bruited  to-day.  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  in  the 
Review  of  Reviezvs,  once  brought  some  of 
these  questions  forward.  "  How  far  is  it  right 
for  the  people  of  a  free  state  to  kill  their 
rnagistrates  by  inches?"  This  is  the  ques- 
tion reduced  to  its  simplest  terms.  It  was 
generally  understood,  when  the  late  Governor 
Greenhalge  died  in  Massachusetts,  that  his 
career,  invaluable  to  the  people  of  that  State 
and  of  the  country,  had  been  cut  off  untimely 
by  a  certain  etiquette,  which  obtains  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  whenever  there  is  a  public 
dinner  the  Governor  of  the  State  must  be 
present  and  make  a  speech.  With  refer- 
ence to  a  somewhat  similar  notion,  Washing- 
ton says : 

Before  the  present  custom  was  estab- 
lished I  was  unable  to  attend  to  any  business 
whatever.  Gentlemen,  consulting  their  own 
convenience  rather  than  mine,  were  calling 
from  the  time  I  rose  from  breakfast,  often 
before,  until  I  sat  down  to  dinner.  To  please 
everybody  was  impossible.  I  therefore 
adopted  that  line  of  conduct  which  combined 
public  advantage  with  private  convenience." 

In  another  place  he  says : 

"  Had  I  not  adopted  the  principle  of  re- 
turning no  visits,  I  .should  have  been  unable 
to  have  attended  to  any  sort  of  business." 

It  is  interesting  now  to  see  that  John 
Adams  wore  a  sword  on  occasions  of  cere- 
mony in  New  York,  as  late  as  this  period. 
Does  anybody  know  when  the  custom  of 
wearing  swords,  as  a  part  of  a  dress  cere- 
mony, was  abandoned  in  America?  It  still 
obtains  in  Europe ;  and  the  two  buttons  on 
the  back  of  every  dress-coat  are  a  survival 
of  the  custom.  They  were  originally  needed 
to  support  the  belt  which  sustained  the  sword. 

In  contrast  with  the  simple  ceremonies  at 
which  a  sensitive  democracy  took  exception, 
we  find  now  that  a  great  nation  consider  no 
honors  too  profuse  for  the  ceremonies  which 
attend  the  inauguration  of  its  chief  magis- 
trate.—I. 


502 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  DEATH  OF  WASHINGTON 

By  J.  E.  Rankin,  LL.D. 


According  to  all  the  laws  of  nature  and  of 
God  no  man  was  better  entitled  to  a  long  life 
than  Washington ;  and,  altho  he  died  years 
ago,  the  tragedy  of  his  untimely  and  unnec- 
essary death  may  even  yet  arouse  pity  and 
indignation. 

The  strength  of  his  physique,  his  long  life 
of  physical  activity  and  hardy  endurance,  his 
moderation  in  eating  and  drinking,  and  or- 
derliness in  all  the  other  details  of  his  life, 
gave  him  an  unusually  strong  claim  to  four- 
score years  at  least.  But  he  died  at  sixty- 
eight. 

Three  days  after  a  slight  and  not  unusual 
exposure  this  great  man  faced  death  for  the 
last  time.  On  Thursday,  December  twelfth, 
1799,  which  was  rainy,  sleety,  and  wintry, 
Washington,  wrapped  in  his  greatcoat,  was 
out  all  day  on  his  horse,  overseeing  his  es- 
tate. When  he  came  in  he  did  not  dress  for 
dinner,  but  attended  to  some  correspondence, 
which  he  would  not  send  to  the  post-office 
on  account  of  the  inclement  weather.  It  was 
noticed  then  that  his  neck  was  wet  from  the 
snow  which  still  clung  to  his  hair.  The  next 
day  it  snowed  and  Washington  remained  in 
the  house  until  afternoon,  when  he  went  out 
to  mark  some  trees  that  were  to  be  cut  down 
for  the  improvement  of  the  lawn.  When  he 
came  in  he  was  hoarse,  but  he  did  not  con- 
sider it  serious. 

He  was  subject  to  such  attacks,  he  said. 
"  It  is  only  a  cold ;  let  it  go  as  it  came." 
Saturday  morning,  between  two  and  three 
o'clock,  he  awoke  Mrs.  Washington,  and 
complained  of  a  severe  chill.     Even  then  he 


could  speak  only  with  great  difficulty.  But 
he  would  not  allow  her  to  call  a  servant,  lest 
she  should  take  cold.  At  dawn,  at  his  own 
suggestion,  he  was  bled  by  one  of  the  over- 
seers on  the  plantation,  himself  insisting  on 
a  free  discharge  from  the  incision  made. 
Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  Doctor  Craik, 
his  old  army  surgeon,  came  and  bled  him 
again.  About  eleven  another  physician  came, 
and  he  was  bled  a  third  time.  At  three 
o'clock  other  doctors  came,  and  he  was  bled 
a  fourth  time.  Thus  between  daybreak  and 
three  o'clock  Saturday  afternoon  the  dis- 
tinguished patient  was  bled  four  times.  At 
ten  o'clock  the  end  came 

A  little  skilful  nursing  in  the  beginning, 
a  little  professional  common  sense,  would 
have  saved  his  life,  speaking,  of  course,  after 
the  manner  of  men.  "  The  life  of  the  flesh 
is  the  blood  thereof,"  and  enough  blood  was 
taken  from  him  to  exhaust  his  vital  force,  so 
that  it  is  no  wonder  he  felt  a  presentiment 
of  coming  death.  His  chief  concern  seemed 
to  be  for  those  about  him.  He  several  times 
apologized  for  dying  so  hard,  as  tho  he  were 
there  to  die  instead  of  to  be  ministered  unto 
and  saved.  He  suffered  much,  but  he  kept 
his  composure  to  the  end.  and  the  great  mili- 
tary leader,  who  had  been  in  one  hundred 
battles  and  never  had  been  wounded,  met  his 
last  foe  without  fear.  Several  times  he  said, 
"  I  am  not  afraid  to  die,"  and  when  at  last 
he  did  yield  his  spirit  to  his  Maker  it  was 
done  willingly,  "  in  the  name  of  God." — N. 
Y.  O. 


AT  THE  ENGLISH    TOMBS    OF  THE  SIRES 
ERICA'S  FIRST  PRESIDENT 

By  Professor  Wilbur  F.  Steele 


OF  AM- 


In  the  stil^  shades  of  Mount  Vernon,  as 
upon  holy  ground,  does  a  nation  pay  uncov- 
ered reverence  at  the  tomb  of  our  American 
St.  George.  Similarly  in  the  home  of  the 
British  St.  George  with  related  interest  does 
an  exiled  son  of  the  Revolution  turn  aside 
to  the  English  tombs  of  Washington's  sires. 

During  most  of  two  centuries  were  expul- 
sion and  repulsion  the  dominant  forces  be- 
tween the  lands.  Apart  with  might  and  mo- 
ment did  the  continents  gravitate.  The 
myriad  ties  of  blood  and  friendship  were 
stretched  and  strained,  until  at  last  they 
snapped  asunder  in  the  sea.  Largely  did 
family  communion  and  knowledge  of  rela- 
tionship cease. 

But  during  the  past  generation  or  two  the 
force  of  attraction  has  asserted  itself,  with 
the  result  that  the  ties  once  broken  and  lost 


are  now  being  found  and  knitted  together 
again.  In  churchyards,  enriched  by  the  dust 
of  pre-Puritan  parents,  through  the  vista 
there  wells  the  abba  cry,  "  All  hail !  thou 
English  sire !  "  Nor  is  it  fancy  alone  that 
makes  audible  the  response,  "  All  hail !  thou 
American  son !  " 

In  revealmg  the  continuity  of  our  indi- 
vidual life,  at  first  English  and  later  Ameri- 
can, none  has  been  more  helpful  than  Henry 
F.  Waters,  our  eminent  genealogist,  for  years 
delving  in  English  archives.  But  our  great- 
est debt  is  due  to  his  moral  proof  some  ten 
years  ago  of  the  exact  English  ancestry  and 
antecedents  of  our  great  general  and  first 
President. 

Suspected,  alleged,  debated,  denied,  had  it 
been  for  nearly  a  century.  But  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  link  discovered  by  him  all  cavil 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


503 


has  ceased.  Utilizing  his  identifications,  these 
scenes  were  visited,  and  other  material 
brought   into   requisition. 

The  places  fully  identified  are  Sulgrave 
and  Great  Brington,  in  Northamptonshire. 
The  better  to  follow  the  account,  the  line  is 
here  tabulated.  As  customary,  the  American 
emigrant  is  indicated  by  the  figure  (i)  fol- 
lowing. From  him  the  line  is  reckoned  both 
ways,  his  ancestors  being  starred: 


John  (6*) 


Lawrence  (5*) 


Robert  (4*) 


Lawrence  (3*) 


Washington,  of  County  Lan- 
caster. 

Washington,  Mayor  of  North- 
ampton and  Grantee  af  Sul- 
grave in  the  thirtieth  year 
of  Henry  VIII.  Died  Feb.  ig, 
in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of 
Elizabeth.  Buried  at  Sul- 
grave. 

Washington,  of  Sulgrave, 
which  property  "  he  and  his 
son  Lawrence  sold "  early  in 
the  reign  of  James. 

Washington,  of  Sulgrave  and 
Brington,  whither  he  removed. 
Buried  a't  Great  Brington, 
Dec.  15,  1616. 

Rev.  Lawrence  (2*)  Washington,  M.  A.,  Fellow 
of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford  ; 
Rector  of  Purleigh.  Essex,  1633- 
43.     Died  before  1655. 

John  (i)  Washington  ;   not    far   from 

1657  emigrated  to  Virginia 
with  his  younger  brother, 
Lawrence. 

Lawrence  (2)       Washington,  died  1697. 

Augustine  (3)      Washington,  died  April   13 

I  1743.  aged  4g. 

GEORGE  (4)         WASHINGTON,  born  Feb.  11, 
I  1732 ;  died  Dec.  14,  1799. 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
monasteries  and  the  confiscation  of  their  pos- 
sessions in  1539,  Lawrence  (5*)  Washing- 
ton received  from  Henry  VIII.  a  large  tract 
of  land  formerly  owned  by  the  priory  of 
Canons  Ashby.  He  had  been  the  successful 
mayor  of  Northampton,  and  now  arose  to  be 
one  of  the  aristocracy. 

His  domain  embraced  several  square  miles, 
including  the  village  of  Sulgrave.  which  is 
eight  miles  northeast  of  Banbury,  famed  afar 
in  nursery  rhyme  for  its  cross.  In  it  is  the 
ancient  church  of  St.  James.  It  is  the  dupli- 
cate of  any  of  the  hundreds,  if  not  thousands, 
of  little  stone  churches  with  which  the  Nor- 
mans dotted  the  land  of  their  conquest. 
About  it  "  the  rude  forefathers  of  the  ham- 
let sleep;"  within  it,  the  aristocracy  of  the 
holding. 

At  the  east  end  of  the  aisle  is  a  brass  in- 
scription to  "  Lawrence  Washington,  ob. 
1584,"  with  effigies  of  himself  and  wife  and 
eleven  children. 

Extremely  interesting  to  note  in  these  rural 
places  of  worship  are  the  benefactions  of 
which  the  Church  is  the  almoner.  They  are 
usually  tabulated  on  the  wall.  Those  dis- 
tributable annually  by  the  Sulgrave  Church 
are  as  follows : 

£9,  for   education,    which  is    given   away  in 
prizes  to  the  children. 


iio,  to  be  used  for  apprenticing  youth  of  the 

parish. 
£14,  for  beef  to  be  given  on  St.  Valentine's 

Day. 
£11,  i6s.,  for  bread  to  be  given  in  threepence 
loaves,  one  third  to  the  poorest  of  the 
poor,   and  the   remainder  to  the  poor 
attending  church  on  Sundays. 
£3,  for  coats  and  caps. 
£5,  4s.,  in  money  on  St.  Thomas's  Day. 
£1,  IS.,  for  a  sermon,  and  £1,   15s.,  for  the 
trustees  on  St.  Valentine's  Day. 

Upon  the  death  of  Lawrence  (5*)  this 
holding  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  Rob- 
ert (4*)  Washington,  concerning  whom  it  is 
euphemistically  recorded  that  he  and  his  son, 
Lawrence  (3*),  "sold"  it.  In  plainer  speech, 
it  was  taken  from  them  and  given  to  such  as 
might  the  more  faithfully  or  profitably  serve 
the  crown. 

To  at  least  the  impoverished  Lawrence 
(3*)  did  the  distantly  related  Earl  of  Spen- 
cer provide  shelter  by  placing  at  his  disposal 
a  small  establishment  in  Little  Brington, 
some  fifteen  miles  eastward. 

In  the  adjoining  Great  Brington  Church 
lies  buried  this  Lawrence  (3*),  with  a  stone 
and  inscription,  a  moment's  glance  at  which 
shows  the  identity  of  his  arms  with  those  of 
George  Washington,  as  displayed  on  his  book 
plate.  No  doubt  exists  that  they  are  im- 
mortalized the  world  over  in  the  design  of 
the  ever-growing  "  old  glory."  It  crimsons 
the  cheek,  however,  and  maddens  the  soul  to 
behold  the  barbaric  vandalism  of  idiotic 
Americans  who  have  consigned  their  names 
to  lasting  infamy  by  cutting  them  and  rude 
representations  of  our  flag  into  the  soft 
stones  all  over  the  sacred  edifice. 

Son  of  this  Lawrence  (3*)  was  the  Rev. 
Lawrence  (2*)  Washington,  M.A.,  some- 
time Fellow  of  Brasenose  College.  As  later 
■rector  of  Purleigh  from  1633,  he  was  ejected 
from  his  living  by  the  Parliamentarians  in 
1643  as  an  incorrigible  Royalist.  Of  his 
death  and  entombment  the  records  are  un- 
known. 

Some  time  after  his  death,  or  about  1657, 
his  humiliated  and  hopeless  but  genteel  sons, 
John  (1)  and  Lawrence,  sought  to  repair 
their  fortunes  across  the  sea.  For  reasons 
the  most  obvious  they  emigrated,  not  to 
Puritan  New  England,  but  to  Cavalier  Vir- 
ginia. Hence  a  perfect  duplicate  of  the  life, 
society,  and  estate  of  an  English  lord  or 
gentleman  or  esquire  is  that  which  reap- 
peared upon  the  bank  of  the  Potomac.  The 
bioad  miles  of  estate,  the  subject  tenantry, 
the  gentlemanly  leisure  and  library,  the 
coach  and  four  to  the  little  Episcopal  Church 
in  Alexandria,  in  fact,  many  of  the  deeper 
trends  in  our  national  life,  are  all  explained 
by  the  knowledge  of  this  ancestry,  surround- 
ings, history,  and  ideals. 

And  not  least  suggestive  is  the  remarkable 
union  at  Carnbridge  of  Washington  as  com- 
mander-in-chief and  the  New  England  troops 
in  the  Revolution — the  sons  of  both  self-ex- 
patriated Royalist  and  Puritan.— C.  W. 


504 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


ENTOMBMENT  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

By  Will  Carleton 


One  hundred  years  ago  this  month  (Dec, 
1899),  the  man  whom  American  history  loves 
to  honor  most  of  all,  died  and  was  buried. 

A  multitude  of  persons  assembled,  from 
many  miles  around,  at  Mount  Vernon,  the 
choice  abode  and  last  residence  of  the  illus- 
trious chief.  There  were  the  groves — the 
spacious  avenues,  the  beautiful  scenes,  the 
noble  mansion — but  the  august  inhabitant 
was  now  no  more. 

In  the  long  and  lofty  portico,  where  oft 
the  hero  walked  in  all  his  glory,  now  lay  the 
shrouded  corpse.  The  countenance  was  still 
composed  and  serene.  There  those  who  paid 
the  last  sad  honors  to  the  benefactor  of  his 
country,  took  an  impressive — a  farewell — 
view. 

On  the  ornament  at  the  head  of  the  coffin, 
was  inscribed  "  Surge  ad  Judicium  " — about 
the  middle  of  the  coffin,  "  Gloria  Deo  " — and 
on  the  silver  plate. 

General  George  Washington^ 

Departed  this  life  on  the   14th  December, 
1799,  set.  68. 

Between  three  and  four  o'clock,  the  sound 
of  artillery  from  a  vessel  in  the  river,  firing 
minute  guns,  awoke  afresh  the  solemn  sor- 


row— the  corpse  was  removed — a  band  of 
music  with  mournful  melody  was  heard,  and 
the  procession  was  formed  and  moved  on  in 
the  following  order : 

Cavalry ;  infantry ;  guard,  with  arms  re- 
versed ;  music ;  clergy ;  the  General's  horse, 
with  his  saddle,  holsters,  and  pistols;  corpse; 
mourners ;     Masonic  brethren ;     citizens. 

When  the  procession  had  arrived  at  the 
bottom  of  the  elevated  lawn,  on  the  bank  of 
the  Potomac,  where  the  family  vault  was 
placed,  the  cavalry  halted,  the  infantry 
marched  toward  the  mount  and  formed  their 
lines — the  clergy,  the  Masonic  brothers,  and 
the  citizens  descended  to  the  vault,  and  the 
funeral  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church  was 
performed.  The  firing  was  repeated  from 
the  vessel  in  the  river,  and  the  sounds  echoed 
from  the  woods  and  hills  around. 

Three  general  discharges  by  the  infantry, 
the  cavalry  and  eleven  pieces  of  artillery, 
which  lined  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  back 
of  the  vault,  paid  the  last  tribute  to  the  en- 
tombed Commander-in-Chief  of  the  armies 
of  United  States  and  to  the  departed  hero. 

The  sun  was  setting,  when  the  ceremonies 
concluded;  but  the  dead  man's  fame  had 
not,  nor  has  it  yet,  reached  its  meridian. — 
E.  W. 


ADDRESSES 


AT   THE    DEDICATION    OF    WASHINGTON    MONU- 
MENT 

By  John  W.  Daniel 
[Delivered  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  21,  1885] 


Mr.  President  of  the  United  States,  Senators, 

Representatives,  Judges,  Mr.  Chairman, 
and  My  Countrymen: — 

Alone  in  its  grandeur  stands  forth  the 
character  of  Washington  in  history ;  alone 
like  some  peak  that  has  no  fellow  in  the 
mountain  range  of  greatness. 

"  Washington,"  says  Guizot,  "  Washington 
did  the  two  greatest  things  which  in  politics 
it  is  permitted  to  man  to  attempt.  He  main- 
tained, by  peace,  the  independence  of  his 
country,  which  he  had  conquered  by  war. 
He  founded  a  free  government  in  the  name 
of  the  principles  of  order  and  by  re-estab- 
lishing their  sway."  Washington  did,  in- 
deed, do  these  things.  But  he  did  more. 
Out  of  disconnected  fragments,  he  molded  a 
whole,  and  made  it  a  country.  He  achieved 
his  country's  independence  by  the  sword.  He 
maintained  that  independence  by  peace  as  by 
war.    He  finally  established  both  his  coun- 


try and  its  freedom  in  an  enduring  frame  of 
constitutional  government,  fashioned  to  make 
liberty  and  union  one  and  inseparable.  These 
four  things  together  constitute  the  unex- 
ampled achievement  of  Washington. 

The  world  has  ratified  the  profound  re- 
mark of  Fisher  Ames,  that  "  he  changed 
mankind's  ideas  of  political  greatness."  It 
has  approved  the  opinion  of  Edward  Ever- 
ett, that  he  was  "  the  greatest  of  good  men, 
and  the  best  of  great  men."  It  has  felt  for 
him  with  Erskine,  "  an  awful  reverence."  It 
has  attested  the  declaration  of  Brougham 
that  "  he  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  own 
or  of  any  age."     .     .     . 

Conquerors  who  have  stretched  your  scep- 
ters over  boundless  territories ;  founders  of 
empires  who  have  held  your  dominions  in 
the  reign  of  law ;  reformers  who  have  cried 
aloud  in  the  wilderness  of  oppression ;  teach- 
ers who  have  striven  to  cast  down  false  doc- 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


505 


trine,  heresy,  and  schism ;  statesmen  whose 
brains  have  throbbed  with  mighty  plans  for 
the  amelioration  of  human  society ;  scar- 
crowned  vikings  of  the  sea,  illustrious  he- 
roes of  the  land,  who  have  borne  the  stand- 
ards of  siege  and  battle,  come  forth  in  bright 
array  from  your  glorious  fanes,  and  would 
ye  be  measured  by  the  measure  of  his  stat- 
ure? Behold  you  not  in  him  a  more  illus- 
trious and  more  venerable  presence?  States- 
man, soldier,  patriot,  sage,  reformer  of 
creeds,  teacher  of  truth  and  justice,  achiever 
and  preserver  of  liberty,  the  first  of  men, 
founder  and  savior  of  his  country,  father  of 
his  people — this  is  he,  solitary  and  unap- 
proachable in  his  grandeur ! 

Oh,  felicitous  Providence  that  gave  to 
America  our  Washington ! 

High  soars  into  the  sky  to-day,  higher  than 
the  pyramid  or  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  or  St. 
Peter's — the  loftiest  and  most  imposing 
structure  that  man  has  ever  reared— high 
soars  into  the  sky  to  where — "  Earth  highest 
yearns  to  meet  a  star  "  the  monument  which 
"  We  the  people  of  the  United  States  "  have 
uplifted  to  his  memory.  It  is  a  fitting  monu- 
ment, more  fitting  than  any  statue.  For  his 
image  could  only  display  him  in  some  one 
phase  of  his  varied  character.  So  art  has 
fitly  typified  his  exalted  life  in  yon  plain, 
lofty  shaft.  Such  is  his  greatness,  that  only 
by  a  symbol  could  it  be  represented.  As 
Justice  must  be  blind  in  order  to  be  whole 
in  contemplation,  so  History  must  be_  silent 
that  by  this  mighty  sign  she  may  disclose 
the  amplitude  of  her  story. 

No  sum  could  now  be  made  of  Washing- 
ton's character  that  did  not  exhaust  language 
of  its  tributes  and  repeat  virtue  by  all  her 
names.  No  sum  could  be  made  of  his 
achievements  that  did  not  unfold  the  history 
of  his  country  and  its  institutions — the  his- 
tory of  his  age  and  its  progress — the  history 
of  man  and  his  destiny  to  be  free.  But, 
whether  character  or  achievement  be  re- 
garded, the  riches  before  us  only  expose 
the  poverty  of  praise.  So  clear  was  he  in 
his  great  office  that  no  ideal  ofthe  leader  or 
ruler  can  be  forced  that  does  not  shrink  by 
the  side  of  the  reality.  And  so  has  he  im- 
pressed himself  upon  the  minds  of  men.  that 
no  man  can  justly  aspire  to  be  the  chief  of 
a  great,  free  people,  who  does  not  adopt  his 
principles  and  emulate  his  example.  We 
look  with  amazement  on  such  eccentric  char- 
acters as  Alexander,  Caesar,  Cromwell, 
Frederick,  and  Napoleon,  but  when  Wash- 
ington's face  rises  before  us,  instinctively 
mankind  exclaims :  "  This  is  the  man  for 
nations  to  trust  and  reverence,  and  for  ru- 
lers to  follow." 

Drawing  his  sword  from  patriotic  im- 
pulse, without  ambition  and  without  malice, 
he  wielded  it  without  vindictiveness,  and 
sheathed  it  without  reproach.  All  that  hu- 
manity could  conceive  he  did  to  suppress  the 
cruelties  of  war  and  soothe  its  sorrows.  He 
never  struck  a  coward's  blow.  To  him  age, 
infancy,  and  helplessness  were  ever  sacred. 
He  tolerated  no  extremity  unless  to  curb  the 


excesses  of  his  enemy,  and  he  never  poisoned 
the  sting  of  defeat  by  the  exultation  of  the 
conqueror. 

Peace  he  welcomed  as  a  heaven-sent  her- 
ald of  friendship ;  and  no  country  has  given 
him  greater  honor  than  that  which  he  de- 
feated;  for  England  has  been  glad  to  claim 
him  as  the  scion  of  her  blood,  and  proud, 
like  our  sister  American  States,  to  divide 
with  Virginia  the  honor  of  producing  him. 

Fascinated  by  the  perfection  of  the  man, 
Aye  are  loathe  to  break  the  mirror  of  admira- 
tion into  the  fragments  of  analysis.  But, 
lo !  as  we  attempt  it,  every  fragment  be- 
comes the  miniature  of  such  sublimity  and 
beauty  that  the  destructive  hand  can  only 
multiply  the   forms  of  immortality. 

Grand  and  manifold  as  were  its  phases, 
there  is  yet  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
the  character  of  Washington.  He  was  no 
Veiled  Prophet.  He  never  acted  a  part. 
Simple,  natural,  and  unaffected,  his  life  lies 
before  us — a  fair  and  open  manuscript.  He 
disdained  the  arts  which  wrap  power  in 
mystery  in  order  to  magnify  it.  He  prac- 
tised the  profound  diplomacy  of  truthful 
speech — the  con,summate  tact  of  direct  atten- 
tion. Looking  over  to  the  All-Wise  Dis- 
poser of  events,  he  relied  on  that  Providence 
which  helps  men  by  giving  them  high  hearts 
and  hopes  to  help  themselves  with  the  means 
which  their  Creator  has  put  at  their  service. 
There  was  no  infirmity  in  his  conduct  over 
which  charity  must  fling  its  veil ;  no  taint  of 
selfishness  from  which  purity  averts  her 
gaze ;  no  dark  recess  of  intrigue  that  must 
be  lit  up  with  colored  panegyric ;  no  sub- 
terranean passage  to  be  trod  in  trembling, 
lest  there  be  stirred  the  ghost  of  a  buried 
crime. 

A  true  son  of  nature  was  George  Wash- 
ington— of  nature  in  her  brightest  intelli- 
gence and  noblest  mold ;  and  the  difficulty, 
if  such  there  be,  in  comprehending  him,  is 
only  that  of  reviewing  from  a  single  stand- 
point the  vast  procession  of  those  civil  and 
military  achievements  which  filled  nearly  half 
a  century  of  his  life,  and  in  realizing  the 
magnitude  of  those  qualities  which  were 
requisite  to  their  performance — the  difficulty 
of  fashioning  in  our  minds  a  pedestal  broad 
enough  to  bear  the  towering  figure,  whose 
greatness  is  diminished  by  nothing  but  the 
perfection  of  its  proportions.  If  his  exterior 
—in  calm,  grave,  and  resolute  repose — ever 
impressed  the  casual  observer  as  austere  and 
cold,  it  was  only  because  he  did  not  reflect 
that  no  great  heart  like  his  could  have  lived 
unbroken  unless  bound  by  iron  nerves  in  an 
iron  frame.  The  Commander  of  Armies,  the 
Chief  of  a  People,  the  Hope  of  Nations 
could  not  wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve; 
and  yet  his  sternest  will  could  not  conceal 
its  high  and  warm  pulsations.  Under  the 
enemy's  guns  at  Boston  he  did  not  forget 
to  instruct  his  agent  to  administer  gener- 
ously of  charity  to  his  needy  neighbors  at 
home.  The  sufferings  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, thrown  adrift  by  war.  and  of  his  bleed- 
ing comrades,  pierced  his  soul.  And  the 
moist  eye  and  trembling  voice  with  which  he 


5o6 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


bade  farewell  to  his  veterans  bespoke  the 
underlying  tenderness  of  his  nature,  even  as 
the  storm-wind  makes  music  in  its  under- 
tones. 

Disinterested  patriot,  he  would  receive  no 
pay  for  his  military  services.  Refusing  gifts, 
he  was  glad  to  guide  the  benefaction  of  a 
grateful  State  to  educate  the  children  of  his 
fallen  braves  in  the  institution  at  Lexington 
which  yet  bears  his  name.  Without  any  of 
the  blemishes  that  mark  the  tyrant,  he  ap- 
pealed so  loftily  to  the  virtuous  elements  in 
man,  that  he  almost  created  the  qualities  of 
which  his  country  needed  the  exercise ;  and 
yet  he  was  so  magnanimous  and  forbearing 
to  the  weaknesses  of  others,  that  he  often 
obliterated  the  vices  of  which  he  feared  the 
consequences.  But  his  virtue  was  more  than 
this.  It  was  of  that  daring,  intrepid  kind 
that,  seizing  principle  with  a  giant's  grasp, 
assumes  responsibility  at  any  hazard,  suffers 
sacrifice  without  pretense  of  martyrdom, 
bears  calumny  without  reply,  imposes  su- 
perior will  and  understanding  on  all  around 
it,  capitulates  to  no  unworthy  triumph,  but 
must  carry  all  things  at  the  point  of  clear 
and  blameless  conscience.  Scorning  all  man- 
ner of  meanness  and  cowardice,  his  bursts 
of  wrath  at  their  exhibition  heighten  our  ad- 
miration for  the  noble  passions  which  were 
kindled  by  the  aspirations  and  exigencies  of 
virtue. 

Invested  with  the  powers  of  a  Dictator, 
the  country  bestowing  them  felt  no  distrust 
of  his  integrity ;  he,  receiving  them,  gave 
assurance  that,  as  the  sword  was  the  last 
support  of  Liberty,  so  it  should  be  the  first 
thing  laid  aside  when  Liberty  was  won.  And 
keeping  the  faith  in  all  things,  he  left  man- 
kind bewildered  with  the  splendid  problem 
whether  to  admire  him  most  for  what  he 
was  or  what  he  would  not  be.  Over  and 
above  all  his  virtues  was  the  matchless  man- 
hood of  personal  honor  to  which  Confidence 
gave  in  safety  the  key  of  every  treasure — 
on  which  Temptation  dared  not  smile,  on 
which  Suspicion  never  cast  a  frown.  And 
why  prolong  the  catalog?  "  If  you  are  pre- 
sented with  medals  of  Caesar,  of  Trajan,  or 
Alexander,  on  examining  their  features  you 
are  still  led  to  ask  what  was  their  stature 
and  the  forms  of  their  persons ;  but  if  you 
discover  in  a  heap  of  ruin  the  head  or  the 
limb  of  an  antique  Apollo,  be  not  curious 
about  the  other  parts,  but  rest  assured  that 
they  were  all  conformable  to  those  of  a  god." 

"  Rome  to  America "  is  the  eloquent  in- 
scription on  one  stone  of  your  colossal  shaft 
— taken  from  the  ancient  Temple  of  Peace 
that  once  stood  hard  by  the  Palace  of  the 
Caesars.  Uprisen  from  the  sea  of  Revolu- 
tion, fabricated  from  the  ruins  of  battered 
Bastiles,  and  dismantled  palaces  of  unright- 
eous, unhallowed  power,  stood  forth  now  the 


Republic  of  republics,  the  Nation  of  nations, 
the  Constitution  of  constitutions,  to  which 
all  lands  and  times  and  tongues  had  con- 
tributed of  their  wisdom,  and  the  priestess 
of  Liberty  was  in  her  holy  temple. 

When  Marathon  had  been  fought  and 
Greece  kept  free,  each  of  the  victorious 'gen- 
erals voted  himself  to  be  first  in  honor,  but 
all  agreed  that  Miltiades  was  second.  When 
the  most  memorable  struggle  for  the  rights 
of  human  nature  of  which  time  holds  record 
was  thus  happily  concluded  in  the  muni- 
ment of  their  preservation,  whoever  else  was 
second,  unanimous  acclaim  declared  that 
Washington  was  first.  Nor  in  that  struggle 
alone  does  he  stand  foremost.  In  the  name 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  their 
President,  their  Senators,  their  Representa- 
tives, and  their  Judges  do  crown  to-day  with 
the  grandest  crown  that  veneration  has  ever 
lifted  to  the  brow  of  Glory,  him  whom  Vir- 
ginia gave  to  America,  whom  America  has 
given  to  the  world  and  to  the  ages,  and  whom 
mankind  with  universal  suffrage  has  pro- 
claimed the  foremost  of  the  founders  of  em- 
pire in  the  first  degree  of  greatness ;  whom 
Liberty  herself  has  anointed  as  the  first  citi- 
zen in  the  great  Republic  of  Humanity. 
.  Encompassed  by  the  inviolate  seas,  stands 
to-day  the  American  Republic  which  he 
founded — a  freer.  Greater  Britain — uplifted 
above  the  powers  and  principalities  of  the 
earth,  even  as  his  monument  is  uplifted  over 
roof  and  dome  and  spire  of  the  multitudi- 
nous city. 

Long  live  the  Republic  of  Washington ! 
Respected  by  mankind,  beloved  of  all  its 
sons,  long  may  it  be  the  asylum  of  the  poor 
and  oppressed  of  all  lands  and  religions — 
long  may  it  be  the  citadel  of  that  Liberty 
which  writes  beneath  the  eagle's  folded 
wings,  "  We  will  sell  to  no  man.  we  will 
deny  to  no  man,  right  and  justice." 

Long  live  the  United  States  of  America ! 
Filled  with  the  free,  magnanimous  spirit, 
crowned  by  the  wisdom,  blessed  by  the 
moderation,  hovered  over  by  the  guardian 
angel  of  Washington's  example,  may  they  be 
ever  worthy  in  all  things  to  be  defended  by 
the  blood  of  the  brave,  who  know  the  rights 
of  man  and  shrink  not  from  their  assertion ; 
may  they  be  each  a  column,  and  all  together, 
under  the  Constitution,  a  perpetual  Temple 
of  Peace,  unshadowed  by  a  Caesar's  palace, 
at  whose  altar  may  freely  commune  all  who 
seek  the  union  of  liberty  and  brotherhood. 

Long  live  our  country !  Oh,  long  through 
the  undying  ages  may  it  stand  far  removed 
in  fact  as  in  space  from  the  Old  World's 
feuds  and  follies ;  alone  in  its  grandeur  and 
its  glory,  itself  the  immortal  monument  of 
him  whom  Providence  commissioned  to  teach 
man  the  power  of  truth  and  to  prove 
to  the  nations  that  their  redeemer  liveth. — 
W.  B.  D. 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


507 


WASHINGTON'S  RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER 


By  William  McKinley 
[In  an  Address,  February  22,  1898.] 


Tho  Washington's  exalted  character  and 
the  most  striking  acts  of  his  brilliant  record 
are  too  familiar  to  be  recounted  here,  yet 
often  as  the  story  is  retold,  it  engages  our 
love  and  admiration  and  interest.  We  love 
to  record  his  noble  unselfishness,  his  heroic 
purposes,  the  power  of  his  magnificent  per- 
sonality, his  glorious  achievements  for  man- 
kind, and  his  stalwart  and  unflinching  devo- 
tion to  independence,  liberty,  and  union. 
These  cannot  be  too  often  told  or  be  too 
familiarly  known. 

A  slaveholder  himself,  he  yet  hated  sla- 
very, and  provided  in  his  will  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  his  slaves.  Not  a  college  graduate, 
he  was  always  enthusiastically  the  friend  of 
liberal  education.     .     .     . 

And  how  reverent  always  was  this  great 
man.  how  prompt  and  generous  his  recog- 
nition of  the  guiding  hand  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence in  establishing  and  controlling  the  des- 
tinies of  the  colonies  and  the  Republic.  .  .  . 

Washington  states  the  reasons  of  his  belief 
in  language  so  exalted  that  it  should  be 
graven  deep  in  the  mind  of  every  patriot : 

"  No  people  can  be  bound  to  acknowledge 
and  adore  the  invisible  hand  which  conducts 
the  affairs  of  man  more  than  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  Every  step  by  which  they 
have  advanced  to  the  character  of  an  inde- 
pendent nation  seems  to  have  been  distin- 
guished by  some  token  of  providential 
agency;  and  in  the  important  revolution  just 
accomplished  in  the  system  of  their  united 
government,    the   tranquil    deliberations   and 


voluntary  consents  of  so  many  distinguished 
communities  from  which  the  events  resulted 
cannot  be  compared  with  the  means  by  which 
most  governments  have  been  established, 
without  some  return  of  pious  gratitude, 
along  with  an  humble  aqticipation  of  the 
future  blessings  which  the  same  seems  to 
presage.  The  reflections  arising  out  of  the 
present  crisis  have  forced  themselves  strongly 
upon  my  mind.  You  will  join  with  me,  I 
trust,  in  thinking  that  there  are  none  under 
the  influence  of  which  the  proceedings  of  a 
new  and  free  government  are  more  auspi- 
ciously commenced." 

In  his  Farewell  Address,  Washington  con- 
tends in  part:  (i)  For  the  promotion  of  in- 
stitutions of  learning;  (2)  for  cherishing 
the  public  credit;  (3)  for  the  observance  of 
good  faith  and  justice  toward  all  na- 
tions.    .     .     . 

At  no  point  in  his  administration  does 
Washington  appear  in  grander  proportions 
than  when  he  enunciates  his  ideas  in  regard 
to  the  foreign  policy  of  the  government : 

"  Observe  good  faith  and  justice  toward 
all  nations ;  cultivate  peace  and  harmony 
with  all;  religion  and  morality  enjoin  this 
conduct.  Can  it  be  that  good  policy  does 
not  equally  enjoin  it?  It  will  be  worthy  of 
a  free,  enlightened,  and,  at  no  distant  period, 
a  great  nation,  to  give  to  mankind  the  mag- 
nanimous and  too  novel  example  of  a  people 
always  guided  by  an  exalted  justice  and 
benevolence." 


THE  MAJESTIC  EMINENCE  OF  WASHINGTON 

By  Chauncey  M.  Depew 

[In  an  Address,  February  22,  1888.] 


"  Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

As  the  human  race  has  moved  along  down 
the  centuries,  the  vigorous  and  ambitious, 
the  dissenters  from  blind  obedience  and  the 
original  thinkers,  the  colonists  and  state 
builders,  have  broken  camp  with  the  morn- 
ing, and  followed  the  sun  till  the  close  of 
day.  They  have  left  behind  narrow  and  de- 
grading laws,  traditions,  and  castes.  Their 
triumphant  success  is  putting  behind  every 
bayonet  carried  at  the  order  of  Kaiser  or 
Czar ;  men  who,  in  doing  their  own  think- 
ing, will  one  day  decide  for  themselves  the 
problems  of  peace  and  war. 

The  scenes  of  the  fifth  act  of  the  grand 
drama    are    changing,    but    all    attention    re- 


mains riveted  upon  one  majestic  figure.  He 
stands  the  noblest  leader  who  ever  was  en- 
trusted with  his  country's  life.  His  patience 
under  provocation,  his  calmness  in  danger, 
and  lofty  courage  when  all  others  despaired, 
his  prudent  delays  when  delay  was  best,  and 
his  quick  and  resistless  blows  when  action 
was  possible,  his  magnanimity  to  defamers 
and  generosity  to  his  foes,  his  ambition  for 
his  country  and  unselfishness  for  himself, 
his  sole  desire  of  freedom  and  independence 
for  America,  and  his  only  wish  to  return 
after  victory  to  private  life,  have  all  com- 
bined to  make  him,  by  the  unanimous  judg- 
ment of  the  world,  the  foremost  figure  of 
history. 


5o8 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


ESTIMATES  OF  WASHINGTON 


More  than  all,  and  above  all,  Washington 
was  master  of  himself.  If  there  be  one  qual- 
ity more  than  another  in  his  character  which 
may  exercise  a  useful  control  over  the  men 
of  the  present  hour,  it  is  the  total  disregard 
of  self  when  in  the  most  elevated  positions 
for  influence  and  example. — Charles  Fran- 
cis Adams. 

Let  him  who  looks  for  a  monument  to 
Washington  look  around  the  United  States. 
Your  freedom,  your  independence,  your  na- 
tional power,  your  prosperity,  and  your 
prodigious  growth  are  a  monument  to  him. — 
Kossuth. 

To  add  brightness  to  the  sun  or  glory  to 
the  name  of  Washington  is  alike  impossible. 
Let  none  attempt  it.  In  solemn  awe  pro- 
nounce the  name,  and  in  its  naked,  deathless 
splendor  leave  it  shining  on. — Abraham 
Lincoln. 


More  than  any  other  individual,  and  as 
much  as  to  one  individual  was  possible,  has 
he  contributed  to  found  this,  our  wide 
spreading  empire,  and  to  give  to  the  Western 
World  independence  and  freedom. — Chief 
Justice  Marshall. 

George  Washington,  the  brave,  the  wise, 
the  good.  Supreme  in  war,  in  council,  and 
in  peace.  Washington,  valiant,  without  am- 
bition ;  discreet,  without  fear ;  confident, 
without  presumption. — Dr.   Andrew   Lee. 

For  a  thousand  years  no  king  in  Christen- 
dom has  shown  such  greatness  or  given  so 
high  a  type  of  manly  virtue. — Theodore 
Parker. 

Just  honor  to  Washington  can  only  be 
rendered  by  observing  his  precepts  and  im- 
itating his  example. — Hon.  Robert  Charles 

WiNTHROP,   LL.D 


WASHINGTON'S  SERVICE  TO  EDUCATION 

By  Charles  W.  E.  Chapin 


Washington's  ideas  concerning  education 
have  the  approval  of  educators  of  our  day. 
He  was  in  advance  of  his  age;  it  is  a  ques- 
tion if  we  have  quite  caught  up  with  him. 
Of  the  two  plans  of  his  mature  years  and 
ripened  experience,  one  has  been  realized, 
the  West  Point  idea,  which  brings  together 
from  every  state  and  territory  of  the  Union, 
young  men  to  be  trained  for  military  service ; 
that  other  plan  of  a  National  University  with 
schools  of  administration  and  statesmanship 
is  yet  being  considered. 

Washington  shared  neither  the  least  nor 
the  most  of  the  educational  advantages  of 
his  colony.  The  elder  brothers,  Lawrence 
and  Augustine,  had  realized  their  father's 
hopes  and  had  iDeen  sent  to  England  for  their 
schooling  as  he  had  been  for  his,  but  the 
early  death  of  the  father  defeated  that  plan 
for  George,  so  he  obtained  the  early  prepara- 
tion for  his  life  work  from  the  "  home  uni- 
versity," over  which  Mary  Washington  pre- 
sided, a  loving  and  wise  head.  At  times 
George  was  with  his  brother  Augustine  _  at 
Bridges  Creek,  to  be  near  the  best  parish 
school,  and  then  he  was  at  home ;  but  all  the 
time  he  was  advancing  rapidly  in  that  school 
of  men  and  affairs.  "  He  was  above  all 
things  else,  a  capable,  executive  boy,"  says 
Woodrow  Wilson  in  his  biography.  "  He 
loved  mastery,  and  he  relished  acquiring  the 
most  effective  means  of  mastery  in  all  prac- 
tical affairs.  His  very  exercise  books,  used 
at  school,  gave  proof  of  it."  As  he  did  these 
things  with  care  and  industry,  so  he  followed 
with  zest  the  spirited  diversions  of  the  hunt 
and  the  life  in  fields  and  forests.  Very  early 
he  put  his  knowledge  of  the  surveyor's  art  to 
practical    test    and    applied    the    chain    and 


logarithm  to  the  reaches  of  the  family  lands. 
His  skill  came  to  the  notice  of  Lord  Fairfax, 
who  wished  to  know  the  extent  of  the  lands 
he  had  inherited  in  the  New  World.  Wash- 
ington, tho  but  sixteen,  was  equal  to  the 
task ;  in  a  month's  time,  after  fording  swol- 
len streams  and  penetrating  the  forests,  he 
presented  to  Lord  Fairfax,  maps  and  figures 
which  showed  him  the  extent  and  boundaries 
of  his  estate.  For  three  years  Washington 
followed  this  fascinating  yet  perilous  work, 
and  then  being  strongly  recommended  by 
Lord  Fairfax,  and  himself  being  able  to 
show  in  clear,  round  style  his  mastery  of  the 
art  and  science  of  surveying,  he  received  in 
1788  from  the  President  of  William  and 
Mary  College  the  appointment  as  official 
surveyor  for  Culpeper  County ;  such  a  cer- 
tificate was  equivalent  to  a  degree  of  civil 
engineering  in  those  days. 

Thus  from  an  institution  of  higher  learn- 
ing. George  Washington  received  the  first 
public  recognition  of  service  and  of  merit. 
It  was  the  turning  point  in  his  life ;  it 
opened  up  fully  the  path  to  those  experiences 
which  equipped  him  for  that  eflPicient  service 
in  the  French  and  Indian  War.  and  the  Revo- 
lution. 

The  honorable  position  of  Chancellor  had 
been  held  by  the  Bishops  of  London  from 
the  foundation  of  the  College  in  1693  to  the 
Revolution.  The  old  statute  defining  the 
duties  of  the  office  is  interesting:  "The 
Chancellor  is  to  be  the  Maecenas,  or  patron 
of  the  College ;  such  a  one  as  by  his  favor 
with  the  King  and  by  his  interest  with  all 
other  persons  in  England  may  be  enabled 
to  help  in  all  the  College  affairs.  His  ad- 
vice is  to  be  taken,  especially  in  such  ardu- 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


509 


ous  and  momentous  affairs  as  the  College 
shall  have  to  do  in  England.  If  the  College 
has  any  petitions  at  any  time  to  the  King, 
let  them  be  presented  by  the  Chancellor." 
We  can  imagine  a  grim  smile  on  Washing- 
ton's countenance  as  he  read  the  provisions 
made  concerning  the  functions  of  his  office, 
especially  that  of  conferring  with  the  King. 

In  his  letter  to  Samuel  Griffin,  Esq.,  Rec- 
tor of  the  College,  accepting  his  appointment, 
he  says :  "  Influenced  by  a  heartfelt  desire  to 
promote  the  cause  of  science  in  general  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary  in  particular,  I  accept  the  office  of 
Chancellor  in  the  same  and  request  you  will 
be  pleased  to  give  official  notice  thereof  to 
the  learned  body  who  have  thought  proper 
to  honor  me  with  the  appointment.  I  con- 
fide fully  in  their  strenuous  endeavors  for 
placing  the  system  of  education  on  such  a 
basis  as  will  render  it  most  beneficial  to  the 
State  and  the  Republic  of  letters,  as  well  as 
to  the  more  extensive  interests  of  humanity 
and  religion."'  This  call  to  the  leadership 
of  education  in  his  own  State  antedated  his 
election  to  the  Presidency  of  the  new  Repub- 
lic by  a  year,  and  he  continued  in  that  serv- 
ice to  the  College  of  William  and  Mary 
until  the  close  of  his  life. 

About  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  the 
State  of  Maryland  began  to  broaden  its  edu- 
cational institutions.  The  School  of  Kent 
County  at  Chestertown  was  placed  in  1780 
under  the  charge  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  William 
Smith,  the  minister  of  the  parish,  who  had 
been  President  of  the  College  of  Philadel- 
phia until  its  charter  was  revoked.  Dr. 
Smith  conducted  the  Academy  at  Chester- 
town  with  great  energy  and  ability,  and  in 
1782  the  visitors  of  the  Academy  asked  that 
it  be  made  a  college ;  the  legislature  made 
provision  that  when  a  total  endowment  of 
five  thousand  pounds  currency  should  be  pro- 
vided for  the  school,  it  should  be  incor- 
porated into  a  college,  with  enlarged  courses 
of  study  and  suitable  professors,  and  should 
be  denominated  Washington  College  "  in 
honorable  and  perpetual  memory  of  his  ex- 
cellency, General  Washington,  the  illustrious 
and  virtuous  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States."  In  five  months 
the  energetic  trustees  raised  $14,000;  Wash- 
ington contributed  fifty  guineas.  The  Col- 
lege was  at  once  incorporated  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  at  its  first  commencement,  its 
endowment  had  increased  to  $28,000.  It  was 
the  first  college  in  Maryland ;  Washington 
was  elected  as  a  member  of  the  first  Board 
of  Visitors,  but  being  with  the  army  at  New- 
burgh  was  unable  to  take  his  place  on  the 
Board  until  the  second  commencement  of 
the  College  in  1784.  Five  years  later,  the 
College  bestowed  upon  Washington  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Laws ;  his  letter  of  ac- 
knowledgment expressed  the  sentiment  that, 
"in  civilized  societies  the  welfare  of  the 
state  and  the  happiness  of  the  people  are  ad- 
vanced or  retarded  in  proportion  as  the 
morals  and  education  of  the  youth  are  at- 
tended to.  I  cannot  forbear  on  this  occasion 
to  express  the   satisfaction  which  I  feel  on 


seeing  the  increase  of  our  seminaries  of 
learning  through  the  extensive  country,  and 
the  general  wish  which  seems  to  prevail  for 
establishing  and  maintaining  these  valuable 
institutions."  The  old  College  has  suffered 
by  fire  and  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  yet 
it  has  lived  through  the  years  and  is  to-day 
doing  a  prosperous  and  noble  work. 

The  Potomac  and  Virginia  Company  and 
the  James  River  Company  were  among  those 
organizations  for  transportation  which 
Washington  aided  for  the  opening  up  of  the 
country.  There  was  a  recognition  of  his 
services  to  the  country  and  the  legislature  of 
Virginia  in  1785,  through  Patrick  Henry, 
then  Governor,  who  gave  Washington  fifty 
shares  in  the  Potomac  and  Virginia  Com- 
pany and  one  hundred  shares  in  the  James 
River  Company.  Washington  replied  that  he 
had  resolutely  shut  his  hand  against  every 
pecuniary  recompense  during  the  revolution- 
ary struggle;  and  that  he  could  not  change 
that  position.  He  added,  that,  if  the  legisla- 
ture would  allow  him  to  turn  the  gifts  from 
his  own  private  emolument  to  objects  of  a 
public  nature,  he  would  endeavor  to  select 
objects  which  would  meet  the  most  enlight- 
ened and  patriotic  views  of  the  Assembly  of 
Virginia.  The  proposition  met  with  hearty 
approval,  and  Washington  held  the  stock  in 
both  companies,  awaiting  the  time  when 
proper  and  worthy  objects  should  be  found 
for  the  benefactions. 

In  1785  he  proposed  to  Edmund  Randolph 
and  Thomas  Jefferson  that  the  revenue  of 
the  stock  in  those  companies  be  used  for  the 
establishment  of  two  schools,  one  upon  each 
river,  for  the  education  of  poor  children, 
particularly  those  whose  parents  had  fallen 
in  the  struggle  for  liberty.  The  idea  was  a 
noble  one,  yet  Washington's  call  to  the  large 
service  of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary 
as  its  Chancellor,  and  to  the  country  as  its 
President,  prevented  him  from  carrying  it 
out.  He  carried  out  the  spirit  of  his  idea  by 
giving  fifty  pounds  a  year  for  the  instruction 
of  poor  children  in  Alexandria  and  by  ma- 
king large  provision  for  the  education  of  the 
sons  of  soldiers.  In  1783  he  honored  a 
Princeton  commencement  by  his  presence 
and  bestowed  upon  the  College  a  gift  of  fifty 
pounds.  A  tour  through  Georgia  in  1790, 
gave  him  opportunity  to  visit  and  approve 
of  the  Academy  at  Augusta.  About  the  same 
time  the  indomitable  Kirkland.  missionary 
to  the  Iroquois,  was  trying  every  source  of 
influence  and  money  in  behalf  of  an  academy 
in  Oneida  County,  New  York,  to  be  located 
near  the  old  Property  Line,  where  both  the 
sons  of  the  settlers  and  the  children  of  the 
forest  might  be  educated.  His  visit  to  Phila- 
delphia secured  a  generous  benefaction  from 
Washington  and  at  the  same  time  his  influ- 
ence and  that  of  others,  so  that  Congress 
appropriated  $15,000  yearly  to  "  instruct  the 
Iroquois  in  agriculture  and  the  useful  arts." 

Washington  had  now  matured  his  idea  of 
a  national  university.  He  was  ready  to  lay 
it  before  the  country  and  to  be  the  first  con- 
tributor to  its  endowment.  Virginia  was 
taking  new  interest  in  its  schools  and  the  in- 


5IO 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


fluence  of  William  and  Mary  College  was 
widening:  there  was  a  demand  for  more 
thoroughly  equipped  academies.  The  school 
at  Augusta,  which  the  Revolution  had  been 
the  means  of  christening  Liberty  Hall,  had 
become  prominent.  In  1796  Washington  set- 
tled upon  Liberty  Hall  as  the  proper  recip- 
ient of  the  one  hundred  shares  in  the  James 
River  Company  to  augment  its  endowment. 
In  accepting  the  gift  the  name  of  the  acad- 
emy was  changed  and  the  trustees  were  able 
to  sign  themselves,  "  the  trustees  of  Wash- 
ington Academy,  late  Liberty  Hall."  Wash- 
ington was  greatly  touched  by  the  honor  and 
ascribed  his  ability  to  make  the  donation  to 
"  the  generosity  of  the  Legislature  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia." 

The  institution  prospered.  About  1802  a 
new  charter  was  granted  with  larger  powers, 
under  the  name  of  Washington  College. 
John  Robinson,  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution 
under  Washington,  gave,  in  emulation  of  his 
illustrious  commander,  his  entire  estate  to 
Washington  College ;  from  it  the  trustees 
realized  $40,000  toward  the  endowment.  The 
stock  of  the  James  River  Company  which 
Washington  transferred  to  the  College  to-day 
yields  an  income  of  six  per  cent,  on  $50,000, 
and,  after  prospering  years,  the  College  has 
now  a  productive  endowment  of  $600,000  and 
a  property  worth  $800,000.  The  country  has 
passed  through  many  critical  periods  since 
Washington's  day  and  the  Union  is  stronger 
than  ever.  The  old  College  is  a  witness  to 
the  all-healing  power  of  time  and  kinship, 
for  its  name  has  again  been  added  to:  it  is 
Washington  and  Lee  University  now ;  and 
thus  is  joined  with  the  name  of  Father  of 
His  Country  the  name  of  one  whom  the 
South  has  ever  loved,  whom  the  North  long 
since  forgave,  and  whose  memory  the  coun- 
try will  ever  cherish. 

The  Revolutionary  War  was  a  costly  ex- 
neriment  of  education  in  military  affairs  in 
the  field ;  it  cost  heavily  in  blood  and  treas- 
ure. Washington  realized  that  preparation 
for  service  in  the  army  must  be  had  in  mili- 
tary schools. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  until 
the  end  of  his  life,  by  official  message  and  by 
letter,  Washington  urged  the  importance  of 
military  instruction.  In  his  message  to  Con- 
gress in  1796  he  said:  "  The  institution  of  a 
military  academy  is  recommended  by  cogent 
reasons.  However  pacific  the  general  policy 
of  a  nation  may  be,  it  ought  never  to  be 
without  an  adequate  stock  of  military  knowl- 
edge for  emergencies.  In  proportion  as  the 
observance  of  pacific  maxims  might  exempt 
a  nation  from  the  necessity  of  practising  the 
rules  of  the  military  art,  ought  to  be  its  care 
in  preserving  and  transmitting  by  proper  es- 
tablishments the  knowledge  of  that  art.  A 
thorough  examination  of  the  subject  will 
evince  that  the  art  of  war  is  extensive  and 
complicated ;  that  it  demands  much  previous 
study ;  and  that  the  possession  of  it  in  its 
most  important  and  perfect  state  is  always 
of  great  moment  to  the  security  of  a  nation.'' 
Congress  did  make  provision  for  the  carry- 
ing out  of  many  of  the  President's  recom- 


mendations; it  created  a  new  grade  in  the 
army,  that  of  Cadet,  to  which  young  men 
exclusively  were  admitted,  and  money  was 
appropriated  for  their  education  in  the 
science  of  war  that  they  might  be  prepared 
for  positions  of  command.  But  Congress 
delayed  the  potential  part  of  the  plan ;  it  did 
not  collect  the  regiment  of  artillerists  and 
engineers  at  a  single  station,  nor  did  it  erect 
buildings  for  the  uses  of  education. 

The  idea  did  not  die;  in  1802  Congress 
made  the  first  of  those  provisions  for  a 
military  academy  with  the  plan  and  scope 
which  Washington  had  so  persistently  urged. 
West  Point  was  chosen  as  the  place  of  its 
location.  That  academy  has  more  than  once 
demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  the  far-seeing 
Washington. 

West  Point  is  the  realization  of  Wash- 
ington's plans  for  a  national  school  of  mili- 
tary instruction.  To-day  it  represents  to 
the  country  the  important  features  of  that 
plan  for  a  National  University.  By  his 
last  will  and  testament,  Washington  be- 
queathed the  fifty  shares  of  stock  in  the 
Potomac  Company  to  the  establishment  of 
a  National  University  in  the  central  part  of 
the  United  States ;  he  made  provision  that 
until  such  a  university  should  be  founded 
the  fund  should  be  self-accumulating  by  the 
use  of  the  dividends  in  the  purchase  of  more 
stock,  to  still  further  augment  the  endow- 
ment fund.  In  the  transfers  and  changes  of 
commercial  life  apparent  record  of  that  stock 
has  been  lost,  yet  that  last  will  bequeathed 
an  ideal  which  in  indirect  ways  is  still  in- 
spiring our  national  educational  system. 

Let  us  take  our  place  by  the  side  of  a  stu- 
dent of  our  national  history  and  institutions, 
as  after  a  walk  through  the  buildings  and 
across  that  noble  plain  at  West  Point  he  sits 
down  to  meditate,  on  the  granite  steps  of 
"  Battle  Monument."  He  is  where  the  his- 
tory of  yesterday  abides,  but  about  him  is 
represented  the  strength  and  life  of  the  Na- 
tion in  the  strong  military  figures  of  officers, 
cadets  and  soldiers  from  every  section  of 
our  country.  He  feels  the  wisdom  of  that 
great  desire  of  Washington's  that  the  life 
and  thought  of  the  widely  separated  sections 
of  the  rising  empire  should  become  homo- 
geneous and  unified  by  the  meeting  of  the 
young  men  of  the  land  in  a  central  school, 
during  the  years  of  training  for  the  coun- 
try's service  at  arms.  This  student  of  his- 
tory would  feel  how  that  hope  had  been 
fulfilled  by  the  loyal  service  which  the  sons 
of  West  Point  to  so  large  a  degree  rendered 
the  Union  in  its  days  of  peril ;  and  with  deep 
gratitude  would  he  acknowledge  that  en- 
thusiastic loyalty  with  which  the  North  and 
South,  the  East  and  West  as  represented  at 
West  Point  and  throughout  the  country 
rushed  to  its  service  to  release  those  islands 
of  the  sea  from  the  thraldom  and  tyranny 
of  a  medieval  monarchy. 

Then  the  vista  of  the  future  would  open 
before  him  and  he  would  see  that  larger 
hope  and  plan  of  Washington's  realized  in 
the  city  of  his  name.     There  in  that  center 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


511 


of  the  Nation's  life  he  would  see  young  men 
assembling  in  the  national  schools  of  ad- 
ministration, commerce,  consular  service  and 
finance  to  study  questions  of  government  and 
international  relations.     He  would  see  reach- 


ing to  all  the  lands  of  earth  a  peace  more 
beautiful  than  that  of  the  river  below  him; 
and  wider  and  deeper  than  that  Western 
ocean  where  now  is  flying  our  flag  of  hope 
and  promise. — E. 


WASHINGTON'S  VIEW  OF  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE 

By  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.D. 


George  Washington's  father,  Augustine, 
married  twice ;  of  the  first  marriage  there 
were  four  children,  of  the  second,  six,  of 
whom  he  who  was  to  be  The  Father  of  His 
Country  was  the  firstborn. 

Much  has  been  said  about  his  mother, 
Mary  Washington,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
say  too  much ;  for  never  was  the  mother  of 
a  great  man  worthy  of  more  honor  than  she. 
Like  the  woman  in  the  Scripture  of  whom 
Jesus  said,  "  She  hath  done  what  she  could,'' 
her  praise  should  be  perpetual.  Augustine 
Washington  died  when  George  Washington 
was  but  eleven  years  old,  yet  before  that 
time  his  father  had  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  him.  When  the  boy  was  four  years 
old  his  cousin  brought  him  a  fine  apple ;  his 
father  had  great  difficulty  to  prevail  on  him 
to  divide  it  with  his  brothers  and  sisters,  but 
at  last  succeeded  by  promising  that  if  he 
would  but  do  it  the  Almighty  would  give 
him  plenty  of  apples  the  next  fall.  On  a 
fine  morning  Mr.  Washington  took  George 
by  the  hand  and,  accompanied  by  a  guest. 
led  him  to  the  orchard.  In  subsequent  years 
this  lady  said  that,  so  far  as  they  could  see, 
the  earth  was  strewed  with  fruit,  yet  the  trees 
were  still  bending  under  the  weight  of  ap- 
ples. Mr.  Washington  reminded  the  child 
of  the  difficulty  he  had  in  inducing  him  to 
divide  that  one  apple  with  his  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  said  to  him,  "  Look  up,  my  son, 
and  see  how  richly  the  Almighty  has  made 
good  my  promise  to  you."  According  to  the 
narrator,  who  was  present,  he  said,  "  Pa, 
forgive  me  this  time  and  see  if  I  am  ever  so 
stingy  any  more." 

His  father  employed  a  similar  method  in 
teaching  him  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the 
beginning  of  knowledge.  On  a  properly  pre- 
pared bed  in  his  garden,  Augustine  Wash- 
ington traced  with  a  stick  the  letters  of  his 
son's  name,  and  sowing  seed  in  them  he  cov- 
ered it  over  and  smoothed  the  ground  with 
a  roller.  In  a  short  time  the  plants  came 
up  in  a  way  to  display  legibly  the  words 
"  George  Washington."  It  was  not  long 
before  this  vegetable  wonder  caught  the  eye 
of  the  child.  Again  and  again  he  read  his 
name  springing  up  from  the  earth  in  letters 
fresh  and  green.  He  could  not  understand 
it.  He  sought  his  father,  who  puzzled  him 
pleasantly  for  a  while,  but  at  last  showed 
him  how  he  had  made  the  letters  with  his 
stick,  sowed  the  seed  in  the  furrows  and  how 
the  warm  earth  had  caused  them  to  spring 
up  From  that  he  proceeded  to  teach  him 
of    the    Infinite    intelligence.     He    began    by 


showing  him  that  his  name  inscribed  on  the 
earth  was  an  effect,  for  this  effect  there  must 
be  a  cause ;  that  this  cause  must  have  been 
intelligent  appeared  from  the  design  mani- 
fested in  the  work.  George  Washington 
never  forgot  this,  and  used  to  speak  of  it 
when  such  vegetable  printing  had  become 
common.  So  that  tho  the  care  of  her  first- 
born devolved  entirely  on  Mrs.  Washington, 
after  he  was  eleven  years  of  age,  the  recol- 
lections of  his  father  were  pleasant,  and  the 
impressions  made  upon  his  memory  were  in- 
separably connected  with  that  Providence 
which  had  removed  him. 

At  every  period  of  his  life  he  spoke  of  the 
Providence  of  God  in  a  most  reverential 
way.  In  1754  he  wrote  that  they  "  would 
have  starved  if  Providence  had  not  sent  a 
trader  from  the  Ohio  to  our  relief."  In  a 
letter  to  his  brother  after  Braddock's  defeat 
he  wrote,  "  By  the  All-Powerful  Dispensa- 
tions of  Providence  I  have  been  protected 
beyond  all  human  probability  or  expectation; 
for  I  had  four  bullets  through  my  coat  and 
two  horses  shot  under  me ;  I  escaped  un- 
hurt, altho  death  was  leveling  my  compan- 
ions on  every  side  of  me." 

When  he  wrote  to  Lieutenant-General 
Gage  of  the  British  Army,  he  said,  "  May 
that  God  to  whom  you  appeal  judge  between 
America  and  you."  And  when  he  wrote  to 
his  officers  just  before  the  attack  upon  the 
enemy  in  Boston,  he  said,  "  The  success,  I 
well  know,  depends  upon  the  All-Wise  Dis- 
penser of  events."  Writing  of  the  evacua- 
tion of  Jersey  by  the  British  troops,  on  the 
4th  of  July,  1777,  he  declared  it  to  be  "  a 
peculiar  mark  of  Providence."  The  capitu- 
lation of  Burgoyne's  army  he  declared  to  be 
"  a  signal  stroke  of  Providence."  In  1779 
he  said  his  only  hope  was  that  Providence 
who  had  "  so  often  taken  us  up  when  bereft 
of  every  other  hope,"  and  declared  that  "  the 
many  remarkable  interpositions  of  the  Di- 
vine Government  in  the  hours  of  our  deepest 
distress  and  darkness  have  been  too  lumi- 
nous to  suffer  me  to  doubt  the  happy  issue  in 
the  present  conflict."  Again  he  speaks  of 
God  as  the  Great  Director  of  Events,  and  as 
the  Supreme  Dispenser  of  all  good. 

In  1778  he  wrote  to  General  Nelson  of 
Virginia : 

"  The  hand  of  Providence  has  been  so  con- 
spicuous in  all  this  that  he  must  be  worse 
than  an  infidel  that  lacks  faith,  and  more 
than  wicked  that  has  not  gratitude  enough  to 
acknowledge  his  obligations.  But  it  will  be 
time  enough  for  me  to  turn  preacher  when 


512 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


my  present  appointment  ceases;  and  there- 
fore I  shall  add  no  more  on  the  doctrine  of 
Providence." 

But  never  once  did  he  imagine  that  a 
miracle  would  be  performed,  and,  therefore, 
he    worked    as    energetically    and    guarded 


against  attack  as  cautiously  as  if  dependent 
wholly  upon  himself. 

How  noble  his  expression,  "  If  we  make 
freedom  our  choice  we  must  obtain  it  by  the 
blessing  of  Heaven  on  our  united  and  vigor- 
ous efforts  !  " — C.  A. 


SERMONS 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  AS    AN    EXAMPLE  TO-DAY 


By  James  T.  Bixby,  D.D. 

Behold  I  have  given  him  for  a  witness  to  the  people,  a  leader  and  commander  to  the  people. — • 

Isa.    Iv:  4 


I  present  to  you  the  character  of  Washing- 
ton as  a  noble  model  for  your  imitation.  I 
do  not  mean  that  if  you  can  make  such  a 
character  yours,  you  shall  therefore  pit  in  the 
presidential  chair  in  which  he  sat,  or  shall 
win  quick  and  brilliant  success  of  any  kind — 
in  politics,  war,  or  business.  The  man  who 
should  take  Washington  for  his  pattern 
would  not  feel  at  liberty  to  doctor  his  gro- 
ceries, or  under-measure  his  cloth,  or  borrow, 
unbeknown  to  any  one,  the  funds  committed 
to  his  charge.  He  would  have  small  personal 
acquaintance  with  rings,  and  would  stand  lit- 
tle chance  of  getting  a  government  contract. 

I  doubt  very  much  if  he  could  be  elected 
to  Congress,  unless  he  had  some  lieutenant 
who  knew  more  about  "  pulling  wires  "  than 
he  did;  and  if  he  should  somehow  be  elected, 
he  would  be'  very  useless  in  distributing 
patronage,  very  awkward  at  log-rolling,  and 
would  not  draw  very  well  inside  the  party 
traces.  He  would  be  too  foolishly  prudish 
to  take  a  slice  for  himself  out  of  fat  con- 
tracts, and  I  doubt  if  anyone  would  think  it 
worth  while  to  present  him  a  block  of  stock 
in  expectation  thereby  of  securing  his  vote 
in  favor  of  a  government  subsidy. 

Nevertheless  he  who  should  renew  among 
us  a  character  like  Washington  would  win  a 
greater  reward  than  any  of  our  modern  ad- 
venturers. If  he  would  have  no  resounding 
notoriety,  he  would  have  the  sweet  whisper 
of  the  still  small  voice.  If  he  would  not  have 
so  full  a  pocket,  he  would  possess  a  richer 


soul.  He  would  have  that  which  our  country 
most  needs  in  its  sons  to-day. 

The  free  institutions  which  our  fathers 
planted,  and  for  which  they  contended  so 
sturdily,  will  be  of  no  benefit  to  us  unless 
they  are  kept  in  the  hands  of  honest  stewards, 
and  are  supported  constantly  by  true  and  up- 
right citizens.  When  we  convert  politics 
into  a  mere  game  of  intrigue  and  self-advan- 
tage, unhallowed  by  a  single  great  and  un- 
selfish interest,  then  we  may  be  sure  that  our 
worst  passions  are  busy  forging  our  fetters. 

If  these  fetters  are  hid  under  silken  deco- 
rations, they  bind  no  less  securely.  The  only 
foundations  of  orderly  and  free  society  are 
in  better  men — not  only  in  high  places,  but 
low  places — not  fewer  Chinamen  in  this 
country,  but  more  self-reliant  Americans. 
We  want  more  statesmen,  who,  amid  the  out- 
cries of  the  rabble,  can  hold  true  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  republican  government ;  equal 
rights  to  all,  whether  white  or  black,  red  or 
yellow  of  skin.  A  single  true,  devoted  citi- 
zen is  more  precious  than  i.ooo  time-servers, 
or  all  the  gold  in  the  mines  of  Nevada. 

God  be  thanked  that  in  General  Washing- 
ton we  have  the  picture  of  one  such  man,  set 
where  it  cannot  be  hid,  in  the  glorious  frame 
of  our  country's  early  history,  as  an  example 
to  the  Americans  of  to-day !  May  it  find  no 
small  number  who,  living  by  the  same  great 
principles,  may,  in  no  long  time,  work  in  our 
land  a  moral  revolution — a  regeneration  into 
a  purer,  sweeter,  and  nobler  life. — P.  M. 


A  GREATNESS  GREATER  THAN  MIGHTINESS 

He  that   is  slow  to    anger  is  better  than  the  mighty;    and  he  that  rulcth  his  spirit  than  he 

that  taketh  a  city. — Prov.  xvi:  32 


In  all  history  there  is  not,  aside  from  Jesus, 
a  more  striking  illustration  of  the  truth  of 
the  text  than  that  furnished  by  the  life  of 
George  Washington. 

I.  He  "ruled  his  spirit;"  ruled  it  under 
circumstances  of  extraordinary  provocation ; 
ruled  it  in  times  of  extreme  darkness,  under 
censures  severe,  and  in  the  face  of  tempta- 


tions such  as  assail  few  men.  But  he  came 
forth  from  the  fiery  furnace  without  even 
"  the  smell  of  fire  on  his  garments !  "  The 
student  of  history  knows  about  the  "  New- 
burgh  "  intrigue  to  make  him  a  king  when 
the  order  came  from  Congress  to  disband  the 
army  unpaid ;  about  the  terrible  winter 
which    he    spent    with    his    army    at    Valley 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


513 


Forge,  bearing  in  silence  a  nation's  reproach 
and  complaint  for  seeming  failure;  his  in- 
corruptibility in  war  and  in  peace ;  his  vir- 
tues in  private  life,  and  his  distinguished 
career  as  the  first  President  of  the  United 
States,  only  too  happy  to  retire  to  the  peace- 
ful shades  of  Alt.  Vernon  at  its  close.  Had 
not  God  endowed  Washington  with  this  vir- 
tue in  large  measure,  how  different  had  been 
our  career  as  a  nation  ! 

2.  It  was  the  habitual  exercise  of  this  high 
moral  quality  that  constitutes  Washington's 
real  greatness,  and  which  enabled  him  to 
achieve  what  he  did  for  his  country  and  the 
world.  He  has  had  his  equals  as  a  military 
leader,  as  a  statesman,  as  an  executive ;  but 
there  has  been  but  one  Washington!  This  is 
the  verdict  of  history !  He  "  ruled  his 
spirit ; ''  he  conquered  himself.  He  was  not 
elated  by  prosperity,  nor  depressed  by  defeat. 
He  "  possessed  his  soul  in  patience." 

3.  It  was  more  than  a  natural  gift ;  the 
grace  of  God  had  much  to  do  with  it.  That 
Washington  was  truly  religious,  is  beyond  a 
doubt.  Rev.  Albert  Barnes  relates  the  fol- 
lowing touching  incident  which  illustrates  it : 

"  In  the  darkest  season  of  the  American 
Revolution,  the  commander-in-chief  of  our 
armies  was  observed  to  retire  each  day  to  a 
grove  in  the  vicinity  of  the  camp.     It  was  at 


the  Valley  Forge.  A  series  of  disasters  had 
disheartened  the  army,  and  the  sky  was  over- 
cast with  a  dark  cloud,  and  distress  and 
anxiety  pervaded  the  Nation.  The  army  was 
in  want  of  the  comforts,  and  almost  of  the 
indispensable  necessaries  of  life,  and  disaffec- 
tion was  spreading  in  the  camp.  Curiosity 
prompted  an  individual  to  follow  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, and  to  observe  him.  The 
father  of  his  country  was  seen  on  his  knees 
supplicating  the  God  of  hosts  in  secret  prayer. 
With  an  anxious,  burdened  mind,  a  mind 
conscious  of  its  need  of  heavenly  support 
and  devotion,  he  went  and  rolled  these 
mighty  burdens  upon  the  arm  of  Jehovah. 
Who  can  tell  how  much  the  liberty  of  this 
Nation  is  owing  to  the  answer  to  the  secret 
prayer  of  Washington  at  the  Valley  Forge?" 
Conclusion. — The  lesson  is  specially  per- 
tinent to  our  times  and  Nation.  What  a  hal- 
lowed influence  would  flow  down  upon 
50,000,000  of  people  from  the  high  places  of 
authority  and  position,  if  our  public  men 
would  but  follow  the  illustrious  example  of 
"  the  father  of  his  country "  !  Alas,  how 
few  of  this  class  rule  their  spirits  !  The  lust 
of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  office,  the  lust  of 
party,  corrupts,  sway?,  sacrifices,  makes  ship- 
wreck of  virtue,  integrity,  character,  and  the 
public  weal, — ^H,  R, 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS 


ABUSE   OF   "WASHINGTOIT,   The.— On 

his  last  day  in  office  Washington  wrote  to 
Knox  comparing  himself  to  "  the  weary 
traveler  who  sees  a  resting-place,  and  is 
bending  his  body  to  lean  thereon.  To  be 
suffered  to  do  this  in  peace,"  he  added,  "  is 
too  much  to  be  endured  by  some."  Ac- 
cordingly, on  that  very  day  a  Philadelphia 
newspaper  dismissed  him  with  a  final  tirade, 
worth  remembering  by  all  who  think  that 
political   virulence   is  on  the   increase : 

"  '  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  de- 
part in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy 
salvation !  '  was  the  exclamation  of  a  man 
who  saw  a  flood  of  blessedness  breaking  in 
upon  mankind.  If  ever  there  was  a  time 
that  allowed  this  exclamation  to  be  repeated, 
that  time  is  the  present.  The  man  who  is 
the  source  of  all  our  country's  misery  is  this 
day  reduced  to  the  rank  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens, and  has  no  longer  the  power  to  mul- 
tiply the  woes  of  these  United  States.  Now 
more  than  ever  is  the  time  to  rejoice.  Every 
heart  which  feels  for  the  liberty  and  the 
happiness  of  the  people  must  now  beat  with 
rapture  at  the  thought  that  this  day  the 
name  of  Washington  ceases  to  give  currency 
to  injustice  and  to  legalize  corruption.  .  .  . 
When  we  look  back  upon  the  eight  years  of 
Washington's  administration,  it  strikes  us 
with  astonishment  that  one  man  could  thus 
poison  the  principles  of  republicanism  among 
our  enlightened  people,  and  carry  his  de- 
signs against  the  public  liberty  so  far  as  to 


endanger  its  very  existence.  Yet  such  is  the 
fact,  and  if  this  is  apparent  to  all,  this  day 
they  should  form  a  jubilee  in  the  United 
States." — T.  W.  Higginson. 

INAUGURAL,    From    "Washington's.— 

It_  would  be  peculiarly  improper  to  omit,  in 
this  first  official  act,  my  fervent  supplications 
to  that  Almighty  Being  who  rules  over  the 
universe,  who  presides  in  the  councils  of 
nations,  and  whose  providential  aids  can 
supply  every  human  defect,  that  His  bene- 
diction may  consecrate,  to  the  liberties  and 
happiness  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
a  government  instituted  by  themselves  for 
these  essential  purposes,  and  may  enable 
every  instrument  employed  in  the  administra- 
tion to  execute  with  success  the  functions 
allotted  to  its  charge.  In  tendering  this 
homage  to  the  Great  Author  of  every  public 
and  private  good,  I  assure  myself  that  it 
expresses  your  sentiments  not  less  than  my 
own,  nor  those  of  my  fellow  citizens  at  large 
less  than  either. 

No  people  can  be  bound  to  acknowledge 
and  adore  the  invisible  hand  which  conducts 
the  affairs  of  men  more  than  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  Every  step  by  which 
they  have  advanced  to  the  character  of  an 
independent  nation  seems  to  have  been  dis- 
tinguished by  some  token  of  Providential 
agency;  and  the  important  revolution  just 
accomplished  in  the  system  of  their  united 
government,    the    tranquil    deliberations    and 


514 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


voluntary  consent  of  so  many  distinct  com- 
munities from  which  the  event  has  resulted, 
cannot  be  compared  with  the  means  by  which 
most  governments  have  been  established, 
without  some  return  of  pious  gratitude,  along 
with  an  humble  anticipation  of  the  future 
blessings  which  the  past  seems  to  presage. 

MOTHER,  Washington's. — Mary  Wash- 
ington, the  mother  of  the  first  President  of 
the  United  States,  died  just  after  her  son 
had  reached  the  highest  honors  of  his  career. 
At  the  time  of  his  election  to  the  presidency 
she  was  living  very  quietly  and  modestly,  as 
she  had  done  for  some  years  before,  at 
Fredericksburg,   Va. 

She  died  in  1789,  and  was  buried  in  a  fam- 
ily burial-ground  near  Fredericksburg.  For 
forty-four  years  her  grave  remained  un- 
marked by  any  monument  or  headstone. 

Mary  Washington  was  a  noble  and  Chris- 
tian woman,  and  to  her  careful  training  and 
her  example  of  earnestness  and  virtue  the 
great  qualities  of  the  "  Father  of  His  Coun- 
try," were  no  doubt  due  in  no  small  meas- 
ure. 

Recognizing  the  real  eminence  of  such  a 
woman,  and  the  fitness  of  honoring  her 
burial-place  with  an  appropriate  memorial,  a 
wealthy  citizen  of  New  York  undertook  the 
erection  of  a  large  monument  of  stone  upon 
the  spot,  and  the  corner-stone  of  this  me- 
morial was  laid  with  ceremony  in  1833  by 
President  Andrew  Jackson. 

The  projector  of  the  monument  lost  his 
fortune,  however,  and  the  monument  was  not 
finished.  The  foundation  alone  stands,  with 
broken  sections  of  stone  lying  about  it.  A 
writer  in  speaking  of  it  recently,  said, 

"Cattle  graze  about  the  base;  it  is  dis- 
colored by  time  and  weather ;  the  relic-hunt- 
er's hammer  has  been  busy  with  the  chiseled 
edges;  the  shaft  lies  prone  and  half-buried 
in  the  earth." 

Certain  public-spirited  ladies  have  under- 
taken to  collect  the  funds  necessary  for  the 
completion  of  this  structure,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that,  as  the  long  delay  in  the  work 
gives  an  opportunity  for  making  a  better 
design  than  the  original,  which  was  sadly 
lacking  in  dignity  and  good  taste,  then- 
efforts  may  be  crowned  with  success. — Y.  C. 

MOUNT  VERNON  TRIBUTE,  The.— 


lDa0l)tngtDn 


THE   DEFENDER   OF    HIS    COUNTRY,   THE   FOUNDER 
OF   LIBERTY, 

THE  FRIEND  OF  MAN. 

HISTORY  AND  TRADITION  ARE  EXPLORED  IN  VAIN 
FOR  A  PARALLEL  TO  HIS  CHARACTER. 

IN  THE  ANNALS  OF  MODERN  GREAT- 
NESS, 
HE  STANDS  ALONE, 

AND  THE   NOBLEST   NAMES   OF   ANTIQUITY 

LOSE   THEIR   LUSTRE   IN    HIS    PRESENCE. 

BORN    THE    BENEFACTOR   OF    MANKIND, 

HE  UNITED  ALL  THE  QUALITIES    NECESSARY 

TO   AN   ILLUSTRIOUS   CAREER. 


NATURE  MADE  HIM  GREAT ; 

HE  MADE   HIMSELF  VIRTUOUS. 
CALLED  BY   HIS   COUNTRY  TO  THE  DEFENCE  OF 
HER    LIBERTIES,    HE    TRIUMPHANTLY    VINDI- 
CATED THE  RIGHTS  OF   HUMANITY,  AND 
ON    THE    PILLARS    OF    NATIONAL 
INDEPENDENCE 
LAID    THE    FOUNDATIONS    OF    A    GREAT    REPUBLIC. 
TWICE    INVESTED    WITH     THE    SUPREME     MAGIS- 
TRACY, 
BY    THE    UNANIMOUS    VOICE    OF    A    FREE    PEOPLE, 
HE   SURPASSED  IN   THE   CABINET 

THE    GLORIES    OF    THE  FIELD, 

AND  VOLUNTARILY  RESIGNING  THE  SCEPTRE  AND 

THE     SWORD,     RETIRED    TO    THE     SHADES     OF 

PRIVATE    LIFE. 

A   SPECTACLE   SO   NEW   AND   SO  SUBLIME 

WAS     CONTEMPLATED     WITH     THE    PROFOUNDEST 

ADMIRATION  ;     AND   THE   NAME   OF 

WASHINGTON, 

ADDING  NEW  LUSTRE  TO  HUMANITY, 

RESOUNDED   TO   THE   REMOTEST   REGIONS    OF    THE 

EARTH. 

MAGNANIMOUS  IN   YOUTH, 

GLORIOUS  THROUGH  LIFE, 
GREAT  IN  DEATH, 

HIS    HIGHEST    AMBITION    THE    HAPPINESS    OF 
MANKIND, 
HIS    NOBLEST   VICTORY    THE   CONQUEST   OF    HIM- 
SELF, 
BEQUEATHING   TO    POSTERITY   THE    INHERITANCE 

OF    HIS    FAME, 

AND    BUILDING  HIS     MONUMENT    IN   THE 

HEARTS  OF  HIS  COUNTRYMEN, 

HE  LIVED  THE   ORNAMENT   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY,     AND    DIED    REGRETTED     BY    A 

MOURNING   WORLD. 

[The  author  of  this  inscription  is  not 
known.  It  has  been  transcribed  from  a 
manuscript  copy  written  on  the  back  of  a 
picture-frame,  in  which  is  set  a  miniature 
likeness  of  Washington,  and  which  hangs  in 
one  of  the  rooms  of  the  mansion  at  Mount 
Vernon,  where  it  was  left  some  time  after 
Washington's  death. — H.  B.  Carrington, 
LL.D.— Col.   S.] 

NATION,  Prayer  for  the. — During  the 
Revolutionary  War,  General  Washington's 
army  was  reduced  at  one  time  to  great 
straits,  and  the  people  were  greatly  dispirited. 
One  of  them  who  left  his  home  with  an 
anxious  heart,  one  day.  as  he  was  passing 
the  edge  of  a  wood  near  the  camp,  heard  the 
sound  of  a  voice.  He  stopped  to  listen,  and 
looking  between  the  trunks  of  the  large  trees, 
he  saw  General  Washington  engaged  in 
prayer.  He  passed  quietly  on,  that  he  might 
not  disturb  him;  and  on  returning  home, 
told  his  family.  "  America  will  prevail,"  and 
then  related  what  he  had  heard  and  seen. — 
F.  II. 

SWEARING,  Washington. — The  deep 
reverence  of  General  Washington  was  pained 
by  the  swearing  of  his  soldiers.  In  a  gen- 
eral order,  issued  August  3,  1776.  he  said: — 

The  General  is  sorry  to  be  informed  that 
the   foolish   and  wicked  practise   of  profane 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


515 


cursing  and  swearing,  a  vice  hitherto  little 
known  in  an  American  army,  is  growing 
into  fashion.  He  hopes  the  officers  will,  by 
example  as  well  as  influence,  endeavor  to 
check  it,  and  that  both  they  and  the  men 
will  reflect  that  we  can  have  little  hope  of 
the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  our  arms,  if  we 
insult  it  by  our  impiety  and  folly.  Added 
to  this,  it  is  a  vice  so  mean  and  low,  with- 
out any  temptation,  that  every  man  of  sense 
and  character  detests  and  despises  it. — C. 
E.  W. 

WASHINGTON  AS  HE  LOOKED.— Ac- 
cording to  Captain  Mercer,  the  following 
describes  Washington  when  he  took  his  seat 
in  the  House  of  Burgesses  in  1759: 

"  He  is  as  straight  as  an  Indian,  measur- 
ing six  feet  two  inches  in  his  stockings,  and 
weighing  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
pounds.  His  head  is  well  shaped,  tho  not 
large,  and  is  gracefully  poised  on  a  superb 
neck,  with  a  large  and  straight  rather  than 
a  prominent  nose  ;  blue-gray  penetrating  eyes, 
which  are  widely  separated  and  overhung  by 
heavy  brows.  A  pleasing,  benevolent,  tho 
commanding  countenance,  dark-brown  hair, 
features  regular  and  placid,  with  all  the 
muscles  under  control,  with  a  large  mouth, 
generally  firmly  closed." 

Houdon's  bust  accords  with  this  descrip- 
tion.—C.  E.  W. 

WASHINGTON,  Said  By.— To  be  pre- 
pared for  war  is  one  of  the  most  effectual 
means  of  preserving  peace. 

There  is  a  rank  due  to  the  United  States 
among  nations  which  will  be  withheld,  if 
not  absolutely  lost,  by  the  reputation  of 
weakness. 

The  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven  can  never 
be  expected  on  a  nation  that  disregards  the 
eternal  rules  of  order  and  right,  which 
Heaven  itself  has  ordained. 


The  very  idea  of  the  power  and  right  of 
the  people  to  establish  government  presup- 
poses the  duty  of  every  individual  to  obey 
the   established  government. 

If  there  was  the  same  propensity  in  man- 
kind for  investigating  the  motives,  as  there 
is  for  censuring  the  conduct,  of  public  char- 
acters, it  would  be  found  that  the  censure 
so  freely  bestowed  is  oftentimes  unmerited 
and  uncharitable. 

Where  is  the  man  to  be  found  who  wishes 
to  remain  indebted  for  the  defense  of  his 
own  person  and  property  to  the  exertions, 
the  bravery,  and  the  blood  of  others,  with- 
out making  one  generous  effort  to  repay  the 
debt  of  honor  and  gratitude? 

There  is  no  truth  more  thoroughly  estab- 
lished than  that  there  exists  in  the  economy 
and  course  of  nature  an   indissoluble  union 


between  virtue  and  happiness,  between  duty 
and  advantage,  between  the  genuine  maxims 
of  an  honest  and  magnanimous  policy  and 
the  solid  rewards  of  public  prosperity  and 
felicity. 

Against  the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  in- 
fluence the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought 
to  be  constantly  awake. 

It  is  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of 
permanent  alliances  with  any  portion  of  the 
foreign  world. 

The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us  in  regard 
to  foreign  nations  is  to  have  with  them  as 
little  political   connection  as  possible. 

There  can  be  no  greater  error  than  to 
expect  or  calculate  upon  real  favors  from 
nation  to  nation. 

Why,  by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that 
of  any  part  of  Europe,  entangle  our  peace 
and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  European  am- 
bition, rivalship,  interest,  humor  or  caprice? 

The  name  American  must  always  exalt  the 
just  pride  of  patriotism. 

To  the  efficacy  and  permanency  of  your 
union  a  government  for  the  whole  is  indis- 
pensable. 

Every  attempt  to  alienate  any  portion  of 
our  country  from  the  rest  should  be  indig- 
nantly frowned  upon. 

Let  us  impart  all  the  blessings  we  possess, 
or  ask  for  ourselves,  to  the  whole  family  of 
mankind. 

Let  us  erect  a  standard  to  which  the  good 
and  honest  may  repair. 

'Tis  substantially  true  that  virtue  or  mo- 
rality is  a  necessary  spring  of  popular  gov- 
ernment. 

Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that 
little  spark  of  celestial  fire,  conscience. 

It  is  incumbent  upon  every  person  of  every 
description    to    contribute    to    his     country's 

welfare. 

It  would  be  repugnant  to  the  vital  princi- 
ples of  our  government  virtually  to  exclude 
from  public  trusts,  talents  and  virtue,  unless 
accompanied  by  wealth. 

Give  such  encouragements  to  our  own 
navigation  as  will  render  our  commerce  less 
dependent  on  foreign  bottoms. 


5i6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


I  have  never  made  an  appointment  from  a 
desire  to  serve  a  friend  or  relative. 


In  contemplating  the  causes  which  may 
disturb  our  Union,  it  occurs  as  a  matter  of 
serious  concern  that  any  ground  should  have 
been  furnished  for  geographical  discrimina- 
tions. 

If  a  man  cannot  act  in  all  respects  as  he 
would  wish,  he  must  do  what  appears  best, 
under  the  circumstances  he  is  in.  This  I 
aim  at,  however  short  I  may  fail  of  the  end. 


I  never  say  anything  of  a  man  that  I  have 
the   smallest   scruple   of   saying   to   him. 


The  liberties  of  the  country  are  safe, — on 
receiving  news  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 


WASHINGTON'S  FIRST  GOVERN- 
MENT OFFICE.— Washington's  first  gov- 
ernment service  was  rendered  in  the  capacity 
of  official  surveyor  of  Culpeper  County  at  a 
salary  of  fifty  pounds — two  hundred  and 
forty-three  dollars — a  year.  During  this  time 
he  had  to  travel  over  "  ye  worst  Road  that 
ever  was  trod  by  Man  or  Beast."  Sometimes 
he  lay  on  straw,  which  "  once  catched  fire," 
sometimes  under  a  tent  without  covers,  some- 
times he  was  driven  from  the  tent  by  the 
smoke. — C.  E.  W. 

WASHINGTON,  Tribute  to.— I  mean  no 
disrespect  to  our  own  royal  family,  but, 
when  compared  with  General  Washington, 
the  princes  and  potentates  of  Europe  seem 
mean  and  contemptible.  .  .  .  Without 
one  suspicion  of  his  integrity,  without  one 
stain  upon  his  character,  he  has  made  him- 
self the  first  man  in  the  world. — Charles 
James  Fox,  in  the  British  Parliament. 


POETRY 


Washington 

For  tho  the  ears  their  golden  round 
O'er  all  the  lavish  region  roll, 
And  realm  on  realm,  from  pole  to  pole, 

In  one  beneath  thy  Stars  be  bound, — 
The  far  off  centuries  as  they  flow. 
No  whiter  name  than  this  shall  know! 
—Francis  T.  Palgrave. 


Where  may  the  wearied  eye  repose, 

When  gazing  on  the  great, 
Where  neither  guilty  glory  glows 

Nor  despicable  state? 
Yes  one — the  first,  the  last,  the  best, 
The  Cincinnatus  of  the  West, 

Whom  envy  dared  not  hate, — 
Bequeathed  the  name  of  Washington, 

To  make  men  blush  there  was  but  one! 

— Byron. 

By  broad  Potomac's  silent  shore. 

Better  than  Trojan,  lowly  lies, 

Gilding   her   green   declivities 
With  glory  now  and  ever  more ; 

Art  to  his   fame  no  aid  hath  lent; 

His  country  is  his  monument. 

— Anonymous. 

The     Birthday     of     Washington     Ever 
Honored 

By  George  Howland 

Welcome,  thou  festal  morn! 
Never  be  passed  in  scorn 

Thy  rising  sun, 
Thou   day   forever  bright 
With  Freedom's  holy  light, 
That   gave   the   world  the   sight 

Of  Washington. 


Unshaken  'mid  the  storm. 
Behold  that  noble  form, — 

That  peerless  one, — 
With   his   protecting  hand. 
Like  Freedom's  angel,  stand. 
The  guardian  of  our  land, 

Our  Washington. 

Traced  there  in  lines  of  light. 
Where  all  pure  rays  unite. 

Obscured  by  none ; 
Brightest  on  history's  page. 
Of  any  clime  or  age, 
As  chieftain,  man,  and  sage, 

Stands  Washington. 

Name   at    which   tyrants   pale, 
And  their  proud  legions  quail. 

Their  boasting  done. 
While  Freedom  lifts  her  head. 
No  longer  filled  with  dread. 
Her  sons  to  victory  led 

By  Washington. 

Now  the  true  patriots  see. 
The  foremost  of  the  free. 

The  victory  won, 
In  Freedom's  presence  bow, 
While  sweetly  smiling  now 
She  wreathes  the  spotless  brow 

Of  Washington. 

Then,  with  each  coming  year. 
Whenever  shall  appear 

That  natal  sun. 
Will  we  attest  the  worth 
Of  one  true  man  to  earth. 
And  celebrate  the  birth 

Of  Washington. 

Col. 


S. 


WASHINGTON'S   BIRTHDAY 


517 


Holden's  Ode  to  Washington 

Great   Washington  the   heros   come, 
Each   heart   exulting   hears   the   sound, 

Thousands   to   their   deliverer   throng 
And  shout  him  welcome  all  around. 

Chorus  : 

Now   in   full   chorus  join  the   song, 
And  shout  aloud  great  Washington ! 

Then  view  Columbia's  favorite  son. 
Her  father,  savior,  friend,  and  guide; 

There  see  the  immortal  Washington ! 
His  country's  glory,  boast  and  pride ! 

Chorus. 

When  the  impending  storm  of  war. 

Thick  clouds  and  darkness,  hid  our  way. 

Great  Washington  our  polar  star. 
Arose ;  and  all  was  light  as  day. 

Chorus. 

Through   countless   dangers,   toil,   and  cares 

Our  hero  led  us  safely  on — 
With  matchless  skill  directs  the  wars 

Till  victory  cries — The  day's  his  own. 

Chorus. 

But  soon  Columbia  called  him  forth, 
Again  to  save  her  sinking  fame; 

So  to  the  helm,  and  by  his  worth, 
To  make  her  an  immortal  name. 

Chorus. 

'Twas  on  yon  plains  thy  valor  rose. 
And  ran  like  fire  from  man  to  man, 

'Twas  here  thou  humbled  Paria's  foes, 
And  chased  whole  legions  to  the  main. 

Chorus. 

His  country  saved,  the  contest  o'er, 

Sweet  peace  restored,  his  toil  to  crown, 

The  warrior  to  his  native   shore 
Returns,  and  tills  his  fertile  ground. 

Chorus. 

Not  yet  alone  through  Paria's  shores, 
Has  fame  her  mighty  trumpet  blown; 

E'en  Europe,   Afric,  Asia  hears, 
And  emulate  the  deeds  he's  done. 

Chorus. 
C.  A. 

Washington  at  Valley  Forge 

By  Rev.  Canon  R.  G.  Sutherland 

With  his  lean,  ragged  levies,  undismayed 
He  crouched  among  the  vigilant  hills;    a 

show 
To  the   disdainful,   heaven-blinded  foe. 
Unlauded,  unsupported,  disobeyed, 
Thwarted,    maligned,   conspired   against,   be- 
trayed— 
Yet  nothing  could  unheart  him.     Wouldst 

thou    know 
His    secret?      There,    in    that    thicket,    on 
the   snow 
Washington    knelt     before     his     God,     and 
prayed. 


Close  in  their  lair  for  perilous  months  and 
days 
He  held  in  leash  his  wolves,  grim,  shelter- 
less. 
Gaunt,  hunger-bitten,  stanch  to  the  utter- 
most ; 
Then,  when  the  hour  was  come  for  hardi- 
ness. 
Rallied,  and  rushed  them  on  the  reeling 
host ; 
And   Monmouth   planted  Yorktown's   happy 
bays ! — 

C.  E.  W. 

Washington-Month 

By  Will  Carleton 

February — February — 

How  your  moods  and  actions  vary 

Or  to  seek  or  shun ! 
Now  a  smile  of  sunlight  lifting. 
Now  in  chilly  snowflakes  drifting; 
Now   with   icy   shuttles   creeping 

Silver  webs  are  spun. 
Now,    with    leaden   torrents   leaping, 

Oceanward  you  run. 
Now  with  bells  you  blithely  sing, 

'Neath    the     stars     or    sun; 
Now  a  blade  of  burdock  bring 

To  the  suff'ring  one; 
February — you  are  very 

Dear,  when  all  is  done : 
Many   blessings   rest   above  you, 
You  one  day  (and  so  we  love  you) 

Gave  us  Washington. 

E.  W. 

Washington's  Name  in  the  Hall  of  Fame 

By  Margaret  E.  Sangster 

Republics  are  ungrateful,  but  ours,  its  best- 
loved  son 
Still  keeps  in   memory  green,  and  wreathes 

the  name  of  Washington. 
As  year  by  year  returns  the   day  that   saw 

the  patriot's  birth. 
With  boom  of  gun   and  beat  of  drum   and 

peals  of  joy  and   mirth. 
And    songs    of   children    in    the    streets    and 

march   of  men-at-arms, 
We  honor  pay  to  him  who  stood  serene  'mid 

war's   alarms ; 
And   with   his   ragged   volunteers   long  kept 

the  foe  at  bay. 
And    bore    the    flag   to    victory    in    many    a 

battle's  day. 

We  were  a  little  nation  then;  so  mighty 
have  we  grown 

That  scarce  would  Washington  believe  to- 
day we  were  his  own. 

With  ships  that  sail  on  every  sea,  and  sons 
in  every  port, 

And  harvest-fields  to  feed  the  world,  wher- 
ever food  is  short, 

And  if  at  council-board  our  chiefs  are  now 
discreet  and  wise. 

And  if  to  great  estate  and  high,  our  farmers' 
lads  may  rise, 


5i8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


We  owe  a  debt  to  him  who  set  the  fashion 

of  our  fame, 
And  never  more  may  we  forget  our  loftiest 

hero's  name. 

Great  knightly  soul  who  came  in  time  to 
serve  his  country's  need, 

To  serve  her  with  the  timely  word  and  with 
the  valiant  deed, 

Along  the  ages  brightening  as  endless  cycles 
run 

Undimmed  and  gaining  luster  in  the  twen- 
tieth century's  sun, 

First  in  our  Hall  of  Fame  we  write  the 
name  all  folk  may  ken, 

As  first  in  war,  and  first  in  peace,  first  with 
his  countrymen.  — C.  H. 

To  the  Shade  of  "Washington 

By  Richard  Alsop 

Exalted  chief,  in  thy  superior  mind 

What    vast    resource,    what    various    talents 

joined ! 
Tempered   with    social    virtue's   milder   rays, 
There  patriot  worth  diffused  a  purer  blaze ; 
Formed    to    command    respect,    esteem,    in- 
spire. 
Midst   statesmen   grave,  or  midst  the   social 

choir. 
With  equal  skill  the  sword  or  pen  to  wield, 
In   council   great,   unequaled   in  the  field, 
Mid    glittering    courts     or     rural    walks     to 

please. 
Polite  with  grandeur,  dignified  with  ease; 
Before  the  splendors  of  thy  high  renown 
How  fade  the  glowworm  lusters  of  a  crown. 
How   sink  diminished,   in  that  radiance  lost, 
The    glare   of   conquest ;    and   of   power   the 

boast. 
Let  Greece  her  Alexander's  deeds  proclaim; 
Or  Caesar's  triumphs  gild  the  Roman  name; 
Stripped  of  the  dazzling  glare  around  them 

cast. 
Shrinks  at  their  crimes  humanity^  aghast ; 
With  equal  claim  to  honor's  glorious  meed. 
See  Attila  his  course  of  havoc  lead  ! 
O'er  Asia's  realms,  in  one  vast  ruin  hurled. 
See  furious  Zingis'  bloody  flag  unfurled. 
On   base   far   different   from  the  conqueror's 

claim 
Rests  the  unsullied  column  of  thy  fame ; 
His  on  the  woes  of  millions  proudly  based. 
With    blood    cemented    and    with    tears    de- 
faced ; 
Thine  on   a   nation's   welfare  fixed   sublime, 
By    freedom    strengthened    and    revered    by 

time. 
He,   as   the   Comet,   whose  portentous   light 
Spreads  baleful  splendor  o'er  the  glooms  of 

night. 
With  chill  amazement  fills  the  startled  breast. 
While  storms  and  earthquakes  dire  its  course 

attest, 
And   nature  trembles,   lest,   in   chaos   hurled. 
Should  sink  the  tottering  fabric  of  the  world. 
Thou,   like   the   Sun,   whose  kind  propitious 

ray 
Opes  the  glad  morn  and  lights  the  fields  of 

day. 
Dispels  the  wintry  storm,  the  chilling  rain, 


With   rich    abundance    clothes    the    smiling 

plain. 
Gives  all  creation  to  rejoice  around. 
And  life  and  light  extends  o'er  nature's  ut- 
most bound. 
Tho  shone  thy  life  a  model  bright  of  praise, 
Not  less  the  example  bright  thy  death  por- 
trays, 
When,   plunged  in   deepest   wo,   around   thy 

bed, 
Each    eye    was   fixed,    despairing    sunk   each 

head. 
While   nature   struggled   with   severest  pain. 
And  scarce  could  life's  last  lingering  powers 

retain : 
In  that  dread  moment,  awfully  serene, 
No    trace    of    suffering    marked    thy    placid 

mien. 
No  groan,  no  murmuring  plaint,  escaped  thy 

tongue. 
No    lowering    shadows    on    thy    brow    were 

hung ; 
But  calm  in  Christian  hope,  undamped  with 

fear, 
Thou    sawest    the    high    reward    of    virtue 

near, 
On  that  bright  meed  in  sweet  trust  reposed. 
As  thy  firm  hand  thine  eyes  expiring  closed. 
Pleased,  to  the  will  of  heaven  resigned  thy 

breath. 
And  smiled  as   nature's  struggles  closed  in 

death. — Selected. 

Washington 

By  James  Russell  Lowell 

[Extract  from  "  Under  the  Old  Elm."] 

O,  for  a  drop  of  that  Cornelian  ink 
Which  gave  Agricola  dateless  length  of  days. 
To  celebrate  him  fitly,  neither  swerve 
To    phrase    unkempt,    nor    pass    discretion's 

brink. 
With  him  so  statue-like  in  sad  reserve. 
So  diffident  to  claim,  so  forward  to  deserve ! 
Nor  need  I  shun  due  influence  of  his  fame 
Who,  mortal  among  mortals,  seemed  as  now 
The    equestrian    shape    with    unimpassioned 

brow. 
That  paces   silent  on  through  vistas   of  ac- 
claim. 

What  figure  more  immovably  august 

Than  that  grave  strength  so  patient  and  so 

pure, 
Calm    in    good    fortune,    when    it    wavered, 

sure. 
That  mind  serene,  impenetrably  just, 
Modeled  on  classic  lines  so  simple  they  en- 
dure? 
That  soul  so  softly  radiant  and  so  white 
The    track   it    left    seems    less    of    fire    than 

light. 
Cold  but  to  such  as  love  distemperature? 
And    if   pure   light,    as    some    deem,    be    the 

force 
That  drives  rejoicing  planets  on  their  course, 
Why  for  his  power  benign  seek  an  impurer 
source  ? 


WASHINGTON'S    BIRTHDAY 


519 


His    was    the    true    enthusiasm    that    burns 

long. 

Domestically  bright. 
Fed  from  itself  and  shy  of  human  sight, 
The    hidden    force    that    makes    a    lifetime 

strong. 
And  not  the  short-lived  fuel  of  a  song. 
Passionless,   say  you?     What  is  passion   for 
But  to  sublime  our  natures  and  control 
To  front  heroic  toils  with  late  return. 
Or  none,  or  such  as  shames  the  conqueror? 
That  fire  was  fed  with  substance  of  the  soul 
And    not    with    holiday    stubble,   that    could 

burn, 
Unpraised  of  men  who  after  bonfires  run, 
Through    seven   slow   years   of   unadvancing 

war, 
Equal   when   fields  were  lost  or  fields   were 

won, 
With  breath  of  popular  applause  or  blame, 
Nor    fanned    or    damped,    unquenchably    the 

same, 
Too  inward  to  be  reached  by  flaws  of  idle 

fame. 
Soldier  and  statesman,  rarest  unison ; 
High-poised  example  of  great  duties  done 
Simply  as  breathing,  a  world's  honors  worn 
As  life's  indifferent  gifts  to  all  men  born ; 
Dumb  for  himself,  unless  it  were  to  God, 
But  for  his  barefoot  soldiers  eloquent. 
Tramping  the  snow  to  coral  where  they  trod, 
Held  by  his  awe  in  hollow-eyed  content ; 
Alodest,  yet  firm  as  Nature's  self;  unblamed 
Save  by  the  men  his  nobler  temper  shamed; 
Never  seduced  through  show  of  present  good 
By  other  than  unsetting  lights  to  steer 
New-trimmed  in  Heaven,  nor  than  his  stead- 
fast mood 
More   steadfast,   far  from  rashness  as  from 

fear ; 
Rigid,  but  with   himself  first,   graspmg   still 
In   swerveless  poise  the  wave-beat   helm  of 

will ; 
Not  honored  then  or  now  because  he  wooed 
The   popular   voice,    but   that   he   still   with- 
stood ; 
Broad-minded,    higher-souled,    there    is    but 

one 
Who  was  all  this  and  ours,  and  all  men's, 

— Washington. 

Minds  strong  by  fits,  irregularly  great, 
That  flash  and  darken  like  revolving  lights. 
Catch    more    the    vulgar    eye    unschooled    to 

wait 
On    the    long    curve    of    patient    days    and 

nights 
Rounding  a  whole  life  to  the  circle  fair 
Of  orbed  fulfilment ;    and  this  balanced  soul. 
So  simple  in  its  grandeur,  coldly  bare 
Of  draperies  theatric,  standing  there 
In  perfect  symmetry  of  self-control, 
Seems    not    so    great    at    first,    but    greater 

grows 
Still  as  we  look,  and  by  experience  learn 
How  grand  this  quiet  is,  how  nobly  stern 
The    discipline    that    wrought    through    life- 
long throes 
That  energetic  passion  of  repose. 


A  nature  too  decorous  and  severe, 

Too  self-respectful  in  its  griefs  and  joys. 

For  ardent  girls  and  boys 

Who  find  no  genius  in  a  mind  so  clear 

That    its    grave    depths    seem    obvious    and 

near, 
Nor  a  soul  great  that  made  so  little  noise. 
They    feel    no    force    in    that    calm-cadenced 

phrase. 
The    habitual     full-dress    of    his    well-bred 

mind, 
That  seems  to  pace  the  minuet's  courtly  maze 
And  tell  of  ampler  leisures,   roomier  length 

of  days. 
His  firm-based  brain,  to  self  so  little  kind 
That  no  tumultuarv  blood  could  blind, 
Formed  to  control  men,  not  amaze. 
Looms  not  like  those  that  borrow  height  of 

haze : 
It  was  a  world  of  statelier  movement  then 
Than  this  we  fret  in,  he  a  denizen 
Of   that  ideal   Rome  that  made   a  man   for 

men. 
The  longer  on  this  earth  we  live 
And  weigh  the  various  qualities  of  men. 
Seeing  how  most  are  fugitive. 
Or  fitful  gifts,  at  best,  of  now  and  then. 
Mind-wavered     corpse-lights,     daughters     of 

the  fen. 
The   more    we   feel   the   high   stern-featured 

beauty 
Of  plain  devotedness  to  duty. 
Steadfast    and    still,    nor    paid    with    mortal 

praise. 
But  finding  amplest  recompense 
For  life's  ungarlanded  expense 
In  work  done  squarely  and  unwasted  days. 
For  this  we  honor  him,  that  he  could  know 
How  sweet  the  service  and  how  free 
Of  her,  God's  eldest  daughter  here  below. 
And  choose  in  meanest  raiment  which  was 

she. 

Placid  completeness,  life  without  a  fall 
From  faith  or  highest  aims,  truth's  breach- 
less  wall. 
Surely  if  any  fame  can  bear  the  touch. 
His  will  say  "Here!"  at  the  last  trumpet's 

call, 
The  unexpressive  man  whose  life  expressed 
so  much. 

Never  to  see  a  nation  born 

Hath  been  given  to  mortal  man. 

Unless  to  those  who,  on  that  summer  morn. 

Gazed  silent  when  the  great  Virginian 

Unsheathed  the  sword  whose  fatal  flash 

Shot  union  through  the  incoherent  clash 

Of  our  loose  atoms,  crystallizing  them 

Around  a  single  will's  unpliant  stem 

And  making  purpose  of  emotion  rash. 

Out    of   that    scabbard    sprang,    as    from    its 

womb. 
Nebulous  at  first  but  hardening  to  a  star, 
Through   mutual   share   of   sunburst   and   of 

gloom. 
The  common  faith  that  made  us  what  we 


520 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


That  lifted  blade  transformed  our  jangling 
clans, 

Till  then  provincial,  to  Americans, 

And  made  a  unity  of  wildering  plans; 

Here  was  the  doom  fixed :  here  is  marked 
the  date 

When  this  New  World  awoke  to  man's  es- 
tate, 

Burnt  its  last  ship  and  ceased  to  look  be- 
hind : 

Nor  thoughtless  was  the  choice ;  no  love  or 
hate 

Could  from  its  poise  move  that  deliberate 
mind. 

Weighing  between  too  early  and  too  late 

Those  pitfalls  of  the  man  refused  by  Fate : 

His  was  the  impartial  vision  of  the  great 

Who  see  not  as  they  wish,  but  as  they 
find. 

He  saw  the  dangers  of  defeat,  nor  less 

The  incomputable  perils  of  success ; 

The  sacred  past  thrown  by,  an  empty  rind; 

The  future,  cloud-land,  snare  of  prophets 
blind; 

The  waste  of  war,  the  ignominy  of  peace ; 

On  either  hand  a  sullen  rear  of  woes. 

Whose  garnered  lightnings  none  could  guess, 

Piling  its  thunder-heads  and  muttering 
"  Cease !  " 

Yet  drew  not  back  his  hand,  but  gravely 
chose 

The  seeming-desperate  task  whence  our  new 
nation  rose. 

A  noble  choice  and  of  immortal  seed ! 

Nor  deem  that  acts  heroic  wait  on  chance 

Or  easy  were  as  in  a  boy's  romance; 

The  man's  whole  life  precludes  the  single 
deed 

That  shall  decide  if  his  inheritance 

Be  with  the  sifted  few  of  matchless  breed. 

Our  race's  sap  and  sustenance. 

Or  with  the  unmotived  herd  that  only  sleep 
and  feed. 

Choice,  seems  a  thing  indifferent;  thus  or 
so. 

What  matters  it?  The  Fates  with  mocking 
face 

Look  on  inexorable,  nor  seem  to  know 

Where  the  lot  lurks  that  gives  life's  fore- 
most place. 

Yet  Duty's  leaden  casket  holds  it  still. 

And  but  two  ways  are  offered  to  our 
will. 

Toil  with  rare  triumph,  ease  with  safe  dis- 
grace, 

The  problem  still  for  us  and  all  of  human 
race. 

He  chose,  as  men  choose,  where  most  danger 
showed. 

Nor  ever  faltered  'neath  the  load 

Of  petty  cares,  that  gall  great  hearts  the 
most. 

But  kept  right  on  the  strenuous  up-hill  road, 

Strong  to  the  end,  above  complaint  or  boast ; 

The  popular  tempest  on  his  rock-mailed 
coast 

Wasted  its  wind-borne  spray. 

The  noisy  marvel  of  a  day ; 

His  soul  sate  still  in  its  unstormed  abode. 


"Washington 

By  Eliza  Cook 

Land    of   the    West !    tho   passing   brief   the 

record  of  thine  age, 
Thou  hast  a  name  that  darkens  all  on  his- 
tory's wide  page ! 
Let  all   the  blasts  of  Fame  ring  out, — thine 

shall    be    loudest    far ; 
Let  others   boast   their  satellites, — thou   hast 

the  planet  star. 
Thou    hast     a     name    whose     characters     of 

light   shall   ne'er  depart ; 
'Tis    stamped    upon    the    dullest    brain,    and 

warms  the  coldest  heart ; 
A  war-cry  fit  for  any  land  where  freedom's 

to  be  won ; 
Land  of  the  West !  it  stands  alone, — it  is  thy 

Washington ! 

Rome   had  its   Caesar,   great  and  brave,  but 

stain  was  on  his  wreath ; 
He  lived  the   heartless   conqueror,  and  died 

the  tyrant's  death. 
France  had  its  eagle,  but  his  wings,  tho  lofty 

they  might  soar. 
Were  spread   in  false  ambition's  flight,  and 

dipped  in  murder's  gore. 
Those  hero-gods,  whose  mighty  sway  would 

fain    have    chained   the   waves — 
Who  flashed  their  blades  with  tiger  zeal  to 

make  a  world  of  slaves — 
Who,  tho  their  kindred  barred  the  path,  still 

fiercely  waded  on. 
Oh,    where    shall   be    their   "  glory "    by   the 

side  of  Washington ! 

He  fought,  but  not  with  love  of  strife;   he 

struck  but  to  defend ; 
And  ere  he  turned  a  people's  foe,  he  sought 

to  be  a  friend ; 
He    strove    to    keep    his    country's    right    by 

reason's  gentle  word, 
And    sighed    when    fell    injustice   threw    the 

challenge  sword  to  sword. 
He  stood  the  firm,  the  wise,  the  patriot,  and 

the  sage ; 
He  showed  no  deep,  avenging  hate,  no  burst 

of  despot  rage ; 
He  stood  for   Liberty  and  Truth,  and   dar- 
ingly led  on 
Till   shouts  of  victory  gave  forth  the  name 

of  Washington. 

No  car  of  triumph  bore  him  through  a  city 
filled  with  grief; 

No  groaning  captives  at  the  wheels  pro- 
claimed him  victor-chief; 

He  broke  the  gyves  of  slavery  with  strong 
and  high  disdain, 

But  cast  no  scepter  from  the  links  when 
he   had   rent   the   chain. 

He  saved  his  land,  but  did  not  lay  his  soldier 
trappings   down 

To  change  them  for  a  regal  vest  and  don  a 
kingly  crown. 

Fame  was  too  earnest  in  her  joy,  too  proud 
of  such  a   son. 

To  let  a  robe  and  title  mask  her  noble  Wash- 
ington. 


WASHINGTON'S    BIRTHDAY 


521 


England,  my  heart  is  truly  thine,  my  loved, 

my  native  earth, — 
The  land  that   holds   a   mother's  grave  and 

gave  that   mother   birth ! 
Oh.  keenly  sad  would  be  the  fate  that  thrust 

me  from  thy  shore, 
And  faltering  my  breath  that  sighed,  "  Fare- 
well for  evermore !  " 
But  did  I  meet  such  adverse  lot,  I  would  not 

seek  to  dwell 
Where  olden  heroes  wrought  the  deeds  for 

Homer's  song  to  tell. 
"  Away,  thou   gallant  ship !  "   I'd  cry,  "  and 

bear  me   safely  on, 
But  bear  me  from  my  own  fair  land  to  that 

of  Washington." 

CO. 

"Washington 

By  Mrs.  Mary  Wingate 

O  noble  brow,   so  wise  in  thought! 
O  heart,  so  true!  O  soul  unbought! 
O  eye,  so  keen  to  pierce  the  night 
And  guide  the  "  ship  of  state  "  aright ! 
O  life,  so  simple,  grand  and  free, 
The  humblest  still  may  turn  to  thee. 
O  king,   uncrowned!     O  prince  of  men! 
When  shall  we  see  thy  like  again? 

The  century,  just  passed  away, 

Has  felt  the  impress  of  thy  sway, 

While  youthful  hearts  have  stronger  grown 

And  made  thy  patriot  zeal  their  own. 

In  marble  hall  or  lowly  cot. 

Thy  name  hath  never  been  forgot. 

The  world  itself  is  richer,  far. 

For  the  clear  shining  of  a  star. 

And  loyal  hearts  in  years  to  run 

Shall  turn  to  thee,   O  Washington. 

C.  H. 

WasMngton's  Statue 

By  Henry  Theodore  Tuckerman 

The  quarry  whence  thy  form  majestic  sprung 

Has  peopled  earth  with  grace. 
Heroes  and  gods  that  elder  bards  have  sung. 

A  bright  and  peerless  race ; 
But  from  its  sleeping  veins  ne'er  rose  before 

A  shape  of  loftier  name 
Than  his.  who  Glory's  wreath  with  meekness 
wore, 

The  noblest  son  of  Fame. 
Sheathed  is  the  sword  that  Passion  never 
stained ; 

His  gaze  around  is  cast, 


As  if  the  joys  of  Freedom,  newly  gained, 

Before  his  vision  passed; 
As  if  a  nation's  shout  of  love  and  pride 

With  music  filled  the  air. 
And  his  calm  soul  was  lifted  on  the  tide 

Of  deep  and  grateful  prayer; 
As  if  the  crystal  mirror  of  his  life 

To  fancy  sweetly  came. 
With  scenes  of  patient  toil  and  noble  strife, 

Undimmed  by  doubt  or  shame; 
As  if  the  lofty  purpose  of  his  soul 

Expression  would  betray, — 
The  high  resolve  Ambition  to  control, 

And  thrust  her  crown  away ! 
O,  it  was  well  in  marble  firm  and  white 

To  carve  our  hero's  form, 
Whose  angel  guidance  was  our  strength  in 
fight. 

Our  star  amid  the  storm ! 
Whose  matchless  truth  has  made  his'  name 
divine. 

And  human  freedom  sure, 
His  country  great,  his  tomb  earth's  dearest 
shrine. 

While  man  and  time  endure ! 
And  it  is  well  to  place  his  image  there 

Upon  the  soil  he  blest : 
Let  meaner  spirits,  who  its  councils  share, 

Revere  that  silent  guest ! 

Let  us  go  up  with  high  and  sacred  love 

To  look  on  his  pure  brow, 
And  as,  with  solemn  grace,  he  points  above, 

Renew  the  patriot's  vow ! 

A.  A. 

George  Washington 

By  John  Hall  Ingham 

This  was'  the  man  God  gave  us  when  the  hour 
Proclaimed  the  dawn  of  Liberty  begun ; 
Who   dared  a  deed,   and  died   when  it  was 

done: 
Patient  in  triumph,  temperate  in  power, — 
Not  striving  like  the  Corsican  to  tower 
To   Heaven,   nor  like  great  Philip's  greater 

son 
To    win    the   world   and   weep    for    world's 

unwon. 
Or  lose  the  star  to  revel  in  the  flower. 
The  lives  that  serve  the  eternal  verities 
Alone     do    mold    mankind.       Pleasure    and 

pride 
Sparkle  awhile  and  perish,  as  the  spray. 
Smoking  across  the  crests  of  cavernous  seas 
Is  impotent  to  hasten  or  delay  _ 
The  everlasting  surges  of  the  tide. 

At   A. 


522  HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


ARBOR  DAY 

IT  is  not  long  since  some  of  our  treeless  Western  states,  desiring  to  promote 
the  culture  of  trees,  appointed  a  day  early  in  spring  for  popular  tree  planting. 
But  up  to  1883  no  state  had  advanced  this  movement  by  the  institution  of  an 
Arbor  Day  to  be  celebrated  and  observed  in  schools.  Ohio  was  the  first  state  to 
move  in  this  matter  and  to  interest  the  schools  in  this  work.  Cincinnati's  Arbor 
Day  in  the  schools  in  the  spring  of  1883  will  be  remembered  by  all  who  took  a 
part  in  the  talks  and  lessons  on  trees  during  the  morning  hours,  and  in  the  prac- 
tical work  during  the  afternoon.  The  other  states  of  the  East,  which  all  have 
suffered  more  or  less  by  the  wanton  destruction  of  their  primeval  forests,  soon 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  Buckeye  State,  and  our  own  Empire  State  celebrated 
for  the  first  time  in  the  spring  of  1889  the  Arbor  Day  in  the  public  schools. 

Many  considered  this  scheme  impracticable  for  large  cities  where  trees  are  a 
rare  sight  and  where  no  opportunity  is  given  for  practical  planting.  But  the  logic 
of  events  has  now  removed  any  doubts  and  secured  a  general  appreciation  of  this 
subject.  To  every  patriotic  American  this  is  the  most  satisfactory,  as  in  public 
schools  should  be  introduced  what  labor  shall  appear  in  the  nation's  life.  The 
foundation  of  the  great  deeds  the  Germans  have  achieved  in  every  discipline  of 
art,  science,  industries,  and  even  in  warfare,  is  due  to  the  "  schoolmaster."  And 
if  we  train  the  youth  into  a  love  for  trees,  the  next  generation  will  see  realized 
what  we  scarcely  hope  to  initiate,  the  preservation  of  forests  not  only  for  climatic 
and  meteorological  purposes,  but  also  for  their  value  in  the  economy  of  the 
Nation. 

Children  may  not  be  able  to  understand  the  importance  of  trees  in  their  aggre- 
gation as  forests;  however,  they  will,  if  allowed  to  assemble  in  a  grove  or  park, 
be  inspired  with  the  idea  that  trees  are  one  of  the  grandest  products  of  God  when 
they  hear  that  without  them  the  earth  could  never  have  produced  the  necessaries 
of  life,  and  that  with  their  destruction  we  could  not  keep  up  the  sustained  growth 
of  the  plants  that  feed  man  and  animals.  There  is  no  more  suitable  subject  for 
practical  oral  lessons,  now  common  in  most  of  our  schools,  than  the  nature  of 
plants,  and  especially  that  of  trees  and  the  value  of  tree-planting.  Such  lessons 
occupy  only  a  little  time,  taking  the  place  of  a  part  of  the  "  Reader."  They  tend 
to  form  the  habits  of  accurate  observation  of  common  things  which  are  of  vast 
importance  in  practical  life.  These  lessons  will  lead  our  youth  to  admire  and 
cherish  trees,  thus  rendering  a  substantial  service  to  the  State  as  well  as  to  the 
pupils  by  making  them  practical  arborists. 

Wherever  the  opportunity  is  given,  children  should  be  encouraged  to  plant 
or  help  in  planting  a  tree,  shrub  or  flower,  actually  practicing  what  they  have 
learned  in  the  study  of  the  growth  and  habits  of  plants.  They  will  watch  with 
pride  the  slow  but  steady  development  of  a  young  tree,  and  find  a  peculiar  pleasure 
in  its  parentage.  Such  work  has  not  only  an  educational  effect  upon  the  juvenile 
mind,  but  its  esthetic  influence  cannot  be  overestimated.  Tree  planting  is  a  good 
school  for  discipline  in  foresight,  the  regard  for  the  future  being  the  leading 
element  in  this  work.     Young  people  are  mostly  inclined  to  sow  only  where  they 


ARBOR  DAY 


523 


can  soon  reap;  they  prefer  the  small  crop  in  hand  to  a  great  harvest  long  in 
maturing.  But  when  they  are  led  to  obtain  a  taste  for  trees,  the  grandeur  of 
thought  connected  with  this  important  line  of  husbandry  will  convince  them  that 
a  speedy  reward  of  labor  is  not  always  the  most  desirable  motive  in  the  pursuits  of 
our  life,  and  is  not  worthy  of  aspiring  men.  For  patiently  to  work  year  after 
year  for  the  attainment  of  a  far-off  end  shows  a  touch  of  the  sublime,  and  implies 
moral  no  less  than  mental  heroism. — Nicholas  Jarchow,  LL.D.     (I.) 


HISTORICAL 


ARBOR  DAY  IN  SCHOOLS 

By  B.  G.  Northrup 


J.  Sterling  Morton,  once  Secretary  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 
originated  Arbor  Day  in  Nebraska  in  1872. 
His  able  advocacy  of  this  measure  was  a 
marvelous  success  the  first  year,  and  still 
more  each  succeeding  year.  So  remarkable 
have  been  the  results  of  Arbor  Day  in  Ne- 
braska, that  its  originator  is  gratefully  recoej- 
nized  as  the  great  benefactor  of  his  State. 
Proofs  of  public  appreciation  of  his  grand 
work  I  found  wherever  I  have  been  in  that 
State.  It  glories  in  the  old  misnomer  of  the 
geographies,  "  The  Great  American  Desert," 
since  it  has  become  so  habitable  and  hospita- 
ble by  cultivation  and  tree  planting.  Where 
twenty  years  ago,  the  books  said  trees  would 
not  grow,  the  settler  who  does  not  plant 
them  is  the  exception.  The  Nebraskans  are 
justly  proud  of  his  great  achievement  and 
are  determined  to  maintain  its  pre-eminence. 

Arbor  Day  for  economic  tree  planting  and 
Arbor  Day  in  schools  differ  in  origin  and 
scope.  Both  have  been  erroneously  attributed 
to  me,  tho  long  ago  I  advocated  tree  planting 
by  youth,  and  started  the  scheme  of  centen- 
nial tree  planting,  offering  a  dollar  prize  in 
1876  to  every  boy  or  girl  who  should  plant, 
or  help  in  planting,  five  "  centennial  trees ;  " 
still  the  happy  idea  of  designating  a  given  day 
when  all  should  be  invited  to  unite  in  this 
work  belongs  solely  to  ex-Governor  Morton. 
His  great  problem  was  to  meet  the  urgent 
needs  of  vast  treeless  prairies.  At  the  meet- 
ing of  the  American  Forestry  Association, 
held  at  St.  Paul  in  1883,  my  resolution  in 
favor  of  observing  Arbor  Day  in  schools  in 
all  our  states  was  adopted,  and  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  push  that  work.  Continued 
as  their  chairman  from  that  day  to  this,  I 
have  presented  the  claims  of  Arbor  Day  per- 
sonally, or  by  letter,  to  the  Governor,  or 
State  School  Superintendent  in  all  our  states 
and  territories. 

My  first  efforts  were  not  encouraging.  The 
indifference  of  state  officials  who,  at  the  out- 
set, deemed  Arbor  Day  an  obtrusive  innova- 
tion, was  expected  and  occasioned  no  dis- 
couragement. My  last  word  with  more  than 
one  governor  was :   "  This  thing  is  sure  to 


go.  My  only  question  is.  Shall  it  be  under 
your  administration  or  that  of  your  suc- 
cessor?" Many  state  officials  who  at  first 
were  apathetic,  on  fuller  information  have 
worked  heartily  for  the  success  of  Arbor  Day. 
The  logic  of  events  has  answered  objections' 
Wherever  it  has  been  fairly  tried  it  has  .^ood 
the  test  of  experience.  Now  such  a  day  is 
observed  in  forty  states  and  territories,  in 
accordance  with  legislative  act  or  recom- 
mendation of  State  agricultural  and  horticul- 
tural societies  or  the  State  grange,  or  by 
special  proclamation  of  the  Governor  or 
recommendation  of  the  State  School  Superin- 
tendents, and  in  some  states  by  all  these 
combined.  It  has  already  become  the  most 
interesting,  widely  observed  and  useful  of 
school  holidays.  It  should  not  be  a  legal 
holiday,  tho  that  may  be  a  wise  provision  for 
the  once  treeless  prairies  of  Nebraska. 

Popular  interest  in  this  work  has  been 
stimulated  by  the  annual  proclamations  of 
Governors  and  the  full  and  admirable  cir- 
culars to  state  and  county  school  superin- 
tendents sent  to  every  school  in  the  state. 
The  fact  that  Bergen  is  the  "  banner  "  county 
of  New  Jersey,  if  not  in  the  country,  for 
Arbor  Day  work  is  due  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
John  Terhune,  County  Superintendent.  His 
Arbor  Day  program  for  1893.  the  best  he  has 
ever  issued,  contains,  in  addition  to  the  Gov- 
ernor's proclamation,  a  paper  by  the  State 
School  Superintendent,  A.  B.  Poland,  and 
one  on  "Trees,"  by  J.  Sterling  Morton,  to- 
gether with  selections  in  prose  and  verse  for 
recitations — a  handsome  pamphlet  of  thirty 
pages. 

Arbor  Day  has  fostered  love  of  country. 
It  has  become  a  patriotic  observance  in  those 
Southern  states  which  have  fixed  its  date  on 
Washington's  Birthday.  Lecturing  in  all  these 
states,  I  have  been  delighted,  to  find  as  true 
loyalty  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes  in  them  as 
in  the  North.  This  cu,stom  of  planting  me- 
morial trees  in  honor  of  Washington,  Lincoln 
and  other  patriots,  and  also  of  celebrated 
authors  and  philanthropists,  has  become  gen- 
eral. Now  that  the  national  flag  with  its 
forty-five    stars    floats    over    all    the    school- 


524 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


houses  in  so  many  states,  patriotism  is  effect- 
ively combined  with  the  Arbor  Day  ad- 
dresses, recitations,  and  songs.  Among  the 
latter  "  The  Star  Spangled  Banner "  and 
"  America  "  usually  find  a  place.  Who  can 
estimate  the  educating  influence  exerted  upon 
the  millions  of  youth  who  have  participated 
in  these  exercises?  This  good  work  has  been 
greatly  facilitated  by  the  eminent  authors  of 
America  who  have  written  so  many  choice 
selections  in  prose  and  poetry  on  the  value 
and  beauty  of  trees,  expressly  for  use  on 
Arbor  Day.  What  growth  of  mind  and  heart 
has  come  to  myriads  of  youth  who  have 
learned  these  rich  gems  of  our  literature  and 
applied  them  by  planting  and  caring  for  trees, 
and  by  combming  sentiments  of  patriotism 
with  the  study  of  trees,  vines,  shrubs,  and 
flowers,  and  thus  with  the  love  of  Nature 
in  all  her  endless  forms  and  marvelous 
beauty ! 

An  eminent  educator  says :  "  Any  teacher 
who  has  no  taste  for  trees,  shrubs  or  flowers 
is  unfit  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  children." 
Arbor  Day  has  enforced  the  same  idea,  es- 
pecially in  those  states  in  which  the  pupils 
have  cast  their  ballots  on  Arbor  Day  in  favor 
of  a  State  tree  and  State  flower.  Habits  of 
observation   have   thus   been   formed   which 


have  led  youth  in  their  walks,  at  work  or 
play,  to  recognize  and  admire  our  noble 
trees,  and  to  realize  that  they  are  the  grand- 
est products  of  Nature  and  form  the  finest 
drapery  that  adorns  the  earth  in  all  lands. 
How  many  of  these  children  in  maturer  years 
will  learn  from  happy  experience  that  there 
is  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  the  parentage  of  trees 
— forest,  fruit  or  ornamental — a  pleasure  that 
never  cloys  but  grows  with  their  growth. 

Arbor  Day  has  proved  as  memorable  for 
the  home  as  the  school,  leading  youth  to 
share  in  dooryard  adornments.  Much  as 
has  been  done  on  limited  school  grounds, 
far  greater  improvements  have  been  made  on 
the  homesteads  and  the  roadsides.  The  home 
is  the  objective  point  in  the  hundreds  of  vil- 
lage improvement  societies  recently  organ- 
ized. The  United  States  Census  of  1890 
shows  that  there  has  recently  been  a  remark- 
able increase  of  interest  in  horticulture,  ar- 
boriculture, and  floriculture.  The  reports  col- 
lected from  4,510  nurserymen  give  a  grand 
total  of  3.386,855,778  trees,  vines,  shrubs, 
roses,  and  plants  as  then  growing  on  their 
grounds.  Arbor  Day  and  village  improve- 
ment societies  are  not  the  least  among  the 
many  happy  influences  that  have  contributed 
to  this  grand  result. — L 


ARBOR  DAY  AT  THE  INDIAN  SCHOOL 


By  B.  G.  Northrop 


The  Arbor  Day  celebration  held  in  the 
Indian  School  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  was  to  me 
the  most  attractive  and  significant  of  the 
many  such  observances  I  have  attended  dur- 
ing the  last  dozen  years.  Thorough  prepara- 
tion had  been  made  by  the  teachers  and  schol- 
ars. Besides  the  exercises  of  the  choir,  the 
band,  and  the  "  concert  exercises ''  of  a  large 
number  of  younger  students,  forty-nine  took 
individual  parts.  Not  one  needed  any 
prompting.  The  gems  of  poetry  and  prose 
were  selected  from  our  leading  authors,  so 
many  of  whom  have  enriched  our  Arbor 
Day  literature  expressly  for  use  on  such  oc- 
casions. One  of  these  paid  a  merited  tribute 
to  Secretary  J.  Sterling  Morton,  the  father 
of  Arbor  Day,  for  economic  tree  planting, 
through  whose  influence  the  treeless  plains 
of  the  trans-Missouri  States  have  been  es- 
pecially enriched.  Says  ex-Gov.  R.  W.  Fur- 
nas:  "In  Nebraska  alone  many  thousands 
of  acres  have  been  clad  with  millions  of  trees, 
converting  them  from  bleak,  worthless  prairie 
land  into  forests  and  groves  and  fruitful 
orchards.  Records  show  that  the  number  of 
our  planted  trees  runs  into  billions.''  Mr. 
Morton  is  justly  regarded  as  the  greatest 
benefactor  of  his  State.  Hence  the  Legis- 
lature in  1895  passed  a  resolution  "  That  Ne- 
braska shall  hereafter  be  known  and  referred 
to  as  the  '  Tree  Planters'  State.'  " 

Many  manuals  for  Arbor  Day  observance 
have  been  issued  by  the  United  States  De- 
partment  of   Education,    State    Superintend- 


ents of  schools,  and  by  private  parties.  But 
the  best  work  on  this  subject  has  been  pub- 
lished by  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture.  It  ought  to  be  sent  broadcast 
over  the  country. 

At  the  Indian  School  during  one  celebra- 
tion about  one  hundred  trees  were  planted 
by  the  boys  and  girls  on  the  campus,  and  one 
each  in  honor  of  their  guests  of  a  kind 
chosen  by  them.  Dr.  Hailman  chose  a  Nor- 
way maple,  "  because  of  his  sympathies  with 
those  who  work  their  way  up  by  struggling 
against  difiiculties."  Mr.  Northrop  selected 
"  the  American  white  ash  as  a  rapid  grower, 
and  for  the  value  of  its  lumber,  combining 
lightness,  elasticity,  and  strength  more  than 
any  other  wood  in  the  world." 

Arbor  Day  is  now  observed  in  all  our 
states  and  territories,  except  Delaware, 
Utah,  and  Indian  Territory,  and  in  individual 
towns  in  two  of  these.  It  has  been  observed 
in  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Northern  and 
Southern  Africa. 

I  had  the  pleasure  in  1895  of  helping  on 
this  movement  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  and 
in  Japan.  The  third  day  of  November,  the 
Emperor's  birthday,  is  now  the  Arbor  Day 
of  Japan,  when  the  children  plant  memorial 
trees  in  his  honor. 

The  sentiment  at  Carlisle  seems  to  be  that 
Arbor  Day  is  the  most  interesting  and  valu- 
able, as  well  as  widely  observed  of  all  our 
holidays,  excepting  Christmas  and  Easter. 

For  many  years  I  have  frequently  visited 


ARBOR  DAY 


525 


this  grand  Indian  School,  and  with  growing 
appreciation  of  its  efficiency  and  usefulness, 
and  with  admiration  of  the  tact  and  wisdom 
of  Captain  Pratt.  Having  been  one  of  the 
trustees  of  the  Hampton  Institute  in  its  early 


history,  and  having  visited  the  Indian  schools 
in  the  Indian  Territory,  I  say.  What  General 
Armstrong  was  for  the  colored  race,  Captain 
Pratt  is  for  the  Indians  of  America. — E. 


DESCRIPTIVE 


PLANTING  AND  PRUNING  TREES 


By  Joseph  Meehan 


If  it  were  better  known  how  successful  the 
early  planting  of  trees  in  the  fall  is,  I  am 
sure  we  would  see  many  more  trees  planted 
in  September  and  October  than  we  now  do. 
I  have  tried  for  many  years  to  get  persons  to 
plant  in  late  September  in  preference  to 
waiting  longer,  and  I  am  sure  that  those 
who  have  followed  my  advice  have  been 
more  than  usually  successful  with  their  trees. 
But  it  is  such  uphill  work  to  get  many  per- 
sons to  believe  that  it  is  proper  to  plant 
before  leaves  fall  off,  that  but  little  progress 
has  been  made. 

In  regard  to  waiting  for  the  leaves  to  fall, 
I  have  often  shown  them  trees  in  full  leaf 
which  would  be  stripped  of  their  leaves  in  a 
night  by  frost ;  and  I  have  put  the  question 
to  them  if  it  mattered  to  the  tree  whether  I 
stripped  the  leaves  or  Jack  Frost  did  it.  For 
my  part,  I  would  prefer  to  plant  deciduous 
trees  in  early  October  rather  than  at  any 
other  time.  It  has  been  within  my  experi- 
ence several  times  to  see  large  blocks  of 
trees  dug  up  in  early  October,  to  be  replanted. 
When  such  work  is  in  progress.,  it  is  custom- 
ary to  heel  the  trees  in  for  a  while  as  they 
are  dug,  until  the  replanting  commences. 
Very  often  the  trees  remain  heeled  in  for  two 
or  three  weeks  or  more.  At  the  end  of  this 
time,  ihose  who  are  in  doubt  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  early  planting  should  see  these  trees. 
Not  only  are  the  tops  invariably  fresh  and 
plump,  but  as  each  one  is  taken  from  the 
ground  a  mass  of  new  fibrous  roots  is  to  be 
seen,  which  have  been  produced  by  the  warm 
soil  of  the  season. 

I  have  referred  before  in  my  writings  to 
my  success  some  years  ago  in  planting  a 
small  orchard  of  fruit  trees  in  late  September. 
The  collection  consisted  of  pears,  quinces, 
cherries,  and  plums.  The  leaves  were 
stripped  off,  the  trees  pruned,  planted,  and 
watered,  and,  tho  the  weather  was  dry  and 
hot,  I  did  not  lose  a  tree.  I  advocate  this 
early  planting,  knowing  as  I  do  that  new 
roots  are  formed  at  once,  and  by  the  time 
winter  comes  it  does  not  find  newly  planted 
trees,  but,  practically  established  ones,  for 
the  new  roots  are  there  to  carry  it  safely 
through  the  winter.  In  fact,  after  the  arrival 
of  the  first  of  September  I  never  fear  to 
plant  trees,  for  none  are  ever  lost  by  it. 
Evergreens  are  taken  first,  followed  by  de- 
ciduous trees.     From  October  first  we  count 


on  two  months  of  open  weather,  and  some- 
times we  have  more  than  this,  so  that  there  is 
a  good  chance  for  the  tree  to  establish  itself. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  how  much 
should  a  transplanted  tree  be  pruned?  and 
it  is  indeed  a  difficult  one  to  answer,  so  much 
depending  on  the  kind  of  tree.  Trees  with 
numerous  small  roots  need  but  little  pruning, 
except  for  the  purpose  of  shaping  them. 
Maples  among  trees,  and  nearly  all  shrubs, 
are  in  this  class.  On  the  other  hand,  oaks, 
magnolias,  hickories,  and  tulip  poplars  will 
serve  as  subjects  to  illustrate  those  with  but 
few  roots,  which  will  need  close  pruning. 
Even  the  pin-oak,  which  has  more  small  roots 
than  many  other  oaks,  is  the  better  for  good 
pruning.  When  it  is  black,  white,  or  any 
other  oak  (save  the  swamp  white,  which, 
with  the  pin,  is  easier  to  transplant  than  some 
others)  even  closer  pruning  is  exercised. 
Hickories  are  extremely  hard  to  transplant. 
If  they  are  seedlings  six  to  eight  feet  high, 
and  have  never  been  transplanted,  nothing 
should  be  left  but  the  main  stem.  It  will  be 
better  to  dig  under  them  a  year  in  advance, 
chopping  off  the  taproot  at  about  one  foot 
underground,  and  pruning  the  tops  at  the 
same  time.  Having  mentioned  magnolias  and 
tulip  poplars,  I  should  say  that  these  and  all 
fleshy-rooted  trees  are  safely  planted  in  the 
spring  only.  They  rarely  survive  when  set 
in  the  fall. 

It  is  well  understood  that  roots  must  be  in 
close  contact  with  soil;  they  have  to  draw 
their  moisture  from  it.  A  tree,  the  roots  of 
which  are  not  in  contact  with  soil,  cannot 
long  survive.  It  is  necessary  that  care  be 
exercised  to  get  the  soil  well  under  the  roots 
as  well  as  over  them.  Use  fine  soil  immedi- 
ately about  the  roots,  and  work  it  in  so  that 
it  be  firmly  placed — that  no  hollows  exist 
under  the  roots.  Then  cover  in  with  the 
same  fine  earth  above  them,  and,  as  soon  as  a 
sufficient  thickness  exists  that  bruising  of  the 
roots  will  not  occur,  use  a  rammer  to  pound 
the  soil  in.  When  the  hole  is  nearly  filled 
pour  in  a  bucket  or  two  of  water.  This 
places  within  easy  reach  of  the  roots  what 
they  look  for — moisture — and,  at  the  same 
time,  carries  the  soil  solidly  about  them. 
Watering  is  more  important  when  early 
planting  is  followed  than  it  is  later,  as  there 
is  more  evaporation  going  on  then,  than 
later,  and  the  soil  is  often  quite  dry. — Cul. 


526 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


THE  USE  OF  DYNAMITE  IN  TREE  PLANTING 

By  Charles  P.  Nettleton 


In  some  of  the  hilly  districts  of  Califor- 
nia, where  the  subsoil  is  within  a  foot  or  two 
of  the  surface,  if  not  positively  rock,  it  is 
prepared  for  tree  planting  by  the  use  of 
dynamite.  It  may  make  farmers  in  the 
VVestern  States  (as  we  call  all  the  states 
from  Ohio  to  Idaho)  open  their  eyes  in 
amusement  to  hear  of  blasting  the  soil  in 
order  to  give  trees  a  good  area  to  grow  in; 
but  it  has  been  done  again  and  again  on 
rocky  land,  where,  as  it  seemed,  only  a 
mortgage  could  grow.  Various  reports  in 
the  agricuUural  papers  of  the  Coast  have 
appeared,  written  by  men  who  wanted  to  ex- 
periment, and  also  by  those  who  could  not 
afford  to  let  what  was  perhaps  a  large  por- 
tion of  their  land  lie  idle. 

From  a  paper  read  before  the  Oregon 
Horticultural  Society  I  took  liberal  extracts 
relative  to  the  practise  and  benefits  derived 
from  it. 

The  use  of  dynamite  has  passed  the  ex- 
perimental stage,  and  is  now  used  extensively 
in  many  parts  of  the  country.  It  can  be 
handled  with  perfect  safety,  and  the  total 
expense  of  preparing  an  acre  of  ground  in 
this  way  is  but  a  small  item  at  most.  The 
kind  to  use  is  the  thirty  per  cent,  grade,  which 
is  considered  strong  enough  for  nearly  all 
lands.  Use  one-half  pound  for  each  charge, 
unless  the  land  be  rocky,  when  from  one  and 
a  half  to  two  sticks  to  the  charge  should  be 
used.  In  preparing  the  charge  take  a  fuse 
six  feet  long,  and  on  one  end  attach  a  fulmi- 
nating cap.  Fivft  make  a  hole  in  the  end  of 
a  stick  of  dynamite  with  some  small  stick, 
say  a  pencil ;  in  this  hole  place  the  cap,  and 
with  a  string  tie  the  fuse  and  cap  firmly  to 
the  stick  of  dynamite,  to  hold  cap  and  fuse 
in  place. 

To  prepare  the  ground  for  the  charge,  take 
a  crowbar  or  a  two-inch  auger  with  a  seven- 
foot  shaft,  and  make  a  hole  in  the  ground 
six  feet  deep.  Place  the  stick  of  dynamite 
in  the  hole,  then  pour  in  dry  sand  and  fill  it 
up.  If  no  sand  can  be  had,  any  soil  wiU  do, 
if  tamped  somewhat  hard  with  a  wooden 
stick.  Fire  the  charge  in  the  usual  way.  The 
explosion  will  loosen  the  ground  some  dis- 
tance below  the  bottom  of  the  hole  and  for 


many  feet  on  all  sides.  There  is  little  or  no 
danger,  as  the  ground  only  heaves  a  trifle 
and  little  or  no  earth  is  thrown  into  the  air. 
The  ground,  however,  will  be  shaken  for 
from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet  on  all  sides. 

After  the  dynamite  has  exploded,  take  a 
shovel  and  dig  a  hole  sufficiently  large  to 
put  the  tree  in,  fill  the  excavation  with  sur- 
face soil  and  some  fertilizer  that  will  aid 
the  tree  in  growing  and  also  assist  in  retain- 
ing the  moisture  about  the  roots  of  the  tree. 
The  water  from  rains  on  the  irrigating 
ditch  will  now  go  down  as  far  as  the  ground 
is  loosened,  and  will  be  retained  there  until 
used  by  the  tree-roots  or  until  it  comes  to 
the  surface  and  evaporates.  The  surface 
evaporation  can,  however,  be  held  in  check 
by  frequent  and  thorough  cultivation  of  the 
soil. 

As  the  roots  reach  out  in  this  now  loosened 
soil,  they  will  always  find  sufficient  moisture 
to  make  a  vigorous  growth,  and  thus  in  one 
season  the  roots  will  make  a  growth  of  two 
or  three  times  what  they  would  in  hard  or 
compact  soil  where  the  water  could  not  pene- 
trate on  account  of  hardpan,  or  the  hard- 
baked  soil  of  dry  seasons.  This  large  growth 
of  roots  will  make  it  impossible  for  the  tree 
to  be  blown  over.  The  tap-root  will  some- 
times go  down  several  feet  the  first  season. 
"We  have  often  seen  limbs  make  a  growth  of 
several  feet  during  the  season,  and  it  is  just 
as  possible  for  the  roots  to  do  the  same  thing 
if  the  conditions  are  right  for  it. 

The  direct  results  of  the  dynamite  method 
are  larger  and  more  even  fruit  and  earlier 
ripening.  This  is  easily  accounted  for  by 
knowing  that  the  water  in  the  spring  does 
not  settle  round  the  body  of  the  tree  as  it 
does  in  more  compact  soils,  and  as  the  mois- 
ture is  spread  all  through  the  ground,  it  is 
fed  to  the  tree  more  evenly  and  for  a  longer 
period.  Many  trees  are  killed  or  injured  by 
the  water  settling  round  the  trunks  of  the 
trees;  pit  fruits  especially  are  easily  injured 
in  this  way.  The  soil  loosened  by  dyna- 
mite allows  the  water  to  settle,  and  at  the 
depth  of  six  to  ten  feet,  the  water  in  many 
soils  would  find  a  natural  outlet. — I. 


TREE  TREATMENT 

By  E.  p.  Powell 


I  have  tried  in  various  ways  to  call  the 
attention  of  Americans  to  the  importance 
of  the  correct  system  of  tree  training.  A 
few  years  ago  we  had  our  ideal  tree  forrns. 
There  was  a  pear  tree  ideal,  after  which 
every  one  was  expected  to  shape  his  trees; 
but  it  slowly  began   to  be   understood   that 


every  kind  of  pear  has  its  own  individual- 
ity, and  you  cannot  make  them  grov\^  alike 
without  deforming  them.  Then  it  got 
further  to  he  understood  that  even  two  pear 
trees  of  the  same  kind  do  not  wish  to  grow 
exactly  alike.  It  is  necessary  to  throw  away 
your  ideal  shapes  altogether.     Nature  has  no 


ARBOR  DAY 


527 


love  for  uniformity.  There  is,  however,  a 
very  general  similarity  in  the  growth  of 
Seckels,  as  also  in  the  growth  of  Sheldons, 
and  of  Anjous  and  other  sorts ;  so  that  we 
can  distinguish  varieties  by  their  manner  of 
distributing  and  spreading  limbs.  What  is 
true  of  pears  is  true  of  all  other  trees.  Note 
the  sharp  contrast  in  growth  between  a 
Northern  Spy  and  a  Greening.  But  the  ordi- 
nary tree  pruner  does  not  tind  this  out.  He 
goes  into  an  orchard  on  general  principles, 
makes  the  trees  as  nearly  alike  as  he  can, 
and,  after  three  or  four  prunings,  the  or- 
chard is  worthless.  Maple  trees  and  elms 
are  our  most  common  street  trees.  The 
effort  is  almost  sure  to  be  to  make  the  rows 
consist  of  trees  as  nearly  uniform  as  possi- 
ble. This  ends  in  mutilation,  and  the  death 
of  a  large  part  of  the  trees  by  the  age  of 
fifty  years.  I  have  seen  all  the  avenues  of 
a  village  taken  possession  of  by  the  tempo- 
rary authorities  and  pruned,  with  the  sole 
idea  of  lifting  the  foliage  five  or  six  feet 
higher.  Those  who  know  and  love  trees 
know  this  is  to  cut  off  the  most  vital  limbs, 
and  certainly  begin  decay  if  not  render  the 
trees  for  the  most  part  monstrosities. 

The  fact  is,  no  part  of  horticulture  or  ar- 
boriculture is  so  important  as  pruning;  and 
pruning  should  be  the  most  intelligent  of 
arts.  It  is  a  sad  sight  to  find  that  very  few 
of  our  shade  trees  are  healthy.  Go  into  the 
adjacent  lots  where  pruners,  especially  the 
professionals,  have  not  been  admitted,  and 
you  find  everywhere  the  most  beautiful 
specimens  of  utterly  sound  trees ;  but  along 
our  highways  disease  is  the  rule.  I  am,  for 
this  reason,  glad  to  see  that  the  trustees  of 
the  Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  Agriculture  have  published  an  edi- 
tion of  a  very  little  book,  by  Count  des 
Cass  on  Pruning  Forest  and  Ornamental 
Trees.  The  editing  is  done  by  Professor 
Sargent,  of  Harvard,  and  is,  of  course,  done 
intelligently  and  sympathetically.  The  book 
does  not  undertake  to  create  a  uniform  sys- 
tem, but  to  lay  down  a  few  general  laws ; 
and,  perhaps  of  more  importance,  to  show 
where  the  damage  is  generally  done.  He 
does  not  hesitite  to  lay  the  blame  for  our 
sick  and  unsightly  trees  where  it  belongs,  to 
careless  or  ignorant  treatment  with  the  saw, 
or  to  entire  neglect  of  all  pruning.  In  France 
there  are  many  horticulturists  who  protest 
against  all  pruning,  especially  in  forest  grow- 
ing.    Des  Cass  says : 

"  Opponents  of  pruning  maintain  that  the 
scars  caused  by  pruning  indicate  internal  de- 
fects in  the  wood,  and  that  trees  so  scarred 
cannot  be  sold.  But  it  is  the  method  which 
is  faulty;  and  such  objections  must  disappear 
before  more  scientific  and  rational  treat- 
ment." 

On  the  contrary,  he  believes  that  a  system 
of  forest  management  that  discards  pruning 
is  disastrous.  He  is  speaking  of  the  timber 
trees ;  those  grown  for  timber  solely.  This 
phase  of  the  question  is  of  less  importance  in 
this  country,  but  of  growing  importance.  We 
are  slowly  beginning  to  plant  forests.  If  I 
wished  to  begin  life  on  the  very  surest  basis 


for  becoming  wealthy  as  an  agriculturist.  I 
would  plant  forests.  We  should  have  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  farm  forests  planted  at  once. 
The  value  of  timber  is  enormously  increased 
and  increasing.  The  owner  of  timber  here- 
after has  no  speculative  crop ;  he  is  sure  of 
his  income.  For  this  reason  a  thorough  study 
of  pruning  is  very  important.  S.iall  we  leave 
Nature  to  direct  or  shall  we  not?  I  believe 
we  can  see  everywhere  proofs  of  the  princi- 
ple laid  down  by  the  Count  that  trees  left  to 
themselves  do  not  grow  up  sufficiently  to 
prevent  the  too  large  spread  of  lower  limbs. 
This  expends  vitality  on  wasted  growth  and 
prevents  the  formation  of  salable  lumber.  In 
a  dense  forest  the  crowding  and  pushing 
for  light  keeps  the  lower  limbs  pruned  until 
a  height  of  thirty  to  forty  feet  or  more  is 
reached.  But  in  our  artificial  growth  of  for- 
ests we  cannot  rely  on  such  crowding.  Our 
trees  must  be  set  at  some  distance  from  each 
other.  Then  it  becomes  true  that  the  lower 
branches  grow  disproportionately  large,  and 
absorb  too  much  sap,  to  the  detriment  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  tree.  Then  again  we  have 
to  count  on  accidents  and  injuries  doing  a 
great  deal  of  unforeseen  breakage. 

Without  intelligent  pruning  health  will 
quickly  be  destroyed.  Count  Cass's  funda- 
mental law  is  to  cut  close  to  the  trunk,  and 
perfectly  even  with  it.  The  reason  for  this 
is  simple.  Sap  first  mounts  from  the  roots 
to  the  leaves,  where  it  is  elaborated  and 
then  sient  back  in  part  to  the  roots.  Roots 
take  up  water  from  the  soil  together  with 
various  substances  in  solution.  After  going 
to  the  leaves,  where  it  meets  carbonic  acid 
gas,  the  sap  goes  down  to  deposit  the  con- 
centric layer  of  wood'.  The  wound  made 
must  therefore  be  such  that  the  descending 
sap  can  gradually  cover  over.  Of  course 
stumps  and  prongs  of  decayed  or  broken 
limbs  involve  of  necessity,  if  not  removed, 
a  decay  into  the  solid  trunk. 

The  illustrations  given  by  the  Count  are 
constant  and  complete.  The  little  mono- 
graph should  be  in  all  hands,  and  it  will  be 
worth  millions  of  dollars  to  American  for- 
estry or  orcharding.  Still  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  his  ideal  forms  for  special  trees, 
carried  to  the  extent  which  he  carries  them. 
The  general  principle  unquestionably  is, 
however,  that  the  length  of  trunk  in  a 
young  tree  should  be  equal  to  one-third  of 
the  entire  height  of  the  tree  ;  that  the  head,  in 
a  very  general  way,  should  be  elongated  ovoid 
in  form,  with  the  center  of  gravity  sufficiently 
low  to  keep  the  tree  upright.  The  lower 
branches  shortened,  to  prevent  excessive  de- 
velopment of  the  leader,  should  afford  suffi- 
cient leaf  surface  to  elaborate  the  sap  neces- 
sary to  insure  rapid  growth.  Of  middle-aged 
trees,  the  trunk  should  equal  about  two- 
fifths  of  the  entire  height  of  the  tree,  while 
a  mature  tree  should  have  a  trunk  of  about 
one-half  the  full  tree  height. 

There  is  no  question  of  the  impatience  of 
American  agriculturists  in  discussing  any 
system  of  forest  culture,  or  giving  the  sub- 
ject any  thought  whatever;  in  this  I  be- 
lieve they  are  short-sighted,  and  that  shortly 


528 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


they  will  be  compelled  to  change.  Our  agri- 
culture is  unnecessarily  unprofitable.  We 
have  not  learned  our  resources,  and  are 
stubbornly  unwilling  to  learn  them.  But  cer- 
tainly in  the  treatment  of  orchard  and  street 
trees,  we  should  be  willing  to  listen  to  good 
counsel.  The  last  orchard  I  saw  pruned  left 
every  sucker  on  the  limbs  protruding  half  an 
inch,  while  the  larger  limbs  removed  were 
cut  at  a  slant  outward.  I  need  not  refer  to 
the  laws  laid  down  by  the  Count  to  demon- 
strate that  this  was  really  worse  than  no 
pruning  at  all.  The  stubs  could  not  heal 
over,  but  assuredly  would  lead  to  diseased 
holes  in  the  wood.  The  stubs  of  suckers 
were  a  mass  of  buds,  all  of  which  would  be 
stimulated  to  growth  and  there  would  be 
from  three  to  ten  new  suckers  for  every  one 
removed  by  the  careless  pruner.  This  is  not 
an  exceptional  case,  I  regret  to  say.  In  fact, 
nearly  all  trees  suffer  from  such  blunders. 
The  pruner  in  this  case  was  a  professional. 
The  sucker  should  be  cut  smooth  to,  and 
slightly  into  the  bark.  This  is  equally  true 
when  it  starts  at  the  base  of  the  tree. 

But,  after  all,  the  real  key  to  good  arbori- 
culture is  to  keep  our  trees  so  well  in  hand 
that  they   will   never   need   large   limbs   re- 


moved; and,  as  for  suckers,  they  should  be 
removed  when  so  small  as  to  be  shoved  off 
with  thumb  and  finger.  Our  enjoyment 
of  our  rural  homes  can  be  easily  combined 
with  a  good  deal  of  this  anticipative  fore- 
sight. I  think  one-half  of  my  own  pruning 
is  done  as  I  walk  about  enjoying  the  shade, 
flowers,  and  fruits.  Each  tree  and  bush 
should  become  a  study  on  such  occasions ; 
and  a  pinch  here  or  there  will  remove  a 
large  part  of  the  incipient  waste  wood.  The 
real  height  of  success  is  attained  where  no 
force  goes  to  waste.  It  is  folly  to  plant  a 
tree  unless  we  are  prepared  to  study  it  and 
care  for  it.  While  uniformity  is  to  be 
avoided,  cleanliness,  wholesomeness,  vigor, 
and  beauty  are  all  to  be  secured. 

Practical  aboriculture  must  ultimately  be- 
come a  part  of  our  country  school  curriculum. 
Arbor  Day  means  a  great  step  in  that  direc- 
tion. The  children  of  America,  at  least,  begin 
to  comprehend  the  patriotic  as  well  as  eco- 
nomic duty  of  planting  trees ;  must  they  not 
also  be  taught  to  care  for  them?  The  little 
book  by  Count  des  Cass  will  serve  as  a  text- 
book when  the  day  comes  that  the  subject  is 
recognized  in  the  light  of  its  full  import- 
ance.— I. 


CRIMINAL  TREATMENT  OF  TREES 


The  Rev.  Mr.  Egleston  once  called  atten- 
tion, in  a  forcible  and  sensible  way,  to  the 
reckless  and  criminal  treatment  of  our  for- 
ests in  general  and  of  our  good  friends  the 
trees  in  particular.  His  simple  statement 
that  nothing  in  nature  except  a  man  is  more 
valuable  than  a  tree,  reminds  one  of  the  late 
Edward  Jafifray"s  judgment  that  only  killing 
a  man  was  worse  than  cutting  down  a  tree. 
The  Laurel  Hill  Association  seems  likely  to 
become  foremost  among  societies  for  the 
prevention  of  cruelty  to  trees.  The  need 
of  active  measures  to  defend  these  preservers 
of  our  springs,  these  guardians  of  our  rivers, 
these  shelterers  of  our  fields  and  gardens, 
from  wanton  outrage  and  careless,  thriftless 
despoiling,  is  forcing  itself  on  public  atten- 
tion, a  cry  of  protest  that  gains  force  from 
the  desolating  fires  among  the  Western  pines, 
and  the  miserable  pillage  of  our  own  Adiron- 
dack preserve?. 

Arbor  Day  in  the  public  schools  is  doing 
something  toward  the  replenishing  of  treeless 
regions,  restoring  forest  trees  to  their  former 
habitation,  and  also  toward  the  extermina- 
tion of  savagery  toward  all  tree  growth  from 
the  boys  of  this  generation.  Heredity  from 
the  slayers  of  trees  in  their  fight  with  the 
primeval  woods,  will  require  heroic  treat- 
ment. A  boy  with  la  hatchet  is  still  a  deso- 
later,  and  with  an  axe  he  is  a  scourge  second 
only  to  the  forest  burner ;  when  he  grows  to 
manhood  his  greed  is  proof  against  all  sen- 
timent or  suggestion  of  remoter  consequences. 

For  centuries  now  the  matchless  forests  of 
this  country  have  been  faced  with  the  cry  of 
"  Kill !   Kill !  "     There  has  been   no   mercy 


and  no  recourse.  Slaughter  has  waged  un- 
hindered and  unrebuked.  Timber  forests, 
with  unlimited  supply  under  care  and  cul- 
ture, have  been  ruined.  The  waste  has  been 
more  than  the  product.  For  bark,  for  char- 
coal and  firewood,  for  fence  posts  and  rail- 
road ties,  for  lumber  and  shingles,  for  spars 
and  ship  timbers,  for  wooden  ware,  matches, 
and  even  toothpicks,  the  woods,  have  been 
flayed  alive.  We  have  wasted  our  inherit- 
ance until  the  resulting  shame  is  beginning  to 
show.  Forest  laws  that  are  sharp  and  usable 
as  axes  are  demanded.  The  ownership  of 
woodland  must  not  carry  the  right  to  abuse 
it.  Lands  that  are  important  water  preserves 
should  be  protected  the  same  as  public  reser- 
voirs. Private  ownership  which  has  proved 
detrimental  to  public  interests  should  be  sup- 
pressed by  public  purchases.  All  possible  re- 
straints must  be  put  on  the  marauders  and  in- 
cendiaries of  the  woods.  For  toleration  of 
this  criminal  treatment  of  trees  has  reached 
its  limit.  The  sentiment  of  our  people  is 
ready  to  sustain  the  hand  of  justice  in  the 
defense  of  these  true  friends  of  man. 

And  this  correction  of  an  evil  will  prove  a 
change  of  heart  in  our  people.  The  freedom 
and  needs  of  our  civilization  have  in  this  par- 
ticular blunted  our  sensibilities.  We  have 
become  callous  to  some  serious  affronts  and 
wrongs.  A  whole  village  has  been  known 
to  stand  by,  while  a  century-old  tree,  the 
pride  and  beauty  of  a  street,  has  been  killed 
to  widen  a  road  or  to  make  room  for  some 
petty  building.  Such  outrages  have  been 
perpetrated  with  a  coolness  that  confessed  to 
unconsciousness  of  wrong.    The  remedy  for 


ARBOR  DAY 


529 


such  things  is  education.  Somebody  must 
teach  our  people  the  rights  and  the  dignity 
of  a  tree.  They  know  its  money  value,  but 
there  is  something  more  they  need  to  know 
and  to  feel.  There  is  a  sanctity  in  natural 
growth  which  goes  up  to  the  sublimity  of  the 
great  mountains.  To  violate  this  is  to  de- 
grade ourselves.  To  despise  or  to  degrade 
the  splendid  things  about  us  is  to  prove  our- 
selves unworthy  of  them.     The  Palisades  of 


the  Hudson  can  be  made  a  signboard  or  a 
stone  quarry,  but  the  people  who  would  so 
use  them,  or  who  would  suffer  such  desecra- 
tion of  them,  would  sink  as  low  in  the  scale 
of  man  as  they  would  fall  in  the  esteem  of 
the  world.  This  world  is  something  more 
than  a  workshop.  And  a  sin  against  the 
sanctity  of  any  created  thing  is  a  sin  against 
our  own  souls. — E. 


FORESTRY  IN  NEW  YORK 


By  William  Hoyt  Coleman 


The  Annual  Report  o£  the  Forest  Com- 
mission of  the  State  of  New  York  for  1894 
— Col.  William  F.  Fox,  Superintendent — 
is  interesting  and  valuable  as  marking  prog- 
ress in  a  branch  of  agricultural  science  com- 
paratively new  in  this  country  yet  of  vital 
importance  to  our  future  prosperity.  The  re- 
port, in  fact,  is  the  last  which  we  shall  have 
from  the  Commission,  as  it  has  since  been 
united  with  the  Fisheries  and  Game  Commis- 
sion. 

The  Forest  Commission  has  two  great 
duties  in  hand,  the  preservation  of  water- 
sheds and  renewal  of  timber  supplies.  Here- 
tofore the  relation  of  these  things  to  each 
other  and  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
State  has  not  been  understood  or  studied. 
Lumbermen  have  cut  away  timber  where- 
ever  it  paid  to  do  so,  without  regard  to 
effects  on  rivers  and  streams,  or  even  future 
supplies  for  their  own  business.  A  third 
and  rapidly  growing  interest  was  also  af- 
fected, that  of  the  great  summer  travel  to 
the  woods  and  mountains,  involving  expen- 
diture of  millions  of  dollars.  A  cry  went  up 
that  once  beautiful  localities  were  so  no 
longer.  Wooded  mountains  had  been 
stripped  bare ;  cool,  shaded  streams  now  lay 
open  to  the  sun,  their  waters  choked  with 
sawdust  from  the  mills,  and  the  fishing 
spoiled.  It  was  time  to  act,  the  streams 
failing,  the  timber  supply  growing  less,  natu- 
ral scenery  ruined.  So  in  this  State  and  in 
others  forestry  came  into  being  as  a  practical 
science. 

The  forest  region  of  New  York  is  chiefly 
in  the  northern  section  and  along  the  Cats- 
kills  and  their  spurs.  The  former  covers  an 
area  of  3,588,803  acres,  of  which  the  State 
owned  in  1893  over  731,000  acres.  It  was 
proposed  to  establis.h  a  reservation  or  park 
of  over  2,807.000  acres,  buying  up  such  sec- 
tions as  could  be  profitably  handled  as  tim- 
ber lands  and  become  a  permanent  paying 
investment.  Settled  farms,  villages,  etc.,  on 
this  reservation  would  not  be  disturbed,  nor 
would  any  effort  be  made  to  buy  hotel  prop- 
erty, private  parks,  etc.  These  would  n'atu- 
rally  cooperate  with  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mission. These  private  preserves  are  esti- 
mated tc  aggregate  940.000  acres,  and  there  is 
also  a  water  area  of  57,104  acres.  There  re- 
mains to  be  purchased  about  1,200,000  acres. 


composed  of  677,955  acres  of  lumbered  forest 
(cut  over)  and  522,045  acres  of  primeval  for- 
est, having  an  assessed  valuation  of  $1,500,000. 
The  lumbered  lands  are  valued  at  $1.50  per 
acre,  the  virgin  forest  at  $5  to  $8.  The  uncut 
timber  lands  yield,  on  an  average,  3,000  feet 
of  logs  to  the  acre,  worth  $1.50  per  1,000  feet 
on  the  stump.  The  estimated  value  of  these 
lands  was  about  $3,516,000,  and  the  Com- 
mission recommended  their  purchase  out- 
right by  an  issue  of  bonds,  believing  that  the 
saving  in  the  end  would  amply  warrant  the 
present  outlay.  But  our  legislators,  while 
freely  voting  vast  sums  for  city  speedways, 
public  buildings,  world's  fairs,  etc.,  could  not 
be  made  to  see  how  wise  this  forestry  invest- 
ment would  be,  nor  how  far-reaching  and 
beneficial  would  be  its  effects.  So  the  Com- 
mission must  do  the  best  it  can  with  the 
meager  sums  doled  out,  while  delay  result 
in  further  diminution  of  the  forest  area  and 
enhanced  prices  for  the  remainder. 

The  wooded  area  of  the  Catskill  preserve 
is  fully  three-fifths  of  the  Adirondack,  and 
includes  over  2,000,000  acres  of  forest  lands 
in  Ulster,  Delaware  and  Sullivan  counties, 
of  which  the  State  owns  49,332  acres,  in 
scattered  tracts,  and  the  purchase  of  100,000 
acres  more  in  the  vicinity  would  be  highly 
desirable,  the  summer  population  of  the 
Catskill  range  being  larger  than  that  of  the 
Adirondacks,  the  location  being  accessible  to 
thousands  whose  means  debar  them  from 
the  remoter  resort.  Included  in  the  Catskill 
lands  is  a  deer  park,  stocked  with  over  fifty 
deer,  taken  from  the  Adirondacks.  In  sum- 
mer these  are  turned  loose  to  browse  in  the 
woods.  As  some  confusion  exists  regarding 
the  distinction  between  the  Adirondack  Park 
and  the  Forest  Preserve,  it  may  be  well  to  say 
here  that  the  former  is  composed  of  lands 
owned  or  to  be  acquired,  in  six  counties  of 
northern  New  York,  including  i'^lands  in 
Lake  George,  and  the  latter  lands  in  six- 
teen counties,  some  of  them  the  same,  but  not 
always  the  same  territory.  On  the  Preserve 
the  duties  of  the  Commission  are  to  preserve 
the  timber  and  make  sales  of  the  marketable 
part  (?).  Full  authority  is  given  to  protect 
against  fire  and  timber  stealers,  to  proceed 
against  individuals,  railroads,  and  other  cor- 
poration*  guilty  of  trespass  or  carelessness. 
On  the  Park,  in  addition  to  these  duties,  the 


530 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Commission  is  to  make  provision  for  camp- 
ers, and  to  lease  lands  for  camping  purposes. 

"  The  Park  is  to  be  forever  reserved, 
maintained,  and  cared  for  as  ground  open  for 
the  free  use  of  all  the  people  for  their  health 
and  pleasure,  and  as  forest  lands  necessary 
to  the  preservation  of  the  headwaters  of  the 
chief  rivers  of  the  State,  and  a  future  timber 
supply,  and  shall  remain  part  of  the  forest 
preserve.  .  .  .  On  the  expiration  of  the 
terms  of  office  of  the  Forest  Commissioners 
appointed  pursuant  of  this  chapter  (amend- 
ment of  1893),  the  Forest  Commission  shall 
cease  and  determine,  and  all  its  powers  and 
duties  shall  devolve  on  the  Commissioner  of 
Agriculture." 

The  chief  cause  of  forest  waste  is  undoubt- 
edly from  fire,  and  the  fires  in  too  many  cases 
are  caused  by  men's  carelessness.  The  Re- 
port of  1894  does  well  to  bring  together, 
covering  over  sixty  pages,  the  details  of  wide- 
spread destruction  not  only  of  forests  but  of 
towns,  villages  and  human  life  in  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1894.  It  is  a  terrible  record,  the 
reading  of  which  should  drive  every  state 
to  take  every  precaution  possible  against  the 
beginnings  of  such  awful  endings.  New 
York  was  the  first  state  to  deal  with  this 
element  of  forest  destruction.  The  law  of 
1885,  establishing  a  forest  commission,  con- 
tained the  essential  features  of  the  present 
one  for  the  prevention  of  forest  fires.  Maine 
followed,  adopting  essentially  the  same  law. 


New  Hampshire  followed,  and  more  recently 
New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  have  taken 
active  measures,  and  so  have  some  of  the 
Western  States.  For  ten  years  past,  the  for- 
est regions  of  New  York  have  been  continu- 
ously and  faithfully  posted  with  notices — 
over  10,000  in  a  season — containing  the  rules 
of  the  Commission  telling  every  resident 
what  to  do  or  not  do  in  the  matter  of  fire. 
Each  town  has  a  firewarden  who  has  author- 
ity to  call  out  help  to  extinguish  fires.  A 
farmer  may  not  burn  over  a  fallow  or  piece 
of  brush  land  without  notifying  the  warden. 
As  a  result,  the  people  have  been  educated 
in  regard  to  the  use  of  fire;  carefulness  has 
taken  the  place  of  carelessness,  and  the  indif- 
ference of  former  years  has  been  succeeded 
by  a  lively  interest.  In  spite  of  the  sultry 
season  of  1894  there  was  no  increase  in  the 
number  of  fires,  and  most  of  these  were  in 
woodlands  and  barrens  scattered  through  the 
farming  districts.  Those  in  the  Adirondack 
and  Catskill  districts  were  few  in  number 
and  did  little  damage. 


In  view  of  the  uncertain  character  of  our 
legislation,  the  future  of  our  State  forestry 
efforts  will  be  studied  with  interest  mingled 
with  apprehension;  but  let  us  hope  for  the 
best.  This  Report,  and  also  the  one  for  1893, 
are  freely  illustrated  with  full-page  engrav- 
ings of  Adirondack  life  and  scenery.* — I. 


OUR  FORESTS 


It  is  estinlated,  by  those  whose  special 
study  of  the  subject  seems  to  have  fitted  them 
to  judge,  that  the  number  of  acres  of  land  in 
the  United  States  now  covered  with  wood 
growth  is  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions. Of  this  area,  about  seventy  million 
acres  belong  to  the  United  States  govern- 
ment. The  rest  is  the  property  of  individu- 
als, except  a  small  amount  which  belongs  to 
states  of  the  Union. 

Of  the  entire  forest  'area,  it  was  ascertained 
that  more  than  ten  million  acres  were  burned 
over  in  the  census  year  1880.  It  is  not  prob- 
able that  the  annual  destruction  by  fire  has 
fallen  off  since  that  year. 

It  is  estimated  that  twenty-five  million 
acres  of  woodland  are  cut  off  each  year.  At 
this  rate  of  destruction,  the  woodlands  ot  the 
United  States  must  speedily  disappear  if  it 
were  not  the  fact  that  while  the  woods  in 
many  places  are  being  wantonly  burned  or 
cut  away,  they  are  also  growing,  not  only  in 
a  great  many  sites  where  they  have  just  un- 
dergone destruction,  but  in  many  places 
which  have  been  clear  of  timber. 

But   altho    woods    grow    spontaneously   in 


many  parts  of  the  country  and  so  freely  that 
there  is  little  fear  that  there  will  be  a  net 
loss  of  timber  east  of  the  one-hundredth 
meridian,  or  a  general  unfavorable  effect 
upon  soil  or  climate  in  that  region,  the  new 
growth,  in  the  forests  of  the  country,  does 
not  by  any  means  keep  pace  with  the 
destruction. 

It  is  estimated  that  while  twenty-four 
thousand  millions  of  cubic  feet  of  wood  are 
consumed  annually  in  the  United  States,  the 
wood  that  grows  each  year  on  the  present 
forest  area  of  the  country  is  not  more  than 
twelve  thousand  millions  of  cubic  feet. 

It  is  reasonably  certain  that,  whether  tree 
growths  as  a  whole  increase  or  diminish,  the 
great  forests  of  the  country  must  disappear 
unless  something  is  done  to  check  their 
destruction. 

What  the  effect  upon  the  far  Western  or 
more  arid  section  of  the  country  would  be 
if  the  mountain  forests  were  entirely  swept 
away — as  they  must  be  under  present  condi- 
tions, since  in  that  region  the  woods  do  not 
ordinarily  spring  up  again  when  cut  down — 
can   be   anticipated   by    observing   the   effect 


*  In  1885  the  State  of  New  York  appointed  a  Forest  Commission  with  a  view  to  the  preservation  of  the 
forests.  Smce  then  the  law  has  been  modified  several  times.  It  now  provides  for  a  "  Forest,  Fish  and  Game 
Commission,"  whose  business  it  is  to  enforce  the  fish  and  game  laws  and  to  take  care  of  the  Adirondack 
Park  and  the  State  Forest  Preserve.  In  1897  the  Legislature  authorized  the  expending  of  $1,000,000  for  lands 
in  the  Adirondacks  as  an  addition  to  the  Park  and  Forest  Preserve;  in  1898,  $500,000;  and,  in  iSog,  $300,000 
were  added  for  the  same  purpose.  The  State  has  founded  a  State  College  of  Forestry  at  Cornell  University, 
giving  it  charge  of  30,000  acres  of  land  as  a  demonstration  forest  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains. 


ARBOR  DAY 


531 


upon  the  water  flow  in  New  York  State  of 
the  partial  destruction  of  the  Adirondack 
forests. 

It  is  officially  reported  that  the  cutting 
away  of  woods  in  the  Adirondack  region  has 
diminished  the  reliable  water  supply  in  the 
Mohawk  and  Hudson  Rivers  by  from  thirty 
to  lifty  per  cent.  The  loss  begins  to  affect 
unfavorably  navigation  in  the  New  York  ca- 
nals and  rivers. 

In  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  Coast 
regions,  the  drying  up  of  the  sources  of 
water  supply  by  the  cutting  away  of  the 
mountain  forests  seriously  endangers  the 
supply  of  water  for  the  irrigation  of  the 
plains  below,  and  thus  menaces  the  habitabil- 
ity  of  those  regions. 

Further  east  the  question  is  equally  a  prac- 
tical one  tho  not  as  threatening.  The  prac- 
tise is  to  destroy  without  replacing.  We 
commonly  trust  to  the  unaided  operations 
of  nature  to  put  back  the  wood  growths  we 
take;  but  nature  does  not  always  put  them 
back. 

The  experience  of  the  Old  World  has 
proved  that  a  steady  and  profitable  supply  of 


wood  may  be  drawn  from  forests,  and  a 
revenue  from  them  derived  by  those  who 
own  them,  and  the  forests  maintained  in 
good  growth  at  the  same  time,  to  supply  still 
further  revenue  and  to  exercise  their  equal- 
izing and  preserving  influence  on  climate, 
rainfall,  and  water  supply. 

This  lesson  of  profit  and  loss  should  not 
be  a  hard  one  for  the  practical  American 
people  to  learn,  and  there  are  many  indica- 
tions, both  in  the  direction  of  private  enter- 
prise and  in  projects  for  learislation,  that  they 
are  learning  it. 

President  Benjamin  Harrison,  during  his 
administration  (in  1890),  sent  to  Congress  a 
special  message  calling  attention  to  the  neces- 
sity of  preserving  the  forests  on  the  public 
domain,  and  urging  early  legislation  to  pre- 
vent the  destruction  of  forest  areas. 

The  legislation  which  is  most  actively 
urged  provides  for  the  withdrawal  of  public 
forest  lands  from  sale  or  preemption,  and 
the  protection  of  the  forests  from  destruc- 
tion by  fires  and  by  the  depredations  of  those 
who  take  the  public  timber  without  paying 
for  it.— Y.  C. 


PROPERTIES  OF  TREES 


By  James  Knapp  Reeve 


Many  of  our  common  forest  trees  have 
other  properties  and  uses  besides  that  of 
supplying  timber;  some  of  them  have  dis- 
tinct medicinal  properties,  while  others  sup- 
ply various  by-products  of  more  or  less 
value.  When  forestry  has  become  a  more 
clearly  defined  industry  with  us,  we  shall 
appreciate  these  uses  more  than  we  do  now. 
At  present  our  trees  are  utilized  in  this  way, 
if  at  all,  only  in  the  most  desultory  manner. 
I  shall  not  try  to  give  here  any  complete 
compendium  of  such  uses,  but  merely  men- 
tion some  of  the  most  ordinary  of  them. 

From  the  inner  bark  of  the  blue  ash,  a 
tree  found  principally  upon  the  bottoms  of 
the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  Rivers,  a  blue 
color  is  extracted  which  is  used  by  the  peo- 
ple of  those  regions  as  a  dyestuff. 

A  fluid  extract  of  the  inner  bark  of  the 
butternut  is  used  in  cases  of  dysentery,  ha- 
bitual constipation,  and  other  bowel  com- 
plaints, and  as  a  gentle  cathartic,  operating 
without  producing  debilitating  effects.  Vari- 
ous other  preparations  of  the  butternut  are 
used  in  domestic  practise  for  the  ailments 
of  children,   especially   in   throat   complaints. 

A  fluid  extract  from  the  bark  of  the  wahoo 
or  winged  elm,  is  used  as  a  tonic,  alterative 
and  laxative,  and  is  especially  beneficial  in 
hepatic  derangements,  whether  accompany- 
ing or  preceding  intermittents,  or  occurring 
independentlv  of  malaria.  In  constipation, 
due  to  hepatic  torpor,  it  is  highly  recom- 
mended. 

The  wood  and  heart  of  the  yellow  locust 
furnishes  a  coloring  matter  which  is  used  in 
dyeing. 


The  pine  produces  pine-tar,  resin,  and 
pitch;  and  throughout  all  the  long-leaved 
pine  region  of  the  South,  a  considerable  in- 
dustry in  the  manufacture  of  these  substances 
is  carried  on. 

The  wood  of  the  osage  orange  yields  a 
yellow  dyestuff;  and  the  inner  bark  of  the 
tree  is  so  very  fine  and  white  that  it  has  been 
suggested  that  the  fiber  might  be  employed 
in  making  cloth. 

The  bark  of  the  horse  chestnut  yields  a 
yellow  dye  and  in  Ireland  the  nuts  are  used 
to  whiten  linen.  They  are  first  rasped  into 
the  water  and  allowed  to  macerate  for  a  time, 
and  when  applied  to  the  linen,  the  sapona- 
ceous matter  exudes  from  the  raspings  and 
acts  as  a  bleach. 

From  the  bark  of  the  catalpa  is  produced 
a  tonic  which  is  powerfully  antiseptic.  It 
is  claimed  to  be  a  sure  antidote  for  the  bite 
of  snakes.  The  flowers  of  this  tree  are  also 
valuable  as  a  remedy  for  asthma. 

The  wood  of  the  white  willow  is  used  ex- 
tensively in  the  production  of  gunpowder, 
and  for  tanning  purposes  also. 

From  the  small  branches  of  the  white 
spruce  is  extracted  a  concentrated  essence 
from  which  spruce  beer  is  manufactured. 

A  fluid  extract  prepared  from  the  leaves 
of  the  arbor-vitse  is  used  in  the  treatment 
of  malarial  diseases;  the  saturated  tincture 
is  used  in  the  treatment  of  pulmonary  hem- 
orrhage, and  is  also  applied  to  cancerous 
ulcerations,  warts,  etc.  The  Indians  employ 
a  salve  made  from  the  leaves  for  the  relief 
of  rheumatism.  By  distillation  the  leaves 
yield  a  volatile  oil  which  has  been  used  as 


532 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


a  vermicide,  and  the  distilled  water  has  been 
used  in  the  treatment  of  dropsy. 

The  eucalyptus  has  become  so  well  known 
as  an  antiseptic  and  disinfectant  that  its  com- 
mon name  in  some  places  is  the  fever-tree. 
It  has  been  extensively  planted  about  the 
city  of  Valencia,  Spain,  for  the  purpose  of 
counteracting  the  malarial  fever,  from  which 
the  people  suffered  severely.  The  leaves  and 
small  branches  are  steeped  m  hot  water  for 
preparing  baths  for  the  treatment  of  neu- 
ralgia and  rheumatism.  The  oil  is  used  as  a 
scent  for  cigars,  and  finds  medicinal  employ- 
ment in  various  ways. 

A  preparation  of  the  bark  of  the  barberry 
is  used  as  a  purgative  and  tonic.  The  ber- 
ries from  this  tree,  gathered  while  green  and 


pickled  in  vinegar,  are  used  as  a  substitute 
for  capers.  A  yellow  dye  is  procured  from 
the  inner  bark  of  both  the  stem  and  roots, 
and  its  astringent  principle  is  so  abundant 
that  it  is  sometimes  used  in  tanning  leather, 
which  it  dyes  a  fine  yellow. 

An  extract  from  the  roots  of  the  holly- 
leaved  barberry  is  used  in  the  treatment  of 
bilious   fever. 

A  juice  expressed  from  the  berries  of  the 
buckthorn  is  used  as  a  dye  or  stain,  and  also 
as  a  vegetable  paint.  The  berries  are  also 
strongly  purgative,  but  not  much  used  in 
medicine  on  account  of  their  severity. 

The  American  silver  fir  (balm  of  Gilead) 
is  the  source  of  the  remedy  known  as 
Canada  balsam. — I. 


"UNTER  DEN  LINDEN 


By  William  Whitman  Bailey 


It  is  said  of  the  European  linden,  or  lime, 
so  common  as  a  shade-tree  in  our  streets, 
that  it  is  always  dropping  something.  In 
early  spring  it  is  the  pretty  bud-scales  that 
are  shed  and  litter  the  pavement;  in  late 
June  the  abundant  flowers  fall  and  look  like 
snuff  on  the  pathway;  in  July  the  air  is  full 
of  the  miniature  fruit  dislodged  by  every 
breeze ;  later  still  the  ripened  berries  fall 
with  their  scale ;  and  last  of  all  the  leaves,  by 
that  time  clothed  with  fungi,  are  cast  off  and 
make  a  slippery,  mucilaginous  mess.  This 
tree,  then,  cannot  be  called  a  clean  one.  Our 
native  linden  is  much  handsomer,  indeed  a 
noble  tree,  tall,  stately  and  with  arnple 
foliage;  yet  it  is  rarely  seen  in  cultivation. 

After  the  above  arraignment  of  the  linden, 
it  is  only  fair  to  state  its  virtues.  A  trceso 
loved  of  the  poets  must  have  its  excellencies. 
Tennyson  is  never  tired  of  singing  the 
praises  of  the  "  ruby-budded  lime."  He 
seems  constantly  to  see  its  golden  flowers 
noisy  "  with  bees  and  breeze  from  end  to 
end." 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  also  that  the  fa- 
mous Swedish  naturalist,  Linnaeus,  derived 
his  name  from  this  tree,  a  noble  specimen  of 
which   stood   on  the  ancestral  estate. 

But  decidedly  the  most  interesting  thing 
about  the  tree  is  the  manner  in  which  it  dis- 


tributes its  fruit.  The  flowers  are  borne  on 
a  somewhat  long  peduncle,  soldered  for  half 
its  length  to  the  linear-oblong  scale  or  brast. 
After  the  flowers  drop  and  the  berries  begin 
to  ripen,  the  scale  is  subject  to  two  different 
tortious.  In  the  first  place  it  twists  upon 
itself  in  a  semi-spiral  or  corkscrew-like 
form.  Then  the  whole  scale  bends  back- 
ward into  a  bow.  The  result  is  a  natural 
propeller  wheel.  It  will  be  observed  on  any 
breezy  day,  when  the  fruit  is  heavy  enough, 
that  the  freighted  scale,  detached  from  the 
tree  by  the  wind,  flutters  earthward  with  a 
peculiar  gyrating  or  volatory  movement.  The 
whole  contrivance  revolves  so  rapidly  on  its 
axis  that,  by  an  optical  illusion,  it  resem- 
bles, while  flying,  a  funnel.  Or  again,  it  may 
be  compared  in  this  fancied  shape  to  an 
open  lily-bell.  If  the  observer  is  more  re- 
mote from  these  flying  scales,  they  be'ar  a 
marvelous  resemblance  to  butterflies. 

The  observer  will  at  once  note  that  the 
apparent  object  of  the  ingenious  mechanism 
is  to  deflect  the  fruit  from  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  parent  tree.  The  flight  is  al- 
ways centrifugal.  It  is  a  fascinating  phe- 
nomenon, which  one  never  tires  of  watching. 
The  same  gyratory  movement  is  seen  in  the 
seeds  of  pine  and  sycamore. — I. 


THE  GREATEST  FOREST  IN  THE  WORLD 


"  Where  is  the  greatest  forest  in  the 
world?  '' 

The  question  was  asked  in  the  Forestry 
section  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  at  an  annual  meet- 
ing in  Brooklyn.  The  importance  of  forests 
for  equalizing  the  climate  and  the  rainfall 
of  the  globe  was  under  discussion,  and  the 
purpose  of  the  question  was  to  show  where 
the  great  forest  tracts  of  the  world  are 
situated. 


One  member,  replying  offhand,  was  in- 
clined to  maintain  that  the  greatest  contin- 
uous tract  of  forest  lies  north  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  River,  in  the  Provinces  of  Quebec 
and  Ontario,  extending  northward  to  Hud- 
son Bay  and  Labrador ;  a  region  measuring 
about  seventeen  hundred  miles  in  length 
from  East  to  West,  and  a  thousand  miles  in 
width.  North  and  South. 

A  professor  from  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion rejoined  that  a  much  larger  continuous 


ARBOR  DAY 


533 


area  of  timber  lands  was  to  be  found,  reckon- 
ing from  those  in  the  State  of  Washington 
northward  through  British  Columbia  and 
Alaska.  But  he  limited  his  statement  to 
North  America,  for  he  added  that,  in  his 
opinion,  the  largest  forest  in  the  world  occu- 
pied the  valley  of  the  Amazon,  embracing 
much  of  northern  Brazil,  eastern  Peru,  Boli- 
via, Ecuador,  Colombia  and  Guiana ;  a 
region  at  least  twenty-one  hundred  miles  in 
length  by  thirteen  hundred  in  breadth. 

Exception  was  immediately  taken  to  this 
statement  by  several  members  who  have 
computed  the  forest  area  of  Central  Africa 
in  the  valley  of  the  Congo,  including  the 
headwaters  of  the  Nile  to  the  north-east,  and 
those  of  the  Zambesi  on  the  south.  Accord- 
ing to  their  estimates,  Central  Africa  con- 
tains a  forest  region  not  less  than  three  thou- 
sand miles  in  length  from  north  to  south, 
and  of  vast,  altho  not  fully  known  width, 
from  east  to  west.  Discussion,  in  which  the 
evidence  afforded  by  travels  and  surveys 
was  freely  cited,  seemed  favorable  to  the 
defender  of  the  Amazonian  forests. 

Later  in  the  day  the  entire  question  was 
placed  in  another  light,  by  a  member  who 
was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  able  to  speak  from 
some  knowledge  of  still  another  great  forest 
region  of  the  globe.  This  gentleman  gave 
a  vivid  picture  of  the  vast,  solemn  taigas  and 
v,rnians,  the  pine,  larch  and  cedar  forests  of 
Siberia. 

It  appears  that  Siberia,  from  the  plain  of 
the  Obi  River  on  the  west  to  the  valley  of 
the  Indighirka  on  the  east,  embracing  the 
great  plains,  or  river  valleys,  of  the  Yenisei, 
Oleneic,  Lena  and  Yana  rivers,  is  one  great 
timber  belt,  averaging  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  in  breadth  from  north  to  south, — being 
fully  seventeen  hundred  miles  wide  in  the 
Yenesei  district, — and  having  a  length  from 


east  to  west  of  not  less  than  forty-six  hun- 
dred versts,  about  three  thousand  miles. 

Unlike  equatorial  forests,  the  trees  of  the 
Siberian  taigas  are  mainly  conifers,  compris- 
ing pines  of  several  varieties,  firs  and  larches. 
In  the  Yenisei,  Lena,  and  Olenek  regions, 
there  are  thousands  of  square  miles  where 
no  human  being  has  ever  been.  The  long- 
stemmed  conifers  rise  to  a  height  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  or  more,  and  stand  so 
closely  together  that  walking  among  them  is 
difficult. 

The  dense,  lofty  tops  exclude  the  pale 
Arctic  sunshine,  and  the  straight,  pale 
trunks,  all  looking  exactly  alike,  so  bewilder 
the  eye  in  the  obscurity,  that  all  sense  of  di- 
rection is  soon  lost.  Even  the  most  ex- 
perienced trappers  of  sable  dare  not  ven- 
ture into  the  dense  taigas  without  taking 
the  precaution  of  "  blazing  "  the  trees  con- 
stantly with  hatchets  as  they  walk  forward. 
If  lost  there,  the  hunter  rarely  finds  his  way 
out,  but  perishes  miserably  from  starvation 
or  cold.  The  natives  avoid  the  taigas,  and 
have  a  name  for  them  which  signifies  "  places 
where  the  mind  is  lost." 

The  discussion  was  closed  very  appropri- 
ately by  Professor  Fernow,  of  Washington, 
with  an  illustrated  lecture  which  showed 
how,  in  the  earlier  ages,  forests  had  cov- 
ered all  the  continental  areas,  and  had  ren- 
dered the  climate  equable  to  a  degree  now 
unknown. 

At  first  human  beings  battled  with  the 
forest  in  a  fitful  manner,  making  small  clear- 
ings for  themselves ;  but  gradually,  by  the  aid 
of  fire  and  of  their  own  increasing  nvimbers, 
they  have  so  far  prevailed  in  the  struggle  for 
supremacy  that  the  forests  are  hopelessly 
conquered.  But  grave  evils  follow  their  ex- 
termination ;  and  now  the  question  is,  how  to 
foster,  protect  and  preserve  them. — Y.  C. 


AN  ACT  TO  ENCOURAGE  ARBORICULTURE 


Approved  April   30th,    if 


The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  rep- 
resented in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do 
enact  as  follows: 

Section  i.  The  Friday  following  the  first 
day  of  May  in  each  year  shall  hereafter  be 
known  throughout  this  State  as  Arbor  Day. 

§  2.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  authorities 
of  every  public  school  in  this  State,  to  assem- 
ble the  scholars  in  their  charge  on  that  day 
in  the  school  building,  or  elsewhere,  as  they 
may  deem  proper,  and  to  provide  for  and 
conduct,  under  the  general  supervision  of  the 
City  Superintendent  or  the  School  Commis- 
sioner, or  other  chief  officers  having  the 
general  oversight  of  the  public  schools  in 
each  city  or  district,  such  exercises  as  shall 
tend   to  encourage  the  planting,  protection, 


and  preservation  of  trees  and  shrubs,  and  an 
acquaintance  with  the  best  methods  to  be 
adopted  to  accomplish  such  results. 

§  3.  The  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  shall  have  power  to  prescribe 
from  time  to  time,  in  writing,  a  course  of 
exercises  and  instruction  in  the  subjects  here- 
inbefore mentioned,  which  shall  be  adopted 
and  observed  by  the  public  school  authorities 
on  Arbor  Day,  and  upon  receipt  of  copies  of 
such  course,  sufficient  in  number  to  supply 
all  the  schools  under  their  supervision,  the 
School  Commissioner  or  City  Superintendent 
aforesaid,  shall  promptly  provide  each  of 
the  schools  under  his  or  their  charge  with  a 
copy,  and  cause  it  to  be  adopted  and  observed. 

P.  T. 


534 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


SUGGESTIVE  THOUGHTS 


AKBOB  DAY.— The  school  children  of 
New  York  State  planted  more  than  200,000 
trees  within  ten  years  from  the  time  Arbor 
Day  was  recognized.  Few  similar  efforts  in 
years  have  been  more  thoroughly  commenda- 
ble than  the  effort  to  get  our  people  practi- 
cally to  show  their  appreciation  of  the  beauty 
and  usefulness  of  trees. 

ARBOR  DAY'S  OBSERVANCE,  For.— 
The  primary  purpose  of  the  Legislature  in 

establishing  "  Arbor  Day,"  was  to  develop 
and  stimulate  in  the  children  of  the  Common- 
wealth a  love  and  reverence  for  Nature  as 
revealed  in  trees  and  shrubs  and  flowers.  In 
the  language  of  the  statute,  "  to  encourage 
the  planting,  protection  and  preservation  of 
trees  and  shrubs "  was  believed  to  be  the 
most  effectual  way  in  which  to  lead  our  chil- 
dren to  love  Nature  and  reverence  Nature's 
God,  and  to  see  the  uses  to  which  these  natu- 
ral objects  may  be  put  in  making  our  school 
grounds  more  healthful  and  attractive. 

The  object  sought  may  well  command  the 
most  thoughtful  consideration  and  the  pains- 
taking efforts  of  school  officers,  teachers, 
and  pupils  in  every  school  district,  and  in 
every  educational  institution,  and  of  all  others 
who  are  interested  in  beautifying  the  schools 
and  the  homes  of  the  State. 

It  will  be  well  not  only  to  plant  trees  and 
shrubs  and  vines  and  flowers  where  they 
may  contribute  to  pleasure  and  comfort,  but 
also  to  provide  for  their  perpetual  care,  and 
to  supplement  such  work  by  exercises  which 
will  lead  all  to  a  contemplation  of  the  sub- 
ject in  its  varied  relations  and  resultant  in- 
fluences. It  is  fitting  that  trees  should  be 
dedicated  to  eminent  scholars,  educators, 
statesmen,  soldiers,  historians  or  poets,  or  to 
favorite  teachers  or  pupils  in  the  differeiit 
localities.  On  this  occasion,  however,  it 
would  be  especially  appropriate  to  dedicate 
one  tree  in  each  district  to  Washington. 

The  opportunity  should  not  be  lost,  which 
is  afforded  by  the  occasion,  for  illustrating 
and  enforcing  the  thought  that  the  universe, 
its  creation,  its  arrangement,  and  all  of  its 
developing  processes,  are  not  due  to  human 
planning  or  oversight,  but  to  the  infinite 
wisdom  and  power  of  God. 

Our  school  exercises,  and  particularly  those 
of  an  unusual  character,  should  be  inter- 
spersed with  selections,  songs,  and  acts  which 
will  inspire  patriotism. — A.  S.  Draper,  Su' 
perintendent  of  Public  Schools,  Albany, 
N.  Y. 

FLOWERS,  Concerning  National. — 
Lovers  of  flowers  have  often  wondered 
why  we  as  a  nation  have  no  floral  emblem, 
and  at  this  season,  in  recent  years,  efforts 
have  been  made  to  supply  our  deficiency  in 
this  respect.  Various  flowers,  such  as  the 
golden-rod  and  the  Mayflower,  have  been 
proposed  for  the  place  of  honor,  but  some- 


how none  of  them  has  been  so  widely  ac- 
cepted as  to  stand  for  America  in  the  fa- 
miliar way  in  which  the  rose  and  the  lily 
stand  for  two  nations  across  the  sea. 

Now  there  are  several  reasons  why  Amer- 
ica has  no  floral  emblem,  but  I  think  the 
principal  reason  is  this.  There  is  no  flower 
that  has  touched  at  any  particular  point  our 
national  history.  The  Mayflower  comes  the 
nearest  to  having  this  requirement,  being 
associated  in  name  with  the  ship  that 
brought  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  our  shores; 
but  unfortunately  it  is  so  humble  a  little 
flower  that  the  composite  mind  of  our  broad 
and  mighty  Nation  tacitly  refuses  to  accept 
it  as  a  national  emblem.  If  we  are  to  choose 
a  national  flower  in  a  purely  arbitrary  way, 
the  cool,  matter-of-fact,  composite  mind  de- 
mands a  certain  congruity  between  our  em- 
blematic flora  and  fauna,  and  the  screaming 
eagle  and  the  modest  little  Mayflower  would 
certainly  not  be  very  well  matched. — George 
H.  Westley. 

FORESTS,  The  Destruction  of.— IVas 
the  Lord  displeased  against  the  rivers? — 
Hab.  Hi:  8.  The  earth  was  made  for  our 
dwelling-place,  and  we  are  to  have  domin- 
ion over  it.  It  is  to  be  helpful  to  us,  not 
hurtful.  If  hurtful,  it  is  because  we  do  not 
understand  the  laws  that  govern  it  and  us ; 
or.  if  we  understand  these  laws,  we  do  not 
observe  them. 

We  secure  dominion  over  the  forces  of  na- 
ture only  through  recognition  of  the  laws 
that  govern  them.  The  floods  that  have 
made  so  great  havoc  in  Europe  and  America 
this  season  are  the  natural  results  of  violated 
law. 

I.  The  forests  of  the  hills  and  mountains 
are  God's  natural  check  on  the  overflow  of 
streams.  [See  George  P.  Marsh  on  "  The 
Earth  as  Modified  by  Human  Action."] 

II.  As  a  nation,  we  are  guilty  of  violation 
of  this  law  for  protection  of  the  valleys. 
The  plunder  of  the  leafy  wealth  of  the  hills 
has  been  most  wanton.  The  penalty  has  been 
visited  upon  the  valleys. 

III.  The  protection  must  be  secured 
through  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  upon 
the  subject,  and  through  the  state  and  na- 
tional law.  Otherwise  the  floods  will  aug- 
ment each  year  until  they  become  immeasur- 
able calamities. — H.  R. 

OAK  TREE,  The  Old,  and  Its  New  Me- 
morial Stone. — In  the  old  town  of  Charle- 
mont,  Franklin  County,  stands  an  ancient  oak 
which  antedates  all  memory  of  "  first  set- 
tlers "  and  of  those  before  them.  It  has  a 
huge,  shapely  trunk,  and  once  reached  its 
branches  to  points  more  than  fivescore  feet 
apart. 

For  a  series  of  years  a  society  called  the 
"  Oak  Tree  Society "  has,  with  the  inhabit- 
ants, held  a  kind  of  town  and  church  history 


ARBOR  DAY 


535 


mee.ing  under  it.  Last  year  the  "  Pocum- 
tuck  Valley  Memorial  Association  "  united 
their  "  Field  Day  Meeting  "  with  the  yearly 
gathering  there.  It  was  then  proposed  to 
affix  a  bronze  tablet  to  the  tree,  telling  its 
story  and  worth  to  us.  This  was  afterwards 
changed  to  a  boulder,  or  huge  stone,  to  lie  at 
its  base. 

The  stone  was  unveiled  and  dedicated. 
Scripture  (Psalm  xliv:  i-8)  and  prayer  were 
followed  by  the  presentation  and  unveiling 
of  the  work  by  the  President.  An  address  of 
acceptance  on  behalf  of  the  Oak  Tree  So- 
ciety, of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  and 
for  all  people,  was  made.  The  legend 
reads : 

The  Historic  Oak: 

The  Tree  of  Counsel  and  of  Worship 

To  Our  Fathers  ; 

Revered  and  Cherished  by  us 

Their  Children. 

1765— 1893. 

Tradition  tells  of  Town  Meetings  and 
Sabbath  worship  held  in  early  days  of  the 
town  beneath  its  capacious  shade. 

The  grand  old  78th  Psalm,  "  Let  chil- 
dren hear  the  mighty  deeds,"  was  sung ;  a 
poem  "  The  Old  Farm  Home ;  "  addresses, 
recitations,  and  "  America,"  sung  by  the 
assembly,  filled  the  day. 

So  another  "  bond  to  the  past "  holds 
these  inhabitants  by  new  historic,  ancestral, 
and  pious  (literally)  sympathies  to  the  ever- 
green homeland  among  the  hills. — Rev.  Ly- 
man Whiting,  D.D.     (E.) 

SCRIPTURE  SELECTIOlSrS.— "  And  God 
said  let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  fruit  tree 
yielding  fruit  after  its  kind ;  and  the  earth 
brought   forth  the   tree   yielding  fruit;    and 


God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  out  of  the 
ground  made  the  Lord  God  to  grow  every 
tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for 
food."     Gen.  i :  11. 

And  Abraham  said  to  the  three  angels : 
"  Rest  yourselves  under  the  tree ;  "  and  he 
stood  by  them  under  the  tree,  and  they  did 
eat.     Gen.  xviii :  4. 

The  tree  of  the  field  is  man's  life.  "  Then 
shall  all  the  trees  of  the  wood  rejoice  before 
the  Lord." — Psa.  xcvi :  12.  "  The  trees  of  the 
Lord  are  full  of  sap,  the  cedars  of  Lebanon 
which  he  hath  planted ;  where  the  birds  make 
their  nests ;  as  for  the  stork,  the  fir  trees  are 
her  house." — Psa.  civ:  17. 

"  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  delight  is  in  the 
law  of  the  Lord ;  he  shall  be  like  a  tree 
planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth 
forth  its  fruit  in  due  season ;  his  leaf  shall 
not  wither;  and  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall 
prosper."     Psa.  i :  3. 

Of  Wisdom,  the  wise  man  saith :  "  She  is  a 
tree  of  life  to  them  that  lay  hold  upon  her, 
and  happy  is  every  one  that  retaineth  her." 
Prov.  iii :  18.  And  again.  "  The  fruit  of  the 
righteous  is  a  tree  of  life."  Prov.  xi :  30. 
While  "  Hope  deferred  maketh  the  heart 
sick,  when  the  desire  cometh  it  is  a  tree  of 
life."  Prov.  xiii :  12.  And  "  A  wholesome, 
tongue  is  a  tree  of  life."     Prov.  xv :  4. 

And  the  angel  carried  me  away  in  the 
spirit,  and  showed  me  that  great  city  the  New- 
Jerusalem :  "  In  the  midst  of  the  street  of  it>, 
and  on  either  side  of  the  river  was  the  tree 
of  life  which  bare  twelve  manner  of  fruits,, 
and  yielded  its  fruit  every  month ;  and  the- 
leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the  healing  of  the: 
nations."  Rev.  xxii :  2.  And  He  said  :  "  Toi 
him  that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to  eat  of  the; 
tree  of  life  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  para- 
dise of  God."    Rev.  ii :  7. — P.  T. 


POETRY 


Flowers,  The  Mystery  of. 

There  was  never  mystery 

But  'tis  figured  in  the  flowers ; 

Was  never  secret  history 

But  birds  tell  it  in  the  bowers. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

Fine  Needles 

If  Mother  Nature  patches 
The  leaves  of  trees  and  vines, 

I'm  sure  she  does  her  darning 
With  the  needles  of  the  pines. 

They  are  so  long  and  slender; 

And  sometimes,  in  full  view, 
They  have  their  thread  of  cobwebs. 

And  thimbles  made  of  dew. 

William  H.  Hayne. 

Plants,  He  Who 

He  who  plants  a  tree,  he  plants  love; 
Tents  of  coolness  spreading  out  above 
Wayfarers,  he  may  not  live  to  see. 


Gifts  that  grow  are  best; 

Hands  that  bless  are  blest; 

Plant-life  does  the  rest ! 
Heaven  and  earth  help  him  who  plants  a  tree, 
And  his  work  his  own  reward  shall  be. 

•Lucy  Larcom. 
Plant  Trees 

We  plant  the  pine  and  fir  tree. 
And  all  that  wear  green  branches. 
To  give  us  hope  of  spring  time, 

Tho  snows  are  over  all ; 
The  maple  is  for  bird  songs. 
The  elm  for  stately  branches. 
Whose  long,  protecting  shadows 

Through  summer  noontides  fall. 

Lilian   E.    Knapp. 
Trees 

Yon    sturdy    oak    whose    branches   wide 
Boldly  the   storms  and   winds  defy, 

Not  long  ago  an  acorn  small 

Lay  dormant  'neath  a  summer  sky. 

Selected, 


536 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Trees,  The. 

Could    we    but    read   your    steadfast    lives 
aright, 
And  hear  your  message,  as  true  hearts  may 

hear, 
In  you  our  life  might  find  its  meaning  clear, 
"  Rooted  in  clay,  we  lift  our  heads  toward 
light." 

J.  O.  Rankin.    (Y.  C.) 

Arbor  Day  Song 

By  Mary  A.  Heermans 

Of  nature  broad  and  free, 
Of  grass  and  flower  and  tree, 

Sing  we  to-day. 
God  hath  pronounced  it  good. 
So  we,  His  creatures  would 
Offer  to  field  and  wood 

Our  heartfelt  lay. 

To  all  that  meets  the  eye, 
In  earth,  or  air,  or  sky. 

Tribute  we  bring. 
Barren  this  world  would  be, 
Bereft  of  shrub  and  tree; 
Now  gracious  Lord  to  Thee 

Praises   we  sing. 

May  we  Thy  hand  behold, 
As  bud  and  leaf  unfold. 

See  but  Thy  thought; 
Nor  heedlessly  destroy, 
Nor  pass  unnoticed  by ; 
But  be  our  constant  joy 

All  Thou  hast  wrought. 

As  each  small  bud  and  flower 
Speaks  of  the  Maker's  power. 

Tells  of  His  love; 
So  we.  Thy  children  dear, 
Would  live  from  year  to  year, 
Show  forth  Thy  goodness  here. 

And  then  above. 

Forest  Hymn 
By  William   Cullen  Bryant 

The  groves  were  God's  first  temples,  ere 

man  learned 
To  hew  the  shaft,  and  lay  the  architrave. 
And    spread    the   roof  above   them, — ere   he 

framed 
The  lofty  vault,  to  gather  and  roll  back 
The  sound  of  anthems ;  in  the  darkling  wood, 
Amidst  the  cool  and  silence,  he  knelt  down. 
And  offered  to  the  Mightiest  solemn  thanks 
And  supplication.     For  his  simple  heart 
Might  not  resist  the  sacred  influences 
Which,  from  the  stilly  twilight  of  the  place. 
And  from  the  gray  old  trunks  that  high  in 

heaven 
Mingled   their   mossy  boughs,  and   from  the 

sound 
Of  the  invisible  breath  that  swayed  at  once 
All    their    green   tops,    stole    over   him,    and 

bowed 
His    spirit    with    the   thought    of   boundless 

power 
And  inaccessible  majesty.    Ah,  why 


Should  we,  in  the  world's  riper  years,  neglect 
God's  ancient  sanctuaries,  and  adore 
Only  among  the  crowd,  and  under  roofs 
That  our  frail  hands  have  raised?     Let  me, 

at  least', 
Here  in  the  shadow  of  this  aged  wood, 
Offer  one  hymn, — thrice  happy  if  it  find 
Acceptance  in  His  ear. 

Father,  Thy  hand  ■ 
Hath  reared  these  venerable  columns.     Thou 
Didst  weave  this  verdant  roof.     Thou  didst 

look  down 
Upon  the  naked  earth,  and  forthwith  rose 
All  these  fair  ranks  of  trees.     They  in  Thy 

sun 
Budded,  and  shook  their  green  leaves  in  Thy 

breeze, 
And    shot    towards    heaven.      The    century- 
living  crow, 
Whose  birth  was  in  their  tops,  grew  old  and 

died 
Among  their  branches,  till  at  last  they  stood. 
As  now  they  stand,  massy  and  tall  and  dark, 
Fit  shrine  for  humble  worshiper  to  hold 
Communion    with    his    Maker.      These    dim 

vaults. 
These    winding   aisles,    of   human   pomp    or 

pride, 
Report  not.  No  fantastic  carvings  show 
The  boast  of  our  vain  race  to  change   the 

form 
Of  Thy  fair  works.     But  Thou  art  here. — 

Thou  fill'st 
The  solitude.     Thou  art  in  the  soft  winds 
That  run  along  the  summit  of  these  trees 
In  music;  Thou  art  in  the  cooler  breath 
That  from  the  inmost  darkness  of  the  place 
Comes,  scarcely  felt;  the  barky  trunks,  the 

ground, 
The  fresh,  moist  ground,  are  all  instinct  with 

Thee: 
Here  is  continual  worship ; — nature,  here. 
In  the  tranquillity  that  Thou  dost  love. 
Enjoys  Thy  presence.     Noiselessly  around. 
From  perch  to  perch,  the  solitary  bird 
Passes ;  and  yon  clear  spring  that,  midst  its 

herbs. 
Wells  softly  forth,  and,  wandering,  steeps  the 

roots 
Of  half  the  mighty  forest,  tells  no  tale 
Of  all  the  good  it  does.     Thou  hast  not  left 
Thyself  without  a  witness,  in  these  shades. 
Of  Thy  perfection.     Grandeur,  strength,  and 

grace 
Are   here   to   speak   of  Thee.     This   mighty 

oak, — 
By  whose  immovable  stem  I  stand  and  seem 
Almost  annihilated, — not  a  prince. 
In    all    that    proud    old    world    beyond    the 

deep, 
E'er  wore  his  crown  as  loftily  as  he 
Wears    the    green    coronal    of    leaves    with 

which 
Thy  hand  hath  graced  him.     Nestled  at  his 

root 
Is  beauty,  such  as  blooms  not  in  the  glare 
Of    the    broad    sun.      That    delicate    forest 

flower, 
With    scented   breath,    and   look   so   like    a 

smile. 


ARBOR  DAY 


537 


Seems,  as  it  issues  from  the  shapeless  mould, 
An  emanation  of  the  indwelling  life, 
A  visible  token  of  the  upholding  Love, 
That  are  the  soul  of  this  wide  universe. 

My  heart  is  awed  within  me  when  I  think 
Of  the  great  miracle  that  still  goes  on, 
In  silence,  round  me, — the  perpetual  work 
Of  Thy  creation,  finished,  yet  renewed 
Forever.    Written  on  Thy  works,  I  read 
The  lesson  of  Thy  own  eternity. 
Lo !  all  grow  old  and  die ;  but  see  again. 
How  on  the  faltering  footsteps  of  decay 
Youth     presses, — ever     gay     and     beautiful 

youth 
In  all  its  beautiful  forms.     These  lofty  trees 
Wave  not  less  proudly  that  their  ancestors 
Holder  beneath  them.     O,  there  is  not  lost 
One  of  Earth's  charms !     Upon  her  bosom 

yet, 
After  the  flight  of  untold  centuries. 
The  freshness  of  her  far  beginning  lies. 
And  yet  shall  lie.     Life  mocks  the  idle  hate 
Of  his  arch-enemy, — Death, — yea,  seats  him- 
self 
Upon  the  tyrant's  throne,  the  sepulcher. 
And  of  the  triumphs  of  his  ghastly  foe 
Makes  his  own  nourishment.     For  he  came 

forth 
From  Thine  own  bosom,  and  shall  have  no 
end. 

There  have  been  holy  men  who  hid  them- 
selves 
Deep  in  the  woody  wilderness,  and  gave 
Their  lives  to  thought  and  prayer,  till  they 

outlived 
The  generation  born  with  them,  nor  seemed 
Less  aged  than  the  hoary  trees  and  rocks 
Around    them ; — and    there    have    been   holy 

men 
Who  deemed  it  were  not  well  to  pass  life 

thus. 
But  let  me  often  to  these  solitudes 
Retire,  and,  in  Thy  presence,  reassure 
My  feeble  virtue.     Here  its  enemies, 
The     passions,     at     Thy     plainer     footsteps 

shrink, 
And  tremble,  and  are  still.     O  God !  when 

Thou 
Dost  scare  the  world  with  tempests,  set  on 

fire 
The    heavens    with    falling   thunderbolts,    or 

fill. 
With  all  the  waters  of  the  firmament, 
The  swift  dark  whirlwind  that  uproots  the 

woods 
And  drowns  the  villages ;  when,  at  Thy  call. 
Uprises  the  great  deep,  and  throws  himself 
Upon  the  continent,  and  overwhelms 
Its  cities, — who  forgets  not,  at  the  sight 
Of  these  tremendous  tokens  of  Thy  power, 
His  prides,  and  lays  his  strifes  and  follies  by? 
O,  from  these  sterner  aspects  of  Thy  face 
Spare    me   and    mine,    nor   let   us    need   the 

wrath 
Of  the  mad,  unchained  elements,  to  teach 
Who  rules  them.     Be  it  ours  to  meditate 
In  these  calm  shades.  Thy  milder  majesty, 
And  to  the  beautiful  order  of  Thy  works 
Learn  to  conform  the  order  of  our  lives. 


How  tlie  Leaves  Came  Down 
By  Susan  Coolidge 

"  I'll  tell  you  how  the  leaves  came  down," 
The  great  Tree  to  his  children  said, 

"  You're  getting  sleepy.  Yellow  and  Brown, 
Yes,  very  sleepy,  little  Red, 
It  is  quite  time  you  went  to  bed." 

"  Ah,"  begged  each  silly  pouting  leaf, 
"  Let  us  a  little  longer  stay : 

Dear  Father  Tree,  behold  our  grief; 

'Tis  such  a  very  pleasant  day. 

We  do  not  want  to  go  away." 

So,  just  for  one  more  merry  day. 
To  the  great  Tree  the  leaflets  clung; 
Frolickt  and  danced,  and  had  their  way; 
Upon  the  autumn  breezes  swung 
Whispering,  all  their  sports  among, 

"  Perhaps  the  great  Tree  will  forget 
And  let  us  stay  until  the  spring 
If  we  all  coax  and  beg  and  fret.'' 
But  the  great  Tree  did  no  such  thing; 
He  smiled  to  hear  their  whispering. 

"  Come,  children  all,  to  bed,"  he  cried, 
And  ere  the  leaves  could  urge  their  prayer, 
He  shook  his  head,  and  far  and  wide, 
Fluttering  and  nestling  everywhere, 
Down  sped  the  leaflets  through  the  air. 

I  saw  them,  on  the  ground  they  lay, 
Golden  and  red,  a  huddled  swarm, 
Waiting  till  one  from  far  away. 
White  bed-clothes  heaped  upon  her  arm, 
Should  come  to  wrap  them  safe  and  warm. 

The    great    bare    Tree    looked    down   and 
smiled, 

"  Good    night,    dear   little   leaves,"    he   said, 
And  from  below,  each  sleepy  child. 
Replied,  "  Good  night,"  and  murmured 

"  It  is  so  nice  to  go  to  bed." 

Planting  the  Oak 

By  F.  L.   Mace 

Glad  memories  of  the  joyous  youth 
Through  all  your  songs  repeat. 

Who  plucked  the  acorn  from  the  twig 
Blown  lightly  to  its  feet. 

And  gayly  to  his  fellows  cried: 

"  My  destiny  behold  ! 
This  seed  shall  keep  my  memory  green 

In  ages  yet  untold. 

"  I  trust  it  to  the  sheltering  sod, 
I  hail  the  promised  tree ! 
Sing,  unborn  oak,  through  long  decades, 
And  ever  sing  of  me !  " 

To  a  Pine  Sapling 
By  W.  B.  Allen 

What  song  is  in  thy  heart, 

Thou  puny  tree? 
Weak  pinelet  that  thou  art — 
Trembling  at  every  shock. 
Thy  feebleness  doth  mock 

Thy  high  degree. 


5^8 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


Nay,  wherefore  scoff  at  thy 

Dimensions  small? 
For,  folded  close,  I  spy 
A  wee,  wee  bud,  scarce  seen 
Within  its  cradle  green, 

And,  after  all, 

In  ages  yet  to  come, 

Thy  stately  form, 
No  longer  dwarfed  and  dumb. 
But  chanting  to  the  breeze 
Sublime,  sweet  melodies. 

Shall  breast  the  storm! 

Planting  the  Apple   Tree 

By  William  Cullen  Bryant 

Come,  let  us  plant  the  apple  tree. 
Cleave  the  tough  greensward  with  the  spade ; 
Wide  let  its  hollow  bed  be  made; 
There  gently  lay  the  roots,  and  there 
Sift  the  dark  mold  with  kindly  care. 
And  press  it  o'er  them  tenderly. 
As  'round  the  sleeping  infant's  feet 
We  softly  fold  the  cradle  sheet, 

So  plant  we  the  apple  tree. 

The  Elm  Tree 

By  S.  B.  B.  Merrifield 

The   farmer   stood  by  the  carriage  house 

door, 
'Surveying  with  pride  his  domain  o'er. 
"  I  wish  I  had  planted  one  more  tree. 
Just    here    on    this    side,    by    the    vines," 

thought  he. 

Then  he  brought  to  the   spot  that  sweet 

spring  day 
A  young,  strong,  elm,  from  over  the  way. 
And  placed  it  there  by  the  carriage  house 

door, 
Just  where  it  was  needed  so  much  before. 

Lo,   the   years    went   by,    till    ninety   were 

told— 
One  sows,  nor  reaps,  'tis  the  story  old — 
When  a  farmer,  young,  stood  by  the  door. 
Surveying  with  pride  his  domain  o'er. 

Said  he,  "  The  most  beautiful  thing  I  see 
Is  this  grand  o'er-arching,  old  elm  tree. 
Who  planted  it,  boy?    Would  that  I  knew  1 
He  did  it  for  me,  he  did  it  for  you. 
His  name  we  must  read 
In  the  loving  deed." 

The  Maple  Tree 

When  on  the  world's  first  harvest-day, 
The  forest  trees  before  the  Lord 

Laid  down  their  autumn  offerings 
Of  fruit  in  golden  sunshine  stored. 

The  maple  only,  of  them  all. 

Before  the  world's  great  harvest  King 

With  empty  hands  and  silent  stood — 
She  had  no  offering  to  bring 

For  in  the  early  summer  time. 
While  other  trees  laid  by  their  hoard. 

The  maple  winged  her  fruit  with  love, 
And  sent  it  daily  to  the  Lord. 


There  ran  through  all  the  leafy  wood 
A  murmur  and  a  scornful  smile 

But  silent  still  the  maple  stood, 

And  looked  unmoved  to  God  the  while. 

And  then,  while  fell  on  earth  a  hush 
So  great  it  seemed  like  death  to  be. 

From  his  white  throne  the  mighty  Lord 
Stooped  down  and  kissed  the  maple  tree. 

At  that  swift  kiss  there  sudden  thrilled 
In  every  nerve,  through  every  vein 

An  ecstasy  of  joy  so  great 

It  seemed  almost  akin  to  pain. 

And  there  before  the  forest  trees. 

Blushing  and  pale  by  turns  she  stood; 

In  every  leaf,  now  red  and  gold, 
Transfigured  by  the  kiss  of  God. 

And  still  when  comes  the  autumn  time, 

And  on  the  hills  the  harvest  lies. 
Blushing  the  maple  tree  recalls 
Her  life's  one  beautiful  surprise. 

Selected. 
The   Trees 

Gensque  virum  truncis  et  duro  robore  nata. 
^NEiD  viii :  315. 

By  Samuel  V.  Cole 

There's  something  in  a  noble  tree — 

What  shall  I  say?  a  soul? 
For  'tis  not  form,  or  aught  we  see 

In  leaf  or  branch  or  bole. 
Some  presence,  tho  not  understood. 

Dwells  there  always,  and  seems 
To  be  acquainted  with  our  mood. 

And  mingles  in  our  dreams. 

I  would  not  say  that  trees  at  all 

Were  of  our  blood  and  race, 
Yet,  lingering  where  their  shadows  fall, 

I  sometimes  think  I  trace 
A  kinship,  whose  far-reaching  root 

Grew  when  the  world  began. 
And  made  them  best  of  all  things  mute 

To  be  the  friends  of  man. 

Held  down  by  whatsoever  might 

Unto  an  earthly  sod. 
They  stretch  forth  arms  for  air  and  light 

As  we  do  after  God. 
And  when  in  all  their  boughs  the  breeze 

Moans  loud,  or  softly  sings, 
As  our  own  hearts  in  us,  the  trees 

Are  almost  human  things. 

What  wonder  in  the  days  that  burned 

With  old  poetic  dream, 
Dead  Phaeton's  fair  sisters  turned 

To  poplars  by  the  stream? 
In  many  a  light  cotillion  stepped 

The  trees  when  fiuters  blew ; 
And  many  a  tear,  'tis  said,  they  wept 

For  human  sorrow  too. 

Mute,  said  I?    They  are  seldom  thus; 

They  whisper  each  to  each. 
And  each  and  all  of  them  to  us, 

In  varied  forms  of  speech. 


ARBOR  DAY 


539 


"  Be  serious,"  the  solemn  pine 

Is  saying  overhead ; 
"  Be  beautiful,"  the  elm  tree  fine 

Has  always  finely  said. 

"  Be  quick  to  feel,"  the  aspen  still 
Repeats  the  whole  day  long; 
While  from  the  green  slope  of  the  hill, 

The  oak  tree  adds,  "  Be  strong." 
When  with  my  burden,  ss  I  hear 

Their  distant  voices  call, 
I  rise,  and  listen,  and  draw  near, 
"  Be  patient,"  say  they  all. 

Y.  C. 
Three  Historic  Trees 

By  R.  C.  Adams 

A  royal  charter  was  obtained 

In  sixteen   sixty-two; 
The  colonies  of  Connecticut 

A  bond  of  union  drew. 
When  Andros  came  with  sixty  men 

The  charter  to  revoke. 
Brave    Captain    Wadsworth    hid    it    safe 

Within  the  Charter  Oak. 

[This  Charter  Oak  was  blown  down  in 
1856.  The  Vice-President's  chair  at  Wash- 
ington is  made  from  wood  from  this  famous 
old  oak.l 

Penn  a  treaty  with  Indians  made, 

'Neath  a  spacious,  tall  elm  tree. 
These  were  the  words  of  the  Indian  chief 

In  sixteen  eighty-three: 
"  While  sun,  moon,  and  stars  endure, 

In  peace  we'll  live  with  thee." 
Near  Philadelphia,  these  famous  words, 

He  spoke  'neath  an  old  elm  tree. 

[The  elm  tree  was  blown  down  in  March, 
1810.  It  was  then  283  years  old.  For  years 
it  had  been  an  object  of  veneration.  Ben- 
jamin West  commemorated  the  scene  in  a 
famous  painting.  Parts  of  the  tree  were 
sent  to  members  of  the  Penn  family.] 

I  speak  of  that  elm  at  Cambridge, 

Where  Washington  took  command; 
And  that  vast  army  true  and  brave, 

Won  liberty  for  our  land. 
With  muskets  clean  and  courage  true. 

In  seventeen  seventy-five. 
Our  men  marched  valiantly  to  fight. 

For  liberty  each  did  strive.  J.  E. 

Our  Horse- Chestnut  Trees 

By  Sarah  Knowles  Bolton 

We  have  planted  on  our  hillside 

Three  graceful  chestnut  trees. 
Which  will  swing  their  pink-white  clusters 

To  every  passing  breeze 
Long  after  he  who  gave  them 

And  we  who  love  their  shade 
Shall  be  on  a  distant  hillside. 

Among  the  silent  laid. 

Perhaps  beneath  their  branches 
Some  child  will  sing  at  play; 

Perhaps  some  lover's  tale  be  told 
Some  golden  autumn  day. 


When  the  grapes  are  growing  purple, 

And  the  far-off  lake  is  blue. 
And  two  are  enough  in  all  the  world — 

Forever  old,  yet  new. 

And  here  some  man  or  woman. 

White-haired  and  bent  with  age. 
When  the  moon  comes  over  the  hilltop, 

And  floods  the  closing  page 
Of  the  book  of  life,  near  finished. 

May  rest  in  well-earned  ease. 
And  thank  his  God  and  the  giver 

For  the  noble  chestnut  trees. 

I. 
■Woodman,  Spare  That  Tree 

By  George  R.  Morris 

The  following  history  of  this  poem  will 
be  interesting.  Mr.  Morris,  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend,  dated  New  York,  February  i,  1837, 
gave  in  substance  this  account :  Riding  out 
of  town,  a  few  days  since,  in  company  with  a 
friend,  an  old  gentleman,  he  invited  me  to 
turn  down  a  little  romantic  pass,  not  far 
from  Bloomingdale.  "Your  object?"  in- 
quired I.  "  Merely  to  look  once  more  at  an 
old  tree  planted  by  my  grandfather  long 
before  I  was  born,  under  which  I  used  to 
play  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  where  my  sis- 
ters played  with  me.  There  I  often  listened 
to  the  good  advice  of  my  parents.  Father, 
mother,  sisters — all  are  gone;  nothing  but 
the  old  tree  remains."  And  a  paleness  over- 
spread his  fine  countenance,  and  tears  came 
to  his  eyes.  After  a  moment's  pause,  he 
added :  "  Don't  think  me  foolish.  I  don't 
know  how  it  is ;  I  never  go  out  but  I  turn 
down  this  lane  to  look  at  that  old  tree.  I 
have  a  thousand  recollections  about  it,  and 
I  always  greet  it  as  a  familiar  and  well- 
remembered  friend." 

These  words  were  scarcely  uttered  when 
the  old  gentlempn  cried  out,  "  There  it  is !  " 
Near  the  tree  stood  a  man  with  his  coat  off, 
sharpening  an  ax.  "  You're  not  going  to 
cut  that  tree  down,  surely?"  "Yes,  but  I 
am  tho,"  said  the  woodman.  "What  for?" 
inquired  the  old  gentleman,  with  choked 
emotion.  "What  for?  I  like  that!  Well,  I 
will  tell  you.  I  want  the  tree  for  firewood." 
"  What  is  the  tree  worth  to  you  for  fire- 
wood ? "  "  Why,  when  down,  about  ten 
dollars."  "  Suppose  I  should  give  you  that 
sum,"  said  the  old  gentleman,  "  would  you 
let  it  stand?"  "Yes."  "You  are  sure  of 
that?  "  "  Positive."  "  Then  give  mc  a  bond 
to  that  effect."  We  went  into  the  little  cot- 
tage in  which  my  companion  was  born,  but 
which  is  now  occupied  by  the  woodman.  I 
drew  up  the  bond.  It  was  signed,  and  the 
money  paid  over.  As  we  left,  the  young 
girl,  the  daughter  of  the  woodman,  assured 
us  that  while  she  lived  the  tree  should  not 
be  cut.  These  circumstances  made  a  strong 
impression  on  my  mind,  and  furnished  me 
with  the  materials  for  the  song  I  send  you. 

Woodman,  spare  that  tree  I 

Touch  not  a  single  bough  I 
In  youth  it  sheltered  me. 

And  I'll  protect  it  now. 


540 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


'Twas  my  forefather's  hand 
That  placed  it  near  his  cot, 

There,  woodman,  let  it  stand; 
Thy  ax  shall  harm  it  not. 

That  old  familiar  tree 

Whose  glory  and  renown 
Are  spread  o'er  land  and  sea — 

And  wouldst  thou  hack  it  down? 
Woodman,  forbear  thy  stroke ! 

Cut  not  its  earth-bound  ties; 
O,  spare  that  aged  oak. 

Now  towering  to  the  skies ! 

When  but  an  idle  boy 

I  sought  its  grateful  shade; 
In  all   their  gushing  joy. 

Here,  too,  my  sisters  played. 
My  mother  kissed  me  here; 

My  father  pressed  my  hand — 
Forgive  the  foolish  tear, 

But  let  that  old  oak  stand. 

My  heart-strings  round  thee  cling, 

Close  as  thy  bark,  old  friend; 
Here  shall  the  wild  bird  sing. 

And  still  thy  branches  bend. 
Old  tree,  the  storm  still  brave ! 

And  woodman,  leave  the  spot! 
While  I've  a  hand  to  save 

Thy  ax  shall  harm  it  not. 

N.  B.  A.  D.  M.  (1898). 


The  Elm 

By  N.  S.  Dodge 

Hail  to  the  elm !    the  brave  old  elm ! 

Our  last  lone  forest  tree. 
Whose  limbs  outstand  the  lightning's  brand. 

For  a  brave  old  elm  is  he ! 

For  fifteen  score  of  full-told  years 

He  has  borne  his  leafy  prime. 
Yet  he  holds  them  well,  and  lives  to  tell 

His  tale  of  the  olden  time ! 

Then  hail  to  the  elm !    the  green-topped  elm ! 

And  long  may  his  branches  wave, 
For  a  relic  is  he,  the  gnarled  old  tree, 

Of  the  times  of  the  good  and  brave. 

Selected. 

For  Arbor  Day 

By  Edith  M.  Thomas 

Let  dead  names  be  eternized  by  dead  stone. 
Whose  substance  time  cannot  increase  nor 
mar; 
Let  living  names  by  living  shafts  be  known. 

That  feel  the  influence  of  sun  and  star. 
Plant  thou  a  tree,  whose  griefless  leaves  shall 
sing 
Thy  deed  and  thee,  each  fresh  unfolding 
spring. 

Selected. 


EMPIRE  DAY  54 1 


EMPIRE  DAY* 

(May  24) 

DURING  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century  few  things  did  more  to  foster  British 
unity  and  patriotism  than  the  observance  of  the  Queen's  Birthday.  Every 
year  on  May  24,  not  only  in  the  British  Islands  but  also  in  India,  Australia,  Canada, 
and  the  other  colonies  and  dependencies,  the  theme  of  conversation,'  essay  and 
oration  was  "  The  Queen,  God  Bless  Her ! "  No  sovereign  was  ever  more 
widely  loved  by  the  people  at  home  and  abroad ;  few,  if  any,  have  been  more 
respected  or  more  influential  in  advancing  the  interests  of  the  nation  and  of 
humanity. 

Among  the  noted  buildings  visited  by  the  traveler  in  England,  not  least 
interesting  is  Kensington  Palace,  which  was  built,  in  its  earliest  parts,  by  William 
III.,  whose  wife,  Mary,  as  well  as  the  King  himself,  died  there.  The  most 
interesting  room  in  the  palace  is  one  which  was  occupied  by  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Kent,  the  parents  of  Queen  Victoria.     A  tablet  on  the  wall  reads : 

IN  THIS  ROOM 

QUEEN  VICTORIA 

was  born 

May  24th,  1819. 

The  Queen  died  at  Osborne  Palace,  January  22,  1901,  thus  having  passed 
eighty-one  anniversaries  of  her  birth,  and  having  reigned  from  June  28,  1838,  a 
period  of  sixty-three  years,  lacking  five  months.  This  was  the  longest  reign  in 
English  history. 

By  her  simplicity,  sympathy,  and  good  sense,  Queen  Victoria  won  the  affection 
of  her  people,  who  observed  her  birthday  with  increasing  devotion  to  her  and 
to  the  British  Empire  to  the  end  of  her  long  and  beneficent  life  and  reign. 
In  palaces  and  castles,  in  mansions  and  homes,  in  churches  and  public  halls, 
on  land  and  water,  the  Queen's  Birthday  was  looked  forward  to  with  the 
greatest  interest  and  celebrated  with  glowing  enthusiasm.  It  came  at  last  to 
correspond  very  closely  to  our  Independence  Day  in  the  manner  of  its  celebration : 
in  its  social  functions,  banquets,  orations,  school  exercises,  processions,  fireworks, 
out-of-door  sports,  decorations,  and  military  salutes  by  the  army  and  navy. 

And  now  that  Edward  VII.  is  King,  May  24  each  year  is  still  to  be  kept  as  a 
holiday,  a  day  which  for  many  years  to  come  will  not  only  elicit  words  of  praise 
for  Victoria  and  the  "  Victorian  Era,"  but  also  serve  as  a  day  of  happy  and 
reasonable  glorification  of  that  great  Empire  on  whose  possessions  the  sun  never 
sets. 

•  When  this  work  was  commenced,  Queen  Victoria  was  living.  Since  her  death,  in  Canada  and  other 
parts  of  the  British  Empire,  May  24  has  been  made  a  statutory  hohday,  to  be  known  as  Victoria  Day.  The 
birthday  of  King  Edward  VII.  is  November  9.  Under  all  the  circumstances,  it  seems  best  to  the  compiler 
to  include  under  the  general  head  of  Empire  Day,  literature  relating  to  the  late  Queen  Victoria,  King  Ed- 
ward VII.,  and  the  British  Empire. 


542 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


THE  QUEEN'S  BIRTHDAY* 

By  George  W.  Ross,  LL.D. 


A  national  holiday,  while  the  occasion  for 
recreation  and  pleasure-seeking,  should  be 
used  by  the  teacher  for  impressing  upon  the 
minds  of  his  pupils  such  facts  and  circum- 
stances as  would  foster  a  national  spirit. 
The  birthday  of  Her  Majesty,  Queen  Vic- 
toria furnishes  an  excellent  opportunity  for 
this  purpose.f  As  memory  is  always  aided  by 
association,  the  events  which  transpired 
during  her  reign  might  be  clustered  around 
the  holiday  to  which  the  pupils  so  eagerly 
look  forward ;  and  thus  a  more  intelligent 
conception  obtained  of  the  greatness  of  the 
Empire  and  of  the  grounds  on  which  loyalty 
to  the  Sovereign  is  founded. 

To  this  end  the  teacher  should  soend  half 
an  hour  every  afternoon,  for  two  or  three 
weeks  before  the  Queen's  Birthday,  in  famil- 
iar conversations  on  the  most  important 
events  of  Her  Majesty's  reign  (or,  of  English 
History).  The  extent  of  the  British  Empire 
might  be  shown  upon  the  map  and  its  vast 
area  impressed  upon  the  memory  by  compari- 
sons with  the  extent  and  population  of  other 
important  countries. 

The  essential  unity  of  the  Empire  should 
be  duly  emphasized.  Notwithstanding  the 
number  of  its  colonies  and  their  distance 
from  the  capital  and  from  each  other,  they 
all  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  one 
Queen — a  Queen  whose  personal  qualities, 
apart  from  the  dignity  of  her  position,  won 
for  her  the  unqualified  affection  and  al- 
legiance of  her  subjects  and  the  respect  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  world. 

The  teacher  might  point  out  that  the  flag 
which  floats  from  the  schoolhouse  on  Her 
Majesty's  Birthday  is  a  symbol  of  national 
unity,  and  that  in  every  colony  of  the  Em- 
pire, in  Australia,  in  South  Africa,  in  Hin- 
dostan, — on  every  fortress  guarded  by  British 
soldiers  and  on  every  ship  manned  by  British 
sailors,  the  same  flag  proclaims  universal 
allegiance  to  one  Sovereign  and  universal 
fealty  to  one  Empire. 

The  teacher  might  then  give  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  monarchical  form  of  government  as 
compared  with  an  absolute  monarchy  or  a 
republic,    explaining    clearly    that    under    a 


limited   monarchy   the   Queen   acted   on   the 

advice  of  Parliament,  and  that  she  was  as 
much  bound  by  the  Constitution  of  the  coun- 
try as  any  of  her  subjects.  Reference  might 
be  made  to  the  impartiality  with  which  she 
discharged  her  functions  as  a  sovereign,  to 
the  great  measures  passed  during  her  reign, 
such  as  the  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  the 
Extension  of  the  Franchise,  acts  for  the 
improvement  of  the  laboring  classes,  the  dif- 
ferent reform  bills,   the  Education  Act,   etc. 

Then  might  follow  a  number  of  familiar 
talks  or  essays  on : 

(i)  The  great  wars  of  the  Victorian  Era — 
Such  as  the  Russian  War,  the  Indian  Mutiny, 
the  Egyptian  War,  the  War  of  the  Soudan, 
etc. 

(2)  The  great  statesmen  of  her  reign — Sir 
Robert  Peel,  Daniel  O'Connell,  John  Bright, 
Richard  Cobden,  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  Lord  Salisbury,  W.  E. 
Gladstone,  etc. 

(3)  The  great  pJiilosophers  and  literary 
men  of  her  reign — Darwin,  Murchison.  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy,  Sir  John  Simpson,  Words- 
worth, Browning,  Tennyson,  Matthew  Ar- 
nold, Thomas  Carlyle,  Ruskin,  etc. 

(4)  The  material  and  scientific  improve- 
ments of  her  reign — Railroads,  steam  navi- 
gation, gas,  electricity,  the  reaping  machine, 
penny  postage,  etc. 

(5)  The  great  educational  and  moral  re- 
forms of  her  reign — Mechanics'  institutes, 
free  libraries,  free  schools,  compulsory  edu- 
cation, industrial  schools,  missionary  enter- 
prises, factory  laws,  limitations  of  capital 
punishment,  hospitals  and  charities,  etc. 

(6)  The  progress  of  Canada  during  her 
reign — The  railways  and  canals  built,  the 
telegraph,  telephone,  free  schools,  the  British 
North  America  Act  of  1867,  the  ballot,  the 
opening  of  the  Northwest,  etc. 

An  entertainment  might  be  given  on  the 
afternoon  preceding  the  Queen's  Birthday, 
to  which  the  parents  and  friends  of  the 
pupils  should  be  invited.  In  such  cases  a 
program  might  be  prepared.  This  program 
might  be  varied  as  the  judgment  of  the 
teacher  and  the  circumstances  render  neces- 
sary. 


OUR  EMPIRE  AND  EMPRESS  AND  OUR  EMPIRE  DAY 


Of  the  many  millions  of  patriots  who  speak 
in  no  uncertain  manner  of  the  might  of 
Britain  and  who  are  wont  to  say  that  the 
sun  never  sets  on  her  Empire,  comparatively 


few  understand  the  sentiment  to  which  they 
give  expression.  They  know  that  British 
possessions  and  colonies  form  a  complete 
girdle  of  the  globe ;  that  sons  of  the  Empire 


*  Patriotic  Recitations.    George  W.  Ross,  LL.D.    Toronto  :  Warwick  Bro's  &  Rutter. 

tThat  the  Queen's  death  will  not  result  in  a  discontinuance  of  May  24  as  a  holiday,  is  indicated  by  the 
following  Associated  Press  item,  which  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of  America,  May  25,  iqoi  :  "London,  May 
24  There  was  a  general  observance  of  Queen  Victoria's  Birthday  to-day.  The  Law  Courts  and  Government 
offices  were  closed,  the  pupils  of  the  various  schools  had  a  holiday,  and  there  were  the  usual  ringing  of  bells 
and  the  firing  of  salutes  at  Windsor  and  at  the  military  and  naval  stations.  There  were  special  observances 
of  the  day  in  Australia,  at  the  Cape,  and  in  India."  _, 


EMPIRE  DAY 


543 


are  to  be  found  everywhere  and  that  Great 
Britain  possesses  a  most  enviable  position 
as  the  greatest  power  for  civilization  that  has 
ever  existed,  but  they  cannot  present,  without 
previous  study  and  investigation,  facts  and 
figures  which  are  the  proof  of  Britain's  great- 
ness. When  Postmaster-General  Mulock 
adopted  as  suitable  for  the  lettering  of  Cana- 
dian postage  stamps,  the  well  known  words 
of  Lewis  Morris :  "  A  vaster  Empire  than 
has  been,"  it  was  with  a  purpose  of  giving 
to  Canadians  an  impression  of  the  potency 
of  the  British  Empire.  That  Canadians  have 
of  late  years  experienced  a  wonderful  and 
pleasing  awakening  is  undoubtedly  true,  and 
especially  since  the  outbreak  of  the  trouble 
in  South  Africa  have  we  been  brought  into  a 
close  realization  and  appreciation  of  the 
strength  of  Great  Britain  and  the  wisdom 
of  her  statesmen.  It  is  not  without  the  great- 
est satisfaction  and  pride  that  we  proclaim 
ourselves  Canadians,  subject  to  Her  Gracious 
Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  whose  devotion  to 
her  has  undergone  a  crucial  tect  and  has 
been  proven  no  idle  vaunt. 

The  facts  which  can  be  adduced  to  show 
the  growth  of  the  Empire  are  most  worthy 
of  consideration.  In  1871  the  Empire  em- 
braced a  territory  of  11,500,000  square  miles 
or  including  Egypt  and  the  Soudan,  13,- 
000.000.  In  this  territory  was  a  population  of 
about  407,000,000,  which  would  be  increased 
to  over  420,000,000,  if  Egypt  and  the  Soudan 
were  included.  It  may  be  a  surprise  to  some 
to  know  that  this  is  one-fourth  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  whole  earth.*  Of  course,  all 
people  who  enjoy  the  freedom  that  the  Union 
Jack  bespeaks,  are  not  English  speaking,  but 
of  those  above  mentioned  50,000,000  are  of 
English  speech  and  race — and  it  does  not 
seem  like  a  boast  to  say  of  the  ruling  race — 
they  being  included  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
British  North  America  and  Australasia.  The 
remaining  350,000,000,  or  thereabouts,  are 
what  might  be  called  subject  races,  being  for 
the  most  part  in  India  and  Africa.  To  go 
back  to  1871,  the  increase  in  area  and  popu- 
lation of  this  Empire — excluding  Egypt  and 
the  Soudan — amounted  to  2,854,000  square 
miles  of  area,  or  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
whole,  and  to  125,000,000  of  a  population, 
which  is  also  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
whole.  Using  the  term  ruling  race  again,  it 
may  be  said  that  in  this  increase  of  popula- 
tion they  amounted  to  about  12,500.000,  or 
about  one-fourth  of  the  number  in  1897,  and 
the  increase  in  the  subject  races  was  112,- 
000,000,  or  nearly  one-third  of  the  numbers 


in  1897,  and  now  that  the  question  of  expan- 
sion is  so  prominently  before  the  thinking 
people  everywhere,  it  may  be  mentioned  that 
the  increase  in  subject  races  was  due  largely, 
but  by  no  means  exclusively,  to  annexation. 
The  present  revenue  (1900)  of  the  different 
parts  of  this  Empire,  added  together, 
amounted  at  that  time  to  £257,653,000,  and 
the  imports  and  exports  to  £1,375,000,000. 
The  increase  since  1871  has  amounted  to 
£115,143,000  for  revenue,  or  more  than  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  present  total,  while  the  in- 
crease in  imports  and  exports  amounted  to 
£428,000,000,  about  one-third  of  the  present 
total.  It  is  interesting  also,  to  look  at  the 
increase  in  population  in  the  principal  self- 
governing  parts  of  the  Empire,  in  which 
Canada  cuts  no  unimportant  figure.  This 
increase  from  1871  to  1897  has  been  as  fol- 
lows :  United  Kingdom,  8,350,000 ;  Aus- 
tralia, 2,500,000;  and  Canada  1,500,000.  Aus- 
tralia showing  much  the  largest  relative  in- 
crease. The  subject  populations  have  in- 
creased by  2,750,000  in  South  Africa,  33,- 
150,000  in  other  parts  of  Africa,  72,900,000 
in  India,  and  3,750,000  in  other  possessions, 
a  total  addition  of  112,550,000  to  what  Rud- 
yard  Kipling  so  aptly  called  "  the  white 
man's  burden  "  in  a  quarter  of  a  century.  To 
simply  belong  to  such  an  Empire  is  an  edu- 
cation, but  it  seems  that  it  would  take  more 
than  a  lifetime  to  secure  such  an  education 
that  would  cover  a  fair  understanding  of  the 
countries  and  races  which  comprise  the  Em- 
pire and  to  a  recognition  of  the  responsibili- 
ties that  are  involved. — B.  C.  E.  (May  23, 
1900.) 

[In  the  record  of  the  world's  history,  never 
did  nation  occupy  the  proud  position  of 
Great  Britain  and  her  world-embracing  colo- 
nies and  dependencies.  Gibbon,  in  his  De- 
cline AND  Fall,  sketches  with  a  master's 
hand  the  extent  of  the  Roman  Empire,  when 
at  the  zenith  of  its  greatness,  stretching  as  it 
did  from  beyond  the  Euphrates  in  the  east 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  in  the  west,  a  dis- 
tance of  three  thousand  miles ;  and  from  the 
arid  sands  of  the  Libyan  desert  in  the  south 
to  the  eternal  snows  of  Sarmatia  in  the  north, 
a  distance  of  two  thousand  miles,  embracing 
the  fairest  portions  of  the  then  habitable 
world.  Yet  the  mighty  expanse  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  constituted  in  area  only  one- 
fourth  part  of  the  British  Empire  of  to-day. 
Its  population  of  120,000,000  being  only  one- 
half  that  of  India,  one  of  its  dependencies. — 
Silas  Alward.] 


*The  total  area  of  the  British  Empire  was  estimated  in  i8gg  at  11,726,217  square  miles,  and  the  total 
population  at  :^85,  728,293.  The  estimated  population  of  England  and  Wales  on  June  30,  1899,  was  31,742,588 
of  Scotland  4,281,850;  of  Ireland,  4,535,516;  total  United  Kingdom,  40,559,954.  The  British  protectorates  in 
Africa  have  (1901)  an  estimated  area  of  2,160,000  square  miles,  with  35,000,000  population;  protectorates  in  the 
Pacific,  800  square  miles,  with  30,000  population;  protectorates  in  Asia,  120,400 square  miles,  with  1,200,000 
population;  total  area  of  protectorates  2,281,200  square  miles,  with  36,230,000  population. 

The  expenditure  of  the  British  Empire  for  1901  was  estimated  at  £26,000,000  for  debt  charges,  ;C27, 532,000 
for  the  navy,  £61,499,000  for  the  army,  £22,839,000  for  the  civil  services,  and  £  16,221,000  for  the  revenue  de- 

Fiartments;  total,  £154,082,000.  On  the  basis  of  the  existing  taxation  the  revenue  was  estimated  at  £21,900,000 
rom  customs,  £31,800,000  from  excise,  £13,000,000  from  deach  duties;  £8,400,000  from  stamps,  £800,000  from  the 
land  tax,  £1,650,000  from  the  house  duty,  £18,800,000  from  the  income  tax,  £13,800,  000  from  the  post-office, 
£3,550,000  from  telegraphs,  £450,000  from  Crown  lands,  £850,000  from  Suez  canal  shares,  etc.,  and  £1,900,000 
from  miscellaneous  sources;  total,  £116,900,000.  This  left  an  estimated  deficit  of  £37,182,000  for  the  year, 
•which  is  being  provided  for  by  taxation  and  by  the  creation  of  bonds.  [The  figures  in  this  note  have  been 
compiled  from  Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopedia  for  igoo.— Ed.] 


544 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


HISTORICAL 
SOVEREIGNS  OF  ENGLAND* 


Saxon  Line 

Began 

to  reign 

A.  D. 

Egbert    800 

Ethelwulf   (son) 836 

Ethelbald   (son) 857 

Ethelbert    (brother) 860 

Ethel  red  L    (brother) 866 

Alfred  the  Great  (brother) 871 

Edward  the  Elder  (son) 901 

Athelstan    (son) 925 

Edmund   L    (brother) 940 

Edred    (brother) 946 

Edwy  the  Churl   (nephew) 955 

Edgar    (brother) 957 

Edward  the  Martyr   (son) 975 

Ethelred  H.,  the  Unready  (half- 
brother^     978 

Edmund  11.,  Ironside  (son) 1016 

Danish  Line 

Canute  the  Dane  (son  of  Sweyn,  a  Vi- 
king)       1017 

Harold    L,    Harefoot    (son) 1036 

Hardicanute    (half-brother) 1039 

Saxon  Line   (Restored) 

Edward  the  Confessor  (son  of  Ethelred 
n.)     1041 

Harold  H.,  the  Dauntless  (son  of  Earl 
Godwin)    1066 

Norman  Line 

William  I.,  the  Conqueror 1066 

William  H.,  Rufiis   (son) 1087 

Henry  L,  Beauclerc  (brother) iioo 

Stephen  Earl  of  Boulogne   (nephew)..  1135 

Plantagenet  Line 

Henry  H.,  Curtmantle  (son  of  Henry  I. 

by  Matilda) II54 

Richard  L,  Cccur  de  Lion  (son) 1189 

John  Sanstcrrc  or  Lackland  (brother).    1 199 

Henry  HL,   Winchester  (son) 1216 

Edward  L,  Loyigshanks  (son) 1272 

Edward  H.,  Caernarvon   (son) 1307 

Edward  HL,  Windsor  (son) 1327 

Richard  H.,  Bordeaux  (grandson) 1377 

House  of  Lancaster 

Henry  IV.,  Bolingbroke  (son  of  John 
of  Gaunt) I399 


House  of  Lancaster 

Began 
to  reign 

A.  D. 

Henry  V.,  Monmouth  (son) 1413 

Henry  VI.,   Windsor   (son) 1422 

House  of  York 

Edward  IV.,  the  Rose  of  Rouen  (son  of 

Richard,    Duke   of   York) 1461 

Edward  V.   (son) 1483 

Richard  III.,  Crookhack   (uncle) 1483 

Tudor  Period 

Henry    VII 1485 

Henry  VIII.    (son) 1509 

Edward   VI.    (son) 1547 

Mary   I.    (half-sister) 1553 

Elizabeth    (half-sister) 1558 

Stuart  Line 

James  I.  of  England  or  VI.  of  Scotland 
(Union  of  the  two  crowns;  legislative 
union  took  place  May  i,  1707) 1603 

Charles  1 1625 

Commonwealth 

(During  which  Oliver  Cromwell  ruled 
as  Lord  Protector,  1653- 1658,  being 
succeeded  by  Richard  Cromwell,  his 
son,  1658-1659;  a  year  of  anarchy 
follows)     1649 

Stuart  Line  (Restored) 

Charles  II.  (son  of  Charles  I.) 1660 

James    II.    (brother) 1685 

William   III.    (nephew)    and   Mary   II. 

(daughter  of  James  II.) 1688 

Anne   (daughter  of  James  II.) 1702 

House  of  Brunswick  or  Guelph  Line 

George  I.  (great  grandson  of  James  I.)  .  1714 

George  II.   (son  of  preceding)    1727 

George  III.  (grandson  of  George  II.)..  1760 

George  IV.  (son  of  George  III.) 1820 

William  IV.    (brother  of  preceding)...  1830 

Victoria  (niece   of   William   IV.) 1837 

Edward  VII.  (son  of  Victoria) 1901 

S.  S.  D. 


BRIEF  RECORD  OF  QUEEN'S  LIFE 


Victoria  Alexandrina,  Queen  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  and  Empress  of  India, 
was    the    only    child   of   the    Duke   of   Kent. 


third  son  of  George  III.,  and  of  Louisa  Vic- 
toria, Princess  of  Saxe-Coburg,  sister  of 
Leopold  I.,  King  of  the  Belgians.     The  chief 


♦The  British  Sovereign  has,  from  very  early  times,  been  advised  in  the  Conduct  of  the  Government  by 
a  Committee  of  his  Privy  Council,  known  as  the  Cabinet. 


EMPIRE  DAY 


545 


incidents  in  her  life  and  reign  and  the  prin- 
cipal members  of  the  royal  family  were  as 
follows 

PERSONAL  HISTORY 

1819,  May  24. — Born  at  Kensington  palace, 
London. 

1820,  January  23. — Death  of  her  father,  the 
Duke  of  Kent.  Brought  up  by  her 
mother  and  the  Duchess  of  Cumber- 
land. 

1837,  June  20. — Succeeded  her  uncle,  Wil- 
liam IV. 

1838,  June  28. — Crowned  at  Westminster 
Abbey. 

1840,  February    10. — Married   to    Prince   Al- 
bert  of    Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 
1861,  March   16. — Death   of  her  mother,  the 
Duchess  of  Kent. 

December     14. — Death    of    the    Prince 
Consort. 
1869. — Publication     of     "  Leaves    from     the 
Journal    of    Our    Life    in    the    High- 
lands." 
1877,  January     i. — Proclaimed     Empress     of 

India. 
1885. — Publication    of    "  More    Leaves    from 
the  Journal  of  Our  Life  in  the  High- 
lands." 
1887. — Jubilee      celebration — fifty      years      a 

Queen. 
1892. — Death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence. 
1896,  September. — Visit  of  Czar  and  Czarina 

of  Russia  to  the  Queen  at  Balmoral. 
1897. — Jubilee    celebration — sixtieth    year    of 

her  reign. 
1901,  January  22. — Died  at  Osborne  palace. 


CHIEF   PUBLIC   EVENTS 


1840. 
1845. 

1850. 

1855. 
1858, 


1867.- 
1868. 
1870. 
1871. 

1872. 


i»7» 
1881 
188.^ 


1891. 
1894 

1898 

1899 
1900 


1901 


Adoption  of  penny  postage. 

Repeal  of  the  Corn  laws.    Resignation 

of  Peel. 

Clayton-Bulwer  treaty. 

Crimean  war. 

The    Indian   mutiny.      Possessions   of 

East    India    Company    transferred    to 

the  crown. 

Lord  Derby's  reform  bill. 

Irish  Church  disestablishment. 

The   education   bill. 

Abolition   of  army   purchases  and  of 

university  religious  tests. 

■Treaty  of  Washington  and  the  Geneva 

award  on  the  Alabama  claims. 

— The  congress  of  Berlin.  Acquisition 
of  Cyprus. 

■'80. — The  Afghan  war. 

— Annexation  of  the  Transvaal. 

— English  occupation  of  Egypt.  Act  for 
prevention  of  corrupt  and  illegal  prac- 
tises at  parliamentary  elections. 

-'86. — The  third  reform  bill  and  the  re- 
distribution bill;  the  Irish  home  rule 
and  land  bill ;  and  their  defeat. 

-'93. — Behring  sea  controversy. 

. — The   free   education   bill. 

— The  retirement  of  "^V.  E.  Gladstone. 
Opening  of  the  Manchester  ship  canal. 

^Recovery    of    the    Soudan. 

— Boer  War  in  South  Africa. 

— Lord  Roberts  proclaimed  the  annexa- 
tion of  the  Transvaal  Republic  to  the 
British  Empire. 

, — Queen  Victoria  died.  Edward  VII.. 
became  the  King. 

N.  Y.  T. 


QUEEN  VICTORIA  AND  HER  REIGN 

By  Sir  John  Bourinot 
(Clerk  of  the  Canadian  House  of  Commons) 


William  IV.,  King  of  England,  died  a 
little  after  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
June  20,  1837,  and  was  instantaneously  suc- 
ceeded by  his  niece,  the  Princess 
Beginning  Alexandrina  Victoria,  the  only 
of  Reign  daughter  of  Prince  Edward, 
Duke  of  Kent  and  Strathearne, 
in  the  absence  of  a  male  heir  to  the  Crown. 
It  was,  however,  not  until  eleven  o'clock 
on  the  same  day  that  the  young  Queen,  then 
only  eighteen  years  of  age,  formally  met  in 
Kensington  Palace  the  great  notables  of  her 
council,  the  representatives  of  the  Witan  or 
Commune  Concilium  of  ancient  times,  who 
always  assembled  to  choose  and  proclaim  a 
new  sovereign.  Her  conduct  on  this  solemn 
occasion,  when  she  was  first  called  upon  to 
perform  a  high  function  of  State,  has  been 
graphically  described  in  Greville's  Memoirs. 
It  was  then  she  first  gave  some  evidence  to 
the  world  that  she  possessed  those  personal 
qualities    which    -gave    her    for    over    sixty 


years  such  a  preeminence  among  the  Sov- 
ereigns of  Great  Britain.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
expressed  his  amazement  "  at  her  manner 
and  behavior,  her  modesty,  and  at  the  same 
time  her  firmness."  When  she  had  addressed 
the  notables  and  the  Privy  Councilors  had 
taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  she  held  her 
first  Council,  legally  organized  after  such 
preliminaries  and  "  presided  with  as  much 
ease  as  if  she  had  been  doing  nothing  else 
all  her  life."  In  fact,  according  to  the  clerk 
of  the  Council  present,  she  acted  "  with  every 
sort  of  good  taste  and  good  feeling  as  well 
as  good  sense,  and  as  far  as  it  has  gone 
nothing  could  be  more  favorable  than  the 
impression  she  has  made  and  nothing  can 
promise  better  than  her  manner  and 
conduct. 

The  British  people  of  all  classes  heard 
with  deep  satisfaction  of  the  favorable  opin- 
ions that  were  evoked  by  the  admirable  man- 
ner in  which  their  youthful  Sovereign,  edu- 


54^ 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


cated  in  a  seclusion  almost  as  close  as  that 
of  a  convent,  had  acquitted  herself  of  the 
trying  occasion  just  mentioned.  Monarchy 
had  been  on  its  trial  ever  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  even  in  England,  where 
the  sense  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  is 
naturally  favorable  to  such  rule.  George 
III.  had  been  an  arrogant  Sovereign,  and  the 
closing  year,  of  his  life  had  been  clouded 
by  insanity.  His  son  was  a  thoroughly  des- 
picable creature,  without  honor  or  morals, 
and,  whether  Prince  Regent  or  King,  he  was 
too  often  a  source  of  humiliation  to  a  people 
anxious  to  love  and  respect  their  Sovereign. 
William  IV.  always  found  it  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  be  a  gentleman,  and  when  he  ascended 
the  throne  at  the  mature  age  of  sixty-five, 
and  attempted  to  assume  habits  and  man- 
ners in  harmony  with  his  regal  station,  he 
never  succeeded  in  getting  rid  of  a  natural 
boorishness  and  failed  to  acquire  the  esteem 
and  affection  of  the  great  mass  of  the  Eng- 
lish people. 

The   accession    of   Queen    Victoria   to   the 
throne    was    the    commencement    of    a    new 
epoch  in  the  evolution  of  constitutional  and 
parliamentary   institutions.     The 
Leading    young  Sovereign  was  destined  to 
Character-  add    luster    and    dignity    to    the 
istics  of    Crown,   to   establish   on   durable 
the  Victo-  foundations  the  great  principles 
rian  Era    of     parliamentary     government, 
as  they  now  obtain,  and,  above 
all,  to  win  the  love  and  respect  of  her  sub- 
jects   throughout    an    ever-extending    empire 
by  her  exhibition  of  qualities   which  proved 
her  to  be  a  noble  woman  as  well  as  a  great 
Queen.     Queen    Victoria    reigned    for    sixty- 
three  years  and  seven  months,  during  which 
the   Empire   has   grown   in   all   the   essential 
elements  of  greatness. 

I  do  not  presume  within  the  compass  of 
this  short  article  to  do  more  than  limn 
briefly  the  leading  characteristics  of  an  era 
so  memorable  in  the  history  of  England. 
Other  periods  of  England's  annals  were  sig- 
nalized by  more  brilliant  achievements  of 
her  army  and  navy.  The  victories  of  Marl- 
borough, Nelson,  Wolfe,  and  Wellington 
were  won  against  the  greatest  military  and 
naval  power  of  the  world.  The  Crimean 
campaign  alone  brought  her  into  conflict 
with  a  first-class  European  power,  and  even 
in  this  case  she  did  not  fight  single-handed 
but  as  an  ally  of  other  nations.  The  war  was 
even  for  a  while  fraught  with  humiliation  to 
the  English  people,  since  it  showed  the  weak- 
ness of  her  military  administration,  and  it 
closed  too  soon  to  enable  her  army  to  give  to 
the  world  conclusive  evidence  that  England 
was  still  a  great  military  power.  Her  wars 
have  been  fought  in  Persia,  Afghanistan, 
Abyssinia,  China,  and  the  Soudan,  while  in 
India  her  Empire  was  threatened  by  the  war- 
like Sikhs  and  vindictive  native  troops,  who 
mutinied  and  perpetrated  the  most  cruel 
deeds,  which  were  punished  with  a  relentless 
hand.  It  was  in  India  that  England's  one 
great  general  of  the  era.  Lord  Roberts,  first 
won  fame. 

The  fiercest  conflict  has  been  raging  with 


the  small  but  remarkably  brave  community 
of  Boers  in  South  Africa,  where,  as  in  the 
Crimean  campaign,  the  existence  of  defects 
in  military  organization,  and  in  the  methods 
of  coping  with  such  conditions  of  warfare 
as  presented  themselves  suddenly  in  that 
southern  land,  temnorarily  staggered  the 
English  people,  hopeful  of  an  easy  victory 
over  a  foe  relatively  insignificant  in  num- 
bers. Nevertheless,  while  it  is  true  that  tho 
there  have  been  no  such  great  battles  as 
Blenheim  or  Ramillies  or  Waterloo  or  the 
Nile  to  emblaze  on  the  imperial  escutcheon, 
yet  as  many  deeds  of  heroism  have  been  per- 
formed during  the  Victorian  era  as  ever 
di.-tinguished  the  most  memorable  epochs  of 
England's  wars.  Memories  come  up  of  the 
brilliant  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  at 
Balaklava  when  the  six  hundred  "  rode 
boldly  and  well  into  the  jaws  of  death;" 
of  the  heroic  defense  of  Lucknow  by  Law- 
rence, Havelock,  and  Inglis — the  latter  a 
Canadian ;  of  the  equally  memorable  defense 
of  Kars  by  Williams,  also  a  Canadian,  who, 
in  the  language  of  Palmerston,  "  displayed 
a  courage,  an  ability,  a  perseverance  under 
difficulties  never  before  exhibited  in  British 
military  history."  The  wars  in  the  Soudan 
and  South  Africa  also  afford  illustrations 
of  English  and  Colonial  courage. 

But  I  do  not  wish  to  bring  into  too  bold 
relief  the  military  features  of  the  Victorian 
era.  The  blessings  of  peace  must  be  the 
most  enduring  memorials  of  the 
A  Stanch  reign  of  a  great  Queen,  to  whom 
Friend  of  war  was  always  repugnant,  and 
the  United  whose  influence  was  always  con- 
States  stitutionally  used  to  maintain 
amicable  relations  with  other 
peoples,  whenever  compatible  with  the  honor, 
the  dignity,  and  the  security  of  the  Empire, 
whose  interests  she  never  failed  to  recognize 
as  paramount  to  any  personal  sentiment.  It 
is  a  historical  fact  that  it  was  largely 
through  her  benign  influence  that  the  criti- 
cal relations,  which  more  than  once  existed 
between  England  and  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  war  of  the  latter  with  the  South, 
reached  a  peaceful  solution,  and  the  world 
was  happily  spared  the  sorry  spectacle  of  a 
conflict  between  kindred  peoples.  It  is  also 
well  known  that  she  was  anxious  to  pre- 
serve peace  with  the  Transvaal  until  Presi- 
dent Kriiger  issued  his  definite  ultimatum, 
and  that  the  disasters  which  befell  her  troops 
during  the  war  that  ensued  tended  to  in- 
crease the  weight  of  sorrow  caused  by  per- 
sonal bereavements. 

Even    tho   in   literature   the   Victorian    era 
cannot   present    such    great    names    as    made 
the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  Anne  especially  fa- 
mous, still  the  Queen's  reign  has 
"Victorian  lieen     conspicuous     for     a     de- 
Literature  cidedly    distinctive    literature    of 
its  own,  especially  for  the  works 
of      Macaulay,      Carlyle.  Ruskin,    Tennyson, 
Browning.     Dickens,     Thackeray.     Charlotte 
Bronte   and  George   Eliot.     The  great  circu- 
lation of  newspapers  and  periodicals  is  also 
a    very    noteworthy    feature    of    a    reign    re- 
markable  for  the   spread   of  popular  educa- 


EMPIRE  DAY 


547 


tion  and  the  increasing  desire  of  the  masses 
for  information  on  various  branches  of 
knowledjge.  In  the  study  of  science  the  era 
is  superior  to  all  its  predecessors,  especially 
for  a  practical  application  of  discoveries  to 
human  health,  comfort,  convenience,  and 
methods  of  communication.  The  investiga- 
tions of  Wheatstone,  Faraday,  Brewster, 
Herschel,  and  Owen  entitle  them  to  the 
highest  place  in  the  domain  of  practical  sci- 
ence, while  the  novel  theories  of  Darwin  and 
his  famous  disciples,  Huxley  and  Tyndall, 
have  revolutionized  the  old  traditionary  be- 
lief with  respect  to  the  origin  of  species. 

It  is  well  known  that  Her  Majesty  deeply 
sympathized  with  all  efforts  of  philanthropy 
which  promised  to  effect  the  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  the  poor  and  humble  worker. 
She  was  always  interested  in  the  triumohs  of 
her  era  in  art,  literature,  and  science,  and  it 
is  one  of  its  characteristic  features  that  never 
before  in  English  history  has  the  royal  pre- 
rogative been  so  freely  used  to  distribute 
honors,  peerages,  privy  councillorships, 
baronetcies,  and  knighthoods  among  men 
who  have  won  distinction  throughout  the 
empire  in  these  departments  of  thought  and 
culture. 

During   her   memorable    reign    the    Queen 

had  for  advisers  many  famous  statesmen,  the 

greatest  of  whom  preceded  her  to  the  grave. 

The   reader    will    at   once   recall 

Famous    Lord  Melbourne,  somewhat  cyn- 

States-  ical  and  flippant,  but  wise  and 
men  kindly  in  his  relations  with  the 
young,  inexperienced  Queen ; 
the  "  Iron  Duke,"  whose  cardinal  principle 
as  a  statesman  was  to  carry  on  the  Queen's 
government,  whatever  else  betided;  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel,  cold,  dignified,  but  ever  alive  to  the 
interests  of  the  British  people;  Lord  John 
Russell,  who,  some  satirist  suggested,  had 
such  supreme  confidence  in  himself  that  he 
was  quite  ready  at  any  moment  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  Channel  fleet ;  Lord  Aberdeen, 
who  was  styled  by  Byron  "  The  Travel'd 
Thane,  Athenian  Aberdeen,"  whose  weak- 
ness as  a  statesman  was  conspicuous  in  the 
management  of  the  Crimean  campaign, 
which  brought  about  his  downfall ;  Lord 
Palmerston,  who,  despite  his  failure  to 
achieve  any  great  feat  of  statesmanship,  be- 
came the  most  popular  Prime  Minister  since 
the  time  of  Wellington,  by  dint  of  a  certain 
jauntiness  of  demeanor,  an  audacity  of  pur- 
pose, a  sense  of  humor,  and  a  readiness  of 
resource  at  critical  moments ;  the  Earl  of 
Derby,  who  was  well  named  "  The  Rupert 
of  Debate;"  Disraeli,  a  brilliant  political 
satirist,  an  able  and  dextrous  parliamentary 
debater,  a  clever  writer  of  political  novels 
and  a  statesman  who  often  thought  more  of 
the  interests  of  the  State  than  of  his  party; 
Mr.  Gladstone,  a  great  student  of  books, 
the  possessor  of  a  remarkable  store  of  knowl- 
edge, a  debater  fertile  in  resource,  ready  in 
reply,  but  gifted  with  too  great  fluency  of 
language,  a  statesman  who  leaned  from 
Toryism  into  a  very  decided  Liberalism  and 
ended  his  political  life  with  the  rupture  of 
his  own  party. 


To  all  of  these  statesmen  Queen  Victoria 
as  a  British  constitutional  Sovereign  gave 
her  full  confidence  as  long  as  they  possessed 
the  support  of  Parliament  and  the  people. 
In  fact,  her  consistent,  discreet  action  in 
connection  with  successive  Ministries  of  the 
two  opposing  political  parties  largely  tended 
to  give  complete  recognition  to  those  prin- 
ciples of  parliamentary  government  which  are 
now  established  beyond  dispute  in  the  parent 
state  and  all  the  self-governing  dependencies 
of  the  Crown.  Unlike  the  Georges,  she  had 
no  "  Queen's  Friends "  to  disturb  the  har- 
monious relations  which  should  always  exist 
between  the  sovereign  and  her  duly  accredited 
constitutional  advisers.  Even  her  beloved 
husband,  the  Prince  Consort,  never  affected 
or  set  up  any  separate  province  or  authority 
of  his  own,  never  took  up  a  position  behind 
the  throne  and  in  no  wise  assumed  any  re- 
sponsibility for  any  assistance  he  might  give 
her  in  coming  to  a  conclusion  on  subjects  sub- 
rnitted  to  her  judgment  by  her  lawful  ad- 
visers. 

But  while  the  Queen,  like  all  constitutional 
monarchs,  performed  all  executive  acts 
through  responsible  ministers,  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  her  royal  functions  were 
purely  ornamental.  On  the  contrary,  so  high 
an  authority  as  Mr.  Gladstone  has  told  us 
that  "  no  head  of  a  department  performs 
more  laborious  duties  than  those  which  fall 
to  the  sovereign  of  this  country.  In  fact, 
such  complete  mastery  of  what  has  occurred 
in  this  country,  and  of  the  important  sub- 
jects of  state  policy,  foreign  and  domestic, 
during  her  reign,  was  possessed  by  the 
Queen  that  he  must  be  a  wise  man  who 
could  not  profit  by  her  example." 

No  feature  of  the  Queen's  reign  has  been 
more  remarkable  than  the  extension  of  her 
Empire  and  the  development  of  constitu- 
tional and  local  self-govern- 
Develop-    ment  in  the  great  dependencies 

ment  of  of  the  Crown.  When  she  as- 
the        cended     the    throne,     Australia 

British     was   chiefly   known   as   a   refuge 

Colouies  for  convicts.  New  Zealand  was 
not  yet  recognized  as  a  colony, 
Canada  was  in  a  state  of  political  ferment 
which  ended  in  rebellion,  and  India  was 
still  ruled  by  a  great  company.  Sixty  years 
later,  in  the  streets  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
British  Empire  there  was  witnessed  a  spec- 
tacle which  the  world  never  saw  before, 
whose  illustrations  of  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  the  Empire  far  surpassed  any 
exhibition  which  the  Caesars  of  Imperial 
Rome  ever  gave  to  their  citizens  in  the  ages 
when  all  the  world  came  to  pay  her  tribute. 
In  this  imperial  procession  nearly  half  the 
American  continent  was  represented — Acadia 
and  Canada,  first  settled  by  France,  the 
Northwest  prairies,  first  traversed  by  French- 
Canadian  adventurers,  the  Pacific  Coast,  first 
seen  by  Cook  and  Vancouver.  There,  too, 
marched  men  from  Bengal,  Madras,  Bombay, 
Jeypore,  Hyderabad,  Kashmir,  Punjaub — 
from  all  sections  of  that  great  empire  of  In- 
dia, which  was  won  for  England  by  Clive 
and  the   men   who,    like   Wolfe,   became   fa- 


548 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


mous  for  their  achievements  in  the  days  of 
Pitt. 

It  was  a  procession  which  illustrated  the 
content  and  development  of  the  many  col- 
onies and  dependencies  which  cover  in  the 
aggregate  eleven  millions  of  English  square 
miles  and  are  peopled  by  four  hundred  mil- 
lions of  souls  representing  many  races  and 
every  color  and  creed.  It  was  a  great  object 
lesson  to  the  world  of  the  blessings  of  peace, 
and  of  the  prosperous  development  of  col- 
onies under  the  liberal  system  of  government 
which  has  been  one  of  the  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  the  Victorian  era.  Since  that  mem- 
orable "  Diamond  Jubilee "  the  dependen- 
cies have  been  called  upon  to  give  expression 
of  their  love  for  the  Queen,  and  of  their  de- 
termination to  maintain  the  unitv  and  secur- 
ity of  the  Empire,  by  sending  their  sons  to 
fight  in  South  Africa  alongside  of  troops 
from  the  parent  isles.  The  entrance  of  the 
Australian  Commonwealth  into  the  rank  of 
federal  states  is  also  another  illustration  of 
the  beneficent  influences  of  the  reign  of  a 
Queen  who  passed  away  almost  simultane- 
ously with  the  accomplishment  of  this  mem- 
orable event  in  colonial  history. 

I  cannot  close  this  story  of  the  Victorian 
era  without  saying  that  while  the  greatness 
of  the  Queen  as  a  constitutional  sovereign 
has  won  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all 
classes  and  strengthened  the  throne,  her 
lovable  qualities  as  wife  and  mother  have 
always  touched  a  sympathetic  chord  which 
has  brought  her  closer  to  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  All  the  world  has  known  of  her 
great  love  for  her  noble  husband,  Prince 
Albert,  during  twenty-one  years  of  the 
happiest  married  life,  and  how,  when  these 
ties  were  severed,  she  mourned  him  during 
many  years  of  seclusion  from  stately  court 
festivities  and  ceremonies.  Her  affection  for 
her  children  and  grandchildren  was  un- 
bounded. Her  greatest  happiness  was  in  her 
home  life  and,  amid  the  cares  and  responsi- 
bilities of  her  royal  station,  she  never  forgot 


to    show    the   kindliness    and   affection   ol   a 
true   woman. 

As  I  close  this  short  review  of  the  reign 
of  the  great  Queen  I  hear  the  city  bells  yet 
tolling  because  of  her  death.     A  few  hours 
later  a  royal  proclamation  will  announce  in 
all  parts  of  the  British  Empire,  amid  the  roar 
of  cannon,  the  accession  of  Al- 
"  The_      bert    Edward.      By   the    English 
Queen  is    law,    the    throne    can    never    be 
Dead —      vacant.     George  or  William   or 
Long  Live  Victoria  may  die,  but  a  King  or 
the         Queen   ever  reigns.     The  acces- 
sing! "     sion    of    an    heir    to    the    crown 
is    instantaneous,    tho   the   coro- 
nation  of  the   new   sovereign,   being  merely 
a  confirmation  of  the  royal  title,  is  generally 
delayed   for   some  time — a  year  in  the  case 
of  the  late  Queen — to  allow  a  proper  period 
for  national  mourning  before  the  great  cere- 
monies and  festivals  attendant  on  such  occa- 
sions. 

With  the  accession  of  a  new  sovereign 
there  is  practically  no  derangement  of  the 
machinery  of  government.  A  few  formali- 
ties— the  taking  of  a  new  oath  of  allegiance 
by  all  officials,  for  instance — have  to  be  car- 
ried out  without  delay,  but  the  executive 
authority  everywhere  is  continuous,  and  in 
the  parent  state  and  in  all  the  dependencies 
of  the  crown  remains  in  existence.  The 
imperial  legislature  alone  is  obligated  to 
meet  immediatel3^ 

The  Victorian  era  has  closed,  and  a  new 
epoch,  with  all  its  doubts  and  possibilities, 
commences  with  the  twentieth  century.  Brit- 
ish subjects  everywhere  believe  that  the 
noble  example  of  his  illustrious  mother  will 
influence  the  character  and  conduct  of  her 
son  on  the  throne  which  she  long  adorned. 
As  loyal  subjects  of  the  crown  we  give  our 
loyal  allegiance  to  the  King,  while  at  the 
same  time  we  mourn  the  loss  of  a  great 
Queen  and  a  noble  woman,  whom  all  genera- 
tions to  come  throughout  the  British  Em- 
pire will  ever  call  blessed. — Col.  W. 


EDWARD  VII.,  KING  OF  ENGLAND 


By  Arnold  White 


King  Edward  VII.  was  born  at  Bucking- 
ham   Palace,    November    9,    1841.      He    was 
specially  educated  to  occupy  the  throne,  and 
underwent   a  course   of  training 
Early       at  the  hands  of  numerous  tutors. 
Years      and  passed  through  a  portion  of 
of  the      the    curriculum    at    Edinburgh, 
King       Oxford,  and  Cambridge.    Kmgs- 
ley    taught    him    history ;    Lyon 
Playfair,  afterwards   Lord   Playfair,   chemis- 
try;   Dean    Stanley,   theology;    the   Duke   of 
Newcastle,  politics  ;  Doctor  Schmitz,  Roman 
history;    Mr.    Fisher,    law    and    history.      A 
good   many   people   at  the  time   thought   the 
young  prince  was  being  overeducated.     The 
popular    conviction    was    well    expressed    in 
some  lines  that  appeared  in  Punch  in  1859: 


Dipped   in   gray   Oxford   mixture    (lest  that 
prove  a  fixture), 
The  poor  lad's  to  be  plunged  in  less  or- 
thodox Cam., 
Where  dynamics  and  statics,  and  pure  mathe- 
matics. 
Will  be  piled  on  his  brain's  awful  cargo 
of  Cram. 

Edward  was  always  fond  of  fiction — Eng- 
lish. French,  and  German — and  at  this  period 
formed  a  liking  for  Sir  Walter  Scott,  which 
he  never  lost.  Books  of  stirring  incident  by 
land  and  sea.  naval  battles,  especially  those 
relating  to  English  history  and  works  of 
imagination,  like  Arnold  Forster's  In  a  Con- 
NiNG-TowER,  possessed  great  attraction  for 
the  Prince. 


EMPIRE  DAY 


549 


The  part  of  his  education  which  has  left 
the  greatest  impression  upon  his  mind  and 
character  was  that  derived  from  the  tour  in 
Canada  and  the  United  States,  which  was 
made  in  i860.  The  first  place  on  which  he 
set  foot  in  the  British  Empire  outside  the 
United  Kingdom  was  at  St.  John's,  New- 
foundland. The  reason  of  the  visit  was  that 
during  the  Crimean  war,  Canada  had  come 
to  the  help  of  the  mother-country  and  had 
levied  and  equipped  a  regiment  of  foot.  In 
return  the  Queen  was  asked  to  visit  what 
is  now  the  Dominion,  but  so  long  a  journey 
■was  considered  unadvisable  for  the  monarch 
to  undertake.  The  Queen  was  then  invited 
to  appoint  one  of  her  sons  as  Governor- 
General,  but  they  were  little  more  than  chil- 
dren, and  the  proposal  was  negatived.  A 
compromise  was  effected  by  a  promise  that 
the  Prince  of  Wales  should  visit  Canada  in 
the  Queen's  stead.  The  promise  was  ful- 
filled when  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  seven- 
teen, and  in  July,  i860,  H.M.S.  Hero,  es- 
corted by  the  Ariadne,  now  a  store  hulk  at 
Portsmouth  employed  by  the  torpedo  de- 
partment, conveyed  the  Prince  to  North 
America.  When  the  visit  to  Canada  was 
over,  the  Prince  crossed  to  the 

Visit  to     United   States   on   the   night   of 

America  the  20th  of  September,  leavmg 
behind  him  his  titular  rank  and 
appearing  on  republican  soil  as  Lord  Ren- 
frew. At  Detroit  the  Prince  and  his  com- 
panions could  not  get  to  their  hotel  owing 
to  the  crowds.  The  city  was  illuminated. 
If  George  Washington  had  come  to  life,  it 
was  alleged,  there  could  not  have  been 
greater  enthusiasm  or  curiosity  displayed  by 
the  people.  On  visiting  Washington  during 
the  presidency  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  Prince 
staid  at  the  White  House  for  five  days,  and 
made  the  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Vernon  and 
the  tomb  of  Washington.  The  Times  cor- 
respondent of  the  period  described  the  scene 
as  follows : 

"  Before  this  humble  tomb,  the  Prince, 
the  President,  and  all  the  party  stood  uncov- 
ered. It  is  easy  moralizing  on  this  visit,  for 
there  is  something  grandly  suggestive  of 
historical  retribution  in  the  reverential  awe 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  great-grandson 
of  George  III.,  standing  bareheaded  at  the 
foot  of  the  coffin  of  Washington.  For  a 
few  moments  the  party  stood  mute  and  mo- 
tionless, and  the  Prince  then  proceeded  to 
plant  a  chestnut  by  the  side  of  the  tomb. 
It  seemed,  when  the  royal  youth  closed  in  the 
earth  around  the  little  germ,  that  he  was 
burying  the  last  faint  trace  of  discord  be- 
tween us  and  our  great  brethren  in  the 
West." 

There  have  been  a  few  traces  of  discord 
since  then,  but  perhaps  the  anticipations  of 
the  leading  journal  were  only  premature. 
During  the  Prince's  visit  in  the  States,  po- 
litical feeling  was  running  high,  and  after  a 
good  deal  of  discussion  it  was  decided  that 
he  should  visit  the  slave  states.  He  went 
a  short  tour  to  Richmond,  but  a  great  slave 
sale,  which  had  been  advertised  to  be  held 
during  the  time  at  which  the  Prince  was  to 


be  present  at  Richmond,  was  postponed  so  as 
not  to  offend  British  susceptibilities.  He 
was  taken  to  one  plantation,  but  flatly  re- 
fused to  leave  his  carriage  in  order  to  visit 
the  negro  quarters.  When  the  Prince  left 
Washington  for  the  South,  President  Bu- 
chanan wrote  a  letter  to  the  Queen,  in  which 
he  spoke  of  his  departing  guest  in  the  fol- 
lowing terms :  "  In  our  domestic  circle  he 
has  won  all  hearts.  His  free  and  ingenuous 
intercourse  with  myself  evinced  both  a  kind 
heart  and  a  good  understanding.''  Three 
thousand  guests  were  asked  to  meet  him  on 
his  return  north  to  New  York.  All  the 
ladies  wore  crinolines  in  those  days,  but 
many  of  them  were  important  people,  and 
therefore  arrived  at  a  time  of  life  when 
dancing  had  become  a  reminiscence  and 
ceased  to  be  a  pleasure.  They  represented 
the  solid  element  in  New  York  society.  So 
solid,  in  fact,  that  the  floor  gave  way,  and 
it  is  a  wonder  that  no  serious  accident  took 
place.  At  Albany  and  Boston  the  Prince 
had  the  honor  of  meeting  Longfellow,  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  and  Emerson.  He  visited 
Harvard  College,  planted  two  trees  at  Mount 
Auburn,  and  drove  out  to  Bunker  Hill.  On 
the  20th  of  October  the  Prince  reembarked 
on  board  the  Hero,  and  on  the  way  home 
was  reduced  to  salt  provisions,  as  the  voy- 
age was  greatly  retarded  by  heavy  weather. 
On  the  15th  of  November  he  arrived,  and 
from  that  day  to  this  he  has  preserved  a 
lively  and  sincere  liking  for  the  American 
people,  which  has  been  repeatedly  evinced, 
not  always  to  the  satisfaction  of  some  of  his 
former  subjects,  jealous  of  cousinly  influ- 
ence. 

The  next  event  in  the  Prince's  life  was  his 
return  to  Cambridge,  where  he  was  a  young 
undergraduate  member  of  Trinity  College. 
He  was  not  allowed  much  free- 
Back  at  dom,  and  his  governor,  Colonel 
College  Bruce,  had  strict  orders  from 
the  Queen  not  to  allow  him 
to  make  journeys  unaccompanied.  On  one 
occasion  the  Prince  made  a  dash  up  to  Lon- 
don by  himself.  Both  his  absence  and  his 
destination  were  discovered  before  he  could 
reach  town,  and  the  enterprising  young  man 
was  surprised  and  mortified  on  his  arrival 
at  Paddington  Station  at  being  met  by  the 
station-master  and  royal  servants,  who  had 
been  sent  from  Buckingham  Palace  for  the 
purpose.  Shortly  after  this  interesting  event, 
the  Prince  was  summoned  to  the  bedside  of 
his  dying  father.  Only  a  few  days  before. 
Prince  Albert  had  visited  the  Prince  of 
Wales  at  Cambridge,  and  had  caught  the 
cold  from  which  he  never  recovered.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  was  deeply  attached  to  his 
father,  and  the  only  occasion  on  which  his 
fortitude  has  deserted  him  was  after  Prince 
Albert's  coffin  had  been  lowered  into  the 
vault,  and  the  eldest  son  of  the  dead  Prince, 
advancing  to  take  a  last  look,  burst  into  a 
flood  of  tears  which  he  was  unable  to  con- 
ceal. 

At  this  period  of  his  life,  broad-minded 
Arthur  Stanley,  Dean  of  Westminster,  and 
Laurence  Oliphant  exercised  a  deep  influence 


550 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


over  his  character.  With  Doc- 
Trip  to  tor  Stanley  the  Prince  visited 
the  Holy  the  Holy  Land,  and  together 
Land  they  reached  the  closely  guarded 
cave  of  Machpelah.  Even  to 
royal  personages,  the  mosque  of  Hebron 
had  remained  absolutely  barred  for  nearly 
seven  hundred  years,  and  the  Turkish  official 
in  charge  declared  that  "  for  no  one  but  for 
the  eldest  son  of  the  Queen  of  England  would 
he  have  allowed  the  gate  to  be  opened;  in- 
deed, the  princes  of  any  other  nation  should 
have  passed  over  his  body  before  doing  so." 
The  Prince  of  Wales,  with  characteristic 
kindness,  made  Doctor  Stanley's  entrance 
with  himself  a  condition  of  his  going  in  at 
all.  and  when  Stanley  thanked  him  for  the 
great  opportunity,  the  young  man  answered 
with  some  point,  "  High  station,  you  see,  sir, 
has,  after  all,  some  merits,  some  advantages." 
Since  then  the  Marquis  of  Bute  has  entered 
the  cave,  and,  I  believe,  a  few  others. 

In  the  Cathedral  of  Worms  during  the 
Prince's  foreign  tour  in  1861  he  met  his 
future  wife  for  the  first  time.  At  Heidel- 
berg he  met  her  again  when  staying  with  his 
sister,  the  Crown-Princess  of  Prussia.  In 
September,   1862,  they  were  betrothed. 

Before  the  Prince  had  seen  his  future  wife, 
he  was  much  attracted  to  her  by  a  photo- 
graph which  had  been  shown  him  by  a 
friend.  Actual  negotiations  were 
Married  impending  with  a  view  to  a 
contract  of  marriage  with  a 
German  princess,  but  after  he  had  seen  the 
beautiful  Dane,  the  project  of  a  Teutonic 
alliance  was  immediately  abandoned.  I  re- 
member the  landing  of  the  Princess  Alex- 
andra and  her  passage  through  the  streets 
of  London  on  the  7th  of  March,  1863.  From 
Whitechapel  to  Piccadilly  the  metropolis  was 
lavishly  decorated,  and  the  streets  were 
crammed,  as  thirty-four  years  later  they  were 
crowded  to  do  honor  to  the  Princess's 
mother-in-law.  The  Queen's  recent  be- 
reavement was  the  one  blot  upon  the  happy 
day.  A  photograph  is  in  existence  depicting 
the  Princess  in  pure  white,  orange  blossoms 
in  her  hair,  and  the  crinoline  of  the  period, 
standing  by  the  Queen  swathed  in  dense 
crape  from  head  to  foot,  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  slim,  frock-coated,  and  rather  gloomy, 
standing  between  his  mother  and  a  great 
white  bust  of  his  father,  placed  on  a  pedestal, 
at  which  the  Queen  is  gazing,  thinking,  no 
doubt,  of  her  own  wedding-day. 

Early  in  the  following  January  the  Princess 
of  Wales  was  skating  at  Virginia  Water, 
near  Windsor,  when  she  was  obliged  to  quit 
the  ice.  and  the  same  day  the  news  was  pub- 
lished that  an  heir-presumptive  to  the  British 
throne  was  born.  The  great  rejoicings  over 
the  event  were  marred  by  the  war  between 
Denmark  and  Prussia.  At  breakfast,  one 
morning,  it  is  related,  a  tactless  equerry 
read  out  a  telegram  announcing  the  success 
of  the  German  forces.  The  Princess  of 
Wales  burst  into  tears,  while  the  Prince, 
solicitous  for  his  wife,  rated  the  equerrv  in 
vernacular  English.  Sympathy  with  Den- 
mark, and  dislike  of  Germany  pervaded  so- 


ciety at  this  time,  and  antipathy  to  the 
Teuton  smolders  until  this  day,  notwith- 
standing identity  of  interest  in  certain  vexed 
questions  of  European  politics,  and  the  recent 
understanding  as  to  Delagoa  Bay  and  Egypt. 
The  influence  of  the  Princess  of  Wales  in 
creating  sympathy  for  Denmark  extended  to 
her  young  brothers  and  sisters-in-law.  It  is 
related  that  about  this  period  a  royal  guest 
at  Windsor  asked  Princess  Beatrice  what 
she  would  like  for  a  present.  A  whispered 
consultation  with  the  Princess  of  Wales 
took  place,  when  the  little  Princess  Beatrice 
spake  valiantly  with  her  tongue  and  said  that 
she  would  like  to  have  Bismarck's  head  on  a 
charger. 

Perhaps  the  most  marked  characteristic  of 
King  Edward  during  the  whole  of  his  life 
has  been  his  phenomenal  activity  of  mind 
and  body.  His  keen  interest  in  firemen  and 
fires  is  indicative  of  this  quality.  It  is  re- 
membered in  court  circles  that  the  assem- 
blage of  6,000  men  of  the  fire  department  of 
New  York  during  his  American  visit  gave 
the  Prince  of  Wales  greater  pleasure  than 
any  other  sight.  Like  the  late  Duke  of 
Sutherland,  the  King  formerly  was  a  first- 
rate  amateur  fireman.  He  attended  during 
many  years  of  his  life  most  of  the  great 
London  fires. 

In  1869  the  Prince  of  Wales,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  paid  a  visit  to  Egypt,  and  as- 
cended the  Nile  as  far  as  the  ruins  of  Carnac. 

The  Suez  Canal  formed  one  of 
Travel      the    most    interesting    points    of 

the  tour.  M.  de  Lesseps  re- 
ceived and  escorted  them.  It  may  now  be 
recalled  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  performed 
the  important  ceremony  of  opening  the 
sluices  of  the  dam  across  the  then  finished 
portion  of  the  canal,  thus  letting  the  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean  into  the  empty  basin 
of  the  bitter  lakes.  In  1871  the  Prince  paid 
an  incognito  visit  to  the  battlefield  of  Sedan. 
He  was  accompanied  by  General  Teesdale. 
The  French  susceptibilities  were  highly  in- 
flamed at  the  time,  and  it  was  important  that 
his  identity  should  not  be  suspected.  Put- 
ting up  at  a  hotel,  the  time  came  to  pay  the 
bill,  when  General  Teesdale,  the  Prince's 
aide-de-camp,  found  that  he  had  no  cash. 
The  Prince  was  in  the  same  condition.  It 
was  impossible  to  telegraph,  as  the  identity 
of  the  party  would  have  been  discovered  by 
the  French,  and  it  would  have  been  univer- 
sally believed  that  the  Prince  was  visiting 
Sedan  in  order  to  exhibit  his  elation  at  his 
brother-in-law's  victories.  After  a  good  deal 
of  discussion  the  Prince's  watch  and  that  of 
his  aide-de-camp  were  taken  by  the  latter  to 
the  local  pawn-shop,  and  the  necessary  funds 
were  thus  raised  to  rescue  his  Royal  High- 
ness from  an  awkward  predicament. 

The  month  of  December  is  notoriously  un- 
lucky to  the  reigning  house  of  England.  In 
November,  1871.  the  Prince,  his  groom,  and 

Lord   Chesterfield,   who  had   all 
Illness     been  on  a  visit  to  Lord  Lundes- 

burgh,  at  Scarborough,  were 
stricken  with  typhoid  fever.  The  peer  and 
the  groom  died,  and  for  many  days  the  issue 


EMPIRE  DAY 


551 


was  considered  exceedingly  doubtful  in  the 
case  of  the  Prince.  No  such  public  expres- 
sion of  emotion  had  ever  taken  place  since 
the  death  of  Princess  Charlotte  in  1817.  The 
bulletins  were  watched  with  breathless  inter- 
est. Sir  William  Jenner  and  the  late'  Sir 
William  Gull  exhausted  themselves  in  their 
efforts  to  save  the  Prince.  Strange  reme- 
dies were  tried.  A  sheep  was  killed,  and  its 
warm  and  smoking  fleece  was  wrapped  round 
the  pallid  and  nerveless  body  of  the  Prince. 
When  he  was  actually  in  extremis  one  of  his 
medical  attendants  rubbed  his  patient's  body 
with  a  large  quantity  of  old  champagne 
brandy  until  returning  animation  rewarded 
his  efforts.  The  turning-point  in  the  illness 
took  place  when  the  Prince  asked  for  a  tank- 
ard of  British  ale.  This  he  drank,  and  never 
looked  back  afterwards.  A  great  national 
thanksgiving  was  held  at  St.  Paul's,  which 
was  attended  by  the  Prince,  but  a  private 
service  of  thanksgiving  was  held  in  the 
abbey,  which  was  described  by  Dean  Stanley 
in  a  letter  to  an  intimate  correspondent 
which  has  since  seen  the  light.  One  passage 
is  still  of  interest.  The  Dean  wrote :  "  It 
was  one  of  those  rare  occasions  on  which  I 
was  able  to  say  all  that  I  wished  to  say." 

King  Edward's  catholicity  is  the  object 
both  of  censure  and  praise.  The  King  pro- 
foundly believes  that  while  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  every  one  in  the 
The        world    should   believe   the    same 

King's  thing,  every  one  should  believe 
Catholicity  something,  and  should  act  up  to 
his  religious  belief.  His  catho- 
licity is  well  illustrated  by  the  following  ex- 
tract from  a  letter  of  Archbishop  Magee, 
written  in  December,  1873.  He  is  speaking 
of  a  visit  to  Sandringham  from  Saturday 
to  Monday :  "  Just  returned  from  church 
where  I  preached  for  twenty-six  minutes 
(Romans  viii:28).  The  church  is  a  very 
small  country  one,  close  to  the  grounds.  The 
house,  as  I  saw  it  by  daylight,  is  a  handsome 
country  house  of  red  stone  with  white 
facings,  standing  well  and  looking  quietly 
comfortable  ,and  suitable.  I  find  the  com- 
pany pleasant  and  civil,  but  we  are  a  curious 
mixture.  Two  Jews,  Sir  A.  Rothschild  and 
his  daughter ;  an  ex-Jew,  Disraeli ;  a  Roman 
Catholic,  Colonel  Higgins;  an  Italian 
duchess,  who  is  an  English  woman,  and  her 
daughter  brought  up  as  a  Roman  Catholic 
and  now  turning  Protestant ;  a  set  of  young 
lords,  and  a  bishop.  The  Jewess  came  to 
church ;  so  did  the  half-Protestant  young 
lady.  Dizzy  did  the  same,  and  was  profuse 
in  his  praises  of  my  sermon.  We  are  all  to 
lunch  together  in  a  few  minutes,  the  children 
dining  with  us.  They  seem,  the  two  I  saw  in 
church,  nice,  clever-looking  little  bodies,  and 
very  like  their  mother."  The  daughter  of 
Sir  Anthony  Rothschild  referred  to  is  the 
present  Lady  Battersea,  better  known  as  Mrs. 
Cyril  Flower. 

Death  has  removed  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
King's  warmest  and  most  intimate  friends. 
The  loss  of  Laurence  Oliphant,  who  fell 
under  the  influence  of  the  fanatic  Harris  in 
later  life,  was  a  great  calamity.     Oliphant  is 


deeply  mourned  by  the  King  to  this  day.  In 
1875  the  death  of  Canon  Kingsley  came  as  a 
great  blow. 

In  1875  the  Prince  of  Wales  went  to  India. 
The  House  of  Commons  voted  a  sum  of 
$300,000  for  the  personal  expenses  of  the 
party.  The  Admiralty  set  aside 
Goes  to  $260,000  as  the  expenses  of  the 
India  voyage  of  the  Serapis  to  and 
from  India.  The  appropriation 
was  not  unanimously  carried  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Mr.  Fawcett,  a  blind  member, 
whose  favorite  title  was  that  of  Member  for 
India,  objected  to  the  vote.  Thirty-thxce 
members  agreed  with  him.  Disraeli,  was 
then  Prime  Minister,  and  in  supporting  the 
vote,  his  Oriental  imagination  revelled  in 
depicting  the  pomp  with  which  the  Prince 
would  be  surrounded  and  the  pageants  that 
would  adorn  his  progress.  Lord  Charles 
Beresford  was  the  life  of  the  party,  and 
many  were  the  escapades  contributed  to  the 
enjoyment  of  the  Prince  and  the  suite  by  one 
who  is  now  a  grave  Rear-Admiral  in  the 
British  navy.  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  the  Duke  of 
Sutherland,  and  Earl  Grey  also  accompanied 
the  Prince. 

In  Ceylon  the  party  went  up  country  to  see 
the  process  of  elephant-catching,  and  also  to 
give  the  Prince  his  first  experience  of  big- 
game  shooting.  The  shikari  of 
Elephant-  the  party  was  Mr.  F.  C.  Fisher, 
Catching  now  the  chief  commissioner  of 
one  of  the  most  important  prov- 
inces in  Ceylon.  The  first  time  that  a  sports- 
man goes  up  to  an  elephant  in  the  jungle 
is  trying  to  the  nerves.  The  elephant  is 
almost  indistinguishable  from  the  trunks  of 
the  trees  and  the  undergrowth,  and  at  the 
distance  of  a  few  yards  he  is  almost  invisi- 
ble. Nothing  but  the  constant  flapping  of 
his  ears  reveals  his  position  to  the  tyro.  The 
facility  with  which  an  elephant  can  make  his 
way  through  the  bamboo  undergrowth  of  a 
Ceylon  jungle  almost  impenetrable  to  a  biped 
gives  him  a  distinct  advantage  over  a  sports- 
man. To  kill  an  elephant  under  such  cir- 
cumstances requires  coolness  and  an  exact 
aim.  The  etiquette  of  elephant-shooting  in 
Ceylon  requires  that  he  shall  only  be  hit  in 
the  head,  body  shots  being  likely  to  maim 
without  stopping  the  animal.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  was  charged  by  an  elephant  under 
these  circumstances,  and  displayed  as  much 
coolness  and  skill  as  if  he  had  been  engaged 
in  the  sport  all  his  life.  So  much  so  that 
even  a  shikrri  of  Mr.  Fisher's  standing  ex- 
pressed the  warmest  admiration  for  the 
Prince's  skill,  courage,  and  self-control. 

Descriptions  of  the  Prince's  visit  to  India 
have  been  repeatedly  published,  but  there  is 
one  unrecorded  incident  thit  may  be  re- 
counted, which  throws  a  light  upon  the 
Prince's  tact  and  presence  of  mind.  It  was 
related  to  me  by  an  eye-witness,  a  high 
official  in  the  Indian  government.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  Indian  princes  are  constantly 
striving  among  themselves  to  obtain  greater 
recognition  from  the  Indian  government  in 
the  form  of  an  addition  to  the  number  of 
guns  to  which  they  are  entitled  as  a  salute. 


552 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


To  accomplish  this  end  they  do  not  hesitate 
on  occasion  to  encroach  on  the  rights  of 
others.  The  Prince  was  not  supposed  to 
hold  durbars,  but  his  ceremonial  receptions 
were  in  every  way  as  impressive  and  remark- 
able as  if  they  had  carried  full  official  signifi- 
cance. At  one  of  these  receptions  a  great 
number  of  native  princes  and  rajahs  paid 
their  respects  in  person  to  the  future  Em- 
peror of  India.  The  Prince  stood  on  a  small 
carpet  upon  which  no  other  person  was  sup- 
posed to  tread.  The  late  Maharajah  Sindia, 
desirous  of  impressing  the  multitude  with  his 
importance  and  virtual  equality  with  the  son 
of  the  Queen  of  England,  gradually  edged 
his  way  upon  the  carpet  as  he  exchanged 
compliments  with  the  Prince.  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  whispered  a  few  words  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  on  which  the  latter  quietly,  but 
with  the  greatest  dignity,  before 
Diplomacy  thousands  of  eagerly  watching 
eyes,  stretched  out  his  hand  and 
gently  edged  the  Oriental  to  his  proper  place. 
The  act  was  so  quietly  done  and  with  such 
simple  dignity  that  the  newspaper  corre- 
spondents present  took  no  notice  of  the  inci- 
dent. The  fact,  however,  of  Sindia  being 
made  to  retire  from  the  carpet  on  which  the 
Prince  stood  was  whispered  throughout  the 
bazars  of  India,  and  according  to  my  in- 
formant produced  a  greater  effect  on  native 
opinion  than  many  a  bloody  victory  had  done 
in  the  past. 

The  effect  of  the  Prince's  visit  to  India 
amply  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  those  who 
were  responsible  for  its  conception. 

The  influence  of  travel  upon  men  in  high 
place  is  generally  admitted  to  enlarge  the 
sympathies  and  widen  the  outlook.  Altho 
King  Edward  has  visited  India 
The  and  Canada,  he  has  never  seen 
Prince's  Australia  or  the  Cape.  I  have 
Tastes  already  referred  to  his  taste  in 
literature,  but  it  is  difficult  not 
to  associate  his  foreign  travels  with  the  con- 
tents of  the  shelves  of  that  section  of  the 
Sandringham  libraries  which  were  the  special 
favorites  of  his  Royal  Highness.  One  who 
had  the  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  books 
declares  that  the  history  of  our  own  country, 
and  especially  the  history  of  our  own  time, 
form  the  majority  of  the  volumes.  The 
Indian  mutiny  occupies  several  shelves.  The 
King  has  made  a  practise  of  buying  official 
reports,  memoirs,  novels,  and  every  new 
work  connected  with  the  public  and  private 
administration  of  India.  The  bibliography  of 
the  Crimean  war  is  also  well  represented  in 
his  library.  Colonial  history  and  blue  books, 
works  of  sea  power,  and  the  naval  prowess 
of  British  admirals,  dead  and  gone,  also  give 
evidence  of  the  King's  tastes. 

People  whose  point  of  contact  with  the 
King  when  he  was  Prince  of  Wales  was  re- 
stricted to  the  Terrace  at  Homburg  or  at 
crowded  receptions  in  London  have  some- 
times drawn  a  contrast  between  him  and 
Prince  Albert,  his  father.  The  truth  of  the 
matter  is  that  a  strong  affinity  exists  between 
the  subject  of  this  paper  and  men  of  serious 
and  even   Puritanic  type.     With  his  father, 


Prince  Albert,  he  has  far  more  in  common 
than  is  generally  supposed.  The  late  Prince- 
Consort  virtually  invented  Exhibitions.  As 
Prince  of  Wales,  the  King  developed  the 
idea,  and  by  so  doing  has  contributed  enor- 
mously to  the  enjoyment  and  instruction  of 
large  masses  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  and 
indeed  of  the  civilized  world.  As  executive 
president  of  various  British  commissions  he 
has  carried  out  his  father's  wi:.hes  in  a  man- 
ner that  would  have  delighted  that  great  and 
good  man  had  he  survived  to  watch  his  son's 
success  in  combining  affability  with  business 
sense  and  shrewdness. 

It  should  never  have  been  forgotten,  when 
listening  to  stories  of  Prince  Albert  Edward 
of  Wales,  that  when  anything  was  said  to 
his  discredit,  he  alone,  of  all  Englishmen, 
was  unable  to  reply.  Since  he  arrived  at 
man's  estate  he  has  been  the  target  of  slander 
and  of  reckless  and  malignant  aspersion  by 
people  of  whom  the  Psalmist  wrote,  "  The 
poison  of  asps  is  under  their  tongues."  I 
have  very  strong  reason  to  believe  that  the 
malignant  stories  circulated  about  the  Prince 
of  Wales  are  absolutely  false.  In  the  Tranby 
Croft  baccarat  case,  which  attracted  so  much 
attention  a  few  years  ago,  the  Prince  was 
severely  blamed  in  some  quarters  for  carry- 
ing with  him  cards  and  markers.  It  is,  I 
believe,  a  fact  that  they  were  the  gifts  of 
the  Princess  of  Wales.  Many  people  object 
to  card-playing,  but  others  do  not,  and.  after 
all,  how  many  people  in  the  Prince  of 
Wales'  place  would  have  made  as  many 
friends  and  as  few  enemies  as  the  King  has 
done? 

Many   of   Prince   Albert    Edward's    duties 
were   unspeakably  distasteful,   and  after  the 
death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence  an  increase  in 
the    burden    of    state    fell    upon 
The         him.      His    correspondence    was 
Prince's     enormous.     The  social  duties  of 
Duties      the  crown  largely  devolved  upon 
the     Prince     and     Princess     of 
Wales,  while  in  other  respects  they  had  the 
disadvantages   of   private   station.     Marlbor- 
ough House  was  taxed  at  $5,000  a  year  for 
the  rates  of  the  Parish  of  St.  Martin,  while 
the    Prince's    telegraph   bill    is    said   to   have 
been  over  $5,000  a  year.     Neither  letters  nor 
telegrams   are   franked,   and  the  demand  on 
his  purse  for  charities  has  always  been  enor- 
mous.    Local  ceremonies  in  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom   have   required   his   presence    under 
varying  conditions,  and  if  they  have  been  at 
times  irksome  the  fact  has  been  considerately 
and  successfully   concealed.     Here  is  an  in- 
stance:   In   1894  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Wales   attended  the  musical  carnival   of  the 
Welsh  known  as  the  Eisteddfod,  held  at  Car- 
narvon.    They  were  received  with  much  en- 
thusiasm and  were  initiated  into  the  Druidic 
rites,  the  Prince  of  Wales  under  the  name  of 
lorweth     Dywysog     (Edward    the     Prince), 
the   Princess   of   Wales   as   Hoffder   Prydain 
(Britain's  delight),  and  the  Princess  Victoria 
of    Wales    as    Buddug    (Boadicea).      Fancy 
one's  daughter  being  publicly  hailed  as  Bud- 
dug! 
Those  who  read  the  King's  character  only 


EMPIRE  DAY 


553 


by  the  glittering  light  of  fashionable  society- 
fall  into  error.  During  the  whole  of  his  life- 
time he  has  lived  under  the  shadow  of  the 
greatest  responsibility  that  can  fall  to  the  lot 
of  any  man — to  be  King  of  England.  A 
better  King  than  Edward  VII.  will  be  it  is 
possible  to  conceive,  because  he  is  not  per- 
fect, and  does  not  pretend  to  be.  He  loves 
England,  hates  humbug,  enjoys  sport,  the 
play,  music,  and  a  good  dinner,  and  is 
thought  none  the  less  of  by  his  countrymen 
on  that  account. 


The  common-sense  distinctive  of  Queen 
Victoria  descends  to  her  eldest  son,  and  if 
his  ideals  are  sometimes  considered  to  fall 
short  of  the  standard  set  up  for  other  people 
by  the  unco  guid,  it  is  not  that  the  King 
does  not  believe  them,  but  that  he  does  not 
talk  about  them.  It  is  impossible  in  the  na- 
ture of  things  that  Edward's  reign  will 
be  a  long  one.  It  is  satisfactory  to  know, 
however,  that  the  scepter  so  worthily  held 
by  a  good  woman  has  passed  into  the 
hands   of   an    English   gentleman. — H.  W. 


ADDRESSES 
THE  RACES  AND  CLASSES  OF  ENGLAND* 

By  Lord  Beaconsfield 


After  all,  the  test  of  political  institutions 
is  the  condition  of  the  country  whose  for- 
tunes they  regulate ;  and  I  do  not  mean  to 
evade  that  test.  You  are  the  inhabitants  of 
an  island  of  no  colossal  size ;  which,  geo- 
graphically speaking,  was  intended  by  na- 
ture as  the  appendage  of  some  continental 
empire — either  of  Gauls  and  Franks  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Channel,  or  of  Teutons  and 
Scandinavians  beyond  the  German  Sea. 
Such,  indeed,  and  for  a  long  period  was  your 
early  history.  You  were  invaded ;  you  were 
pillaged  and  you  were  conquered ;  yet  amid 
all  these  disgraces  and  vicissitudes  there 
was  gradually  formed  that  English  race 
which  has  brought  about  a  very  different 
state  of  affairs.  Instead  of  being  invaded, 
your  land  is  proverbially  the  only  "  inviolate 
land  " — "  the  inviolate  land  of  the  sage  and 
free."  Instead  of  being  plundered,  you  have 
attracted  to  your  shores  all  the  capital  of  the 
world.  Instead  of  being  conquered,  your  flag 
floats  on  many  waters  and  your  standard 
waves  in  either  zone.  It  may  be  said  that 
these  achievements  are  due  to  the  race  that 
inhabited  the  land,  and  not  to  its  institutions. 
Gentlemen,  in  political  institutions  are  the 
embodied  experiences  of  a  race.  You  have 
established  a  society  of  classes,  which  gives 
vigor  and  variety  to  life.  But  no  class  pos- 
sesses a  single  exclusive  privilege,  and  all  are 
equal  before  the  law.  You  possess  a  real  aris- 
tocracy, open  to  all  who  desire  to  enter  it. 
You  have  not  merely  a  middle  class,  but  a 
hierarchy  of  middle  classes,  in  which  every 
degree  of  wealth,  refinement,  industry,  energy, 
and  enterprise  is  duly  represented. 


And  now,  gentlemen,  what  is  the  condi- 
tion of  the  great  body  of  the  people?  In 
the  first  place,  gentlemen,  they  have  for  cen- 
turies been  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  that 
which  no  other  country  in  Europe  has  ever 
completely  attained — complete  rights  of  per- 
sonal freedom.  In  the  second  place,  there 
has  been  a  gradual  and  therefore  a  wise, 
distribution  on  a  large  scale  of  political 
rights.  Speaking  with  reference  to  the  in- 
dustries of  this  great  part  of  the  country, 
I  can  personally  contrast  it  with  the  condi- 
tion of  the  working  classes  forty  years  ago. 
In  that  period  they  have  attained  two  re- 
sults— the  raising  of  their  wages  and  the 
diminution  of  their  toil.  Increased  means 
and  increased  leisure  are  the  two  civilizers 
of  man.  That  the  working  classes  of  Lanca- 
shire and  Yorkshire  have  proved  not  un- 
worthy of  these  boons  mav  be  easily  main- 
tained; but  their  progress  and  elevation  have 
been,  during  this  interval,  wonderfully  aided 
and  assisted  by  three  causes,  which  are  not 
so  distinctively  attributable  to  their  own  en- 
ergies. The  first  is  the  revolution  in  loco- 
motion, which  has  opened  the  world  to  the 
working  man,  which  has  enlarged  the  hori- 
zon of  his  experience,  increased  his  knowl- 
edge of  nature  and  of  art,  and  added  im- 
mensely to  the  salutary  recreation,  amuse- 
ment, and  pleasure  of  his  existence.  The 
second  cause  is  the  cheap  postage,  the  moral 
benefits  of  which  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
And  the  third  is  that  unshackled  press 
which  has  furnished  him  with  endless  sources 
of  instruction,  information,  and  amuse- 
ment.—W.  B.  O. 


ROMAN  AND   BRITISH    IMPERIALISM  COMPARED  t 

By  John  Bright 


My  Calcutta  critic  assured  me  that  Rome 
pursued  a  similar  policy  (as  ours)  for  a 
period  of  eight  centuries,  and  that  for  those 

•From  Lord  Beaconsfield's    address  on  "The  Meaning  of  Conservatism." 
+  Extract  from  an  address  on  "  Morality  and  Military  Greatness. 


eight  centuries  she  remained  great.  Now,  I 
do  not  think  that  examples  taken  from  pagan, 
sanguinary  Rome  are  proper  models  for  the 


554 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


imitation  of  a  Christian  country,  nor  would 
I  limit  my  hopes  of  the  greatness  of  England 
even  to  the  long  duration  of  eight  hundred 
years. 

But  what  is  Rome  now?  The  great  city 
is  dead.  A  poet  has  described  her  as  "  the 
lone  mother  of  dead  empires."  Her  lan- 
guage even  is  dead.  Her  very  tombs  are 
empty ;  the  ashes  of  her  most  illustrious 
citizens  are  dispersed. 

"  The  Scipios'  tomb  contains  no  ashes 
now."  Yet  I  am  asked.  I,  who  am  one  of 
the  legislators  of  a  Christian  country,  to 
measure  my  policy  by  the  policy  of  ancient 
and  pagan  Rome ! 

I  believe  there  is  no  permanent  greatness 
to  a  nation  except  it  be  based  upon  morality. 
I  do  not  care  for  military  greatness  or  mili- 
tary renown.  I  care  for  the  condition  of  the 
people  among  whom  I  live.  There  is  no 
man  in  England  who  is  less  likely  to  speak 
irreverently  of  the  crown  and  monarchy  of 
England  than  I  am;  but  crowns,  coronets, 
miters,  military  display,  the  pomp  of  war, 
wide  colonies,  and  a  huge  empire  are,  in 
my  view,  all  trifles,  light  as  air,  and  not 
worth  considering,  unless  with  them  you  can 
have  a  fair  share  of  comfort,  contentment, 
and  happiness  among  the  great  body  of  the 
people.  Palaces,  baronial  castles,  great  halls, 
stately  mansions,  do  not  make  a  nation. 
The  nation  in  every  country  dwells  in  the 
cottage ;  and  unless  the  light  of  your  Consti- 
tution can  shine  there,  unless  the  beauty  of 
your  legislation  and  the  excellence  of  your 
statesmanship  are  impressed  there  on  the 
feelings  and  condition  of  the  people,  rely 
upon  it  you  have  yet  to  learn  the  duties  of 
government. 

I  have  not,  as  you  have  observed,  pleaded 
that  this  country  should  remain  without  ade- 
quate and  scientific  means  of  defense.  I 
acknowledge  it  to  be  the  duty  of  your  states- 
men, acting  upon  the  known  opinions  and 
principles  of  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hun- 
dred persons  in  the  country,  at  all  times, 
with  all  possible  moderation,  but  with  all 
possible  efficiencv,  to  take  steps  which  shall 
preserve  order  within  and  on  the  confines  of 
your  kingdom.  But  I  shall  repudiate  and  de- 
nounce the  expenditure  of  every  shilling,  the 
engagement  of  every  man,  the  employment 
of  every  ship,  which  has  no  object  but  inter- 
meddling in  the  affairs  of  other  countries, 
and  endeavoring  to  extend  the  boundaries  of 
an  empire  which  is  already  large  enough  to 
satisfy  the  greatest  ambition,  and  I  fear  is 
much  too  large  for  the  highest  statesman- 
ship to  which  any  man  has  yet  attained. 

The  most  ancient  of  profane  historians 
has  told  us  that  the  Scythians  of  his  time 
were  a  very  warlike  people,  and  that  they 
elevated  an  old  simitar  upon  a  platform  as  a 
symbol  of  Mars,— for  to  Mars  alone,  I  be- 
lieve, they  built  altars  and  offered  sacrifices. 


To  this  simitar  they  offered  sacrifices  of 
horses  and  cattle,  the  main  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  more  costly  sacrifices  than  to 
all  the  rest  of  their  gods.  I  often  ask  my- 
self whether  we  are  at  all  advanced  in  one 
respect  beyond  those  Scythians.  What  are 
our  contributions  to  charity,  to  education,  to 
morality,  to  religion,  to  justice,  and  to  civil 
government,  when  compared  with  the  wealth 
we  expend  in  sacrifices  to  the  old  simitar? 
Two  nights  ago  I  addressed  in  this  hall  a 
vast  assembly  composed,  to  a  great  extent, 
of  your  countrymen  who  have  no  political 
power,  who  are  at  work  from  the  dawn  of 
the  day  to  the  evening,  and  who  have  there- 
fore limited  means  of  informing  themselves 
on  these  great  subjects.  Now  I  am  privileged 
to  speak  to  a  somewhat  different  audience. 
You  represent  those  of  your  great  community 
who  have  a  more  complete  education,  who 
have  on  some  points  greater  intelligence,  and 
in  whose  hands  reside  the  power  and  influ- 
ence of  the  district.  I  am  speaking  too  within 
the  hearing  of  those  whose  gentler  nature, 
whose  finer  instincts,  whose  purer  minds, 
have  not  suffered  as  some  of  us  have  suf- 
fered in  the  turmoil  and  strife  of  life.  You 
can  mold  opinion,  you  can  create  political 
power ; — you  cannot  think  a  good  thought 
on  this  subject  and  communicate  it  to  your 
neighbors,  you  cannot  make  these  points 
topics  of  discussion  in  your  social  circles 
and  more  general  meetings,  without  affect- 
ing sensibly  and  speedily  the  course  which 
the  government  of  your  countrv  will  pursue. 
May  I  ask  you  then,  to  believe,  as  I  do 
most  devoutly  believe,  that  the  moral  law  was 
not  written  for  men  alone  in  their  individual 
character,  but  that  it  was  written  as  well 
for  nations,  and  for  nations  great  as  this 
of  which  we  are  citizens.  If  nations  reject 
and  deride  that  moral  law,  there  is  a  pen- 
alty which  will  inevitably  follow.  It  may 
not  come  at  once,  it  may  not  come  in  your 
lifetime;  but  rely  upon  it,  the  great  Italian 
is  not  a  poet  only,  but  a  prophet,  when  he 
says : — 

"  The   sword  of  heaven  is  not  in  haste  to 

smite, 
Nor  yet  doth  linger." 

We  have  experience,  we  have  beacons,  we 
have  landmarks  enough.  We  know  what  the 
past  has  cost  us,  we  know  how  much  and 
how  far  we  have  wandered,  but  we  are  not 
left  without  a  guide.  It  is  true  we  have  not, 
as  an  ancient  people,  had  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim, — those  oraculous  gems  on  Aaron's 
breast, — from  which  to  take  counsel,  but  we 
have  the  unchangeable  and  eternal  principles 
of  the  moral  lav;  to  guide  us,  and  only  as 
far  as  we  walk  by  that  guidance  can  we  be 
permanently  a  great  nation,  or  our  people  a 
happy  people. 


EMPIRE  DAY 


555 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


AMERICA,  Great  Britain  and. — Let  all 

good  citizens  in  both  England  and  America, 
all  who  desire  the  world's  progress,  strive 
to  preserve  peace  and  international  good- 
will. 

I  appeal  to  you  by  the  unity  of  our  race — 
for,  with  two  governments  we  are  one  peo- 
ple ;  by  the  unity  of  the  grand  old  language 
we  alike  speak,  with  the  thrilling  names  of 
father,  mother,  home,  dear  to  us  alike ;  by 
our  common  literature,  our  Shakespeare, 
who  is  your  Shakespeare,  our  Milton,  who  is 
your  Milton,  our  Longfellows  and  Tenny- 
sons.  side  by  side  in  all  our  libraries ;  I  ap- 
peal to  you  by  the  stirring  memories  of  our 
common  history, — by  those  ancestors  of  both 
our  nations,  who  proved  their  prowess  at 
Hastings,  whether  as  sturdy  Saxons  defend- 
ing the  standard  of  King  Harold,  or  as 
daring  Normans  spurring  their  chivalry  to 
the  trumpet  of  Duke  William, — and  who, 
afterward  united  on  a  better  field,  wrung 
from  a  reluctant  tyrant  that  great  charter 
which  is  the  foundation  of  our  liberties  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic;  I  appeal  to  you 
by  the  stirring  times  when  those  common 
ancestors  lighted  their  beacons  on  every  hill, 
and  rallied  around  a  lion-hearted  Queen,  and 
launched  forth — some  of  them  in  mere  fish- 
ing vessels — against  the  proud  Armada  that 
dared  to  threaten  their  subjugation;  I  ap- 
peal to  you  by  the  struggles  of  the  Common- 
wealth, by  the  memories  of  those  who  put 
to  rout  the  abettors  of  tyranny — Cromwell, 
Hampden,  Sir  Harry  Vane ;  I  appeal  to  you 
by  those  Pilgrim  Fathers  here,  and  by  those 
Puritans  and  Covenanters  who  remained  be- 
hind, by  whose  heroic  sufferings  both  nations 
enjoy  such  freedom  to  worship  God;  I  ap- 
peal to  you  by  the  graves  in  which  our  com- 
mon ancestors  repose, — not  only,  it  may  be, 
beneath  the  stately  towers  of  Westminster, 
but  in  many  an  ancient  village  churchyard, 
where  daisies  grow  on  the  turf-covered 
graves,  and  venerable  yew-trees  cast  over 
them  their  solemn  shade ;  I  appeal  to  you 
by  that  Bible — precious  to  us  both ;  by  that 
gospel  which  our  missionaries  alike  proclaim 
to  the  heathen  world,  and  by  that  Savior 
whom  we  both  adore,  never  let  there  be  strife 
between  nations  whose  conflict  would  be  the 
rushing  together  of  two  Niagaras,  but  whose 
union  will  be  like  the  irresistible  course  of 
two  great  rivers  flowing  on  majestically  to 
fertilize  and  bless  the  world. 

Never  let  our  beautiful  standards — yours 
of  the  stars  and  stripes,  suggesting  the 
lamps  of  night  and  the  rays  of  day.  and  ours 
of  the  clustered  crosses,  telling  of  union  in 
diversity,  and  reminding  of  the  One  Great 
Liberator  and  Peace-Maker,  who,  by  the 
cross,  gave  life  to  the  world — never  let  these 
glorious  standards  be  arrayed  in  hostile 
ranks ;  but  ever  may  they  float  side  by  side, 
leading  on  the  van  of  the  world's  pro- 
gress. 


Oh,  I  can  imagine  that  if  we,  the  heredi- 
tary champions  of  freedom,  were  engaged  in 
strife,  all  the  despots  of  the  earth  would 
clap  their  hands,  and  all  the  demons  in  hell 
would  exult,  while  angels  would  weep  to  see 
these  two  nations  wasting  the  treasure  and 
shedding  the  blood  that  should  be  reserved 
for  the  strife  against  the  common  foes  of 
freedom. 

Never  give  angels  such  cause  of  lamen- 
tation, never  give  despots  and  demons  such 
cause  for  rejoicing;  but  ever  Great  Britain 
and  America— the  mother  and  the  daughter, 
or,  if  you  prefer  it,  the  elder  daughter  and 
the  younger— go  forth  hand  in  hand,  angel 
guardians  together  of  civilization,  freedom, 
and  religion,  their  only  rivalry,  the  rivalry 
of  love. — Newman  Hall. 

BRITISH  EMPIRE,  The.— There  is  not 
a  country  in  the  history  of  the  world  that 
has  undertaken  what  England  in  its  tradi- 
tional established  policy  and  position  has 
undertaken.  There  is  no  precedent  in  hu- 
man history  for  a  formation  like  the  British 
Government.  A  small  island  at  one  ex- 
tremity of  the  globe  peoples  the  whole  earth. 
But  it  is  not  satisfied  with  that;  it  goes 
among  the  ancient  races  of  Asia  and  sub- 
jects 240,000,000  of  people  to  its  rule  there. 
Along  with  all  this,  it  distributes  over  the 
world  a  commerce  such  as  no  imagination 
ever  conceived  in  former  times,  and  such  as 
no  poet  ever  painted.  And  all  this  it  has  to  do 
^yith  a  strength  that  lies  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  these  shores — not  a  strength  that  I 
disparage ;  on  the  contrary  I  wish  to  dissipate 
if  I  can  the  idle  dreams  of  those  who  are  al- 
ways telling  you  that  the  strength  of  Eng- 
land depends  upon  its  prestige,  upon  its  ex- 
tending its  empire  upon  what  it  possesses 
beyond  these  shores.  Rely  upon  it,  the 
strength  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is 
within  the  United  Kingdom.  Whatever  is 
to  be  done  in  defending  and  governing  those 
vast  colonies  with  their  teeming  millions, 
in  protecting  that  unmeasured  commerce,  in 
relation  to  the  enormous  responsibility  of 
India — whatever  is  to  be  done  must  be  done 
by  the  force  to  be  derived  from  you  and  your 
children,  from  you  and  your  fellow-electors. 
And  why?  They  are  between  some  three 
and  thirty  millions  of  persons.  They  are  a 
population  less  than  the  population  of  France, 
of  Austria,  of  Germany  or  of  Russia ;  but 
the  populations  of  France,  Austria,  Germany, 
and  Russia  are  quite  able  enough  to  settle 
their  own  matters  within  their  own  limits. 
We  have  undertaken  to  settle  the  aflFairs  of 
a  fourth  or  nearly  a  fourth  of  the  entire 
human  race  scattered  over  the  world ;  and 
is  not  that  enough  for  the  ambition  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield?  It  satisfied  Mr.  Pitt,  Mr. 
Canning;  it  satisfied  Sir  Robert  Peel;  it 
satisfied  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  Russell,  and 
the  late  Lord  Derby ;  and  why  cannot  it 
1  satisfy,   I   wish  to  know.  Lord  Beaconsfield 


556 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


and  his  colleagues?  It  seems  to  me  they 
are  all  very  much  of  one  mind.  They  move 
with  harmony  among  themselves.  Is  it  not 
enough  to  satisfy  the  ambition  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  present  Government?  Strive  as 
you  will — I  speak  after  the  experience  of  a 
lifetime,  of  which  a  fair  portion  has  been 
spent  in  office — strive  and  labor  as  you  will 
in  Parliament  and  office,  human  strength  and 
human  thought  are  not  equal  to  the  dis- 
charge of  the  whole  duties  appertaining  to 
government  in  this  great,  wonderful,  and 
world-wide    Empire. — W.    E.    Gladstone. 

BRITISH  POWER, — The  proudest  posi- 
tion Great  Britain  could  occupy  is  that  the 
overshadowing  power  and  influence  which 
she  has  so  long  possessed  in  giving  shape 
to  the  destinies  and  relations  of  nations  has 
always  been  exercised  with  a  view  to  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  mankind; 
that  she  has  the  will  as  well  as  the  power 
to  maintain,  in  a  great  measure,  the  peace 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  that  prosperity, 
peace,  and  contentment  have  followed  her 
flag  all  over  the  earth,  upon  whatever  soil  it 
has  ever  been  planted.  I  hope  its  march  of 
triumph  will  never  be  interrupted  until  it 
shall  become  the  one  absorbing  and  power- 
ful instrumentality  in  the  hands  of  Provi- 
dence for  the  prevention  of  war,  the  exten- 
sion of  commerce,  and  the  promotion  of  the 
arts    of   peace. — Alexander    Mackenzie. 

CHURCH  OP  PNGLATSro,  Tlie  Head  of 
the. — The  head  of  the  Church  of  England  is 
the  ruling  monarch,  who  exercises  actual 
authority  as  such  by  choosing  the  archbishops 
and  nominating  the  bishops.  According  to 
the  canon  law  the  Church  is  governed  under 
the  monarch,  by  archbishops,  bishops,  deans, 
archdeacons,  and  the  rest  that  bear  office  in 
the  same. — Selected. 

CONSTITUTION,  English  National.— 
The  favorite  principle  of  Robertson,  of 
Brighton,  that  the  whole  truth  in  the  realm 
of  the  spiritual  consists  in  the  union  of  two 
truths  that  are  contrary  but  not  contradic- 
tory, applies  to  the  social  and  political 
realms.  What  two  contrary  truths  then  lie 
at  the  basis  of  a  complete  national  constitu- 
tion? First,  that  the  will  of  the  people  is 
the  will  of  God.  Second,  that  the  will  of 
God  must  be  the  will  of  the  people.  That 
the  people  are  the  ultimate  fountain  of  all 
power  is  one  truth.  That  government  is  of 
God  and  should  be  strong,  stable,  and  above 
the  people,  is  another.  In  other  words,  the 
elements  of  liberty  and  of  authority  should 
both  be  represented.  A  republic  recognizes 
only  the  first.  In  consequence,  popular  ap- 
peals are  made  to  that  which  is  lowest  in 
our  nature,  for  such  appeals  are  made  to 
the  greatest  number  and  are  most  likely  to 
be  immediately  successful.  The  character  of 
public  men  and  the  national  character  dete- 
riorate. Neither  dignity,  elevation  of  senti- 
ment, nor  refinement  of  manners  is  culti- 
vated. Still  more  fatal  consequences,  the  ark 
of  the  nation  is  carried  periodically  into 
party  fights.     For   the   time  being,   the  citi- 


zen has  no  country;  he  ha?  only  his  partjr, 
and  the  unitj^  of  the  country  is  constantly 
imperiled.  On  the  other  hand,  a  despotism 
it  based  entirely  on  the  element  of  au- 
thority. 

To  unite  those  elements  in  due  propor- 
tions has  been  and  is  the  aim  of  every  true 
statesman.  Let  the  history  of  liberty  and 
progress,  of  the  development  of  human 
character  to  all  its  rightful  issues,  testify 
where  they  have  been  more  wisely  blended 
than  in  the  British  Constitution. 

We  have  a  fixed  center  of  authority  and 
government,  a  fountain  of  honor  above  us 
that  all  reverence,  from  which  a  thousand 
gracious  influences  come  down  to  every 
rank ;  and  along  with  that  fixity  we  have, 
instead  of  a  cast-iron  yoke  for  four  years, 
representative  institutions  so  elastic  that 
they  respond  within  their  own  sphere  to 
every  breath  of  popular  sentiment.  In  har- 
mony with  this  central  part  of  our  Consti- 
tution, we  have  an  independent  judiciary  in- 
stead of  judges — too  often  the  creatures  of 
wealthy  adventurers  or  the  echoes  of  pass- 
ing- popular  sentiment.  And  more  valuable 
than  the  direct  advantages  are  the  subtle,  in- 
direct influences  that  flow  from  our  un- 
broken connection  with  the  past,  the  dynam- 
ical tho  imponderable  forces  that  determine 
the  tone  and  mold  the  character  of  a  people. 

"  In  our  halls  is  hung  armory  of  the  invinci- 
ble knights  of  old." 

Ours  are  the  graves  of  our  forefathers  and 
a  historical  continuity  that  is  the  best  safe- 
guard against  revolutionary  fever  ;  ours  the 
names  "  to  which  a  thousand  memories 
call ;  "  ours  is  the  flag  that  symbolizes  the 
highest  thoughts  that  have  ever  descended 
from  Heaven  to  earth,  ours  the  Queen  whose 
virtues  transmute  the  sacred  principle  of 
loyalty  into  a  personal  aflfection. — Principal 
Grant. 

CROWN,    The,    in    the    Constitution.— 

"  In  my  judgment,"  said  Mr.  Balfour  (after 
Queen  Victoria's  death),  in  moving  the  vote 
of  condolence  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
"  the  importance  of  the  Crown  in  our  Consti- 
tution is  not  a  diminishing  but  an  increas- 
ing factor.  It  is  increasing  and  must  in- 
crease." Mr.  Balfour  may  be  right,  but  even 
if  the  influence  of  the  crown  on  the  Consti- 
tution does  not  increase  and  merely  remains 
at  the  high-water  mark  to  which  it  was  ad- 
vanced by  the  Queen,  it  is  high  time  we 
recognized  the  immense  importance  of  the 
monarch  in  the  councils  of  the  Empire.  The 
Sovereign  has  been  described  as  the  perma- 
nent under-secretary  of  the  Prime  Minister, 
but  I  prefer  my  own  definition,  which  is  that 
the  Queen  made  herself  the  permanent  editor 
of  the  realm.  While  she  never  dictated,  she 
influenced,  and  altho  she  never  arrogated  to 
herself  a  prerogative  of  command,  she  exer- 
cised constantly  the  far  more  subtle  and  in- 
fluential power  of  expostulation  and  argu- 
ment.    It  is,  of  course,   impossible   for   Ed- 


EMPIRE  DAY 


557 


ward  VII.  to  succeed  to  the  immense  in- 
heritance of  experience  and  personal  prestige 
which  made  the  Queen,  according  to  the  tes- 
timony of  all  her  ministers,  so  potent  in 
foreign  and  imperial  affairs. — W.  T.  Stead. 
(R.  R.) 

DRUM-BEAT,  Morning. — A  power 
(Great  Britain)  which  has  dotted  over  the 
surface  of  the  whole  globe  with  her  posses- 
sions and  military  posts ;  whose  morning 
drum-beat,  following  the  sun,  and  keeping 
company  with  the  hours,  circles  the  earth 
daily  with  one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain 
of  the  martial  airs  of  England. — Daniel 
Webster. 

EDWARD  VII.,  As  a  Social  and  Politi- 
cal Factor. — As  a  social  factor  in  England 
the  Prince  has  always  been  supreme.  Ward 
McAllister  called  him  "  the  great  social  dic- 
tator." It  was  largely  through  his  influence 
that  many  Americans  gained  entrance  to  the 
inner  circles  of  the  Court  of  St.  James, 
among  them  Lily  Langtry.  dubbed  the  "  Jer- 
sey Lily."  The  Prince's  predilection  for 
Americans  was  bitterly  resented  in  certain 
court  circles  and  his  London  residence  was 
nicknamed  "  The  White  House."  In  politics 
Albert  Edward,  notwithstanding  his  natural 
reticence  on  all  political  subjects,  has  long 
been  regarded  as  a  Liberal.  He  favored 
Gladstone  and  his  Home  Rule  projects,  and 
has  ever  shown  himself  a  close  friend  of 
Lord  Rosebery.  It  is  largely  due  to  him 
that  the  former  social  ostracism  of  Jews  in 
England  has  given  way  to  an  enlightened 
tolerance,  thanks  to  which  Lord  Rothschild, 
Barney,  and  others  have  become  familiar 
figures  in  London  society.  This  liberal  atti- 
tude of  Albert  Edward  is  declared  by  some 
of  his  detractors  to  be  not  wholly  disin- 
terested. 

Still,  it  is  believed  in  England  that  the 
court  under  Albert  Edward's  rule  will  be 
almost  as  sedate  as  it  was  under  the  late 
Sovereign.  Queen  Alexandra  is  as  strict  in 
matters  of  propriety  as  was  Queen  Victoria. 
— Edward  Emerson,  Jr.     (Col.  W.) 

ENGLAND,    America's   Relations   to. — 

Who  does  not  feel,  what  reflecting  American 
does  not  acknowledge,  the  incalculable  ad- 
vantages derived  by  this  land  out  of  the  deep 
fountains  of  civil,  intellectual,  and  moral 
truth,  from  which  we  have  drawn  in  Eng- 
land? What  American  does  not  feel  proud 
that  his  fathers  were  the  countrymen  of 
Bacon,  of  Newton,  and  of  Locke?  Who  does 
not  know  that,  while  every  pulse  of  civil 
liberty  in  the  heart  of  the  British  Empire 
beat  warm  and  full  in  the  bosom  of  our 
ancestors,  the  sobriety,  the  firmness,  and  the 
dignity,  with  which  the  cause  of  free  prin- 
ciples struggled  into  existence  here,  con- 
stantly found  encouragement  and  counte- 
nance from  the  friends  of  liberty  there? 
Who  does  not  remember  that,  when  the  pil- 
grims went  over  the  sea,  the  prayers  of  the 
faithful  British  confessors,  in  all  the  quarters 
of   their   dispersion,    went    over   with    them. 


while  their  aching  eyes  were  strained  till  the 
star  of  hope  should  go  up  in  the  western 
skies?  And  who  will  ever  forget  that,  in 
that  eventful  struggle  which  severed  these 
youthful  republics  from  the  British  Crown, 
there  was  not  heard,  throughout  our  conti- 
nent in  arms,  a  voice  which  spoke  louder  for 
the  rights  of  America  than  that  of  Burke,  or 
of  Chatham,  within  the  walls  of  the  British 
Parliament,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  British 
Throne. 

I  am  not — I  need  not  say  I  am  not — the 
panegyrist  of  England.  I  am  not  dazzled  by 
her  riches,  nor  awed  by  her  power.  The 
scepter,  the  miter,  and  the  coronet, — stars, 
garters,  and  blue  ribbons, — seem  to  me  poor 
things  for  great  men  to  contend  for.  Nor  is 
my  admiration  awakened  by  her  armies,  mus- 
tered for  the  battles  of  Europe ;  her  navies, 
overshadowing  the  ocean ;  nor  her  Empire, 
grasping  the  farthest  East.  It  is  these,  and 
the  price  of  guilt  and  blood  by  which  they 
are  too  often  maintained,  which  are  the  cause 
why  no  friend  of  liberty  can  salute  her  with 
undivided  affections.  But  it  is  the  cradle  and 
the  refuge  of  free  principles,  tho  often  per- 
secuted ;  the  school  of  religious  liberty,  the 
more  precious  for  the  struggles  through 
which  it  has  passed  ;  the  tombs  of  those  who 
have  reflected  honor  on  all  who  speak  the 
English  tongue ;  it  is  the  birthplace  of  our 
fathers,  the  home  of  the  Pilgrims ;  it  is  these 
which  I  love  and  venerate  in  England.  I 
should  feel  ashamed  of  an  enthusiasm  for 
Italy  and  Greece,  did  I  not  also  feel  it  for  a 
land  like  this.  In  an  American,  it  would 
seem  to  me  degenerate  and  ungrateful  to 
hang  with  passion  upon  the  traces  of  Homer 
and  Virgil,  and  follow,  without  emotion,  the 
nearer  and  plainer  footsteps  of  Shakespeare 
and  Milton.  I  should  think  him  cold  in  his 
love  for  his  native  land  who  felt  no  melting 
in  his  heart  for  that  other  native  country 
which  holds  the  ashes  of  his  forefathers. — 
Edward  Everett. 

FAMILY,    The    Royal.— Queen    Victoria 

had  the  following  children  : 

1.  Princess  Victoria,  born  on  November  21, 
1840;  married  January  25,  1858.  Frederick 
I.  of  Germany ;  died  August  5.  igor ;  mother 
of  the  present  German  Emperor. 

2.  Albert  Edward,  Edward  VII.,  born  on 
November  9,  1841 ;  married  on  March  10, 
1863,  Princess  Alexandra,  eldest  daughter  of 
King  Christian  IX.  of  Denmark;  succeeded 
to  the  crown  on  the  death  of  his  mother, 
January  22,  1901.  Their  eldest  son  is  George, 
Duke  of  Cornwall  and  Duke  of  York,  born 
January  3,  1865.  His  son  is  Edward  Albert, 
born  June  23,  1894. 

3.  Prince  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh 
(Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha),  born  August 
6,  1844.  He  married  on  January  23,  1874,  the 
Grand  Duchess  Marie  of  Russia,  only  daugh- 
ter of  the  Czar  Alexander  II;  died  July  30, 
1900. 

4.  Princess  Helena,  born  May  25,  1846 ; 
married  on  July  5,  1866,  Prince  Christian  of 
Schleswig-Holstein. 


558 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


5.  Princess  Louise,  born  March  i8,  1848; 
married  March  21,  1871,  John,  Marquis  of 
Lome,  who  became  Duke  of  Argyle  April 
24,  1900. 

6.  Prince  Arthur,  Duke  of  Connaught, 
born  May  I,  1850,  and  married  March  13, 
1879,  Princess  Louise  of  Prussia. 

7.  Prince  Leopold,  Duke  of  Albany,  born 
in  1853 ;  married  in  1882  Princess  Helena  of 
Waldeck;    died  in  1884. 

8.  Princess  Beatrice,  born  April  14,  1857; 
married  July  23,  1885,  Prince  Henry,  son  of 
Prince  Alexander  of  Hesse. — Selected. 

GTJELPH,  The  Ubiquitous. — Of  the  forty 
monarchical  countries  at  present  found  on  the 
map  of  Europe,  thirty-three  are  governed  by 
members  or  descendants  of  German  families. 
Of  these,  twenty-two  are  in  the  German  Em- 
pire and  eleven  outside  of  Germany— namely, 
Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  England, 
Greece,  Lichtenstein,  the  Netherlands,  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Portugal,  Roumania,  and 
Russia.  The  reigning  families  of  Spain, 
Sweden,  Italy,  and  Monaco  are  of  Romanic 
origin,  altho  those  of  Savoy  and  Spain,  while 
Bourbon,  are  strongly  mixed  with  German 
blood.  Of  Slavic  origin  are  only  the  house 
of  Petrowitch-Njegosh,  reigning  m  Monte- 
negro, and  that  of  Obrenovich,  reignmg  m 
Servia;  this  last  also  is  not  of  unmixed 
blood.  The  Sultan  is  of  Turanian  ongm. 
The  forty  rulers  in  Europe  are  derived  from 
twenty-six  different  families,  and  of  them 
seventeen   are   German. — Selected. 

LUCK,  The  Queen's. — To  the  dark,  half- 
savage  races  under  the  British  crown.  Queen 
Victoria  was  a  "  totem,"  a  superhuman  being. 
They  imagined  her  an  essential  part  of  the 
British  system.  To  most  of  her  Asiatic  sub- 
jects, she  was  Queen  of  Kings.  The  Mo- 
hammedans thought  her  in  a  special  degree 
favored  by  God  and  predestined  to  wide  au- 
thority and  the  brightest  fortune.  Lord  Cro- 
mer once  remarked  that  belief  in  the  Queen  s 
luck  greatly  facilitated  his  task  in  E^pt. 
Mr.  Clinton  Dawkins,  the  late  Financial  Sec- 
retary of  Egypt,  has  told  me  that  all  over  the 
East  people  said:  "The  Queen  is  visibly 
the  favorite  of  God:  Since  this  is  so,  why 
struggle  against  Him?"  The  idea  that 
Allah  was  with  her  struck  Mehemet  Ah  as 
early  as  1840.  It  prompted  him  to  accept  the 
terms  Sir  Charles  Napier  offered.— Mrs. 
Crawford.     (T.  C.  R.) 

REIGN  OF  VICTORIA,  The  liong.— 
•pueen  Victoria  has  not  only  outreigned  all  the 
»overeigns  of  Europe  who  were  on  the  throne 
when  she  succeeded,  but  she  has  seen  the 
end  of  sixteen  reigns  which  began  after  hers. 
She  has  been  contemporary  with  five  sover- 
eigns in  Prussia,  four  in  Russia  and  two  in 
Austria.  In  the  case  of  France  she  has  seen 
the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe,  the  Republic  of 
1848,  the  Empire  and  the  Republic  of  1870. 
— London  Spectator. 

REPLY,  Victoria's. — An  African  prince 
who  was  sent  on  an  embassy  with  costly 
presents  for  Queen  Victoria,  from  an  Ethio- 


pian court,  preferred  a  modest  request  that 
England's  beloved  Sovereign  would  tell  him 
the  secret  of  England's  greatness  and  glory. 
Her  majesty  did  not,  like  Hezekiah,  show 
the  ambassador  her  diamonds  and  her  pre- 
cious jewels,  and  her  rich  ornaments,  but, 
handing  him  a  beautifully  bound  copy  of  the 
Bible,  said,  "  Tell  the  Prince  that  this  is  the 
secret  of  England's  greatness." — C.  A. 

SUPREMACY  OP  THE  SEA  AND 
BRITISH  ARROGANCE.— Why  should  we 
fear  a  great  nation  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. Some  fear  that  a  great  nation  would 
be  arrogant  and  aggressive.  But  that  does 
not  at  all  follow.  It  does  not  depend  alto- 
gether upon  the  size  of  a  nation,  but  upon  its 
qualities,  and  upon  the  intelligence,  instruc- 
tion, and  morals  of  its  people.  You  fancy 
that  the  supremacy  of  the  sea  will  pass  away 
from  you ;  and  the  noble  lord,  tho  wiser 
than  many  others,  will  lament  that  "  Rule 
Britannia,"  that  noble  old  song,  should  be- 
come antiquated  at  last. 

Well,  but  if  the  supremacy  of  the  sea  ex- 
cites the  arrogance  of  this  country,  the  sooner 
it  becomes  obsolete  the  better.  I  don't  be- 
lieve it  to  be  for  the  advantage  of  this  coun- 
try or  of  any  other  that  any  one  nation 
should  pride  itself  upon  what  it  terms  the 
supremacy  of  the  sea,  and  I  hope  the  time  is 
come — and  I  believe  it  is — when  we  shall  find 
that  law  and  justice  shall  guide  the  councils 
and  direct  the  policy  of  the  Christian  nations 
of  the  world. 


I  believe,  however,  that  in  the  centuries 
which  are  to  come  it  will  be  the  greatest 
pride  and  the  highest  renown  of  England 
that  from  her  loins  have  sprung  a  hundred — 
it  may  be  two  hundred — millions  of  men  to 
dwell  and  to  prosper  on  the  continent  which 
the  old  Genoese  gave  to  Europe.  Now.  sir, 
if  the  sentiment  which  I  have  heard  to-night 
shall  become  the  sentiment  of  the  Parliament 
and  people  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  if 
the  moderation  which  I  have  described  shall 
mark  the  course  of  the  government  and  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  then,  notwithstand- 
ing some  present  irritation  and  some  fresh 
distrust, — and  I  have  faith,  mind,  both  in  us 
and  in  them, — I  believe  that  these  two  great 
commonwealths  may  march  on  abreast,  par- 
ents and  guardians  of  freedom  and  justice, 
wheresoever  their  language  shall  be  spoken 
and  their  power  shall  extend.^JoHN 
Bright.  (From  an  address  on  "  Will  the 
United  States   Subjugate  Canada?"     1865.) 

UNION  JACK,  The.— On  April  12,  1606. 
exactly  295  years  ago,  the  Union  Jack,  Great 
Britain's  flag,  made  its  appearance-  It  was 
James  I.  who  added  the  Scottish  cross  of  St. 
Andrew,  in  consequence  of  differences  hav- 
ing arisen  between  English  and  Scottish 
ships  at  sea,  and  it  was  he  who  gave  the  flag 
its  name.  James  generally  signed  his  name 
"  Jacques,"  and  some  think  this  originated 
the  term  "  Jack ; "  it  may,  however,  have 
been  from  the  Spanish  for  coat,  "  Jaco,"  as 


EMPIRE  DAY 


559 


knights  wore  a  little  coat  or  jacket  over  their 
armor  with  distinguishing  marks  on  them. 
The  cross  of  St.  George  was  introduced  as 
England's  battle  flag  by  Richard  I.  when  he 
returned  from  Palestine. — Selected. 

VICTORIA,  Queen.— Queen  Victoria  led 
a  noble  life.  She  personified  all  that  is  best 
in  the  British  character.  Firm  to  obstinacy, 
tender-hearted  and  affectionate  without  being 
emotional,  tranquil  in  action,  reasonable  in 
idea,  tho  without  claim  to  genius  or  tran- 
scendent ability,  the  Queen  will  live  in  history 
by  force  of  her  character.  Great  knowledge 
and  an  iron  will  gave  to  the  Queen  an  influ- 
ence in  the  control  of  public  affairs  which 
was,  in  fact,  more  akin  to  that  of  the  Stuarts 
than  to  the  constitutional  conditions  which 
are  the  theoretical  foundation  for  the  House 
of  Hanover.  While  sticklers  for  consti- 
tutional nicety  grumbled  at  and  resented  the 
Queen's  overwhelming  influence  in  public 
affairs,  and  were  indignant  at  her  Majesty's 
use  of  the  German  language,  and  at  her  pre- 
dilections for  her  German  relatives,  they 
loved  her  as  well  and  faithfully  as  ever  a 
free  people  loved  a  great  ruler  and  a  good 
woman. — Arnold   White.     (H.   W.) 

VICTORIA'S  MOTHER,  Queen.— Per- 
haps much  of  the  good  of  Queen  Victoria's 
long  reign  was  due  to  her  being  blessed  with 
such  a  wise  mother. 

The  Duchess  of  Kent,  realizing  the  re- 
sponsibilities her  daughter  was  soon  to  as- 
sume, made  it  the  study  of  her  life  to  bring 
the  future  Queen  up  in  such  a  way  that  she 
should  rule  her  subjects  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord. 

Of  so  deeply  a  religious  character  was  that 
training,  that  faith  was  the  foundation  of 
Queen  Victoria's  career  as  a  woman  and  a 
sovereign.  That  faith  was  taught  her  by 
the  influence  of  her  mother,  who  felt  it  to 
be  the  most  important  element  of  character. 

To  know  the  King  of  all  the  earth  and 
have  faith  in  Him,  was  taught  the  little 
Victoria  in  her  earliest  years.  When  she 
was  crowned  Queen  her  first  request  of  her 
subjects  was  this  one:  "I  ask  your  prayers 
in  my  behalf."  Having  had  such  a  good 
mother  herself,  she  was  an  exemplary  mother 
to  her  own  children.  True  motherhood  has 
never  been  overshadowed  by  the  glories 
which  crowned  her  as  a  Queen. — E. 

VICTORIA'S,    Queen,    Irish   Descent.— 

Queen  Victoria's  descent  has  been  traced 
back  to  Turlough  O' Conor,  King  of  Ireland, 
A.  D.,  1400,  as  follows : 

Turlough  O'Conor,  King  of  Ireland. 

Cathal    Red-Hand    O'Conor,    King   of   Con- 
naught. 

Odo  O'Conor,  King  of  Connaught. 

Una  O'Conor. 

I 
Hodierna  de  Gernon. 


Richard  de  Burgh,  Lord  of  Connaught. 

I 

Walter   de   Burgh,   Lord  of   Connaught   and 

Earl  of  Ulster. 

I 

Richard  de  Burgh,  Lord  of  Connaught  and 

Earl  of  Ulster. 

I 

William  de  Burgh,  Lord  of  Connaught  and 

Earl  of  Ulster. 

I 
Elizabeth  de  Burgh. 

Philippa   Plantagenet. 

Edmund  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March. 

I 
Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March. 

Anne  Mortimer. 

I 
Richard  Plantagenet,  Duke  of  Cambridge. 

Richard  Plantagenet,  Duke  of  York. 

Edward  IV. 

Queen  Victoria's  descent  to  Edward  IV. 
is  as  follows :  Edward.  Duke  of  Kent ; 
George  III.,  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales; 
George  II.,  George  I.,  Sophia,  Elizabeth, 
James  I.,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  James  V.  of 
Scotland,  Margaret  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Henry 
VII. ;  Edward  IV.  She  was  consequently 
twenty-nine  in  descent  from  the  great  Irish 
kings. — Selected. 

VICTORIA'S  REIGN.— A  notable  chapter 
of  human  history  was  closed  when  the  Queen 
breathed  her  last.  It  was  given  her  to  be  the 
central  figure  in  an  epoch  through  which 
moved  a  procession  of  illustrious  personages, 
and  which  was  thronged  with  notable  and 
fruitful  events.  At  the  mention  of  her  name, 
there  instinctively  comes  to  mind  the  length 
of  her  reign,  the  vast  extent  of  her  influence, 
the  march  of  discovery,  the  brilliance  of  let- 
ters, the  imposing  strength  of  statesmanship, 
the  uplifting  of  the  race,  the  drawing  together 
of  the  nations,  the  mighty  and  triumphant 
advance  of  the  world.  But  her  unique  and 
illustrious  personality  outshines  the  circum- 
stances amid  which  she  moved.  The  peoples 
of  the  earth  bow  at  her  bier  to-day,  not  be- 
cause of  what  she  did,  but  of  what  she  was. 
The  realm  she  ruled  was  far  wider  than  the 
geographical  limits  of  the  British  Empire. 
Whoever  recognizes  royalty  of  character 
counted  himself  among  her  subjects.  Who- 
ever does  homage  to  noble  Christian  woman- 
hood yielded  her  the  allegiance  of  his  heart. 
.  .  .  America  has  shared  the  benediction 
of  her  life.  America  joins  in  the  universal 
tribute  of  affectionate  sorrow  at  her  passing 
away.  He  who  would  not  lower  the  flag  has 
lowered  himself.  For  the  people  of  God  to 
fail  to  acknowledge  the  presence  and  domi- 
nance of  His  Spirit  in  a  life  so  signally 
dowered  with  His  gifts,  so  conspicuously 
raised  up  to  do  His  work,  and  so  long  and 
so  faithfully  devoting  its  energies  to  His 
service,  would  be  for  God's  people  to  fail  in 
loyalty  to  their  King. — Howard  Duffield. 


56o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


POETRY 


On  the  Birth  of  Alfred  Edward 

Huzza !    we've  a  little  Prince  at  last, 

A   roaring  Royal  boy ; 
And   all   day  long  the  booming  bells 

Have  rung  their  peals  of  joy. — L.  Pu. 

God   Save   the   King 

By  Henry  Carey 

God  save  our  gracious  King! 
Long  live  our  noble  King! 

God  save  the  King! 
Send  him  victorious, 
Happy  and  glorious. 
Long  to  reign  over  us — 

God  save  the  King! 

O  Lord  our  God,  arise! 
Scatter   his   enemies. 

And  make  them  fall, 
Confound  their  politics. 
Frustrate    their    knavish    tricks; 
On  him  our  hopes  we  fix, 

God  save  us  all ! 

Thy  choicest  gifts  in  store 
On  him  be  pleased  to  pour; 

Long  may  he  reign. 
May  he  defend  our  laws, 
And  ever  give  us  cause 
To  sing  with  heart  and  voice — 

God  save  the  King! 

To  the  Queen 

By  Alfred  Tennyson 

Revered,  beloved— O  you  that  hold 

A  nobler  office  upon  earth 

Than  arms,  or  power  of  brain  or  birth 
Could  give  the  warrior  kings  of  old, 

Victoria,— since  your  Royal  grace 
To  one  of  less  desert  allows 
This  laurel  greener  from  the  brows 

Of  him  that  uttered  nothing  base; 

And  should  your  greatness,  and  the  care 
That  yokes  with  empire,  yield  you  time 
To  make  demand  of  modern  rhyme 

If  aught  of  ancient  worth  be  there; 

Then— while  a   sweeter  music   wakes, 
And  thro'  wild  March  the  throstle  calls. 
Where  all  about  your  palace-walls 
The  sunlit  almond-blossom  shakes- 
Take,  Madam,  this  poor  book  of  song; 
For  tho  the  faults  were  thick  as  dust 
In  vacant  chambers,   I   could  trust 
Your  kindness.     May  you  rule  us  long, 

And  leave  us  rulers  of  your  blood 

As  noble  till  the  latest  day! 

Mav  children  of  our  children  say, 
"  She'  wrought  her  people  lasting  good ; 


"  Her  court  was  pure ;  her  life  serene ; 
God  gave  her  peace;   her  land  reposed: 

A  thousand  claims  to  reverence  closed 
In  her  as  Mother,  Wife,  and  Queen; 

"  And  statesmen  at  her  council  met 
Who  knew  the  seasons,  when  to  take 
Occasion  by  the  hand,   and  make 

The  bounds  of  freedom  wider  yet 

"  By  shaping  some  august  decree. 
Which  kept  her  throne  unshaken  still. 
Broad  based  upon  her  people's  will, 

And  compassed  by  the  inviolate  sea." 
March,  1851. 

The  Queen 
By  Joseph  Howe 

Queen  of  the  thousand  isles !  whose  fragile 
form, 

'Midst  the  proud  structures  of  our  Father- 
land, 

Graces  the  Throne,  that  each  subsiding 
storm 

Which  shakes  the  earth,  assures  us  yet  shall 
stand. 

Thy  gentle  voice,  of  mild  yet  firm  com- 
mand. 

Is  heard  in  every  clime ;  on  every  wave. 

Thy  dazzling  scepter,  like  a  fairy  wand, 

Strikes  off  the  shackles  from  the  struggling 
slave, 

And  gathers,  'neath  its  rule,  the  great,  the 
wise,  the  brave. 

But  yet,   'midst   all   the  treasures   that   sur- 
round 
Thy  royal  halls,  one  bliss  is   still   denied, — 
To  know  the  true  hearts  at  thy  name  that 

bound. 
Which  ocean  from  thy  presence  must  divide, 
Whose  voices  never  swell  the  boisterous  tide 
Of  hourly  homage  that  salutes  thy  ear ; 
But  yet  who  cherish  with  a  Briton's  pride, 
And    breathe    to    infant   lips,    from   year    to 

year. 
The  name  thy  many  virtues  taught  them  to 


How   little   deem'st   thou   of  the   scenes    re- 
mote. 
In  which  one  word,  all  other  words  above, 
Of  earthly  homage  seems  to  gaily  float 
On  every  breeze,   and   sound  through  every 

grove — 
A  spell  to  cheer,  to  animate,  to  move — 
To    bid    old    age    throw    off    the    weight    of 

years. 
To  cherish  thoughts  of  loyalty  and  love. 
To  garner  round  the  heart  those  hopes  and 

fears 
Which,   in    our    western    homes,   Victoria'* 
name  endears. 


EMPIRE  DAY 


561 


'Tis  not  that,  on  our  soil,  the  measured  tread 
Of  armed  legions  speaks  thy  sovereign  sway, 
'Tis  not  the  huge  leviathans  that  spread 
Thy  meteor  flag  above  each  noble  bay. 
That  bids  the  soul  a  forced  obedience  pay ! 
— The    despot's    tribute     from    a    trembling 

thrall— 
No !   At  our  altars   sturdy  freemen  pray 
That  blessings  on  Victoria's  head  may  fall, 
And  happy  household  groups  each  pleasing 

trait  recall. 

Wahonomin 
[Indian  Hymn   to  the  Queen.] 

By  George  F.  Scott 

Great   mother !    from    the    depths    of    forest 

wilds, 
From    mountain   pass     and    burning    sunset 

plain, 
We,  thy  unlettered  children  of  the  woods, 
Upraise  to  thee  the  everlasting  hymn 
Of  nature,  language  of  the  skies  and  seas. 
Voice  of  the  birds  and  sighings  of  the  pine 
In  wintry  wastes.  We  know  no  other  tongue, 
Nor  the  smooth  speech  that,  like  the  shining 

leaves. 
Hides  the  rough  stems  beneath.     We  bring 

our  song, 
Wood-fragrant,   rough,   yet  autumn-streaked 

with  love. 
And  lay  it  ns  a  tribute  at  thy  feet. 

The  Dying  Queen 

By  Randall  N.   Saunders 

The  world  to-day  is  wrapt  in  gloom : 

The  nations  mourn  that  she, 
Who  held  in  hand  an  empire's  doom. 
Is  launching  on  that  sea 
Where  ruler,  subject,  at  the  test, 
Sails  forth  to  find  that  all  the  best 
Is  that  the  one  who  ruleth  best 
Shall  Be! 
She  ruled,  and  nations  held  their  breath : 
She  ruled,  and  worlds  will  mourn  her  death. 

L.  W. 
Death 

[Her  Majesty,  the  Queen  of  England,  died 
on  Tuesday,  January  22,  1901,  at  6:  30 
p.  m.] 

Grief,  and  the  ache  of  things  that  pass  and 
fade. 
The  stately  pomp,  the  pall,  the  open  grave, 
These    and     the     solemn    thoughts   which 
cannot  save 
Our  eyes  from  tears,  nor  make  us  less  afraid 
Of    that     dread     mystery    which     God     has 
made : — 
How   many   thousand  thousand   men   who 

wave 
Speechless     farewells,     with     hearts      for- 
lornly brave. 
Know  well  the  mockery  of  Death's  parade? 

This  cannot  help  us  to  transgress  the  bounds. 
Nor  give  us   wings  to  overpass  the  steep 
Ramparts   of   Heaven  which   God's  angels 
keep: 


Wide  is  the  "great  gulf  fixed:"  for  us,  the 

mounds 
Of    fresh-turned   earth;    above,    sweet   peace 
surrounds 
The  painless  patience  of  eternal  sleep. 

F.  R. 

Victoria  the  Good 

By  Sir  Theodore  Martin 

Stifle  the  throbbing  of  this  haunting  pain, 
And    dash    this    tearful    sorrow    from    the 

eyes ! 
She   is  not  dead!     Though  summoned   to 
the  skies, 
Still  in  our  hearts  she  lives,  and  there  will 

reign ; 

Still  the  dear  memory  will  the  power  retain 

To  teach  us  where  our  foremost  duty  lies. 

Truth. _  justice,     honor,     simple    worth     to 

prize. 

And  what  our  best  have  been  to  be  again. 

She  hath  gone  hence,  to  meet  the  great,  the 
good. 
The  loved  ones,  yearn'd  for  through  long 
toilsome  years, 
To  share  with  them  the  blest  beatitude. 
Where  care  is  not,  nor  strife,  nor  wasting 
fears, 
Nor   cureless    ills,   nor  wrongs   to   be   with- 
stood ; 
Shall  thought  of  this  not  dry  our  blinding 
tears  ? 

N.  C. 

Britannia 

By  a.  McLachlan 

All  hail,  my  country !  hail  to  thee. 
Thou  birthplace  of  the  brave  and  free, 
Thou  ruler  upon   land  and  sea, 
Britannia ! 

No  thing  of  change,  no  mushroom  state, 
In  wisdom  thou  canst  work  and  wait. 
Or  wield  the  thunderbolts  of  Fate, 
Britannia! 

Oh.  nobly  hast  thou  played  thy  part ! 
What  struggles  of  the  head  and  heart 
Have  gone  to  make  thee  what  thou  art, 
Britannia! 

Great   mother  of   the   mighty   dead ! 
Sir  Walter  sang  and  Nelson  bled 
To  weave  a  garland  for  thy  head, 
Britannia! 

And  Watt,  the  great  magician,   wrought. 
And     Shakespeare     ranged    the    realms    of 

thought, 
And  Newton  soared,  and  Cromwell  fought, 
Britannia! 

And   Milton's   high    seraphic   art. 
And  Bacon's  head  and  Burns'  heart 
Are  glories  that  shall  ne'er  depart, 
Britannia  I 


562 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


These  are  the  soul  of  thy  renown, 
The  gems  immortal  in  thy  crown, 
The  suns  that  never  shall  go  down, 
Britannia ! 

O,   still   have   faith   in  truth   divine! 
Aye  sacred  be  thy  seal  and  sign, 
And  power  and  glory  shall  be  thine, 
Britannia ! 

The  Englishman 

By  Eliza  Cook 

There's   a   land   that   bears   a   world-known 
name, 

Tho  it  is  but  a  little  spot; 
I  say  'tis  first  on  the  scroll  of  Fame, 

And  who  shall  say  it  is  not? 
Of  the  deathless  ones  who  shine  and  live 

In  Arms,  in  Art,  or  Song; 
The  brightest  the  whole  wide  world  can  give 

To  that  little  land  belong. 
'Tis  the  star  of  earth,  deny  it  who  can; 

The  island  home  of  an  Englishman. 

There's  a  flag  that  waves  over  every  sea, 

No  matter  when  or  where ; 
And  to  treat  that  flag  as  aught  but  the  free 

Is  more  than  the  strongest  dare. 
For  the  lion  spirits  that  tread  the  deck 

Have  carried  the  palm  of  the  brave ; 
And    that    flag   may    sink    with    a    shot-torn 
wreck. 

But  never  float  over  a  slave. 
Its  honor  is  stainless,  deny  it  who  can ; 

And  this  is  the  flag  of  an  Englishman. 

There's  a  heart  that  leaps  with  burning  glow. 

The  wrong'd  and  the  weak  to  defend ; 
And  strikes  as  soon  for  a  trampled  foe; 

As  it  does  for  a  soul-bound  friend. 
It  nurtures  a  deep  and  honest  love ; 

It  glows  with   faith   and  pride ; 
And  yearns  with  the  fondness  of  a  dove. 

To  the  light  of  its  own  fireside. 
'Tis  a  rich,  rough  gem,  deny  it  who  can: 

And  this  is  the  heart  of  an  Englishman. 

The   Briton   may   traverse   the   pole   or   the 
zone 
And  boldly  claim  his  right; 
For  he   calls   such  a  vast   domain  his   own. 

That  the  sun  never  sets  on  his  might. 
Let  the  haughty   stranger   seek  to  know 

The  place  of  his  home  and  birth ; 
And  a  flush  will  pour  from  cheek  to  brow ; 

While  he  tells  his  native  earth. 
For  a  glorious  charter,  deny  it  who  can ; 
Is  breathed  in  the  words  "  I'm  an  English- 
man." 

Sonnet 

By  William  Wordsworth 

It  is  not  to  be  thought  of  that  the  flood 
Of    British    freedom,    which,    to   the    open 

sea 
Of  the  world's  praise,  from  dark  antiquity 
Hath  flowed,  "  with  pomp  of  waters,  unwith- 
stood." 


Roused  tho  it  be  full  often  to  a  mood 

Which  spurns  the  check  of  salutary  bands. 
That  this  most  famous  stream  in  bogs  and 
sands 
Should  perish ;  and  to  evil  and  to  good 
Be  lost  forever.     In  our  halls  is  hung 

Armory  of  the  invincible  knights  of  old: 
We    must    be    free    or    die,    who    speak   the 
tongue 
That    Shakespeare   spake ;     the    faith    and 
morals  hold 
Which    Milton   held. — In   everything  we   are 
sprung 
Of  earth's  first  blood,  have  titles  manifold. 

England  and  Her  Colonies 

By  William  Watson 

She  stands,  a  thousand-wintered  tree, 

By  countless  morns  impearled ; 
Her  broad  roots  coil  beneath  the  sea. 

Her  branches  sweep  the  world ; 
Her   seeds,    by   careless   winds   conveyed. 

Clothe  the  remotest  strand 
With    forests    from    her     scatterings     made, 
New  nations   fostered  in  her   shade, 

And  linking  land  with  land. 

O  ye  by  wandering  tempest  sown 

'Neath  every  alien  star, 
Forget    not    whence    the    breath    was    blown 

That  wafted  you  afar ! 
For  ye  are  still  her  ancient  seed 

On  younger  soil  let   fall — 
Children   of   Britain's   island-breed, 

To  whom  the  Mother  in  her  need 

Perchance  may  one  day  call. 

National  Song 

By  Alfred  Tenkyson 

There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be ; 
There   are    no    hearts    like     English    hearts. 

Such  hearts  of  oak  as  they  be. 
There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be ; 
There  are  no  men   like  Englishmen, 

So  tall   and  bold  as   they  be. 

Chorus 

For  the   French   the   Pope   may   shrive  'em, 
For  the  devil  a  whit  we  heed  'em : 
As  for  the  French,  God  speed  'em 

Unto  their  heart's   desire. 
And   the   merry   devil    drive   'em 

Through  the  water  and  the  fire. 

Full  Chorus 

Our  glory  is  our  freedom, 
We  lord  it  o'er  the  sea ; 

We    are    the    sons    of    freedom, 
We  are  free. 

There  is  no  land  like  England, 
Where'er  the  light  of  day  be ; 

There  are  no  wives  like   English  wives, 
So  fair  and  chaste  as  they  be. 


EMPIRE  DAY 


563 


There  is  no  land  like  England, 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be; 
There  are  no  maids  like  English  maids, 

So  beautiful  as  they  be. 

Chorus. — For  the  French,  etc. 

Becessional 
By  Rudyard  Kipling 

God  of  our   fathers,  known  of  old — 
Lord  of  our  far-flung  battle  line — 

Beneath  whose  awful  Hand  we  hold 
Dominion  over  palm  and  pine — 

Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 

Lest   we   forget — lest  we   forget ! 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies — 
The  captains  and  the  kings  depart; 

Still    stands  thine  ancient   sacrifice, 
A  humble  and  a  contrite  heart, — 

Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet. 

Lest   we   forget — lest   we   forget ! 

Far-called  our  navies  melt  away — 

On  dune  and  headland  sinks  the  fire — 

Lo,  all  our  pomp  of  yesterday 
Is  one  with  Nineveh  and  Tyre ! 

Judge  of  the  nations,  spare  us  yet. 

Lest   we   forget — lest   we   forget ! 

If,  drunk  with  sight  of  power,  we  loose 
Wild  tongues  that  have  not  Thee  in  awe; 

Such  boasting  as  the  Gentiles  use. 
Or  lesser  breeds  without  the  Law — 

Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 

Lest   we   forget — lest   we   forget ! 

For  heathen  heart  that  puts  her  trust 
In  reeking  tube  and  iron  shard — 

All  valiant  dust  that  builds  on  dust, 

And,  guarding,  calls  not  Thee  to  guard — 

For   frantic   boast   and   foolish   word, 

Thy  mercy  on  Thy  people.  Lord ! 

Amen. 

America  to  Great  Britain 
By  Washington  Allston 

All   hail !   thou   noble  land. 

Our  Fathers'  native  soil ! 
O,   stretch  thy  mighty  hand. 

Gigantic  grown  by  toil, 
O'er  the  vast   Atlantic   wave  to  our  shore! 

For    thou    with    magic    might 

Canst  reach  to  where  the  light 

Of  Phoebus  travels  bright 
The  world  o'er ! 

The  Genius  of  our  clime. 

From  his  pine-embattled  steep, 
Shall  hail  the  guest   sublime; 

While  the  Tritons  of  the  deep 
With  their  conchs  the  kindred  league  shall 
proclaim. 

Then  let  the  world  combine, — 

O'er  the   main   our  naval   line 

Like  the  milky-way  shall  shine 
Bright   in    fame ! 


Tho  ages  long  have  past 

Since  our   Fathers  left  their  home, 
Their  pilot  in  the  blast, 

O'er   untraveled    seas  to   roam. 
Yet  lives  the  blood  of  England  in  our  veins! 

And  shall  we  not  proclaim 

That  blood  of  honest  fame 

Which  no  tyranny  can  tame 
By  its  chains? 

W"hile  the  language  free  and  bold 

Which  the  Bard  of  Avon  sung, 
In  which  our  Milton  told 

How  the  vault  of  heaven  rung 
When  Satan,  blasted,  fell  with  his  host; — 

While  this,  with  reverence  meet. 

Ten  thousand  echoes  greet, 

From  rock  to  rock  repeat 
Round  our  coast; — 

While  the  manners,  while  the  arts, 

That  mold  a  nation's  soul, 
Still  cling  around  our  hearts, — 

Between  let  Ocean  roll. 
Our  joint  communion  breaking  with  the  Sun: 

Yet  still  from  either  beach 

The  voice  of  blood  shall  reach. 

More  audible  than  speech, 
"  We  are  One." 

England 

By  Elizabeth   Barrett  Browning 

Whoever  lives  true  life,  will  love  true  love. 
I  learn'd  to  love  that  England.  Very  oft. 
Before  the  day  was  born,  or  otherwise 
Through  secret  windings  of  the  afternoons, 
I  threw  my  hunters  off  and  plunged  myself 
Among  the  deep  hills,  as  a  hunted  stag 
Will  take  the  waters,  shivering  with  the  fear 
And  passion  of  the  course.     And  when,  at 

last 
Escap'd — so    many    a    green    slope    built    on 

slope 
Betwixt  me  and  the  enemy's  house  behind, 
I  dar'd  to  rest,  or  wander, — like  a  rest 
Made  sweeter  for  the  step  upon  the  grass, — 
And  view  the  ground's  most  gentle  dimple- 

ment, 
(As    if    God's    finger    touch'd    but    did    not 

press 
In  making  England!)   such  an  up  and  down 
Of  verdure, — nothing  too  much  up  or  down, 
A  ripple  of  land ;  such  little  hills,  the  sky 
Can   stoop  to   tenderly,   and   the   wheatfields 

climb; 
Such   nooks   of  valleys,   Hn'd    with   orchises, 
Fed  full   of  noises  by  invisible  streams; 
And  open  pastures,   where  you   scarcely  tell 
White  daisies  from  white  dew, — at  intervals 
The  mythic  oaks  and  elm-trees  standing  out 
Self-pois'd  upon  their  prodigy  of  shade, — 
I  thought   my  father's  land  was  worthy  too 
Of  being  my   Shakespeare's     .... 
.     .     .     .     Breaking  into  voluble  ecstasy. 
I   flatter'd   all   the   beauteous   country   round, 
As  poets  use     .     .     .     the  skies,   the  clouds, 

the  fields. 
The  happy  violets,  hiding  from  the  roads 


564 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  primroses  run  down  to,  carrying  gold, — 
The    tangled     hedgerows,    where     the     cows 

push  out 
Impatient      horns      and     tolerant      churning 

mouths 
'Twixt  dripping  ash-boughs, — hedgerows  all 

alive 
With  birds  and  gnats  and  large  white  but- 
terflies 
Which  look  as  if  the  May-flower  had  sought 

life 
And  palpitated  forth  upon  the  wind, — 
Hills,  vales,  woods,  netted  in  a  silver  niist. 
Farms,  granges,  doubled  up  among  the  hills, 
And  cattle  grazing  in  the  water'd  vales, 
And    cottage-chimneys     smoking     from     the 

woods. 
And    cottage-gardens     smelling    everywhere, 
Confus'd  with  smell  of  orchards.     "  See,"  I 

said. 
"  And  see!  is  God  not  with  us  on  the  earth? 
And  shall  we  put  Him  down  by  aught  we 

do? 
Who  says  there's  nothing  for  the  poor  and 

vile 
Save  poverty  and  wickedness  ?  behold !  " 
And  ankle-deep  in  English  grass  I  leap'd. 
And  clapp'd  my  hands,   and  call'd  all  very 

fair. 

England 

By  John  Henry  Newman 

Tyre  of  the  West,  and  glorying  in  the  name 

More  than  in  Faith's  pure  fame ! 
O  trust  not  crafty  fort  nor  rock  renown'd, 

Earn'd  upon  hostile  ground; 
Wielding  Trade's  master-keys,  at  thy  proud 

will 
To  lock  or  loose  its  waters,  England!  trust 
not  still. 

Dread  thine  own  power !     Since  haughty  Ba- 
bel's prime, 
High  towers  have  been  man's  crime. 
Since  her  hoar  age,  when  the  huge  moat  lay 
bare. 
Strongholds  have  been  man's  snare. 
Thy  nest  is  in  the  crags;  ah,  refuge  frail! 
Mad    counsel   in    its    hour,    or   traitors,    will 
prevail. 

He  who  scann'd   Sodom   for   His   righteous 

men 
Still  spares  thee  for  thy  ten; 
But,  should  vain  tongues  the  Bride  of  Heaven 

defy. 
He  will  not  pass  thee  by; 
For,  as  earth's  kings  welcome  their  spotless 

guest. 
So  gives  He  them  by  turn,  to  suffer  or  be 

blest. 

Te  Mariners  of  England 

By  Thomas  Campbell 

Ye  Mariners  of  England! 

That  guard  our  native  seas; 

Whose   flag   has   braved,   a  thousand  years, 

The  battle  and  the  breeze! 


Your  glorious  standard  launch  again, 
To   match   another   foe ! 
And  sweep  through  the  deep. 
While  the  stormy  winds  do  blow; 
While  the  battle  rages  loud  and  long, 
And  the  stormy  winds  do  blow. 

The  spirits  of  your  fathers 

Shall   start  from  every  wave ! 

For  the  deck  it  was  their  field  of  fame, 

And  Ocean  was  their  grave : 

Where  Blake  and  mighty  Nelson  fell. 

Your    manly   hearts    shall    glow, 

As  ye  sweep  through  the  deeo. 

While  the  stormy  winds  do  blow; 

While  the  battle  rages  loud  and  long. 

And  the  stormy  winds  do  blow. 

Britannia  needs  no  bulwarks. 

No  towers  along  the  steep ; 

Her  march  is  on  the  "mountain-waves. 

Her  home  is  on  the  deep. 

With  thunders  from  her  native  oak. 

She  quells  the  floods  below — 

As  they  roar  on  the  shore. 

When  the   stormy  winds   do  blow ; 

When  the  battle  rages  loud  and  long, 

And  the  stormy  winds  do  blow. 

The  Meteor  of  England 

Shall  yet  terrific  burn. 

Till   danger's  troubled   night   depart, 

And  the  star  of  peace  return. 

Then,   then,   ye   ocean-warriors ! 

Our  song  and  feast  shall  flow 

To  the  fame  of  your  name. 

When  the  storm  has  ceased  to  blow; 

When  the  fiery  fight  is  heard  no  more. 

And  the  storm  has  ceased  to  blow. 

Men  of  England 
By  Thomas  Campbell 

Men  of  England !  who  inherit 

Rights   that    cost   your    sires   their   blood! 
Men  whose  undegenerate  spirit 

Has  been  proved  on  land  and  flood : — 

By  the  foes  ye've  fought  uncounted, 
By  the  glorious  deeds  ye've  done, 

Trophies  captured — breaches  mounted. 
Navies  conquer'd — kingdoms  won  ! 

Yet,   remember.   England   gathers 

Hence  but  fruitless   wreaths  of  fame, 

If  the  patriotism  of  your  fathers 
Glow  not  in  your  hearts  the  same. 

What  are  monuments  of  bravery. 
Where  no  public  virtues  bloom? 

What  avail  in  lands  of  slavery, 
Trophied  temples,  arch  and  tomb? 

Pageants ! — Let  the  world  revere  us 
For  our  people's  rights  and  laws. 

And  the  breasts  of  civic  heroes 
Bared  in  Freedom's  holy  cause. 

Yours  are  Hampden's,  Russell's  glory, 
Sydney's   matchless   shade  is  yours, — 

Martyrs  in  heroic   storv. 
Worth  a  hundred  Agincourts ! 


EMPIRE  DAY 


565 


We're  the  sons  of  sires  that  baffled 
Crown'd  and  miter'd  tyranny  : — 

They  defied  the  field  and  scaffold 
For  their  birthrights — so  will  we ! 

Rule,    Britannia 

By  James  Thomson 

When  Britain  first  at  Heaven's  command, 

Arose  from  out  the  azure  main, 
This  was  the  charter,  the  charter  of  the  land, 
And  guardian  angels  sung  the  strain: 
Rule,   Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 

The  nations,  not  so  blest  as  thee, 

Must  in  their  turn  to  tyrants  fall, 
While  thou   shalt  flourish,  great  and  free, 
The  dread  and  envy  of  them  all. 
Rule,   Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 

Still  more  majestic  shalt  thou  rise, 

More  dreadful   from  each  foreign  stroke; 
As  the  loud  blast  that  rends  the  skies 
Serves  but  to  root  thy  native  oak. 
Rule,    Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 

Thee,   haughty  tyrants   ne'er   shall   tame; 

All  their  attempts  to  bend  thee  down 
Will  but  arouse  thy  generous  flame, — 
But   work   their   woe  and  thy  renown. 
Rule,   Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 


To  thee  belongs  the  rural  reign. 

Thy  cities  shall  with  commerce  shine; 
All  thine  shall  be  the  subject  main, 
And  every  shore  encircles  thine. 
Rule,   Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 

The  Muses,  still  with  freedom  found. 

Shall  to  thy  happy  coasts  repair, 
Blessed     Isle!         With     matchless     beauty 
crowned. 
And  manly  hearts  to  guard  the  fair. 
Rule,   Britannia, 
Britannia  rule  the  waves, 
Britons  never  shall  be  slaves. 

Buonaparte 

By  Alfred  Tennyson 

He  thought  to  quell  the  stubborn  hearts  of 

oak. 
Madman ! — to   chain   with    chains,    and   bind 

with  bands 
That  island  queen  that  sways  the  floods  and 

lands 
From  Ind  to  Ind,  but  in  fair  daylight  woke, 
When   from   her  wooden   walls,   lit  by   sure 

hands, 
With  thunders,  and  with  lightnings,  and  with 

smoke. 
Peal  after  peal,  the  British  battle  broke. 
Lulling  the  brine  against  the  Coptic  sands. 
We  taught  him  lowlier  moods,  when  Elsinore 
Heard  the  war  moan  along  the  distant  sea, 
Rocking  with   shattered   spars,   with   sudden 

fires 
Flamed  over:    at  Trafalgar  yet  once  more 
We  taught  him :   late  he  learned  humility 
Perforce,  like  those  whom  Gideon  schooled 

with  briers. 


566  HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 

MEMORIAL  DAY* 

(May  30) 

TRADITION  has  it  that  about  the  time  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  a  soldier  of 
the  German  army  came  to  this  country,  and,  enlisting  in  our  army,  served 
through  the  war.  About  the  time  the  war  closed  he  casually  remarked  one  day 
that  it  was  the  custom  in  Germany  for  the  people  to  scatter  flowers  on  the  graves 
of  soldiers  once  a  year.  Nothing  more  was  said  at  the  time,  but  it  is  supposed 
that  this  was  the  origin  of  "  Memorial  Day." 

Be  this  as  it  may,  early  in  May,  1868,  Adjutant-General  N.  P.  Chipman  con- 
ferred with  National  Commander  John  A.  Logan,  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  (an  organization  then  in  its  infancy)  concerning  the  matter  of  having 
that  organization  inaugurate  the  custom  of  spreading  flowers  on  the  graves  of  the 
Union  soldiers  all  over  the  Union  at  some  uniform  time  or  day. 

The  idea  seemed  to  strike  General  Logan  as  being  a  most  proper  thing  to  do, 
and  he  immediately  issued  an  order  in  which  he  named  the  30th  day  of  May, 
1868,  "  for  the  purpose  of  strewing  with  flowers,  or  otherwise  decorating  the 
graves  of  comrades  who  died  in  defense  of  their  country  during  the  late  rebellion, 
and  whose  bodies  now  lie  in  almost  every  city,  village,  or  hamlet  churchyard  in 
the  land." 

After  speaking  to  the  Grand  Army  comrades  of  their  duties  he  closed  with 
these  words,  "  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  commander-in-chief  to  inaugurate  this 
observance  with  the  hope  that  it  will  be  kept  up  from  year  to  year  while  a  survivor 
of  the  war  remains  to  honor  the  memory  of  the  departed." 

As  time  went  on  the  name  of  "  Decoration  "  was  changed  to  "  Memorial," 
the  former  word  failing  to  express  the  feelings  of  the  comrades,  inasmuch  as  it 
has  too  much  shallowness  for  such  a  grand  service  as  has  been  inaugurated. 

It  is  well  that  this  day  should  be  kept  a  high  and  holy  festival.  Think  of 
the  character  of  the  men  who  responded  thirty-seven  years  ago  to  the  call  of  the 
country!  The  army  was  drawn  from  the  average  American  citizen,  and  it  was 
constituted  from  the  very  best  stock  in  the  land.  Then  think  of  the  high  and 
sacred  cause  in  which  they  were  enlisted. 

The  men  whose  graves  shall  be  decorated  on  Memorial  Day  were  men  who 
ventured  their  lives,  and  in  multitudes  of  instances  lost  them  for  the  sake  of  great 
ideas  and  principles,  and  for  these  they  counted  it  honor  to  deny  themselves  and 
endure  all  things,  even  death  itself. 

We  cannot  do  a  wiser  thing  than  to  honor  the  memories  of  the  departed 
defenders  of  the  flag,  and  in  so  doing  show,  not  only  that  we  are  grateful  for 
what  they  did,  but  that  we  love  the  Nation  whose  banner  they  followed  and  wish 
to  do  something  that  will  prove  that  we  are  worthy  of  the  name  of  Americans. 

But  the  patriot  dead  are  not  only  those  who  wore  the  blue  and  marched 
under  the  flag ;  not  alone  their  graves  do  we  honor.  There  were  patriots  who  at 
home  upheld  the  soldier's  heart  and  inspired  him  to  duty.  There  were  the  wo- 
men, who  gave  their  loved  ones,  who  breathed  up  prayers  for  their  safety  and 
return,  whose  needles  stitched  for  them,  whose  hands  wrought  for  them,  whose 

*  For  date  of  observance  of  Memorial  Day  in  the  South,  see  table  of  holidays  on  p.  465. 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


567 


letters  cheered  them,  whose  love  forever  embodied  itself  in  something  that  should 
comfort  and  relieve  them. 

The  memory  of  those  patriot  women  we  too  would  honor,  and  did  we  know 
where  their  bodies  sleep,  their  graves  we  would  decorate. — N.  T.  A.  (1898.) 


ADDRESSES 

THIRTY  YEARS  AFTER* 

By  Rev.  Clark  Wright 


Mr.  President,  Gentlemen  of  the  3d  Regi- 
mental Association  of  Georgia: 

A  private  soldier  who  carried  a  gun,  who 
was  the  least  of  all  the  men  who  surround 
you  to-night — is  to  tell  you  what  you  already 
have  learned  in  your  intercourse  with  the 
members  of  the  Hawkins  Zouave  Associa- 
tion of  New  York,  that  we  are  glad  to  see 
you,  and  take  great  pleasure  in  bidding  you 
a  most  cordial  welcome  to  this,  the  thirtieth 
anniversary  of  the  organizatioti  of  the  9th 
N.  Y.  Vols.   (Hawkins  Zouaves). 

We  most  kindly  appreciate  the  hospitality 
shown  our  representatives  who  visited  you 
at  one  time — who  returned  declaring  that 
Georgia  grapes  and  watermelons  were  not 
only  large,  but  delicious,  and  were  given  by 
the  men  of  the  old  3d  Georgia  with  lavish 
hand,  at  Fort  Valley,  thus  manifesting  your 
cordiality  and  regard  to  the  boys  (now  old 
men)  of  the  Hawkins  Zouaves,  for  which 
we  are  sincerely  thankful. 

It  is  very  pleasant  to  have  the  opportunity 
to  grasp  the  friendly  hand  of  those  who 
thought  so  diametrically  opposite,  thirty 
years  ago.  It  proves  time  not  only  heals, 
but  also  cools  the  blood,  gives  more  mature 
judgment,  enabling  each  to  overlook  the 
past,  and  while  we  do  not  claim  to  forget 
those  dark  hours  in  our  life,  nor  withdraw  an 
iota,  nor  impugn  the  motives  or  sincerity  of 
an  opponent,  we  can  each  forgive,  and  while 
we  let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead,  rejoice 
in  the  sunshine  of  the  present,  that  brings 
comfort  and  happiness  to  all  parts  of  our 
native  land,  as  we  remember  above  and  over 
all  else,  we  are  American  citizens.  As  such 
this  remnant  of  Hawkins  Zouaves  sit  down 
and  break  bread  with — and  most  gladly  greet 
— the  survivors  of  the  gallant  3d  Regiment 
of  Georgia. 

And  while  the  professional  politician  may 
rave  about  the  rights  of  the  South,  or  the 
rights  of  the  North,  we  calmly  step  aside 
from  these  noisy  windmills  of  both  sections 
to  clasp  the  hand  of  these  brave  heroic  men 
of  the  South,  and  bid  them  a  joyful  welcome 
to  the  metropolis  of  the  Empire  State  of  New 
York.    .... 

We  are  particularly  pleased  to  see  you  gen- 
tlemen because  there  are  several  remarkable 
parallels,  incident  in  the  history  of  the  two 
regiments  whose  representatives  gather 
around  this  board. 

♦  Delivered  when  the  speaker's  old  regiment,  gth 
Col  (Judge)  Sneed. 


1.  Both  were  organized  in  April,  1861, 
within  seven  days  of  each  other;  ours  on  the 
19th,  yours  on  the  26th. 

2.  Both  were  composed  largely  of  young 
men,  many  of  whom  had  not  attained  their 
majority. 

3.  Both  were  composed  of  men  who,  im- 
pressed with  the  righteousness  of  the  cause 
they  represented,  and  feeling  assured  they 
were  right,  dared  that  cause  maintain. 

4.  The  fortunes  of  war  brought  these  regi- 
ments repeatedly  face  to  face,  time  after  time 
in  most  deadly  strife,  and  while  each  did  their 
best,  as  soon  as  the  battle  ceased,  humanity 
took  the  place  of  conflict  and  the  wounded 
and  distressed  were  cared  for  without  regard 
to  the  color  of  their  clothes,  whether  it  was- 
blue  or  gray,  or  gray  or  blue. 

5.  Altho  the  records  prove  few  regiments: 
of  the  last  war  lost  a  larger  per  cent,  of 
those  engaged,  giving  evidence  of  the  terrific 
fire  they  experienced,  yet  neither  of  them  lost 
a  stand  of  colors,  nor  were  the  colors  touched 
by  hostile  hand,  and  altho  the  flags  of  both 
have  been  shot  into  tatters  there  is  still 
enough  left  of  each,  for  the  survivors  of 
these  regiments  annually  to  gather  around, 
and  show  our  regard  for  one  another,  and 
our  love  for  those  who  fell  fighting  beneath 
their  folds. 

To-night  the  stars  of  Heaven  look  down 
upon  Georgia  and  New  York  clasping  hands 
of  friendship  and  fraternity,  while  we  glory 
in  your  record  of  intrepidity  and  fortitude,  in 
the  manhood  you  displayed  on  so  many  bat- 
tlefields, in  the  prosperity  of  your  State  and 
the  entire  South,  in  the  happiness  attending 
your  advancing  years,  in  the  glorious  fact 
that  Georgia  stands  side  by  side  with  New 
York  in  her  devotion  to  the  starry  flag  of 
Washington,  knowmg  well  were  a  foe  to 
arise  from  any  quarter  of  the  globe  and  at- 
tempt to  strike  down  that  emblem  of  our 
liberties,  the  3d  Georgia  and  9th  New  York 
would  stand  side  by  side  in  defense  of  our 
country,  our  flag,  and  our  homes. 

We  rejoice  the  hour  has  come  when  we 
can  converse  about  our  early  intercourse. 
Ours  was  not  a  hasty  acquaintance ;  most  of 
us  grew  to  manhood  before  we  got  within 
gunshot  of  each  other,  and  even  after  we 
spent  a  season  of  varied  interest  at  that 
breezy  watering  place  on  the  coast  of  North 
Carolina  called  Hatteras,  it  was  some  time 
N.  Y.  Volunteers,  entertained  the  3d  Georgia  under 


568 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


before  we  learned  that  the  gentlemen  from 
Georgia  were  in  the  vicinity  of  Hatteras 
Light  House.  Learning  this  we  started  one 
day  up  the  coast  to  seek  an  introduction  to 
you.  Altho  some  of  us  have  since  become 
gray-haired,  we  still  remember  that  walk  by 
the  side  of  the  poetical,  dark  blue  sea. 

We  had  read  Clark  Russell's  description  of 
the  fascinations  of  the  dark  blue  sea  but  I 
think  we  never  realized  before  how  blue  it 
really  was ;  yes,  the  sea  was  blue,  and  before 
we  had  wallced  ten  miles  in  the  sand  up  to 
our  ankles  we  were  blue  too,  but  we  trudged 
on,  tired,  weary,  determined  to  make  your 
acquaintance.  No  lover  in  pursuit  of  his  coy 
lady  could  have  been  more  determined  than 
we  on  our  march  to  Chicamicomico;  from 
this  you  may  judge  how  we  loved  you. 

But  alas  we  were  to  prove  the  truth  of  the 
Scottish  Bard  that 

"  The  best  laid  plans    o'  mice  and  men  gang 
aft  aglee," 

for  on  our  arrival  we  found  you  had  changed 
your  mind,  and  concluded  to  defer  the  mat- 
ter and  let  us  wait  before  you  would  consent 
to  an  introduction  to  the  gth  New  York. 
Like  the  foolish  virgins,  we  learned  we  were 
too  late  for  the  festivities  you  had  enjoyed 
that  day  with  an  Indiana  Regiment,  and  after 
a  pleasant  time  had  quietly  returned  from 
whence  you  came — not,  however,  until,  like 
a  thoughtful  friend,  you  had  compassionately 
relieved  the  aforesaid  regiment  of  most  of 
their  camp  equipage,  and  eased  them  of  the 
burden  of  carrying  their  heavy  overcoats  to 
Hatteras.  And  so  back  we  went,  like  a  jilted 
young  man,  over  the  same  route  by  the  side 
of  the  aforesaid  deep  blue  sea,  sad  and  lonely, 
to  wait  a  more  propitious  opportunity  for 
an  introduction.  How  often  we  thought  of 
you  ! 

We  knew  you  were  well-dressed  gentle- 
men, for  clothing  had  been  sent  you  from 
Indiana,  and  we  fancied  you  went  sailing 
each  pleasant  afternoon  on  Albemarle  Sound, 
else  you  would  not  have  needed  the  steam- 
boat "  Fannie "  which  a  kind  Providence 
and  the  foresight  of  Indiana  friends  placed 
at  your  di^^posal. 

I  can't  tell  all  we  thought  and  said  about 
you  while  we  enjoyed  our  savory  mullets  and 
sweet  potatoe  pies  served  at  our  hotel  by 
the  cooks  of  Hatteras.  Until  at  last  becom- 
ing disconsolate  we  ourselves  took  steamer 
and  sailed  up  the  sound  as  far  as  Roanoke 
Island,  where,  possibly  fortunately  for  us, 
you  still  concluded  to  defer  the  first 
interview. 

We,  however,  saw  your  work  and  finally 
occupied  the  "  French  Flats "  (Barracks) 
you  had  built ;  they  were  the  best  quarters 
we  had  during  our  term  of  service  and  when 
we  took  possession  of  those  suburban  resi- 
dences and  learned  that  they  were  built  by 
the  3d  Georgia  for  our  especial  use,  we  knew 
you  loved  us,  and  that  you  would  leave 
nothing  undone  to  make  the  9th  happy.  Cer- 
tainly as  we  recall  this  evidence  of  fore- 
thought on  your  part  (even  at  this  late  day) 


we  desire  to  return  our  most  sincere  thanks. 
There  in  those  barracks  we  tarried  until 
one  day,  before  the  historic  day  of  the  his- 
toric month  of  April,  we  bade  our  island 
home  good-by,  to  meet  on  the  morrow, 
April  19th,  1862,  as  the  sequel  proved,  you 
the  determined  men  of  the  3d  Regiment  of 
Georgia. 

Concerning  that  interview  held  at  what 
you  are  pleased  to  call  Sawyer's  Lane,  which 
we  designated  Camden,  it  is  unnecessary  for 
me  to  dwell  at  great  length.  We  met,  ex- 
changed the  compliments  of  the  season  and 
parted  each  with  increased  respect  for  the 
other,  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  stubborn 
tenacity  and  grit  characterizing  both  the 
men  who  defended  their  battery  and  those 
who  charged  for  a  half  mile  in  front  of  it. 

My  recollection  is  you  left  us  in  possession 
of  the  field,  but  if  memory  serves  right  that 
field  was  like  holding  a  hot  poker,  while  you 
were  in  the  neighborhood. 

So,  noiselessly  under  cover  of  the  dark- 
ness, we  gently  folded  up  our  haversacks 
(not  having  much  else  to  fold)  and,  like  the 
classic  Arab,  silently  took  our  weary  march 
back  to  the  place  from  whence  we  came. 

I  assure  you  not  many  songs  were  sung 
that  night — not  many  stories  were  told,  for 
we  were  not  quite  sure  you  were  satisfied, 
and  it  was  barely  possible  you  might  request 
another  interview,  and  as  we  had  been  on 
the  march  all  the  preceding  day  and  a  part 
of  the  night,  we  were  in  no  condition  to 
enter  into  the  full  enjoyment  of  an  all  hands 
around,  even  with  the  gentlemen  who  had 
given  us  such  a  warm  reception,  so  we  went 
back  to  the  enjoyment  of  our  Island  home  at 
Roanoke,  to  meditate  over  the  interview  we 
had  with  you  on  the  battle-field  of  Camden. 
.  And  since  then  the  years  have 
passed,  and  a  new  generation  has  come  into 
existence   until   now.     .     .     . 

With  mingled  feelings  of  respect  and  re- 
gard we  look  in  your  faces  to-night.  I  say 
respect  because  one  brave  man  always  re- 
spects another  who  stood  manfully  for  what 
he  believed  the  right.  We  hold  you  in  kind 
regard  because  we  recollect  the  scenes  you 
passed  through,  for  you  are  the  men  who 
while  battling  a  foe  in  front,  were  assailed 
by  starvation  in  the  rear.  The  battle-fields 
where  opposing  hosts  contended  for  victory 
witnessed  no  nobler  instances  of  courage  and 
self  abnegation  than  did  the  homes  where 
ill-clo!hed  Confederates  had  left  wives  and 
children  to  raise  a  little  corn  and  tend  the 
flock  whereby  they  might  exist. 

Our  forces  experimentally  knew  nothing  of 
the  agony  endured  by  the  men  in  your  ranks. 
We  met,  fought,  buried  our  dead,  cared  for 
our  wounded,  and  gloried  in  whatever  tri- 
umph might  come.  But  you  not  only  fought, 
but  you  fought  amid  want. 

Of  tea,  of  coffee  we  had  the  best  in  the 
world ;  but  a  pound  of  tea  from  Nassau  cost 
you  $500.  Our  army  was  well  shod ;  if  a 
pair  of  shoes  were  worn  out  after  a  long 
march,  the  Quartermaster  would  issue  an- 
other pair.  But  j-ou  were  often  obliged  to  go 
barefooted,    while    a    prominent    general    of 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


569 


the  South  has  informed  us  a  pair  of  boots 
cost  $600,  and  in  1864,  it  was  officially  an- 
nounced that  a  large  number  of  the  Stone- 
wall Brigade  were  entirely  without  shoes. 
Of  hard  bread  we  generally  had  plenty. 
It  is  said  a  Southern  captain  found  one  of 
his  soldiers  up  a  persimmon  tree  eating 
green  persimmons,  and  when,  on  asking  the 
reason  for  such  strange  action,  was  told  he 
was  eating  green  persimmons  in  order  to 
fit  his  mouth  to  the  size  of  the  rations. 

We  of  the  Union  Army  think  of  the 
triumph  of  our  arms  and  to  us  they  were 
grand,  but  it  were  well  for  us  to  ponder  over 
the  fact,  that  while  our  armies  were  fighting 
the  Confederates  in  front,  General  Starva- 
tion was  assaulting  them  on  the  flank  and 
rear.  In  January,  1863,  the  Virginia  news- 
papers quoted  flour  at  $25  per  barrel ;  in  Jan- 
uary, 1864.  $95  per  barrel ;  in  January,  1865, 
$1,000  per  barrel.  For  you  heroes  of  Georgia 
there  was  death  at  the  cannon's  mouth  in 
front  and  starvation  in  the  rear.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1861,  $1.10  of  Confederate  money 
was  equal  to  $1  in  United  States  gold.  But 
in  January,  1865,  it  took  $60  Confederate 
money  to  buy  $1  in  gold.  It  seemed  while 
the  money  market  was  going  down  lower 
and  lower,  your  courage  and  pluck  mounted 
higher  and  higher.  A  Southern  paper  gave 
a  list  of  the  dead  and  wounded,  and  along- 
side were  directions  for  the  use  of  bone- 
set  as  a  substitute  for  quinine.  You  made 
pencils  to  mark  roll  call  from  molten  bul- 
lets, poured  into  the  cavity  of  small  reeds 
from  the  cane  brakes.  The  juice  of  the 
pokeberry  compounded  with  vinegar  fur- 
nished ink,  while  the  goose  quill  (it  was  all 
the  Yankees  left  of  the  goose)  took  the  place 
of  the  steel  pen  to  write  to  the  girl  you  left 
behind  you.  Raspberry  and  sassafras  took 
the  place  of  Hyson,  parched  rye  and  dried 
sweet  potatoes  took  the  place  of  Mocha. 
Scupanong  wine  did  not  continue  plentiful 
after  the  9th  left  North  Carolina.  Pine  tags 
and  potatoes  went  into  the  still,  to  come  out 
pure  mountain  dew,  while  the  persimmon 
tree  furnished  the  beer  which  was  called 
"  Possum  toddy."  Carding  combs,  the 
spindle,  the  loom,  was  the  music  coming 
from  the  chimney  side.  Flax  joined  King 
Cotton  in  clothing  the  people  in  homespun, 
while  headgear  was  furnished  by  robbing 
the  coon  or  rabbit  of  his  overcoat.  Accord- 
ing to  one  authority,  buttons,  pins,  buckles, 
hooks  and  eyes,  gradually  disappeared. 
While  the  ladies  used  devices  known  to 
themselves,  the  men  skewered  their  trousers 
with  wooden  pins  or  locust  thorns.  We  defy 
the  world  to  show  greater  pluck  and  more 
indomitable  courage  than  was  manifested  by 
the  South  in  those  four  years  of  terrible 
■war. 

But  I  have  thought  it  was  during  the  holi- 
day seasons  of  the  year  the  disappointment 
was  keenest,  when  the  little  homespun  stock- 
ing hung  on  the  chimney  place  at  Christmas, 
when  your  ingenuity  was  put  to  the  test  to 
devise  so  the  deprivations  you  were  endur- 
ing should  not  be  felt  by  the  little  ones 
around  the   fireside.     Aye,   you   might   have 


told  them  that  Hawkins  Zouaves  had  way- 
laid Santa  Claus  as  he  was  coming  through 
the  lines — you  might  have  told  them  the 
Noah's  Ark,  with  its  menagerie,  the  jump- 
ing jacks,  wagons,  and  dolls,  were  all  cap- 
tured by  the  Yankees.  And  it  might  have 
been  true,  but  it  could  not  soften  the  feeling 
of  regret  in  your  heart,  that  at  the  holiest 
season  of  the  year,  Christmas  time,  you  could 
not  give  your  little  ones  the  best  the  world 
afforded. 

But  brave  souls  that  you  were,  this  burden 
also,  you  took  upon  your  heart  as  you  went 
forward  in  the  performance  of  what  you  con- 
scientiously considered  your  duty  and  so 
those  years  passed — years  of  self-sacrifice, 
years  of  devotion  to  what  you  felt  was  prin- 
ciple, years  of  sorrow,  of  pain,  of  death,  of 
graves;  but  they  were  also  years  of  valor, 
of  courage,  of  consecration  to  a  given  work 
such  as  the  world  never  witnessed  before, 
and  I  doubt  if  it  ever  will  again. 

Each  one  of  you  whom  we  so  gladly  wel- 
come as  our  guests  were  part  of  that 
struggle — from  Camden  to  Fredericksburg, 
wherever  we  met,  amid  the  lowlands  of 
North  Carolina,  or  the  fields  of  South  Moun- 
tain, Antietam,  or  elsewhere,  the  gth  New 
York  felt  in  the  3d  Regiment  of  Georgia 
it  had  met  a  foeman  worthy  its  steel. 

Your  bull  dog  tenacity,  your  determined 
resistance,  your  courageous  valor  won  from 
your  enemies  the  highest  encomiums  of  praise, 
whenever  we  met  you  on  the  field  of  battle. 
But  now  the  smoke  and  rancor  of  the  strife 
is  over  and  we  are  enabled  carefully  to  study 
your  history  in  the  light  of  contemporaneous 
events  (remembering  your  homes  desolate 
by  fire  and  sword,  your  bodies  illy  clad,  ex- 
posed to  the  elements,  your  haversacks 
empty,  while  hungry  and  desolate  you  sank 
upon  the  bare  ground  to  forget  for  a  few 
moments  in  sleep  the  struggle  through  which 
you  were  passing).  I  say  when  we  recollect 
these  things  and  then  remember  the  courage 
exhibited  to  our  eyes,  as  we  met  you  on  the 
field  of  battle,  we  declare  we  are  proud  to 
call  you  this  day  brothers,  countrymen, 
Americans. 

Well  may  Georgia  honor  you  with  the 
noblest  and  best  she  possesses;  well  may  her 
orators  who  meet  you  at  your  annual  re- 
unions, and  were  their  voices  as  silvery  and 
sweet  as  angels,  were  their  powers  of  de- 
scription as  vivid  as  the  lightning's  flash,  they 
would  yet  be  unable  to  tell  the  whole  story 
of  your  faithfulness  to  that  grand  Empire 
State  of  the  South,  as  we  of  Hawkins 
Zouaves  who  took  your  fire  and  saw  your  de- 
termination and  valor,  as  you  contended 
even  to  the  blood  and  death  of  the  flower 
of  your  State,  for  each  and  every  inch  of 
land  yon  were  placed  to  defend. 

The  historian  and  poet  is  yet  to  be  born 
who  will  justly  tell  the  world  the  whole 
story  of  the  bravery  and  heroism  of  the  men 
of  iron  nerve,  from  Georgia.  Of  the  number 
of  men  you  had  engaged,  and  the  loss  you 
suffered  at  the  battle  of  Antietam  I  have 
not  the  record ;  but  from  your  determined 
stand  and  the  withering  fire  you  poured  into 


570 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


our  regiment  at  that  battle,  Hawkins 
Zouaves  lost  sixty-three  per  cent,  of  those 
who  met  you  in  that  one  engagement.  At 
the  famous  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  at 
Balaklava,  immortalized  by  Tennyson,  Lord 
Cardigan  took  673  men  into  action,  and  lost 
in  killed  and  wounded  247  men;  or,  thirty- 
six  and  a  fraction  per  cent,  of  those  engaged, 
of  this  much  praised  Light  Brigade.  But  in 
one  engagement  with  you,  Hawkins  Zouaves 
lost  sixty-three  per  cent,  or  nearly  double 
that  of  the  famous  Light  Brigade.  Your 
bravery  at  Antietam  exceeded  the  world-re- 
nowned charge  of  the  Light  Brigade. 

Does  the  State  whose  name  you  bear,  or 
whose  flag  you  defended  need  more  terrible 
evidence  of  your  fidelity  to  the  trust  they  re- 
posed in  you?  H  they  would  have  it,  let 
them  visit  the  battlefields  of  the  South,  and 
standing  by  the  hallowed  graves  of  your 
sacred  dead  as  they  mark  the  different  places 
of  conflict  where  they  fell — let  these  wit- 
nesses testify  by  the  very  elpauence  of  their 
silence,  of  the  integrity,  intrepidity,  forti- 
tude, and  courage  of  the  3d  Regiment  of 
Georgia  Volunteers. 

Your  State  abounds  in  great  wealth.  It 
may  tell  the  world  of  its  mines,  of  its  miles 
upon  miles  of  railroads,  of  its  fertile  lands 
yielding  rich  harvests  to  the  husbandman ; 
of  its  factories  with  its  thousands  of  hum- 
ming wheels  of  manufacture ;  these  are  good, 
and  well  may  it  glory,  and  we  rejoice  you 
have  them;  but,  its  greatest  glory,  its  most 
priceless  gem,  its  choicest  treasure,  are  the 
men  who,  in  the  face  of  fire  and  smoke, 
starvation  and  desolation,  wounds  and  death, 
a  hasty  burial  (aye,  so  hasty  even  comrades 
would  forget,  and  others  come  and  mark  the 
head-board  unknown) — yes,  these  men  who 
literally  forsook  all  and  went  forth  at  the 
behest  of  the  State,  these  gray-haired,  halt, 
maimed,  enfeebled,  and  the  greater  number 
who  lie  buried  amid  the  Savannahs  of  the 
South;  these  are  the  choicest  treasures,  the 
crown  jewels,  the  sparkling  gems  in  the 
glittering,  scintillating  crown  of  our  Sister 
Empire  State  of  the  South, 

I  know  you  will  pardon  me  when  I  say 
the  best  men  we  had  in  each  of  these  two 
regiments,  are  not  visibly  present  with  us 
now;  the  best  and  truest  of  our  number 
lie  buried  on  the  battlefields  of  the  South; 
some  were  clad  in  gray,  some  in  blue ;  no 
towering  monument  marks  their  resting 
place,  nor  massive  monolith  stands  sentinel. 

But  beneath  a  cedar  or  a  pine, 

In  solitude  austere. 
Unknown,    unarmed,   but   not  forgotten, 

Rests  a  faithful  volunteer. 

Buried  where  they  fell,  baptizing  the  soil 
with  their  blood,  forever  consecrating  the 
ground,  making  it  holy,  while  their  life  and 
death  tell  the  world  the  story  of  how  an 
American  will  fight,  and  if  necessary  die  for 
what  he  believes  to  be  the  right.  And,  while 
I  have  talked  I  have  thought  that  these  un- 
seen, but  not  unwelcome  guests,  are  here  in 
our  midst  to-night ;   vi.-ionary  it  may  be  on 


my  part,  but  I  know  you  will  forgive  me  as 
I  think  of  these  heroes  of  the  3d  Georgia  and 
gth  New  York  who  have  long  since  mingled 
together  in  fraternity  and  love,  as  we  mingle 
here  this  hour.  They  pass  before  us  like  a 
long  procession  coming  trom  their  camping 
grounds  amid  the  cemeteries,  the  battlefields, 
the  graveyards  of  the  South.  To  us  they 
are  no  longer  dead,  they  live — we  can  al- 
most hear  their  well-known  voices  as  with 
flashing  eye,  active  limb,  courageous  lion 
hearts,  once  more  they  are  with  us,  side 
by  side,  the  Blue,  the  Gray,  the  private,  the 
officer ;  on  they  pass,  those  who  died  at 
Roanoke,  at  Camden,  at  South  Mountain, 
at  Antietam,  at  Fredericksburg,  and  the  bat- 
tlefields of  the  South.  Hayes  and  McComas, 
Kimbal,  Sturges,  Gadsden,  Hamilton,  Barnett, 
Wright,  Reno,  Jackson  and  Burnside,  Grant 
and  Lee. 

Oh,  ye  comrades  of  '61,  friend  or  foe  of 
those  days,  we  gladly  welcome  you  all,  as 
friends,  to  this  fraternal  board.  As  memory 
calls  your  names  and  recounts  your  heroic 
achievements  while  with  us,  unseen,  you 
gather  here  a  reunited  band  of  a  reunited 
country  beneath  the  bright  folding  of  our 
own   starry   flag. 

You  who  went  forth  with  a  mother's  bene- 
diction ;  you  who  bade  farewell  to  the  chil- 
dren who  received  your  last  embrace  at  the 
place  of  embarkation ;  you  who  faced  the 
enemy  so  boldly  in  the  charge ;  you  who  died 
amid  the  carnage  of  battle  alone,  alone,  while 
the  very  stars  of  God  seemed  to  look  in  pity 
upon  you. 

O  yes,  you,  you  my  countrymen,  whether 
from  Georgia  or  New  York,  to-night  these 
— the  remnant  of  more  than  2,000  men — 
these  your  comrades  gathered  here,  salute 
you  as  we  bring  to  mind  your  faithfulness  as 
soldiers,  and  rejoice  with  you  that  our  coun- 
try has  passed  from  the  hurricane  to  the 
calm ;  from  out  of  all  that  crash,  of  which 
we  were  part,  to  liberty,  union,  brotherly 
love,  and  peace. 

But  our  mind  recalls  others  not  present 
who  sitting  in  their  quiet  homes  here  in  New 
York  or  Georgia,  think  of  this  reunion 
with  mingled  feelings  of  joy  and  sorrow.  I 
seem  to  look  into  the  mind  of  dear  old  gray- 
haired  mother,  sitting  in  yonder  home, 
thinking  of  the  boy  on  whose  head  she  show- 
ered her  blessing,  around  whose  neck  her 
arm  was  clasped,  and  on  whose  lips  she 
printed  her  farewell  kiss,  as  in  1861  he  bade 
her  his  last  good-by.  God  bless  her,  to- 
night, is  the  prayer  of  every  one  around  this 
board,  whether  she  be  of  Georgia  or  New 
York. 

And  in  those  other  homes,  where  dwell  the 
widow  and  her  children,  made  fatherless  so 
early  in  life.  Yes,  yes,  my  friends,  they  are 
thinking  of  these  two  regiments  as  they  re- 
member the  vacant  places  in  our  ranks,  and 
the  vacant  place  at  their  own  fireside. 

It  singeth  low  in  every  heart, 
We  hear  it,  each  and  all, 
"  A  song  of  those  who  answer  not 
However  we   may  call. 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


571 


They  throng  the  silence  of  the  heart, 

We  see  them  as  of  yore — 
The  kind,  the  true,  the  brave,  the  sweet, 

Who  walk  with  us  no  more. 

Could  we  speak  to  each  of  these  homes, 
to-night,  we  would  tell  them  of  the  fidelity 
and  courage  of  their  loved  one  in  the  days 
of  the  past,  and  assure  them  of  our  undying 
regard  for  their  memory.  We  would  tell 
them  as   we  tell  you — we  shall  meet  again. 

Our  comrades  are  not  gone  forever,  for 

When  the  dreams  of  life  are  fled, 
When  its  wasted  lamps  are  dead, 
When  in  cold  oblivion's  shade 
Beauty,  power,  and  fame  are  laid, 
Where  immortal  spirits  reign 
There  shall  we  all  meet  again. 


And  now,  my  friends  of  the  3d  Georgia,  I 
from  the  left  of  the  line,  a  private  soldier  of 
the  gth  New  York  who  has  tried  to  speak 
fitting  words  on  this  historic  occasion,  who, 
before  I  again  step  back  and  take  my  place 
in  the  ranks,  do  here  salute  you,  and  in  the 
name  and  in  behalf  of  the  gth  Regiment, 
N.  Y.  Volunteers,  "  Hawkins  Zouaves,"  ex- 
tend to  you,  individually  and  collectively,  a 
cordial  greeting  and  a  most  hearty,  royal  wel- 
come. 

Welcome  to  the  old  Empire  State.  Wel- 
come to  the  ranks  of  the  gth  New  York. 
Welcome  to  this  our  thirtieth  anniversary 
(i8gi).  Welcome,  thrice  welcome,  3d  Geor- 
gia Regimental  Association  to  our  city,  our 
homes,  and  to  our  hearts. — P.  T. 


THE  MONUMENT'S  MESSAGE* 

By  Rev.  Charles  Elmer  Allison 


The  polished  granite  in  front  of  old  Manor 
Hall  combines  strength  and  grace.  "  The 
quarry  has  blossomed  into  the  air."  Stone 
and  bronze  stand  out  under  the  stars,  defy- 
ing the  storms  and  the  seasons.  Stable  and 
beautiful  they  will  stand,  saluting  the  far 
future,  when  ours  is  a  buried  generation, 
sleeping  "  the  iron  sleep."  A  great  English 
poet,  whose  pen  is  a  gilded  scepter,  says 
there  are  sermons  in  stones.  The  granite 
lips  of  yonder  Color-Bearer  are  mute,  yet 
they  speak  to  the  spirit's  finer  ear.  All  of 
those  memorial  stones,  from  pedestal  to 
carved  capital  and  surmounting  standard, 
have  a  voice.  We  bring  you  the  Monument's 
Message. 

The  costly  column  is  reared  on  American 
soil,  and  America  is  the  garden  of  the  Lord 
— great  in  extent  and  resources,  great  in  his- 
tory, great  in  destiny.  Imperial  Rome  "  po- 
liced the  world."  Her  empire  extended  3,- 
000  miles  in  one  direction,  and  2,000  in  an- 
other. As  to  extent  of  territory,  this  Nation 
is  a  modern  Rome. 

"  What  shall  we  say  of  a  Republic  of 
eighteen  states,  each  as  large  as  Spain,  or 
one  of  thirty  states,  each  as  large  as 
Italy,  or  one  of  sixty  states,  each  as  large 
as  England  and  Wales?  Take  five  of  the 
six  first-class  Powers  of  Europe,  Great 
Britain,  and  Ireland,  France,  Germany,  Aus- 
tria and  Italy ;  then  add  Spain,  Portugal, 
Switzerland,  Denmark  and  Greece.  Let 
some  greater  than  Napoleon  weld  them  into 
one  m.ighty  empire,  and  you  could  lay  it  all 
down  west  of  the  Hudson  River,  once  and 
again,  and  again — three  times." 

Of  the  states  and  territories  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  only  three  are  as  small  as  all 
New  England.  Idaho,  if  laid  down  in  the 
East,  would  touch  Toronto,  Canada,  on  the 
north,  Raleigh,  N.  C,  on  the  south,  while 
its  southern  boundary  line  is  long  enough  to 


stretch  from  Washington  City  to  Columbus, 
Ohio.  The  greatest  measurement  of  Texas 
is  nearly  equal  to  the  distance  from  New  Or- 
leans to  Chicago,  or  from  Chicago  to  Boston. 

Of  the  resources  of  the  country  the  half 
has  not  been  told.  We  have  hundreds  of 
thousands  more  square  miles  of  arable  land 
than  China,  and  China  supports  a  popula- 
tion of  360,000,000.  Transfer  all  of  the 
people  in  the  United  States  to  the  one  State 
of  Texas,  and  the  population  thus  concen- 
trated would  not  be  much  denser,  if  any, 
than  the  population  of  Germany  to-day. 
Who  shall  estimate  aright  the  value  of 
American  fields  and  forests,  mines  and 
mountains,  lakes  and  rivers — nature's  high- 
ways— orchards  and  gardens,  flocks  and 
herds,  and  her  broad  prairie  with  their  miles 
and  miles  of  waving  harvests  undulating 
like  ocean  billows? 

Providence  hid  this  fair  land  from  the  old 
world  for  many  centuries.  It  was  to  be  "  the 
cradle  of  an  illustrious  history."  True,  the 
mound  builders  were  here,  but  they  left 
rnounds.  not  molding  influences.  The  In- 
dians were  here ;  they  left  only  arrow-heads 
and  musical  names  for  our  lakes,  rivers,  and 
mountains.  The  Northmen  came  about  the 
year  1,000;  they  left  only  a  foot-print.  The 
tide  of  European  emigration  was  not  per- 
mitted to  follow  the  Northmen.  Well  it  was 
for  humanity  that  the  Divine  Hand  kept 
that  tide  back,  for  then  was  the  midnight  of 
the  dark  ages.  "  Sometimes  the  bells  in  the 
church  steeples  were  not  heard,  for  the 
sound  of  trumpets  and  drums."  Columbus 
embarked  in  I4g2,  but  his  ships  carried  Span- 
ish influences.  The  great  navigator  fol- 
lowed the  birds  of  the  air  in  their  flight. 
The  God  of  Nations  made  those  birds  pilots 
to  guide  Spanish  ships  away  from  these 
shores.  Spain  gave  form  to  Mexico  and 
South  America. 


*  In  front  of  Manor  Hall,  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  in  which  city  the     "  Message  "  was  delivered,    stands  the  Sol 
:s'  Monument. 


diers'  Monument 


572 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


God  works  with  two  hands.  While  He 
was  hiding  this  rich  land,  He  was  shaping 
the  men  who  should  shape  its  institutions. 
Before  He  gave  America  to  the  world,  He 
gave  the  translated  Bible  and  the  printing 
press  to  Europe ;  English,  Scotch,  Scotch- 
Irish,  Dutch,  French,  and  other  illustrious 
emigrants  of  like  type  were  the  "  Creators 
of  Moral  America."  They  were  seventeenth 
century  men.  Into  that  superb  century  were 
providentially  poured  the  influences  of  pre- 
vious centuries.  For  hundreds  of  years 
Europe  was  at  school,  learnins:  statecraft  and 
religion.  By  the  translation  of  the  Bible, 
"  the  lowly  English  roof  was  lifted  to  take 
in  heights  beyond  the  stars."  It  was  from 
underneath  that  roof  the  Pilgrim  fathers 
came  to  Plymouth  Rock.  The  Indian's  salu- 
tation was,  not  "  Welcome,  Spaniard,"  but 
"  Welcome,  Englishmen,"  which,  being  in- 
terpreted, signified,  altho  the  dusky  savage 
did  not  understand  it,  "  Welcome  the  open 
Bible  and  love  of  equal  rights."  Yes,  the 
Monument  is  reared  on  American  soil,  and 
America,  vast  in  extent,  rich  in  resources 
and  possibilities,  was  providentially  reserved 
for  freemen  and  freedom's  temple. 

Firm  upon  its  granite  pedestal  stands  yon- 
der shapely  shaft.  For  us  it  shall  symbolize, 
by  its  graceful  strength,  the  American  Re- 
public, stable  and  healthful  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth.  That  group  of  warriors 
in  bronze  represent  no  holiday  soldiers.  They 
stand  for  heroes  in  flesh  and  blood — for  stern 
veterans  whose  fortitude  and  valor  protected 
the  Commonwealth.  They  recall  those  years 
when  a  shot  fired  at  the  old  flag  aroused  the 
anger  of  a  great  people.  Who  can  describe 
those  historic  years? 

The  heavens  were  suddenly  black.  Fierce 
eagles  of  war  flew  across  the  lurid  clouds. 
The  awful  storm  rolled  thunders  along  the 
sky.  Reverberating,  they  shook  the  Atlantic 
coast  and  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  They 
crashed  over  Antietam,  Vicksburg,  and 
Gettysburg.  Forked  lightnings  played  among 
the  clouds  around  Lookout  Mountain.  Fire 
ran  along  upon  the  ground  in  Tennessee,  and 
in  Virginia,  swamps  and  rivers  were  turned 
to  blood.  It  was  the  Nation's  midnight. 
The  death  angel  was  abroad  with  unsheathed 
sword.  There  was  a  great  cry  in  the  land, 
f >  r  there  was  not  a  house  among  half  a  mil- 
lion where  there  was  not  one  dead.  Four 
years  the  storm  raged.  The  iron  hail  rattled 
incessantly,  prostrating  armed  men,  and 
crushing  woman's  tender  heart.  It  was  a 
deluge  of  blood.  Then  muttering  thunders 
ceised ;  the  clouds  broke  away,  and  out  of 
the  blue  sky  a  dove  came,  and  lo !  in  her 
mouth  was  an  olive  leaf.  More  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  has  passed.  Peace  still 
abides.  "  Over  the  cannon's  mouth  the 
spider  weaves  his  web."  But  while  mighty 
people  are  busied  with  great  enterprises, 
they  do  not  forget — cannot  forget — the  brave 
men  who  purchased  peace  by  their  valor  and 
blood. 

We  recall  with  gratitude  profound  and 
peculiarly  tender,  the  private  soldier  and 
sailor.     Men   praise   the   brave   commanders, 


and  they  do  well ;  but  what  could  generals 
have  accomplished  without  the  heroes  in  the 
ranks?  With  swift  zeal  the  rank  and  file 
— a  great  host — sprang  to  arms.  They  gath- 
ered from  near  and  far.  "  The  earth  trem- 
bled under  their  tread  like  a  floor  beaten 
with  flails."  "  All  the  avenues  of  our  great 
cities  ran  with  rivers  of  burnished  steel." 
We  can  hear  again  their  measured  tramp, 
tramp,  tramp,  and  their  lusty  song,  "  We 
are  coming.  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred 
thousand  more."  Hark !  Veterans,  hear  ye 
not  again  your  comrades  singing  around  the 
flickering  fires  which  lighted  up  their  noble 
faces,  "  We  are  tenting  to-night  on  the  old 
camp  ground."  Listen !  Hear  again  the 
battle  hymn  of  the  Republic,  how  it  echoes 
down  the  corridors  of  the  years,  and  will 
echo  until  time  is  no  more : 

He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall 

never  call  retreat ; 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before 

His  judgment  seat. 
Oh !  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him !  be 

jubilant,  my  feet: 

Our  God  is  marching  on. 

In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born 

across  the  sea, 
With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigures 

you  and  me; 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to 

make  men  free, 

While  God  is  marching  on. 

When  the  war  began  thousands  of  young 
men,  the  flower  of  American  youth,  were 
looking  out  of  college  halls  upon  a  future 
bright  with  professional  honors.  They 
flung  books  aside  and  seized  rifles.  They 
became  "  History's  Graduates."  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  young  Americans  were  an- 
ticipating a  future  replete  with  the  profits 
and  emoluments  which  reward  business 
genius  and  integrity.  Straightway  they 
abandoned  cherished  life  plans  in  order  to 
defend  free  institutions. 

Did  the  officer  love  his  home?  With  an 
equal  tenderness  the  private  soldier  loved 
his.  He  knew,  should  a  bullet  prostrate  him, 
it  would  shatter  the  strong  staff  upon  which 
the  aged  father  had  hope'd  to  lean  in  his 
declining  years.  It  gave  him  a  heart-break 
to  see  his  mother's  pale  face  and  quivering 
lip  as  he  kissed  her  good-by,  holding  in  one 
arm  his  rifle  and  with  the  other  tenderly 
embracing  her  trembling  form.  There  were 
"  tears  in  his  voice  "  when  he  said  farewell, 
perhaps  a  final  farewell,  to  the  fair  friend 
with  whom  he  had  hoped  to  stand  at  the  ^ 
marriage  altar.  Thousands  of  husbands  and 
fathers  realized  that  their  enlistment  might 
leave  wives  widowed,  and  little  children 
fatherless.  When  the  private  soldier  rushed 
into  the  battle's  fire  and  smoke,  he  knew 
that,  after  victories  were  won,  the  names  of 
officers  would  be  heralded  over  the  land; 
but  should  he  fall,  the  type  would  print  after 
his  name  only  one  word — "  missing,"  or 
"  wounded,"    or    "  dead."      And    when    that 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


573 


one  dread  word  should  be  read  in  the  dis- 
tant northern  home,  loved  faces  would  "  grow 
white  instantly,  as  if  sprinkled  with  the  dust 
of  ashes  by  an  unseen  hand." 

Yet  for  the  old  banner  the  soldier  made 
the  sacrifice.  As  a  lonely  vidette  he  kept 
faithful  watch  in  the  darkness,  while  death 
lurked  near,  "with  foot  of  velvet  and  hand 
of  steel."  He  helped  drag  heavy  cannon 
through  deep  mud ;  he  trudged  weary  miles 
on  forced  marches,  and  endeavored  to  sleep, 
when  hungry  and  cold,  on  the  wet  ground. 
Or  he  tossed  on  a  hospital  cot  with  a  "  band 
of  pain  around  his  brow."  And  now,  we 
twine  a  laurel  wreath  for  that  brow.  Thou- 
sands of  those  brave  men  fell,  not  knowing 
what  would  be  the  result  of  the  conflict. 
Other  thousands  were  permitted  to  return 
and  enjoy  for  a  period  the  blessings  they 
purchased  for  their  countrymen.  Then  they, 
too,  fell  by  the  wayside,  weary  with  the 
march  of  life.  They  fought  for  freedom,  not 
for  fame,  yet  honor  claims  them  as  her  own: 

On  Fame's  eternal  camping  ground 
Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 

And    glory    guards    with    solemn    round 
The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 

Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  their  splen- 
did services?  The  Union  Army  demon- 
strated the  stability  of  representative  gov- 
ernment. In  the  estimation  of  Europe  the 
American  Republic  was  an  experiment. 
Would  it  go  to  pieces  by  the  earthquake 
shock  of  civil  war?  Jealous  kings  said 
"  Yes,"  but  when  the  red  lips  of  Grant's 
cannon  thundered  "  No !  "  thrones  trembled. 
Should  a  government  of  and  for  and  by  the 
people  perish  from  the  earth? 

The  army  demonstrated  the  solidity  of  the 
Nation's  credit.  At  one  period  the  war  ex- 
penses aggregated  $2,000,000  a  day,  but  vic- 
tories inspired  confidence,  and  many  of  the 
soldiers  poured  their  own  silver  and  gold 
into  the  coflfers  of  the  Nation  to  sustain  the 
government. 

Soldiers  of  the  Union,  what  shall  a  grate- 
ful people  render  you  in  return  for  your 
priceless  services?  Surely  the  Government 
should  care  for  the  aged  and  the  crippled 
veteran.  A  wealthy  nation  should  not  per- 
mit a  soldier's  deserving  widow  or  orphan  to 
suffer  want.  But  we  are  confident  that  your 
sentiments  are  voiced  by  this  declaration. 
The  return  for  their  services  which  veterans 
desire  is  a  determination  on  the  part  of  their 
fellow-citizens  to  protect  faithfully  the  free 
institutions  the  Grand  Army  fought  to 
preserve. 

Underneath  yonder  polished  pillar  is  a 
granite  die  inscribed  with  patriotic  sentences. 
For  us  that  lettered  die  shall  symbolize 
popular  education,  which  sustains  the  Re- 
public. Books  are  better  than  bayonets. 
Giant  truths  are  mightier  than  giant  powder. 
The  strongest  fortresses  are  school-houses. 
The  mightiest  standing  army  in  the  world 
is  the  great  host  of  American  school-chil- 
dren. The  seal  of  the  Board  of  Education  in 
this    city   is   a   pictured   pen    lying   across   a 


broken  sword.  The  pen  is  mightier  than  the 
sword.  The  pens  of  Adams,  Jefferson, 
Franklin,  and  Hamilton  broke  the  sword  of 
tyranny  in  1776.  The  pens  of  Webster, 
Sumner,  Phillips,  Garrison,  Beecher,  Seward 
and  Lincoln  broke  the  swords  of  secession 
and  slavery.  The  men  in  bronze  find  firm 
footing  on  yonder  lettered  block  of  grani.e. 
They  carry  thinking  weapons.  No  man 
"  scoops  out  the  brains ''  of  the  American 
civilian  or  soldier.  He  has  the  Bible,  and 
thinks  for  himself.  He  has  the  ballot  and 
governs  himself.  The  only  icepter  to  which 
he  bows  is  the  scepter  of  truth. 

This  is  a  nation  of  readers — a  nation  of 
sovereigns.  "  We  live  under  a  government 
of  men  and  morning  newspapers.  The  talk 
of  the  sidewalk  to-day  is  the  law  of  the  land 
to-morrow."  Who  shapes  public  thought  is 
the  uncrowned  king.  His  pen  is  his  scepter. 
Public  schools  and  newspapers  are  the  peo- 
ple's university.  When  Louis  Napoleon  was 
in  this  country  he  expressed  surprise  be- 
cause he  saw  a  farmer  reading  a  newspaper. 
Germany  has  about  5,500  newspapers.  Great 
Britain  about  5,000,  France  about  2,000. 
Italy  about  1,400,  Asia — exclusive  of  Japan — 
about  850,  Russia  about  800.  and  the  United 
States  more  than  15,000.  The  enemy  of  the 
American  public  school  system  is  the  enemy 
of  the  Commonwealth.  If  you  would  realize 
how  unstable  governments  are  without  pub- 
lic schools,  read  the  history  of  Mexico  and  of 
South  America.  Taught  by  costly  experi- 
ence, they  have  now  introduced  public 
education. 

Thousands  of  the  youth  in  our  public 
chools  come  from  homes  where  they  learn 
little  or  nothing  about  the  history  and  the 
spirit  of  American  institutions.  Let  the  pub- 
lic schools  teach  them  that  history,  and  in- 
spire them  with  that  spirit.  Teach  the  pub- 
lic school  youth  that  it  is  a  high  honor  to  be 
able  to  say,  "  I  am  an  American  citizen." 
Let  them  hear  the  shot  which  the  embattled 
farmers  fired  at  Lexington — "  the  shot  that 
was  heard  around  the  world."  Let  them 
catch  the  peals  of  the  old  Liberty  bell  and 
the  spirit  of  Independence  Day.  Let  them 
hear  the  night-watchman  in  Philadelphia 
calling  out :  "  Ten  o'clock  and  Cornwallis 
taken."  Let  them  hear  Washington's  sol- 
diers singing  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson : 
"  No  King  but  God."  Let  Ihem  hear  again 
and  again  the  shining  story  of  the  valor  and 
the  victories  of  the  men  who,  uniformed  in 
Heaven's  livery,  fought  with  Hooker,  Han- 
cock, Mead,  Thomas,  Foote,  Farragut,  Kil- 
patrick,  with  the  chivalrous  Kitching,  and 
Fremont,  the  free-hearted.  Teach  them  that 
when  they  arrive  at  manhood's  estate,  they 
should  never  absent  themselves  from  the 
polls,  preferring  private  gain  to  the  welfare 
of  city,  state,  or  nation.  Let  them  always 
vote — and  vote  for  principle. 

Underneath  yonder  carved  die  are  four 
massive  granite  blocks,  a  solid  base,  on  which 
the  stable  structure  rests,  as  the  American 
Republic  rests  secure  upon  the  .solid  founda- 
tions of  a  true  Christianity.  Palsied  be  the 
vandal    hands    which    would    attempt   to    re- 


574 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


move  those  tons  of  granite,  and  substitute 
as  a  base  rotten  timber.  Palsied  be  the  hands 
which  would  attempt  to  remove  the  Bible, 
the  Sabbath,  the  Church  and  the  Christian 
home,  and  substitute,  as  a  foundation  for 
our  Republic,  infidelity,  anarchy,  and  the  rot- 
ten saloon  ! 

Gladstone,  the  illustrious  Englishman,  said 
to  an  eminent  American :  "  Talk  about  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  there  is  but  one  question, 
and  that  is  the  Gospel.  It  can  and  will  cor- 
rect everything  needing  correction.  All  men 
at  the  head  of  great  movements  are  Chris- 
tian men.  During  the  many  years  I  was  in 
the  Cabinet  I  was  brought  into  association 
with  sixty  master  minds,  and  all  but  five  of 
them  were  Christians.  My  only  hope  for  the 
world  is  the  bringing  the  human  mind  into 
contact  with  Divine  revelation."  This  em- 
phasizes the  teachings  of  American  patriots. 
Above  all  the  clamor  of  Castle  Garden  states- 
men we  hear  the  calm  voices  of  the  fathers 
and  preservers  of  the  Republic.  One  of  these 
patriotic  fathers,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
convention  assembled  to  draft  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  when  moving  that 
the  proceedings  be  opened  with  prayer,  ad- 
dressed the  President  in  these  memorable 
words:  "I  have  lived,  sir.  a  long  time,  and 
the  longer  I  live  the  more  convincing  proofs 
I  see  of  the  truth  that  God  governs  in  the 
affairs  of  men;  and  if  a  sparrow  cannot  fall 
to  the  ground  without  His  notice,  is  it  prob- 
able that  an  empire  can  rise  without  His 
aid?" 

To  a  trusted  friend  who  visited  him  dur- 
ing the  dark  days  of  the  Civil  War,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  said,  with  emotion :  "  I  do 
not  doubt,  I  never  doubted  for  a  moment, 
that  our  country  would  finally  come  through 
safe  and  undivided.  But  do  not  misunder- 
stand me.  I  do  not  know  how  it  can  be.  I 
do  not  rely  on  the  patriotism  of  our  people, 
tho  no  people  have  rallied  around  their  king 
as  ours  have  rallied  around  me.  I  do  not 
trust  in  the  bravery  and  devotion  of  the  boys 
in  blue.  God  bless  them!  God  never  gave 
a  prince  or  a  conqueror  such  an  army  as  He 
has  given  me.  Nor  yet  do  I  rely  on  the 
loyalty  and  skill  of  our  generals  tho  I  be- 
lieve we  have  the  best  generals  in  the  world 
at  the  head  of  our  armies.  But  the  God  of 
our  fathers,  who  raised  up  this  country  to  be 
a  refuge  and  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed 
and  down-trodden  of  all  nations,  will  not  let 
it  perish  now.  I  may  not  live  to  see  it " — 
and  he  added,  after  a  pause — "  I  do  not  ex- 
pect to  see  it,  but  God  will  bring  us  through 
safe." 

What  a  noble  company  of  our  youthful  citi- 
zens is  assembled  here  on  this  broad  plat- 
form. That  in  coming  years,  as  they  pass  and 
repass  the  Monument,  they  may  be  reminded 
of  the  truths  here  spoken,  permit  me  to  ad- 
dress them  a  few  words.  Young  Americans, 
when  you  have  reached  mature  years,  and 
our  lips  are  dust,  the  children  of  the  future 
will  look  at  yonder  graceful  granite,  and  will 
ask,  "What  mean  these  stones?"  You  will 
tell  them  how  you  saw  with  your  own  eyes 
the    soldiers    of   the    Union    represented   by 


those  stern  bronze  warriors.  You  will  speak 
of  successive  Memorial  Days,  when  you  saw 
veteran  soldiers  embroider  with  fragrant 
flowers  the  mounds  made  sacred  by  the  dust 
of  their  comrades.  You  will  not  forget  to 
strew  flowers  upon  their  graves.  You  will 
interpret  for  the  future  generation  the  mes- 
sage of  those  voiceful  stones. 

That  you  may  the  more  distinctly  re- 
member their  message,  we  would  have  you 
see  on  the  gray  granite  four  shining  gold 
letters.  On  the  solid  base,  which  symbolizes 
the  foundation  of  our  Republic,  a  true  Chris- 
tianity, we  would  have  you  see  the  letter  F, 
standing  for  Faith  in  God.  On  the  lettered 
die,  which  symbolizes  a  solid  education,  we 
would  have  you  see  the  letter  L,  standing  for 
Learning.  As  the  polished  shaft,  by  its 
massive  strength  and  grace,  symbolizes  the 
Republic,  stable  and  beautiful  among  the 
nations,  we  would  have  you  see  affixed  to 
it  the  letter  A,  standing  for  America.  And 
as  our  flag  is  always  associated  with  renown, 
we  would  have  you  see  on  that  granite 
standard  the  gold  letter  G,  reflecting  the 
rays  of  the  morning,  and  standing  for  Glory. 
Remember  to  tell  the  children  of  the  future 
that  those  memorial  stones  symbolize  Faith, 
Learning,  America  and  Glory.  It  will  not 
be  difficult  for  you  to  remember  this  mes- 
sage and  to  bear  it  to  the  future,  because 
those  initial  gold  letters  spell  the  word  Flag. 

Soldiers  of  the  Union,  I  have  now  dis- 
charged the  duty  you  assigned  me.  We  bring 
you  gratitude,  and  congratulations — grati- 
tude for  arduous  and  illustrious  services; 
congratulations  that  a  kind  Providence 
mercifully  spared  your  lives  for  some  good 
purpose.  A  thousand  fell  at  your  side,  and 
ten  thousand  at  your  right  hand,  but  He 
covered  you  with  His  feathers.  Through 
the  iron  hailstones  He  brought  you  safe  to 
greet  your  loved  ones,  to  receive  the  plaudits 
of  your  fellow-citizens,  and  to  enjoy  the 
prosperity  of  the  Commonwealth.  Each  of 
you  wears  the  honored  title,  "  A  Soldier  of 
the  Union."  Soon  you  will  be  gathered  to 
your  fathers.  Yonder  memorial  will  perpet- 
uate your  honor. 

Surely  we  voice  your  sentiments  when  we 
proclaim  that  the  granite  Standard-Bearer 
represents  no  citizen  who  defends  organized 
wrong.  He  represents  neither  infidel  nor 
Anarchist.  Nor  does  he  stand  for  the  citi- 
zen who  fails  to  distinguish  between  a  license 
to  do  wrong,  and  liberty  to  do  right — the 
only  true  liberty.  He  does  not  represent  the 
citizen  who  with  one  hand  holds  up  the  flag, 
and  with  the  other  hand  tears  its  pure  folds 
to  tatters  by  defending  a  traffic  which  shat- 
ters the  hearth-stone,  smites  the  smile  from 
the  happy  face  of  a  sweet  child,  and  murders 
the  soul  for  which  the  Son  of  God  shed  His 
blood.  But  yonder  Standard-Bearer  does 
represent,  in  his  massive  strength,  the  loyal 
American  who  stands  firm  for  the  Bible, 
the  Sabbath,  the  Church,  the  Home;  for 
Solid  Learning,  for  Union  and  Freedom,  for 
the  Maintenance  of  Private  and  Public 
Credit,  and  for  Peace  on  Earth.  His  sword 
symbolizes  the  freeman's  weapons — the  pen. 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


575 


the    pure    ballot,    and    the    keen    Damascus 
blade. 

So  long  as  the  bed-rock  principles  of  the 
fathers  are  maintained,  the  Republic  itself 
will  continue  to  stand,  a  monument  to  free- 
dom, stable  and  beautiful,  and  seen  by  the 
whole  world.     Because  he  realizes  this,  the 


American  citizen,  while  holding  his  Nation's 
ensign  in  defense  of  it,  and  of  the  granite 
principles  of  which  it  is  the  glorious  symbol, 
lays  his  good  right  hand  upon  the  hilt  of  his 
sword. 

This,  sir,  as  we  interpret  it,  is  the  Monu- 
ment's message. — P,  M. 


DECORATION  DAY  ADDRESS* 


By  James  A.  Garfield 
[Extract  from  an  oration  delivered  at  Arlington,  Va.,  May  30,  1868.] 


I  am  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  the  impro- 
priety of  uttering  words  on  this  occasion.  If 
silence  is  ever  golden,  it  must  be  here  beside 
the  graves  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  whose 
lives  were  more  significant  than  speech,  and 
whose  death  was  a  poem,  the  music  of  which 
can  never  be  sung.  With  words  we  make 
promises,  plight  faith,  praise  virtue.  Prom- 
ises may  not  be  kept;  plighted  faith  may  be 
broken ;  and  vaunted  virtue  be  only  the  cun- 
ning mask  of  vice.  We  do  not  know  one 
promise  these  men  made,  one  pledge  they 
gave,  one  word  they  spoke;  but  we  do 
know  they  summed  up  and  perfected,  by  one 
supreme  act,  the  highest  virtues  of  men 
and  citizens.  For  love  of  country  they  ac- 
cepted death,  and  thus  resolved  all  doubts, 
and  made  immortal  their  patriotism  and  their 
virtue.  For  the  noblest  man  that  lives,  there 
still  remains  a  conflict.  He  must  still  with- 
stand the  assaults  of  time  and  fortune,  must 
still  be  assailed  with  temptations,  before 
which  lofty  natures  have  fallen ;  but  with 
these  the  conflict  ended,  the  victory  was  won, 
when  death  stamped  on  them  the  great  seal 
of  heroic  character,  and  closed  a  record 
which  years  can  never  blot. 

I  know  of  nothing  more  appropriate  on 
this  occasion  than  to  inquire  what  brought 
these  men  here ;  what  high  motive  led  them 
to  condense  life  into  an  hour,  and  to  crown 
that  hour  by  joyfully  welcoming  death?  Let 
us  consider. 

Eight  years  ago  this  was  the  most  unwar- 
like  nation  of  the  earth.  For  nearly  fifty 
years  no  spot  in  any  of  these  states  had 
been  the  scene  of  battle.  Thirty  millions  of 
people  had  an  army  of  less  than  ten  thousand 
men.  The  faith  of  our  people  in  the  stability 
and  permanence  of  their  institutions  was  like 
their  faith  in  the  eternal  course  of  nature. 
Peace,  liberty,  and  personal  security  were 
blessings  as  common  and  universal  as  sun- 
shine and  showers  and  fruitful  seasons ;  and 
all  sprang  from  a  single  source,  the  old 
American  principle  that  all  owe  due  submis- 
sion and  obedience  to  the  lawfully  expressed 
will  of  the  majority.  This  is  not  one  of  the 
doctrines  of  our  political  system — it  is  the 
system  itself.  It  is  our  political  firmament, 
in  which  all  other  truths  are  set,  as  stars  in 
Heaven.  It  is  the  encasing  air,  the  breath 
of  the   Nation's  life.     Against  this  principle 


the  whole  weight  of  the  rebellion  was 
thrown.  Its  overthrow  would  have  brought 
such  ruin  as  might  follow  in  the  physical 
universe  if  the  power  of  gravitation  were 
destroyed,  and 

"  Nature's  concord  broke, 
Among  the  constellations  war  were  sprung, 
Two  planets,  rushing  from  aspect  malign 
Of  fiercest  opposition,  in  mid-sky 
Should    combat,    and    their    jarring    spheres 
confound." 

The  Nation  was  summoned  to  arms  by 
every  high  motive  which  can  inspire  men. 
Two  centuries  of  freedom  had  made  its 
people  unfit  for  despotism.  They  must  save 
their  Government  or  miserably  perish. 

As  a  flash  of  lightning  in  a  midnight 
tempest  reveals  the  abysmal  horrors  of  the 
sea,  so  did  the  flash  of  the  first  gun  disclose 
the  awful  abyss  into  which  rebellion  was 
ready  to  plunge  us.  In  a  moment  the  fire 
was  lighted  in  twenty  million  hearts.  In  a 
moment  we  were  the  most  warlike  Nation  on 
the  earth.  In  a  moment  we  were  not  merely 
a  people  with  an  army — we  were  a  people 
in  arms.  The  Nation  was  in  column — not  all 
at  the  front,  but  all  in  the  array. 

I  love  to  believe  that  no  heroic  sacrifice  is 
ever  lost ;  that  the  characters  of  men  are 
molded  and  inspired  by  what  their  fathers 
have  done ;  that  treasured  up  in  American 
souls  are  all  the  unconscious  influences  of 
the  great  deeds  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
from  Agincourt  to  Bunker  Hill.  It  was  such 
an  influence  that  led  a  young  Greek,  two 
thousand  years  ago,  when  musing  on  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  to  exclaim,  "  The  tro- 
phies of  Miltiades  will  not  let  me  sleep ! " 
Could  these  men  be  silent  in  1861 ;  these, 
whose  ancestors  had  felt  the  inspiration  of 
battle  on  every  field  where  civilization  had 
fought  in  the  last  thousand  years?  Read 
their  answer  in  this  green  turf.  Each  for 
himself  gathered  up  the  cherished  purposes 
of  life — its  aims  and  ambitions,  its  dearest 
affections — and  flung  all,  with  life  itself,  into 
the  scale  of  battle. 

And  now  consider  this  silent  assembly  of 
the  dead.  What  does  it  represent?  Nay, 
rather,  what  does  it  not  represent?  It  is  an 
epitome    of    the     war.     Here    are     sheaves 


♦From  The  Wokks  of  James  A.  Garfield. 


576 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


reaped,  in  the  harvest  of  death,  from  every 
battle-field  of  Virginia.  If  each  grave  had  a 
voice  to  tell  us  w^hat  its  silent  tenant  last 
saw  and  heard  on  earth,  we  might  stand, 
with  uncovered  heads,  and  hear  the  whole 
story  of  the  war.  We  should  hear  that  one 
perished  when  the  first  great  drops  of  the 
crimson  shower  began  to  fall,  when  the 
darkness  of  that  first  disaster  at  Manassas 
fell  like  an  eclipse  on  the  Nation;  that  an- 
other died  of  disease  while  wearily  waiting 
for  winter  to  end ;  that  this  one  fell  on  the 
field,  in  sight  of  the  spires  of  Richmond, 
little  dreaming  that  the  flag  must  be  carried 
through  three  more  years  of  blood  before  it 
should  be  planted  in  that  citadel  of  treason ; 
and  that  one  fell  when  the  tide  of  war  had 
swept  us  back  till  the  roar  of  rebel  guns 
shook  the  dome  of  yonder  Capitol,  and  re- 


echoed in  the  chambers  of  the  Executive 
Mansion.  We  should  hear  mingled  voices 
from  the  Rappahannock,  the  Rapidan,  the 
Chickahominy  and  the  James ;  solemn  voices 
from  the  Wilderness,  and  triumphant  shouts 
from  the  Shenandoah,  from  Petersburg, 
and  the  Five  Forks,  mingled  with  the  wild 
acclaim  of  victory  and  the  sweet  chorus  of 
returning  peace.  The  voices  of  these  dead 
will  forever  fill  the  land  like  holy 
benedictions. 

What  other  spot  so  fitting  for  their  last 
resting  place  as  this,  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Capitol  saved  by  their  valor?  Here, 
where  the  grim  edge  of  battle  joined;  here 
where  all  the  hope  and  fear  and  agony  of 
their  country  centered ;  here  let  them  rest, 
asleep  on  the  Nation's  heart,  entombed  in 
the  Nation's  love ! 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


ARMY-BLTJE,     The     Faded     Overcoat 

of. — Decoration  Day  is  duly  observed  over 
the  land.  What  seemed  a  faded  overcoat  of 
army-blue,  carried  upon  a  soldier's  arm,  is 
the  most  striking  object  in  our  procession. 
It  will  not  be  long  before  garments,  flags, 
weapons,  and  all  that  belonged  to  the  War  of 
the  Rebellion  will  only  be  found  here  and 
there  as  rare  relics.  And  perhaps  it  is  better 
so.  The  old  gun-locks  are  already  turning 
in  our  busy  wheels,  and  the  worn  shreds  of 
clothing  are  making  soft  our  floors,  just  as 
the  issues  for  which  battle  was  joined  have 
knit  themselves  into  our  better  peace  and 
prosperity.  And  may  a  kind  Providence 
withhold  from  us  all  wars  henceforth ! — Ch. 
St. 

DEAD,  Honor  Our  Patriot. — Memorial 
Day  is  consecrated  to  the  soldiers ;  it  is  dedi- 
cated to  patriotism ;  around  this  sacred  day 
cluster  precious  memories  of  our  fallen 
brave.  Over  the  silent  chambers  of  our 
sleeping  comrades  we  wreathe  garlands  of 
flowers — symbols  of  our  love  and  gratitude. 
These  graves  are  the  Nation's  shrine,  the 
Mecca  to  which  patriots  journey  to  renew 
their  devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  these 
patriots  died.  The  fruits  of  their  victories 
are  a  united  country.  This  is  a  sacred  heri- 
tage purchased  by  their  valor  and  sealed 
by  their  blood.  History  is  their  encomium. 
Battle-fields  attest  their  courage, 

"  Sleep,  heroes  sleep ; 
Your  deeds  shall  never  die." 

C.  G. 

DEAD,   Our   Honored. — Oh,   tell   me  not 

that  they  are  dead — that  generous  host,  that 
airy  army  of  invisible  heroes  !  They  hover 
as  a  cloud  of  witnesses  above  this  Nation. 
Are  they  dead  that  yet  speak  louder  than  we 
can  speak,  and  a  more  universal  language? 
Are  they  dead  that  yet  act?  Are  they  dead 
that  yet  move  upon  society,  and  inspire  the 


people  with  nobler  motives  and  more  heroic 
patriotism?     .     .     . 

Every  mountain  and  hill  shall  have  its 
treasured  name,  every  river  shall  keep  some 
solemn  title,  every  valley  and  every  lake  shall 
cherish  its  honored  register ;  and  till  the 
mountains  are  worn  out,  and  the  rivers  for- 
get to  flow — till  the  clouds  are  weary  of 
replenishing  springs,  and  the  springs  forget 
to  gush,  and  the  rills  to  sing,  shall  their 
names  be  kept  fresh  with  reverent  honors 
which  are  inscribed  upon  the  book  of 
National  Remembrance  ! — Henry  Ward 
Beecher. 

DEFENDERS,    Our   Country's.— Blessed 

is  that  country  whose  soldiers  fight  for  it  and 
are  willing  to  give  the  best  they  have,  the 
best  that  any  man  has,  their  own  lives,  to 
preserve  it  because  they  love  it.  Such  an 
army  the  United  States  has  always  com- 
manded in  every  crisis  of  her  history.  From 
the  War  of  the  Revolution  to  the  late  Civil 
War,  the  men  followed  that  flag  in  battle 
because  they  loved  that  flag  and  believed  in 
what  it  represented. 

That  was  the  stuff  of  which  the  volunteer 
army  of  '6i  was  made.  Every  one  of  them 
not  only  fought  but  thought.  And  many  of 
them  did  their  own  thinking  and  did  not  al- 
ways agree  with  their  commander.  A  young 
soldier  in  the  late  war  was  on  the  battle 
line  ahead  with  the  color-guard,  bearing  the 
stars  and  stripes  way  in  front  of  the  line, 
but  the  enemy  still  in  front  of  him.  The 
general  called  out  to  the  color-bearer,  "  Bring 
those  colors  back  to  the  line,"  and  quicker 
than  any  bullet  that  young  soldier  answered 
back,  "  Bring  the  line  up  to  the  colors,"  It 
was  the  voice  of  command ;  there  was  a  man 
behind  it,  and  there  was  patriotism  in  his 
heart. 

So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust ; 

So  near  to  God  is  man. 
When  duty  whispers  low,  "  Thou  must," 

The  youth  replies,  "  I  can." 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


577 


And  so,  more  than  two  million  brave  men 
thus  responded  and  made  up  an  army 
grander  than  any  army  that  ever  shook  the 
earth  with  its  tread,  and  engaged  in  a  holier 
cause  than  ever  engaged  soldiers  before. 

What  defenders,  my  countrymen,  have  we 
now?  We  have  the  remnant  of  this  old, 
magnificent,  matchless  army,  of  which  I  have 
been  speakmg,  and  then,  as  allies  in  any 
future  war,  we  have  the  brave  men  who 
fought  against  us  on  Southern  battle  fields. 
The  army  of  Grant  and  the  army  of  Lee 
are  together.  They  are  one  now  in  faith,  in 
hope,  in  fraternity,  in  purpose,  and  in  an 
invincible  patriotism.  And,  therefore,  the 
country  is  in  no  danger.  In  justice  strong, 
in  peace  secure,  and  in  devotion  to  the  Hag 
all  one. — William  McKinley. 

HEROES,  The  Graves  of.— And  every 
village  graveyard  will  have  its  green  mounds, 
that  shall  need  no  storied  monument  to 
clothe  them  with  a  peculiar  consecration — 
graves  that  hold  the  dust  of  heroes — graves 
that  all  men  approach  with  reverent  steps — 
graves  out  of  whose  solemn  silence  shall 
whisper  inspiring  voices,  telling  the  young 
from  generation  to  generation  how  great  is 
their  country's  worth  and  cost,  and  how 
noble  and  beautiful  it  was  to  die  for  it. — 
Putnam. 

LIBERTIES,  Cost  of  Our.— This  is  a 
busy  world  we  live  in ;  this  is  a  busy  age ; 
and  this,  our  land,  is  the  busiest  country  of 
the  age.  In  the  intensity  of  the  struggle  for 
future  achievement  we  are  prone  to  lose 
sight  of  the  past.  We  do  not  think  often 
enough  of  the  cost  of  our  liberties. — Selected. 

MARTYRS,  An  Army  of.— Through  all 
history,  from  the  beginning,  a  noble  army  of 
martyrs  h^^  fought  fiercely  and  fallen 
bravely  for  that  unseen  mistress,  their  coun- 
try. So,  through  all  history,  to  the  end,  as 
long  as  men  believe  in  God,  that  army  must 
still  march  and  fall,  recruited  only  from  the 
flower  of  mankind,  cheered  only  by  their  own 
hope  of  humanit}',  strong  only  in  the  con- 
fidence of  their  cause. — George  William 
Curtis. 

MEMORIAL  DAY.— Memorial  Day,  with 
its  sad  and  sacred  memories,  has  again 
come.  And  as  each  new  one  makes  its  ad 
vent,  we  recall  anew  the  great  and  tragic 
events  that  made  the  occasion  for  the  day. 
Time  in  his  rapid  flight  has  borne  us  on 
till  we  are  thirty-one  years  from  the  close 
of  the  great  Civil  War,  in  which  thousands 
of  lives  were  sacrificed  and  billions  of  treas- 
ure expended  to  save  our  country  from  dis- 
memberment. The  asperities  and  aliena- 
tions engendered  by  the  great  struggle  be- 
tween freedom  and  slavery  have  largely 
passed  away ;  and  those  who  participated  as 
soldiers  on  both  sides,  who  are  still  living, 
fraternize  with  each  other  as  brothers  and 
fellow-citizens  of  one  common  country,  on 
whose  glorious  banner  is  inscribed  forever, 
E  plurihus  unum.  It  is  meet  that  those  who 
sacrificed  and  died  in  the  struggle,  or  who 
sacrificed    and    have    since    died,    should    be 


remembered  and  honored  for  the  invaluable 
service  they  have  rendered  their  country  and 
humanity.  Let  the  graves  of  the  dead  sol- 
diers be  decorated  with  flowers  and  wreaths 
of  laurel,  and  the  memory  of  their  noble 
deeds  revived  anew  in  oratory  and  song. — 
Selected. 

MEMORIAL   DAY   REMINDERS.— Let 

no  vandalism  of  avarice  or  neglect,  no  rav- 
ages of  time,  testify  to  the  present  or  to  the 
coming  generations,  that  we  have  forgotten, 
as  a  people,  the  "cost  of  a  free  and  undivided 
Republic. — General   John    A.    Logan. 

We  honor  our  heroic  and  patriotic  dead 
by  being  true  men,  as  true  men  by  faithfully 
fighting  the  battles  of  our  day  as  they  fought 
the  battles  of  their  day. — David  Gregg,  D.D. 

I  love  to  believe  that  no  heroic  sacrifice  is 
ever  lost ;  that  the  characters  of  men  are 
molded  and  inspired  by  what  their  fathers 
have  done ;  that  treasured  up  in  American 
souls  are  all  the  imconscious  influences  of 
the  great  deeds  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
from  Agincourt  to  Bunker  Hill. — James  A. 
Garfield. 

The  supporters  of  religion  gave  their  lives 
for  a  principle.  These  martyrs  of  patriot- 
ism gave  their  lives  for  an  idea. — Schuyler 
Colfax. 

MESSAGES,  Patriotic,  for  Memorial 
Day. — The  broad,  deep  Americanism  which 
pulses  through  the  great  heart  of  the  Repub- 
lic to-day  will  grow  broader  and  deeper  with 
the  passing  years.  I  am  thankful  that  I  have 
lived  to  see  this  noble  result  of  the  war 
springing  into  vast  and  virile  life.  The  pas- 
sions of  the  titanic  struggle  will  finally  enter 
upon  the  sleep  of  oblivion,  and  only  its  splen- 
did accomplishments  for  the  cause  of  human 
freedom  and  a  united  nation,  stronger  and 
richer  in  patriotism  because  of  the  great 
strife,  will  be  remembered. — General  James 
Longstreet,  a  Lieutenant-General  in  the  Con- 
federate Army  during   the   Civil   War. 

Liberty  can  never  die.  The  generations 
of  men  appear  and  pass  away,  but  the  aspi- 
rations of  their  natures  are  immortal. — Hon. 
George  S.  Boutwell,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Grant. 

As  a  basis  for  permanently  satisfactory  re- 
suits  of  the  war,  we  should  recognize  the 
claims  of  justice  and  equal  rights  to  all 
classes  and  sections,  a  fair  apportionment  of 
public  burdens  and  benefits,  with  special 
privileges  and  exemptions  to  none.  Careful 
and  practical  teachings  along  this  line  will 
be  a  patriotic  work. — Judge  James  W.  Laps- 
ley. 

Memorial  Day,  in  my  opinion,  is  one  of 
the  most  significant  and  beautiful  occasions 
of  the  year.  It  shows  the  sentiment  of  the 
people  toward  those  who  gave  their  lives 
for  a  good  cause,  and  it  teaches  a  lesson  in 
patriotism  which  is  without  a  parallel.  Me- 
morial Day  cannot  be  too  tenderly  revered 
by  old  and  voung,  by  those  who  participated 
in  one  of  the  Nation's  great  struggles,  or  by 
those  who  simply  know  of  it  as  history.  Our 
common  country  each  year  is  paying  a  greater 
tribute  of  respect  to  the  soldiers,  living  and 


578 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


dead,  and  it  is  my  hope  that  this  rule  may  be 
expanded  still  more  in  the  years  to  come. — 
G.  R. 

PRESENT?  Are  Dead  Heroes. — Why  may 

not  the  men  themselves,  who  died  beneath 
their  country's  flag,  be  now  among  their 
homes  to  which  their  last  living  thoughts 
were  turned,  and  here  with  us  to-day?  We 
do  not  know,  but  can  we  not  in  hope  believe, 
with  a  solid,  substantial,  reasonable  belief 
and  hope,  that  our  heroes  now  stand  about 
us.  unseen  and  unheard,  as  we  join  to  do 
honor  to  their  memories?  The  naked  hu- 
man eye  is  not  made  to  disclose  the  presence 
of  the  myriad  forms  that  exist  about  us,  and 


the  human  ear  is  not  attuned  to  note  the 
solemn  symphonies  of  the  music  of.  the 
spheres. — Selected. 

UNKNOWN,  Tribute  to  the.— We  pay 
the  tribute  of  respect  and  reverence  to  the 
gallant  men  who  sacrificed  their  lives  to  the 
perpetuation  of  the  Union,  and  who  now  lie 
in  common  graves  marked  "  unknown."  It 
was  fitting  at  this  season  of  vernal  bloom, 
when  nature  is  joyful  with  life,  that  our 
thoughts  should  turn  to  those  who  gave 
their  lives,  as  dear  to  them  as  ours  to  us, 
and  that  their  memory  should  be  honored 
and  reverenced. — Senior  Vice- Commander 
Burr  AGE. 


POETRY 


The  Bivouac    of  the  Dead 

By  Theodore  O'Hara 

[Written  on  the  occasion  of  removing  to 
their  native  land  the  remains  of  Kentuckians 
who  fell  in  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista.] 

The  muffled  drum's  sad  roll  has  beat 

The  soldier's  last  tattoo; 
No  more  on  life's  parade  shall  meet 

That  brave  and  fallen  few. 
On    Fame's    eternal    camping-ground 

Their   silent  tents   are   spread, 
And  glory  guards,  with  solemn  round, 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 

No  rumor  of  the  foe's  advance 

Now  swells  upon  the  wind; 
No  troubled  thought  at  midnight  haunts 

Of  loved  ones  left  behind; 
No  vision  of  the  morrow's  strife 

The  warrior's  dream  alarms; 
No  braying  horn  or  screaming  fife 

At  dawn  shall  call  to  arms. 

Their  shivered  swords  are  red  with  rust; 

Their  plumed  heads  are  bowed; 
Their  haughty  banner,  trailed  in  dust, 

Is   now   their   martial    shroud; 
And  plenteous  funeral-tears  have  washed 

The  red  stains  from  each  brow; 
And  the  proud  forms,  by  battle  gashed, 

Are   free    from   anguish   now. 

The  neighing  troop,  the  flashing  blade, 

The  bugle's  stirring  blast, 
The  charge,  the  dreadful  cannonade. 

The  din  and  shout,  are  past. 
Not  war's  wild  note,  nor  glory's  peal, 

Shall   thrill   with   fierce   delight 
Those  breasts  that  never  more  may  feel 

The  rapture  of  the   fight. 

Like  the  fierce  northern  hurricane 
That  sweeps  his  great  plateau, 

Flushed  with  the  triumph  yet  to  gain, 
Comes   down  the   serried   foe. 


Who  heard  the  thunder  of  the  fray 

Break  o'er  the  field  beneath, 
Knew  well  the  watchword  of  that  day 

Was  "  Victory  or  death  !  " 

Full  many  a  norther's  breath  has  swept 

O'er  Angostura's  plain. 
And  long  the  pitying  sky  has  wept 

Above  its  moldered  slain. 
The  raven's   scream,  or  eagle's  flight, 

Or   shepherd's   pensive   lay. 
Alone  now  wakes  each  solemn  height 

That  frowned  o'er' that  dread  fray. 

Sons  of  the  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground, 

Ye  must  not  slumber  there. 
Where    stranger-steps    and   tongues   resound 

Along  the  heedless  air ! 
Your  own  proud  land's  heroic  soil 

Shall  be  your  fitter  grave : 
She  claims  from  War  its  richest  spoil — 

The  ashes  of  her  brave. 

Thus,  'neath  their  parent  turf  they  rest, 

Far  from  the  gory  field. 
Borne  to  a   Spartan  mother's  breast 

On  many  a  bloody  shield. 
The  sunshine  of  their  native  sky 

Smiles  sadly  on  them  here. 
And  kindred  eyes  and  hearts  watch  by 

The  heroes'  sepulcher. 

Rest  on,  embalmed  and  sainted  dead ! 

Dear  as  the  blood  ye  gave, 
No  impious  footstep  here  shall  tread 

The  herbage  of  your  grave ; 
Nor   shall   your   glory  be   forgot 
■  While  Fame  her  record  keeps. 
Or  Honor  points  the  hallowed  spot 

Where  valor  proudly  sleeps. 

Yon  marble  minstrel's  voiceless  stone 

In  deathless  song  shall  tell. 
When  many  a  vanished  year  hath  flown, 

The   story   how   ye   fell. 
Nor  wreck  nor  change,  nor  winter's  blight. 

Nor   Time's   remorseless   doom. 
Can  dim  one  ray  of  holy  light 

That  gilds  your  glorious  tomb. 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


579 


The  Blue  and  the  Gray 

By  F.   M.   Finch 

[The  following  poem  was  suggested  by 
reading  that  the  women  of  Columbus,  Miss., 
strewed  flowers  alike  on  the  graves  of  the 
Confederate  and  of  the  Union  soldiers:] 

By  the  flow  of  the  inland  river. 

Whence  the  fleets  of  iron  have  fled, 
Where  the  blades  of  the  grave-grass  quiver, 
Asleep  are  the  ranks   of  the  dead; 
Under  the  sod  and  the  dew. 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Under  the  one  the  Blue, 
Under  the  other  the  Gray. 

These  in  the  robings  of  glory, 

Those  in  the  gloom  of  defeat, 
All  with  the  battle-blood  gory, 
In  the  dusk   of  eternity  meet; 
Under  the  sod  and  the  dew. 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Under  the   laurel   the   Blue, 
Under  the  willow  the  Gray. 

From  the  silence  of  sorrowful  hours 

The  desolate  mourners  go. 
Lovingly   laden   with   flowers 

Alike  for  the  friend  and  the  foe; 
Under  the  sod  and  the  dew. 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Under   the    roses   the   Blue, 
Under  the  lilies  the  Gray. 

So  with  an  equal  splendor 

The  morning  sun-rays  fall. 
With  a  touch   impartially  tender, 
On  the  blossoms  blooming  for  all; 
Under  the  sod  and  the  dew, 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Broidered  with  gold  the  Blue, 
Mellowed  with  gold  the  Gray. 

So  when  the  summer  calleth,  » 

On  forest  and  field  of  grain 
With  an  equal  murmur  falleth 
The  cooling  drip  of  the  rain ; 
Under  the   sod  and   the   dew. 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Wet  with  the  rain  the  Blue, 
Wet  with  the  rain  the  Gray. 

Sadly,  but  not  with  upbraiding, 

The  generous   deed  was   done; 
In  the  storm  of  the  years  that  are  fading, 
No  braver  battle  was  won; 
Under  the   sod  and   the   dew, 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Under  the  blossoms  the  Blue, 
Under  the  garlands  the  Gray. 

No  more  shall  the  war-cry  sever, 
Or  the  widening  rivers  be  red; 
Our   anger    is   banished    forever 
When  are  laureled  the  graves  of  our  dead! 
Under  the   sod  and   the   dew, 
Waiting  the  judgment-day — 
Love  and  tears  for  the  Blue, 
Tears  and   love  for  the  Gray. 


A  Ballad  of  Heroes 

By  Austin  Dobson 
"  Now  all  your  victories  are  in  vain." 

Because  you  passed,  and  now  are  not — 

Because   in    some   remoter   day 
Your  sacred  dust  in  doubtful  spot 

Was  blown  of  ancient  airs  away — 

Because  you  perished — must  men  say 
Your  deeds  were  naught,  and  so  profane 

Your  lives  with  that   cold  burden?     Nay, 
The  deeds  you  wrought  are  not  in  vain. 

Tho  it  may  be,   above  the  plot 

That  hid  your  once  imperial  clay, 
No  greener  than  o'er  men  forgot 

The  unregarding  grasses  sway; 

Tho  there  no  sweeter  is  the  lay 
Of  careless  bird ;  tho  you  remain 

Without  distinction  of  decay. 
The  deeds  you  wrought  are  not  in  vain. 

No,  for  while  yet  in  tower  or  cot 

Your   story   stirs   the  pulse's  play, 
And  men   forget  the  sordid  lot — 

The   sordid   cares — of   cities   gray ; 

While  yet  they  grow  for  homelier  fray 
More  strong  from  you,  as  reading  plain 

That  Life  may  go,  if  Honor  stay. 
The  deeds  you  wrought  are  not  in  vain. 


Heroes  of  old!  I  humbly  lay 
The  laurel  on  your  graves  again; 

Whatever  men  have  done,  men  may — 
The  deeds  you  wrought  are  not  in  vain. 

Decoration   Day 

By  S.  F.  Smith 

Strew  the  fair  garlands  where  slumber  the 
dead. 
Ring  out  the  strains  like  the  swell  of  the 
sea; 
Heart-felt  the  tribute  we  lay  on  each  bed : 
Sound   o'er   the   brave   the   refrain   of  the 
free, 
Sound  the  refrain  of  the  loyal  and  free. 
Visit  each  sleeper  and  hallow  each  bed : 
Waves  the  starred  banner  from  sea-coast  to 
sea; 
Grateful  the  living  and  honored  the  dead. 

Dear   to   each    heart   are   the   names    of   the 
brave ; 
Resting  in  glory  how  sweetly  they  sleep ! 
Dew-drops    at    evening    fall     soft     on     each 
grave, 
Kindred    and    strangers    bend   fondly    to 
weep; 
Kindred    bend    fondly,    and     drooping     eyes 
weep 
Tears  of  affection  o'er  every  green  grave; 
Fresh    are    their   laurels    and   peaceful    their 
sleep : 
Love    still    shall    cherish    the     noble     and 
brave. 


58o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Peace  o'er  this  land,  o'er  these  homes  of  the 
free, 
Brood  evermore  with  her  sheltering  wing; 
God  of  the  nation,  our  trust  is  in  Thee — 
God,   our    Protector,   our    Guide,   and   our 
King ; 
God,     our     Protector,    our    Guide,    and    our 
King, 
Thou  art  our  refuge,  our  hope  is  in  Thee; 
Strong  in  Thy  blessing  and  safe  'neath  Thy 
wing. 
Peace    shall    encircle    these   homes    of  the 
free. 

Sleep  of  the  Brave 

By  William  Collins 

How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest. 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blessed ! 
When   Spring,   with   dewy  fingers  cold. 
Returns  to   deck  their  hallowed  mold, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is  wrung; 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung; 
There  Honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay; 
And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there ! 

Three  Cheers  for  the  Olden  Time 

By  Fanny  Crosby 

Three    cheers,    three    cheers    for    the    olden 
time. 

And  the  brave  that  knew  no  fear; 
They  stood  erect  as  the  giant  oak. 

And   laughed    when   the    storm   was   near. 

Like  them  we'll  boast  of  the  land  we  love, 
And  her  proud  flag  streaming  high; 

We'll  sing  aloud  for  the  bright  green  hills, 
While  the  ocean  waves  reply. 

They  dared  to  look  in  the  flashing  eye 
Of  the  storm-king  when  he  passed; 

A  shout  went  up,  and  a  peal  of  joy 
Rang  out  on  the  wintry  blast. 

The  grass  is  green  where  they  calmly  rest, 
Those  veterans  true  and  brave; 

Their  memory  shines  like  a  radiant  star 
O'er  the  land  they  died  to  save. 

Cover  Them  Over 

By  Will  Carleton 

Cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers ; 
Deck  them  with  garlands,  those  brothers  of 

ours ; 
Lying  so  silent,  by  night  and  by  day. 
Sleeping  the  years  of  their  manhood  away : 
Years  they  had  marked  for  the  joys  of  the 

brave. 
Years  they  must   wave   in  the  sloth  of  the 

grave. 
All  the  bright  laurels  that  promised  to  bloom 
Fell  to  the  earth  when  they  went  to  the  tomb. 


Give  them  the  meed  they  have  won  in  the 

past, 
Give  them  their  honors  their  merits  forecast; 
Give  them  the  chaplets  they  won  in  the  strife. 
Give   them   the   laurels   they   lost   with   their 

life. 
Cover  them  over — yes.  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover : 
Crown   in   your   heart   these   dear   heroes   of 

ours, 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers! 

Cover  the  faces  that  motionless  lie. 
Shut  from  the  blue  of  the  glorious  sky; 
Faces  once  lighted  with  smiles  of  the  gay- 
Faces  now  marred  with  the  frown  of  decay. 
Eyes    that    beamed    friendship    and    love    to 

your  own ; 
Lips  that  sweet  thoughts  of  affection  made 

known ; 
Brows  you  have  soothed  in  the  day  of  dis- 
tress ; 
Cheeks  you  have  flushed  by  the  tender  caress. 
Faces  that  brightened  at  War's  stirring  cry; 
Faces    that    streamed    when    they    bade    you 

good-by. 
Faces  that  glowed  in  the  battle's  red  flame. 
Paling  for  naught,  till  the  Death  Angel  came. 
Cover  them  over — yes,  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover : 
Kiss    in   your    hearts   these    dead   heroes    of 

ours. 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers! 

Cover  the  hands  that  are  resting,  half-tried. 
Crossed  on  the  bosom,  or  low  by  the  side : 
Hands  to  you,  mother,  in  infancy  thrown; 
Hands   that   you,    father,    close    hid    in   your 

own ; 
Hands    where    you,    sister,    when    tried    and 

dismayed, 
Hung   for   protection  and   counsel   and  aid; 
Hands   that   you,    brother,     for     faithfulness 

knew; 
Hands    that    you,    wife,    wrung    with    bitter 

adieu. 
Bravely  the  cross  of  their  country  they  bore ; 
Words    of    devotion    they    wrote    with    their 

gore ; 
Grandly  they  grasped  for  a  garland  of  light, 
Catching     the     mantle     of     death-darkened 

night. 
Cover  them  over — yes,  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover : 
Clasp   in   your  hearts   these   dear   heroes   of 

ours. 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers  1 

Cover  the  feet  that,  all  weary  and  torn. 
Hither  by  comrades  were  tenderly  borne : 
Feet  that  have  trodden,  through  love-lighted 

ways, 
Near  to  your  own,   in  the  old  happy  days; 
Feet    that    have    pressed,    in    Life's    opening 

morn, 
Roses    of    pleasure,     and     Death's     poisoned 

thorn. 
Swiftly  they  rushed  to  the  help  of  the  right. 
Firmly  they  stood  in  the  shock  of  the  fight. 
Ne'er  shall  the  enemy's  hurrying  tramp 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


581 


Summon  them  forth  from  the  death-guarded 

camp ; 
Ne'er  till  Eternity's  bugle  shall  sound. 
Will  they  come  out  from  their  couch  in  the 

ground. 
Cover  them  over — yes,  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover: 
Rough    were   the   paths   of   those    heroes   of 

ours — 
Now  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers ! 

Cover  the  hearts  that  have  beaten  so  high, 
Beaten    with    hopes    that    were    born   but   to 

die; 
Hearts  that  have  burned  in  the  heat  of  the 

fray. 
Hearts  that  have  yearned  for  the  homes  far 

away ; 
Hearts  that  beat  high  in  the  charge's  loud 

tramp, 
Hearts    that    low    fell    in    the    prison's    foul 

damp. 
Once  they  were  swelling  with  courage  and 

will, 
Now  they  are  lying  all  pulseless   and  still ; 
Once  they  were  glowing  with  friendship  and 

love. 
Now   the   great     souls    have    gone     soaring 

above. 
Bravely  their  blood  to  the  nation  they  gave, 
Then   in   their   bosom   they     found    them   a 

grave. 
Cover  them  over — yes,  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover: 
Press   to  your   hearts  these  dead  heroes  of 

ours, 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers ! 

One  there  is,  sleeping  in  yonder  low  tomb. 
Worthy  the  brightest  of  flow'rets  that  bloom. 
Weakness  of  womanhood's  life  was  her  part; 
Tenderly  strong  was  her  generous  heart. 
Bravely  she  stood  by  the  sufferer's  side, 
Checking  the  pain  of  the  life-bearing  tide ; 
Fighting    the     swift-sweeping    phantom     of 

Death. 
Easing  the  dying  man's  fluttering  breath; 
Then,  when  the  strife  that  had  nerved  her 

was  o'er, 
Calmly  she  went  to  where  wars  are  no  more. 
Voices    have    blessed    her    now     silent     and 

dumb; 
Voices  will  bless  her  in  long  years  to  come. 
Cover  her  over — yes,  cover  her  over — 
Blessings,     like    angels,     around     her    shall 

hover ; 
Cherish  the  name  of  that  sister  of  ours, 
And  cover  her  over  with  beautiful  flowers ! 

Cover  the  thousands  who  sleep  far  away — 
Sleep  where  their  friends  can  not  find  them 

to-day ; 
They  who  in  mountain,  and  hillside  and  dell 
Rest  where  they  wearied,  and  lie  where  they 

fell. 
Softly  the    grass-blade    creeps    round    their 

repose ; 
Sweetly  above  them  the  wild  flow'ret  blows ; 
Zephyrs   of   freedom   fly   gently   o'erhead. 
Whispering  names   for  the  patriot   dead. 


So   in  our  minds  we  will   name   them  once 

more, 
So  in  our  hearts  we  will  cover  them  o'er; 
Roses  and  lilies  and  violets  blue. 
Bloom  in  our  souls   for  the  brave  and  the 

true. 
Cover  them  over — yes,  cover  them  over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover : 
Think  of  those  far-away  heroes  of  ours, 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers ! 

When  the  long  years  have  crept  slowly  away, 
E'en  to  the  dawn  of  Earth's  funeral  day; 
When,  at  the  Archangel's  trumpet  and  tread. 
Rise  up  the  faces  and  forms  of  the  dead; 
When    the    great    world    its    last     judgment 

awaits ; 
When   the   blue   sky   shall     swing    open     its 

gates, 
And     our     long     columns     march     silently 

through, 
Past  the  great  Captain,  for  final  review; 
Then  for  the  blood  that  has  flown   for  the 

right. 
Crowns    shall    be     given,     untarnished     and 

bright ; 
Then    the    glad    ear    of    each    war-martyred 

son 
Proudly    shall     hear     the     good     judgment, 

"  Well  done." 
Blessings     for    garlands    will     cover     them 

over — 
Parent,  and  husband,  and  brother,  and  lover : 
God  will  reward  those  dead  heroes  of  ours, 
And  cover  them  over  with  beautiful  flowers! 

W.  C.  M. 

The  Nation's  Dead 

Anonymous 

Four  hundred  thousand  men 

The  brave — the  good — the  true, 
In  tangled  wood,  in  mountain  glen, 
On  battle  plain,  in  prison  pen, 

Lie  dead  for  me  and  you ! 
Four  hundred  thousand  of  the  brave 
Have  made  our  ransomed  soul  their  grave, 
For   me   and   you ! 

Good  friend,   for  me  and  you ! 

In  many  a   fevered  swamp, 

By  many  a  black  bayou, 
In  many  a  cold  and  frozen  camp, 
The  weary  sentinel  ceased  his  tramp, 

And  died  for  me  and  you  ! 
From  western  plain  to  ocean  tide 
Are  stretched  the  graves  of  those  who  died 
For   me   and   you ! 

Good  friend,   for  me  and  you ! 

On  many  a  bloody  plain 
Their  ready  swords  they  drew. 

And  poured  their  life-blood,  like  the  rain 

A  home — a  heritage  to  gain. 
To  gain  for  me  and  you ! 

Our   brothers   mustered   by   our   side; 

They  marched,  they  fought,  and  bravely  died 
For   me   and   you ! 
Good  friend,  for  me  and  you  I 


582 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Up  many  a  fortress  wall 

They  charged — those  boys  in  blue — 
'Mid  surging  smoke,  the  volley'd  ball ; 
The  bravest  were  the  first  to  fall ! 

To  fall   for  me  and  you  ! 
These  noble  men — the  Nation's  pride — 
Four  hundred  thousand  men  have  died 
For   me   and   you ! 

Good  friend,   for  me  and  you ! 

In  treason's  prison-hold 

Their  martyr  spirits  grew 
To  stature  like  the  saints  of  old, 
While  amid  agonies  untold, 

They  starved  for  me  and  you ! 
The  good,  the  patient,  and  the  tried. 
Four  hundred  thousand  men  have  died 
For   me   and  you ! 

Good  friend,   for  me  and  you! 

A  debt  we  ne'er  can  pay 
To  them  is  justly  due, 
And  to  the  Nation's  latest  day 
Our  children's  children  still  shall  say, 

"  They  died  for  me  and  you !  " 
Four  hundred  thousand  of  the  brave 
Made  this,  our  ransomed  soil,  their  grave. 
For   me   and  you ! 
Good  friend,  for  me  and  you! 

G.  F. 
Decoration  Day 

By  Elbridge  Brooks 

Do  you  know  what  it  means,  you  boys  and 
girls 
Who  hail  from  the  North  and  South? 
Do  you  know  what  it  means — 
This  twining  of  greens 

Round  the  silent  cannon's  mouth; 
This  strewing  with  flowers  the  grass-grown 

grave ; 
This  decking  with  garlands  the  statues  brave ; 
This  flaunting  of  flags, 
All  in  tatters  and  rags; 
This  marching  and  singing- 
Those  bells  all  a-ringing; 
Those  faces  grave  and  these  faces  gay: 
This  talk  of  the  Blue  and  this  talk  of  the  Gray, 
In  the  North  and  the  South,  Decoration  Day? 

Not  simply  a  show-time,  boys  and  girls, 
Is  this  day  of  falling  flowers; 
Not  a  pageant,  a  play, 
Nor  a  holiday 
Of  flags  and  floral  bowers ; 
It  is  something  more  than  the  day  that  starts 
War  memories  a-throb  in  veteran  hearts: 
For  across  the  years. 
To  the  hopes  and  the  fears, 
To  the  days  of  battle, 
Of  roar  and  of  rattle — 
To  the  Past  that  now  seems  so  far  away. 
Do  the  sons  of  the  Blue  and  the  sons  of  the 

Gray 
Gaze — hand  clasping  hand — Decoration  Day. 

For  the  wreck  and  the  wrong  of  it,  boys  and 
girls. 
For  the  terror  and  loss,  as  well, 
Our  hearts  must  hold 
A  regret  untold 
As  we  think  of  those  who  fell; 


But    their    blood,    on    whichever     side     they 

fought. 
Remade   the   Nation,   and    Progress   bought ! 
We  forget  the  wo ; 
For  we  live,  and  know 
That    the    fighting    and    sighing. 
The   falling  and  dying. 
Were  but  the  steps  toward  the  Future — the 

martyrs'  way! 
Adown  which  the  sons  of  the  Blue  and  Gray 
Look  with  love  and  with  pride,  Decoration 
Day. 

Decoration  Day 

By  Thomas  Dunn  English 

No    more    for    these   the    cannon's    thunder 

pealing. 

No   more    for   these  the   pride   of  martial 

tramp ; 

No  lurking  spy  around  their  rest  is  stealing; 

No  sentry  walks  to  guard  the  silent  camp. 

No  more  the  soldiers  toil  in  weary  marches. 

No  more  the  hosts  engage  in  deadly  fray; 

And    now,    beneath    the    gloomy    yews    and 

larches 

They   wait   the   trumpet   of  the   Judgment 

Day. 

Strew  ye  their  graves  with  pansies,  rose, 
and  lily; 

Pansies  for  memory,  roses  for  their  fame. 
Lilies  for  love  which  never  may  grow  chilly 

But  fan  the  patriot's  fervor  into  flame. 

No  sound  is  heard  to-day  of  warlike  clangor, 

Of    sharp    command,    or    bugles'    warning 

blast : 

But  here  arise,  without  a  thought  of  anger, 

The   stirring   memories   of   the   long  time 

past. 

From  cloudless  skies  there  came  a  peal  of 
thunder. 
And    all    men    stood    awestruck    and    sore 
amazed 
To  see  disunion  strive  to  rend  asunder 
The  stately  fabric  which  our  fathers  raised. 

The  Dragon's  teeth   were   sown;   and  quick 
upspringing 
From    field    and     workshop,     came     men's 
heavy  tread ; 
And  bold  defiance  to  all  foemen  flinging. 
War  drew  the  sword  and  Peace  in  terror 
fled. 

Brandished   the    Northern   Thor   his   mighty 
hammer. 
Wielded  the    Southern   Mars   his    falchion 
keen; 
And    then    arose    throughout  the    land    the 
clamor 
Of  such  a  fight  as  ne'er  before  was  seen. 

From  home  and  fireside  in  the  olden  manor, 

Leaving  behind  their  children,   wives  and 

kin. 

They  rallied  underneath  our  glorious  banner. 

And  gave   their   lives  the   sacred   fight   to 

win. 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


583 


They  brought  with  them  self-sacrifice,  devo- 
tion, 
Ready  to  fight  and  die,  if  die  they  must, 
Ere   that    old   flag,    supreme   o'er   earth   and 
ocean. 
Should    fall    and   trail,    dishonored    in   the 
dust. 

They  fought  no  dwarfs;  each  grappled  with 
a  giant ; 
Each    champion's    heart   was    filled   with 
martial  fire ; 
Each  on  his  inborn  courage  was  reliant ; 
None  brought  to  shame  the  surname  of  his 
sire. 

These    saved    the    Union — union    which    had 
perished 
But  for  the  courage  which  their  deeds  re- 
vealed ; 
No   stripes   were   taken   from   the   flag  they 
cherished. 
No   star  was  blotted  from  its  azure  field. 

The   old    survivors   of  that   fight  victorious, 
Some  still  remain,  yet  leave  us  one  by  one ; 

They  die,  but  never  die  their  actions  glori- 
ous— 
They  die,  but  lives  the  work  so  nobly  done. 

They  pass  away  as  pass  the  summer  roses. 
Each  withering  slowly  on  the  stalk  of  life; 

Each    soon    shall    join    some    comrade    who 
reposes. 
Forever  freed  from  human  care  and  strife. 

They   fought   no   cowards   in  those   days   of 
terror, 
Each  hero  wrestled  with  a  hero  foe. 
'Twas    four   long  years   ere   truth   prevailed 
o'er  error, 
Ere  patriot  union  laid  disunion  low. 

Peace  reigns  supreme,  and  War  is  here  no 
longer. 
The  dark-faced  Hate  slinks  scowling  to  his 
den, 
The  broken  chain  of  union  welded  stronger ; 
And  warring  states  once  foes,  are  friends 
again. 

Then    speak    not    harshly    of    the    foes    who 
fought  us. 
Who    bravely    for   their    cause   threw    life 
away ; 
Honor  the  Blue  for  all  the  good  they  wrought 
us, 
But  drop  a  tear  of  kindness  for  the  Gray. 

I. 

Ode  for  Decoration  Day 

By  Henry  Peterson 

Bring  flowers,  to  strew  again 

With    fragrant   purple   rain 

Of  lilacs,  and  of  roses  white  and  red, 

The    dwellings    of    our   dead — our   glorious 

dead ! 
Let  the  bells  ring  a  solemn   funeral  chime, 
And    wild    war-music    bring   anew   the   time 

When   they  who   sleep  beneath 

Were  full  of  vigorous  breath, 


And  in  their  lusty  manhood  sallied  forth, 

Holding  in  strong  right  hand 

The  fortunes  of  the  land. 
The    pride    and    power  and   safety    of    the 

North ! 
It  seems  but  yesterday 
The  long  and  proud  array — 
But  yesterday  when  e'en  the  solid  rock 
Shook  as  with  earthquake  shock — 
As  North  and  South,  like  two  huge  icebergs, 

ground 
Against   each   other   with   convulsive   bound, 
And  the   whole  world  stood  still 

To  view  the  mighty  war, 

And  hear  the  thunderous  roar, 
While  sheeted  lightnings  wrapped  each  plain 
and  hill. 

Alas !  how  few  came  back 

From  battle  and  from  wrack ! 

Alas !  how  many  lie 

Beneath  a  Southern  sky. 

Who  never  heard  the  fearful  fight  was  done. 

And  all  they  fought  for  won ! 

Sweeter,   I   think,  their  sleep, 

More  peaceful  and  more  deep. 

Could    they    but    know    their    wounds    were 

not  in  vain. 
Could    they    but    hear    the    grand    triumphal 

strain, 
And   see    their   homes    unmarred    by   hostile 

tread. 
Ah !  let  us  trust  it  is  so  with  our  dead — 
That  they  the  thrilling  joy  of  triumph  feel, 
And  in  that  joy  disdain  the  foeman's  steel. 

We  mourn   for  all,  but  each   doth  think  of 
one 
More   precious   to   the   heart    than     aught 
beside — 
Some  father,  brother,  husband,  or  some  son. 
Who  came  not  back,  or,  coming,  sank  and 
died: 
In  him  the  whole  sad  list  is  glorified! 
"  He  fell  'fore  Richmond,  in  the  seven  long 
days 
When  battle  raged  from  morn  till  blood- 
dewed  eve. 
And  lies  there,"  one  pale  widowed  mourner 
says. 
And    knows    not    most    to    triumph    or    to 
grieve. 
"  My  boy  fell  at  Fair  Oaks,"  another  sighs ; 
"  And    mine    at    Gettysburg,"    his     neighbor 
cries. 
And  that  great  name  each  sad-eyed  listener 
thrills. 
I  think  of  one  who  vanished  when  the  press 
Of  battle    surged   along  the   Wilderness, 
And  mourned   the   North  upon  her  thou- 
sand hills. 

0  gallant  brothers  of  the  generous  South ! 
Foes  for  a  day,  and  brothers  for  all  time, 

1  charge  you  by  the  memories  of  our  youth. 
By     Yorktown's    field    and    Montezuma's 

clime. 
Hold  our  dead  sacred ;  let  them  quietly  rest 
In     your     unnumbered     vales,    where    God 

thought  best ! 


584 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Your  vines   and   flowers   learned  long  since 

to  forgive. 
And   o'er    their    graves    a    broidered   mantle 

weave ; 
Be  you  as  kind  as  they  are,  and  the  word 
Shall   reach   the   Northland   with  each   sum- 
mer bird, 
And   thoughts    as    sweet    as    summer     shall 

awake 
Responsive  to  your  kindness,  and  shall  make 
Our  peace  the  peace  of  brothers  once  again, 
And  banish  utterly  the  days  of  pain. 

And  ye,  O  Northmen !   be  ye  not  outdone 

In  generous  thought  and  deed. 
We  all  do  need  forgiveness,  every  one; 
And  they  that  give   shall   find   it  in  their 

need. 
Spare  of  your  flowers  to  deck  the  stranger's 

grave. 
Who  died  for  a  lost  cause : 
A  soul  more  daring,  resolute,  and  brave 

Ne'er  won  a  world's  applause  ! 
(A  brave  man's  hatred  pauses  at  the  tomb.) 
For  him  some  Southern  home  was  robed  in 

gloom, 
Some   wife   or   mother   looked  with   longing 

eyes 
Through  the  sad  days  and  nights  with  tears 

and  sighs — 
Hope  slowly  hardening  into  gaunt  Despair. 
Then  let  your  foeman's  grave  remembrance 

share : 
Pity  a  higher  charm  to  Valor  lends, 
And  in  the  realms  of  Sorrow  all  are  friends. 

Yes,    bring    fresh     flowers     and     strew     the 
soldier's  grave, 
Whether  he  proudly  lies 
Beneath  our  Northern  skies 
Or  where  the  Southern  palms  their  branches 

wave  ! 
Let  the  bells  toll,  and  wild  war-music  swell, 
And   for   one   day  the  thought  of  all  the 

past — 
Full  of  those  memories  vast — 
Come   back   and   haunt    us   with   its   mighty 

spell ! 
Bring  flowers,  then,  once  again. 
And  strew  with  fragrant  rain 
Of  lilacs,  and  of  roses  white  and  red, 
The  dwellings  of  our  dead. 

Dirge  for  a  Soldier 

By  G.   H.   Boker 

Close  his  eyes ;  his  work  is  done ! 

What  to  him  is  friend  or  foeman, 
Rise  of  moon  or  set  of  sun, 
Hand  of  man  or  kiss  of  woman? 
Lay  him  low.   lay  him  low, 
In  the  clover  or  the  snow ! 
What  cares  he?  he  cannot  know. 
Lay  him  low ! 

As  man  may,  he  fought  his  fight, 
Proved   his   truth   by   his  endeavor; 

Let  him  sleep  in  solemn  night, 
Sleep  forever  and  forever. 


Lay  him  low.   lay  him  low, 
In  the  clover  or  the  snow ! 
What  cares  he?  he  cannot  know. 
Lay  him  low ! 

Fold  him  in  his  country's  stars, 

Roll  the  drum  and  fire  the  volley ! 
What  to  him  are  all  our  wars? — 
What   but    death-bemocking   folly? 
Lay   him   low.   lay   him   low, 
In  the  clover  or  the  snow ! 
What  cares  he?  he  cannot  know. 
Lay  him  low ! 

Leave  him  to  God's  watching  eye; 

Trust  him  to  the  hand  that  made  him. 
Mortal  love  weeps  idly  by ; 
God  alone  has  power  to  aid  him. 
Lay   him   low.   lay   him   low, 
In  the  clover  or  the  snow ! 
What  cares  he?  he  cannot  know. 
Lay  him  low ! 

Killed  at  the  Ford 
By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

He  is  dead !   the  beautiful  youth, 
The  heart  of  honor,  the  tongue  of  truth ; 
He.  the  life  and  light  of  us  all, 
Whose  voice  was  blithe  as  a  bugle-call. 
Whom  all   eyes   followed  with  one   consent, 
The  cheer  of  whose  laugh,  and  whose  pleas- 
ant  word 
Hushed  all  murmurs  of  discontent. 

Only  last  night,  as  we  rode  along 

Down   the   dark   of  the  mountain-gap 

To  visit  the  picket-guard  at  the  ford. 

Little   dreaming   of   any  mishap. 

He   was   humming   the   words   of   some   old 

song: 
"  Two  red  roses  he  had  in  his  cap, 
And   another   he   bore   at   the   point   of   his 

sword." 

Sudden  and  swift  a  whistling  ball 

Came  out  of  the  wood,   and  the  voice  was 

still ; 
Something  I  heard  in  darkness  fall, 
And  for  a  moment  my  blood  grew  chill; 
I  spoke  in  a  whisper,  as  he  who  speaks 
In   a  room  where  some  one  is  lying  dead; 
But  he  made  no  answer  to  what  I  said. 

We  lifted  him  up  to  his  saddle  again, 

And  through  the  mire  and  the  mist  and  the 

rain 
Carried  him  back  to  the   silent   camp. 
And  laid  him  as  if  asleep  on  his  bed : 
And   I    saw   by   the   light   of  the    surgeon's 

lamp 
Two  white  roses  upon  his  cheeks. 
And  one,  just  over  his  heart,  blood-red! 

And  I  saw  in  a  vision  how  far  and  fleet 
That  fatal  bullet  went  speeding  forth 
Till  it  reached  a  town  in  the  distant  North, 
Till  it  reached  a  house  in  a  sunny  street, 
Till  it  reached  a  heart  that  ceased  to  bear 
Without  a  murmur,  without  a  cry; 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


585 


And  a  bell  was  tolled  in  that  far-off  town 
For  one  who  had  passed  from  cross  to  crown, 
And  the  neighbors  wondered  that  she  should 
die. 

Forget  and  Forgive 
By  Major  Jonathan   W.   Gordon 

What,  comrades,  shall  I  sing  to-day, 

To  you  who  know  the  story  well, 
Of  that   sublime,  transcendent  fray 

In  which  these  silent  heroes  fell  ? 
You  shared  their  toils,  you  saw  them  die, 

And  know  that  self  defiled  them  never 
They   died   to  keep  yon   flag  on   high, 

And  make  the  Nation  one  forever. 

If  there  was  fault,  be  it  forgot ; 

While  Union,  Freedom,  Peace  abide 
We'll  share  the  good  their  blood  has  brought 

And  cease  to  hate,  malign,  and  chide. 
No  matter  how  the  strife  befell. 

To  yon  dear  flag  the  day  was  given; 
And  all   again  with   rapture  swell 

To  see  it  float  supreme  m  Heaven. 

'Tis  quite  enough  for  grief  and  shame, 

That  such  a  strife  e'er  smote  the  land; 
And  quite  enough  for  praise  and  fame. 

That  Union,  Law,  and  Freedom  stand. 
Forgive  the   strife,   wash   out  the  shame 

In  Lethe's  unrevealing  river; 
But  build  a  monument  to  fame, 

And  glorify  these  dead  forever. 

What's  Hallowed  GroundP 

By  Thomas  Campbell 

What's  hallowed  ground?     Has  earth  a  dod 
Its  Maker  meant  not  should  be  trod 
By  man,  the  image  of  his  God, 

Erect  and  free, 
Unscourged  by  Superstition's  rod 

To  bow  the  knee? 

What  hallows  ground  where  heroes  sleep? 
'Tis  not  the   sculptured  piles  you  heap: 
In  dews  that  heavens  far  distant  weep. 

Their  turf  may  bloom : 
Or  Genii  twine  beneath  the  deep 

Their  coral  tomb. 

But  strew  his  ashes  to  the  wind. 

Whose  sword  or  voice  has  saved  mankind, — 

And  is  he  dead,  whose  glorious  mind 

Lifts  thine  on  high? 
To   live   in   hearts   we   leave  behind. 

Is  not  to  die ! 

Is't  death  to  fall  for  Freedom's  right? — 
He's  dead  alone  that  lacks  her  light! 
And  murder  sullies,  in  heaven's  sight, 

The   sword   he   draws : — 
What  can  alone  ennoble  fight? — 

A  noble  cause ! 

Give  that ;  and  welcome  War  to  brace 

Her  drums,  and  rend  heaven's  welkin  space ! 

The   colors   planted   face  to   face. 

The  charging  cheer, 
Tho  Death's  pale  horse  lead  on  the  chase, 

Shall   still  be  dear! 


And  place  our  trophies  where  men  kneel 
To  Heaven ! — but  Heaven  rebukes  my  zeal, 
The  cause  of  truth  and  human  weal, — 

O  God  above  ! — 
Transfer  it  from  the  sword's  appeal 

To  peace  and  love ! 

Peace,   love, — the   cherubim  that  join 
Their  spread  wings  o'er  devotion's  shrine, — 
Prayers  sound  in  vain,  and  temples  shine. 

Where  they  are  not ; 
The  heart  alone  can  make  divine 

Religion's  spot ! 

What's  hallowed  ground?     'Tis  what  gives 

birth 
To  sacred  thoughts  in  souls  of  worth ! 
Peace  !  Independence  !  Truth  !  go  forth 

Earth's  compass  round; 
And  your  high  priesthood  shall  make  earth 

All  hallowed  ground ! 

Memorial  Day 

By  Richard  Watson  Gilder 

She  saw  the  bayonets  flashing  in  the  sun, 
The    flags    that   proudly   waved ;    she    heard 

the  bugles   calling; 
She  saw  the  tattered  banners  falling 
About  the  broken  staffs,  as  one  by  one 
The  remnant  of  the  mighty  army  passed; 
And  at  the  last 
Flowers  for  the  graves  of  those  whose  fight 

was  done. 

She    heard   the   trampling   of   ten   thousand 

feet 
As  the  long  line  swept  round  the  crowded 

square ; 
She  heard  the  incessant  hum 
That    filled    the    warm    and   blossom-scented 

air — 
The  shrilling  fife,  the  roll  and  throb  of  drum. 
The   happy  laugh,   the   cheer.     Oh,   glorious 

and  meet 
To  honor  thus  the  dead. 
Who  chose  the  better  part. 
And   for   their   country   bled ! 
— The  dead!  Great  God!  she  stood  there  in 

the  street, 
Living,    yet    dead    in    soul,    and    mind,    and 

heart — 
While  far  away 
His    grave    was     decked     with     flowers     by 

strangers'   hands  to-day. 

Eve    of    Memorial    Day 

The  Rev.  S.  F.  Smith,  author  of  "My 
country,  'tis  of  thee,"  was  once  at  the  house 
of  a  friend,  on  the  afternoon  before  Memorial 
Day,  where  were  gathered  about  thirty  chil- 
dren and  young  ladies.  The  young  people 
were  gathering  many  cut  flowers  into  bou- 
quets, and  while  they  worked  they  sang  from 
time  to  time  the  national  hymn,  "  My  coun- 
trv    'tis  of  thee." 

This  led  Dr.  Smith  to  write  the  following 
beautiful  lines : 


586 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


"  Sweet  in  the  innocence  of  youth, 

Born   of  the   brave  and   free, 
They    wove    fair    garlands    while   they    sung 

'  My  country,   'tis  of  thee.' 
How  every  bosom  swelled  with  joy, 

And   thrilled   with   grateful  pride. 
As   fond  and  whispering  cadence  breathes 

'  Land   where  my   fathers  died.' 

"  Fair   flowers   in    sweet   bouquets   they   tied, 

Breaths  from  the  vale  and  hills, 
While   childish   voices   poured  the   strain. 

'  I   love   thy   rocks   and   rills ;' 
Each    face    grew    radiant   with    the    thought, 

'  Land  of  the  noble  free,' 
Each  voice  seemed   reverent  as  it  trilled, 

'  Sweet  land  of  liberty.' 

"  And  bud,  and  bloom,  and  leaf  they  bound, 

And  bade  the  living  keep 
Unharmed  and  pure  the  cherished  graves 

Where  brave   men   calmly   sleep ; 
And  thus  while  infant  lips   begin 

To  lisp   '  Sweet   freedom's  song,' 
Manhood's  deep  tones,   from  age  to  age, 

Shall  still  '  the  sound  prolong.' 

"  I  hailed  the  promise  of  the  scene, 

Gladness  was  in  the  strain ; 
The  glorious  land   is   safe  while  love 

Still    swells   the   fond   refrain ; 
And  what  shall  be  our  sure  defense? 

Who  guards   our   liberty  ? 
Not  man — not  arms  alone — we  look, 

'  Our  fathers'  God,  to  thee.'  " 

Selected. 

New  England's  Dead 

By  Isaac  M'Lellan 

New  England's  dead!    New  England's  dead! 

On  every  hill  they  lie ; 
On  every  field  of  strife  made  red 

By  bloody  victory. 
Each  valley,   where  the  battle  poured 

Its  red  and  awful  tide. 
Beheld  the  brave  New  England  sword 

With  slaughter  deeply  dyed. 
Their  bones  are  on  the  Northern  hill, 

And  on  the  Southern  plain. 
By  brook  and  river,  lake  and  rill, 

And  by  the  roaring  main. 

The  land  is  holy  where  they  fought. 

And  holy  where  they  fell ; 
For  by  their  blood  that  land  was  bought — 

That  land  they  loved  so  well. 
Then  glory  to  that  valiant  band, 
The  honored  saviors  of  the  land ! 
Oh,  few  and  weak  their  numbers  were — 

A  handful  of  brave  men — 
But  to  their  God  they  gave  their  prayer, 

And  rushed  to  battle  then. 
The  God  of  battles  heard  their  cry, 
And  sent  to  them  the  victory. 

They  left  the  plowshare  in  the  mold, 
Their  flocks  and  herds  without  a  fold. 
The   sickle   in   the   unshorn  grain. 
The  corn  half  garnered  on  the  plain, 


And  mustered,  in  their  simple  dress, 
For  wrongs  to  seek  a  stern  redress — 
To  right  those  wrongs,  come  weal,  come  wo. 
To  perish,  or  o'ercome  their  foe. 

And  where  are  ye,  O  fearless  men? 

Oh,   where  are  ye  to-day? 
I  call :   the  hills  reply  again 

That  ye  have  passed  away; 
That  on  old  Bunker's  lonely  height. 

In  Trenton,  and  in  Monmouth  ground 
The  grass  grows  green,  the  harvest  bright. 

Above  each  soldier's  mound. 

The  bugle's  wild  and  warlike  blast 

Shall  muster  them  no  more; 
An  army  now  might  thunder  past, 

And  they  not  heed  its  roar. 
The  starry  flag,  'neath  which  they  fought 

In  many  a  bloody  day, 
From  their  old  graves  shall  rouse  them  not. 

For  they  have  passed  away. 

Selected. 

The  Young  Patriot 

By  Paul  Pastnor 

"  Drum  as  you  never  drummed  before !  " 

What  a  thrill  in  the  Colonel's  tone. 
As    he   turned   to   the    drummer-boy   of   the 
corps ! 
"  Drum  as  if  upon  you  alone 
The  battle   hung !     Forward — guide  right !  " 
And  the   long  line   breasted  the   smoke-clad 
height. 

'Twas    an    errand    of    death    on    which   they 
went — 

Up  the  hill  to  the  cannons'  throats; 
A  thousand  men  to  the  shambles  sent 

With  as  little  heart  as  a  herd  of  goats ! 
Yet  some  one  knew  that  the  move  was  wise; 
Some  one  ordered  the  sacrifice. 

The  little  drummer-boy  marched  at  the  fore, 
Capless,  stained  with  the  smoke  and  dust,— 

Soldier  and  hero  to  the  core. 

Worthy   his   brave   commander's   trust ; 

While  sharp  and  clear  as  alarum's  clang 

The  beat  of  his  drum  down  the  column  rang. 

The   bullets    shrieked    through    the    blinding 
smoke, 
And  men  went  down  by  three  and  by  four; 
But,  oft  as  the  column  shook  and  broke. 
The  ring  of  the  drum  midst  the  cannon's 
roar 
Heartened  the  ranks,  and  they  formed  anew 
A  solid  front  of  the  blood-stained  Blue! 

Almost  up  to  the  rampart  grim ! 

One  more  charge — but  the  drum  was  still! 
Bleeding,  faint,  with  a  shattered  limb. 

Lay  the   drummer-boy  on  the   hill. 
Heart  of  the  regiment  ceased  to  beat; 
Nothing  could  hinder  the  wild  retreat! 

Then  the  drummer-boy,  roused  with  dread, 
Groped  for  his  trusty  drum  once  more. 

Thought  of  the  words  that  the  Colonel  said — 
"Drum  as  you   never  drummed  before!" 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


587 


And  sitting  there,  while  his  blood  ebbed  fast, 
He    cheered    and     plaj^ed,     as     the     soldiers 
passed. 

They   won   it.  the   frowning  fortress  wall — 

They,   the  few  who  were  left  to  fight ; 
Won  by  the  beat  of  the  drumsticks  small. 
And   the   face   of  the   drummer-boy  brave 
and  bright ! 
Honor  the  hero  who  proved  in  truth. 
The  patriot-zeal  of  the  heart  of  youth ! 

I. 

A  Christopher  of  the  Shenandoah 

Island  Ford,  Snicker's  Gap,  July  i8thj  1864 

[told  by  the  orderly] 

By  Edith   M.  Thomas 

Mute  he  sat  in  the  saddle — mute  midst  our 
full  acclaim. 

As  three  times  over  we  gave  to  the  mountain 
echo  his  name. 

Then,  "  But  I  couldn't  do  less ! "  in  a  mur- 
mur remonstrant  came. 

This  was  the  deed  his  spirit  set  and  his  hand 

would  not  shun, 
When  the  vale  of  the  Shenandoah  had  lost 

the  glow  of  the  sun, 
And  the  evening  cloud  and  the  battle  smoke 

were  blending  in  one. 

Retreating  and  ever  retreating,  the  bank  of 

the  river  we  gained, 
Hope  of  the  field  was  none,  and  choice  but 

of  flight  remained. 
When  there  at  the  brink  of  the  ford  his  horse 

he  suddenly  reined. 

For  his  vigilant  eye  had  marked  where, 
close  by  the  oozy  marge. 

Half-parted  its  moorings,  there  lay  a  bat- 
tered and  oarless  barge. 

"  Quick !  gather  the  wounded  in !  "  and  the 
flying  stayed  at  his  charge. 

They  gathered  the  wounded  in,  whence  they 

fell  by  the  river-bank, 
Lapped  on   the   gleaming    sand,  or    aswoon 

'mid  the  rushes  dank; 
And  they  crowded  the  barge  till  its  sides  low 

down  in  the  water  sank. 

The   river   was   wide,    was   deep,   and  heady 

the  current  flowed, 
A  burdened  and  oarless  craft! — straight  into 

the  stream  he  rode. 
By  the  side  of  the  barge,  and  drew  it  along 

with  its  moaning  load. 


A  moaning  and  ghastly  load — the  wounded — 

the  dying — the  dead ! 
For   ever    upon    their    traces     followed     the 

whistling  lead, 
Our    bravest    the    mark,    yet    unscathed   and 

undaunted,  he  pushed  ahead. 

Alone? — save  for  one  that  from  love  of  his 

leader  or  soldierly  pride 
(Hearing   his   call    for   aid,   and   seeing  that 

none  replied). 
Plunged  and  swum  by  the  crazy  craft  on  the 

other  side. 

But  Heaven  !  what  weary  toil ! — for  the  river 

is  wide,   is  deep ; 
Plunged  and  swum  by  the  crazy  craft  on  the 

further  side  is  steep. 
'Tis  reached  at  last,  and  a  hundred  of  ours 

to  the  rescue  leap. 

Oh,  they  cheered  as  he  rose  from  the  stream 
and  the  water-drops  flowed  away! 

''  But  I  couldn't  do  less !  "  in  the  silence 
that  followed  we  heard  him  say; 

Then  the  wounded  cheered,  and  the  swoon- 
ing awoke  in  the  barge  where  they  lay. 

And  I? — Ah,  well.  I  swam  by  the  barge  on 

the  other  side ; 
But  an  orderly    goes    wherever    his    leader 

chooses  to  ride. 
Come  life  or  come  death  I  couldn't  do  less 

than  follow  his  guide, 

I. 

Home  They  Brought  Her  Warrior 

By  Alfred  Tennyson 

Home   they  brought  her  warrior   dead: 
She  nor  swooned,  nor  uttered  cry; 

All  her  maidens,  watching,  said, 
"  She  must  weep  or  she  will  die." 

Then  they  praised  him,  soft  and  low, 
Called  him  worthy  to  be  loved. 

Truest  friend  and  noblest  foe: 
Yet  she  neither  spoke  nor  moved. 

Stole  a  maiden  from  her  place, 
Lightly  to  the  warrior  stept. 

Took  the  face-cloth  from  the  face: 
Yet  she  neither  moved  nor  wept. 

Rose  a  nurse  of  ninety  years, 
Set  his  child  upon  her  knee: 

Like  summer  tempest  came  her  tears — 
"  Sweet,   my   child,    I    live    for   thee." 
— From  "  The  Princess." 


588 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


FLAG-RAISING  DAY 

(June   14) 

FLAG-RAISING  DAY  is  one  of  the  youngest  of  our  national  anniversaries, 
but  is  fast  finding  a  large  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people, 
especially  in  the  schools.  The  day  was  first  recognized  June  14,  1894,  when  the 
Governor  of  New  York  ordered  that  the  Stars  and  Stripes  be  raised  on  all  public 
buildings  in  the  State  on  June  14,  1897,  the  one  hundred  and  seventeenth  anni- 
versary of  the  adoption  by  Congress  of  our  present  national  flag.  This  action  the 
Governor  took  at  the  request  of  the  "  Sons  of  the  Revolution."  Flag-raising 
Day  was  also  fittingly  observed  in  Philadelphia  on  the  same  date  by  request  of 
the  "  Colonial  Dames  of  America." 

The  Revolutionary  Statesmen  in  session  in  the  old  City  Hall  at  Philadelphia 
in  1777  appointed  a  committee  to  consider  and  report  on  the  subject  of  a  general 
standard  for  the  troops  of  all  the  colonies.  On  June  14th  of  that  year  Congress 
passed  the  famous  resolution  that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  be  thirteen  stripes 
alternately  white  and  red,  and  that  the  union  be  thirteen  white  stars  in  a  blue  field, 
representing  a  new  constellation. 

Tradition  says  that  General  George  Washington,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  Committee,  with  Robert  Morris  and  Colonel  Ross,  took  a  rough  sketch  of  the 
proposed  design  to  a  Mrs.  John  Ross,  an  upholsterer,  who  was  noted  for  her 
neatness  as  a  seamstress.  She  lived  on  Arch  Street,  and  her  home  still  stands, 
a  shrine  frequently  visited  by  patriotic  pilgrims.  The  story  runs  that  the  stars  in 
the  design  had  six  points ;  but  Mrs.  Ross  much  preferred  stars  with  five  points. 
So  with  a  few  clips  of  her  scissors  she  deftly  cut  out  a  five-pointed  star  for  her 
illustrious  callers,  who,  satisfied  of  its  greater  beauty,  accepted  the  change. 

Mrs.  Ross  made  a  flag  which  was  approved  by  Congress.  It  was  raised  at 
once  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  design  copied  everywhere  by  the  patriots. 

When  Kentucky  and  Vermont  were  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1794,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  were  each  increased  to  fifteen;  but,  in  1818,  Congress  voted  to 
restore  the  original  thirteen  stripes  and  to  add  a  new  star  on  the  4th  of  July 
following  the  admission  of  each  new  state. 

The  observance  of  Flag-raising  Day  in  our  public  schools  is  very  general,  and 
is  at  once  a  delightful  and  efficient  means  of  inspiring  the  rising  generation  with  the 
noble  sentiment  of  patriotism. 


HISTORICAL 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  FLAG 

By  Zitella  Cocke 


Our  splendid  national  emblem  is  a  very 
familiar  sight  to  the  young  people  of  this 
great  country,  but  it  is  probable  that  very 
many  who  hail  it  with  enthusiastic  cheers 
are  quite  ignorant  of  the  circumstances  which 


gave  rise  to  its  adoption.  There  is  a  striking 
resemblance  between  the  design  of  our  flag 
and  the  arms  of  General  Washington,  which 
consisted  of  three  stars  in  the  upper  portion 
and    three     bars     running    across     the    es- 


FLAG-RAISING   DAY 


589 


cutcheon,  and  it  is  believed  by  many  that 
the  American  flag  was  derived  from  this 
heraldic  design.  A  careful  investigation  of 
facts  reveals  the  truth  that  several  flags 
were  used  by  the  people  of  the  States  before 
the  present  one  was  adopted. 

In  the  month  of  March,    1775,  ^  red  flag 

was  hoisted   in   New   York,   bearing  on  one 

side  the   inscription,   "  George   Rex  and  the 

liberties    of    America,"    and    on 

Flags       the    other    side,    "  No    Popery.'' 

Previous    In  July,  1775,  on  Prospect  Hill, 

to  1777  General  Israel  Putnam  raised  a 
flag,  upon  which  was  inscribed 
the  motto  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts, "  Qui  transtulit  sustinct,"  and  on 
the  reverse  were  written  the  words,  "  An 
Appeal  to  Heaven."  In  October,  1775,  the 
floating  batteries  of  Boston  carried  a  flag 
with  the  motto,  "  An  Appeal  to  Heaven,"  the 
design  being  a  pine  tree  on  a  white  field. 
Virginia  carried  a  flag  in  1775 — design,  a  rat- 
tlesnake coiled  as  if  about  to  strike,  and  the 
motto,  "  Don't  tread  on  me.''  Her  State 
motto  in  the  present  time  resembles  this, 
"  Sic  semper  tyrannis,"  but  it  was  not  until 
January  18,  1776,  that  the  grand  union  flag, 
bearing  stars  and  stripes,  was  raised  on  the 
heights  near  Boston.  It  has  been  said  that 
when  the  regulars — British  troops — saw  it, 
they  supposed  it  was  an  evidence  of  sub- 
mission to  the  King,  who  had  just  issued  his 
proclamation. 

An  extract  from  the  British  Register  of 
1776  reads  thus;  "The  rebels  burnt  the 
King's  speech,  and  changed  their  colors 
from  a  plain  red  ground  to  a  flag  with  thir- 
teen stripes,  as  a  symbol  of  the  number  and 
union  of  the  colonies."  A  letter  written  from 
Boston  to  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  in  1776 
says:  "The  union  flag  was  raised  on  the 
second,  a  compliment  to  the  united  colonies." 

So   we    see    that   a    series   and   number   of 
flags    appeared — the    rattlesnake 

The  Stars  the    pine    tree,    and    the    stripes, 

and        the   various   designs   of  the   dif- 

Stripes      ferent  colonies — until  July,  1777, 

when  the  blue  union  of  the  stars 

was  added  to  the  stripes,  and  the  law  adopt- 


ed this  flag  as  the  great  national  em- 
blem. After  the  adoption  of  this  flag,  a 
stripe  was  added  with  every  new  state ;  but 
as  it  became  manifest  that  in  time  the  beauty 
of  the  emblem  would  be  marred  by  the 
enormous  proportions  acquired  with  addi- 
tional states.  Congress  reduced  the  stripes 
to  the  original  thirteen,  and  the  stars 
were  made  to  correspond  with  the  number 
of  states. 

Perhaps  no  flag  on  sea  or  land  shows  its 
grace  and  beauty  of  design  so  well  as  the 
emblem  of  the  United  States,  as  its  propor- 
tions are  perfect  when  it  is  accurately  and 
properly  made — one-half  as  broad  as  it  is 
long — the  first  stripe  at  the  top  red,  the  next 
white,  and  these  alternating  colors  make  the 
last  stripe  red,  the  blue  field  for  the  stars 
being  the  width  and  square  of  the  first 
seven  stripes. 

The  Continental  Congress  appointed  a 
committee  to  supervise  the  union  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  national  flag,  and  the 
following  description  of  their  design  and 
significance  was  prepared : 

■'  The  stars  of  the  new  flag  represent  the 
new  constellation  of  states  rising  in  the 
West.  The  idea  was  taken  from  the  great 
constellation  of  Lyra,  which  in 
Symbolism  the  hand  of  Orpheus  signifies 
harmony.  The  blue  in  the  field 
was  taken  from  the  edges  of  the  Covenant- 
er's banner  in  Scotland,  significant  of  the 
league  covenant  of  the  United  States  against 
oppression,  incidentally  involving  the  virtues 
of  vigilance,  perseverance,  and  justice. 

The  stars  were  disposed  in  a  circle,  symbol- 
izing the  perpetuity  of  the  union ;  the  ring, 
like  the  serpent  of  the  Egyptians,  signifying^ 
eternity.  The  thirteen  stripes  showed  with 
the  stars  the  number  of  the  united  colonies, 
and  denoted  the  subordination  of  the  states  to 
the  Union,  as  well  as  equality  among  them- 
selves. The  whole  was  the  blending  of  the 
various  flags  of  the  army,  and  the  white  ones 
of  the  floating  batteries.  The  red  color,  which 
in  Roman  days  was  the  signal  of  defiance, 
denoted  daring;  and  the  white,  purity." — 
H.  Y.  P. 


THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES 


By  a.  Y.  Leech 


Probably  all  Americans  believe  that  they 
know  their  national  flag  when  they  see  it,  yet 
many  are  certainly  unable  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  standard  Stars  and  Stripes  and  its 
spurious  imitations.  It  is  desirable  for  all  to 
remember  that  the  flag  is  not  a  haphazard  ar- 
rangement of  alternate  stripes  of  red  and 
white,  with  stars  on  a  blue  field,  but  an  em- 
blem fashioned  in  a  manner  prescribed  by 
law  and  official  regulations. 

The  first  national  legislation  on  the  subject 
bears  date  June  14,  1777,  when  Congress,  in 
session  at  Philadelphia,  adopted  the  follow- 
ing: 


"  Resolved,  That  the  flag  of  the  thirteen 
United  States  be  thirteen  stripes,  alternate 
red  and  white ;  that  the  union  be  thirteen 
stars,  white  in  a  blue  field,  representing  a 
new  constellation." 

This  was  about  one  year  subsequent  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Prior  to  that 
time  colonial  flags,  and  those  improvised  by 
the  parties  using  them,  were  publicly  dis- 
played as  occasion  demanded,  but  these  were 
in  no  sense  the  "  national   standard." 

The  thirteen  stripes  had  been  introduced,  in 
alternate  white  and  blue,  on  the  upper  left- 
hand  corner  of  a  standard  presented  to  the 


590 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Philadelphia  Light  Horse  Company  by  its 
captain  in  the  early  part  of  1775.  Moreover, 
the  flag  of  the  thirteen  united  colonies  raised 
at  Washington's  headquarters  at  Cambridge, 
January  2,  1776,  had  the  thirteen  stripes  just 
as  they  are  this  day ;  but  it  also  had  the  cross 
of  St.  George  and  St.  Andrew  on  a  blue 
ground  in  the  corner. 

There  is  no  satisfactory  evidence,  hovi^ever, 
that  any  flag  bearing  the  union  of  the  stars 
had  been  in  public  use  before  the  resolution 
of  June,  1777.  .   . 

Some  writers  assert  that  the  first  and  origi- 
nal United  States  flag,  instead  of  thirteen 
stars,  each  representing  a  revolted  colony  or 
state,  contained  only  twelve  stars,  because 
Georgia  was  not  entitled  to  a  vote.  Such  a 
flag  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  the  ladies 
of  Philadelphia  from  the  design  of  the  es- 
cutcheon of  the  Washington  family,  and  it 
is  said  that  Washington  himself  cut  out  the 
five-pointed  stars. 

It  is  alleged  that  this  flag  was  presented 
to  John  Paul  Jones ;  that  he  sailed  with  it 
up  and  down  the  Schuylkill,  to  show  the 
people  the  appearance  of  the  flag  of  their 
country;  that  it  was  adopted  by  Congress; 
that  Jones  carried  it  with  him  on  his  ship 
Bon  Homme  Richard,  that  in  his  great  fight 
the  flag  was  shot  away  from  its  staff  and  fell 
in  the  sea,  and  that  Lieutenant  Stafford 
leaped  overboard  after  it,  brought  it  safely 
to  the  ship  and  nailed  it  to  the  mast- 
head. 

The  tale  may  be  true,  but  the  flag  was  not 
the  national  flag.  The  act  of  Congress  of 
June  14,  1777,  shows  that  no  standard  was 
recognized  by  the  Nation  until  that  date. 

It  has  been  impossible  to  decide  with  cer- 
tainty who  designed  the  American  flag  as 
first  adopted  by  Congress,  but  the  best  re- 
corded evidence  gives  part  of  the  credit  of 
designing  it  and  all  the  credit  of  making  it 
to  Mrs.  John  Ross,  an  upholsterer,  who  re- 
sided on  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia.  Her 
descendants  assert  that  a  committee  of  Con- 
gress, accompanied  by  General  Washington, 
who  was  in  Philadelphia  in  June,  1776,  called 
upon  Mrs.  Ross  and  engaged  her  to  make  the 
flag  from  a  rough  drawing.  This  drawing 
was,  at  her  suggestion,  redrawn  by  General 
Washington  with  pencil,  in  her  back  parlor, 
and  the  flag  thus  designed  was  adopted  by 
Congress. 

Altho  the  resolution  establishing  the  flag 
was  not  officially  promulgated  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  Congress  until  September  3,  1777,  it 
seems  well  authenticated  that  the  regulation 
Stars  and  Stripes  was  carried  at  the  battle 
of  the  Brandywine.  September  11,  1777,  and 
thenceforward  during  the  battles  of  the 
Revolution. 

Soon  after  its  adoption  the  new  flag  was 
hoisted  on  the  naval  vessels  of  the  United 
States.  The  ship  Ranger,  bearing  the  Stars 
and  Stripes,  and  commanded  by  Captain 
Paul  Jones,  arrived  at  a  French  port  about 
December  i,  1777.  Her  flag  received  on 
February  14,  1778,  the  first  salute  ever  paid 
to  the  American  flag  by  foreign  naval 
vessels. 


No  further  action  relative  to  the  flag  was 
taken  by  Congress  until  after  Vermont  and 
Kentucky  were  admitted  to  the  Union. 
Then,  on  January  13,  1794,  Congress  en- 
acted : 

"  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  May, 
1795,  the  flag  of  the  United  States  be  fifteen 
stripes,  alternate  red  and  white :  that  the 
union  be  fifteen  stars,  white  in  a  blue  field." 

This  flag  was  the  national  banner  from 
1795  to  1818,  during  which  period  occurred 
the  war  of  1812  with  Great  Britain.  But 
scon  five  additional  states — Tennessee,  Ohio, 
Louisiana,  Indiana,  and  Mississippi — were 
admitted  to  the  Union  and  required  repre- 
sentation on  the  flag.  So  Congress,  on  April 
4,  1818,  enacted : 

First.  "  That  from  and  after  the  fourth 
day  of  July  next,  the  flag  of  the  United 
States  be  thirteen  horizontal  stripes,  alter- 
nate red  and  white;  that  the  Union  have 
twenty  stars,   white  in  a  blue  field." 

Second.  "  That  on  the  admission  of  every 
new  state  into  the  Union  one  star  be  added 
to  the  union  of  the  flag,  and  that  such  addi- 
tion shall  take  effect  on  the  Fourth  of  July 
next  succeeding  such  admission." 

The  debate  in  Congress  shows  that  the 
return  to  the  thirteen  stripes  of  the  1777  flag 
was  due,  in  a  measure,  to  a  reverence  for  the 
standard  of  the  Revolution ;  but  it  was  also 
due  to  the  fact  that  a  further  increase  of  the 
number  of  stripes  would  make  the  width  of 
the  flag  out  of  proportion  to  its  length,  un- 
less the  stripes  were  narrowed,  and  this 
would  have  made  it  hard  to  see  them  at  a 
distance. 

A  newspaper  of  the  time,  still  kept  in  the 
government  archives,  said,  "  By  this  regu- 
lation the  thirteen  stripes  will  represent  the 
number  of  states  whose  valor  and  resources 
originally  effected  American  independence, 
and  additional  stars  will  mark  the  increase 
of  the  states  since  the  present  Constitution." 

No  act  has  since  been  passed  by  Con- 
gress, altering  this  feature  of  the  flag,  and 
the  standard  is  the  same  as  originally 
adopted,  except  as  to  the  number  of  stars  in 
its  union. 

In  the  war  with  Mexico  the  national  flag 
bore  twenty-nine  stars  in  its  union ;  during 
the  late  Civil  War  it  had  thirty-five,  and 
since  July  4,  1891,  it  has  borne  forty-five 
stars. 

In  none  of  the  acts  of  Congress  relating  to 
the  flag  has  the  manner  of  arranging  the 
stars  been  prescribed,  and  in  consequence 
there  has  been  a  striking  lack  of  uniformity 
in  this  matter.  Designs  of  the  flag  in  the 
keeping  of  the  government  show  that  the 
early  custom  was  to  insert  the  stars  in 
parallel  rows  across  the  blue  field.  This  cus- 
tom has,  it  is  believed,  been  observed  in  the 
navy,  at  least  since  1818,  at  which  time  the 
President  ordered  the  stars  to  be  arranged  in 
this  manner  on  the  national  flag  used  in  the 
navy. 

In  the  army,  too,  it  is  believed,  the  stars 
have  always  been  arranged  in  horizontal  rows 
across  the  blue  field,  but  not  always  in  verti- 
cal rows ;  the  effect,  however,  being  about  the 


FLAG-RAISING  DAY 


591 


same  as  the  naval  flag.  Hereafter  there  will 
be  no  difference  in  the  arrangement  of  stars 
between  the  army  and  navy,  as  an  agree- 
ment has  been  arrived  at  between  the  War 
and  Navy  Departments. 

American  bunting  only  is  now  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and 
these  flags  are  woven  for  the  government  on 
American  looms. 

While  the  sizes  of  the  government  flags 
are  not  prescribed  by  statute  law,  they  are 
fixed  by  regulations  of  the  Departments  of 
the  War  and  Navy,  which  have  been  based 
upon  convenience,  utility  and  beauty,  and 
the  exigencies  of  the  service. 

The  storm  and  recruiting  flags  measure 
each  eight  feet  in  length  by  four  feet  two 


inches  in  width.  The  post  flag  measures 
twenty  feet  in  length  by  ten  feet  in  width. 

The  garrison  flag,  hoisted  only  on  great 
occasions  and  national  holidays,  measures 
thirty-six  feet  in  length  by  twenty  feet  in 
width.  The  union  is  always  one-third  of 
the  length  of  the  flag,  and  extends  to  the 
lower  edge  of  the  fourth  red  stripe  from  the 
top. 

The  national  colors  carried  by  regiments 
of  infantry  and  artillery  and  the  battalion  of 
engineers,  on  parade  or  in  battle,  are  made 
of  silk.  They  are  six  feet  six  inches  long 
and  six  feet  wide,  and  are  mounted  on  staffs. 
The  field  of  the  colors  is  thirty-one  inches  in 
length,  and  extends  to  the  lower  edge  of  the 
fourth  red  stripe  from  the  top. — Y.  C. 


BETSY  ROSS  AND  THE  FLAG 


By  Harry  Pringle  Ford 


On  the  14th  day  of  June,  1777,  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  passed  the  following 
resolution : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  flag  of  the  thirteen 
United  States  be  thirteen  stripes,  alternate 
red  and  white ;  and  that  the  union  be  thir- 
teen stars,  white  in  a  blue  field,  representing 
a  new  constellation." 

This  resolution,  the  first  recorded  legisla- 
tive action,  so  far  as  known,  relating  to  the 
adoption  of  a  national  flag  in  this  country, 
was  taken  on  the  recommendation  of  Robert 
Morris,  the  famous  financier  and  treasurer  of 
the  Revolution,  and  George  Ross,  a  Pennsyl- 
vania signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, who.  at  some  time  during  the  previous 
year,  had  been  appointed  a  committee  to  con- 
sider the  subject  of  adopting  a  general  stand- 
ard for  all  the  colonies — various  banners  and 
devices  having  been  in  use,  not  only  by  the 
colonies,  but  also  by  the  different  regiments, 
up   to   this   time. 

The  committee,  accompanied  by  General 
Washington,  called  at  the  house  of  Betsy 
Ross.  239  Arch  Street,  on  a  day  between  the 
23d  of  May  and  the  4th  of  June,  1776,  and 
left  with  her  an  order  to  make  a  flag  from 
designs  which  they  submitted.  This  she  did 
so  successfully  as  to  lead  to  the  adoption  of 
the  above  resolution  the  following  year. 

Mrs.  Ross,  whose  maiden  name  was  Eliza- 
beth Griscom,  was  born  January  ist,  1752,  of 
Quaker  parentage.  She  was  noted  for  her 
exquisite  skill  in  needlework ;  and  that  she 
was  engaged  in  the  flag-making  business  pre- 
vious to  the  adoption  of  the  national  stand- 
ard in  June,  1777,  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  in  the  preceding  May,  Congress  made 
an  order  on  the  Treasury  "  to  pay  Betsy 
Ross  £14.  I2S.  2d.  for  flags  for  the  fleet  in  the 
Delaware  River."  In  the  latter  part  of  1773 
she  married  John  Ross,  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
^neas  Ross,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  of 
Newcastle,  Delaware,  a  brother  to  the  Hon. 
George   Ross  mentioned  above. 

The  young  married  couple  carried  on  the 


upholstery  business  at  239  Arch  Street,  Phila- 
delphia. Their  happiness,  however,  was  des- 
tined to  be  short  lived.  The  spirit  of  liberty 
was  awakening,  and  hundreds  of  patriots 
were  sacrificing  the  pleasures  of  home  on 
the  altar  of  their  country.  Among  the  fore- 
most of  these  was  young  John  Ross.  One 
night,  whilst  guarding,  with  several  other 
young  men,  some  military  stores  on  one  of 
the  city  wharves  along  the  Delaware  River, 
he  received  so  serious  an  injury  that  he  died 
from  the  effects  of  it,  after  long  and  anxious 
nursing  on  the  part  of  his  faithful  and  de- 
voted young  wife.  He  was  buried  in  the 
Christ  Church  burying  ground.  Fifth  and 
Arch  Streets,  January  20,  1776.  The  Ross 
pew,  marked  with  a  national  flag,  is  still 
preserved  in  the  historic  old  church. 

Left  a  widow  at  the  early  age  of  twenty- 
four,  Mrs.  Ross  heroically  determined  to 
maintain  her  independence,  if  possible,  by 
continuing  the  upholstering  business ;  and  it 
was  not  long  after  the  death  of  her  husband 
that  she  was  called  on  by  the  Committee  of 
Congress  in  reference  to  making  a  sample 
flag  for  the  Nation. 

Mr.  George  Canby,  a  grandson  of  Mrs. 
Ross,  who  is  still  living  in  Philadelphia,  and 
who  well  remembers  his  grandmother,  gives 
the  followiner  interesting  incident  of  this  his- 
toric visit : 

"  The  committee  asked  her  if  she  thought 
she  could  make  a  flag  from  a  design,  a  rough 
drawing  of  which  General  Washington  ex- 
hibited. She  replied  with  diffidence  and  be- 
coming modesty  that  '  she  did  not  know, 
but  would  try.'  She  noticed,  however,  that 
the  stars,  as  drawn,  had  six  points,  and  in- 
formed the  committee  that  the  correct  star 
should  have  but  five  points.  They  answered 
that  they  understood  this,  but  that  a  great 
number  of  stars  would  be  reauired,  and  the 
more  regular  form  with  six  points  could  be 
more  easily  made  than  one  with  five.  She 
responded  in  a  practical  way,  by  deftly  fold- 
ing a  scrap  of  paper,  and  then    with  a  single 


592 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


clip  of  her  scissors,  she  displayed  a  true, 
symmetrical,    five-pointed    star. 

"  This  at  once  decided  that  point  in  her 
favor.  After  the  design  was  partially  re- 
drawn on  the  table  in  her  little  back  parlor, 
she  was  left  to  make  her  sample  flag  ac- 
cording to  her  own  ideas  of  the  arrangement 
of  the  stars,  the  proportions  of  the  stripes 
and  the  general  form  of  the  whole.  Some 
time  after  its  completion,  it  was  presented 
to  Congress,  and  the  committee  soon  there- 
after had  the  pleasure  of  reporting  to  her 
that  her  flag  was  accepted  as  the  national 
standard,  and  she  was  authorized  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  the  manufacture  of  a  large 
number  for  disposal  by  the  Continental  Con- 
gress." 

Mr.  Canby  has  in  his  possession  the  old 
family  Bible  of  his  grandmother.  It  con- 
tains many  interesting  entries.  No  authentic 
likeness  of  Mrs.  Ross  exists.  She  was  mar- 
ried three  times.  Her  second  husband  was 
Captain  Joseph  Ashburn,  to  whom  she  was 
united  in  the  Old  Swedes  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, June  15th,  1777.    He  died  a  prisoner  of 


war,  March  3d,  1782,  in  the  old  Mill  Prison, 
Plymouth,  England.  His  friend,  John  Clay- 
poole,  who  was  a  prisoner  with  him,  was 
finally  released,  and  became  the  third  hus- 
band of  our  fair  heroine,  May  8th,  1783.  Mr. 
Claypoole  died  August  3d,  1817.  His  wife 
died  January  30th,  1836,  at  the  advanced  age 
of  eighty-four  years,  having  lived  to  see  our 
government  firmly  established  and  our  Na- 
tion taking  its  rightful  place  among  the  fore- 
most powers  of  the  world. 

The  quaint  little  brick  birthplace  of  the 
flag  at  239  Arch  Street,  is  still  standing,  al- 
tho  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  old. 
The  front  ground  floor  is  now  used  as  a 
cigar  store;  the  room  just  back  of  it,  about 
twelve  by  eighteen  feet  in  size,  is  the  one  in 
which  the  flag  is  said  to  have  been  made.  It 
remains  quite  as  it  was  in  the  old  days,  and 
gives  every  evidence  of  belonging  to  a  time 
not  our  own.  We  trust  that  the  old  house 
may  long  be  preserved  to  keep  alive  in  patri- 
otic hearts  the  memories  that  are  inseparably 
associated  with  the  origin  of  our  beautiful 
banner,  the  glorious  Stars  and  Stripes. — F. 


ABOUT  FLAGS 


By  Eliza  E,  Clarke 


Our  flag  has  been  called  by  various  names, 
in  song  and  story,  as  "  Star- Spangled 
Banner,"  "  Flag  of  the  Free,"  "  Banner  of 
Liberty,"  "  The  Starry  Flag,''  "  Stripes  and 
Stars,"  "  Old  Glory,"  etc.  But  by  whatever 
name  it  may  be  called,  the  true  -American 
feels  an  enthusiastic  sentiment  of  patriotism 
stirring  in  his  heart,  whenever  its  stripes  and 
stars  are  unfolded  to  his  sight. 

Previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  stripes 
and  stars  as  our  national  emblem,  while  each 
colony  had  its  own  flag,  several  attempts 
were  made  to  arrange  one  which  might  serve 
the  purpose  of  all.  One  of  these  consisted  of 
thirteen  alternate  stripes  of  red  and  white, 
with  a  rattlesnake  uncoiled  diagonally  upon 
it,  the  warning  "  Don't  tread  on  me,"  being 
suggestive  of  the  ruling  sentiment  of  the 
times. 

There  are  various  flags  in  common  use  of 
interest  to  all.  Among  them,  the  flag  of 
truce  bears  an  important  part.  It  is  a  white 
flag,  which  is  displayed  to  an  enemy  to  show 
a  desire  for  consultation,  and  which  protects 
the  bearer  from  injury  from  the  enemy's 
fire  when  approaching  their  lines.  After  a 
battle,  when  both  armies  wish  to  send  parties 
to  the  field  to  bury  their  dead  and  carry  off 
the  wounded,  they  go  with  safety  under  the 
flag  of  truce,  as  it  is  never  fired  upon  in 
honorable    warfare. 

A  black  flag  is  a  piratical  emblem,  and 
means   "no  quarter;"   or,   in   other  words, 


death  to  all  who  are  captured  by  the  sTiip 
over  which  it  floats.  We  can  well  imagine 
the  dismay  it  must  have  carried  to  the  hearts 
of  those  whose  misfortune  it  was  to  see  its 
dismal  folds  displayed  at  the  masthead  of 
an  approaching  vessel. 

A  yellow  flag  floating  over  a  building,  or 
from  the  mast  of  a  ship  shows  that  some 
contagious  disease  is  prevailing  there. 

The  expression,  "  dipping  a  flag,"  means 
lowering  it  slightly  and  raising  it  again  as 
a  salute  to  a  vessel  or  fort. 

If  the  President  of  the  United  States 
makes  a  sea  voyage  the  flag  is  carried  at  the 
bow  of  his  barge,  or  at  the  masthead  of 
the  ship  he  is  on,  which  is  then  called  a 
flagship.  The  same  is  true  of  the  ship  com- 
manded by  a  commodore  of  the  United  States 
Navy. 

"  The  flag  of  Fort  McHenry,"  whose 
"broad  stripes  and  bright  stars"  inspired 
Francis  Key  to  write  our  national  song.  "  The 
Star-Spangled  Banner,"  still  exists  in  a  tol- 
erable state  of  preservation,  and  is  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Eben  Appleton,  of  Yonk- 
ers,  N.  Y.,  a  grandson  of  Col.  Armistead,  the 
gallant  defender  of  Fort  McHenry.  The 
stripes  are  two  feet  wide,  and  the  stars  are 
two  feet  from  point  to  point.  The  flag  is 
thirty  feet  wide  and  was  originally  forty 
feet  long,  without  doubt ;  but  in  its  present 
curtailed  dimensions  is  only  thirty-two  feet 
long. — E.   G. 


FLAG-RAISING  DAY 


593 


THE  SCHOOL  FLAG 


The  boys  are  moving  in  the  matter  of  rais- 
ing the  flag  of  the  United  States  over  the 
school-houses  on  national  and  festive  days. 
The  girls  are  helping  them  with  sympathy 
and  subscriptions.  Now  and  then  a  rich  man 
puts  his  hand  into  his  pocket  and  gives  a 
fine  large  flag  outright,  tho  it  is  better  to 
raise  the  money  by  moderate  subscriptions. 
We  are  too  much  in  the  habit  of  looking  to 
rich  men  to  do  what  we  ought  to  do 
ourselves. 

A  flag  of  the  best  American  bunting,  large 
enough  for  most  school-houses,  costs  from 
five  to  fifteen  dollars.  Then  there  are  the 
staff,  the  halyards,  the  putting  up  of  the  staff, 
and  a  nice  box  to  keep  the  flag  in  when  it 
is  not  flying.  All  this  can  be  done  for  a 
sum  that  is  easily  raised  in  almost  any  town 
of  the  United  States. 

For  a  small  country  school-house,  the 
scholars  of  which  know  how  to  use  their 
heads  a  little,  nothing  need  be  bought  but 
the  flag  itself  and  some  cord.  The  boys  can 
cut  and  erect  the  pole.  On  last  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day  (1899)  many  flags  were  raised  over 
school-houses  in  New  England,  the  money 
for  which  was  raised  in  a  few  hours. 

Various  questions  arise  in  connection  with 
these   flag-raisings. 

Who  is  to  have  charge  of  the  flag?  Who 
is  to  raise  it  on  the  approved  days,  lower  it, 
and  put  it  away?  Some  teachers  suggest  a 
Flag  Committee  composed  of  the  head  boy 
of  each  class  in  the  school.  This  plan  would 
give  a  committee  of  five,  at  the  most.  To 
avoid  confusion  and  disagreement,  the  boy 
at  the  head  of  the  advanced  class  should  be 
chairman,  with  power  to  direct  proceedings. 
The  announcement  of  the  Flag  Committee 
by  the  principal  of  the  school,  at  the  close  of 
the  monthly  examination,  would  be  an  inter- 
esting event. 

On  what  days  should  the  flag  be  raised? 
We  should  say  not  on  days  that  have  a 
party  or  sectarian  character.  For  example 
not  on  days  set  apart  for  the  celebration 
of  a  Republican  or  Democratic  victory  at  the 
polls.  On  the  other  hand,  the  inauguration 
of  a  president,  a  governor,  a  mayor,  is  not  a 
party  event,  altho  it  results  from  a  party 
victory.  The  flag  might  properly  be  raised 
on  such  days. 


There  are  certain  birthdays  which  will 
suggest  themselves  to  every  one :  those  of 
Washington,  Franklin,  Lafayette,  Lincoln 
and  others.  Here,  locality  might  assert  its 
claims.  In  New  England,  the  birthdays  of 
Whittier  and  Longfellow  might  be  honored, 
while  New  York  might  prefer  Irving  and 
Cooper. 

Such  events  as  the  Landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims could  not  be  overlooked  in  New  Eng- 
land ;  New  York  would  remember  the  com- 
pletion of  the  first  telegraph  or  the  laying  of 
the  Atlantic  cable ;  Philadelphia  the  coming 
of  William  Penn ;  and  all  schools  the  admis- 
sion of  their  State  into  the  Union,  or  the 
acceptance  of  the  Constitution. 

In  selecting  the  great  days  of  the  late 
war,  the  Flag  Committees  will  naturally  be 
careful  not  to  wound  sectional  pride,  nor 
excite  unprofitable  controversy.  All  can  join 
in  commemorating  that  day  of  days  on  which 
President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  of 
freedom  to  the  slaves,  and  that  other  grand 
day  when  General  Grant  gave  back  to  Gen- 
eral Lee  and  his  exhausted  troops  their  side- 
arms  and  their  horses,  and  told  them  to  go  in 
peace  and  raise  a  crop. 

With  good  sense  on  the  part  of  the  pupils 
and  sympathetic  tact  on  the  part  of  teachers. 
the  school  flag  may  furnish  pleasant  and 
salutary  incidents  in  the  routine  of  the  school 
year.  The  raising  of  the  flag  just  before 
school  in  the  morning,  and  the  lowering  of  it 
just  after  school  in  the  afternoon,  will  be  a 
lesson  in  history  to  the  neighborhood. 

We  suggest  also  that  a  little,  not  too 
much,  ceremony  in  the  raising  and  lowering 
of  the  flag  will  add  to  the  impressiveness  of 
the  occasion.  The  boys  are  probably  aware 
that  it  is  a  part  of  the  etiquette  of  flag- 
raising  and  lowering  on  the  naval  vessels 
that  the  flag  shall  never  be  allowed  to  touch 
the  deck. 

To  be  sure  the  flag  is  only  a  bit  of  bunt- 
ing, and  the  country  does  not  suffer  a  loss  of 
dignity  if  the  flag  be  permitted  to  touch  the 
dust:  but  it  is  also  an  emblem.  For  the  mo- 
ment it  represents  the  honor  and  glory  of 
our  native  land,  and  it  is  not  sentimentality 
but  true  sentiment  that  forbids  that  the  stars 
and  stripes  be  suffered  to  be  soiled  by  con- 
tact with  the  earth.— Y.  C. 


FLAG  PRESENTATION 


During  our  Civil  War  the  colonel  of  a  fine 
Union  regiment  came  to  his  general,  in  a 
high  state  of  excitement. 

"  General,"  said  he,  "  I  was  waited  on  by 
two  lovely  ladies,  this  morning,  who  wish  to 
present  a  flag  to  my  regiment,  on  the  com- 
ing  Fourth    of   July." 

As  the  1  rigade  was  at  that  time  quartered 
in  a  very  hostile  Southern  city,  this  produced 


considerable  surprise  on  the  part  of  the  gen- 
eral ;  but  he  finally  said : 

"  Well,  it  will  be  worth  seeing.  Turn  out 
your  regiment  and  let  the  ceremonies  go 
on." 

When  the  famous  day  arrived,  every  sol- 
dier was  clad  in  his  best,  and  the  colonel 
looked  fairly  resplendent  in  his  finest  uni- 
form.    There  was  quite  a  large  number  of 


594 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


spectators  present.  The  young  ladies  ap- 
peared, escorted  by  some  of  their  male 
friends,  and  were  given  a  post  of  honor. 

One  of  them  made  a  speech,  in  which  rhe 
mentioned  hberty  as  among  the  choicest 
blessings  in  the  world,  and  extolled  the  con- 
duct of  our  brave  Revolutionary  forefathers. 
It  was  a  very  eloquent  address,  and  was 
heard  by  all  with  approval  and  delight. 

At  its  close,  she  uncovered  and  unrolled 
the  flag,  and  with  a  smile  upon  her  face, 
said,    sweetly, 

"  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting, 
sir,  to  you  and  your  regiment,  the  grandest 
and  most  characteristic  symbol  of  the  liberty 
for  which  our  forefathers  fought,  that  has 
ever  seen  the  light  of  day." 

She  unrolled  the  flag,  which,  to  the  un- 
limited surprise  of  most  of  those  present, 
proved  to  be  a  Confederate  one ! 

For  a  moment,  there  was  an  intense  si- 
lence. The  Southerners  present  did  not  dare 
to  cheer,  however  much  they  felt  like  it ; 
the  soldiers  were  sternly  restrained  by  their 
officers  as  well  as  by  their  natural  chivalry 
toward  the  sex. 

The  colonel's  eyes  flashed  fire ;  but  he  was 
a  man  of  the  world,  and  had  been  an  accom- 
plished politician  before  entering  the  war ; 
and,  with  a  gentle  and  engaging  smile,  he 
advanced,  and  received  the  flag  from  the 
hand  of  his  fair  (and  unfair)  guest.  Then, 
in  a  clear  resonant  Fourth-of-July  tone,  he 
responded : 

"  Madame,  you  are  my  guest,  and  a  lady. 
I  am  the  colonel  of  this  regiment,  which  is 


composed  entirely  of  gentlemen  as  well  as 
soldiers,  and,  I  trust,  I  am  deserving  the 
same  appellations. 

"  We  have  listened  with  interest  to  your 
views  as  to  which  is  the  symbol  most  typical 
of  freedom  of  any  in  the  world.  We  (look- 
ing at  the  colors  of  the  regiment)  hold  a  dif- 
ferent opinion,  or  we  should  not  be  here. 
We  are  glad  to  know,  too,  that  our  views  are 
gradually  gaining  ground.  We  have  already 
received  in  surrender  several  flags  similar 
to  the  one  you  have  just  handed  me.  and 
shall  keep  this  as  a  token,  that  at  last  even 
the  fair  daughters  of  the  Confederacy  have 
decided  that  their  cause  is  a  hopeless  one, 
and  have  commenced  capitulating  their  colors 
— eulogizing  them,  very  naturally,  as  they 
so  do." 

The  turning  of  the  tables  had  been  ac- 
complished so  neatly,  that  the  crowd  cheered, 
in  spite  of  themselves ;  the  young  lady,  who 
had  perhaps  harbored  an  idea  that  she  would 
be  arrested,  and  made  a  sort  of  martyr, 
rushed  away  in  confusion ;  and  the  colonel 
marched  his  regiment  back  to  quarters  with 
flying  colors.  He  afterwards  received  a 
merry  note  from  his  acquaintance  of  a  day, 
apologizing  for  the  trick  she  had  attempted 
to  play  upon  him,  thanking  him  for  the 
gentlemanly  manner  in  which  he  had  treated 
her,  and  acknowledging  that  he  had  had  the 
best  of  the  incident. 

During  a  late  visit  to  the  Nashville  Expo- 
sition, he  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  meeting  her 
— now  a  handsome  ""  Colonial  Dame  "' — and 
of  laughing  with  her  over  the  incident. — E. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


FLAG,  lioved  the.— The  author  of  Per- 
sonal Recollections  of  the  Rebellion  tells 
a  good  flag  story.  At  an  auction  sale  in 
Charleston,  just  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  war,  the  auctioneer,  after  knocking  down 
odd  lots  of  dry  goods  and  remnants,  picked 
tap  an  American  flag  and  cast  it  down  with 
the  contemptuous  remark  that  he  would  not 
ask  a  bid  for  that  useless  rag. 

This  was  too  much  for  one  of  the  bystand- 
ers, a  rough-looking  man,  and  he  called  out : 

"  I  bid  ten  dollars!  " 

At  the  word  he  elbowed  his  way  through 
the  crowd,  took  the  flag  and  bore  it  off. — 
Y.  C. 

FLAG,  Our. — A  great  many  years  ago  our 
people  fought  for  a  free  land.  They  wanted 
a  flag  all  their  very  own — a  flag  to  wave 
over  their  homes  and  lead  their  soldiers  in 
battle.  They  asked  George  Washington  and 
a  friend  to  have  just  the  right  kind  of  a  flag 
made.     It  was  not  to  be  like  any  other  flag. 

Washington  drew  a  picture  of  a  flag  with 
stars  and  stripes,  and  took  it  to  a  lady  to  be 
made.    He  told  her  just  how  to  make  it. 

The  stripes  were  to  be  red  and  white,  and 
the  stars  white  upon  a  blue  sky.  This  was 
our  first  flag.     And  now  shall  I  tell  you  what 


our  flag  means?  When  you  see  it  waving  in 
the  air,  it  says  to  you :  "  This  is  a  free 
land."  The  colors  tell  us  something,  too. 
The  red  says,  "  Be  brave ;  "  the  white  says, 
"Be  pure;"  the  blue  says,  "Be  true." — 
Elsie  M.  Whiting. 

FLAG,  Our. — One  dreary  morning  late  in 
the  autumn  of  1864,  a  number  of  Union 
prisoners  were  piloted  up  the  Savannah 
River,  past  the  historic  Fort  Pulaski,  past 
the  blockade  of  sunken  vessels,  and  up 
within   the   Confederate  lines. 

Then  down  the  river  came  a  Confederate 
stearner,  and  as  it  turned  a  curve  and  came 
in  sight  of  the  Union  vessels,  there  was 
heard,  as  if  from  somewhere  within  the 
steamer's  depths,  a  muffled  shout,  "Hurrah! 
hurrah !  hurrah  !  " 

This  meeting  at  Savannah  was  for  an  ex- 
change of  prisoners  between  the  Union  and 
Confederate  forces.  Two  steamers  were 
lashed  together,  gang-planks  thrown  across, 
and  the  exchange  begun.  Man  for  man,  a 
steady  double  line,  one  line  of  Union  pris- 
oners and  the  other  of  Confederates,  walked 
across   the  gang-planks   for   days. 

"  What  was  that  hurrahing  for,  as  the 
steamer  turned  the  bend  ?  "  one  of  the  pris- 


FLAG-RAISING   DAY 


595 


oners  was  asked,  as  he  came  to  the  United 
States  vessel. 

He  smiled  grimly  and  said,  "  Why,  you 
see,  some  of  us  happened  to  be  where  we 
could  see  down  the  river,  and  we  caught 
sight  of  the  old  flag,  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
We  told  the  rest  of  them,  and  then  they  gave 
the  three  cheers  you  heard.  They  weren't 
much  for  strength,  but  they  were  the  best 
we  could  give. 

"  You,  who  haven't  been  where  you 
couldn't  see  the  flag  if  you  wanted  to,"  the 
prisoner  went  on,  "  haven't  any  idea  what  it 
meant  to  us.  In  the  first  place  it  meant  free- 
dom— and  freedom's  a  big  word  to  us  who've 
been  penned  up  so  long.  Then  it  meant 
home — and  I  guess  our  boys  like  that  word, 
too !  Ask  that  boy  sitting  on  the  stairs ;  it 
meant  life  to  him,  and  a  good  many  more 
like  him.' 

The  boy  on  the  stairway  seemed  quite 
willing  to  speak,  but  it  was  necessary  to  bend 
down  and  listen  closely  in  order  to  hear  his 
words. 

"  I  was  one  of  them  that  couldn't  see  the 
flag,"'  he  whispered,  "  but  I  could  see  them 
that  could  see  it,  and  I  cheered  with  the 
rest.  I  couldn't  make  much  noise,  but  I  did 
some  loud  shouting  inside  just  the  same!  " — 
Y.  C. 

FLAG,  The. — This  very  interesting  little 
incident  occurred  in  China  a  few  years  ago. 
At  a  Fourth  of  July  dinner  in  Shanghai,  the 
English  consul  in  toasting  the  British  flag, 
said: 

"  Here  is  to  the  Union  Jack — the  flag  of 
flags — the  flag  that  has  floated  on  every  con- 
tinent and  on  every  sea  for  a  thousand  years 
— the  flag  on  which  the  sun  never  sets." 

It  was  such  a  strong  sentiment  that  the 
Americans  were  a  little  overawed,  until  the 
American  humorist,  Eli  Perkins,  was  called 
to  toast  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Looking  di- 
rectly in  the  faces  of  the  Englishmen,  he 
said: 

■'  Here  is  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes  of  the 
New  Republic ;  when  the  setting  sun  lights 
up  her  stars  in  Alaska,  the  rising  sun  salutes 
her  on  the  rock-bound  coast  of  Maine.  It 
is  the  flag  of  Liberty,  never  lowered  to  any 
foe,  and  the  only  flag  that  whipped  the  flag 
on  which  the  sun  never  sets." 

In  these  days  the  American  flag  is  very 
much  in  evidence. — Selected. 

FLAG-,  The,  and  the  Hymn. — The  sights 
and  sounds  which  most  impressed  Richard 
Harding  Davis,  the  war  correspondent,  were 
those  not  of  battle  hut  of  the  interludes  of 
peace.  Within  sight  of  the  walls  of  the  jail 
which  confined  Hobson,  he  writes,  lay  our 
trenches  in  the  shape  of  a  vast  horseshoe, 
the  five  miles  of  which  were  planted  with 
American  flags.  When  they  fluttered  in  the 
wind  at  full  length  and  the  sun  kissed  their 
colors,  they  made  one  of  the  most  inspiring 
pictures  of  the  war.  The  men  would  crouch 
for  hours  in  the  pits  with  these  flags  rustling 
over  them,  feeling  well  repaid  for  their  serv- 
ice ;    while    evening    by    evening    they    crept 


closer  to  the  prisoner,  signaling  silent  mes- 
sages of  hope  and  encouragement. 

Then  at  sunset  the  band  played  the  Star- 
Spangled  Banner  and  the  national  anthem, 
proclaiming  something  of  a  call  to  arms  and 
something  of  a  call  to  prayer.  The  discom- 
forts of  the  day  ceased  to  exist.  The  mur- 
murs of  the  rifle  pit,  which  were  like  the 
hum  of  a  great  bazaar,  were  suddenly  silent, 
and  the  men  before  the  fire  rose  stiffly  from 
their  knees,  and  those  in  the  trenches  stood 
upright.  On  every  hill  as  far  as  one  could 
see,  motionless  figures  stood  with  heads  un- 
covered and  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  flags 
where  their  hands  had  planted  them. 

When  the  music  had  ceased  the  men  pulled 
on  their  hats  again  and  once  more  began  to 
fry  a  piece  of  hardtack  in  a  layer  of  fat, 
but  for  a  moment  they  had  seen  the  meaning 
of  it  all,  and  had  been  carried  back  to  the 
country  for  which  they  were  encountering 
weariness  and  hardships  and  disease  and 
death,  and  were  inspired  with  fresh  courage 
and   fresh   resolve. 

"  It  is  merely  a  matter  of  sentiment,"  one 
of  Napoleon's  generals  once  said  to  him. 

"Sentiment?"  came  the  quick  reply; 
"  then  it  concerns  what  most  enriches  life.'" 
And  Napoleon  was  right.  The  aim  of  life 
and  life's  self-denial,  as  proved  by  the  men 
in  the  trenches,  are  inspired  rather  than  re- 
larded  by  beautiful  sights  and  melodious 
sounds.  The  flag  and  the  hymn  are  intensely 
practical.— Y.  C.   (S.  M.) 

FLAG,  The  Largest.— The  largest  flag  in 
the  world  was  made  in  San  Francisco  for 
Hawaii,  and  is  eighty  feet  long.  It  con- 
sumed seven  hundred  yards  of  bunting,  and 
will  fly  from  a  pole  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  long. — Y.  C. 

GLORY,  Old. — There  are  some  lessons 
suggested  to  us  by  the  colors  of  the  flag. 
The  white  is  the  symbol  of  purity.  It  stands 
for  the  ideal  virtue  which  should  be  exer- 
cised under  certain  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions. In  a  statesman  it  would  stand  for  a 
pure  and  incorrupt  citizenship;  in  a  judge 
it  would  stand  for  integrity;  in  a  business 
man  it  would  stand  for  honesty ;  in  view  of 
sickness  it  would  stand  for  humility,  and  in 
relation  to  the  poor  it  stands  for  charity.  In 
fact,  it  stands  for  everything  that  is  godly. 

The  red  stands  for  love.  This  color  re- 
ceives its  symbolism  from  the  blood,  and 
reminds  us  that  every  true  patriot  should  be 
willing  to  die  for  the  love  of  country;  to 
shed  his  blood,  if  necessary  in  the  hour  of 
the  Nation's  peril.  But  more  particularly 
does  the  red  symbolize  that  divine  love 
which  should  dwell  in  every  breast  and  be 
the  ruling  passion  in  every  soul. 

The  stars  upon  the  azure  are  symbols  of 
light  and  heavenly  protection.  They  teach 
us  that  every  state  should  be  a  symbol  of 
light,  of  righteousness,  of  truth.  They  re- 
mind us,  also,  that  Heaven  is  above  us,  un- 
derneath, and  around  us,  and  that  in  the 
darkest  hour  of  the  Nation's  peril  God's  eye 
is  upon  us. 


590 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


All  hail,  Old  Glory,  flag  of  the  brave  and 
the  free !  All  hail,  thou  glorious  banner, 
God  bless  thee  and  help  thee ! — A.  S.  Gum- 
BART,  D.D. 

REPUBLIC,    The    Hope    of    the.— Law, 

learning,  charity  are  insufficient  to  save  our 
Nation  from  vice,  ignorance,  and  infidelity. 
All  have  been  tried  and  found  wanting.  But 
add  to  them  the  practical  morality  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  a  pure  and  honorable  citizenship 
is  assured  be3'ond  all  fear.  It  is  hard  to  con- 
vince the  people  of  this  tremendous  fact,  sus- 
tained by  all  history,  ancient  and  modern, 
Jewish  and  pagan.  I  believe  in  churches, 
colleges,  and  houses  of  mercy,  and  support 
them  all ;  but  my  hope  is  in  a  citizenship 
born  of  Christian  faith  and  practise.  Give  us 
these  and  the  Republic  will  live  forever.  We 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting  the  sad  fact  in 
history  that  the  fate  of  republics  is  empire. 


Can  we  reverse  the  verdicts  of  history?  I 
believe  we  can,  by  the  application  of  the 
principles  of  Christianity  to  American  citi- 
zenship.— Bishop  Newman.  — 

"  UNCLE  SAM  "  WAS  CHRISTENED, 
How. — The  term  "  Uncle  Sam  "  came  into 
use  during  the  War  of  1812  and  originated 
at  Troy,  N.  Y.  The  government  inspector 
there  was  Samuel  Wilson,  universally  known 
as  "  Uncle  Sam."  Whenever  he  inspected 
supplies  furnished  the  government  he  would 
brand  them  "  U.  S.,"  meaning  United  States, 
but  the  abbreviation  being  then  new  and  not 
generally  recognized,  the  workmen  supposed 
it  to  mean  "  Uncle  Sam,"  the  inspector.  Af- 
terward the  story  was  repeated  and  got  into 
print,  and  from  that  time  the  name  has  been 
facetiously  applied  to  the  United  States. — 
N.  Y.  T. 


POETRY 


The  Color  Guard 

By  Charles  W.  Harwood 

There  were   waving  hands   and  banners,   as 

the  crowded  car  rolled  by, 
There  were  shouts  from  merry  children  ring- 
ing to  the  summer  sky; 
Then  a  strain  of  music  rose  and  swelled  and 

pealed  along  the  street. 
As  their  gay,   tumultuous  clamor  melted  in 
a  chorus  sweet : 
O  say,  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early 

light, 
What    so    proudly    we    hailed    at    the 

twilight's  last  gleaming? — 
Whose    broad   stripes   and   bright   stars, 

through  the  perilous  Ught, 
O'er  the  ramparts  we  zvatched  were  so 
gallantly  streaming! 

Ah,  the  starry  flag  is  glorious,  and  the  chil- 
dren love  it,  too ; 

And  the  land  is  safe  and  happy  where  the 
children's  hearts  are  true. 

How  their  youthful  ardor  thrilled  me,  as  the 
revelation  came 

That  the  Guard  is  ever  changing,  but  the 
flag  remains  the  same. 

We  were  born  too  late  for  glory,  but  we  still 

in  memory  keep 
Stirring  echoes   from   the   battlefields  where 

warrior  fathers  sleep. 
We  have  held  the  flag  as  ours,  but,  lo !    the 

years  are  passing  by. 
And  a  newer  generation  waves  the  Stars  and 

Stripes  on  high. 

Better    thus!     for    now    the   rancors    of   the 

strife  no  more  appal ; 
And  the  children  know  no  faction,  and  the 

flag  belongs  to  all. 


Be  it  so !  we  yield  the  prestige,  for  the  New 

Guard  comes  apace. 
With  the  strength  of  youthful  millions,  loyal 

purpose  in  its  face. 

Flag  of  peace   or   flag  of  battle!     Children, 

it  is  yours  to  love ! 
Will  you  honor  and  defend  it,  as  the  gift  of 

God  above? 
Ah !  the  children's  hearts  are  loyal !    From  a 

myriad  array 
North  and  South  there  comes  the  answer,  as 
it  came  that  summer  day: 
Then  conquer  we  must,  when  our  cause 

it  is  just, 
And  tJiis  be  our  motto,  "In  God  is  our 

trust;  " 
And  the  star-spangled  banner  in  triumph 

shall  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home 
of  the  brave. 

Y.  C. 
Our  Colors 

By  Laura  E.  Richards 

Red !    "tis  the  hue  of  battle, 

The  pledge  of  victory; 

In  sunset  light,  in  northern  night, 

It  flashes  brave  and  free. 

"  Then  paint  with  red  thy  banner," 

Quoth  Freedom  to  the  Land, 

"  And  when  thy  sons  go  forth  to  war, 

This  sign  be  in  their  hand  !  " 

White !    'tis  the  sign  of  purity. 
Of  everlasting  truth ; 
The  snowy  robe  of  childhood. 
The  stainless  mail  of  youth. 
Then  paint  with  blue  thy  banner. 
And  pure   as   northern   snow 
May  these  thy  stately  children 
In  truth  and  honor  go. 


FLAG-RAISING   DAY 


597 


Blue !  'tis  the  tint  of  heaven, 
The  morning's  gold-shot  arch, 
The  burning  deeps  of  noontide, 
The  stars'  unending  march. 
Then  paint  with  bkie  thy  banner, 
And  bid  thy  children  raise 
At  daybreak,  noon,  and  eventide 
Their  hymn  of  love  and  praise. 

Valor  and  truth  and  righteousness, 
In  threefold  strength  to-day 
Raise  high  the  flag  triumphant, 
The  banner  glad  and  gay. 
"  And  keep  thou  well  thy  colors," 
Quoth  Freedom  to  the  Land, 
"  And  'gainst  a  world  of  evil 
Thy  sons  and  thou  shall  stand." 

Y.  C. 

Cross   and   Flag 

By  Frederick  L.  Hosmer 

From  age  to  age  they  gather,  all  the  brave 

of  heart  and  strong, 
In  the   strife  of  truth   with  error,   of  the 

right  against  the  wrong; 
I  can  see  their  gleaming  banner,  I  can  hear 

their  triumph  song; 

The  Truth  is  marchine  on ! 

"  In  this  sign  we  conquer ;  "  'tis  the  symbol 
of  our  faith, 
Made  holy  by  the  might  of  love,  triumph- 
ant over  death ; 
He    finds   his    life   who   loseth    it,    forever 
more  it  saith : 

The  Right  is  marching  on ! 

The  earth  is  circling  onward,  out  of  shadow 
into  light; 

The  stars  keep  watch  above  our  way,  how- 
ever dark  the  night ; 

For   every   martyr's    stripe   there   glows   a 
bar  of  morning  bright ; 

For  Love  is  marching  on ! 

Lead  on,  O  cross  of  martyr  faith,  with  thee 

is  victory ! 
Shine  forth,  O  stars  and  reddening  dawn, 

the  full  day  yet  shall  be ! 
On  earth  His  kingdom  cometh,  and  with 
joy  our  eyes  shall  see: 

Our  God  is  marching  on ! 

C.  G. 

E  Pluribus  TJnum 

By  G.  W.  Cutter 

Tho  many  and  bright  are  the  stars  that  ap- 
pear 
In  that  flag  by  our  country  unfurled ; 
And  the  stripes  that  are  swelling  in  majesty 
there. 
Like  a  rainbow  adorning  the  world. 
Their    lights   are    unsullied   as   those   in   the 
sky. 
By  a  deed  that  our  fathers  have  done ; 
And  they're  leagued  in  as  true  and  as  holy  a 
tie. 
In  their  motto  of  "  Many  in  one." 


From  the  hour  when  those  patriots  fearlessly 
flung 
That  banner  of  starlight  abroad, 
Ever  true  to  themselves,  to  that  motto  they 
clung, 
As  they  clung  to  the  promise  of  God : 
By   the    bayonet    traced   at   the    midnight   of 
war, 
On  the  fields  where  our  glory  was  won ; 
Oh !    perish  the  heart  or  the  hand  that  would 
mar 
Our  motto  of  "  Many  in  one." 

'Mid  the  smoke  of  the  contest — the  cannon's 
deep  roar — 
How  oft  hath  it  gathered  renown ! 
While  those  stars  were  reflected  in  rivers  of 
gore, 
"When  the  cross  and  the  lion  went  down; 
Tho  few  were  their  lights  in  the  gloom  of 
that  hour, 
Yet  the  hearts  that  were  striking  below 
Had  God  for  their  bulwark,   and  truth   for 
their  power. 
And  they  stopped  not  to  number  their  foe. 

From  where  our  green  mountain-tops  blend 
with  the  sky, 
And  the  giant  St.  Lawrence  is  rolled, 
To  the  waves  where  the  balmy  Hesperides 
lie, 
Like  the  dream  of  some  prophet  of  old ; 
They   conquered — and   dying,    bequeathed   to 
our  care — 
Not  this  boundless  dominion  alone — 
But    that    banner,    whose    loveliness    hallows 
the  air. 
And  their  motto  of  "  Many  in  one." 

We  are  many  in  one,  while  there  glitters  a 
star 
In  the  blue  of  the  heavens  above; 
And  tyrants  shall  quail  'mid  their  dungeons 
afar, 
When  they  gaze  on  that  motto  of  love. 
It  shall  gleam  o'er  the  sea,  'mid  the  bolts  of 
the  storm, 
Over  tempest  and  battle  and  wreck. 
And  flame  where  our  guns  with  their  thun- 
der grow  warm 
'Neath  the  blood  on  the  slippery  deck. 

The  oppressed  of  the  earth  to  that  standard 
shall  fly, 
Wherever  its  folds  shall  be  spread ; 
And  the  exile  shall  feel  'tis  his  own  native 
sky 
Where  its  stars  shall  float  over  his  head. 
And  those  stars  shall  increase,  till  the  fulness 
of  time 
Its  millions  of  cycles  has  run — 
Till  the  world  shall  have  welcomed  its  mis- 
sion sublime. 
And  the  nations  of  earth  shall  be  one. 

Tho  the  old  Alleghany  may  tower  to  heaven, 
And  the  Father  of  waters  divide, 

The  links  of  our  destiny  cannot  be  riven, 
While  the  truth  of  these  words  shall  abide. 


598 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Oh,  then  let  them  glow  on  each  helmet  and 
brand, 

Tho  our  blood  like  our  rivers  shall  run : 
Divide  as  we  may  in  our  own  native  land, 

To  the  rest  of  the  world  we  are  one. 

Then,  up  with  our  flag — let  it  stream  on  the 
air, 
Tho  our  fathers  are  cold  in  their  graves; 
They  had  hands  that  could  strike,  had  souls 
that  could  dare. 
And  their  sons  were  not  born  to  be  slaves. 
Up,    up   with  that  banner,   where'er   it  may 
call. 
Our  millions  shall  rally  around ; 
A  nation  of  freemen  that  moment  shall  fall 
When    its    stars    shall    be    trailed    on    the 
ground. 

Flags 

Forthwith  from  the  glittering  staff  unfurled 
The  imperial  ensign;  which,  full  high  ad- 
vanced, 
Shone  like  a  meteor  streaming  to  the  wind, 
With  gems  and  golden  luster  rich  em- 
blazed, 
Seraphic  arms  and  trophies. 

Milton — Paradise  Lost. 
Bk.  L    Line  535. 

Ten    thousand    thousand    ensigns    high    ad- 
vanced. 
Standards  and  gonfalons. 

Milton — Paradise  Lost. 
Book  V.    Line  588. 

The  ensigns  of  their  power. 

Milton — Paradise  Regained. 
Bk.  IV.    Line  65. 

The  sooty  flag  of  Acheron, 
Harpies  and  Hydras. 

Milton — Comus.    Line  604. 

Under  spread  ensigns  marching. 

Milton — Paradise  Lost. 
Bk.   II.    Line  886. 

Under  spread  ensigns  moving  nigh,  in  slow 
But  firm  battalion. 

Milton — Paradise  Lost. 
Bk.  VI.    Line  533- 

Bastard  Freedom  waves 
Her  fustian  flag  in  mockery  over  slaves. 
MooRE — To  the  Lord  Viscount  Forbes. 

The  flag  of  our  Union  forever ! 
George  P.  Morris — The  Flag  of  Our 

Union. 

A  garish  flag, 
To  be  the  aim  of  every  dangerous  shot. 
Richard  IIL    Act  IV.     Sc.  4- 

This  token  serveth  for  a  flag  of  truce 
Betwixt  ourselves  and  all  our  followers. 
Henry  VL    Pt.  I.    Act  III.     Sc.  I. 


Flag  and  Cfross 
By  Alfred  J.  Hough 

The  bands  were  playing  in  the  street, 

The  bells  were  clanging  loud, 
And  all  around  were  restleii  feet 

And  voices  of  a  crowd. 

A  starry  flag  shot  through  the  air, 

Its  folds  the  breezes  stirred. 
And  as  it  swayed  and  floated  there 

Cheer  after  cheer  was  heard. 

A  young  man  rose  and  traced  with  skill 

His  country's  past  renowned; 
A  nation  born  at  Bunker  Hill, 

At  Appomattox  crowned. 

And  when  he  cried :   "  With  Time's  last  years 
That  flag  its  goal  shall  reach !  " 

The  people  hailed  him  with  their  cheers. 
And   glorified   his    speech. 

An  old  man  took  the  speakers'  stand. 
His  head  was  crowned  with  gray; 

He  raised  aloft  a  trembling  hand. 
The  tumult  died  away. 

"  I  see,"  he  said,  "  unfurled  above 

The  stars  and  stripes  so  fair. 
Another  flag,  the  flag  of  love. 

And  God  has  set  it  there. 

"  The  stars  and  stripes  will  fail  alone. 

And   fall,   forever   furled. 
With   other   flags,   to-day   unknown. 

That  once  rose  o'er  the  world. 

"  In  fadeless  light  the  stars  will  shine. 

The  stripes  untarnished  flow. 
Illumined  by  the  cross  divine, 

And  guided  where  they  go." 

No  answer  ringing  loud  and  long. 
In  cheers  the  message  brought. 

But  silence  still  was  on  the  throng. 
The  silence  of  deep  thought. — C.  G. 

The  Flag  of  Our  Union  Forever 
By  George   P.  Morris 

A  song  for  our  banner,  the  watchword  recall. 
Which  gave  the  Republic  her  station, 

"  United  we  stand,  divided  we  fall," 
It  made  and  preserved  us  a  Nation. 

Chorus  : 

The  union  of  lakes,  the  union  of  lands, 
The  union  of  states  none  can  sever, 

The  union  of  hearts,  the  union  of  hands. 
And  the  flag  of  our  Union  forever. 

What  God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  designed, 

And  armed  with  the  weapons  of  thunder. 
Not  all  the  earth's  despots  or  factions  com- 
bined, 

Have  the  power  to  conquer  or  sunder 
The  union  of  lakes,  the  union  of  lands. 

The  union  of  states  none  can  sever. 
The  union  of  hearts,  the   union  of  hands 

And  the  flag  of  our  Union  forever. 


FLAG-RAISING   DAY 


599 


Oh,  keep  that  flag  flying!  The  pride  of  the 
van ! 

To  all  other  nations  display  it! 
The  ladies  for  union  are  to  a — man ! 

And  not  to  the  man  who'd  betray  it. 
Then   to   the   union    of   lakes,   the   union  of 
lands, 

The  union  of  states  none  can  sever ! 
The  union  of  hearts,  the  union  of  hands, 

And  the  flag  of  the  Union  forever. 

Our  Country's  Starry  Flag 

By  Margaret  E.  Sangster 

It's  streaming  from  the  house-tops,  it's  fly- 
ing from  the  ships. 

Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  we  cheer 
with  hearts  and  lips, 

And  the  guns  in  muffled  thunder  salute  its 
folds  unfurled, 

The  starry  flag  of  Freedom,  the  bravest  in 
the  world. 

Oh,  sweet  and  shrill  the  bugles  their  silver 
music  play, 

And  loud  and  stormy  beat  the  drums  along 
the  crowded  way ; 

The  soldiers  in  procession  are  marching 
down  the   street, 

And  the  children  and  the  mothers  their  tat- 
tered banners  greet. 

Not    every    flag    they    carry    is    smooth    and 

bright  and  new ; 
Some  flags  have  felt  the  baptism  of  battle's 

fiery  dew ; 
Till  the  red  hath  grown  full  redder  in  the 

blood  of  heroes  slain. 
And    rent    and    stained   the    white   and   blue 

have  tossed  in  battle's  rain. 

Somehow  our  throats  are  aching,   there's  a 

clutching  at  the  breast ; 
For  whoever  may  be  living,  our  dead  are  of 

the  best; 
Our   dead   who   sleep   in  lowly  graves,   afar 

from  war's  alarms, 
God's    peace    forever    keeping    them,    where 

they  have  grounded  arms. 

Fling  that  flag  from  every  steeple,  garland 

every  home  and  school. 
Roof  and  spire  and  cot  and  mansion  happy 

'neath  its  blessed  rule ; 
Sing  that   flag  where  children   gather;    love 

that  flag  by  Freedom  crowned; 
Loyal  legions  proudly  hail  it,  shout  on  lips, 

and  hands  all  round ! 

Dear  old  flag  of  stars  triumphant  over  sea 

and  over  land; 
Dear  old  flag  of  fame  unsullied,  of  a  story 

clean   and    grand; 
On  our  day  of  days  we  pledge  thee,  all  our 

hearts,  and  all  our  toil, 
God  and  country  still  our  watch-word  as  we 

stand  on  Freedom's  soil  !• 

E.  W. 


Salute  the  Flag 
By  H.  C.  Bunner 

Off  with  your  hat  as  the  flag  goes  by  I 
And  let  the  heart  have  its  say; 

You're  man  enough  for  a  tear  in  your  eye 
That  you  will  not  wipe  away. 

You're  man  enough  for  a  thrill  that  goes 

To  your  very  finger-tips — 
Ay!  the  lump  just  then  in  your  throat  that 
arose 

Spoke  more  than  your  parted  lips. 

Lift  up  your  boy  on  your  shoulder  high, 
And   show  him  the  faded   shred — 

Those  stripes  would  be  red  as  the  sunset  sky 
If  death  could  have  dyed  them  red. 

The  old  tune  thunders  through  all  the  air, 
And  strikes   right   into   the   heart; 

If  ever  it  calls  for  you,  boy,  be  there ! 
Be  there,  and  ready  to  start. 

Off  with  your  hat  as  the  flag  goes  by! 

Uncover  the  youngster's  head ! 
Teach  him  to  hold  it  holy  and  high, 
For  the  sake  of  its  sacred  dead. 

C.  G. 
Flag  Song 

(Air,   "  Yankee  Doodle."} 

By  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford 

Out  upon  the  four  winds  blow. 

Tell  the  world  your  story ; 
Thrice  in  hearts'  blood  dipped  before 

They  called  your  name  Old  Glory! 
Stream,  Old  Glory,  bear  your  stars 

High  among  the  seven ; 
Stream  a   watchfire  on  the  dark, 

And  make  a  sign  in  Heaven! 

Mighty  harvests  gild  your  plains, 

Mighty  rivers  bear  them. 
Everywhere  you   fly  you   bid 

All  the  hungry  share  them: 
Blooms  the  wilderness  for  you. 

Plenty  follows  after, 
Underneath  your  shadow  go 

Peace  and  love  and  laughter. 

When  from  sky  to  sky  you  float. 

Far  in  wide  savannas, 
Vast  horizons  lost  in  light 

Answer  with  hosannas. 
Symbol   of   unmeasured  power, 

Blessed  promise  sealing. 
All  your  hills  are  hills  of  God, 

And  all  your  founts  are  healing! 

Still  to  those  the  wronged  of  earth 

Sanctuary  render; 
For  hope  and  home  and  Heaven  they  see 

Within  your  sacred  splendor ! 
Stream,  Old  Glory,  bear  your  stars 

High  among  the  seven ; 
Stream  a  watchfire  on  the  dark, 

And  make  a  sign  in  Heaven! 

L 


6oo 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  Flag  Goes  By 

By  H.  H.  Bennett 

Hats  off! 

Along  the  street  there  comes 

A  blare  of  bugles,  a  ruffle  of  drums, 

A  flash  of  color  beneath  the  sky: 

Hats  off! 

The  flag  is  passing  by! 

Blue  and  crimson  and  white  it  shines, 

Over   the    steel-tipped,    ordered   lines. 

Hats  off! 

The  colors  before  us  fly; 

But  more  than  the  flag  is  passing  by. 

Sea-fights    and   land-fights,    grim   and   great, 
Fought  to  make  and  to  save  the  State; 
Weary  marches,  and  sinking  ships; 
Cheers  of  victory  on  dying  lips; 

Days  of  plenty  and  years  of  peace ; 
March  of  a  strong  land's  swift  increase ; 
Equal  justice,  right  and  law. 
Stately  honor  and  reverent  awe; 

Sign  of  a  Nation,  great  and  strong 

To  ward  her  people  from  foreign  wrong: 

Pride  and  glory  and  honor,  all 

Live  in  the  colors  to  stand  or  fall. 

Hats  off! 

Along  the  street  there  comes 

A  blare  of  bugles,  a  ruffle  of  drums; 

And  loyal  hearts  are  beating  high: 

Hats  off! 

The  flag  is  passing  by  !• 

Y.  C. 
The  Flag  of  Stars 

By  Grace  Ellery  Channing 

Oh  not  alone  the  eager  South — 

Alone  the  steadfast  North — 
Saw  with  wet  eyes  beneath  spring  skies. 

Our  flag  of  stars  go  forth ! 
Oh  not  alone  the  elder  East, 

Nor  the  young-hearted  West, 
Smiled  high  with  pride  where  side  by  side 

The   Nation's  children  pressed! 

But   North   and   South  and  East  and  West, 

The  mountain  and  the  plain, 
The  prairie  and  the  desert, 

Yielded  their  flower  again. 
East  and  West  and  South  and  North, 

The  flower  of  the  land, 
Hearing  the  mother's  call  went  forth 

To  stand  at  her  right  hand. 

We  be  many  hands  in  labor. 

But  one  arm  for  the  right ; 
One  blood  to  shed,  one  heart  till  dead, 

One  good  sword  for  the  fight : 
We  be  many-tongued  and  minded. 

But  one  mind  and  one  tongue 
When    once    wide-sent    through   a   continent 

The  Nation's  word  has  rung! 

Then  Northern  tongues  sing  Dixie 

Beneath  the  ancient  flag; 
And  the   Southerner  dies  to  rebaptize 

His  own  the  "  Yankee  rag !  " 


Brothers ! — to  keep  for  Freedom's  sake 

The  flag  of  stars  unfurled 
Beneath  the  stars  of  Heaven — to  make 
The  starlight  of  the  world  !- 

Y.  C 
The  Flag 

By  Bishop  H.  C.  Potter 

O,  banner  blazoned  in  the  sky. 

Fling  out  your  royal  red; 
Each  deeper  hue  of  crimson  dye 

Won  by  our  sainted  dead. 

Ye  bands  of  snowy  whiteness  clean 

That  bar  the  waning  day. 
Stand  as  the  prophecy  of  things  unseen 

Toward  which  we  hew  our  way. 

Fair  field  of  blue,  a  symbol  true 

Of  Right,  of  Faith,  of  God, 
O'erarch  us  as  we  seek  anew 

The  path  our  fathers  trod. 

Ye  clustered  stars  that  gleam  above. 

Our  darkness  turn  to  light ; 
Reveal   to   men   Heaven's   law   of  love — 

Then  ends  the  world's  long  night. 

The  American  Flag 

By  Joseph  Rodman  Drake 

[An  almost  pathetic  interest  attaches  to  the 
story  of  this  stirring  poem  of  our  early  na- 
tional history.  Probably  nine  out  of  ten  of 
the  native-born  male  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  have  recited  it,  or  heard  it  re- 
cited, in  clarion  schoolboy  tones ;  but  the 
author  of  it  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
without  knowing  that  he  had  made  himself 
famous.  When  he  was  on  his  death-bed,  a 
friend  asked  what  he  would  like  to  have  done 
with  his  poems. 

"  Oh,  burn  them !  "  he  said.  "  They  are 
quite  valueless." 

"  The  American  Flag "  was  written  be- 
tween May  20  and  May  25,  1819.  and  was  the 
last  of  the  once  famous  "  Croaker  Pieces " 
written  for  a  New  York  paper,  the  Evening 
Post.  Drake  wrote  the  first  four  poems 
alone,  but  after  that  he  collaborated  with 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  and  the  pieces  were 
signed,  "Croaker  &  Co."  The  poem  orig- 
inally  concluded  with  the   following  lines : 

As  fixed  as  yonder  orb  divine, 
That  saw  the  bannered  blaze  unfurled, 
Shall  thy  proud  stars  resplendent  shine, 
The  guard  and  glory  of  the  world. 

The  author  was  not  satisfied,  and  said  to 
Halleck,  "  Fitz,  can't  you  suggest  a  better 
stanza?"  Whereupon  Halleck  sat  down 
and  wrote  four  lines,  which  Drake  adopted, 
and  which  appear  in  the  poem  now. — Y.  C] 

When  Freedom  from  her  mountain  height 
Unfurled  her  standard  to  the  air, 

She  tore  the  azure  robe  of  night. 
And  set  the  stars  of  glory  there. 

She  mingled  with  its  gorgeous  dyes 


FLAG-RAISING   DAY 


60 1 


The  milky  baldric  of  the  skies, 
And  striped  its  pure,  celestial  white 
With  streakings  of  the  morning  light; 
Then  from  his  mansion  in  the  sun 
She  called  her  eagle-bearer  down, 
And  gave  into  his  mighty  hand 
The  symbol  of  her  chosen  land. 

Majestic  monarch  of  the  cloud, 

Who  rear'st  aloft  thy  regal  form, 
To  hear  the  tempest  trumpings  loud 
And  see  the  lightning  lances  driven. 

When  strive  the  warriors  of  the  storm. 
And  rolls  the  thunder-drum  of  Heaven, 
Child  of  the  sun !    to  thee  'tis  given 

To  guard  the  banner  of  the  free, 
To  hover  in  the  sulphur  smoke, 
To  ward  away  the  battle-stroke. 
And  bid  its  blendings  shine  afar, 
Like  rainbows  on  the  cloud  of  war, 

The  harbingers  of  victory ! 

Flag  of  the  brave !    thy  folds  shall  fly, 
The  sign  of  hope  and  triumph  high, 
When  speaks  the  signal  trumpet  tone, 
And  the  long  line  comes  gleaming  on. 
Ere  yet  the  life-blood,  warm  and  wet. 
Has  dimm'd  the  glistening  bayonet. 
Each   soldier  eye  shall  brightly  turn 
To  where  thy  sky-born  glories  burn ; 
And  as  his  springing  steps  advance, 
Catch  war  and  vengeance  from  the  glance. 
And  when  the  cannon-mouthings  loud 
Heave  in  wild  wreaths  the  battle-shroud. 
And  gory  sabers  rise  and  fall 
Like  shoots  of  flame  on  midnight's  pall; 

Then  shall  thy  meteor  glances  glow, 
And  cowering  foes  shall   shrink  beneath 

Each  gallant  arm  that  strikes  below 
That  lovely  messenger  of  death. 

Flag  of  the  seas !    on  ocean  wave 
Thy  stars  shall  glitter  o'er  the  brave; 
When  death,  careering  on  the  gale, 
Sweeps  darkly  round  the  bellied  sail. 
And  frighted  waves  rush  wildly  back 
Before  the  broadside's  reeling  rack. 
Each  dying  wanderer  of  the  sea 
Shall  look  at  once  to  Heaven  and  thee, 
And  smile  to  see  thy  splendors  fly 
In  triumph  o'er  his  closing  eye. 

Flag  of  the  free  heart's  hope  and  home! 

By  angel  hands  to  valor  given  ; 
The  stars  have  lit  the  welkin  dome. 

And  all  thy  hues  were  born  in  Heaven. 
Forever  float  that  standard  sheet ! 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us. 
With  Freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 

And  Freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us? 

The  Tattered  Flag 

By  James  Buckham 

What  a  line  of  them,  brave  and  bright,  flags 
that  toss  in  the  summer  breeze, 

Bars  of  crimson  and  bars  of  white — cluster'd 
stars  like  the  Pleiades ! 

Not  a  rent  in  the  shining  silk,  not  a  stain 
that  the  eye  can  see ; 

Hands  that  fashioned  them  white  as  milk- 
very  fair  should  the  emblem  be ! 


Ah !    but  yonder  what  tattered  thing,  shreds 

and  ribbons  of  shabby  rags? 
Sure,  a  mockery — fit  to  swing  just  as  a  foil 

to  the  brighter  flags ! 
Dark  the  gash  in  the  azure  field — stars  thrust 

out — and  the  wide-mouthed   wounds 
Left  to  gape  with  their  lips  unsealed !     Sport 

for  all,  as  it  goes  its  rounds ! 

What!  a  cheer  and  a  three  times  three 
swelling  up  for  the  tattered  flag? 

Staff  held  high  for  the  crowd  to  see,  all  hats 
doffed  to  the  dingy  rag? 

Brothers'  blood  for  the  stains,  you  say? 
Foeman's  lead  for  the  rents  uncouth? 

Gleam  of  those  lost  stars  led  the  way  storm- 
ing straight  to  the  cannon's  mouth? 

Well,  then,  thus  do  I  make  amend — fling  my 

cap  as  the  flag  goes  by. 
Count  no  cost  of  the  breath  I   spend— who 

cheers  lustier,  you  or  I? 
Brave    old    flag    with    its    flaunting    shreds! 

dear  old  flag  with  its  spattered  blue! 
Cheer  it  on,  with  uncovered  heads — think  in 

what  hail  of  death  it  flew ! 

Every  shred  in  the  rippling  wind  tells  its  tale 
of  the  bitter  fight; 

Soldiers  stricken  and  dropped  behind,  col- 
umns shattered  to  left  and  right; 

Shriek  of  the  wounded,  and,  overhead,  shriek 
of  the  awful  wraith-like  shell ; 

Hard-clasped  hands  of  the  ghastly  dead; 
blaze  of  the  guns  like  the  glare  of  hell. 

Who  that  lived  through  it  came  away  whole 

in  body  or  whole  in  mind. 
Spirit  tuned  to  the  light  and  gay,  fit  to  trifle 

with  human-kind? 
All  were   torn   like  the  flags  they  bore,   all 

came  back  with  the  wound  and  stain ; 
Haunted  by  battles,  they  fight  them  o'er  still 

in  the  smoke  of  the  purpled  plain ! 

Hail  to  the  flag  with  its  broken  staff !    hail  to 

the  heroes  who  bore  it  through ! 
Bitter  the  cup  which  they  dared  to  quaff — 

equal  the  praise  and  the  honor  due. 
Lift  up  the  flag  to  the  smiling  sun,  lift  it  up 

to  dear  Freedom's  sky; 
Let   it   tell   of   the   battles   won — tell   of  the 

graves  where  the  victors  lie ! 

Y.  C. 
The  Stars  and  Stripes 

By  Kate  Sumner  Burr 

Let  us  sing  of  the  Banner  of  Freedom 

Which  floats  o'er  Columbia's  domain; 
In  the  city,  the  village,  the  country, 

We'll  join  in  the  cheerful  refrain. 
Oh !    how  dear  every  stripe  of  that  ensign ; 

And  above  them  the  stars  shine  so  true; 
'Tis  of  Freedom  and  Peace  the  fair  token: 

Three    cheers    for    the    Red,    White,    and 
Blue! 

Should  one  say,  in  the  years  yet  before  us, 
"  Declare  why  so  fond  thine  esteem 

For  the  flag  which  is  now  floating  o'er  us 
Whose    stripes    and    whose    stars    brightly 
gleam  ?  " 


6o2 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


From  the  dawn  of  our  life  as  a  nation 
"  Old  Glory's  "  bright  record  we  view ; 

As  we  point  to  the  pages  historic, 

Three    cheers    for    the    Red,    White,    and 
Blue! 

In  the  folds  of  our  flag  we  discover 

A  beauty  exalted,  sublime ! 
We  may  search  seas  and  continents  over. 

There  floats  none  so  fair  in  any  clime ! 
'Tis  endeared  by  our  Fathers'  devotion. 

To   their   Land  and  their  God  they  were 
true; 
Now  it  waves  o'er  a  free,  happy  people; 

Three    cheers    for    the    Red,    White,    and 
Blue! 

Let  this  pole-star  of  hope  light  the  races 

Till  Tyranny's  blight  fall  no  more; 
Let  oppressors  be  hurled  from  high  places 

Till  right  reign  supreme  on  each  shore ; 
Then  shall  maids,  wives,  and  dear  little  chil- 
dren. 

Fathers,  husbands,  all  lovers  so  true. 
Ever  praising  the  Author  of  Freedom. 

Rejoice  'neath  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue. 

Selected. 

The  Star  Spangled  Banner 
By  Francis  Scott  Key 

[Key's  immortal  ballad  is  said  to  have  been 
first  sung,  when  fresh  from  the  press,  in  a 
small  one-story  frame  house  occupied  as  a 
tavern  next  to  the  Holiday  Street  Theater  in 
Baltimore.  The  tavern  had  been  kept  by 
the  Widow  Berling  and  later  by  a  Captain 
MacCauley.  It  was  "  a  house  where  players 
most  did  congregate "  to  prepare  for  the 
daily  military  drill  in  Jay  Street,  every  able 
man  being  at  that  time — 1814 — a  soldier. 

Captain  Fades,  the  printer  who  struck  off 
the  copies  of  the  song  for  Key,  dropped  in  at 
the  tavern  one  day  in  the  latter  part  of  Sep- 
tember, not  long  after  Key  had  been  lib- 
erated. Fades  had  a  fresh  copy  of  the  new 
song,  and  read  it  aloud  to  the  assembled 
volunteers,  who  cheered  every  verse.  The 
old  air  of  "  Anacreon  in  Heaven  "  had  been 
adapted  to  it  by  its  author,  and  Ferdinand 
Durang,  mounting  a  rush-bottom  chair,  sang 
the  lines  for  the  first  time,  unless  Key  had 
sung  them  to  himself. 

When  the  theater  opened,  the  new  song 
was  sung  every  night  after  the  play.  There 
has  been  much  discussion  as  to  what  became 
of  the  flag  referred  to  in  the  song.  It  has 
been  located  "  positively  "  in  various  places. 

The  version  of  the  song  printed  below  is 
taken  from  the  volume,  Poems  of  the  late 
Francis  S.  Key,  Fsq.,  published  in  New 
York,  in  1857,  with  an  introductory  letter  by 
Mr.  Key's  brother-in-law,  Chief  Justice 
Taney.— Y.  C] 

O  say,  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed,  at  the  twi- 
light's last  gleaming? 

Whose  broad  stripes  and  bright  stars  through 
the  perilous  fight, 


O'er  the  ramparts  we  watched,  were  so 
gallantly  streaming; 

And  the  rockets'  red  glare,  the  bombs  burst- 
ing in  air, 

Gave  proof  through  the  night  that  our  flag 
was  still  there : 

O  say,  does  that  Star  Spangled  Banner  yet 
wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave  ? 

On  that  shore,  dimly  seen  through  the  mists 
of  the  deep. 
Where    the    foe's    haughty    host    in    dread 
silence  reposes. 

What  is  that  which  the  breeze,  o'er  the  tow- 
ering steep, 
As  it  fitfully  blows,  now  conceals,  now  dis- 
closes? 

Now  it  catches  the  gleam  of  the  morning's 
first  beam, 

In  full  glory  reflected  now  shines  in  the 
stream : 

'Tis  the  Star  Spangled  Banner;  O  long  may 
it  wave 

O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave ! 

And  where  are  the  foes  who  so  vauntingly 

swore 
That  the  havoc  of  war,   and  the  battle's 

confusion, 
A  home  and  a  country  should  leave  us  no 

more : 
Their    blood    has    washed    out    their    foul 

footsteps'  pollution ; 
No  refuge  could  save  the  hireling  and  slave 
From  the  terror  of  flight,  or  the  gloom  of  the 

grave ; 
And  the   Star  Spangled  Banner  in  triumph 

doth  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 

brave ! 

O  thus  be  it  ever,  when  freemen  shall  stand 
Between  their  loved  homes  and  the  war's 

desolation ; 
Blest  with  victory  and  peace,  may  the  heav'n- 

rescued  land 
Praise  the  Power  that  hath  made  and  pre- 
served us  a  nation ! 
Then  conquer  we  must,  when  our  cause  it  is 

just. 
And   this   be   our   motto,    "  In   God   is   our 

trust ;  " 
And  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  in  triumph 

shall  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 

brave ! 

Union  and  Liberty 

By  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 

Flag  of  the  heroes  who  left  us  their  glory, 
Borne  through  their  battle-fields'  thunder 
and  flame. 
Blazoned  in  song  and  illumined  in  story. 
Wave  o'er  us  all  who  inherit  their  fame. 
Up  with  our  banner  bright, 
Sprinkled  with  starry  light. 


FLAG-RAISING  DAY 


603 


Spread   its   fair  emblems   from  mountain   to 
shore, 
While  through  the  sounding  sky 
Loud  rings  the  Nation's  cry — 

Union  and  Liberty  !     One  Evermore  ! 

Light  of  our  firmament,  guide  of  our  Nation, 
Pride  of  her  children,  and  honored  afar, 

Let  the  wide  beams  of  thy  full  constellation 
Scatter  each  cloud  that  would  darken  a 
star ! 

Empire   unsceptered !    what   foe   shall   assail 
thee 
Bearing  the  standard  of  Liberty's  van? 
Think  not  the  God  of  thy  fathers  shall  fail 
thee, 
Striving  with  men  for  the  birthright  of 
man! 


Yet  if,  by  madness  and  treachery  blighted, 
Dawns  the  dark  hour  when  the  sword  thou 
must  draw 
Then  with  the  arms  to  thy  million  united, 
Smite   the   bold   traitors   to   Freedom   and 
Law ! 

Lord  of  the  universe !   shield  us  and  guide  us. 
Trusting  Thee  always,  through  shadow  and 
sun ! 
Thou  hast  united  us,  who  shall  divide  us? 
Keep  us,  O  keep  us  the  Many  in  One! 
Up  with  our  banner  bright. 
Sprinkled  with  starry  light, 
Spread  its   fair  emblems   from  mountain  to 
shore. 
While  through  the  sounding  sky 
Loud  rings  the  Nation's  cry — 
Union  and  Liberty!    One  Evermore! 


6o4 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


DOMINION  DAY 

(July  I) 

DOMINION  DAY,  the  first  of  July,  is  one  of  the  few  legal  holidays  celebrated 
in  Canada,  and  is  only  second  in  importance  to  Empire  Day,  a  national 
British  holiday  celebrated  throughout  the  whole  British  Empire. 

The  significance  of  Dominion  Day  is  purely  Canadian,  and  it  celebrates  an 
event  of  unparalleled  importance  in  the  political  history  of  Canada,  namely,  the 
passing  of  the  North  America  Act  of  1867,  which  united  all  the  Canadian  colonies 
under  one  great  confederation,  henceforth  to  be  known  to  the  world  as  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  a  nation,  not  independent  of,  nor  in  any  way  disloyal  to 
the  mother  country,  but  nevertheless,  a  free  and  self-governing  people. 

The  progress  of  the  people  of  Canada  toward  freedom  and  self-government 
has  been  slow  and  secured  only  through  struggle  and  self-sacrifice.  The  first 
Parliament  met  in  1792,  with  sixteen  representatives,  appointed  by  the  people, 
and  eight  councilors,  appointed  by  the  Crown  for  life.  Until  this  time  Canada 
had  been  governed  by  the  laws  of  England  and  Orders-in-Council ;  but  the  Con- 
stitutional Act  of  1 791,  with  the  consequent  meeting  of  Parliament,  gave  an 
impulse  to  the  spirit  of  self-government  which  grew  stronger  and  stronger  until 
it  was  consummated  in  the  British  North  America  Act  of  1867. 

Dominion  Day,  therefore,  arouses  a  national  enthusiasm,  which  is  a  most 
important  factor  in  the  development  of  any  nation.  Large  importance  is  attached 
to  the  day  in  educational  circles.  School  exercises  are  conducted  in  connection 
with  which  a  Canadian  sentiment  is  inculcated.  The  apprehension  that  the 
development  of  this  spirit  would  lead  directly  to  the  separation  of  Canada  from 
the  mother  country  so  far  has  proved  unfounded.  The  alliance  between  the  two 
nations  is  to-day  maintained  and  promises  so  to  be  continued,  while  the  national 
enthusiasm  and  Canadian  spirit  which  Dominion  Day  fosters,  has  served  to  make 
the  people  of  British  North  America  not  only  loyal  to  their  own  beloved  Canada, 
but  also,  to  an  even  greater  degree,  loyal  to  the  British  Empire. 


HISTORICAL 

HISTORICAL  SUMMARY* 


1497.  Canada  discovered  by  Cabot;  1535. 
Jacques  Cartier  takes  possession  for  France; 
Port  Royal  (now  Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia) 
founded  in  1605— the  first  permanent  settle- 
ment in  Acadia. 

1608.  Champlain  founds  Quebec,  begm- 
ning  settlement  of  what  French  called  Can- 
ada; in  1609  Champlain  helps  Hurons  and 
Algonquins  to  defeat  Iroquois  and  wins  the 
undying  hatred  of  Iroquois  for  French. 

Company  of  One  Hundred  Associates 
takes    over    government    of    Canada,     1628, 


promising  to  settle  the  country  in  exchange 
for  monopoly  of  fur  trade.  In  same  year 
Kirke  with  English  fleet  captures  French 
fleet  on  its  way  to  Quebec;  1629,  Champlain 
surrenders  Quebec  to  Kirke.  England  re- 
stores Canada  and  Acadia  to  France.  1632, 
Champlain  first  governor  of  Canada.  Death 
of  Champlain,  1635.  In  1649  Iroquois  attack 
and  destroy  Huron  missions,  putting  to  death 
with  terrible  torture.  Jesuit  missionaries 
Breboeuf  and  Lalemant.  Hurons  almost 
annihilated. 


*  Canada.    By  E.  R.  Peacock,  M.A.,  pp.  $-8.    Toronto  :  Warwick  Bro's  &  Ritter. 


DOMINION  DAY 


605 


In  1663,  charter  of  Hundred  Associates  re- 
voked and  royal  government  begins  in  Can- 
ada under  a  governor,  intendant  and  bishop. 
Frontenac  appointed  governor.  1672 — the  only 
man  who  always  kept  the  Iroquois  under 
proper  control.  Terrible  massacre  of  French 
at  Lachine.  near  Montreal,  by  Iroquois  in 
1689.  Frontenac,  who  had  been  recalled  to 
France  returns  to  Canada  to  save  it  from 
annihilation  by  the  Iroquois.  His  vigorous 
measures  soon  check  Indians. 

1698.  Death  of  Frontenac.  For  many  years 
thereafter  there  were  frequent  outbreaks  of 
border  warfare  between  the  English  settlers 
to  the  south  with  their  allies  the  Iroquois  and 
the   French   settlers   with  their  Indian   allies. 

In  1713,  by  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  England 
finally  obtains  possession  of  Acadia  (Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick). 

In  1735  a  Frenchman  builds  Fort  Rouge, 
near  spot  where  Winnipeg  now  stands,  and 
shortly  afterwards  discovers  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

1745.  Louisburg,  strong  French  fortress 
on  Cape  Breton  Island,  captured  by  English 
colonials  under  Pepperell  but  restored  three 
years  later  by  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
City  of  Halifax  founded  by  English  1749. 
Much  fighting  on  borders  between  English 
and  French  settlers — many  atrocities  by  In- 
dian allies. 

1755-  General  Braddock,  with  1,200  men, 
defeated  and  killed  by  French  near  Fort  du 
Quesne,  where  Pittsburg  now  stands.  Eng- 
lish carry  off  the  French  settlers  from  Aca- 
dia. Montcalm  takes  command  of  French  in 
Canada,  1756,  and  France  declares  war 
against  England — the  Seven  Years  War. 

1757.  Loudon  fails  to  take  Louisburg 
from  French ;  Montcalm  besieges  British  in 
Fort  William  Henry  and  garrison  surrenders, 
but  his  Indians  massacre  many  of  English 
prisoners. 

1758.  Montcalm  defeats  Abercrombie  at 
Ticonderoga  with  great  loss ;  Amherst, 
Boscawen  and  Wolfe  take  the  great  fortress 
of  Louisburg;  Abercrombie  superseded  by 
Amherst. 

In  1759,  Wolfe  and  his  army  scale  heights 
above  Quebec,  defeat  French  in  battle  of 
Plains  of  Abraham.  Both  Wolfe  and  Mont- 
calm killed,  but  Quebec  capitulates  to  Eng- 
lish. 

1760.  French  from  Montreal  besiege  Brit- 
ish in  Quebec  all  winter,  but  in  spring  are 
driven  off  by  the  fleet ;  British  troops  con- 
centrate around  Montreal  but  French  capitu- 
late and  hand  over  all  Canada.  Military  rule 
till  1763,  when  Peace  of  Paris  confirms 
Britain's  right  to  Canada.  In  same  year  fa- 
mous Indian  Chief  Pontiac  forms  a  con- 
spiracy to  take  all  British  border  forts,  but 
is  foiled.  Quebec  Act,  1774,  establishes  gov- 
ernment by  governor  and  council  appointed 
by  Crown. 

1775.  Revolutionary  Americans  invade 
Canada,  but  fail  to  take  Quebec. 

In  1784.  25,000  British  Loyalists  leave 
United  States  and  settle  in  Canada  and 
Acadia.  They  were  afterwards  known  as 
United  Empire  Loyalists. 


1791-  Constitutional  Act  grants  slight 
measure  of  representative  government  and 
divides  Canada  into  two  provinces — Upper 
Canada  and  Lower  Canada,  English  criminal 
law  to  prevail  everywhere;  but  in  Lower 
Canada  French  law  to  prevail  in  civil  cases. 
This  is  still  the  case.  First  parliaments  meet 
at  Newark  (Niagara)  in  Upper  Canada,  and 
in  Lower  Canada  at  Quebec.  Population  of 
Upper  Canada,  20,000.  of  Lower  Canada, 
130,000. 

1807.  Parliament  of  Upper  Canada  makes 
provision  for  beginning  of  school  system. 

1812.  United  States  declares  war  against 
England  and  invades  Canada  at  three  points, 
hut  driven  back ;  Canadians  capture  Detroit. 
G  neral  Brock,  Canadian  Commander-in- 
Chief,  killed  at  Queenston  Heights. 

In  1813,  Americans  capture  British  fleet  on 
Lake  Erie,  take  York  and  retake  Detroit, 
hold  western  part  of  Upper  Canada.  French- 
Canadians  beat  back  a  greatly  superior  force 
of  Americans  at  Chateauguay,  and  an  Ameri- 
can force  is  also  beaten  at  Chrysler's  Farm. 
Americans  abandon  Western  Canada. 

In  1814  Americans  invade  Upper  Canada 
near  Niagara,  defeat  Canadians  at  Chippewa 
but  rre  defeated  at  bloody  battle  of  Lundy's 
Lane  and  driven  back.  Peace  signed  between 
Britain  and  United  States. 

1817.     Bank  of  Montreal  founded. 

Between  1820  and  1832  the  Lachine,  the 
Welland  and  the  Rideau  canals  constructed. 

1837.  Rebellions  in  Upper  and  Lower 
Canada  on  behalf  of  responsible  govern- 
ment. 

1841.  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  united 
and  granted  responsible  government;  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  given  similar 
privilege  in  1847. 

1843.  First  settlement  in  British  Colum- 
bia on  Vancouver  Island.  A  governor  ap- 
pointed for  this  new  settlement  1850. 

1867.  Canada,  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick  unite  to  form  Dominion  of  Can- 
ada with  Ottawa  as  capital.  Canada  divided 
into  two  provinces,  Ontario  and  Quebec. 
John  A.  Macdonald,  the  first  Prime  Minister 
of  the  Dominion.  British  North  America 
Act,  the  Dominion  Constitution. 

1869.  Red  River  rebellion  of  half-breeds 
at  Fort  Garry.  Col.  Wolsley  (now  Lord 
Wolsley)  leads  1,300  men  through  the  wil- 
derness to  suppress  the  rebellion  but  rebels 
retire  quietly  before  he  arrives.  Rupert's 
Land  and  North-west  Territory  bought  from 
Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Part  of  it  formed 
into  Province  of  Manitoba  which  enters  con- 
federation in  1870.  Fort  Garry  becomes 
Winnipeg  the  capital. 

1871.  British  Columbia  enters  the  Do- 
minion on  condition  that  a  railwav  be  built 
to  connect  British  Columbia  with  the  east. 

1873.  Prince  Edward  Island  enters  con- 
federation. 

1881.  Contract  let  for  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway  which  was  completed  in  1886. 

1882.  Four  district.s — Alberta,  Assiniboia, 
Athabasca  and  Saskatchewan — formed  in 
North-west  Territories,  and  given  local  gov- 
ernment with  capital  at  Regina. 


6o6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


1885.  A  rebellion  of  half-breeds  and  In- 
dians in  North-west  Territories  put  down 
after  considerable  loss  of  life. 

1887.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  opens 
its  line  of  steamships  between  Vancouver  and 
Hong  Kong. 


1891.  Death  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald, 
first  Premier  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

1894.  Great  conference  held  at  Ottawa  of 
delegates  from  all  parts  of  British  Empire  to 
discuss  means  of  furthering  trade  between 
British  Colonies. 


CANADA   AS  A  NATION:    MATERIAL    AND    INTEL- 
LECTUAL DEVELOPMENT— POLITICAL  RIGHTS* 


By  James  G.  Bourinot 


The  population  of  the  whole  Dominion — 
still  chiefly  confined  to  the  St.  Lawrence  val- 
ley and  the  Atlantic  provinces — does  not  yet 

exceed  5,000,000  souls,  tho  it  has 
Population  increased  nearly  five  times  since 

i837.t  Of  this  population,  1,300,- 
000  are  French  Canadians;  the  majority  are 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish.  At  least  2.000.- 
000  profess  the  Roman  Catholic  religion. 
The  immigration  of  late  years  has  been  very 
insignificant,  and  has  been  practically  nulli- 
fied by  the  constant  movement  of  Canadians 
into  the  United  States — a  movement  which 
has  been  somewhat  decreasing  since  the 
opening  up  of  the  Northwest  and  the  greater 
facilities  offered  by  the  Dominion  to  energy 
and  enterprise.  Under  these  conditions  the 
natural-born  population  amounts  to  about  85 
per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

The  people  of  Canada  have  already  won 
for  themselves  a  large  amount  of  wealth 
from  the  riches  of  the  land,  forest,  and  seas, 

and  an  aggregate  of  the  imports 
Besources  and  exports  now  reaches  $255,- 

000,000  a  year,  or  an  increase  of 
$145,000,000  within  half  a  century.  The 
Northwest  already  raises  upward  of  36,000,- 
000  bushels  of  wheat,  or  an  increase  of  18,- 
000,000  in  five  years.  Nearly  $360,000,000 
are  invested  in  manufactures,  chiefly  of  cot- 
ton and  woolen  goods.  Some  fourteen  lines 
of  ocean  steamers  call  at  the  port  of  Mon- 
treal, which  has  now  a  population  of  over 
250,000  souls.  Toronto  comes  next  in  popu- 
lation, about  190,000,  whilst  the  other  cities, 
like  Quebec,  Halifax,  St.  John,  Ottawa, 
Hamilton,  and  London,  range  from  70,000  to 
30,000.  The  total  revenue  of  the  Dominion, 
apart  from  the  local  and  provincial  reve- 
nues, is  about  $36,000,000  a  year — against 
only  $300,000  in  1837 — raised  mainly  from 
customs  and  excise  duties,  which  are  high, 
owing  to  the  "  national  "  or  protective  policy, 
altho  lower  than  those  on  similar  goods  in 


the  United  States.  The  expenditures  of 
Canada,  very  heavy  of  late  years  for  a  small 
population,  have  been  mainly  caused  by  the 
development  of  the  Dominion,  and  by  the 
necessity  of  providing  rapid  means  of  inter- 
communication for  trade  and  population  in 
a  country  extending  between  two  oceans,  t 
Canals,  lighthouses,  the  acquisition  and  open- 
ing of  the  Northwest  railways,  government 
buildings,  have  absorbed  at  least  $240,000,- 
000    since    1867,    and    it    is    not    remarkable, 

under   these   circumstances,    that 

Improve-   a  gross   debt   has  been   accumu- 

ments      lated   within    half    a    century   of 

about  $315,000,000,  against  which 
must  be  set  valuable  assets  in  the  shape  of 
buildings  and  public  works  necessary  to  the 
progress  of  a  new  country.  The  public 
buildings,  churches,  and  universities  display 
within  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  great  im- 
provement in  architectural  beauty,  whilst  the 
homes  of  the  people  show,  both  in  the  inte- 
rior and  exterior,  decided  evidences  of  com- 
fort, convenience,  and  culture.  Instead  of 
the  fourteen  miles  of  railway  which  existed 
in  1837,  there  are  about  15,000  miles  in  actual 
operation,  affording  facilities  for  trade  and 
commerce  not  exceeded  by  any  country  in 
the  world. 

The  mental  outfit  of  the  Dominion  com- 
pares favorably  even  with  that  of  older  coun- 
tries.    The  Universities   of   Canada. — McGill 

in    Montreal,    Laval    in    Quebec, 

TJniver-     Queen's  in   Kingston,   Dalhousie 

sities       in     Halifax,     and     Trinity     and 

Toronto  Universities  in  Toronto 
— stand  deservedly  high  in  the  opinion  of 
men  of  learning  in  the  Old  World  and  the 
United  States,  whilst  the  grammar  and  com- 
mon school  system,  especially  of  Ontario,  is 
creditable  to  the  keen  sagacity  and  public 
spirit  of  the  people.  We  have  already  seen 
the  low  condition  of  education  of  fifty  years 
ago,  only  one  in  fifteen  at  school ;    but  now 


*  From  The  Story  OF  Canada.    New  York:    G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1896. 

+  Population  of  the  Dominion  at  last  census  in  i8gi,  4,833,239  ;  estimated  population,  iqoo,  about  5,300,000. 
Over  86  per  cent,  of  inhabitants  natives  of  British  North  America;  foreign  born,  647,362  —  ^75,456  from  Great 
Britain;  80,915  born  in  United  States.  English  speaking,  3,428,265;  French,  1,404,974."— From  Canada,  by 
E.  R.  Peacock,  M.A. 

*  The  figures  (of  trade  and  commerce)  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  igoo,  showed  a  phenomenal  mcrease 
in  trade.  The  total  exports  amounted  to  $175,656,947,  an  increase  over  1896  of  $46,440,165.  The  goods  entered 
for  consumption  were  valued  at  $183,209,273,  compared  with  $154,051,593  for  the  previous  year.  In  the  fiscal 
year  1899  the  total  trade  was  $308,388,968  ;  in  1900  it  was  $358,866,220. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Fielding,  as  Finance  Minister,  presented  his  budget  to  Parliament  on  March  23  (iqoo).  He 
declared  that  the  past  fiscal  year  had  been  the  most  prosperous  in  Canadian  history  ;  that  the  revenue  had 
been  $46,741,249,  the  expenditure  $41,905,500,  and  the  surplus  $4,837,749.— Condensed  from  Appleton's  Annual 
Encyclopedia,  1900. 


DOMINION  DAY 


607 


there  are  1,000,000  pupils  in  the  educational 
institutions  of  the  country.*  or  one  in  five,  at 
a  cost  to  the  people  of  upwards  of  $12,000,- 
oco,  contributed  for  the  most  part  by  the 
taxpayers  of  the  different  municipalities  in 
connection  with  which  the  educational  sys- 
tem is  worked  out.  In  Ontario 
Education  the  class  of  school-houses  is  ex- 
ceptionally good,  and  the  ap- 
paratus excellent  tho  there  is  an  injurious 
tendency  to  burden  pupils  with  too  many 
subjects,  and  in  that  way  encourage  super- 
ficiality. In  French  Canada  there  is  an  es- 
sentially literary  activity.  The  intellectual 
work  of  the  English-speaking  people  has  been 
chiefly  in  the  direction  of  scientific,  constitu- 
tional, and  historical  literature,  in  which  de- 
partments they  have  shown  an  amount  of 
knowledge  and  research  which  has  won  for 
many  of  them  laurels  outside  of  their  own 
country. 

The  working  out  of  a  system  of  govern- 
ment adapted  to  the  necessities  of  countries 
with   distinct   interests  and  nationalities,   has 
developed  in   Canada  a  class  of 
Statesmen  statesmen      and      writers      with 
broad  national  views  and  a  large 
breadth     of    knowledge.     On     all     occasions 
when  men  have  risen  beyond  the  passion  and 
narrowness  of  party,  the  debates  of  the  leg- 
islature have  been  distinguished  by  a  keen- 
ness of  argument  and  by  a  grace  of  oratory 
• — especially    in    the    case    of    some    French 
Canadians — which  would  be  creditable  to  the 
Senate    of    the    United    States    in    its   palmy 
days.     Anyone   who  reviews  the  twelve  vol- 
umes already  published  by  the  Royal  Society 
of  Canada,  founded  by  the  Marquis  of  Lome, 
when  Governor-General,   will   see  how  much 
scholarship  and  ability  the  writers  of  Canada 
bring  to  the  study  of  scientific,  antiquarian, 
and  historical  subjects.     The  names  of  Todd, 
Kingsford,    Scadding,    Read,    Pope,    Stewart, 
Patterson,  and  Withrow  will  be  recognized  by 
Canadians  as  those  of  conscientious  workers 
in    history    and    constitutional    learning.     In 
science  the  names  of  Sir  William 
Science      Dawson,  Dr.  George  M.  Dawson, 
and         and    of   other    native    Canadians 
Poetry     on    the   list   of  the    English   and 
Canadian     Royal     Societies     are 
well  known  in  the  parent  State  and  wherever 
science  has   its  votaries  and   followers.     The 
poets,    William    Kirby,    Archbishop    O'Brien, 
John  Reade,  Charles  Roberts,  Bliss  Carman, 
Frederick  L.   Scott,   Pauline  Johnson,   Etbel- 
wyn   Wetherald,   Archibald  Lampman,    Dun- 
can Campbell  Scott,  James  David  Edgar,  and 
Wilfred  Campbell  have  won  recognition  even 
in  a  country  like  Canada,  where  still  is  want- 
ing the  inspiration  of  a  wide  field  of  culture, 
and   of  that   generous   encouragement   which 
can  hardly  be  expected  in  a  country  of  pro- 
saic   needs.     Miss    Pauline    Johnson    is    the 
child  of  an  English  mother  and  a  head-chief 
of   the    Mohawks    at    Brantford. 
Literary    The  historical   novels  of   Major 
Workers    Richardson,   William   Kirby  and 
Gilbert    Parker,    show    the    rich 
materials  our  past  annals  offer  for  romance. 


Mr.  Gilbert  Parker's  enthusiasm  for  his 
theme  is  sustained  by  his  bright,  attractive 
style.  Sam  Slick's  Sayings  and  Doings 
is  still  the  only  noteworthy  evidence  we  have 
of  the  existence  of  humor  among  a  practical 
people,  and  his  "  wise  saws  "  and  "  sayings  " 
were  uttered  more  than  half  a  century  ago. 
Yet,  on  the  whole,  if  great  works  are  want- 
ing nowadays,  the  intellectual  movement  is 
in  the  right  direction,  and  according  as  the 
intellectual  soil  of  Canada  becomes  enriched 
with  the  progress  of  culture,  we  may  eventu- 
ally look  for  a  more  generous  fruition. 

Canadian  art  has  hitherto  been  imitative, 
rather  than  creative,  tho  of  late  years,  as  the 
Chicago  Exposition  proved,  Canadian  artists 
have  produced  several  pictures 
Art  which  show  an  individuality  of 
expression,  color,  feeling  and  a 
knowledge  of  technique  which  illustrate  the 
influence  of  study  and  experience  in  the  best 
European  schools,  especially  of  Paris.  The 
names  of  L.  R.  O'Brien,  George  Reid,  Bell- 
Smith,  Robert  Harris,  J.  W.  L.  Forster,  W. 
Brymner,  and  Miss  Bell  are  among  the  most 
notable  names  of  English  Canadian  artists. 
The  Marquis  of  Lome  and  the  Princess 
Louise,  during  their  residence  in  Canada,  did 
much  to  stimulate  a  wider  taste  for  art  by 
the  establishment  of  a  Canadian  academy, 
and  the  holding  of  annual  exhibitions. 

Self-government  exists  in  the  full  sense 
■of  the  term.  At  the  base  of  the  political 
structure  lie  those  municipal  institutions 
which,  for  completeness,  are  not 
Govern-  excelled  in  any  other  country. 
ment  It  is  in  the  enterprising  province 
of  Ontario  that  the  system  has 
attained  its  greatest  development.  The  ma- 
chinery of  these  municipalities  is  used  in 
Ontario  to  raise  the  taxes  necessary  for  the 
support  of  public  schools.  Free  libraries  can 
be  provided  in  every  municipality  whenever 
the  majority  of  the  taxpayers  choose.  Then 
we  go  up  higher  to  the  provincial  organiza- 
tions governed  by  a  lieutenant-governor, 
nominated  and  removable  by  the  government 
of  the  Dominion,  and  advised  by  a  council 
responsible  to  the  people's  representatives, 
with  a  legislature  composed,  in  only  two  of 
the  provinces,  of  two  houses — a  council  ap- 
pointed by  the  Crown,  and  an  elective  as- 
sembly ;  in  all  the  other  provinces,  there  is 
simply  an  assembly  chosen  by  the  people  on 
a  very  liberal  franchise,  manhood  suffrage  in 
the  majority  of  cases.  The  fundamental  law, 
or  Lhe_  British  North  America  Act  of  1867, 
gives  jurisdiction  to  the  provincial  govern- 
ments over  administration  of  justice  (except 
in  criminal  matters),  municipal  and  all  purely 
local  affairs.  In  the  territories,  not  yet  con- 
stituted into  provinces,  there  is  a  small 
elective  body  or  house  who  select  a  financial 
committee  to  assist  the  lieutenant-governor. 
These  territories  are  also  represented  in  the 
two  houses  of  the  Dominion  Parliament. 
The  central  or  general  government  of  the 
Dominion  is  administered  by  a  governor- 
general,  with  the  assistance  of  a  ministry  re- 
sponsible  to   a    Parliament,   composed   of   a 


*  In  igoo  there  were  i,icx),ooo. 


6c8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


Senate  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  a  House 
of  Commons  elected  under  an  electoral  fran- 
chise, practically  on  the  very  threshold  of 
universal  suffrage.  This  government  has 
jurisdiction  over  trade  and  commerce,  post- 
office,  militia  and  defense,  navigation  and 
shipping,  fisheries,  railways,  and  public 
works  of  a  Dominion  character,  and  all  other 
matters  of  a  general  or  national  import. 
Education  is  under  the  control  of  the 
provincial  governments,  but  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  a  religious  minority  with  re- 
spect to  separate  or  denominational  schools 
are  protected  by  the  Constitution.  The  com- 
mon law  of  England  prevails  in  all  the  prov- 
inces except  in  French  Canada,  where  the 
civil  law  still  exists.  The  criminal  law  of 
England  obtains  throughout  the  Dominion. 
The  central  government  appoints  all  the 
judges,  who  are  irremovable,  except  for 
cause.  Altho  the  Constitution  places  in  the 
central  government  the  residue  of  all  powers, 
not  expressly  given  to  the  provincial  au- 
thorities; conflicts  of  jurisdiction  are  con- 
stantly arising  between  the  general  and  local 
governments.  Such  questions,  however,  are 
being  gradually  settled  by  the  decisions  of 
the  courts — the  chief  security  of  a  written 
constitution — altho  at  times  the  rivalry  of 
parties  and  the  antagonisms  of  distinct  na- 
tionalities and  creeds  tend  to  give  special 
importance  to  certain  educational  and  other 
matters  which  arise  in  the  operation  of  the 
Constitution.  All  these  are  perils  insepara- 
ble from  a  federal  constitution  governing 
two  distinct  races. 

The   appointment   of  the   governor-general 
by  the  Crown,  the  power  of  disallowing  bills 
which    may    interfere    with    imperial    obliga- 
tions, and  the  right  which  Cana- 
A  De-       dians  still  enjoy  of  appealing  to 
pendency  the    judicial    committee    of    the 
of  the      monarch's    Privy    Council    from 
Empire     the    subordinate    courts    of    the 
provinces,     including     the     Su- 
preme    Court    of     Canada ;      the    obligation 
which  rests  upon  England  to  assist  the  colony 
in  the  time  of  danger  by  all  the  power  of 
her  army   and  fleet,   together   with   the   fact 
that  all  treaties  with  foreign  powers  must  be 
necessarily    negotiated   through    the    imperial 
authorities,    will   be   considered   as   the   most 
patent  evidences  of  Canada  being  still  a  de- 
pendency of  the  Empire.     Even  the  restraint 
imposed   upon    Canada    with    respect   to   any 
matters    involving   negotiations   with    foreign 
powers  has  been  modified  to  a  great  degree, 
by  the  fact  that  England  has  acknowledged 
for  over  thirty  years  that  Canada  should  be 
not   only   consulted   in   every   particular,   but 
actually  represented  in  all  negotiations  that 


may  be  carried  on  with  foreign  powers  af- 
fecting her  commercial  or  territorial  interests. 
A  notable  example  of  this  new  imperial  policy 
was  the  Washington  Convention  of  1871, 
which  settled  the  Alabama  Claims  and  other 
questions  of  difference  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  England  recognized  the 
direct  interest  of  the  Dominion  in  the  sub- 
jects under  discussion,  by  the  selection  of  the 
able  Premier  of  the  Liberal-Conservative  gov- 
ernment. Sir  John  Macdonald,  as  one  of  the 
commissioners.  The  most  satisfactory  result 
of  this  conference  was  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  which,  after  full  deliberation, 
gave  Canada  and  Newfoundland  a  compen- 
sation of  five  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars 
for  certain  concessions  that  were  made  to 
the  United  States  on  the  valuable  fishing 
grounds  of  British  North  America.  In  the 
diplomatic  discussions  between  England  and 
the  United  States  as  a  sequence  of  the  sei- 
zure of  Canadian  vessels  engaged  in  catch- 
ing seals  in  the  open  waters  of  Bering  Sea, 
the  English  Government  was  largely  influ- 
enced by  the  opinions  of  the  Canadian  min- 
istry in  relation  to  a  matter  affecting  Do- 
minion interests. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  court  of  arbi- 
tration, which  assembled  at  Paris  in  1892, 
and  decided  the  question  at  issue  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  in- 
Sir  John  ternational  law,  fought  for  by 
Macdonald  the  British  and  Canadian  gov- 
ernments, was  Sir  John  Thomp- 
son, an  able  lawyer  of  Nova  Scotia,  who  be- 
came Premier  of  the  Dominion  soon  after 
the  death  of  Sir  John  Macdonald,  and  was 
himself  struck  down  only  a  few  months 
after  the  settlement  of  the  Bering  Sea  ques- 
tion, when  summoned  to  Windsor  Castle  to 
take  before  the  Queen  the  oath  of  a  privy 
councillor  of  England — a  dramatic  close  to 
a  short  tho  exceptionally  successful  career. 

It  was  an  imperial  man  of  war  that  brought 
the  remains  of  Sir  John  Thompson  to  the  city 
of  Halifax,  where  representatives  of  all  parts 
of  Canada  buried  him  with  honors  which  few 
statesmen  have  ever  received.  This  tribute 
of  respect  was  due  to  a  Canadian  states- 
man whose  appointment  on  the  Paris  arbitra- 
tion commission  was  a  direct  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  importance  of  Canada  in  im- 
perial councils.  With  the  national  develop- 
ment of  Canada  the  conditions  of  the  rela- 
tions between  England  and  Canada  are  such 
as  to  insure  unity  of  policy  so  long  as 
each  government  considers  the  interests  of 
England  and  of  the  dependency  as  iden- 
tical, and  keeps  ever  in  view  the  obliga- 
tions, welfare,  and  unity  of  the  Empire  at 
large. 


DOMINION  DAY 


609 


ADDRESSES 


CONFEDERATION  * 

By  Hon.  George  Brown 

[In  the   Canadian   Parliament,   on   the   Confederation   of    the   Provinces    of    Britisli   North 

America.] 


One  hundred  years  have  passed  away  since 
the  conquest  of  Quebec,  but  here  we  sit,  the 
children  of  the  victor  and  the  vanquished,  all 
avowing  hearty  attachment  to  the  British 
Crown,  all  earnestly  deliberating  how  we 
shall  best  extend  the  blessings  of  British  in- 
stitutions ;  how  a  great  people  may  be  estab- 
lished on  this  continent,  in  close  and  hearty 
connection  with  Great  Britain.  Where,  sir, 
in  the  page  of  history,  shall  we  find  a  parallel 
to  this?  Will  it  not  stand  as  an  imperishable 
monument  to  the  generosity  of  British  rule? 
And  it  is  not  in  Canada  alone  that  this  scene 
has  been  witnessed.  Four  other  colonies  are 
at  this  moment  occupied  as  we  are — declar- 
ing their  hearty  love  for  the  parent  State, 
and  deliberating  with  us  how  they  may  best 
discharge  the  great  duty  entrusted  to  their 
hands,  and  give  their  aid  in  developing  the 
teeming  resources  of  these  vast  possessions. 

And  well,  Mr.  Speaker,  may  the  work  we 
have  unitedly  proposed  rouse  the  ambition 
and  energy  of  every  true  man  in  British 
America.  Look,  sir,  at  the  map  of  the  con- 
tinent of  America.  Newfoundland,  com- 
manding the  mouth  of  the  noble  river  that 
almost  cuts  our  continent  in  twain,  is  equal 
in  extent  to  the  Kingdom  of  Portugal.  Cross 
the  straits  to  the  mainland,  and  you  touch 
the  hospitable  shores  of  Nova  Scotia,  a 
country  as  large  as  the  Kingdom  of  Greece. 
Then  mark  the  sister  Province  of  New 
Brunswick — equal  in  extent  to  Denmark  and 
Switzerland  combined.  Pass  up  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Lower  Canada — a  country  as 
large  as  France.  Pass  on  to  Upper  Canada 
— twenty  thousand  square  miles  larger  than 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  put  together. 
Cross  over  the  continent  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific,  and  you  are  in  British  Columbia,  the 
land  of  golden  promise — equal  in  extent  to 
the  Austrian  Empire.  I  speak  not  now  of 
the  vast  Indian  territories  that  lie  between, 
greater  in  extent  than  the  whole  soil  of  Rus- 
sia— and  that  will,  ere  long,  I  trust,  be  opened 
up  to  civilization,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
British  American  Confederation.  Well,  sir, 
the  bold  scheme  in  your  hands  is  nothing  less 
than  to  gather  all  these  countries  into  one ; 
to  organize  them  under  one  government, 
with  the  protection  of  the  British  flag,  and 
in  heartiest  sympathy  and  affection  with  our 
fellow-subjects  in  the  land  that  gave  us  birth. 
Our  scheme  is  to  establish  a  government 
that  will  seek  to  turn  the  tide  of  immigra- 
tion into  this  northern  half  of  the  American 
continent ;    that    will    strive    to    develop    its 


great  national  resources,  and  that  will  en- 
deavor to  maintain  liberty,  and  justice,  and 
Christianity  throughout  the  land. 

What  we  propose  now  is  but  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  structure,  to  set  in  mo- 
tion the  governmental  machinery  that  will, 
one  day,  we  trust,  extend  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific.  And  we  take  especial  credit 
to  ourselves,  that  the  system  we  have  de- 
vised, while  admirably  adapted  to  our  pres- 
ent situation,  is  capable  of  gradual  and  effi- 
cient expansion  in  future  years  to  meet  all 
the  purposes  contemplated  by  our  scheme. 
But,  if  honorable  gentlemen  will  recall  to 
mind,  that  when  the  United  States  seceded 
from  the  Mother  Country,  and  for  many 
years  afterwards,  their  population  was  not 
nearly  equal  to  ours  at  the  present  moment, 
that  their  internal  improvements  did  not  then 
approach  to  what  we  have  already  attained; 
and  that  their  trade  and  commerce  was  not 
a  third  of  what  ours  has  already  reached,  I 
think  they  will  see  that  the  fulfilment  of 
our  hopes  may  not  be  so  very  remote,  as 
at  first  sight  might  be  imagined.  And  they 
will  be  strengthened  in  that  conviction,  if 
they  remember  that  what  we  propose  to  do 
is  to  be  done  with  cordial  sympathy  and 
assistance  of  that  great  Power,  of  which  it 
is  our  happiness  to  form  a  part. 

And,  said  I  not  rightly,  Mr.  Speaker,  that 
such  a  scheme  is  well  fitted  to  fire  the  am- 
bition and  rouse  the  energy  of  every  member 
of  this  House?  Does  it  not  lift  us  above 
the  petty  politics  of  the  past,  and  present  to 
us  high  purposes  and  great  interests,  that 
may  well  call  forth  all  the  intellectual  abil- 
ity, and  all  the  energy  and  enterprise  to  be 
found  amongst  us?  I  readily  admit  all  the 
gravity  of  the  question ;  and  that  it  ought 
to  be  considered  cautiously  and  thoroughly 
before  adoption.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  dep- 
recate the  closest  criticisms,  or  to  doubt  for  a 
moment  the  sincerity  or  patriotism  of  those 
who  feel  it  their  duty  to  oppose  the  meas- 
ure. But  in  considering  a  question  on  which 
hangs  the  future  destiny  of  half  a  continent, 
ought  not  the  spirit  of  mere  fault-finding  to 
be  hushed?  Ought  not  the  spirit  of  mere 
partisanship  to  be  banished  from  our  de- 
bates? Ought  we  not  to  sit  down  and  dis- 
cuss the  arguments  presented,  in  the  earnest 
and  candid  spirit  of  men,  bound  by  the  same 
interest,  seeking  a  common  end,  and  loving 
the  same  country? 

Some  honorable  gentlemen  seem  to  imag- 
ine that  the  members  of  the  Government  have 


•Patriotic  Recitations,  p.  141,  by  George  W.  Ross,  LL.D.    Toronto  :  Warwick  Bro's  &  Rutter. 


6io 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


a  deeper  interest  in  this  scheme  than  others ; 
but  what  possible  interest  can  any  of  us  have, 
except  that  which  we  share  with  every  citi- 
zen of  the  land?  What  risk  does  any  one 
run  from  this  measure,  in  which  all  of  us 
do  not  fully  participate?  What  possible  in- 
ducement could  we  have  to  urge  this  scheme, 
except  our  earnest  and  heartfelt  conviction 
that  it  will  conduce  to  the  solid  and  lasting 
advantages  of  our  country?  There  is  one 
consideration,  Mr.  Speaker,  which  cannot  be 
banished  from  this  discussion,  and  that 
ought,  I  think,  to  be  remembered  in  every 
word  we  utter;  it  is  that  the  constitutional 
system  of  Canada  cannot  remain  as  it  is  now. 
Something  must  be  done.  We  cannot  stand 
still.  We  cannot  go  back  to  chronic  sec- 
tional hostility  and  discord — to  a  state  of 
perpetual  ministerial  crisis.  The  events  of 
the  last  eight  months  cannot  be  obliterated ; 
the  solemn  admissions  of  men  of  all  parties 
can  never  be  erased.  The  claims  of  upper 
Canada  must  be  met  and  met  now.  I  say, 
then,  that  every  one  who  raises  his  voice  in 
hostility  to  this  measure  is  bound  to  keep 
before  him,  when  he  speaks,  all  the  perilous 
consequences  of  its  rejection.  I  say,  then, 
that  no  man  who  has  a  true  regard  for  the 
well-being  of  Canada  can  give  a  vote  against 
this  scheme,  unless  he  is  prepared  to  offer, 
in  amendment,   some  better   remedy  for  the 


evils  and  injustice  that  have  so  long  threat- 
ened the  peace  of  our  country. 

Sir,  the  future  destiny  of  these  great  Prov- 
inces may  be  affected,  by  the  decision  we  are 
about  to  give,  to  an  extent,  which  at  this  mo- 
ment we  may  be  unable  to  estimate.  But, 
assuredly  the  welfare,  for  many  years,  of 
four  millions  of  people  hangs  on  our  deci- 
sion. Shall  we  then  rise  equal  to  the  occa- 
sion? Shall  we  approach  this  discussion 
without  partisanship,  and  free  from  every 
personal  feeling,  but  the  earnest  resolution 
to  discharge,  conscientiously,  the  duty  which 
an  overruling  Providence  has  placed  upon 
us?  Sir,  It  may  be  that  some  among  us 
may  live  to  see  the  day  when,  as  the  result 
of  this  measure,  a  great  and  powerful  peo- 
ple shall  have  grown  up  in  these  lands :  when 
the  boundless  forest  all  around  us  shall  have 
given  way  to  smiling  fields  and  thriving 
towns,  and  when  one  united  government, 
under  the  British  flag,  shall  extend  from 
shore  to  shore;  but  who  could  desire  to  see 
that  day,  if  he  could  not  recall  with  satisfac- 
tion the  part  he  took  in  this  discussion  ?  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  have  done.  I  leave  the  subject 
to  the  conscientious  judgment  of  the  House, 
in  the  confident  expectation  and  belief  that 
the  decision  it  will  render  will  be  worthy  of 
the  Parliament  of  Canada. 


CANADA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 


By  Joseph  Howe 


We  are  here  to  determine  how  best  we 
can  draw  together,  in  the  bonds  of  peace, 
friendship,  and  commercial  prosperity,  the 
three  great  branches  of  the  British  family. 
In  the  presence  of  this  great  theme  all  petty 
interests  should  stand  rebuked.  We  are  not 
dealing  with  the  concerns  of  a  city,  a  prov- 
ince or  a  state,  but  with  the  future  of  our 
race  in  all  time  to  come. 

Why  should  not  these  three  great  branches 
of  the  family  flourish,  under  different  sys- 
tems of  government,  it  may  be,  but  forrning 
one  grand  whole,  proud  of  a  common  origin 
and  of  their  advanced  civilization?  The 
clover  lifls  its  trefoil  leaves  to  the  evening 
dew,  yet  they  draw  their  nourishment  from 
a  single  stem.  Thus  distinct,  and  yet  united, 
let  us  live  and  flourish.  Why  should  we  not? 
For  nearly  two  thousand  years  we  were  one 
family.  Our  fathers  fought  side  by  side  at 
Hastings,  and  heard  the  curfew  toll.  They 
fought  in  the  same  ranks  for  the  sepulcher  of 
our  Savior.  In  the  earlier  and  later  civil 
wars,  we  can  wear  our  white  and  red  roses 
without  a  blush,  and  glory  in  the  principles 
those  conflicts  established.  Our  common  an- 
cestors won  the  great  Charter  and  the  Bill 
of  Rights — established  free  parliaments,  the 
habeas  corpus,  and  trial  by  jury.  Our 
jurisprudence  comes  down  from  Coke  and 
Mansfield    to    Marshall    and    Story,    rich    in 


knowledge  and  experience  which  no  man  can 
divide.  From  Chaucer  to  Shakespeare  our 
literature  is  a  common  inheritance.  Tenny- 
son and  Longfellow  write  in  one  language, 
which  is  enriched  by  the  genius  developed  on 
either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  the  great  nav- 
igators from  Cortereal  to  Hudson,  and  in 
all  their  "  moving  accidents  by  flood  and 
field  "  we  have  a  common  interest. 

But  it  may  be  said  we  have  been  divided 
by  two  wars.  What  then?  The  noble  St. 
Lawrence  is  split  in  two  places — by  Goat 
Island  and  Anticosti — but  it  comes  down  to 
us  from  the  same  springs  in  the  same  moun- 
tain sides;  its  waters  sweep  together  past 
the  pictured  rocks  of  Lake  Superior,  and  en- 
circle in  their  loving  embrace  the  shores  of 
Huron  and  Michigan.  The}'^  are  divided  at 
Niagara  Falls  as  we  were  at  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  but  they  come  together  again 
on  the  peaceful  bosom  of  Ontario.  Again 
they  are  divided  on  their  passage  to  the  sea ; 
but  who  thinks  of  divisions  when  they  lift 
the  keels  of  commerce,  or  when,  drawn  up  to 
Heaven,  they  form  the  rainbow  or  the  cloud? 

It  is  true  that  in  eighty-five  years  we  have 
had  two  wars — ^but  what  then?  Since  the 
last  we  have  had  fifty  years  of  peace,  and 
there  have  been  more  people  killed  in  a  single 
campaign   in   the   late   civil   war   than   there 


DOMINION  DAY 


6ii 


were  in  the  two  national  wars  between  this 
country  and  Great  Britain.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  hope  to  draw  together  the 
two  conflicting  elements  and  make  them  one 
people.  In  that  task  I  wish  them  God-speed ! 
And  in  the  same  way  I  feel  that  we  ought  to 
rule  out  everything  disagreeable  in  the  recol- 
lection of  our  old  wars,  and  unite  together  as 


one  people  for  all  time  to  come.  I  see  around 
the  door  the  flags  of  the  two  countries. 
United  as  they  are  there,  I  would  have  them 
draped  together,  fold  within  fold,  and  let 

"  Their  varying  tints  unite, 
And  form  in  Heaven's  light, 
One  arch  of  peace." 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


ADVANTAGES,  Natural.— A  single 
glance  at  an  ordinary  school  geography 
shows  Canada  to  be  one  of  the  most  favored 
portions  of  the  globe;  and  as  if  Providence 
had  kept  in  reserve  its  best  gifts  for  this 
latest  born  of  nations,  we  have,  wafted  into 
our  spacious  western  harbors  and  along  our 
picturesque  Pacific  coast,  the  balmy  winds 
of  the  Western  Ocean,  and  with  them  that 
ocean  stream  which  makes  flowers  bloom  and 
trees  bud  near  the  Arctic  circle,  as  early  as 
on  the  Mississippi  or  the  St.  Lawrence,  just 
as  the  great  stream  poured  out  by  the  Mexi- 
can Gulf  foils  the  Ice  King's  blockade  of 
the  magnificent  harbors  of  our  Eastern  coasts, 
and  nourishes  those  deep-sea  pastures  of 
which  Canada  possesses  the  richest  in  the 
world.  As  a  means  of  access  to  the  interior 
of  this  favored  land,  Nature  has  cleft  our 
rugged  Eastern  coast  with  mighty  rivers  and 
great  lakes  which  bear  the  home  hunter  to 
the  verge  of  our  great  Cereal  Table-land, 
where,  through  future  wheat  fields,  turn  and 
wind  the  rivers  of  the  great  plain,  the  Red, 
Assiniboine,  Souris,  Qu'Appelle,  and  Sas- 
katchewan. 

This  great  country  bounded  by  three 
oceans  has  the  greatest  extent  of  coast  line ; 
the  greatest  number  of  miles  of  river  and 
lake  navigation ;  the  greatest  extent  of  co- 
niferous forest ;  the  greatest  coal  measures  ; 
the  most  varied  distribution  of  precious  and 
economic  minerals ;  the  most  extensive  salt 
and  fresh  water  fisheries ;  and  the  greatest 
extent  of  arable  and  pastoral  land  of  any 
country  in  the  world. — John   Schultz. 

ADVANTAGES,  RadaL— This  great 
northern  heritage  so  vast  in  area  and  re- 
sources and  which  we  call  our  own  coun- 
try, is  possessed  by  a  northern  race  and  ruled 
by  a  northern  monarch.  Its  national  charac- 
teristics are  northern,  it  is  the  Norland  of 
this  continent;  to  the  northern  races  of  the 
old  world  whence  we  sprang  we  look  for  our 
national  characteristics. 

We  have  in  this  Dominion  more  Celts  than 
had  Brian  when  he  placed  his  heel  on  the 
neck  of  Odin,  more  Saxons  than  had  Alfred 
when  he  founded  his  kingdom,  more  Nor- 
mans than  had  William  when  he  drew  from 
them  the  armed  host  with  which  he  invaded 
England,  more  of  Norse  blood  than  there 
were  Norsemen  when  their  kings  ruled  Brit- 
ain and  their  galleys  swept  the  sea.  We  are 
the  descendant?  of  all  the  northern  kingdom- 
founders  of  Western  Europe.     We  have  the 


laws  of  Edward,  the  Magna  Charta  and  the 
Roman  Code ;  we  have  copied  the  Constitu- 
tion which  English  statesmen,  legislators, 
patriots,  and  martyrs  lived  or  died  to  secure 
and  save.  We  have  resources  by  sea  and 
land,  civil  and  religious  liberty;  we  are  heirs 
equally  with  those  who  live  in  the  British 
Isles,  to  the  glory  and  traditions  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire.  Canadians  have  fought  side  by 
side  with  the  Englishman,  Irishman,  and  Scot 
on  the  burning  sands  of  India  and  Africa, 
and  on  the  bleak  battlefields  of  the  Crimean 
Peninsula,  and  they  have  died  as  bravely, 
too,  as  any  of  them. — John  Schultz. 

CANADA,  Future  of.— What  can  we  say 
as  to  our  future?  What  of  our  destiny?  Our 
destiny  under  a  kind  Providence  will  be  just 
what  we  will  make  it.  It  rests  in  our  own 
hands.  We  may  in  the  face  of  all  our  ad- 
vantages, mar  it  if  we  will.  As  it  is  with 
individual  destiny,  so  is  it  with  national  des- 
tiny; we  are  largely  the  architects  of  our 
own  fortunes.  We  have  laid,  as  I  have 
shown,  deep  and  safe  and  broad  the  founda- 
tions for  a  bright  future.  What  country  can 
show  legislation  more  advanced  or  leading 
up  to  better  results  than  ours?  In  what 
land  do  we  find  a  people  enjoying  more  fully 
than  we  do  the  rights  of  self-government,  or 
where  is  there  a  people  more  fitted  to  be 
entrusted  with  that  precious  right  ?  Our  laws 
have  been  well  administered.  Our  courts  of 
justice  have  won  the  unlimited  confidence 
of  the  people.  Imbued  with  the  healthy  sen- 
timent which  has  prevailed  in  the  mother 
land  for  centuries,  attached  to  her  forms  of 
government,  cherishing  her  precedents  and 
traditions,  we  have  passed  from  childhood  to 
youth.  We  are  approaching  manhood,  and 
its  strength  and  vigor  must  depend  upon 
ourselves.  What  is  needed,  then?  We  must 
appease  inter-provincial  jealou'^ies;  we  must 
modify  mere  local  patriotism ;  we  must  cul- 
tivate an  increased  national  feeling  and  show 
in  every  way  we  can  that  we  have  crossed 
the  line  of  youth  and  pupilage. — Richard 
Harcourt. 

CANADA,  Loyalty  to.— Let  us  remember 
that  Canada  is  our  home;  that  while  we  think 
with  gratitude  of  the  land  of  our  birth,  while 
our  hearts  are  filled  with  the  warmest  patri- 
otism when  its  history  and  its  heroes  are 
recalled  to  mind,  we  should  not  forget  that 
we  have  great  duties  and  responsibilities,  not 
of  a  sectional,  but  of  a  national,  character  to 


6l2 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


discharge  and  that  we  ought  to  devote  our- 
selves faithfully  and  honestly  to  the  task  of 
creating  and  upholding  a  Canadian  spirit. 
Canadian  sentiment,  and  Canadian  enthusi- 
asm; in  a  word,  a  spirit  of  nationality  always 
British,  but  still  Canadian.  The  patriotism 
of  the  British  people  and  government  will 
ever  be  with  us,  and  we  in  turn  hope  always 
to  reside  under  the  shadow  of  the  grand  old 
flag  of  Britain,  at  once  the  symbol  of  power 
and  civilization.  These  sentiments  I  believe 
to  be  an  expression  of  the  aspirations  which 
animate  the  great  body — may  I  not  say  the 
whole  of  the  Canadian  people. — Alexander 
Mackenzie. 

CANADA,  Progress  of.— While  with  just 
pride  we  remember  the  deeds  of  our  ances- 
tors for  the  past  thousand  years,  and  know 
that  when  necessary  the  blood  of  the  sea- 
kings,  the  sturdy  Saxon,  the  gallant  Norman, 
and  the  fiery  Celt,  which  is  in  our  veins,  will 
assert  itself  again,  yet  thanks  be  to  Almighty 
God,  our  national  life  began  and  has  con- 
tinued in  peace ;  and  as  we  chose  for  our 
national  emblems  the  Canadian  beaver  and 
the  maple  leaf,  so  have  we  sought  to  build  up, 
harmonize,  and  beautify  our  splendid  herit- 
age by  the  arts  of  peace  and  not  by  the  arts 
of  war.  During  the  short  period,  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  of  our  national  life,  we 
have  girded  the  continent  with  bands  of  steel, 
piercing  mountains,  spanning  torrents ;  and 
crossing  the  snow-capped  giants  of  the  Rocky 
and  Selkirk  chains  we  have  linked  our  young 
Canadian  empire  to  Japan  and  China,  the 
oldest  empires  of  the  Orient.  We  have  jus- 
tified our  traditions  on  the  sea,  in  making 
Canada  third  in  rank  of  the  maritime  nations 
of  the  world ;  and  at  this  moment  the  sails 
of  Canadian  ships  whiten  every  sea,  com- 
manded by  Canadian  descendants  of  Drake 
and  Hawkins,  Frobisher  and  Richard  Gren- 
ville.  Nelson  and  Collingwood,  Cartier  and 
DTberville.  Better  still  than  even  this  ma- 
terial progress  is  the  fact  that  our  nationality 
is  founded  upon  the  mutual  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  the  people,  surrounded  by  the  sanc- 
tity of  religion,  and  crowned  with  its  only 
appropriate  capital.  Lawful  Constitutional 
Authority. — John    Schultz. 

CANADA'S  DIFFICULTIES.— We  have 
to  contend  with  political  difficulties  conse- 
quent upon  our  singular  semi-dependent  po- 
sition as  a  small  state  between  two  very  great 
ones,  with  both  of  which  we  have  very  close 
relations ;  with  geographical  difficulties 
caused  by  the  great  stretches  of  barren  wil- 
derness interposed  between  the  three  great 
divisions  of  our  territory — ^which  have  often 
caused  me  to  wish  we  lived  rather  in  three 
islands,  with  the  sea  as  a  means  of  connec- 
tion and  communication ;  with  national  or 
race  difficulties,  arising  from  the  circum- 
stances of  our  early  settlement,  and  lastly 
with  economical  difficulties,  partly  natural 
and  partly  of  our  own  making,  but  none  the 
less  real,  notwithstanding.  What  we  need, 
and  we  need  it  very  badly,  is  more  public 
spirit — a  larger  share  of  the  true  instinct  of 
patriotism — and    to    become    thoroughly    im- 


pregnated   with   the   feelings    which    inspired 
that  well-known  passage  of  Sir  Walter  Scott : 

"  Breathes  there  a  man  with  soul  so  dead 
Who  never  to  himself  hath  said. 
This  is  my  own — my  native  land? 
If  such  there  be,  go  mark  him  well. 
For  him  no  minstrel  numbers  swell ; 
High  tho  his  title,  proud  his  name, 
Boundless  his  wealth  as  wish  can  claim, 
The  wretch  concentered  all  in  self, 
Living  shall  forfeit  all  renown. 
And  doubly  dying  shall  go  down 
To  the  vile  dust  from  which  he  sprung — 
Unwept,  unhonored,  and  unsung." 

Sir  Richard  Cartvvright. 

CANADIAN  POWER,  Sources  of.— The 
country  you  call  Canada,  and  which  your 
sons  and  your  children's  children  will  be 
proud  to  know  by  that  name,  is  a  land  which 
will  be  a  land  of  power  among  the  nations. 
Mistress  of  a  zone  of  territory  favorable  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  numerous  and  homo- 
geneous white  population,  Canada  must,  to 
judge  from  the  increase  in  her  strength  dur- 
ing the  past,  and  from  the  many  and  vast  op- 
portunities for  the  growth  of  that  strength  in 
her  new  provinces  in  the  future,  be  great  and 
worthy  her  position  on  the  earth.  Affording 
the  best  and  safest  highway  between  Asia 
and  Europe,  she  will  see  traffic  from  both 
directed  to  her  coasts.  With  a  hand  upon 
either  ocean,  he  will  gather  from  each  for  the 
benefit  of  her  hardy  millions  a  large  share  of 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  To  the  east  and 
to  the  west  she  will  pour  forth  of  her  abund- 
ance, her  treasures  of  food  and  the  riches  of 
her  mines  and  of  her  forests,  demanded  of 
her  by  the  less  fortunate  of  mankind.  In  no 
other  land  have  the  last  seventeen  years,  the 
space  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  your 
Federation,  witnessed  such  progress.  Other 
countries  have  seen  their  territories  enlarged 
and  their  destinies  determined  by  trouble  and 
war,  but  no  blood  has  stained  the  bonds 
which  have  knit  together  your  free  and  order- 
loving  populations,  and  yet  in  this  brief  pe- 
riod, so  brief  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  you  have 
attained  to  a  union  whose  characteristics 
from  sea  to  sea  are  the  same.  A  judicature 
above  suspicion,  a  strong  central  government 
to  direct  all  national  interests,  the  toleration 
of  all  faiths  with  favor  to  none,  a  franchise 
recognizing  the  rights  of  labor  by  the  exclu- 
sion only  of  the  idler,  a  government  ever  sus- 
ceptible to  the  change  of  public  opinion  and 
ever  open,  through  a  responsible  ministry,  to 
the  scrutiny  of  the  people — these  are  the  fea- 
tures of  your  rising  power. — Lord  Lorne. 

CIVILIZATIONS,  Canada's  Two.— To 
the  political  and  historical  student,  probably 
the  chief  interest  of  Canada  lies  in  the  exist- 
ence, side  by  side,  of  two  civilizations  of  dif- 
ferent types, — French  speaking  Quebec  with 
its  racial  peculiarities,  its  people  devotedly  at- 
tached to  their  own  language,  laws,  and  liter- 
ature, and  their  own  religious  traditions  and 
forms,  wedged  in  between  the  English  speak- 
ing maritime  provinces  on  the  one  side  and 
Ontario   and   the   great    west    on    the   other. 


DOMINION  DAY 


613 


Will  gradual  fusion  take  place  between  those 
widely  sundered  elements  and  a  nation  be 
formed  combining  the  best  qualities  of  both, 
as  Norman,  Saxon,  and  Cymri  fused  in  Eng- 
land, Teuton,  Norseman  and  Celt  in  Scot- 
land, and  equally  composite  elements  in  Ire- 
land? Oracles  gloomily  predict  political 
strife,  ending  some  day  in  open  contlict,  and 
possibly  with  not  a  few  of  these,  the  wish  is 
father  to  the  thought ;  but  careful  students 
of  our  actual  development  during  the  last 
fifty  years — the  period  in  which  both  races 
have  worked  together  harmoniously  in  pro- 
vincial and  federal  affairs,  since  their  eman- 
cipation from  the  Colonial  office — take  a  very 
different  view.  They  entertain  no  doubts 
concerning  our  future.  The  interaction  of 
the  two  elements  gives  distinctive  color  to 
our  national  life.  To  despair  of  a  peaceful 
solution  of  the  problem,  on  a  continent  where 
English  speech  and  constitutional  forms  are 
so  overwhelmingly  predominant,  argues  as- 
tonishing lack  of  faith  in  our  own  ideals  and 
moral  forces  and  in  the  far  reaching  results 
of  free  institutions. — Principal  G.  M. 
Grant,  LL.D. 

COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS,  Anglo- 
Canadian. — In  discussing  the  commercial  re- 
lations of  Canada  and  Great  Britain,  Mr. 
George  W.  Ross,  the  Ontario  Premier,  said: 
"  If  the  Canadian  seller  in  the  British  market 
had  a  preference  of  ten  per  cent,  or  even  five 
per  cent,  over  the  United  States  seller,  the 
effect  upon  Canadian  trade  would  be  simply 
incalculable.  Apply  it  to  the  millions  of  bush- 
els of  wheat  which  England  buys  with  which 
to  feed  her  subjects,  and  let  the  Canadian  ag- 
riculturist on  the  prairie  feel  that  he  has  the 
advantage  over  the  United  States  agricultur- 
ist, then  you  would  speedily  see  your  prairies 
filled  with  a  teeming  population,  and  the 
wheat  trade  of  America  change  its  course. 
The  same  would  apply  to  the  products  of  our 
forests  and  our  mine.-^.  I  hope  such  a  pref- 
erence may  some  day  be  given  to  us,  altho 
British  statesmen  as  yet  have  not  shown  any 
disposition  to  consider  it  seriously.  I  know  of 
nothing  Britain  could  do  that  would  be  more 
helpful  to  us  in  building  up  Canada,  and 
strengthening  the  relations  between  us  and 
the  Mother  Country."— C.  Y.  B.   (1900). 

EPOCHS,  Heroic— Canada  has  had  he- 
roic epochs  of  different  kinds  in  the  course 
of  her  development.  Parkman  describes 
those  of  the  old  or  French  regime,  from  the 
time  of  Champlain  to  the  day  when  Wolfe 
and  Montcalm  fell  on  one  battlefield  behind 
the  old  city  founded  by  Champlain.  Stories 
crowd  his  glowing  pages  concerning  adven- 
turous explorers,  Indian  ambuscades,  and 
horrors,  infantile  faith,  and  splendid  mar- 
tyrdoms of  Jesuit  and  Recollet  fathers,  and 
wars  waged  aeainst  the  British,  and  British 
colonists  on  sea,  lake,  land,  and  river. — 
Principal  G.  M.  Grant,  LL.D. 

EPOCHS,  Historic— The  real  history  of 
Canada  begins  with  the  Peace  of  Paris,  when 
France  withdrew  from  the  long  conflict 
waged  for  "  a  few  arpents  of  snow,"  in  1763, 


when  practically  the  whole  of  the  North 
American  continent  was  handed  over  to 
Great  Britain,  to  be  developed  under  a  freer 
air  than  Latin  civilization  breathed  at  home 
or  permitted  abroad.  In  the  very  next  dec- 
ade came  the  schism  of  the  British  race, 
with  the  vain  struggle  of  the  revolutionists 
to  win  or  to  conquer  Canada,  a  struggle  re- 
peated with  overwhelming  numbers  through 
successive  campaigns  in  1812-15  and  then  de- 
feated still  more  decisively.  But  that  which 
makes  the  true  life  of  a  nation  is  to  be  found 
not  only  in  the  stirring  events  of  war  but  in 
the  piping  times  of  peace.  In  our  case,  it 
should  be  looked  for  in  the  unrecorded  priva- 
tions endured  by  the  United  Empire  Loyal- 
ists, while  they  hewed  out,  from  the  forest 
primeval,  farms  for  their  children,  and  in 
similar  work  done  by  hearts  of  oak  from  the 
highlands  of  Scotland,  by  Irish  peasants  and 
English  gentlemen  and  laborers,  by  hardy 
fisher  folk  on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Atlantic  coast,  by  lumbermen  in  the  back- 
woods and  by  recent  pioneers  to  the  prairies 
of  the  great  Northwest  and  the  mountain 
ranges  of  British  Columbia.  In  the  lives  of 
those  emigrants  amid  strange  surroundings ; 
in  their  struggles  with  isolation,  poverty,  and 
a  winter  sterner  than  they  had  ever  known 
before ;  in  the  experiences  of  their  children 
v/ho  as  sons  of  the  soil  readily  adapted  them- 
selves to  its  conditions ;  in  the  formation  by 
them  of  infant  settlements  which  have  de- 
veloped into  prosperous  communities ;  in  the 
growth  of  municipal  life  and  the  struggles 
for  constitutional  freedom,  until,  in  1867, 
Canada  rose  to  be  a  confederation  of  Prov- 
inces which  soon  after  extended  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  and  in  its  subsequent  expansion 
into  its  present  assured  position  of  junior 
partnership  in  the  Empire, — our  true  history 
is  to  be  found. — Principal  G.  M.  Grant, 
LL.D. 

GOVERNMENT,  Canada's.— You  pos- 
sess the  best  form  of  government  with  which 
any  historical  nation  has  ever  been  blessed. 
The  excellency  of  the  British  Constitution, 
with  the  self-expanding  energies  it  embodies, 
is  an  ancient  story  which  I  need  not  insist 
upon,  but  as  there  are  always  external  forces 
which  disturb  the  working  of  the  most  per- 
fect mechanism,  so  in  an  old  country  like 
England,  many  influences  exist  to  trouble 
the  harmonious  operations  of  the  political 
machine ;  but  here  our  Constitution  has  lieen 
set  agoing  entirely  disencumbered  of  those 
entanglements  which  traditional  prejudices 
and  social  complications  have  given  birth  to 
at  home.  My  advice  to  you,  then,  would  be 
to  guard  and  cherish  the  characteristics  of 
your  Constitution  with  a  sleepless  vigilance. 
— Lord  Dufferin. 

GOVERNMENT,  Canada's.— It  is  com- 
mon for  us  to  hear  of  that  great  experiment 
in  government  in  which  the  vast  republic 
near  us  is  engaged.  But  in  the  Provinces  of 
British  North  America  we  have  an  experi- 
ment going  on,  of  no  light  interest  to  our 
glorious  mother  country,  or  to  mankind.  We 
occupy    a    particular    and    somewhat    critical 


6i4 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


position  on  this  continent,  and  more  than  we 
can  foresee  may  probably  depend  upon  the 
manner  in  which  our  descendants  may  be 
able  to  sustain  themselves  in  it.  It  will  be 
their  part,  as  it  is  now  ours,  to  demonstrate 
that  all  such  freedom  of  action  as  is  con- 
sistent with  rational  liberty,  with  public 
peace,  and  with  individual  security,  can  be 
enjoyed  under  a  constitutional  monarchy  as 
fully  as  under  the  purest  democracy  on  earth : 
to  prove  that,  in  proportion  as  intelligence 
increases,  what  is  meant  by  liberty  is  better 
understood,  and  what  is  soundest  and  most 
stable  in  government  is  better  appreciated 
and  more  firmly  supported.  The  glorious 
career  of  Britain  among  the  nations  of  the 
world,  demands  of  us  this  tribute  to  the 
tried  excellence  of  her  admirable  Constitu- 
tion ;  it  should  be  our  pride  to  show  that, 
far  removed  as  we  are  from  the  splendors 
of  Royalty  and  the  influences  of  the  Court, 
monarchy  is  not  blindly  preferred  among  us 
from  a  senseless  attachment  to  antiquated 
prejudices,  nor  reluctantly  tolerated  from  a 
sense  of  duty  or  a  dread  of  change ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  cherished  in  the  affec- 
tions, and  supported  by  the  free  and  firm 
will  of  an  intelligent  people,  whose  love  of 
order  has  been  strengthened  as  their  knowl- 
edge has  increased — a  people  who  regard 
with  loyal  pleasure  the  obligations  of  duty 
which  bind  them  to  the  Crown,  and  who 
value  their  kingly  form  of  government  not 
only  because  they  believe  it  to  be  the  most 
favorable  to  stability  and  peace,  but  especially 
for  the  security  it  affords  to  life  and  prop- 
erty, the  steady  support  which  it  gives  to  the 
laws,  and  the  certainty  with  which  it  ensures 
the  actual  enjoyment  of  all  that  deserves  to 
be  dignified  with  the  name  "  Freedom." — 
Sir  John  Beverly  Robinson. 

IMMIGRATION.— The  reason  why  _  we 
have  not  hitherto  attracted  and  retained 
more  people  in  Canada  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  is  because  we  have  not  made 
our  country  attractive  to  them ;  because  we 
are  not  known  as  a  nation  abroad;  because 
these  isolated  Provinces  have  not  impressed 
the  imagination  of  the  emigrating  classes. 
Who  in  the  byways  of  Germany,  or  even 
of  Britain,  knew  anything  of  Canada,  until 
the  other  day?  In  those  hives  of  human 
labor,  they  knew  only  one  country — America 
— and  only  one  seaport — New  York.  But 
once  give  our  united  Provinces  the  aspect  of 
empire,  make  them  a  power  and  a  name,  and 
the  reputation  and  credit  of  the  Dominion 
will  be  our  best  emigration  agent  abroad. 
.  .  .  I  cannot,  for  one,  agree  that  the  best 
way  to  make  ourselves  respected  abroad,  and 
to  secure  impunity  from  attack,  is  to  depre- 
ciate the  sources  of  our  strength ;  but  rather 
to  make  the  most  of  what  Lord  Bacon,  in  his 
True  Greatness  of  Britain,  considers  the 
main  element  of  a  nation's  strength,  its 
"  breed  of  men."  By  the  breed  of  men,  that 
brings  a  nation  safely  through  its  destinies. 
Lord  Bacon  meant — not  only  the  muscle  of 
men,  their  bodily  hardihood,  but  also  their 
morale — their  courage,  docility,  and  capacity 


for  combination — the  wisdom  of  the  few  to 
command,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  many  to 
cooperate.  I  do  not  disparage  the  power  of 
numbers ;  I  do  not  underrate  the  power  of 
wealth ;  but  above  both  I  place  the  safety  of 
any  state,  great  or  small,  in  the  spirit  and 
unity  of  its  inhabitants. 

The  policy  of  self-abasement  I  cannot  see 
in  the  light  of  policy  at  all.  View  it  how  we 
may ;  turn  it  round  and  round ;  hang  it  in 
any  light  you  like,  it  will  not  wear  the  linea- 
ments of  prudence,  or  fortitude  or  patriot- 
ism. While  we  should,  on  the  one  hand, 
avoid  all  bravado  as  unbecoming  our  posi- 
tion, we  should,  on  the  other  hand,  endeavor 
to  elevate  and  not  depress  the  public  spirit  of 
the  country.  We  should  strengthen  the  faith 
of  our  people  in  their  own  future,  the  faith 
of  every  Canadian  in  Canada,  and  of  every 
Province  in  its  sister  Province.  This  faith 
wrongs  no  one ;  burdens  no  one ;  menaces 
no  one ;  dishonors  no  one ;  and,  as  it  was 
said  of  old,  faith  moves  mountains,  so  I  ven- 
ture reverently  to  express  my  own  belief,  that 
if  the  difficulties  of  our  future  as  a  Dominion 
were  as  high  as  the  peaks  of  the  Alps  or 
Andes,  yet  that  the  pure  patriotic  faith  of  a 
united  people  would  be  all  sufficient  to  over- 
come and  ultimately,  to  triumph  over  all  such 
difficulties. — Hon.  D'Arcy  McGee. 

IMPERIALISM,  The  Future  of.— Cana- 
dians can  do  a  great  service  to  the  Empire 
and  to  humanity  by  throwing  all  their  influ- 
ence on  the  side  of  restraint ;  holding  them- 
selves ready  to  take  their  fair  share  in  the 
defense  of  the  Empire,  but  doing  all  that 
they  honorably  can  to  preserve  peace ;  ally- 
ing themselves  with  the  sober  patriotism  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  not  suffering  them- 
selves to  dance  to  any  tune  that  the  London 
music  halls  may  play,  and  being  exceedingly 
careful  that  the  growth  of  power  is  not  ac- 
companied by  the  growth  of  a  domineering 
spirit.  Great  are  the  sacrifices  that  have 
been  made  on  the  battlefields  of  South 
Africa ;  yet  there  is  probably  no  more  valu- 
able service  that  has  been  rendered  to  the 
Empire  than  the  maintenance  of  good  rela- 
tions with  the  United  States,  without  loss  of 
national  self-respect,  and  the  maintenance  of 
good  relations  between  French  Canadians 
and  people  of  British  descent  in  Canada.  If 
we  were  continually  quarreling  with  our 
neighbors  we  should  be  a  burden  and  a  source 
of  anxiety  instead  of  a  source  of  comfort  to 
the  Empire.  So  it  would  be  if  we  were 
continually  quarreling  with  our  French-Cana- 
dian fellow-citizens,  and  continually  appeal- 
ing to  England  to  settle  our  disputes.  On 
the  M  iiole,  and  making  allowance  for  some 
little  outbreaks  of  irritation,  we  have  avoided 
these  mistakes.  We  have  achieved  such  a 
settlement  of  the  race  question  that  it  is 
looked  upon  as  the  ideal  of  all  who  are 
working  for  the  reconciliation  of  Dutch  and 
English  in  South  Africa.  When  once  that  J 
reconciliation  is  accomplished  it  will  be  re-  I 
garded  as  a  triumph  of  statesmanship,  and 
any  man  who  would  wantonly  imperil  it 
would  be  branded  not  only  as  a  reckless 
demagog,  but  as  a  traitor  to  his  country.     In 


DOMINION  DAY 


ei5 


the  desire  for  new  achievements  in  Im- 
perialism, it  will  be  wise  not  to  lose  sight 
of  what  has  already  been  done  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  a  free  and  united  Canada. — John 
Lewis.     (Can.  M.) 

INDIES,  Canada  the  Northwest  Pas- 
sage to  the. — The  supposed  existence  of  a 
northwest  passage  to  the  Indies  was  the 
dream  that  allured  hardy  navigators  who  be- 
lieved in  the  earth's  rotundity  but  had  not 
the  data  for  determining  its  size.  In  our  day 
it  has  been  found  that  that  great  northwest 
passage  is  not  by  sea  or  river  but  by  land. 
We  have  discovered  that  the  shortest  way 
from  the  old  world  to  the  world  of  Japan 
and  China,  is  across  Canada,  and  therefore 
Cana^da  feels  herself  now  to  be  the  link  be- 
tween old  Europe  and  the  older  East  and 
also  the  link  between  the  three  great  self- 
governing  parts  of  the  British  Empire. — 
Principal  Grant. 

LOYALTY  TO  THE  OLD  COUNTRY.— 
Quebec  has  a  Valhalla  of  departed  heroes 
distinctly  its  own ;  yet  still  it  does  not  turn 
its  back  upon  the  older  France,  but  lives  in 
the  past,  inspired  by  its  spirit  to  work  out 
the  problem  of  a  new  nationality  in  its  own 
way.  There  is  no  more  patriotic  Canadian 
than  the  Frenchman,  and  he  is  also  the 
proudest  of  his  origin  and  race.  There  is 
nothing,  then,  to  forbid  the  English-speak- 
ing Canadian  from  revering  the  country  of 
his  fathers,  be  it  England,  Scotland,  or  Ire- 
land ;  on  the  contrary,  it  may  be  laid  down 
as  a  national  maxim,  that  the  unpatriotic 
Englishman,  Scot,  or  Irishman,  will  be  sure 
to  prove  a  very  inferior  specimen  of  the 
Canadian. — W.  J.  Rattray. 

LTJNDY'S  LANE,  The  Battle  of.— The 
Battle  of  Lundy's  Lane  marks  an  epoch  in 
Canadian  history,  and  an  epoch  of  which  all 
Canadians  are  proud.  The  battle  occurred 
on  the  evening  of  the  25th  of  July,  1814,  and 
resulted  in  a  decisive  victory  for  the  Cana- 
dian and  British  forces.  The  contest  raged 
for  four  hours ;  at  one  time  the  Americans 
gained  a  slight  advantage  and  captured  (for 
a  brief  period  only)  a  few  of  our  guns. 
Before  midnight  the  guns  were  recaptured, 
the  enemy  were  in  full  retreat,  and  the  Cana- 
dian forces  held  possession  of  the  field.  The 
anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Lundy's  Lane  is 
celebrated  each  year  with  becoming  cere- 
mony, and  in  fact  the  celebration  is  attract- 
ing more  attention  as  time  goes  on. — C.  Y. 
B.  (1900). 

PIONEERS,  The.— He  must  have  a  dull 
and  sluggish  soul,  who  can  look  without 
emotion  on  the  quiet  graves  of  the  early 
settlers  of  this  country,  who  can  tread  upon 
their  moldering  bones  without  a  thought  of 
their  privations  and  their  toils,  who  can,  from 
their  tombs,  look  out  upon  the  rural  loveli- 
ness— the  fruitfulness  and  peace  by  which  he 
is  surrounded,  nor  drop  a  tear  to  the  memo- 
ries of  the  dead,  who  won,  by  the  stoutness 
of  their  hearts,  and  the  sweat  of  their  brows, 
the  blessings  their  children  have  only  to 
cherish  and  enjoy.  They  plunged  into  the 
forest,  not  as  we  do  now,  for  a  summer  day's 


ramble,  or  an  hour  of  tranquil  musing,  but 
to  win  a  home  from  the  ruggedness  of  uncul- 
tivated nature,  and  in  despite  of  the  dusky 
savage  thirsting  for  their  blood.  Oh !  for 
the  muse  of  Gray  to  pour  out  a  befitting 
tribute  to  the  dead. — Joseph  Howe. 

POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
CANADA. — Our  political  evolution  has  had 
the  same  lesson  for  us.  It  has  taught  us  to 
borrow  ideas  with  equal  impartiality  from 
sources  apparently  opposite.  We  have  bor- 
rowed the  federal  idea  from  the  United 
States,  and  our  parliamentary  and  judicial 
systems  from  Britain,  and  so  we  have  formed 
a  Constitution  better  than  that  which  either 
the  mother  country  or  the  older  daughter 
enjoys.  At  any  rate,  we  made  it  ourselves 
and  it  fits  us ;  and  we  have  thus  been  taught 
that  ideas  belong  to  no  one  people,  that  they 
are  the  common  property  of  mankind,  and 
that  we  should  borrow  new  thoughts  from 
every  country  that  has  found  by  experiment 
that  they  will  work  well. — Principal  Grant. 

QUEEN,  Canadian  Attachment  to  the, 

— Our  attachment  to  the  Queen,  our  own 
Victoria,  is  mingled  with  a  tenderness  not 
inconsistent  with  the  sterner  sentiment  which 
it  softens  and  embellishes  without  enervating. 
Let  her  legitimate  authority  as  a  constitu- 
tional monarch ;  let  her  reputation  as  a 
woman  be  assailed,  and  notwithstanding  the 
lamentation  of  Burke,  that  the  age  of  chiv- 
alry was  past,  thousands  of  swords  would 
leap  from  their  scabbards  to  avenge  her.  Ay, 
and  they  would  be  drawn  as  freely,  and 
wielded  as  vigorously  and  bravely  in  Can- 
ada— in  Nova  Scotia — as  in  England.  Loy- 
alty !  love  of  British  institutions  !  They  are 
engrafted  in  our  very  nature ;  they  are  part 
and  parcel  of  ourselves ;  and  I  can  no  more 
tear  them  from  my  heart  even  if  I  would, 
and  lacerate  all  its  fibers,  than  I  would  sever 
a  limb  from  my  body.  And  what  are  those 
institutions?  A  distinguished  American 
statesman  recently  answered  this  question. 
He  said :  "  The  proudest  government  that 
exists  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  is  that  of 
Great  Britain,  and  the  great  Pitt  her  proud- 
est statesman,  when  he  would  tell  of  Brit- 
ain's crowning  glory — did  not  speak  as  he 
might  have  done,  of  her  widespread  Domin- 
ion, upon  which  the  sun  never  sets.  He  did 
not  speak  of  martial  achievements,  of  glori- 
ous battlefields,  and  of  splendid  naval  con- 
flicts ;  but  he  said,  with  swelling  breast,  and 
kindling  eye,  that  the  poorest  man  of  Great 
Britain  in  his  cottage  might  bid  defiance  to 
all  the  forces  of  the  Crown.  It  might  be 
frail,  its  roof  might  shake,  the  wind  might 
blow  through  it,  the  storm  might  enter,  the 
rain  might  enter ;  but  the  King  of  England 
could  not  enter  it.  In  all  his  power  he  dare 
not  cross  the  threshold  of  that  ruined  tene- 
ment."— Sir  William  Young. 

RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT.— Our  re- 
ligious evolution  has  taught  us  the  same 
thing.  We  have  been  enabled  to  accomplish 
a  measure  of  religious  unification  greater 
than  either  the  mother  land  or  the  United 
States    has    found   possible.     Eighteen   years 


6t6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ago,  for  instance,  all  the  Presbyterian  de- 
nominations united  into  one  Church,  wide  as 
the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Immediately  there- 
after the  Methodist  Churches  took  the  same 
step,  and  this  very  month  the  Anglicans  are 
doing  likewise.  Still  farther,  these  great 
Protestant  Churches  have  appointed  com- 
mittees to  see  whether  it  is  not  possible  to 
have  a  wider  union,  and  the  young  life  of 
Canada  says  "  Amen "  to  the  proposal. — 
Principal  Grant. 

SLAVERY. — Slavery  was  gradually  ex- 
tinguished in  Upper  Canada  by  an  act  of  the 
Legislature  passed  July  9,  1793,  but  slavery 
still  existed  in  York  on  March  i.  181 1, — C. 
Y.  B.  (1900). 

TRADE,  Increase  of.— In  1868  the  total 
exports    amounted    to   $57,567,888,    the   total 


imports  to  $73,459,644,  the  grand  total  being 
$131,027.  532.  In  1899  the  exports  amounted 
to  $158,896,905,  the  total  imports  to  $162,- 
764,308,  the  grand  total  being  $321,661,213. — 
C.  Y.   B.    (1900). 

UNITY,  Canadian. — We  are  here  a  na- 
tion, composed  of  the  most  heterogeneous 
elements — Protestants  and  Catholics,  Eng- 
lish, French,  German,  Irish,  Scotch,  every 
one,  let  it  be  remembered,  with  his  tradi- 
tions, with  his  prejudices.  In  each  of  these 
conflicting  antagonistic  elements,  however, 
there  is  a  common  spot  of  patriotism,  and 
the  only  true  policy  is  that  which  reaches 
that  cominon  patriotism  and  makes  it  vibrate 
in  all  toward  common  ends  and  common  as- 
pirations.— Wilfrid  Laurier. 


POETRY 


Annapolis  Royal 

By  Edward  Blackadder 

I  loiter  here  within  this  ancient  town — 
Long  time  agone  the  rising  hope  of  France, 
The  seed  of  future  empire — as  in  trance, 

'Mid  storied  scenes,  I  wander  up  and  down. 

Here  are  the  grass-grown  walls  which  bore 
the  frown 
Of  death-disgorging  cannon  long  ago. 
And  wide  the  gleaming  basin  gleams  below. 
Where   thunder-bearing   ships   no    more    are 
known. 

Yea,   death   hath   reaped   its   harvest   in   this 
place ; 
Along    these    shores    have    hundreds    bled 

and  died 
To  save  this  jewel  for  the  Gallic  crown. 
Stern  fate  ordained  it  for  another  race : 
The  sturdy  Saxon  tills  yon  meadows  wide ; 
Peace  rules  o'er  all ;    war's  trumpet  sleeps 
unblown. 

Our  Beautiful  Land 

By  Helen   M.  Johnson 

What  land  more  beautiful  than  ours? 

What  other  land  more  blest  ? 
The    South   with   all   its   wealth   of  flowers? 

The  prairies  of  the  West? 

O  no !    there's  not  a  fairer  land 
Beneath  Heaven's  azure  dome — 

Where  Peace  holds  Plenty  by  the  hand. 
And  Freedom  finds  a  home. 

The  slave  who  but  her  name  hath  heard, 

Repeats  it  day  and  night ; — 
And   envies  every  little   bird 

That  takes  its  northward  flight ! 

As  to  the  Polar  star  they  turn 

Who  brave  a  pathless  sea, — 
So  the  oppressed  in  secret  yearn, 

'"     •■  r-'tive  land  for  thee! 


How  many  loving  memories  throng 
Round  Britain's  stormy  coast ! 

Renowned  in  story  and  in  song. 
Her  glory  is  our  boast ! 

With  loyal  hearts  we  still  abide 
Beneath  her  sheltering  wing; — 

While  with  true  patriot  love  and  pride 
To  Canada  we  cling ! 

We   wear   no   haughty   tyrant's   chain, — 

We  bend  no  servile  knee. 
When  to  the  mistress  of  the  main 

We  pledge  our  fealty. 

She  binds  us  with  the  cords  of  love, — 

All  others  we  disown ; 
The  rights  we  owe  to  God  above 

We  yield  to  Him  alone. 

May  He  our  future  course  direct 

By  His  unerring  hand ; 
Our   laws   and   liberties   protect. 

And  bless  our  native  land! 

Canada 
By  Charles  G.  D.  Roberts 

O  Child  of  Nations,  giant-limbed. 

Who  stand'st  among  the  nations  now 

Unheeded,  unadorned,  unhymned, 
With  unanointed  brow. 

How  long  the  ignoble  sloth,  how  long 
The  trust   in   greatness   not  thy   own? 

Surely  the  lion's  brood  is  strong 
To  front  the  world  alone ! 

How  long  the  indolence  ere  thou  dare 
Achieve  thy   destiny,   seize   thy   fame, 

Ere  our  proud  eyes  behold  thee  bear 
A  nation's   franchise,   nation's   n.ime? 


DOMINION  DAY 


617 


To  Canada 
By  Charles  G.  D.  Roberts 

Awake,  my  country,  the  hour  of  dreams  is 

done 
Doubt  not,   nor  dread  the  greatness  of  thy 

fate. 
Tho  faint  souls  fear  the  keen,  confronting  sun 
And  fain  would  bid  the  morn  in  splendor  wait! 
Tho  dreamers  wrapped  in  starry  visions  cry : 
"  Lo,    yon    thy    future,    yon    thy    faith,    thy 

fame !  " 
And  stretch  vain  hands  to  stars.     Thy  fame 

is  nigh. 
Here    in    Canadian    hearth,    and    home    and 

name; 
This  name  which  yet  shall  grow  till  all  the 

nations  know 
Us  for  a  patriot  people,  heart  and  hand. 
Loyal  to  our  native  hearth,  our  native  land. 

Canadians,  Awake 

By  a.  M.  Taylor 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 
The  star  of  morn  has  left  the  sky; 
Your  fathers'  flag  of  victory, — 
That  glorious  banner  floats  on  high, 
Earth  is  beneath  and  God  above ; 
And  human  life  is  heavenly  love; 
Arise,  young  legions,  onward  move ! 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 

Protect  the  rights  your  sires  have  won ! 

The  heritage  of  sire  to  son, — 

The  Crown  of  Peace. — Hope's  rising  sun. 

'Tis  valor  to  adore  the  light; 

'Tis  honor  to  make  free  with  might ; 

'Tis  glory  to  establish  right. 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 

Stretch  forth  the  mighty  arm  of  toil ; 

Embattle,   beautify  the  soil 

Your  fathers  won  by  brave  turmoil ; 

And,   while  your  glory   swells,   behold 

Your  virgin  empire  still  unfold 

Her  halcyon  hope,  her  wealth  untold. 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 

Let  Christian  mercy  shrine  your  heart ; 

Let  vice  and  vanity  depart ; 

The  poor  may  fight  their  country's  part ; — 

Extend   the   hand   of  brotherhood 

To  honest  hearts  and  loyal  blood, — 

The  truly  brave  are  truly  good. 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 

While  in  your  loyal  bosoms,  burns 

The  patriot's  fire,  the  heart  that  warns, 

That  victory  loves,  that  thraldom  spurns, — 

Bid  those,  who  would  oppress  you,  know 

You  dread  not  death,  you  fear  no  foe ; — 

Your  swords  are  sharp,  your  bosoms  true. 

Ye  sons  of  Canada,  awake ! 

Behold  the  grass  on  which  ye  tread. 

Behold  the  white  stars  overhead, 

All  labor  for  a  common   need. 

'Tis  sacred  dust  beneath  your  feet; 

Your  fathers'  graves  in  memory  sweet, 

Their   patriot    spirits   ever   beat. 


Arouse  Ye,  Brave  Canadians 

By  J.  D.  Edgar 

Lines  suggested  by  General  Brock's  stirring 
appeal  to  the  people  of  Upper  Canada  at 
the  opening  of  the  war  of  1812. 

Canadian  arms  are  stout  and  strong, 

Canadian  hearts  are  true ; 
Your  homes  were  in  the  forest  made, 

Where  pine   and   maple  grew. 
A  haughty  foe  is  marching 

Your  country  to  enthrall ; 
Arouse  ye,  brave  Canadians, 

And  answer  to  my  call ! 

Let  every  man  who  swings  an  ax. 

Or  follows  at  the  plow, 
Abandon  farm  and  homestead, 

And  grasp  a  rifle  now  ! 
We'll  trust  the  God  of  Battles, 

Altho  our  force  be  small ; 
Arouse  ye,  brave  Canadians, 

And  answer  to  my  call ! 

Let  mothers,   tho   with  breaking  hearts. 

Give  up  their  gallant  sons; 
Let  maidens  bid  their  lovers  go, 

And  wives  their  dearer  ones ! 
Then  rally  to  the  frontier, 

And  form  a  living  wall ; 
Arouse  ye,  brave  Canadians, 

And  answer  to  my  call ! 

Our  Caxiadian  Dominion 

By  Pamelia  S.  Vining 

Fair   land   of  peace !     to    Britain's   rule   and 

throne 
Adherent  still,  yet  happier  than  alone, 
And  free  as  happy,  and  as  brave  as  free. 
Proud    are    thy    children, — ^justly    proud,    of 

thee ; — 
Thou   hast  no   streams    renowned  in   classic 

lore, 
No  vales  where  fable  heroes  moved  of  yore, 
No  hills  where  Poesy  enraptured  stood, 
No  mythic  fountains,  no  enchanted   wood; 
But  unadorned,  rough,  cold,  and  often  stern, 
The  careless  eye  to  other  lands  might  turn, 
And  seek,  where  nature's  bloom  is  more  in- 
tense. 
Softer  delights  to  charm  the  eye  of  sense. 

We  cannot  boast  those  skies  of  milder  ray, 
'Neath    which    the    orange   mellows    day    by 

day; 
Where  the  Magnolia  spreads  her  snowy  flow- 
ers. 
And  Nature  revels  in  perennial  bowers; — 
Here,    Winter    holds    his    long    and    solemn 

reign, 
And  madly  sweeps  the  desolated  plain ; — 
But  Health  and  Vigor  hail  the  wintry  strife, 
With  all  the  buoyant  glow  of  happy  life ; 
And     by     the     blazing     chimney's     cheerful 

hearth. 
Smile  at  the  blast  'mid  songs  and  household 
mirth. 


6i8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


But   we   who   know   thee   proudly   point   the 

hand 
Where  thy  broad  rivers  roll  serenely  grand — 
Where,   in   still   beauty  'neath  our   northern 

sky, 
Thy  lordly  lakes  in  solemn  grandeur  lie — 
Where  old  Niagara's  awful  voice  has  given 
The    floods'    deep    anthem    to    the    ear    of 

Heaven — 
Through  the  long  ages  of  the  vanished  past ; 
Through  summer's  bloom  and  winter's  angry 

blast,— 
Nature's  proud  utterance  of  unwearied  song. 
Now,  as  at  first,  majestic,  solemn,   strong, 
And  ne'er  to  fail,  till  the  archangel's  cry 
Shall  still  the  million  tones  of  earth  and  skv, 
And    send    the    shout    to    ocean's    farthest 

shore : — 
"  Be    hushed   ye    voices ! — time    shall    be   no 

more !  " 

Here,    Freedom   looks   o'er   all    these   broad 

domains, 
And  hears  no  heavy  clank  of  servile  chains ; 
Here  man,  no  matter  what  his  color  be, 
Can    stand    erect,    and    proudly    say,    "  I'm 

FREE  !  " — 
No  crouching  slaves  cower  in  our  busy  marts, 
With  straining  eyes  and  anguish-riven  hearts. 

The  beam  that  gilds  alike  the  palace  walls 
And  lowly  hut,  with  genial  radiance  falls 
On  peer  and  peasant, — and  the  humblest  here 
Walks  in  the  sunshine,  free  as  is  the  peer. 
Proudly  he   stands   with  muscle  strong  and 

free. 
The  serf — the  slave  of  no  man  doomed  to  be. 
His  own,  the  arm  the  heavy  ax  that  wields  ; 
His    own,    the    hands    that    till   the    summer 

fields ; 
His  own,  the  babes  that  prattle  in  the  door ; 
His   own,   the   wife   that   treads   the   cottage 

floor; 
All  the  sweet  ties  of  life  to  him  are  sure ; 
All  the  proud  rights  of  manhood  are  secure. 

Blest  land  of  peace! — O  may'st  thou  ever  be 
Even  as  now  the  land  of  liberty! 
Treading  serenely  thy  bright  upward  road. 
Honored  of  nations,  and  approved  of  God ! 
On    thy    fair    front    emblazoned    clear    and 

bright — 
Freedom,  Fraternity,  and  Equal  Right! 

Ddninion    Day 

By  Agnes  Maule  Machar 

With  loud  huzzas  and  merry  bells,  and  can- 
non's thundering  peal. 

And  pennons  fluttering  on  the  breeze,  and 
serried  rows  of  steel. 

We  greet,  again,  the  birthday  morn  of  our 
young  giant's  land. 

From  the  Atlantic  stretching  wide  to  far 
Pacific  strand ; 

With  flashing  rivers,  ocean  lakes,  and  prai- 
ries wide  and  free. 

And  waterfalls  and  forests  dim,  and  moun- 
tains by  the  sea ; 

A  country  on  whose  birth-hour  smiled  the 
genius  of  romance, 


Above  whose  cradle  brave  hands  waved  the 

lily-cross  of  France ; 
Whose  infancy  was  grimly  nursed  in  peril, 

pain,  and  wo ; 
Whose  gallant  hearts  found  early  graves  be- 
neath Canadian  snow ; 
When  savage  raid  and  ambuscade  and  fam- 
ine's sore  distress. 
Combined  their   strength,   in   vain,   to  crush 

the  dauntless  French  noblesse ; 
When  her  dim,  trackless  forest  lured,  again 

and  yet  again. 
From    silken    court    of    sunny    France,    her 

flower,  the  brave  Champlain. 
And   now,    her   proud   traditions   boast   four 

blazoned  rolls  of  fame, — 
Crecy's  and  Flodden's   deadly   foes   our  an- 
cestors we  claim ; 
Past   feud  and  battle  buried  far  behind  the 

peaceful  years. 
While    Gaul    and    Celt    and    Briton    turn    to 

pruning-hooks  their  spears; 
Four  nations  welded  into  one, — with  long  his- 
toric past. 
Have  found  in  these  our  western  wilds,  one 

common  life,  at  last ; 
Through    the    young    giant's    mighty    limbs, 

that  stretch  from  sea  to  sea. 
There    runs    a    throb    of    conscious    life — of 

waking  energy. 
From  Nova  Scotia's  misty  coast  to  far  Co- 
lumbia's shore. 
She  wakes, — a  band  of  scattered  homes  and 

colonies  no  more. 
But  a  young  nation,  with  her  life  full  beating 

in  her  breast, 
A  noble  future  in  her  eyes — the  Britain  of 

the  West. 
Hers   be  the  noble   task  to  fill   the  yet   un- 
trodden plains 
With   fruitful,   many-sided  life   that  courses 

through  her  veins ; 
The   English   honor,   nerve,   and   pluck, — the 

Scotsman's  love  of  right, — 
The  grace  and  courtesy  of  France, — the  Irish 

fancy  bright, — 
The    Saxon's    faithful    love    of    home,    and 

home's  affection  blest ; 
And,  chief  of  all,  our  holy  faith, — of  all  our 

treasures  best. 
A  people  poor  in  pomp  and  state,  but  rich  in 

noble  deeds. 
Holding  that  righteousness  exalts  the  people 

that  it  leads ; 
As  yet  the  waxen  mold  is  soft,  the  opening 

page  is  fair : 
It  rests  with  those  who  rule  us  now,  to  leave 

their  impress  there, — 
The  stamp  of  true  nobility,  high  honor,  stain- 
less truth ; 
The  earnest  quest  of  noble  ends ;    the  gener- 
ous heart  of  youth ; 
The  love  of  country,  soaring  far  above  dull 

party  strife ; 
The    love    of    learning,    art,    and    song, — the 

crowning  grace  of  life ; 
The  love  of  science,  soaring  far  through  Na- 
ture's hidden  ways ; 
The  love  and   fear  of  Nature's  God, — a  na- 
tion's highest  praise. 


DOMINION  DAY 


619 


So,  in  the  long  hereafter,  this  Canada  shall 
be 

The  worthy  heir  of  British  power  and  British 
liberty ; 

Spreading  the  blessings  of  her  sway  to  her 
remotest  bounds, 

While,  with  the  fame  of  her  fair  name,  a 
continent  resounds. 

True  to  her  high  traditions,  to  Britain's  an- 
cient glory 

Of  patient  saint  and  martyr,  alive  in  death- 
less story ; 

Strong  in  their  liberty  and  truth,  to  shed 
from  shore  to  shore 

A  light  among  the  nations,  till  nations  are 
no  more. 

Hurrah  For  the  New  Dominion 
By  a.  McLachlan 

Let  others  raise  the  song,  in  praise 

Of  lands  renown'd  in  story; 
The  land  for  me,  of  the  maple  tree, 

And  the  pine,  in  all  his  glory ! 

Hurrah !    for  the  grand  old  forest  land, 
Where  Freedom  spreads  her  pinion; 

Hurrah !    with  me,  for  the  maple  tree, 
Hurrah  !    for  the  New  Dominion  ! 

Be  hers  the  light,  and  hers  the  might, 

Which  Liberty  engenders ; 
Sons  of  the  free,  come  join  with  me — 

Hurrah  !   for  her  defenders. 

And  be  their  fame  in  loud  acclaim — 

In  grateful  songs  ascending; 
The  fame  of  those,  who  met  her  foes, 

And  died,  her  soil  defending. 

Hurrah !    for  the  grand  old  forest  land 
Where   freedom  spreads  her  pinion; 
Hurrah !    with  me,  for  the  maple  tree, 
Hurrah !    for  the  New  Dominion ! 

Ereedom's  Journey 

By  Thomas  D'Arcy  McGee 

Freedom !    a  nursling  of  the  North, 

Rocked  in  the  arms  of  stormy  pines. 
On    fond   adventure   wander'd   forth 
Where  south  the  sun  superbly  shines; 
The  prospect  shone  so  bright  and  fair, 
She    dreamt    her   home    was   there,    was 
there. 

She  lodged  'neath  many  a  gilded  roof, 
They  gave  her  praise  in  many  a  hall. 
Their   kindness   checked  the   free   reproof. 
Her  heart  dictated  to  let  fall ; 

She  heard  the  negro's  helpless  prayer. 
And  felt  her  home  could  not  be  there. 

She  sought  through   rich   Savannah's  green. 

And  in  the  broad  palmetto  grove. 
But  where  her  altar  should  have  been 
She  found  nor  liberty  nor  love ; 
A  cloud  came  o'er  her  forehead  fair. 
She  found  no  shrine  to  Freedom  there. 


Back  to  her  native  scenes  she  turn'd, 
Back  to  the   hardy,  kindly   North, 
Where  bright  aloft  the  pole-star  burned. 
Where  stood  her  shrine  by  every  hearth; 
"  Back  to  the  North  I  will  repair," 
The  Goddess  cried,  "  my  home  is  there." 

Here's  To  the  Land 

By  William  Wye  Smith 

Here's  to  the  land  of  the  rock  and  the  pine; 

Here's    to   the    land   of   the    raft    and   the 

river ! 

Here's  to  the  land  where  the  sunbeams  shine, 

And    the    night    that    is    bright    with    the 

north-light's  quiver ! 

Here's  to  the  land  of  the  ax  and  the  hoe! 
Here's    to    the    stalwarts    that    give    them 
their  glory ; — 
With  stroke  upon  stroke,  and  with  blow  upon 
blow. 
The   might  of  the   forest   has  passed  into 
story ! 

Here's    to    the    land    with    its    blanket    of 
snow ; — 
To   the    hero   and    hunter   the    welcomest 
pillow ! 
Here's  to  the  land  where  the  stormy  winds 
blow 
Three  days,  ere  the  mountains  can  talk  to 
the  billow ! 

Here's  to  the  buckwheats  that  smoke  on  her 
board ! 
Here's   to   the   maple   that   sweetens   their 
story ; 
Here's  to  the  scythe  that   we   swing  like  a 
sword. 
And  here's  to  the  fields  where  we  gather 
our  glory ! 

Here's   to   her   hills   of  the   moose   and  the 
deer; 
Here's  to  her  forests,  her  fields,  and  her 
flowers ! 
Here's  to  her  homes  of  unchangeable  cheer. 
And  the  maid  'neath  the  shade  of  her  own 
native  bowers ! 

The  Battle  of  La  Prairie   (1691) 

By  William  D.  Schuyler-Lighthall 

That  was  a  brave  old  epoch 

Our  age  of  chivalry 
When  the  Briton  met  the  Frenchman 

At  the  fight  of  La  Prairie ; 
And  the  manhood  of  New  England, 

And  the  Netherlanders  true 
And  Mohawks  sworn,  gave  battle 

To  the  Bourbon's  liHed  blue. 

That  was  a  brave  old  governor 

Who  gathered  his  array, 
And  stood  to  meet,  he  knew  not  what, 

On   that   alarming   day. 
Eight  hundred,  amid  rumors  vast 

That  filled  the  wild  wood's  gloom. 
With  all    New   England's   flower  of  youth, 

Fierce  for  New  France's  doom. 


620 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


And  the  brave  old  half  five  hundred! 

Theirs  should  in  truth  be  fame; 
Borne  down  the  savage  Richelieu, 

On  what  emprise  they  came ! 
Your  hearts  are  great  enough,  O  few: 

Only  your  numbers  fail. 
New  France  asks  more  for  conquerors 

All  glorious  tho  your  tale. 

It  was  a  brave  old  battle 

That  surged  around  the  fort, 
When  D'Hosta  fell  in  charging, 

And  'twas  deadly  strife  and  short, 
When  in  the  very  quarters 

They   contested   face   and   hand, 
And  many  a  goodly  fellow 

Crimsoned  yon  La  Prairie  sand. 

And  those  were  brave  old  orders 

The  colonel  gave  to  meet 
That  forest  force  with  trees  entrenched 

Opposing  the  retreat : 
"  De  Calliere's  strength's  behind  us. 

And  in  front  your  Richelieu ; 
We  must  go  straightforth  at  them; 

There  is  nothing  else  to  do." 

And  then  the  brave  old  story  comes, 

Of  Schuyler  and  Valrennes, 
When    "  Fight "    the    British    colonel   called, 

Encouraging  his  men. 
"  For  the  Protestant  Religion 

And  the  honor  of  our  King !  " — 
"  Sir,  I  am  here  to  answer  you  !  " 

Valrennes  cried,  forthstepping. 

Were  those  our  brave  old  races? 

Well,  here  they  still  abide; 
And  yours  is  one  or  other. 

And  the  second's  at  your  side; 
So  when  you  hear  your  brother  say, 

"  Some  loyal  deed  I'll  do," 
Like  old  Valrennes,  be  ready  with 

"  I'm  here  to  answer  you  !  " 

Ottawa 
By  Duncan   Campbell   Scott 

City    about    whose    brow    the    north    winds 

blow. 
Girdled    with    woods    and    shod    with    river 

foam, 
Called  by  a  name  as  old  as  Troy  or  Rome, 
Be    great    as    they,    but    pure    as    thine    own 

snow; 
Rather  flash  up  amid  the  auroral  glow. 
The   Lamia  city  of  the   northern   star. 
Than   be   so   hard   with   craft   or   wild   with 

war. 
Peopled    with    deeds    remembered    for    their 

wo. 
Thou    art   too   bright    for   guile,    too   young 

for  tears. 
And    thou    wilt    live    to    be    too    strong    for 

Time ; 
For   he   may  mock  thee   with   his   furrowed 

frowns. 
But  thou  wilt  grow  in  calm  throughout  the 

years, 
Cinctured    with    peace    and    crowned    with 

power  sublime, 
The  maiden  queen  of  all  the  towered  towns. 


The  Story  of  a  People 

By   Louis   Honore  Frechette 

O  history  of  my  country,  set  with  pearls  un- 
known. 
With   love   I   kiss   thy  pages  venerated.  .  .  . 

Hail  first  to  thee,  O  Cartier,  brave  and  hardy 
sailor. 

Whose  footsteps  sounded  on  the  unexplored 
shores 

Of  our  immense  St.  Lawrence.  Hail,  Cham- 
plain, 

Maisonneuve,  illustrious  founders  of  two 
cities. 

Who  show  above  our  waves  their  rival 
beauties. 

There  was  at  first  only  a  group  of  Bretons 

Brandishing  the  sword-blade  and  the  wood- 
man's ax, 

Sea-wolves  bronzed  by  sea-winds  at  the  port 
of  St.  Malo; 

Cradled  since  their  childhood  beneath  the  sky 
and  water. 

Men  of  iron  and  high  of  heart  and  stature. 

They,  under  eye  of  God,  set  sail  for  what 
might  come — 

Seeking,  in  the  mazes  of  the  foggy  ocean, 

Not  the  famous  El  Dorados,  but  a  soil  where 
they  might  plant. 

As  symbols  of  their  saving,  beside  the  cross 
of  Christ, 

The  flag  of  France. 

Snowshoeing   Song 

By  Arthur  Weir 

Hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo ! 

Gather,  gather,  ye  men  in  white; 

The  winds  blow  keenly,  the  moon  is  bright, 

The  sparkling  snow  lies  firm  and  white; 

Tie  on  the  shoes,  no  time  to  lose, 

We  must  be  over  the  hill  to-night. 

Hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo ! 

.Swiftly  in  single  file  we  go. 

The  city  is  soon  left  far  below. 

Its   countless   lights   like    diamonds   glow; 

And  as  we  climb  we  hear  the  chime 

Of  church  bells  stealing  o'er  the  snow. 

Hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo ! 

Like  winding-sheet  about  the  dead. 

O'er  hill  and  dale  the  snow  is  spread, 

And  silences  our  hurried  tread; 

The  pines  bend  low,  and  to  and  fro 

The  magpies  toss  their  boughs  o'erhead. 

Hilloo.  hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo ! 

We  laugh  to  scorn  the  angry  blast. 

The  mountain  top  is  gained  and  past. 

Descent  begins,  'tis  ever  fast — 

One  short  quick  run,  and  toil  is  done. 

We  reach  the  welcome  inn  at  last. 

Shake  off,  shake  off  the  clinging  snow; 
Unloose  the  shoe,  the  sash  untie. 
Fling  tuque  and  mittens  lightly  by; 
The  chimney  fire  is  blazing  high. 
And,   richly  stored,   the  festive  board 
Awaits   the   merry  company. 


DOMINION  DAY 


621 


Remove  the  fragments  of  the  feast ! 

The  steaming  coffee,  waiter,  bring. 

Now  tell  the  tale,  the  chorus  sing, 

And  let  the  laughter  loudly  ring; 

Here's  to  our  host,   drink  down   the   toast, 

Then  up !    for  time  is  on  the  wing. 

Hilloo.  hilloo,  hilloo,  hilloo ! 
The  moon  is  sinking  out  of  sight, 
Across  the  sky  dark  clouds  take  flight, 
And  dimly  looms  the  mountain  height ; 
Tie  on  the  shoes,  no  time  to  lose, 
We  must  be  home  again  to-night. 

A  Canadian  Folk-Song 

By  William  Wilfred  Campbell 

The  doors  are  shut,  the  windows  fast, 
Outside  the  gust  is  driving  past. 
Outside  the  shivering  ivy  clings. 
While  on  the  hob  the  ketrle  sings. 

Margery,  Margery,  make  the  tea, 

Singeth  the  kettle  merrily. 

The  streams  are  hushed  up  where  they  flowed, 
The  ponds  are  frozen  along  the  road. 
The  cattle  are  housed  in  shed  and  byre, 
While  singeth  the  kettle  on  the  fire. 

Margery,  Margery,  make  the  tea, 

Singeth  the  kettle  merrily. 


The  fisherman  on  the  bay  in  his  boat 
Shivers  and  buttons  up  his  coat; 
The  traveler  stops  at  the  tavern  door, 
And  the  kettle  answers  the  chimney's  roar. 

Margery,  Margery,  make  the  tea, 

Singeth  the  kettle  merrily. 

The  firelight  dances  upon  the  wall. 
Footsteps  are  heard  in  the  outer  hall. 
And  a  kiss  and  a  welcome  that  fill  the  room. 
And  the  kettle  sings  in  the  glimmer  and  gloom. 

Margery,  Margery,  make  the  tea, 

Singeth  the  kettle  merrily. 

The   Heroes   of    Fish    Creek  and   Batoche 

Not  in  the  quiet  churchyard,  near  those  who 

loved  them  best ; 
But    by    the    wild    Saskatchewan,    they    laid 

them  to  their  rest. 
A  simple  soldier's  funeral  in  that  lonely  spot 

was  theirs. 
Made  consecrate  and  holy  by  a  nation's  tears 

and  prayers, 
Their  requiem — the  music  of  the  river's  surg- 
ing tide ; 
Their  funeral  wreaths,  the  wild  flowers  that 

grow  on  every  side ; 
Their  monument — undying  praise  from  each 

Canadian  heart. 
That    hears    how,    for    their    country's    sake, 

they  nobly  bore  their  part. 

Selected. 


622  HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 

(July  4) 

TO  every  loyal  American  one  day  stands  out  preeminently  in  all  the  list  of 
holidays.  Independence  Day — the  Fourth  of  July — is  observed  in  each  and 
every  state  of  the  Union,  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  our  one  great  distinct- 
ive national  holiday.  And  this  is  assuredly  as  it  should  be,  for  the  event  which  it 
celebrates  is  beyond  question  the  most  important  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States. 

Independence  Day  celebrates  the  signing,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1776,  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  by  the  members  of  the  Continental  Congress,  then 
assembled  in  the  State  House  at  Philadelphia.  Until  this  time  the  colonists  had 
protested  that  they  were  not  rebels,  but  "  petitioners  in  arms,"  only  desiring  their 
rights  as  loyal  subjects  of  the  King  of  England.  But  wrongs  unredressed,  com- 
plaints unheeded,  and  petitions  unanswered  had  exhausted  the  patience  of  the 
American  people.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  resulted  and  was  the  culmina- 
ting act  in  the  long  train  of  events  which  led  up  to  the  final  severance  of  the 
American  colonies  from  the  Mother  Country  and  the  making  of  them  a  free  and 
independent  Nation. 

It  came  with  no  sudden  explosion  nor  violent  eruption.  War  had  already 
been  declared  and  the  American  people  were  already  in  arms,  prepared,  however, 
at  any  intimation  of  concession  on  England's  part,  to  suspend  hostilities ;  but 
patience  and  hope  were  at  length  exhausted,  and  when  Congress  met  in  May, 
1776,  its  members  would  no  longer  consent  to  petition  England,  and  a  strong 
sentiment  for  separation  from  the  Mother  Country  began  to  be  felt.  On  June 
7th,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  the  Virginia  delegation,  instructed,  he  said,  by 
the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Council  of  Virginia,  presented  the  following  resolution : 

"  That  these  United  Colonies  are  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  inde- 
pendent States :  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown ; 
that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be, 
totally  absolved." 

John  Adams,  who  had  long  favored  the  idea  of  independence,  even  wnen 
it  was  popularly  believed  to  be  a  most  unwise  and  extreme  measure,  was  quickly 
upon  his  feet  to  second  the  motion.  Then  followed  a  debate  of  four  days' 
duration.  John  Adams,  Samuel  Adams,  Roger  Sherman,  Oliver  Wolcott,  R.  H. 
Lee  and  George  Wythe  were  probably  the  great  speakers  in  favor  of  separation, 
while  John  Dickinson,  followed  by  able  men,  such  as  John  Jay,  James  Wilson,  and 
Robert  R.  Wilson,  led  the  opposition.  We  have,  however,  no  actual,  authenticated 
record  of  the  debates  and  those  who  participated,  for  the  extreme  danger  to  the 
men  involved  caused  the  omission  of  all  such  reports  from  the  Congressional 
Journal.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Delaware,  and  South 
Carolina  opposed  the  measure.  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshfre, 
Connecticut,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Georgia  favored  it.  Unanimity  was, 
however,  regarded  as  so  desirable  that  a  final  vote  was  postponed  until  July  ist. 
Meantime  a  committee  was  appointed  by  ballot,  consisting  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY  623 


Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Adams,  Roger  Sherman,  and  R.  R.  Livingstone,  to 
prepare  a  declaration  stating  to  the  world  the  grievances  which  drove  the  Colonies 
to  separate  from  Great  Britain. 

That  this  document  was  the  work  of  Thomas  Jefiferson  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt,  altho  in  after  years  much  severe  criticism  was  directed  against 
him  for  its  lack  of  originality  and  use  of  current  expression.  That  such  criticism 
is  unjust  is  equally  true,  for  in  no  sense  did  the  document  claim  for  itself  any 
virtue  on  account  of  originality.  The  gist  of  it  was  in  the  thoughts  of  every  man 
who  thought  at  all.  The  current  phrases  and  the  popular  wording  of  the  great 
principles  which  it  defended,  together  with  the  long  list  of  grievances  it  recited 
were  upon  the  lips  of  every  one.  The  skill  which  Jefiferson  showed  was  in  his 
power  of  selection  and  in  his  formal  statement,  in  clear  and  forcible  style,  of  the 
grievances  and  the  conditions  which  were  familiar  to  all. 

On  June  28th  this  document  was  laid  before  Congress.  Meantime  most 
earnest  work  had  been  done  throughout  the  colonies,  as  well  as  with  the  congres- 
sional delegates  who  opposed  the  measure.  On  the  night  of  July  i.  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  South  Carolina  still  held  back,  but  on  July  2  all 
delegates  but  those  from  New  York  solemnly  voted  in  favor  of  the  motion  which 
"  absolved  "  the  colonies  "  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown  "  and  made 
them  "  free  and  independent  States."  Thus  "  Independence  "  was  really  declared 
on  July  2,  but  Jefferson's  document  was  not  acted  upon  until  July  4,  when,  after 
a  long  debate,  and  one  or  two  corrections,  it  was  finally  accepted  and  signed  by  the 
President  of  Congress,  John  Hancock,  and  the  Secretary,  Charles  Thompson. 
Within  a  week  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  York  had  finally  expressed  its 
approval.  August  2nd  an  engrossed  copy  of  The  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  laid  before  Congress  and  received  the  signatures  of  the  delegates  from  every 
one  of  the  thirteen  colonies. 

Thus  was  completed  the  foundation  act  in  the  histo'ry  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  It  is  a  privilege  and  a  duty  of  the  American  people  to  celebrate 
the  anniversary  of  an  event  so  vitally  important  to  them.  At  the  time  of  the 
passing  of  the  act,  John  Adams  wrote  to  his  wife  a  letter  which  has  become 
historic.  "  I  am  apt  to  believe,"  he  wrote,  "  that  it  (the  day)  will  be  celebrated  by 
succeeding  generations  as  the  great  anniversary  festival.  It  ought  to  be  com- 
memorated as  the  day  of  deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty. 
It  ought  to  be  solemnized  with  pomp  and  parade,  with  shows,  games,  sports,  guns, 
bells,  bonfires,  and  illuminations,  from  one  end  of  this  continent  to  the  other, 
from  this  time  forward  for  evermore."  These  words  have  proved  prophetic. 
That  as  a  people,  Americans  have  emphasized  the  lighter  part  of  the  prophecy  in 
the  spirit  of  their  celebration  is  greatly  to  be  deplored.  The  day  at  times  appears 
rather  to  be  an  orgy  than  a  solemn  festival ;  a  time  of  noise  and  self-indulgence 
rather  than  of  patriotic  joy  and  thankfulness.  But  underneath  these  mistaken 
methods  of  celebration  there  is  a  deeper  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  American 
citizens.  There  is  a  growing  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  the  less  worthy 
attempts  to  mark  the  day,  and  the  encouragement  of  all  and  every  means  to  make 
Independence  Day  what  it  should  be,  the  proud  and  glad  observance  of  the  Nation's 
birthday,  a  time  when  every  loyal  citizen  should  in  public  functions  and  in  private 
life  rejoice  in  the  welfare  of  his  country,  and,  with  solemn  thanksgiving  to  his 
God,  pledge  himself  anew  to  the  service  of  America. 


624 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


PATRIOTISM  IN  THE  SCHOOLS 


The  development  of  the  virtue  of  love  of 
country,  which  is  symbolized  by  the  raising 
of  so  many  new  and  beautiful  flags  over 
school-houses,  should  not  end,  by  any  means, 
with  the  hanging  out  of  these  banners.  Un- 
less there  is,  in  the  teaching  of  the  schools. 
a  distinct  and  intelligent  care  to  ground  the 
pupils  in  the  true  love  of  country  which 
comes  with  intelligent  knowledge  of  it.  and 
to  inspire  the  young  with  something  of  the 
air,  the  light,  the  life  and  beauty  of  the  land, 
the  flags  may  as  well  be  left  to  flutter  into 
shreds. 

Genuine  love  of  our  country  cannot  be 
founded  upon  words  alone,  nor  upon  the 
mere  recitation  of  deeds  of  heroism  and  past 
public  services.  To  be  the  true  spirit  which 
has  always  animated  great  peoples,  our  Amer- 
ican patriotism  must  have  a  special  tie  to  the 
soil — a  feeling  which  allies  itself  to  the  trees, 
the  flowers,  the  birds,  the  prairies,  their  soil, 
and  story,  and  their  manifold  productions 
and  colorings,  the  hills,  the  wild  creatures  of 
the  woods,  and  fields,  and  everything  that  is 
distinctively  American, 

Acquaintance  with  the  episodes  of  our  his- 
tory and  a  knowledge  of  our  Constitution  and 
laws  are  a  highly  important  part  of  the  edu- 
cation of  an  American  citizen.  But  his  equip- 
ment should  not  end  with  them.  They  rep- 
resent the  intellectual  part  of  one's  patriot- 
ism ;  the  Jicart  of  it  is  nourished  from  its 
romance,  its  natural  features,  its  soil  and  its 
products,  the  animals,  the  atmosphere,  the 
skies — all  things  which  make  the  earliest  and 
most  lasting  impression  upon  the  individual, 
and  through  which  every  sentiment  is  typified 
to  him. 

If  we  take  the  writings  of  a  great  patriotic 
poet,  like  Whittier,  we  find  that  these  natural 
things  are  well  known  to  him,  and  their 
shaping  influence  upon  character  appreciated. 

In  Whittier's  poems  there  is  a  constant 
reference  of  sentiments  and  ideas  to  the  soil 
and  the  aspects  of  nature.  He  makes  no 
mistake  about  the  flowers  and  trees  which  he 
weaves  into  his  songs,  nor  about  the  birds 
which  warble  through  them.  There  is  abun- 
dance of  native  light  and  color. 


But  the  ignorance  of  these  things  among 
many  Americans  is  striking.  Not  long  since 
there  went  the  rounds  of  a  portion  of  the 
press  of  this  country  an  extract  which  told 
"  what  birds  sing  earliest  in  the  morning." 
It  was  stated  that  the  skylark  sang  at  about 
such  an  hour,  the  chaffinch  at  another  hour, 
the  tomtit  at  another,  and  so  on  through  a 
somewhat  long  list. 

Now  every  bird  in  this  list  was  an  Euro- 
pean bird,  and  not  one  of  them  could  be 
heard  in  this  country  save  in  a  cage  or  an 
aviary.  Yet  this  extract,  which  came  from 
an  English  periodical,  was  given  in  good 
faith  by  many  American  journals  as  a  state- 
ment of  the  order  in  which  American  birds 
begin  their  singing  in  the  morning. 

Many  Americans,  in  their  natural  love  for 
trees,  plant,  sometimes  in  ignorance  of  their 
foreign  origin,  trees  which  will  not  thrive  or 
reach  their  full  beauty  in  our  soil,  passing  by 
native  trees  and  shrubs  of  superior  beauty, 
vigor,  and  significance.  For  there  is  signifi- 
cance in  natural  things  as  well  as  in  facts  and 
figures,  and  more  healthy  sentiment  in  the 
natural  sciences  than  some  people  suppose. 

The  enormous  immigration  which  is  pour- 
ing into  our  country,  and  which  consists  in 
much  larger  proportion  than  ever  before  of 
peoples  very  unlike  our  own  population  in 
character,  habits,  and  traditions,  makes  it 
desirable  and  even  necessary  to  instil  into  the 
rising  generation  of  these  people  as  much  of 
the  knowledge  and  feeling  of  American  life 
and  nature  as  possible. 

It  is  not  practicable,  in  our  elementary 
schools,  to  give  thorough  instruction  in  geol- 
ogy, botany,  and  ornithology;  but  it  is  prac- 
ticable to  impart  to  the  pupils  a  certain 
amount  of  accurate  foundation  knowledge  of 
the  natural  things  about  them.  It  is  espe- 
cially practicable  to  convey  this  knowledge  in 
informal  talks  and  in  the  half-unconscious 
side  instruction  which  often  takes  the  deepest 
lodgment  in  a  boy's  or  girl's  brain. 

This  fact  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  by  our 
teachers  in  the  school  year,  nor  in  the  normal 
instruction  which  is  given  to  teachers  them- 
selves.— Y.  C. 


HISTORICAL 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 


It  may  seem  strange  to  some  young  people 
that  the  memories  of  the  fifty-six  signers  of 
that  wonderful  paper  should  be  so  honored 
in  this  country.  Said  a  bright  boy  recently, 
"  Why  was  it  any  very  great  thing  to  sign  a 
paper  of  that  kind?  I  think  the  man  who 
wrote  it  was  great,  but  don't  see  why  the 
others  were." 

The  reason  they  were  great  was  that  they 


were  both  patriotic  and  brave.  They  believed 
that  it  was  not  right  for  this  country  to  be 
subject   to   and   taxed   by   Great 
The         Britain  while  having  no  voice  in 
Signers  of  the   government.     A   committee, 
the  Dec-    consisting  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
laration    of    Virginia ;     John    Adams,    of 
Massachusetts;  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin,   of    Pennsylvania;     Roger    Sherman,    of 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


625 


Connecticut,  and  Robert  R.  Livingstone,  of 
New  York,  was  appointed  to  write  out  a 
declaration  to  this  effect.  Thomas  Jefferson, 
tho  at  this  time  but  thirty-three  years  of  age, 
was  one  of  the  best  classically  educated  men 
in  public  life,  and  composed  the  Declaration, 
which,  without  his  other  public  services, 
would  have  made  his  name  famous. 

The  American  colonies  were  represented 
by  fifty-six  members  in  the  assemblage 
which  met  on  July  4,  1776,  and  decided  to 
adopt  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  only  the  president  of  the 
assembly,  John  Hancock,  signed  the  paper  on 
that  day.  On  August  2d,  it  was  signed  by 
all  but  one  of  the  fifty-six — Matthew  Thorn- 
ton, of  New  Hampshire — who  signed  in  No- 
vember. 

As  to  the  reason  why  it  was  brave :     The 

thirteen    colonies    were    subject    to   England. 

In  declaring  that  they  would  be   "  absolved 

from  all  allegiance  to  the  British 

The        crown,"   they   placed   themselves 

Danger  in  rebellion,  and  if  they  failed  in 
of  Signing  the  struggle  that  must  follow, 
the  signers  of  that  paper  would 
be  regarded  as  traitors  and  treated  accord- 
ingly. John  Hancock,  as  the  paper  was  being 
signed,  said,  "  We  must  all  hang  together." 
"  Ay,"  answered  Benjamin  Franklin,  "  We 
must  all  hang  together,  else  we  shall  all  hang 
separately." 

Someone  suggested  to  Charles  Carroll  that 
as  there  were  a  great  many  men  of  that 
name,  if  the  cause  should  fail,  the  English 
would  not  know  which  one  to  arrest.  "  Yes, 
they  will,"  he  said,  and  immediately  wrote 
"  of  Carrollton  "  after  his  name. 

They  all  understood  fully  the  danger,  but 
were  proud  to  meet  it,  and  deserve  the  great- 
est honor  from  each  succeeding  generation. 

They  were,  as  a  whole,  comparatively 
young  men,  for  the  average  age  of  all  was 
only  forty-three  years  and  ten  months.     Ed- 


ward Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  was  the 
youngest,      bemg     but      twenty- 

The  Pro-   seven,    and    Benjamin    Franklin, 

fessions  the  oldest,  was  seventy.  Five 
of  the      were   physicians,   thirty  lawyers, 

Signers  seven  farmers,  eight  merchants, 
and  two  mechanics ;  John  Wither- 
spoon.  of  New  Jersey,  was  a  clergyman, 
Abraham  Clark,  of  New  Jersey,  a  surveyor, 
Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  a  shoemaker, 
and  Franklin,  a  printer. 

Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  deserves 
special  mention,  as  he  started  the  movement 
by  presenting  to  the  assembly  on  June  7, 
1776,  this  resolution : 

"Resolved:  That  these  united  colonies  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  inde- 
pendent states ;  that  they  are  absolved  from 
all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown ;  and  that 
all  political  connection  between  them  and  the 
State  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be 
dissolved." 

As  the  mover  of  this  resolution,  when  a 
committee  was  appointed  he  would  naturally 
have  been  mad^  chairman,  but  was  called 
away  by  illness  in  his  family,  and  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son was  chosen.  He  served  later  in  several 
congresses  and  was  the  first  senator  from 
Virginia. 

A  rather  remarkable  coincidence  is  that 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  John  Adams,  one 
of  the  signers  and  its  great  supporter,  both 
afterward  President  of  the  United  States,  died 
on  the  same  day,  and  that  Independence  Day, 
1826.  On  June  30th  of  that  year  someone 
asked  John  Adams,  who  was  then  very  ill, 
for  a  toast  to  be  given  in  his  name  on  the 
Fourth  of  July.  He  replied.  "Independence 
forever! "  When  the  day  came,  hearing  the 
noise  of  bells  and  cannon,  he  asked  the  cause, 
and,  on  being  told,  he  murmured,  "  Independ- 
ence forever !  "  and  before  evening  was  dead. 
— C.  A. 


THE  EARLIEST  CELEBRATIONS  OF  INDEPENDENCE 


By  Paul  Leicester  Ford 


John  Adams'  prediction  as  to  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
verified  within  six  days,  for  it  was  first  cele- 
brated on  July  8th,  1776,  on  a  "  warm,  sun- 
shine morning."  Marshall  states,  in  the  yard 
of  the  State  House,  "  where,  in  the  presence 
of  a  great  concourse  of  people,  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  read  by  John 
Nixon.  The  company  declared  their  appro- 
bation by  three  repeated  huz;cas.  The  King's 
Arms  were  taken  down  in  the  Court  Room, 
State  House  [at  the]  same  time,  .... 
after  which,  went  [to]  the  Commons,  where 
the  same  was  proclaimed  at  each  of  the  five 
Battalions.  .  .  .  Fine  starlight,  pleasant 
evening.  There  were  bonfires,  ringing  bells, 
with  other  great  demonstrations  of  joy  upon 
the  unanimity  and  agreement  of  the  Declara- 
tion." 


One  day  later,  on  July  gth,  the  Declaration 

v/as   celebrated   at    New   York,   in   a   manner 

directed  by  Washington,  who  in 

In  1776  the  General  Orders  for  that  day 
announced : 

"  The  Hour :  Continental  Congress,  im- 
pelled by  the  dictates  of  duty,  policy,  and 
necessity,  having  been  pleased  to  dissolve  the 
Connection  which  subsisted  between  this 
Country  and  Great  Britain,  and  to  declare 
the  United  Colonies  of  America  free  and  in- 
dependent States,  The  Several  brigades  are 
to  be  drawn  up  this  evening  on  their  re- 
spective Parades  at  six  o'clock,  when  the 
declaration  of  Congress,  showing  the  grounds 
&  reasons  of  this  Measure,  is  to  be  read  with 
an  audible  voice.  The  General  hopes  this 
important  Event  will  serve  as  a  fresh  in- 
centive to  every  officer   and   soldier,  to   act 


626 


HOLY-DAYS   AND  HOLIDAYS 


with  Fidelity  and  Courage,  as  knowing  that 
now  the  peace  and  safety  of  his  Country,  de- 
pends (under  God)  solely  on  the  success  of 
our  Arms :  And  that  he  is  now  in  the 
service  of  a  State,  possessed  of  sufficient 
power  to  reward  his  merit,  and  advance  him 
to  the  highest  Honors  of  a  free  Country." 

And  Washington  notified  the  Congress  that 
"  Agreeably  to  the  request  of  Congress  I 
caused  the  Declaration  to  be  proclaimed  be- 
fore all  the  army  under  my  immediate  com- 
mand ;  and  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  them, 
that  the  measure  seemed  to  have  their  most 
hearty  assent ;  the  expressions  and  behavior, 
both  of  officers  and  men,  testifying  their 
warmest  approbation  of  it." 

Not  content  with  thus  celebrating  freedom, 
Webb  relates  that 

"  Last  night  the  statue  of  George  HL  was 
tumbled  down  and  beheaded,  the  troops  hav- 
ing long  had  an  inclination  to  do  so,  thought 
the  time  of  publishing  a  declaration  of  in- 
dependence a  favorable  opportunity,  for 
which  they  received  a  check  in  this  day's 
orders." 

After  this,  each  recurring  Fourth  of  July 

was  observed  by  the  army.     In  1777,  at  Mor- 

ristown,   it  was  celebrated  by  a 

In  1777     fell    de    joie    and    every    soldier 
and   1778  was    ordered    an    extra    gill    of 
rum.     In    1778  the  General    Or- 
ders announced  that 

"  To-morrow,  the  anniversary  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  will  be  celebrated 
by  firing  thirteen  pieces  of  cannon  and  a 
feu  dc  joie  of  the  whole  line.  The  army  will 
be  formed  on  the  Brunswick  side  of  the 
Raritan,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  on 
the  ground  pointed  out  by  the  Quartermas- 
ter-General." 

In  1779  the  day  brought  joy  to  the  wrong- 
doer, for  the  orderly  book  directed  that 

"  This  day  being  the  anniver- 

In  1779  sary  of  our  glorious  independ- 
ence, will  be  commemorated  by 
the  firing  of  thirteen  cannon  from  West  Point 
at  I  o'clock  p.  M.  The  Commander-in-Chief 
thinks  proper  to  grant  a  general  pardon  to 
all  prisoners  in  this  army,  under  sentence  of 
death.  They  are  to  be  released  from  confine- 
ment accordingly." 

The  last  celebration  of  the  army,  in  1782. 
was  described  as  follows : 

"  On  the  4th,  the  anniversary 

In  1782  of  the  Declaration  of  our  Inde- 
pendence was  celebrated  in  camp. 
The  whole  army  was  formed  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson,  on  each  side  of  the  river.  The 
signal  of  thirteen  cannon  being  given  at  West 
Point,  the  troops  displayed  and  formed  line, 
when  a  general  fcii  de  joie  took  place 
throughout  the  whole  army." 

Of   the   first   celebration   by   Congress,    we 

have  a  good  description  in  a  letter  from  John 

Adams  to  his  daughter,  which  is 

First  Cele-  doubly    interesting    as    showing 

bration  by  how  impromptu  the  affair  was : 

Congress       "  Yesterday,    being    the    anni- 
versary of   American    Independ- 
ence, was  celebrated  here  with  a  festivity  and 
ceremony  becoming  the  occasion.     I  am  too 


old  to  delight  in  pretty  descriptions,  if  I  had 
a  talent  for  them,  otherwise  a  picture  might 
be  drawn  which  would  please  the  fancy  of  a 
Whig,  at  least.  The  thought  of  taking  any 
notice  of  this  day  was  not  conceived  until  the 
second  of  this  month,  and  it  was  not  men- 
tioned until  the  third.  It  was  too  late  to 
have  a  sermon,  as  every  one  wished,  so  this 
must  be  deferred  another  year.  Congress  de- 
termined to  adjourn  over  that  day,  and  to 
dine  together.  The  general  officers  and 
others  in  town  were  invited,  after  the  Presi- 
dent and  Council  and  Board  of  War  of  this 
State.  In  the  morning  the  Delazvare  frig- 
ate, several  large  galleys,  and  other  conti- 
nental armed  vessels,  the  Pennsylvania 
ship  and  row-galleys,  and  guard-boats,  were 
all  hauled  off  in  the  river,  and  several  of 
them  beautifully  dressed  in  the  colors  of  all 
nations  displayed  about  the  masts,  yards  and 
rigging.  At  one  o'clock  the  ships  were  all 
manned ;  that  is,  the  men  were  all  ordered 
aloft  and  arranged  upon  the  topyards  and 
shrouds,  making  a  striking  appearance  of 
companies  of  men  drawn  up  in  order  in  the 
air. 

"  Then  I  went  on  board  the  Delazvare 
with  the  President  and  several  gentlemen  of 
the  Marine  Committee ;  soon  after  which  we 
were  saluted  with  a  discharge  of  thirteen 
guns,  which  was  followed  by  thirteen  others 
from  each  other  armed  vessel  in  the  river, 
then  the  galleys  followed  the  fire  and  after 
them  the  gunboats.  Then  the  President  and 
company  returned  in  the  barge  to  the  shore, 
and  were  saluted  by  three  cheers  from  every 
ship,  galley  and  boat  in  the  river.  The 
wharves  and  shores  were  lined  with  a  vast 
concourse  of  people  all  shouting  and  huzza- 
ing in  a  manner  which  gave  great  joy  to 
every  friend  of  this  country,  and  the  utmost 
terror  and  dismay  to  every  lurking  Tory.  At 
three  we  went  to  dinner,  and  were  very 
agreeably  entertained  with  excellent  com- 
pany, good  cheer,  fine  music  from  the  hand 
of  Hessians  taken  at  Trenton,  and  continual 
volleys  between  every  toast  from  a  company 
of  soldiers  drawn  up  in  Second  Street  before 
the  city  tavern,  where  we  dined.  The  toasts 
were  in  honor  of  our  country  and  the  heroes 
who  had  fallen  in  their  pious  efforts  to  de- 
fend her.  After  this,  two  troops  of  light 
horse,  raised  in  Maryland,  accidentally  here 
on  their  way  to  camp,  were  paraded  through 
Second  Street ;  after  them  a  train  of  artillery, 
and  then  about  a  thousand  infantry,  now  in 
this  city  on  their  march  to  camp,  from  North 
Carolina.  All  these  marched  into  the  com- 
mon, where  they  went  through  their  firings 
and  maneuvers ;  but  I  did  not  follow  them. 
In  the  evening  I  was  walking  about  the 
streets  for  a  little  fresh  air  and  exercise,  and 
was  surprised  to  find  the  whole  city  lighting 
up  their  candles  at  the  windows.  I  walked 
most  of  the  evening,  and  I  think  it  was  the 
most  splendid  illumination  I  ever  saw — a  few 
surly  houses  were  dark,  but  the  lights  were 
very  universal.  Considering  the  lateness  of 
the  design  and  the  suddenness  of  the  execu- 
tion, I  was  amazed  at  the  universal  joy  and 
alacrity  that  was  discovered,  and  at  the  bril- 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


627 


liancy  and  splendor  of  every  part  of  this  joy- 
ful exhibition.  I  had  forgot  the  ringing  of 
bells  all  day  and  evening,  and  the  bonfires  in 
the  streets,  and  the  fireworks  played  off. 
Had  General  Howe  been  here  in  disguise,  or 
his  master,  this  show  would  have  given  them 
the  heartache." 

The  celebration  of  1778,  was  quite  different 
and  was  described  by  Richard  Henry  Lee  in 
the  following  words : 

In  1778  "  We  had  a  magnificent  cele- 
bration of  the  anniversary  of  in- 
dependence yesterday,  when  handsome  fire- 
works were  displayed.  The  Whigs  of  the 
city  dressed  up  a  woman  of  the  town  with 
the  monstrous  head-dress  of  the  Tory  ladies, 
and  escorted  her  through  [the  streets]  with  a 
great  concourse  of  people.  Her  head  was 
elegantly  and  expensively  dressed,  I  suppose 
about    three    feet    high    and    proportionate 


width,  with  a  profusion  of  curls,  etc.,  etc., 
etc.  The  figure  was  droll  and  occasioned 
much  mirth.  It  has  lessened  some  heads 
already,  and  will  probably  bring  the  rest 
within  the  bounds  of  reason,  for  they  are 
monstrous,  indeed.  The  Tory  wife  of  Dr. 
Smith  has  christened  this  figure  Continella, 
or  the  Duchess  of  Independence,  and  prayed 
for  a  pin  from  her  head  by  way  of  relic. 
The  Tory  women  are  very  much  mortified, 
notwithstanding  this." 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  throughout 
the  whole  country  the  celebration  of  inde- 
pendence sprang  into  custom  in  these  very 
early  years  and  accounts  of  them  could  be 
multiplied  almost  indefinitely;  but  the  fore- 
going are  sufficient  to  show  how  the  men 
who  had  made  independence  thought  fit  to 
celebrate  it. — I. 


A  RENAISSANCE  OF  PATRIOTISM 


By  George  J.  Manson 


Within  the  past  few  years  there  has  been 
what  ex-President  Harrison  once  happily 
termed  "  a  renaissance  of  patriotism."  It 
started  with  the  centennial  anni- 
A  Re-  versaries  of  1776,  which  had  the 
naissance  effect  of  carrying  the  memories 
of  the  people  back  to  the  period 
of  the  Nation's  birth,  and  subsequently  re- 
sulted in  the  formation  of  several  societies 
vhich  will  be  the  means  of  fostering  the 
patriotic  spirit,  love  of  country,  and  recall 
remembrances  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle. 
The  organizers  of  these  societies  found  that 
there  was  a  growing  lack  of  what  may  be 
called  national  patriotism— the  patriotism  that 
grows  out  of  a  lively  recollection  of  the  early 
making  of  the  country  through  battle,  toil, 
and  hardship  of  the  fathers.  This  lukewarm 
spirit  was  not  charged  to  the  flood  of  immi- 
gration, or  to  the  lapse  of  time,  but  was  prin- 
cipally due  to  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  de- 
scendants of  Revolutionary  heroes  to  per- 
form their  duty  of  keeping  before  the  public 
mind  the  memory  of  the  services  of  their 
ancestors,  the  times  in  which  they  lived  and 
the  principles  for  which  they  contended. 

One   of  the   first   of  these   societies   to  be 
started  was  the   "  Sons   of  the  Revolution." 
This  was  organized  February  22,  1876,  reor- 
ganized   December   4,    1883,    and 
The   Sons  incorporated   May  3.    1884.     The 
of  the      aim  of  this  society  is  to  perpet- 
Revolution  uate    the    memory    of    the    men 
who,  in  military,   naval   or  civil 
service,    by    their    acts    or    counsel,   achieved 
American  independence.     The  members  pro- 
mote and  assist  in  the  proper  celebration  of 
the  anniversaries  of  Washington's  Birthday, 
the   battles   of   Lexington   and   Bunker   Hill, 
the  4th  of  July,  the  capitulation  of  Saratoga 
and  Yorktown,  and  the  formal  evacuation  of 
New  York  by  the  British  army.  December  3, 
1783,  as  a  relinquishment  of  territorial  sov- 


ereignty, and  other  prominent  events  relating 
to  or  connected  with  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

The  roll-book  of  the  members  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  list  of  names.  Be- 
fore each  name  is  the  year,  showing  when 
the  member  was  admitted  into  the  society, 
and  there  is  also  given  in  a  paragraph  his 
genealogical  history  so  far  as  it  relates  to  his 
ancestors  who  were  in  any  way  connected 
with  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  There  is  a 
general,  or  national  society,  divided  into  state 
societies  which  regulate  their  own  affairs. 
Under  the  rules  of  the  New  York  State  so- 
ciety, ten  or  more  members  can  organize 
within  any  county  outside  of  the  county  of 
New  York,  such  a  body  being  called  a  local 
chapter.  The  total  membership  is  now  about 
six  thousand.  When  membership  is  asked 
on  the  ground  of  an  ancestor  having  been  a 
"  sailor  "  or  "  marine,"  it  must  be  shown  that 
such  service  was  other  than  shore  duty  and 
regularly  performed  in  the  Continental  navy, 
or  the  navy  of  one  of  the  original  thirteen 
states,  or  on  an  armed  vessel  other  than  a 
merchant  ship.  When  the  ancestor  has  been 
an  "  official  "  his  service  must  have  been  suffi- 
ciently important  in  character  to  have  ren- 
dered him  specially  liable  to  arrest  and  im- 
prisonment, if  captured  by  the  enemy,  as  well 
as  liable  to  conviction  of  treason  against  the 
Government  of  Great  Britain. 

A  few  years  ago  the  society  stimulated  in- 
terest in  its  work  by  offering  two  prizes  to 
the  cadets  of  the  United  States  Naval  Acad- 
emy, at  Annapolis,  Md. — a  gold  medal  and  a 
-silver  medal — for  the  best  original  essays 
upon  the  subject,  "  The  Navy  in  the  Revolu- 
tion." A  singular  and  patriotic  feature  of 
these  essays  was  that  they  were  not  to  con- 
tain less  than  1776  words.  A  gold  medal  is 
likewise  annually  awarded  by  the  New  York 
society  to  a  student  in  the  College  of  the  City 


628 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


of  New  York,  for  the  best  essay  on  a  patriotic 
subject,  and  gold,  silver,  and  bronze  medals 
to  the  scholars  of  the  high  schools  through- 
out the  State  for  like  essays.  Similar  prizes 
are  awarded  by  the  societies  in  other  states. 

Congress  has  also  been  urged,  by  the  Sons 
of  the  Revolution  as  a  body,  to  pass  a  bill 
which  has  already  been  introduced  in  that 
body,  making  an  appropriation  of  a  sum  of 
money  to  erect  a  monument  to  John  Paul 
Jones.  It  has  also  memorialized  Congress  to 
enact  such  a  law  as  will  secure  the  publica- 
tion of  all  the  archives  of  the  United  States 
Government  relating  to  the  War  of  the  Revo- 
lution, in  a  manner  similar  to  the  publication 
of  the  records  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion. 

The  seal  of  the  society  is  an  interesting 
study,  suggesting  as  it  does,  in  small  com- 
pass, the  spirit  of  patriotism  the  society  de- 
sires to  cultivate.  The  seal  consists  of  the 
figure  of  a  minuteman,  in  Continental  uni- 
form, standing  on  a  ladder  leading  to  a  bel- 
fry. In  his  right  hand  he  holds  a  musket 
and  an  olive  branch,  while  his  left  hand 
grasps  a  bell-rope.  Above  is  seen  the  cracked 
Liberty  bell,  from  which  issues  a  ribbon  bear- 
ing the  motto  of  the  society:  Excgi  inonii- 
mentiiin  acre  perennius.  Many  members  of 
this  society  did  gallant  service  in  the  war 
with  Spain. 

The  second  important  patriotic  society  is 
the  "  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution,''  a 
name  very  similar  to  that  of  the  organization 
just  mentioned.  The  first  branch 
Sons  of  the  of  this  society  was  formed  in 
American  California  in  1876  by  a  body  of 
Revolution  descendants  of  officers,  soldiers, 
and  seamen  of  the  Revolution 
gathered  in  San  Francisco  for  the  purpose  of 
celebrating  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  _  Similar 
societies  were  therefore  organized  in  other 
states,  and,  on  April  30,  1889.  these  societies 
with  two  or  three  exceptions,  celebrated  the 
centennial  inauguration  of  Washington  as 
first  President  of  the  United  States.  This 
meeting  was  held  in  Fraunce's  Tavern,  in 
New  York  City,  in  the  identical  long  room 
(now  marked  with  a  commemorative  tablet) 
in  which  Washington  bade  farewell  to  his 
officers,  December  3,  1783-  The  national  or- 
ganization was  formed  on  the  occasion  of 
this  meeting. 

This  society  exists  in  about  thirty  states, 
and  numbers  about  five  thousand  _  members. 
A  singular  and  interesting  feature  in  connec- 
tion with  this  and  kindred  organizations  is 
that  their  existence  has  led  to  and  greatly 
stimulated  genealogical  research,  a  species  of 
investigation  to  which  Americans,  as  a  rule, 
have  given  but  little  attention.  Persons  who 
have  become  interested  in  these  societies,  it 
has  been  found,  have  rescued  unrecorded 
facts  from  the  aged  members  of  their  fami- 
lies who  were  destined  soon  to  pass  away, 
information  which  could  have  been  obtained 
in  no  other  way  and  which  would  have  been 
lost  forever  in  a  few  j'^cars. 

The  "  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution  " 
prides  itself  on  being  a  practical  and  not 
merely    a    sentimental    and    ornamental    or- 


ganization. It  has  been  particularly  active 
in  saving  throughout  the  country  valuable 
historical  landmarks,  such  as  the  head- 
quarters of  Jonathan  Trumbull,  in  Connec- 
ticut, which  has  been  obtained  and  is  now 
used  for  a  museum.  It  is  marking  his- 
torical spots  and,  directly  and  indirectly,  se- 
curing the  erection  of  memorials  of  the 
Revolutionary  heroes,  such  as  the  Benning- 
ton Monument,  near  that  famous  battle-field, 
the  statue  of  Gen.  John  Stark,  in  New 
Hampshire,  and  a  monument  to  be  erected  in 
Baltimore  to  Maryland's  heroes  of  the  Revo- 
lution. It  has  obtained  from  Congress  a  law 
providing  for  the  collection  and  indexing  of 
the  records  of  service  of  the  Revolution.  It 
has  stimulated  the  general  observance  of  na- 
tional patriotic  holidays,  and  was  influential 
in  setting  apart  June  14th  as  "  flag  day,"  in 
commemoration  of  the  adoption  rf  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  as  the  national  standard. 

"  The   Society  of  Colonial   Wars,"   origin- 
ated in  New  York,  and  was  instituted  August 
18,  1892,  and  incorporated  October  18,   1892. 
In  May,  1893,  the  New  York  so- 
The         ciety    with    the    societies    in    the 
Society  of   states    of    Pennsylvania,    Mary- 
Colonial     land,     Massachusetts,     Connecti- 
Wars        cut,  and  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia organized  the  General  Soci- 
ety, these  states  having  been  previously  char- 
tered by  the  society  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
The  objects  of  the  organization  are  similar  to 
the   previously   named   societies,   from   which 
they  differ  only  in  minor  details.     The  pres- 
ent membership  is  approximately  3,000.     On 
June    14th   of   this   year    (1898)    this    society 
joined   with   the   Sons   of  the   Revolution   in 
appropriate  ceremonies  attending  the  unveil- 
ing of  commemorative  tablets  at  Fort  Ticon- 
deroga,  intended  to  perpetuate  the  memories 
of  the  capture  of  the  fort  by  Colonel  Ethan 
Allen  and  his  gallant  band,  the  Colonial  bat- 
tles fought  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Ticonder- 
oga,  etc. 

"  The   Military   Order  of  Foreign   Wars " 
is,  as  its  name  implies,  a  military  organization 
with   patriotic   objects,   having   for   its    scope 
the   period   of   American   history 
The        since  national  independence.    The 
Military    principal  feature  of  the  Order  is 
Order  of    the   perpetuating   of   the   names. 
Foreign    as  well  as  the  services,  of  com- 
"Wars       missioned  officers  who  served  in 
either   the   War   of  the   Revolu- 
tion, the  War  with  Tripoli,  the  War  of  1812, 
the  Mexican  War,  or  the  War  with   Spain. 
Vetera!     "^ompanionship    is    conferred    upon 
such  officers,  and  Hereditary  Companionship 
upon    their   direct   lineal    descendants   in   the 
male  line.     The  present  membership  is  1,400, 
which    is    rapidly    growing.     Other    societies 
that   merit   more  extended   notice   but   which 
can  here  only  be  named  are  the  "  Order  of 
Cincinnati."  the  "  Society  of  the  War  of  1812," 
the  "  Aztec  Club,"  the  "  Loyal  Legion."  the 
"  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic."  the   "  Flag 
Association,"      "  Colonial      Order      of      the 
Acorn,"   "  Order  of  Washington,"  the  "  Pil- 
grim Society,"  and  some  others. 

It    is    quite    natural    that    women,   whose 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


629 


patriotic  services  during  the  late  Civil  War 
have  often  been  the  subject  of  grateful 
eulogy,  should  become  interested  in  this  new 
movement.  There  are  several  patriotic  so- 
cieties, composed  exclusively  of  women,  the 
objects  of  which  are  practically  the  same  as 
the  organizations  which  have  just  been  men- 
tioned. The  society  known  as  the  "  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution  "  was  or- 
The  ganized  by  Mrs.  Flora  Adams 
Daughters  Darling,  September  9,  1891.  In 
of  the  October,  1890,  was  organized  the 
Revolution  more  important  society  known 
as  the  "  Daughters  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,"  which  now  has  a  member- 
ship of  about  3,500.  This  society  has  state 
chapters  existing  in  most  of  the  states.  To 
become  a  member  of  this  society  a  woman 
must  be  not  less  than  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  be  the  descendant  of  an  ancestor  who 
loyally  rendered  material  aid  as  a  soldier, 
sailor  or  civil  officer  to  the  cause  of  inde- 
pendence. The  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  have  presented  to  the  City  of 
Paris  an  equestrian  statue  of  Washington, 
designed  and  executed  by  Daniel  C.  French. 
It  was  intended  to  be  a  return  of  the  compli- 
ment to  the  American  people  conveyed  by 
the  French  Government  when  it  presented  to 
the  United  States  the  statue  of  Washington 
which  is  now  at  the  National  Capital.  The 
unveiling  took  place  with  imposing  cere- 
monies on  July  3d. 

The  "  Colonial  Dames  of  Amer- 
The         ica,"     an     organization     incorpo- 
Colonial     rated  in  1893,  requires  of  a  mem- 
Dames  of  ber  that  she  shall  be  descended 
America    in  her  own  right  from  some  an- 
cestor of  worthy  life  who  came 
to   reside   in   the   American   colonv  prior   to 


1750.  This  ancestor,  or  some  one  of  his  de- 
scendants, shall  be  a  lineal  ascendant  of  the 
applicant,  and  shall  have  rendered  efficient 
service  to  his  country  during  the  colonial 
period,  either  in  the  founding  of  the  common- 
wealth, or  of  an  institution  which  has  sur- 
vived and  developed  into  importance,  or  who 
shall  have  held  an  important  position  in  the 
Colonial  Government  and  by  distinguished 
services  shall  have  contributed  to  the  found- 
ing of  the  Nation.  Services  rendered  after 
1783  are  not  recognized. 

Still  another  woman's  patriotic  organiza- 
tion is  known  as  the  "  United  States  Daugh- 
ters, 1776-1812."  This  society  was  founded 
by   Mrs.    Flora    Adams    Darling, 

United  and  incorporated  in  1892.  Ladies 
States      to  be  eligible  must  be  lineal  de- 

Daugh-  scendants  of  an  ancestor  who  as- 
ters, sisted  in  the  wars  of  1776- 1812, 
1776-1812  either  as  a  military  or  naval  offi- 
cer, soldier,  sailor,  or  in  any 
way  gave  aid  to  the  cause,  tho  the  society 
reserves  to  itself  the  privilege  of  rejecting 
any  nomination  that  may  not  be  acceptable 
to  it. 

Another  patriotic  woman's  organization, 
tho  not  of  recent  date,  which  has  for  years 
rendered  important  service,  is  the  "  Mount 
Vernon  Ladies'  Association,"  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  This  association  has  under  its 
care  and  direction  the  Washington  estate  at 
Mount  Vernon,  Va.  In  1895  a  volume  en- 
titled Ancestry  was  published  by  Bailey, 
Banks  &  Biddle  (Philadelphia)  in  connec- 
tion with  their  Department  of  Heraldry 
that  contained  a  complete  list  of  the  various 
patriotic  societies,  then  forty-seven  in  num- 
ber. Since  the  publication  of  this  volume 
many  new  societies  have  sprung  up. — I. 


ADDRESSES 
FREEDOM  OR  SLAVERY 

By  Patrick  Henry 
[Delivered  in  Richmond,  Va.,   March,   I775-] 


Mr.  President,  it  is  natural  to  man  to  in- 
dulge in  the  illusions  of  hope.  We  are  apt 
to  shut  our  eyes  against  a  painful  truth, 
and  listen  to  the  song  of  that  siren,  till  she 
transforms  us  to  beasts.  Is  this  the  part  of 
wise  men.  engaged  in  a  great  and  arduous 
struggle  for  liberty?  Are  we  disposed  to  be 
of  the  number  of  those  who,  having  eyes, 
see  not,  and  having  cars,  hear  not,  the 
things  which  so  nearly  concern  our  temporal 
salvation?  For  my  part,  whatever  anguish 
of  spirit  it  may  cost.  I  am  willing  to  know 
the  whole  truth ;  to  know  the  worst,  and  to 
provide  for  it. 

I  have  but  one  lamp  by  which  my  feet  are 
guided ;  and  that  is  the  lamp  of  experience. 
I  know  of  no  way  of  judging  of  the  future 
but  by  the  past.  And  judging  by  the  past,  I 
wish  to  know   what  there   has  been   in  the 


conduct  of  the  British  Ministry  for  the  last 
ten  years  to  justify  those  hopes  with  which 
gentlemen  have  been  pleased  to  solace  them- 
selves and  the  House?  Is  it  that  insidious 
smile  with  which  our  petition  has  been  lately 
received?  Trust  it  not,  sir;  it  will  prove 
a  snare  to  your  feet.  Sufifer  not  yourselves 
to  be  "  betrayed  with  a  kiss !  "  Ask  your- 
selves. How  this  gracious  reception  of  our 
petition  comports  with  those  warlike  prepara- 
tions which  cover  our  waters  and  darken  our 
land?  Are  fleets  and  armies  necessary  to  a 
work  of  love  and  reconciliation?  Have  we 
shown  ourselves  so  unwilling  to  be  recon- 
ciled, that  force  must  be  called  in  to  win  back 
our  love?  Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  sir. 
These  are  the  implements  of  war  and  sub- 
jugation, the  last  "arguments"  to  which 
kings  resort. 


630 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


I  ask  gentlemen,  sir,  what  means  this 
martial  array,  if  its  purpose  be  not  to  force 
us  to  submission?  Can  gentlemen  assign 
any  other  possible  motive  for  it?  Has 
Great  Britain  any  enemy  in  this  quarter  of 
the  world,  to  call  for  all  this  accumulation 
of  navies  and  armies?  No,  sir,  she  has 
none.  They  are  meant  for  us :  they  can  be 
meant  for  no  other.  They  are  sent  over  to 
bind  and  to  rivet  upon  us  those  chains  which 
the  British  Ministry  have  been  so  long  forg- 
ing. And  what  have  we  to  oppose  to  them? 
Shall  we  try  argument?  Sir,  we  have  been 
trying  that  for  the  last  ten  years.  Have 
we  anything  new  to  offer  upon  the  subject? 
Nothing.  We  have  held  the  subject  up  in 
every  light  of  which  it  is  capable;  but  it  has 
been  all  in  vain.  Shall  we  resort  to  entreaty 
and  humble  supplication?  What  terms  shall 
we  find  which  have  not  been  already  ex- 
hausted? Let  us  not,  I  beseech  you,  sir, 
deceive  ourselves  longer.  Sir,  we  have  done 
everything  that  could  be  done,  to  avert  the 
storm  which  is  now  coming  on.  We  have 
petitioned,  we  have  remonstrated,  we  have 
supplicated,  we  have  prostrated  ourselves  be- 
fore the  throne,  and  have  implored  its  inter- 
position to  arrest  the  tyrannical  hands  of  the 
Ministry  and  Parliament.  Our  petitions  have 
been  slighted;  our  remonstrances  have  pro- 
duced additional  violence  and  insult ;  our 
supplications  have  been  disregarded,  and  we 
have  been  spurned  with  contempt  from  the 
foot  of  the  throne.  In  vain,  after  these 
things,  may  we  indulge  the  fond  hope  of 
peace  and  reconciliation.  There  is  no  longer 
any  room  for  hope.  If  we  wish  to  be  free, 
if  we  mean  to  preserve  inviolate  those  in- 
estimable privileges  for  which  we  have  been 
so  long  contending;  if  we  mean  not  basely  to 
abandon  the  noble  struggle  in  which  we  have 
been  so  long  engaged,  and  which  we  have 
pledged  ourselves  never  to  abandon  until  the 
glorious  object  of  our  contest  shall  be  ob- 
tained, we  must  fight :  I  repeat  it,  sir,  we 
must  fight!  An  appeal  to  arms,  and  to  the 
God  of  Hosts,  is  all  that  is  left  us! 


They  tell  us,  sir,  that  we  are  weak — "  un- 
able to  cope  with  so  formidable  an  adver- 
sary! "  But  when  shall  we  be  stronger?  Will 
it  be  the  next  week,  or  the  next  year?  Will 
it  be  when  we  are  totally  disarmed,  and 
when  a  British  guard  shall  be  stationed  in 
every  house?  Shall  we  gather  strength  by 
irresolution  and  inaction?  Shall  we  acquire 
the  means  of  effectual  resistance,  by  lying 
supinely  on  our  backs,  and  hugging  the  de- 
lusive phantom  of  hope,  until  our  enemies 
have  bound  us  hand  and  foot  ?  Sir,  we  are 
not  weak,  if  we  make  a  proper  use  of  those 
means  which  the  God  of  Nature  hath  placed 
in  our  power.  Three  millions  of  people, 
armed  in  the  holy  cause  of  Liberty,  and  in 
such  a  country  as  that  which  we  possess,  are 
invincible  by  any  force  which  our  enemy 
can   send  against   us. 

Besides,  sir,  we  shall  not  fight  our  battles 
alone.  There  is  a  just  Power  who  presides 
over  the  destinies  of  nations,  and  who  will 
raise  up  friends  to  fight  our  battles  for  us. 
The  battle,  sir.  is  not  to  the  strong  alone ; 
it  is  to  the  vigilant,  the  active,  the  brave. 
Besides,  sir,  we  have  no  election.  If  we  were 
base  enough  to  desire  it,  it  is  now  too  late 
to  retire  from  the  contest.  There  is  no  re- 
treat, but  in  submission  and  slavery.  Our 
chains  are  forged.  Their  clanking  may  be 
heard  on  the  plains  of  Boston.  The  war  is 
inevitable  ;  and  let  it  come  !  I  repeat  it,  sir, 
let  it  come !  It  is  in  vain,  sir,  to  extenuate 
the  matter.  Gentlemen  may  cry  "  Peace, 
peace !  "  but  there  is  no  peace !  The  war 
is  actually  begun !  The  next  gale  that  ■ 
sweeps  from  the  north  will  bring  to  our  I 
ears  the  clash  of  resounding  arms !  Our  ' 
brethren  are  already  in  the  field!  Why 
stand  we  here  idle?  What  is  it  that  gen- 
tlemen wish?  What  would  they  have? 
Is  life  so  dear,  or  peace  so  sweet,  as 
to  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains 
and  slavery?  Forbid  it.  Almighty  Powers! 
— I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take  ; 
but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me 
death ! 


THE    MORAL    FORCES    WHICH    MAKE    AMERICAN 

PROGRESS  * 

By  Edward  Everett 


Sir,  in  our  views  of  the  glorious  future 
that  awaits  the  Union,  we  are  apt  to  regard 
geographical  extension  as  the  measure  and 
the  index  of  our  country's  progress.  I  do 
not  deny  the  general  correctness  of  that  im- 
pression. It  is  necessary  for  the  formation 
of  the  highest  type  of  national  character  that 
it  should  be  formed  and  exhibited  upon  a 
grand  and  extensive  scale.  It  cannot  be  de- 
veloped within  the  bounds  of  a  petty  state. 

Nor  do  I  admit  that  this  idea  of  geograph- 
ical extension  necessarily  carries  with  it — the 
*  Peroration  of  the  Speech  of  March 


it  does  perhaps  by  natural  association — that 
of  collision  with  other  powers.  But.  sir,  I  think 
there  is  no  fear,  so  far  as  geographical  ex- 
tension is  necessary,  but  that  we  shall,  in 
the  natural  progress  of  things,  have  as  much 
of  it,  and  as  rapidly  as  the  best  interests  of 
the  country  admit  or  require. 

In  the  meantime,  if  we  wish  a  real,  solid, 
substantial  growth — a  growth  which  will  not 
bring  us  in  collision  with  foreign  powers 
— we  shall  have  it  in  twenty-five  years  to 
our  heart's  content;  not  by  the  geographical 
21,  1853,  on  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


631 


accession  of  dead  acres,  not  by  the  purchase 
of  Cuba  or  by  the  partition  of  Mexico,  but 
by  the  simple,  peaceful  increase  of  our  popu- 
lation. 

Sir,  have  you  well  considered  that  that 
mysterious  law  which  was  promulgated  on 
the  sixth  day  of  the  Creation  :  "  Be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth," 
will,  in  twenty-five  years  of  peace  and  union, 
— for  it  is  all  wrapped  up  in  that, — aided  by 
the  foreign  immigration,  give  us  another 
America  of  living  men  as  large  as  that  which 
we  now  possess?  Yes,  sir,  as  far  as  living 
men  are  concerned,  besides  replacing  the  mil- 
lions which  will  have  passed  off  the  stage,  it 
will  give  us  all  that  the  arm  of  Omnipotence 
could  give  us,  if  it  should  call  up  from  the 
depths  of  the  Pacific  and  join  to  the  Union 
another   America   as   populous   as   ours. 

If.  by  any  stroke  of  power  or  policy,  you 
could  to-morrow  extend  your  jurisdiction 
from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Cape  Horn,  and  take 
in  every  state  and  every  government,  and  all 
their  population,  it  would  not  give  to  you  a 
greater  amount  of  population,  including  your 
own,  than  you  will  have  at  the  end  of  twenty- 
five  years  by  the  simple  law  of  increase,  aided 
by  immigration  from  abroad. 

I  shall  not  live  to  see  it.  My  children 
probably  will.  The  Senator  from  Illinois, 
in  all  human  probability,  will  live  to  see 
it.  and  there  is,  perhaps,  no  one  more  likely 
than  he  to  impress  his  views  of  public  policy 
upon  the  mind  of  those  growing  millions, 
and  to  receive  from  them  in  return  all  the 
honors  and  trusts  which  a  grateful  people 
can  bestow  upon  those  they  respect  and  love. 

Let  me  adjure  him,  then,  to  follow  the  gen- 
erous impulses  of  his  nature,  and  after  giv- 
ing, like  a  true  patriot,  his  first  affections 
to  his  own  country,  to  be  willing  to  compre- 
hend all  the  other  friendly  countries  of  the 
earth  within  the  scope  of  a  liberal  consid- 
eration, and,  above  all,  to  cultivate  the  spirit 
and  arts  of  peace. 

Sir,  it  is  the  opposite  spirit  of  military 
aggrandizement,  the  spirit  of  conquest  that 
has  forged  those  chains  in  Europe,  which  the 
Senator  so  eloquently  deplores.  It  was  this 
that  brought  down  Asia  to  the  dust  in  the 
morning  of  the  world,  and  has  kept  her 
seated  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  ever  since. 
This  blasted  Greece ;  this  destroyed  Rome. 
It  was  not  a  foreign  enemy  that  laid  the  ax 
to  the  root  of  Rome's  freedom ;  it  was  her 
own  proconsuls  coming  home  from  the  suc- 
cessful wars  of  Asia,  gorged  with  the  gold  of 
conquered  provinces 

The  spirit  of  military  aggrandizement  and 
conquest  has  done  the  same  thing  for  Europe. 
Will  they  not  do  it  here,  if  we  indulge  them? 
Do  not  let  the  Senator  think  that  I  suspect  he 
wishes  to  indulge  them ;  but  will  they  not  do 
it?    Will  they  not  give  us  vast  standing  ar- 

*  Edward  Everett's  prayer  for  peace  was  not  answered.  The  Civil  War  of  1860-1865,  with  all  its  horrors 
came.  But  the  growth  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  between  1853  and  1878,  notwithstanding  the  War, 
confirmed  the  truth  of  Edward  Everett's  position.  The  population  in  1853  was  about  24,000,000  ;  in  i860,  about 
32,000,000 ;  and  in  1878,  about  46,000,000. 


mies,  overshadowing  navies,  colossal  military 
establishments,  frightful  expenditures,  con- 
tracts, jobs,  corruption  which  it  sickens  the 
heart  to  contemplate?  And  how  can  our 
simple  republican  institutions,  our  elective 
magistracies,  our  annual  or  biennial  choice  of 
those  who  are  to  rule  over  us,  unsupported 
by  hereditary  claims  or  pretorian  guards,  be 
carried  on  under  such  influences? 

Do  not  mistake,  however,  sir.  1  counsel 
no  pusillanimous  doctrine  of  nonresistance. 
Heaven  forbid !  Providence  has  placed  us 
between  the  two  great  world  oceans,  and  we 
shall  always  be  a  maritime  power  of  the  first 
order.  Our  commerce  already  visits  every 
sea,  and  wherever  it  floats,  it  must  be  pro- 
tected. Our  immense  inland  frontier  will  al- 
ways require  a  considerable  army,  and  it 
should  be  kept  in  the  highest  state  of  disci- 
pline. 

The  schools  at  Annapolis  and  West  Point 
ought  to  be  the  foster  children  of  our 
Republic.  Our  arsenals  and  our  armories 
ought  to  be  kept  filled  with  every  weapon  and 
munition  of  war,  and  every  vulnerable  point 
on  the  coast  ought  to  be  fortified.  But 
while  we  act  on  the  maxim.  "  In  peace  pre- 
pare for  war "  let  us  also  remember  that 
the  best  preparation  for  war  is  peace.  This 
swells  your  numbers;  this  augments  your 
means;  this  knits  the  sinews  of  your 
strength;  this  covers  you  all  over  with  a 
panoply  of  might ;  and  then,  if  war  must 
come  in  a  just  cause,  no  power  on  earth — no, 
sin  not  all  combined — can  send  forth  an  ad- 
versary from  whose  encounter  you  need 
shrink. 

But  give  us  these  twenty-five  years  of 
peace.  I  do  believe  that  the  coming  quarter 
of  a  century  is  to  be  the  most  important  in 
our  whole  history,  and  I  do  beseech  you,  let 
us  have  the  twenty-five  years,  at  least,  of 
peace.* 

Let  our  fertile  wastes  be  filled  up  with 
swarming  millions ;  let  the  tide  of  immi- 
gration continue  to  flow  in  from  Europe ; 
let  the  steamer,  let  the  canal,  let  the  rail- 
way, especially  the  Great  Pacific  Railway, 
subdue  these  mighty  distances,  and  bring  this 
vast  extension  into  a  span ;  let  us  pay  back 
the  ingots  of  California  gold  with  bars  of 
Atlantic  iron ;  let  agriculture  clothe  our  vast 
wastes  with  waving  plenty ;  let  the  industrial 
and  mechanic  arts  erect  their  peaceful  for- 
tresses at  the  waterfalls  of  our  rivers ;  and 
then,  in  the  train  of  this  growing  popula- 
tion, let  the  printing  office,  the  lecture  room, 
the  school  room,  and  the  village  church  be 
scattered  over  the  country ;  and.  sir,  in  these 
twenty-five  years,  we  shall  exhibit  a  spectacle 
of  national  prosperity,  such  as  the  world  has 
never  seen  on  so  large  a  scale,  and  yet  within 
the  reach  of  a  sober,  practical  contemplation. 
— W.  B.  O. 


632 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


A  RHAPSODY 


By  Cassius  Marcellus  Clay 


I  may  be  an  enthusiast ;  but  I  cannot  but 
give  utterance  to  the  conceptions  of  my  own 
mind.  When  I  look  upon  the  special  de- 
velopments of  European  civilization;  when  I 
contemplate  the  growing  freedom  of  the 
cities,  and  the  middle  class  which  has  sprung 
up  between  the  pretenders  to  divine  rule  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  abject  serf  on  the 
other;  when  I  consider  the  Reformation,  and 
the  invention  of  the  press,  and  see,  on  the 
southern  shore  of  the  continent,  an  humble 
individual,  amidst  untold  difficulties  and  re- 
peated defeats,  pursuing  the  mysterious  sug- 
gestions which  the  mighty  deep  poured  un- 
ceasingly upon  his  troubled  spirit,  till  at  last, 
with  great  and  irrepressible  energy  of  soul, 
he  discovered  that  there  lay  in  the  far  west- 
ern ocean  a  continent  open  for  the  infusion 
of  those  elementary  principles  of  liberty 
which  were  dwarfed  in  European  soil, — I 
conceive  that  the  hand  of  destiny  was  there ! 

When  I  see  the  immigration  of  the  Pil- 
grims from  the  chalky  shores  of  England, — 
in  the  night  fleeing  from  their  native  home, — 
so  dramatically  and  ably  pictured  by  Mr. 
Webster  in  his  celebrated  oration, — when 
father,  mother,  brother,  wife,  sister,  lover, 
were  all  lost  by  those  melancholy  wander- 
ers— "  stifling,"  in  the  language  of  one  who 
is  immortal  in  the  conception,  "  the  mighty 
hunger  of  the  heart,"  and  landing,  amidst 
cold  and  poverty  and  death,  upon  the  rude 
rocks  of  Plymouth, — I  venture  to  think  the 
will  of  Deity  was  there ! 

When  I  have  remembered  the  Revolution 
of  '76, — the  Seven  Years'  War — three  mil- 
lions of  men  in  arms  against  the  most  power- 
ful nation  in  history,  and  vindicating  their 
independence, — I  have  thought  that  their  suf- 


ferings and  death  were  not  in  vain !  When  I 
have  seen  the  forsaken  heartstone, — looked 
upon  the  battlefield,  upon  the  dying  and  the 
dead, — heard  the  agonizing  cry,  "  Water,  for 
the  sake  of  God!  water;"  seeing  the  disso- 
lution of  being, — pale  lips  pressing  in  death 
the  yet  loved  images  of  wife,  sister,  lover, — 
I  have  not  deemed — I  will  not  deem  all 
these  things  in  vain !  I  cannot  regard  this 
great  continent,  reaching  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  far  Pacific,  and  from  the  St.  John's  to 
the  Rio  del  Norte,  as  the  destined  home  of  a 
barbarian  people  of  third-rate  civilization. 

Like  the  Roman  who  looked  back  upon  the 
glory  of  his  ancestors,  in  wo  exclaiming, 

"  Great  Scipio's  ghost  complains  that  we  are 
slow. 
And     Pompey's     shade     walks     unavenged 
among  us," 

the  great  dead  hover  around  me : — Lawrence. 
"  Don't  give  up  the  ship." — Henry,  "  Give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death !  " — Adams, 
"  Survive  or  perish,  I  am  for  the  Declara- 
tion " — Allen,  "  In  the  name  of  the  living 
God,   I   come  !  " 

Come  then.  Thou  Eternal,  who  dwellest 
not  in  temples  made  with  hands,  but  who,  in 
the  city's  crowd  or  by  the  far  forest  stream, 
revealest  Thyself  to  the  earnest  seeker  after 
the  true  and  right,  inspire  my  heart ;  give 
me  undying  courage  to  pursue  the  prompt- 
ings of  my  spirit ;  and.  whether  I  shall  be 
called  in  the  shades  of  life  to  look  upon  as 
sweet  and  kind  and  lovely  faces  as  now.  or 
shut  in  by  sorrow  and  might,  horrid  visions 
shall  gloom  upon  me  in  my  dying  hour — O. 
my  country,  mayest  thou  yet  be  free ! — W. 
B.  O. 


SERMONS 

THE  HAND  OF  GOD  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

By  Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  D.D. 


Glory  be  to  God!  and  here,  throughout 
the  land,  far  and  near,  through  all  our  homes, 
be  peace,  good  will,  and  love.  As  one  fam- 
ily, one  people,  one  nation,  we  keep  the 
birthday  of  our  rights,  our  liberty,  our  power, 
and  strength.  Let  us  do  this  with  eyes  and 
hearts  raised  to  the  Fountain  of  life,  the  Be- 
ginning of  glory  and  might ;  with  words  of 
praise  and  thanks  to  God  who  rules  on  high ; 
for  He  is  the  living  God  and  stedfast  for- 
ever, and  His  Kingdom  that  which  shall 
not  be  destroyed,  and  His  dominion  shall  be 
even  unto  the  end.  Wherefore  as  He  is  our 
strength  and  hope,  let  all  begin  and  all  go  on, 
first  and  ever,  with  glory  to  God  Most  High. 

There  are  great  things  to  think  about  to- 


day; the  growth  of  the  people,  unparalleled 
in  history  the  vastness  of  their  empire,  a 
wonder  of  the  latter  days :  the  bands  by 
which  the  mighty  frame  is  held  together — so 
slight  to  the  eye.  so  hard  to  break ;  the  many 
races  wedded  into  one ;  the  marvelous  land, 
with  its  oceans,  its  lakes  themselves  like 
lesser  oceans,  its  icebergs  and  glaciers,  its 
torrid  deserts,  its  mountain  ranges  and  rich, 
fat  valley  land,  its  climates  of  every  kind, 
its  rivers,  its  wealth  in  all  that  rock,  and 
earth,  and  water  can  supply ;  and  then  the 
people — active,  able,  full  of  enterprise  and 
force,  acting  with  the  power  of  a  myriad  of 
giants,  speaking  one  language,  living  under 
one  flag,  bound  by  common  interests,  and,  as 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


633 


to-day,  kindled  by  one  common  feeling  of  de- 
votion, pride,  joy,  hope :  sure  there  is  enough 
to  fill  the  soul  and  make  the  head  giddy.  But 
let  these  things  be  spoken  of  elsewhere;  let 
others  dwell  upon  them. 

We  have  a  definite  share  in  the  national 
celebration ;  our  part  is  to  lift  to  God  a  great 
voice  which  He  shall  hear  amid  all  the  other 
voices  of  the  hour.  Why  do  we  gather  here? 
Is  it  to  recount  the  praises  of  men  and  their 
mighty  achievements?  Is  it  to  make  display 
of  our  national  greatness,  to  tell  over  our 
victories  and  conquests,  to  celebrate  the 
names  and  acts  of  chieftains,  statesmen,  and 
rulers  of  the  land,  of  brave  and  patient  peo- 
ple who  gave  fortune,  life,  and  sacred  honor 
to  the  State,  of  any  of  those  who  deserve 
remembrance  to-day?  Let  this  be  done  else- 
where, as  is  right  and  fitting;  let  men  stand 
up  when  it  is  convenient,  and  in  set  oration 
and  address  do  honor  to  the  dead  and  the 
living,  point  the  moral  of  our  history,  hold 
up  the  ideals  of  patriotism,  virtue,  and  un- 
selfish love  of  home  and  native  land.  But  we 
must  be  about  our  Father's  business ;  we  have 
other  words  to  speak,  deeper,  further  reach- 
ing; our  work  here  is  to  oflfer  praise  and 
glory  to  God ;  to  bless  Him  in  His  relations 
to  the  Nation  as  its  Lord  and  King,  as  Ruler 
and  Governor,  as  Providence,  Law-giver,  and 
Judge.  Without  God  nothing  of  what  we 
properly  value  to-day  could  have  been. 
Without  God  there  could  have  been  neither 
Nation,  nor  Nation's  birthday.  It  is  He  that 
hath  made  and  kept  us  one.  The  office  of  the 
Church  is  to  bless  and  sanctify  the  Nation's 
feast  day.  She  cannot  be  indifferent  nor  un- 
moved. We  are  citizens  of  the  earthly  house 
as  well  as  of  the  heavenly.  We  act  in  that 
double  capacity  in  praising  God  Almighty, 
while  with  our   brethren   we  keep  the   feast. 

And  oh !  w^hat  ground  for  thankfulness  to- 
day. Think  of  the  mighty  hand  that  hath  led 
us  and  upheld  us  through  these  years — what  it 
has  done  for  us — what  that  right  hand  of  the 
Most  High  hath  wrought !  Look  back  to  the 
humble  beginnings — to  the  poor  little  colonists 
with  their  scant  store,  their  modest  ambi- 
tions ;  think  of  their  long-suffering  patience, 
and  also  of  their  honorable  resolve  not  to 
submit  to  injustice  and  oppression;  remem- 
ber the  band  of  men  who  met  together,  more 
than  one  hundred  years  ago,  to  sign  the 
Declaration,  how  they  did  it — not,  as  popular 
legends  tell  us,  with  transports  of  enthusiasm 
and  amid  bell-ringing  and  general  jubilation, 
but  in  secret  session  of  Congress,  with  an 
awful  sense  of  what  it  meant,  with  a  vision 
of  the  gibbet  and  the  ax  before  their  eyes, 
and  well  aware  of  the  toil,  and  blood,  and 
grief  that  it  must  cost  to  maintain  their 
attitude  before  the  world.  Think  with 
what  dread  and  sinking  of  heart,  with  what 
tears  and  partings,  with  what  conflicts  of 
spirit,  and  what  doubts  as  to  the  duty  of  the 
hour,  the  foundations  were  laid ;  and  let  us 
have  a  tender  heart  toward  the  old  fathers 
of  the  State,  the  men  who  took  their  lives 
in  their  hands,  and  so  brought  the  new  Nation 
to  the  birth.  And  then  think  amid  what 
untold  trials  and  sufferings  they  carried  on 


their  war !  Think  of  the  great  hearts  ready 
to  break,  of  the  starved  and  ragged  armies 
with  that  mighty  spirit  under  their  hunger- 
worn  ribs,  more  frequently  retreating  than 
advancing,  wasted  by  sickly  summer  heat, 
and  often  in  winter  standing  barefoot  in 
snow ;  that  squalid,  sorrowful,  anxious 
force  working  their  sure  way  through  cloud, 
and  storm,  and  darkness  to  the  victory,  per- 
fect and  finished,   at   the  end. 

It  is  touching  to  read  the  memorials  of 
those  days,  and  to  think  of  all  that  has  come 
since  then;  how  we  are  entered  into  their 
labors,  and  are  at  peace  because  they  went 
through  all  that;  they  sowed  in  tears  and 
we  reap  in  joy.  So  then  let  there  be  thanks 
to  God  for  the  past,  out  of  which  He  has 
evoked  the  present  grandeur  of  our  State, 
and  let  us  remember  what  we  owe  to  those 
who  went  before,  for  a  part  of  that  debt 
is  obvious ;  to  imitate  the  virtues  and  return 
to  the  simple  mind,  the  pure  intention,  the 
unselfish  devotion  to  the  public  weal  which 
marked  the  founders  of  the  Republic.  It  is 
a  far  cry  to  those  days,  but  there  still  shine 
the  stars  which  guided  them  on  their  way, 
the  light  of  Heaven  illuminating  the  earth, 
the  bright  beacons  of  honesty,  truth,  simplic- 
ity, sincerity,  self-sacrifice,  under  which,  as 
under  an  astrological  sign,  the  little  one 
was  born.  Pray  Heaven  those  holy  lights  of 
morality  and  public  virtue  may  not  forever 
fade  away.  Surely  it  is  a  marvelous  thing 
to  see  how  nations  rise  and  grow ;  how  they 
gather  strength;  how  they  climb  to  the  me- 
ridian of  their  noonday  light  and  glory ;  how 
they  blaze  awhile,  invested  with  their  fullest 
splendors'  at  that  point,  and  thence,  declining, 
rush  downward  into  the  evening,  and  the 
night,  and  the  darkness  of  a  long,  dead  sleep, 
whence  none  can  awake  any  more. 

This  history  is  not  made  without  God. 
His  hand  is  in  it  all.  His  decrees  on  Na- 
tion and  State  are  just,  in  perfect  justice, 
as  on  each  one  of  its  men.  And  must  it  all  be 
told  over  again  in  our  case?  Is  there  no 
averting  the  common  doom?  Must  each  peo- 
ple but  repeat  the  monotonous  history  of 
those  who  went  before?  God  only  knows 
how  long  the  course  will  be  till  all  shall 
be  accomplished. 

But  certainly  we,  the  citizens,  may  do 
something;  we  may  live  pure,  honest,  sober 
lives,  for  the  love  of  country  also,  as 
well  as  for  the  love  of  Christ.  We  may, 
by  taking  good  heed  to  ourselves,  help  to 
purify  the  whole  Nation,  and  so  obtain  a 
lengthening  of  our  tranquillity.  We  want 
much  more  of  this  temper ;  we  need  to  feel 
that  each  man  helps,  in  his  own  way,  to  save 
or  to  destroy  his  country.  Every  good  man 
is  a  reason  in  God's  eyes  why  He  should 
spare  the  Nation  and  prolong  its  life ;  every 
bad  man,  in  his  vicious,  selfish,  evil  life,  is  a 
reason  why  God  should  break  up  the  whole 
system  to  which  that  worthless,  miserable 
being  belongs. 

If  we  love  our  country  with  a  true,  real 
love  we  shall  show  it  by  contributing  in  our- 
selves to  the  sum  of  collective  righteous- 
ness what  it  may  be  in  our  power,  aided  by 


634 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


God's  grace,  to  give.  They  are  not  true 
men  who  have  no  thanks  to  bring  to  the 
Lord  this  day.  They  are  not  true  men  who 
simply  shout  and  cry,  and  make  noisy  demon- 
stration, and  speak  great  swelling  words, 
without  reason,  or  i-eflection,  or  any  earnest 
thought  to  duty,  to  God,  and  the  State.  From 
neither  class  can  any  good  come ;  not  from 
the  senselessly  uproarious,  not  from  the  livid 
and  gloomy  children  of  discontent.  They 
were  thoughtful,  patriotic,  self-sacrificing 
men  who  built  this  great  temple  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  By  such  men  only  can  it  be 
kept  in  repair  and  made  to  stand  for  ages  and 
ages.  No  kingdom  of  this  world  can  last 
forever,  yet  many  endure  to  a  great  age.  The 
old  mother  country,  England,  in  her  present 
constitutional  form,  is  more  than  eight  hun- 
dred years  old — a  good  age,  a  grand  age, 
with,  we  trust  and  pray,  many  bright  cen- 
turies to  come  hereafter,  as  good,  as  fair. 
Let  us  remember  that  for  us,  as  for  all  peo- 
ple, length  of  days  and  long  life  and  peace 
depend  on  the  use  we  make  of  our  gifts,  on 


the  fidelity  with  which  we  discharge  our 
mission.  And  that  is  the  reason  why  every 
one  of  us  has,  in  part,  his  country's  life  in 
his  own  hands.  But  I  detain  you  from  the 
duty  of  the  hour.  We  meet  to  praise  not 
man,  but  God;  to  praise  Him  with  a  rea- 
sonable and  devout  purpose ;  to  bless  Him 
for  this  day  which  He  permits  us  to  see,  for 
our  homes,  our  liberties,  our  peace,  our 
place  among  the  powers  of  the  earth.  It  is 
all  from  Him,  whatever  good  we  have,  and  to 
Him  let  us  ascribe  the  honor  and  the  glory. 
And  let  us  say,  with  them  of  old  time: 

"  Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord  God  of  our 
fathers ;  and  to  be  praised  and  exalted  above 
all    forever. 

"  Yea,  let  us  bless  the  Most  High,  and 
praise  and  honor  him  that  liveth  forever, 
whose  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion, 
and  his  kingdom  is  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. And  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
are  reputed  as  nothing ;  and  he  doeth  accord- 
ing to  his  will  in  the  army  of  heaven  and 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth." — P.  T. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS 


"  AMEBIOA."— The  origin  of  the  words 
of  the  patriotic  hymn,  "  America,"  has  been 
somewhat  recently  celebrated  by  an  anniver- 
sary. The  air,  as  is  well  known,  is  that  of 
the  national  anthem  of  England,  "  God  Save 
the  King."  As  such  it  has  been  in  use.  in 
one  form  or  another,  since  the  middle  of  the 
last  century. 

In  1832,  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith  came  upon  it  in  a 
"  book  of  German  music,"  and  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  as  it  appears,  wrote  for  it  the 
hymn  "  America."  This  was  in  Andover, 
Mass.,  in  February,  1832.  The  hymn  was 
first  sung  publicly  at  a  children's  celebration 
at  the  Park  Street  Church,  Boston,  on  July 
4th  of  that  year. 

"If  I  had  anticipated  the  future  of  it, 
doubtless  I  should  have  taken  more  pains 
with  it,"  wrote  Doctor  Smith,  in  1872. 
"  Such  as  it  is,  I  am  glad  to  have  contributed 
this  mite  to  the  cause  of  American  freedom." 
— Selected. 

AMERICA  FIRST.— This  is  the  season 
when  Young  America  celebrates  the  glorious 
deeds  of  the  forefathers,  when  they  cut  the 
leading-strings  that  bound  them  to  the  Old 
World,  and  stepped  forth  with  the  independ- 
ence of  manhood. 

It  took  Rome  five  hundred  years,  five  cen- 
turies of  war,  intrigue,  and  arrogance,  to 
overspread  Southern  Europe.  In  a  little 
more  than  one  century  America  has  grown 
to  a  magnitude,  in  area  and  perhaps  in  popu- 
lation also,  equal  to  that  of  Rome  in  its  most 
magnificent  days. 

•' Civis  Romanus  sum!"  was  the  proudest 
boast  that  could  fall  from  the  lips  of  man  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Is  there 
to-day  an  American  who  rates  his  citizenship 
in  the  Great  Republic  at  a  lower  value  than 
Roman  freedom  nineteen  hundred  years  ago? 


The  day  for  "  spread-eagle  "  brag  is  long 
past,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
hesitate  to  say  what  not  we  alone  but  all  the 
people  of  the  world  believe,  that  it  is  the 
destiny  of  this  country  to  become  the  great- 
est, the  strongest,  the  wealthiest,  the  most 
self-supporting,  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  It  is  already  the  greatest  self-govern- 
ing community  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

How  can  we  make  it  greater?  By  stand- 
ing together  as  Americans.  We  shall  not 
magnify,  but  shall  belittle  ourselves,  if  we 
swagger  before  our  neighbors — using  bravado 
for  the  strong,  and  insolence  in  our  treatment 
of  the  weak.  But  we  should  take  American 
views  instead  of  party  views,  when  questions 
arise  between  this  government  and  others. 

The  motto  "  America  against  the  world " 
would  be  a  contemptible  motto.  Yet  is  it  not 
better  to  adopt  even  such  a  motto  than  to 
take  the  side  of  the  world  against  America, 
or  to  be  indififerent  when  the  interests  of 
one's  own  country  are  assailed? 

The  Fourth  of  July  is  a  good  time  for  us 
all  to  resolve  that  we  will  be  Americans  at 
heart.  Not  that  we  will  build  up  our  own 
country  on  the  ruins  of  others,  but  that  when 
there  is  a  clashing  of  interests  those  of  our 
native  land  shall  have  our  hearty  support. 
— Y.  C. 

COUNTRY,  Love  of.— If  love  were  the 
oflFspring  of  merit,  then  patriotism  would  find 
no  difficulty  in  showing  why  a  country  is 
worth  loving.  But  the  Russian  loves  a  land 
that  has  no  freedom ;  the  Spaniard,  like  the 
Irishman,  loves  a  country  that  has  no  pros- 
perity ;  the  Chinaman  loves  a  land  that  has 
no  inspiration ;  the  Eskimo  loves  a  land  that 
has  for  others  no  natural  beauty.  Men  of 
each   of  these   nationalities  love   their  home 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


635 


land  apparently  for  no  other  reason  than 
because  it  is  their  own. 

So  long  as  being  born  in  a  country  makes 
its  patriots,  there  will  be  no  better  reason  to 
give.  If  patriots  would  make  their  country. 
— if  the  people  would  all  help  to  make  their 
country  better  worth  loving, — the  word  pa- 
triotism would  not  sometimes  mean  so  little. 

It  is  poorly  worth  the  name  if  it  implies  no 
more  than  the  habit  of  association  that  at- 
taches the  savage  to  his  hunting-ground  or 
brings  back  the  exiled  cat  to  its  wonted  gar- 
ret. True  patriotism  is  something  more  than 
blind  instinct. 

Neither  is  it  a  partisanship  or  a  worship. 
It  has  been  said  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
Turkish  patriot.  The  Turk  is  first  and  last 
a  Mohammedan. 

Nor  is  patriotism  a  mere  sentiment.  It  is 
a  principle  of  duty ;  and  it  becomes  more 
beneficent  as  it  grows  more  enlightened. 
That  will  be  when  patriots  cease  to  cry, 
"  Our  country,  right  or  wrong !  "  and  insist 
that  its  public  life  and  its  politics  shall  have 
nothing  in  them  of  which  they  need  feel 
ashamed. — Y.  C. 

DECLARATION,  How  the,  Was  Adopt- 
ed-— It  was  desirable  that  a  fact  of  such  su- 
preme importance  as  the  birth  of  thirteen 
new  nations  should  not  remain  merely  a  mat- 
ter of  logical  inference.  It  must  be  em- 
bodied in  a  declaration  incapable  of  misin- 
terpretation, not  open  to  be  explained  away 
by  ingenious  constructions  or  canceled  by 
technical  arguments.  Independence  could 
not  be  left  to  be  gathered  among  the  recitals 
of  a  preamble.  .  .  .  On  June  7  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  moved  "  certain 
resolutions  respecting  independency."  John 
Adams  seconded  the  motion.  Its  considera- 
tion was  referred  to  the  next  morning  at  ten 
o'clock,  when  members  were  "  enjoined  to 
attend  punctually."  A  debate  of  three  days 
ensued.  It  appeared  that  four  New  England 
colonies  and  three  Southern  colonies  were 
prepared  to  vote  at  once  in  the  affirmative ; 
but  unanimity  was  desirable,  and  could  prob- 
ably be  obtained  by  a  little  delay.  So  a  post- 
ponement was  voted  until  July  i.  .  .  :  Three 
committees  were  appointed ;  one  was  charged 
with  drafting  the  document  itself,  so  that  it 
should  be  ready  for  adoption  on  July  i. 
The  members  of  this  committee,  in  order  of 
precedence,  were  Thomas  Jefferson,  John 
Adams.  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman, 
and  Robert  R.  Livingston.  On  July  i  debate 
was  resumed  in  committee  of  the  whole  on 
the  original  resolution  of  Mr.  Lee,  which  was 
reported  to  Congress  and  carried  by  that 
body  on  the  next  day.  The  Declaration  was 
then  at  once  reported  and  discussed  until  late 
on  July  4.  The  question  of  independence 
was  really  settled  July  2,  but  posterity  has 
selected  July  4,  the  anniversary  of  the  adop- 
tion of  Jefferson's  Declaration. — John  T. 
Morse,  Jr.,  in  Life  of  John  Adams. 

ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.— This  is  a 
memorable  day  to  Englishmen  as  well  as  to 
Americans.  It  is  to  us  a  day  both  of  regret 
and  of  rejoicing:    of  regret  at  the  severance 


of  the  political  connection  which  bound  the 
two  branches  of  our  race  together,  and  of 
regret  even  more  for  the  unhappy  errors 
which  brought  that  severance  about,  and  the 
unhappy  strife  by  which  the  memory  of  it 
was  embittered.  But  it  is  also  a  day  of  re- 
joicing, for  it  is  the  birthday  of  the  eldest 
daughter  of  England — the  day  when  a  new 
nation,  sprung  from  our  own.  first  took  its 
independent  place  in  the  world.  And  now 
with  the  progress  of  time  rejoicing  has  pre- 
vailed over  regret,  and  we  in  England  can  at 
length  join  heartily  with  you  in  celebrating 
the  beginning  of  your  national  life.  All  sense 
of  bitterntss  has  passed  away,  and  been  re- 
placed by  sympathy  with  all  which  this  anni- 
versary means  to  an  American  heart. 

England  and  America  now  understand  one 
another  far  better  than  they  ever  did  before. 
In  1776  there  was  on  one  side  a  monarch  and 
a  small  ruling  caste,  on  the  other  side  a  peo- 
ple. Now  our  government  can  no  longer 
misrepresent  the  nation,  and  across  the  ocean 
a  people  speaks  to  a  people.  We  have  both 
come,  and  that  most  notably  within  recent 
months,  to  perceive  that  all  over  the  world 
the  interests  of  America  and  of  England  are 
substantially  the  same. 

The  sense  of  our  underlying  unity  over 
against  the  other  races  and  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion has  been  a  potent  force  in  drawing  us 
together.  It  is  said  that  the  Fourth  of  July 
is  a  day  of  happy  augury  for  mankind.  This 
is  true  because  on  that  day  America  entered 
on  a  course  and  proclaimed  principles  of  gov- 
ernment which  have  been  of  profound  signifi- 
cance for  mankind.  Many  nations  have  had 
a  career  of  conquest  and  of  civilizing  domin- 
ion :  but  to  make  an  immense  people  pros- 
perous, happy,  and  free  is  a  nobler  and 
grander  achievement  than  the  most  brilliant 
conquests  and  the  widest  dominion. — James 
Bryce. 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  FOURTH  OF 
JULY. — I  wish  with  all  my  heart  that  we 
could  adopt  the  Fourth  of  July  as  the  Festi- 
val Day  of  the  whole  English-speaking  race. 
If  this  suggestion  should  seem  strange  to 
Americans,  it  is  not  unfamiliar  to  many  Eng- 
lishmen. We  consider  that  the  triumph  of 
the  American  revolt  against  George  III.  was 
a  vindication  of  the  essentially  English  idea 
of  democratic  self-government,  and  we  be- 
lieve that  we  have  benefited  by  it  almost  as 
much  as  the  Americans.  It  taught  us  a  les- 
son which  made  the  British  Colonial  Empire 
a  possibility,  and  if  we  are  now  involved  in  a 
suicidal  war  in  South  Africa,  it  is  largely  be- 
cause our  Government  has  forgotten  the  prin- 
ciples of  George  Washington,  and  has  gone 
back  to  the  principles  of  George  III._ 

For  some  years  past  I  have  presided  at  a 
distinctly  British  celebration  of  the  Fourth 
of  July  at  my  brother's  settlement  in  South- 
east London,  at  Browning  Hall,  and  I  have 
always  repudiated  the  idea  that  Americans 
should  be  allowed  to  monopolize  the  Fourth 
of  July.  It  is  one  of  the  great  days  of  the 
English-speaking  race  in  the  celebration  of 
which  all   members  of  the   English-speaking 


636 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


nations    should    participate. — W.    T.    Stead. 
(I.) 

FAMILY,  A  Patriotic— The  father  of  a 
small  family,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebel- 
lion, felt  that  he  could  not  stay  at  home  while 
his  neighbors  went  to  the  war.  The  boys 
agreed  to  take  care  of  the  place,  and  help 
mother,  while  the  father  fought  for  the  flag. 
Each  did  his  part  well.  The  boys'  farming 
elicited  the  commendation  of  a  passing  gen- 
tleman, to  whom  one  of  them  said,  "  Fa- 
ther's fighting.  I'm  digging,  and  mother's 
praying." — "  Fighting,  digging,  and  pray- 
ing! "  cried  the  gentleman.  "  That's  the  pa- 
triotism that  will  bring  the  country  out  of 
her  distress." — F.  II. 

HEROISM,  Example  of.— The  plague 
was  making  a  desert  of  the  city  of  Marseilles. 
Death  was  everywhere.  The  physicians  could 
do  nothing.  In  one  of  their  counsels,  it 
was  decided  that  a  corpse  must  be  dissected; 
but  it  would  be  death  to  the  operator.  A 
celebrated  physician  of  the  number  arose  and 
said,  "  I  devote  myself  for  the  safety  of  my 
country.  Before  this  numerous  assembly  I 
swear  in  the  name  of  humanity  and  religion, 
that  to-morrow,  at  the  break  of  day,  I  will 
dissect  a  corpse,  and  write  down,  as  I  pro- 
ceed, what  I  observe."  He  immediately  left 
the  room,  made  his  will,  and  spent  the  night 
in  religious  exercises.  During  the  day,  a 
man  had  died  in  his  house  of  the  plague ; 
and  at  daybreak  on  the  following  morning, 
the  physician,  whose  name  was  Guyon,  en- 
tered the  room,  and  critically  made  the  nec- 
essary examinations,  writing  down  all  his 
surgical  observations.  He  then  left  the  room, 
threw  the  papers  into  a  vase  of  vinegar,  that 
they  might  not  convey  the  disease  to  another, 
and  retired  to  a  convenient  place,  where  he 
died  in  twelve  hours. — F.  I. 

INDEPENDENCE  DAY.— The  second 
day  of  July,  1776,  will  be  the  most  memor- 
able epoch  in  the  history  of  America.  I  am 
apt  to  believe  that  it  will  be  celebrated  by 
succeeding  generations  as  the  great  anniver- 
sary festival.  It  ought  to  be  commemorated 
as  the  day  of  deliverance  by  solemn  acts  of 
devotion  to  God  Almighty.  It  ought  to  be  sol- 
emnized with  pomp  and  parade,  with  shows, 
games,  sports,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illumina- 
tions, from  one  end  of  this  continent  to  the 
other,  from  this  time  forward  forevermore. 
You  will  think  me  transported  with  enthusi- 
asm, but  I  am  not.  I  am  well  aware  of  the  toil 
and  blood  and  treasure  that  it  will  cost  us  to 
maintain  this  Declaration,  and  support  and 
defend  these  States.  Yet  through  all  the 
gloom  I  can  see  the  rays  of  ravishing  light 
and  glory.  I  can  see  that  the  end  is  more 
than  worth  all  the  means ;  and  that  posterity 
will  triumph  in  that  day's  transaction,  even 
tho  we  should  rue  it,  which  I  trust  in  God 
we  shall  not. — John  Adams.  From  a  letter 
to  his  wife. 

LIBERTY  AND  LAW.— All  freedom  has 
its  birthright  and  its  protection  in  law.  Are 
you  free?  Law  has  given  the  priceless  gift 
to  you. 


Law  once  volleyed,  and  thundered,  and 
raged  with  lips  of  fire  and  face  of  blood,  to 
bespeak  for  four  million  slaves  the  mercy  of 
freedom.  Law  gives  freedom,  and  true  free- 
dom abides  in  the  lowly  hut  of  obedience. 

"  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free."  There  is,  then,  no 
liberty  for  humanity,  but  the  liberty  which 
flames  out  from  God's  law  of  truth.  The 
most  independent  and  hapny  moment  of  life 
is  when  a  soul  can  say :  "  I'm  a  slave  of 
Jesus."  It  is  the  soul's  true  declaration  of 
independence. — Selected. 

NATIONAL  SAFETY.— A  selfish  nation 
may  make  money,  but  it  will  be  unmade  by 
its  money. 

Nations,  like  men,  are  never  safe  when 
their  chief  thought  is  their  own  safety. 

Unless  God  founded  the  nation,  it  is  not 
worth  saving;  if  God  founded  it.  He  will 
aid  it  in  its  salvation. 

No  nation  is  safe  until  its  citizens  care 
more  about  its  safety  than  their  own. 

The  salvation  of  a  nation  comes  by  way  of 
its  few  best  men,  "  the  remnant." 

"  Blessed  is  the  nation  whose  God  is  the 
Lord,"  and  who  see  in  this  their  blessedness. 
— Selected. 

NATIONS,  Crises  of.— There  are  brief 
crises  in  which  the  drift  of  individual  and 
national  history  is  determined,  sometimes  un- 
expectedly; critical  moments  on  which  great 
decisions  hang;  days  which,  like  a  mountain 
in  a  plain,  lift  themselves  above  the  dead 
level  of  common  days  into  everlasting  emi- 
nence. Our  Day  of  Independence  was  such 
a  day ;  so  was  the  day  of  Marathon,  and  the 
day  of  Waterloo.  Napoleon  admitted  that 
the  Austrians  fought  grandly  on  the  field  of 
Rivoli,  and  said,  "  They  failed  because  they 
do  not  understand  the  value  of  minutes." 
Humboldt  refers  the  discovery  of  America 
to  "  a  wonderful  concatenation  of  trivial  cir- 
cumstances," including  a  flight  of  parrots. — 
Dr.  Foss. 

PATRIOTISM.— Patriotism  is  love  of 
country,  and  loyalty  to  its  life  and  weal. 

Take  patriotism  away,  and  the  nation's 
soul   has  fled. 

Next  to  God  is  country,  and  next  to  re- 
ligion is  patriotism. 

America  is  the  country  of  human  dignity, 
and  human  liberty. 

The  duty  of  patriotism  is  the  duty  of  jus- 
tice and  gratitude. 

The  safety  of  the  Republic  lies  in  the  vigilant 
and  active  patriotism  of  the  American  people. 

This  patriotism,  America,  thou  shalt  have. 
I  speak  for  veterans.  I  speak  for  their 
brother  citizens. — Archbishop  Irel.a.nd. 

PATRIOTISM.— A  true  patriot  is  known 
by  his  interest  in  education. — James  Ellis. 

The  factious  man  is  apt  to  mistake  himself 
for  a  patriot. — IMarquis  d'Argensen. 

No  nation  can  expect  to  prosper  and  be- 
come great  without  ardent  and  devoted  pa- 
triotism ;  it  is  irresistible,  unconquerable, 
universal. — J.  E.  E.  D.  Acton. 

Patriotism   is   usually  truer  and  more   in- 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


637 


tense  in  small  than  in  large  countries,  and 
in  countries  rough  and  barren  than  in  those 
smoother  and  more  fertile. — H.  Winslow. 

When  virtue  and  genuine  patriotism  pre- 
dominate, offices  will  seek  good  and  com- 
petent men,  who  should  answer  the  call  as  a 
matter  of  duty,  not  of  pleasure  or  profit. — 

L.   C.   JUDSON. 

We  join  ourselves  to  no  party  that  does 
not  carry  the  flag  and  keep  step  to  the  music 
of  the  Union. — Rufus  Choate.  Letter  to 
the  Whig  Convention. 

This  Nation,  under  God.  shall  have  a  new 
birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall 
not  perish  from  the  earth. — Lincoln.  Speech 
at  Gettysburg,   Nov.    19,   1863. 

Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one 
and  inseparable. — Daniel  Webster.  Second 
Speech  on  Foot's  Resolution. 

Cum  tempus  necessitasque  postulat,  decer- 
tandum  manu  est,  et  mors  servituti  turpi- 
dinique  anteponenda. 

When  time  and  need  require,  we  should 
resist  with  all  our  might,  and  prefer  death 
to  slavery  and  disgrace. — Cicero. 

Nihil  ex  omnibus  rebus  humanis  est  prse- 
clarius  aut  prsestantius  quam  de  republica 
bene  mereri. 

Of  all  human  things  nothing  is  more  hon- 
orable or  more  excellent  than  to  deserve  well 
of  one's  country. — Cicero. 

O  fortunata  mors  quae,  naturae  debita,  pro 
patria  potissimum  redita ! 

O  happy  death,  which  tho  due  to  nature  is 
most  nobly  given   for  our  country. — Cicero. 

Patria  est  communis  omnium  parens. 

Our  country  is  the  common  parent  of  all. 
— Cicero. 

Nullum  est  imperium  tutum  nisi  benevo- 
lentia  munitum. 

No  government  is  safe  unless  protected  by 
the  good-will  of  the  people. — Nepos. 

Amor  patriae  ratione  valentior. 

The  love  of  country  is  more  powerful  than 
reason    itself. — Ovid. 

Nescio  qua  natale  solum  dulcedine  captos 
Ducit,  et  immemores  non  sinit  esse  sui. 

Our  native  land  charms  us  with  inexpressi- 
ble sweetness,  and  never  allows  us  to  forget 
that  we  belong  to  it. — Ovid. 

Patria  est  ubicumque  vir  fortis  sedem  ele- 
gerit. 

A  brave  man's  country  is  wherever  he 
chooses  his  abode. — Quintus  Curtius  Rufus. 

Non  exercitus,  neque  thesauri,  praesidia 
regni  sunt,  verum  amici. 

The  safety  of  a  kingdom  is  not  its  armies, 
nor   its   treasures,   but   its'  friends. — Sallust. 

Praeferre  patriam  liberis  regem  decet. 

A  king  should  prefer  his  country  to  his 
children. — Seneca. 

Servare  cives,  major  est  virtus  patriae  patri. 

To  preserve  the  life  of  citizens,  is  the 
greatest  virtue  in  the  father  of  his  country. 
— Seneca. 

Patriotism  is  love  of  one's  country ;  the 
passion  which  aims  to  serve  one's  country, 
either  in  defending  it  from  invasion,  or  pro- 
tecting its  rights,  and  maintaining  its  laws 
and  institutions  in  vigor  and  purity;   it  is  the 


characteristic  of  a  good  citizen,  the  noblest 
passion  that  animates  a  man  in  the  character 
of  a  citizen. — N.  Webster.     (C.  G.) 

PATRIOTISM,  Pleasure  of.— Neither 
Montaigne  in  writing  his  essays,  nor  Des- 
cartes in  building  new  worlds,  nor  Burnet  in 
framing  an  antediluvian  earth,  no,  nor  New- 
ton in  discovering  and  establishing  the  true 
laws  of  nature  on  experiment  and  a  sublime 
geometry,  felt  more  intellectual  joys  than  he 
feels  who  is  a  real  patriot,  who  bends  all  the 
force  of  his  understanding,  and  directs  all 
his  thoughts  and  actions,  to  the  good  of  his 
country. — Bolingbroke. 

PATBIOTISM,  Pure.— Do  you  know  how 
much  money  Washington  received  for  his 
services  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
in  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution? 
Not  one  farthing.  His  successors  in  the 
army  have  received  their  $17,000  or  $19,000 
salary  a  year.  But  for  Valley  Forge,  and 
Monmouth,  and  the  Delaware  crossing,  and 
all  the  other  horrors  of  the  Revolution, 
Washington  received  not  a  farthing. 

What  but  pure  love  of  country  inspired 
Governor  Nelson,  of  Virginia,  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  when,  at  the  siege  of 
Yorktown,  Lafayette  asked  him  to  what  point 
the  cannon  had  better  be  directed,  and  Gov- 
ernor Nelson  answered,  "  Point  to  that 
house;  it  is  mine,  and  the  best  house  in 
town,  and  Lord  Cornwallis  will  surely  be 
occupying  that  as  his  headquarters?"  What 
but  patriotism  led  Bismarck,  when  at  one 
time  he  was  threatened  with  death  because 
of  his  effort  to  get  Germany  away  from  the 
Austrian  clutches,  to  cry  out,  "  What  care 
I  if  they  hang  me  provided  the  rope  by 
which  I  am  hanged  binds  this  new  Germany 
firmly  to   the   Prussian   throne?" — Talmage. 

PATRIOTISM,  True  Spartan. — Lycurgus 
taught  his  citizens  to  think  nothing  more 
disagreeable  than  to  live  for  themselves. 
Like  bees,  they  acted  with  one  impulse  for 
the  public  good,  and  always  assembled  about 
their  prince.  They  were  possessed  with  a 
thirst  for  honor  and  enthusiasm  bordering 
upon  insanity,  and  had  not  a  wish  but  for 
their  country. 

These  sentiments  are  confirmed  by  some  of 
their  aphorisms.  When  Paedaretus  lost  his 
election  for  one  of  the  three  hundred,  he 
went  away  rejoicing  that  there  were  three 
hundred  better  men  than  himself  found  in 
the  city.  Pisistratides  going  with  some 
others,  ambassador  to  the  King  of  Persia's 
lieutenants,  was  asked  whether  they  came 
with  a  public  commission  or  on  their  own 
account,  to  which  he  answered,  "  If  success- 
ful, for  the  public;  if  unsuccessful,  for  our- 
selves."— Plutarch. 

PATRIOT,  The  True. — He  loves  his 
country,  but  he  loves  still  more  the  Kingdom 
of  God. 

He  cares  too  much  for  his  country  to  up- 
hold her  in  any  wrong. 

He  does  not  reserve  his  patriotism  until  he 
has  a  chance  to  die  for  his  country ;  he  lives. 
for  her. 


638 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


He  does  not  urge  the  selection  of  the  best 
men  for  candidates,  and  then  refuse  to  serve 
when  called  upon,  tho  at  the  cost  of  time 
and  money  and  inclination. 

He  does  not  vote  for  bad  men,  and  then 
plead  that  he  did  not  know  they  were  bad. 
He  takes  time  to  investigate  the  characters 
of  candidates. — Selected. 

RELIGIOUS       PURPOSE       OF       THE 

FOUNDERS.— To  tell  the  story  of  the  He- 
brews and  leave  out  religion  is  impossible: 
equally  impossible  is  such  omission  in  telling 
the  story  of  our  country.  Columbus,  in  his 
journal,  speaks  of  "  the  means  to  be  taken 
for  the  conversion  "  of  the  natives  to  Chris- 
tianity. Parkman  shows  the  spirit  higher 
than  advantage  or  the  pursuit  of  wealth 
which  actuated  the  French  discoverers.  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert,  saying,  "  We  are  as  near 
to  Heaven  by  sea  as  by  land,"  reveals  the 
spirit  of  not  a  few  of  the  early  English  dis- 
coverers. "  Every  enterprise  of  the  Pil- 
grims," says  Bancroft,  "  began  with  God." 
Lord  Baltimore  had  a  religious  purpose  in 
the  founding  of  Maryland.  Christian  phi- 
lanthropy was  the  controlling  thought  of 
Oglethorpe  in  Georgia.  William  Penn 
founded  Pennsylvania  as  a  religious  move- 
ment;   and  he  is  blind  who  does  not  see  the 


same  purpose  in  the  beginning  of  our  na- 
tional councils  and  the  wonderful  career  of 
the  Father  of  his  Country. — Rev.  John  Lee. 

UNION,  The  Perpetuity  of  the.— When 
my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold,  for  the 
last  time,  the  sun  in  Heaven,  may  I  not  see 
him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored 
fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union ;  on 
States  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ; 
on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched, 
it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood !  Let  their  last 
feeble  and  lingering  glance,  rather,  behold 
the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Republic,  now 
known  and  honored  throughout  the  earth, 
still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  luster,  not  a 
stripe  erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single  star 
obscured,  bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  mis- 
erable interrogatory  as  What  is  all  this 
worth  ?  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion 
and  folly,  Liberty  first,  and  Union  afterward, 
but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in  characters 
of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds, 
as  they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land, 
and  in  every  wind  under  the  whole  heavens, 
that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true 
American  heart.  Liberty  and  Union  now  and 
forever,  one  and  inseparable. — Daniel  Web- 
ster. 


POETRY 


The  Heroic  Age 

By  Richard  Watson  Gilder 

He  speaks  not  well  who  doth  his  time  de- 
plore. 
Naming  it  new  and  little  and  obscure. 
Ignoble  and  unfit  for  lofty  deeds. 
All  times  were  modern  in  the  time  of  them. 
And  this  no  more  than  others.     Do  thy  part 
Here  in  the  living  day,  as  did  the  great 
Who  made  old  days  immortal !  So  shall  men. 
Gazing  back  to  this  far-looming  hour. 
Say :    "  Then  the  time  when  men  were  truly 

men, 
Tho  wars  grew  less,  their  spirits  met  the  test 
Of  new  conditions;    conquering  civic  wrong; 
Saving  the  State  anew  by  virtuous  lives ; 
Guarding  the  country's  honor  as  their  own. 
And  their  own  as  their  country's  and  their 

sons' ; 
Defying  leagued  fraud  with  single  truth ; 
Not  fearing  loss ;    and  daring  to  be  pure. 
When   error  through  the  land  raged  like  a 

pest, 
They  calmed  the  madness  caught  from  mind 

to  mind 
By    wisdom    drawn    from    eld,    and    counsel 

sane. 
And  as  the  martyrs  of  the  ancient  world 
Gave    Death    for    man,    so   nobly    gave   they 

Life ; 
Those  the   great   days,   and   that   the   heroic 

age." 


America 

By  Samuel  Francis  Smith 

My  country,  'tis  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty. 

Of  thee  I   sing; 
Land   where  my  fathers  died, 
Land  of  the  pilgrims'  pride, 
From  every  mountain-side, 

Let  freedom  ring. 

My  native  country,  thee. 
Land  of  the  noble,  free, 

Thy  name  I  love; 
I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy    woods    and    templed    hills,— 
My  heart  with  rapture  thrills, 

Like  that  above. 

Let  music  swell  the  breeze. 
And  ring  from  all  the  trees 

Sweet  freedom's  song; 
Let  mortal  tongues  awake. 
Let  all  that  breathe  partake, 
Let  rocks  their  silence  break. 

The  sound  prolong. 

Our  fathers'  God,  to  Thee, 
Author  of  liberty, 

To  Thee  we  sing; 
Long  may  our  land  be  bright 
With  freedom's  holy  light, — 
Protect  us  by  Thy  might. 

Great  God,  our  King. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


639 


The  Battle  Cry  of  Freedom 

By  Geo.   F.   Root 

Yes,   we'll    rally  round  the  flag,   boys,   we'll 
rally  once  again, 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom, 
We'll    rally    from    the   hillside,    we'll   gather 
from  the  plain, 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom ! 

Chorus  : 

The   Union   forever,   hurrah !    boys,   hurrah ! 
Down  with  the  traitor,  up  with  the  star, 
While   we   rally   round  the   flag,   boys,   rally 

once   again. 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom ! 

We  are  springing  to  the  call  of  our  brothers 
gone  before, 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom; 
And  we'll  fill  the  vacant  ranks  with  a  million 
freemen  more. 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom ! — Cho. 

We  will  welcome  to  our  number  the  loyal, 
true  and  brave. 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom; 
And  altho  they  may  be  poor,  not  a  man  shall 
be  a  slave. 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom ! — Cho. 

So  we're  springing  to  the  call  from  the  East 
and  from  the  West, 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom; 
And  we'll  hurl  the  rebel  crew  from  the  land 
we  love  the  best. 
Shouting  the  battle  cry  of  Freedom ! — Cho. 

Battle  Hymn  of  the  Kepublic 
By  Julia  Ward  Howe 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming 

of  the  Lord ; 
He   is  tramping  out  the  vintage  where  the 

grapes  of  wrath  are  stored ; 
He  has  loosed  the  fearful  lightning  of  His 

terrible  swift  sword. 

His  truth  is  marching  on. 

I  have  seen  Him  in  the  watch-fire  of  a  hun- 
dred circling  camps; 

They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  eve- 
ning dews  and  damps ; 

I  can  read  His  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim 
and  flaring  lamps. 

His  day  is  marching  on. 

I  have  read  a  fiery  gospel  writ  in  burnished 

rows  of  steel ; 
"  As  ye  deal  with  My  contemners,  so  with 

■  you  My  grace  shall  deal ; 
Let    the    Hero,    born    of    woman,    crush    the 
serpent  with  his  heel, 

Since  God  is  marching  on." 

He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall 

never  call  retreat ! 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before 

His  judgment  seat. 
Oh,  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him!    Be 

jubilant,  my  feet ! 

Our  God  is  marching  on. 


In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born 

across  the  sea. 
With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigures 

you  and  me. 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to 

make  men  free. 

While  God  is  marching  on. 

Columbia,  the  Land  of  the  Brave 
By  David  T.  Shaw 

O  Columbia,  the  gem  of  the  ocean, 

The  home  of  the  brave  and  the  free, 
The  shrine  of  each  patriot's  devotion, 

A  world  offers  homage  to  thee. 
Thy  mandates  make  heroes  assemble. 

When   Liberty's  form   stands  in  view. 
Thy   banners   make   tyranny   tremble, 

When  borne  by  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue. 

Chorus  : 

When  borne  by  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue, 
When  borne  by  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue, 
Thy  banners  make  tyranny  tremble. 
When  borne  by  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue. 

When  war  winged  its  wide  desolation. 

And  threatened  the  land  to  deform. 
The  ark  then  of  Freedom's  foundation, 

Columbia,  rode  safe  through  the  storm, 
With  the  garlands  of  victory  around  her. 

When  so  proudly  she  bore  her  brave  crew, 
With  her  flag  proudly  floating  before  her. 

The  boast  of  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue. 

Chorus. 

The  wine-cup,  the  wine-cup  bring  hither. 

And  fill  you  it  true  to  the  brim. 
May  the  wreaths  they  have  won  never  wither, 

Nor  the  stars  of  their  glory  grow  dim. 
May  the  service  united  ne'er  sever. 

But  they  to  their  colors  prove  true ! 
The  Army  and  Navy  forever ! 

Three  cheers  for  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue! 

Chorus. 

Our  Country  Saved 

[Extract  from  "  Ode  Recited  at  the  Harvard 
Cof/imemoration,  July  21,  1865.] 

By  James  Russell  Lowell 

Boom,   cannon,   boom  to  all  the  winds  and 
waves ! 
Clash  out,  glad  bells,  from  every  rocking 
steeple ! 
Banners,   advance   with   triumph,   bend   your 
staves ! 
And  from  every  mountain-peak 
Let  beacon-fire  to  answering  beacon  speak, 
Katahdin  tell  Monadnock,  Whiteface  he. 
And  so  leap  on  in  light  from  sea  to  sea. 
Till  the  glad  news  be  sent 
Across  a  kindling  continent, 
Making  earth  feel  more  firm  and  air  breathe 

braver : 
Be  proud !    for  she  is   saved,   and  all  have 
helped  to  save  her! 


640 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


She  that  lifts  up  the  manhood  of  the  poor, 
She  of  the  open  soul  and  open  door, 
With  room  about  her  hearth  for  all  man- 
kind ! 
The  fire  is  dreadful  in  her  eyes  no  more ; 
From   her   bold    front    the   helm   she   doth 

unbind, 
Sends    all    her    handmaid    armies   back    to 

spin. 
And  bids  her  navies,  that  so  lately  hurled 
Their  crashing  battle,  to  hold  their  thun- 
ders in, 
Swimming  like  birds  of  calm  along  the  un- 
harmful  shore. 
No  challenge  sends  she  to  the  older  world. 
That  looked  askance  and  hatred;    a  light 

scorn 
Plays  o'er  her  mouth,  as  round  her  mighty 

knees 
She  calls  her  children  back,  and  waits  the 
morn 
Of  nobler  day,  enthroned  between  her  sub- 
ject seas. 

Bow  down,  dear  land,  for  thou  hast  found 

release ! 
Thy  God,  in  these  distempered  days. 
Hath  taught  thee  the  sure  wisdom  of  His 
ways, 
And    through    thine    enemies    hath    wrought 
thee  peace ! 
Bow  down  in  prayer  and  praise ! 
No  poorest  in  thy  borders  but  may  now 
Lift  to  the  juster  skies  a  man's  enfranchised 
brow. 

0  Beautiful !  my  Country  !  ours  once  more  ! 
Smoothing  thy  gold  of  war-disheveled  hair 
O'er  such  sweet  brows  as  never  other  wore. 

And  letting  thy  set  lips 

Freed  from  wrath's  pale  eclipse, 
The  rosy  edges  of  their  smile  lay  bare, 
What  words  divine  of  lover  or  of  poet 
Could  tell  our  love  and  make  thee  know  it, 
Among  the  nations  bright  beyond  compare? 

What  were  our  lives  without  thee? 

What  all  our  lives  to  save  thee? 

We  reck  not  what  we  gave  thee; 

We  will  not  dare  to  doubt  thee. 
But  ask  whatever  else,  and  we  will  dare ! 

Dixie 

By  Daniel  Decatur  Emmett 

1  wish  I  was  in  de  land  ob  cotton. 
Old  times  dar  am  not  forgotten, 

Look  away  !     Look  away  !     Look  away ! 
In  Dixie  Land  where  I  was  born  in. 
Early  on  a  frosty  mornin'. 

Look  away  !     Look  away !     Lo6k  away ! 

Chorus  : 

Den  I  wish  I  was  in  Dixie, 
Hooray !     Hooray ! 
In  Dixie   Land,   I'll   take  my  stand, 
To  lib  and  die  in  Dixie, 
Away !     Away ! 
Away  down  south  in  Dixie. 

Old  Missus  marry  "  Will-de-weaber," 
William  was  a  gay  deceaber; 
Look  away !     Look  away !    Look  away  I 


But  when  he  put  his  arm  around  'er, 
He  smiled  as  fierce  as  a  forty  pounder, 
Look  away  !     Look  away !     Look  away ! 

Chorus. 

His  face  was  as  sharp  as  a  butcher's  cleaber. 
But  dat  did  not  seem  to  greab  'er ; 

Look  away  !     Look  away !     Look  away ! 
Old  Missus  acted  de  foolish  part. 
And  died  for  a  man  dat  broke  her  heart. 

Look  away  !     Look  away !     Look  away ! 

Chorus. 

Now  here's  a  health  to  de  next  old  Missus, 
And  all  de  gals  dat  want  to  kiss  us ; 

Look  away  !     Look  away !     Look  away  ! 
But  if  you  want  to  drive  'way  sorrow, 
Come  and  hear  dis  song  to-morrow, 

Look  away !     Look  away !     Look  away ! 

Chorus. 

Dar's  buckwheat  cakes  an'   Injen  batter, 
Makes  you  fat  or  a  little  fatter; 

Look  away !  Look  away  !  Look  away  ! 
Den  hoe  it  down  and  scratch  your  grabble. 
To  Dixie's  Land  I'm  bound  to  trabble, 

Look  away  !     Look  away  !     Look  away  J 


Chorus. 
Origin  of  Fireworks 
By  H.  M.  Greenleaf 

Away,  far  oflF  in  China, 

In  the  days  of  Nanke-chin, 
Lived  a  funny  little  fellow, 

Who  was  priest  and  mandarin, 
And  ever  through  his  shaven  head, 

A  strain   of  music  rang, 
Which  seemed  to  him  like  "  Fizz 

And  crackle,  fizz  and  crackle, — BANG." 

One  day  this  little  fellow, 

As  he  trolled  his  merry  song, 
Chanced  to  meet  the  royal  viceroy. 

As  he  rode  in  state  along, 
Who  stopping,  listened  with  delight. 

To  what  he  gaily  sang, 
And  begged  at  once  the  music  rare. 

Of  "  Fizz  and  crackle, — BANG," 

But  naught  had  he  of  music, 

Nor  a  note  had  ever  read. 
For  this  strain  so  shrill  and  stirring, 

Was  but  running  in  his  head ; 
Nor  could  the  gongs  nor  kettle-drums. 

With  all  their  noisy  clang. 
Express  a  bit  of  what  he  meant 

By  "  Fizz  and  crackle,— BANG." 

Then  said  this  little  fellow, 

"  I  will  try  what  I  can  do," 
And  he  straightawav  set  to  molding 

Rockets,  Roman  candles  too ; 
But  what  he  sought  and  most  desired. 

Was  something  with  a  twang, 
That  could  express  in  all  its  force. 

His  "  Fizz  and  crackle, — BANG." 

But  e'en  while  he  was  planning, 
Burst  his  rockets  with  such  noise. 

Frightened    came    the    whole   town    running 
To  behold  the  dreadful  toys; 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


641 


Then  madly  danced  the  mandarin. 
And  cried,  "  O,  I  will  hang, 

If  I've  not  found  the  very  thing, 
To  make  my  '  Crackle, — BANG.'  " 


Now  sound  the  rattling  crackers. 

As  in  days  of  Nanke-chin, 
(For  the  Fourth,  to  be  well  honored, 

Must  have  clangor,  clash,  and  din,) 
The  banners  all  are  waving, 

And  the  drums  and  trumpets  clang, 
Awaking  echoes  far  and  near. 

Of  "  Fizz  and  crackle,— BANG." 

And  when  the  day  departing, 

Does  the  evening  open  out, 
Sparkling,  fiery  little  demons 

Leap  from  wheels  and  dance  about. 
And  hissing  rockets  upward  fly, 

Amidst  prolonged  huzza, 
While  crowds  astonished,  gaping, 

Cry  out,   "Sst!     Boom!     A-A-A-A-H!" 

Y.  C. 
Freedom. 

Hereditary  bondsmen !     Know  ye  not 
Who   would  be  free  themselves  must  strike 
the  blow? 

Byron — Childe   Harold.    Canto    II. 

St.  67. 

Freedom  has  a  thousand  charms  to  show. 
That  slaves  howe'er  contented,  never  know. 
CowPER — Table   Talk. — Line  260. 

He  is  the  freeman,  whom  the  truth  makes 

free, 
And  all  are  slaves  besides. 

CowPER — The  Task.    Bk.  V.    Line  733. 

When    Freedom    from   her   mountain   height 
Unfurled  her  standard  to  the  air. 

She  tore  the  azure  robe  of  night, 
And  set  the  stars  of  glory  there. 

Drake — The  American  Flag. 

My  angel, — his  name  is  Freedom, — 
Choose  him  to  be  your  king; 
He  shall  cut  pathways  east  and  west, 
And  fend  you  with  his  wing. 

Emerson — Boston  Hymn. 

Yes.  to  this  thought  I  hold  with  firm  persist- 
ence; 
The  last  result  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true; 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence 
Who  daily  conquers  them  anew. 

Goethe — Faust. 

Know  ye  why  the  Cypress  tree  as  Freedom's 

tree  is  known? 
Know   ye   why   the   Lily   fair   as    Freedom's 

flower  is  shown? 
Hundred    arms    the    Cypress   has,   yet    never 

plunder  seeks ; 
With    ten    well-developed   tongues     the    Lily 

never  speaks ! 

Omar  Khayyam — Frederich  Bodenstedt, 
Translator. 

What  is   freedom?     Rightly  understood, 
A  universal  license  to  be  good. 

Hartley  Coleridge. 


Marching  Through  Georgia 
By  Henry  Clay  Work 

Bring   the   good   old   bugle   boys,    we'll   sing 

another  song, 
Sing  it  with  a  spirit  that  will  start  the  world 

along, 
Sing  it  as  we  used  to  sing  it  fifty  thousand 

strong. 
While  we   were  marching  through   Georgia. 

Chorus  : 

Hurrah!     Hurrah!     We  bring  the  jubilee! 
Hurrah !     Hurrah !     The     flag     that     makes 

you  free ! 
So  we  sang  the  chorus  from  Atlanta  to  the 

sea, 
While  we   were  marching  through   Georgia. 

How  the  darkies  shouted  when  they  heard 
the  joyful  sound ! 

How  the  turkeys  gobbled  which  our  com- 
missary found ! 

How  the  sweet  potatoes  even  started  from 
the  ground, 

While  we  were  marching  through   Georgia. 

Chorus. 

Yes,  and  there  were  Union  men  who  wept 
with  joyful  tears. 

When  they  saw  the  honored  flag  they  had 
not   seen    for  years, 

Hardly  could  they  be  restrained  from  break- 
ing forth  in  cheers. 

While   we  were  marching  through   Georgia. 

Chorus. 

"  Sherman's  dashing  Yankee  boys  will  never 
reach  the  coast !  " 

So  the  saucy  rebels  said,  and  'twas  a  hand- 
some boast. 

Had  they  not  forgot,  alas!  to  reckon  with 
the  host. 

While  we   were  marching  through   Georgia. 

Chorus. 

So    we    made    a    thoroughfare    for    Freedom 

and  her  train, 
Sixty   miles    in    latitude;     three   hundred   to 

the  main ; 
Treason  fled  before  us,  for  resistance  was  in 

'  vain, 
While  we  were  marching  through   Georgia. 

Chorus. 

The  Glory  of  the  State 

By  Sir  William  Jones 

What  constitutes  a  state? 
Not    high-raised    battlements    or    labored 
mound. 
Thick  wall  or  moated  gate; 
Not    cities    proud    with    spire    and    turret 
crowned ; 
Not  bays  and  broad-armed  ports, 
Where,  laughing  at  the  storm,  rich  navies 
ride ; 
Not  starred  and  spangled  courts. 
Where  low-browed  baseness  wafts  perfume 
to  pride; 


642 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


No ;    men,  high-minded  men. 
With  powers  as  far  above  dull  brutes  en- 
dued 
In  forest,  brake,  or  den, 
As  beasts   excel  cold  rocks  and  brambles 
rude; 
Men  who  their  duties  know, 
But  know  their  rights,  and  knowing  dare 
maintain. 

Hail  Colum.bia 

By    Joseph    Hopkinson. 

Hail,  Columbia,  happy  land ! 

Hail,  ye  heroes,  heaven-born  band! 

Who  fought  and  bled  in  Freedom's  cause. 

Who  fought  and  bled  in  Freedom's  cause. 

And  when  the  storm  of  war  was  gone, 

Enjoyed  the  peace  your  valor  won. 

Let  independence  be  our  boast. 

Ever  mindful  what  it  cost ; 

Ever  grateful  for  the  prize. 

Let  its  altar  reach  the  skies. 

Firm — united — let  us  be. 

Rallying  round  our  liberty; 

As  a  band  of  brothers  joined, 

Peace  and  safety  we  shall  find. 

Immortal  patriots !    rise  once  more ; 
Defend  your  rights,  defend  your  shore; 
Let  no  rude  foe,  with  impious  hand, 
Let  no  rude  foe,  with  impious  hand, 
Invade  the  shrine  where  sacred  lies 
Of  toil  and  blood  the  well-earned  prize. 
While  offering  peace  sincere  and  just. 
In  Heaven  we  place  a  manly  trust. 
That  truth  and  justice  will  prevail, 
And  every  scheme  of  bondage  fail. 

Sound,  sound  the  trump  of  fame! 

Let  Washington's  great  name, 

Ring  through  the  world  with  loud  applause, 

Ring  through  the  world  with  loud  applause: 

Let  every  clime  to  Freedom  dear 

Listen   with  a  joyful  ear. 

With  equal  skill  and  godlike  power. 

He   governs   in   the   fearful   hour 

Of  horrid  war ;    or  guides  with  ease 

The  happier  times  of  honest  peace. 

Behold  the  Chief  who  now  commands. 
Once  more  to  serve  his  country  stands — 
The  rock  on  which  the  storm  will  beat. 
The  rock  on  which  the  storm  will  beat: 
But  armed  in  virtue  firm  and  true. 
His  hopes  are  fixed  on  Heav'n  and  you. 
When  Hope  was  sinking  in  disrnay. 
When  glooms  obscured  Columbia's  day, 
His  steady  mind,  from  changes  free. 
Resolved  on  death  or  liberty. 

Liberty 

The  people  never  give  up  their  liberties  but 
under  some  delusion. 

Burke — Speech  at  a  County  Meeting 
of  Bucks,  1784. 

Liberty's    in    every    blow! 
Let  us  do  or  die. 

BtXRNS — Bannockhurn. 


What  is  liberty  without  wisdom  and  with- 
out virtue?  It  is  the  greatest  of  all  possible 
evils ;  for  it  is  folly,  vice,  and  madness,  with- 
out tuition  or  restraint. 

Burke — Rejections  on  the  Revolution 

in  France. 

For   freedom's  battle   once  begun, 
Bequeath'd  by  bleeding  sire  to  son, 
Tho  baffled  oft  is  ever  won. 

Byron — The   Giaour.    Line   123. 

The  poorest  man  may  in  his  cottage  bid 
defiance  to  all  the  force  of  the  crown. 

Earl  of  Chatham — Speech  on  the 
Excise  Bill. 

'Tis  liberty  alone  that  gives  the  flower 
Of  fleeting  life  its  luster  and  perfume; 
And  we  are  weeds  without  it. 

CowPER — The  Task.    Bk.  V.    Line  446. 

The  love  of  liberty  with  life  is  given. 
And  life  itself  the  inferior  gift  of  Heaven. 
Dryden — Palemon   and  Arcite 
Bk.  II.  Line  291. 

This  is  true  liberty  when  freeborn  men, 
Having  to  advise  the  public,  may  speak  free: 
Which  he  who  can  and  will   deserves  high 

praise : 
Who  neither  can  nor  will  may  hold  his  peace. 
What  can  be  juster  in  a  state  than  this? 
Milton — Trans.    Horace.    Ep.   I. 

16,  40. 

Give  me  again  my  hollow  tree 
A  crust  of  bread,  and  liberty ! 
Pope — Imitations  of  Horace.    Bk.  11. 

Satire  VI.     Line  220. 

O  Liberty !  Liberty  !  how  many  crimes  are 
committed  in  thy  name ! 

Madame  Roland — Macaulay.    Mirabeau. 

Patriotism 

Who   would   not  be  that  youth?    what  pity 

is  it 
That    we    can    die    but    once    to    save    our 

country. 

Addison — Cato.    Act  IV.     Sc.  4. 

Our  ships  were  British  oak, 
And  hearts  of  oak  our  men. 
S.  J.  Arnold — Death  of  Nelson. 

True  patriots  all;    for  be  it  understood 

We  left  our  country  for  our  country's  good. 

George  Barrington.    New  South  Wales. 

Prologue  for  the  Opening  of  the  Play- 

House  at  New  South    Wales,  Jan.   i5, 

1796. 

Washington's  a  watchword  such  as  ne'er 
Shall  sink  while  there's  an  echo  left  to  air. 
Byron — Age  of  Bronze.     St.  5. 

The  patriot's   boast,   where'er  we  roam, 
His  first,  best  country,  ever  is  at  home. 
Goldsmith — The  Traveller.    Line  73. 

Strike — for  your  altars  and  your  fires; 
Strike — for  the  green  graves  of  your  sires; 

God,  and  your  native  land. 
Fitz-Greene    Halleck — Marco    Bozzaris. 


INDEPENDENCE  DAY 


643 


Thou  too,  sail  on,  O  ship  of  State ! 
Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great! 
Humanity  with  all  its  fears. 
With  all  the  hopes  of  future  years. 
Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate ! 
Longfellow — TJie  Building  of  the  Ship. 

A  song  for  our  banner?     The  watchword  re- 
call 
Which  gave  the  Republic  her  station ; 
■'United  we  stand — divided  we  fall!" 
It  made  and  preserves  us  a  nation ! 
George   P.   Morris — The  Flag   of  our 

Union. 

The  bullet  comes — and  either 

A  desolate  hearth  may  see; 
And    God    alone    to-night    knows    where 

The  vacant  place  may  be ! 
The  dread  that  stirs  the  peasant 

Thrills  nobles'  hearts  with  fear; 
Yet  above  selfish  sorrow 

Both  hold  their  country  dear. 

Adelaide  A.  Proctor — Lesson  of 
the  War. 

Be  just,  and  fear  not: 
Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim'st  at,  be  thy  coun- 
try's. 
Thy  God's,  and  truth's;    then  if  thou  fall'st, 

O  Cromwell, 
Thou  fallest  a  blessed  martyr. 

Henry   VIII.    Act  III.     Sc.  2. 

Had  I  a  dozen  sons, — each  in  my  love 
alike,  ...  I  had  rather  have  eleven  die 
nobly  for  their  country,  than  one  voluptu- 
ously surfeit  out  of  action. 

Coriolaniis.     Act  I.     Sc.  3. 

I  do  love 
My  country's  good,  with  a  respect  more  ten- 
der. 
More  holy,  and  profound,  than  mine  own  life. 
Coriolanus.    Act  III.     Sc.  3. 

Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 
It  is  sweet  and  glorious  to  die  for  one's 
country.  Horace. 

Non  ille  pro  charis  amicis 
Aut  patria  timidus  perire. 

He  dares  for  his  country  or  his  friends  to 
die.  Horace. 

Patriotism 

By   Sir  Walter  Scott 

Breathes  there  the  man  with  soul  so  dead 

Who  never  to  himself  hath  said. 

This  is  my  own,  my  native  land  ! 

Whose  heart   hath  ne'er  within  him  burned, 

As  home  his  footsteps  he  hath  turned 

From  wandering  on  a  foreign  strand! 

If  such  there  breathe,  go.  mark  him  well; 

For  him  no  minstrel  raptures  swell ; 

High  tho  his  titles,  proud  his  name, 

Boundless  his  wealth  as  wish  can  claim, 

Despite  those  titles,  power,  and  pelf. 

The  wretch,  concentered  all  in  self. 

Living  shall  forfeit  fair  renown. 

And,  doubly  dying,  shall  go  down 

To  the  vile  dust  from  whence  he  sprung, 

Unwept,  unhonored,  and  unsung. 


Love  Patriotism 
By  Susan  Coolidge 


\^ 


He  serves  his  country  best 

Who    lives    pure    life,    and    doeth    righteous 

deed, 
And    walks    straight    paths,    however    others 

stray. 
And  leaves  his  sons  as  uttermost  bequest, 
A  stainless  record  wliich  all  men  may  read; 
This  is  the  better  way. 

No  drop  but  serves  the  slowly  lifting  tide; 
No  dew  but  has  an  errand  to  some  flower ; 
No  smallest  star  but  sheds  some  helpful  ray, 
And  man  by  man,  each  helping  all  the  rest, 
Make    the    firm    bulwark    of    the    country's 
power ; 

There  is  no  better  way. 

The  Ship  of  State 

[From   "  The   Building    of   the   Ship."] 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

Thou  too  sail  on,  O  Ship  of  State ! 
Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great. 

We  know   what  master  laid  thy  keel, 
What  workman  laid  thy  ribs  of  steel. 
Who  made  each  mast  and  sail  and  rope, 
In  what  a  forge,  with  what  a  heat 
Were  shaped  the  anchors  of  thy  hope. 
Fear  not  each  sudden  sound  and  shock, 
'Tis  of  the  wave  and  not  the  rock, 
'Tis  but  the  flapping  of  the  sail, 
And  not  the  rent  made  by  the  gale. 
In   spite  of  rocks   and  tempest   roar. 
In  spite  of  false  lights  on  the  shore. 
Sail  on,  nor  fear  to  breast  the  sea ! 
Our  hearts,  our  hopes  are  all  with  thee; 
Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 
Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears. 
Are  all  with  thee ;    are  all  with  thee ! 

■Unguarded  Gates 

By  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich 

Wide  open  and  unguarded  stand  our  gates, 
Named    of    the    four    winds— North,    South, 

East,  and  West ; 
Portals  that  lead  to   an  enchanted  land 
Of   cities,    forests,   fields   of  living  gold, 
Vast  prairies,   lordly   summits  touched   with 

snow, 
Majestic  rivers  sweeping  proudly  past 
The  Arab's   date  palm   and  the   Norseman's 

pine — 
A  realm  wherein  are  fruits  of  every  zone. 
Airs   of   all   climes,    for  lo !    throughout  the 

year 
The    red   rose   blossoms    somewhere — a   rich 

land. 
A  later  Eden  planted  in  the  wilds. 
With  not  an  inch  of  earth  within  its  bound 
But  if  a  slave's  foot  press  it  sets  him  free! 
Here  it  is  written,  Toil  shall  have  its  wage^ 
And  Honor  honor,  and  the  humblest  man 
Stands  level  with  the  highest  in  the  law. 


644 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Of    such    a    land    have    men    in    dungeons 

dreamed, 
And    with    the    vision    brightening    in    their 

eyes 
Gone  smiling  to  the  fagot  and  the  sword. 

Wide  open  and  unguarded  stand  our  gates. 
And  through   them  press   a   wild,   a  motley 

throng — 
Men  from  the  Volga  and  the  Tartar  steppes. 
Featureless    figures    of   the    Hoang-Ho, 
Malayan,   Scythian,   Teuton,   Kelt,   and   Slav, 
Flying  the  Old  World's  poverty  and  scorn ; 
These    bringing    with    them    unknown    gods 

and  rites. 
Those   tiger   passions,    here   to   stretch   their 

claws. 
In  street  and  alley  what  strange  tongues  are 

these. 
Accents  of  menace  alien  to  our  air. 
Voices  that  once  the  Tower  of  Babel  knew ! 
O  Liberty,  White  Goddess !    is  it  well 
To  leave  the  gate  unguarded?  On  thy  breast 
Fold  Sorrow's  children,  soothe  the  hurts  of 

fate. 
Lift  the  down-trodden,  but  with  the  hand  of 

steel 
Stay  those  who  to  thy  sacred  portals  come 
To  waste  the  gifts  of  freedom.     Have  a  care 
Lest   from  thy  brow  the   clustered   stars  be 

torn 
And   trampled   in   the   dust.     For   so   of  old 
The   thronging   Goth    and   Vandal    trampled 

Rome, 
And  where  the  temples  of  the  Caesars  stood 
The  lean  wolf  unmolested  made  her  lair. 

At.   M. 

Yankee  Doodle 

Father  and  I  went  down  to  camp 

Along  with  Cap'n  Goodin', 
And  there   we   saw  the   men  and  boys 

As  thick  as  hasty-puddin'. 

Chorus  : 

Yankee  Doodle,  keep  it  up, 

Yankee  Doodle,  dandy, 
Mind    the    music    and    the    step, 

And  with  the  girls  be  handy. 

And  there  we  see  a  thousand  men. 

As  rich  as  Squire  David ; 
And  what  they  wasted  every  day 

I  wish  it  would  be  s'aved. 

Chorus. 

The  'lasses  they  eat  every  day 
Would  keep  a  house  a  winter ; 

They  have   so  much  that   I'll   be  bound 
They  eat  it  when  they've  mind  ter. 

Chorus. 

And  there  I  see  a  swamping  gun, 

Large  as  a  log  of  maple, 
Upon  a  duced  little  cart, 

A  load  for  father's  cattle. 

Chorus. 


And  every  time  they  shoot  it  off. 

It  takes  a  horn  of  powder, 
And  makes  a  noise  like  father's  gun, 

Only  a  nation  louder. 

Chorus. 

I  went  as  nigh  to  one  myself 

As  'Liah's  underpinning ; 
And   father  went  as  nigh  again, — 

I  thought  the  deuce  was  in  him. 

Chorus. 

Cousin   Simon  grew  so  bold, 

I   thought   he   would   have   cocked   it; 
It  scared  me  so,  I  shrinked  it  off 

And  hung  by  father's  pocket. 

Chorus. 

And  Cap'n  Davis  had  a  gun. 
He  kind  of  clap't  his  hand  on't. 

And  stuck  a  crooked  stabbing  iron 
Upon  the  little  end  on't. 

Chorus. 

And  there  I  see  a  pumpkin  shell 

As  big  as  mother's  basin; 
And  every  time  they  touched  it  off, 

They  scampered  like  the  nation. 

Chorus. 

I  see  a  little  barrel,  too. 

The  heads  were  made  of  leather ; 
They  knocked  upon  't  with  little  clubs, 

And  called  the  folks  together. 

Chorus. 

And  there  was  Cap'n  Washington, 
And  gentle  folks  about  him; 

They  say  he's  grown   so   'tarnal  proud. 
He  will  not  ride  without  'em. 

Chorus. 

He  got  him  on  his  meeting  clothes, 

Upon  a  strapping  stallion. 
He  set  the  world  along  in  rows. 

In  hundreds  and  in  millions. 

Chorus. 

The  flaming  ribbons  in  his  hat. 
They  looked  so  taring  fine,  ah! 

I  wanted  dreadfully  to  get 
To  give  to  my  Jemima. 

Chorus. 

I  see  another  snarl  of  men, 
A  digging  graves  they  told  me, 

So  'tarnal   long,    so  'tarnal   deep, 
Thej^  'tended  they  should  hold  me. 

Chorus. 

It  scared  me  so  I  hooked  it  off, 
Nor  stopped,  as  I   remember, 

Nor  turned  about  till  I  got  home. 
Locked  up  in  mother's  chamber. 

Chorus. 


LABOR  DAY 


645 


LABOR  DAY 

(September) 

IN  Congress  (1894)  a  bill  became  a  law  making  the  first  Monday  in  September 
a  legal  public  holiday,  or  "  national  holiday,"  in  the  same  sense  that  Christmas 
Day,  New  Year's  Day,  Washington's  Birthday  and  the  Fourth  of  July  are  already 
national  holidays. 

In  the  act  creating  the  new  holiday,  the  first  Monday  in  September  is 
formally  defined  as  "  the  day  celebrated  and  known  as  Labor's  Holiday."  The 
day  is  more  commonly  known  as  "  Labor  Day." 

This  law  is  a  recognition  by  the  national  government  of  the  importance  and 
significance  of  the  new  holiday,  which  had  already  been  made  a  legal  holiday  in 
twenty-seven  states  and  one  territory. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  new  law  makes  Labor  Day  a 
holiday,  or  dies  non,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  in  those  states  which  have  not 
decreed  it  to  be  such  by  the  enactment  of  their  own  legislatures.  So  far  as 
ordinary  business  is  concerned — the  signing  and  falling  due  of  notes,  the  lawful- 
ness of  customary  transactions,  the  fulfillment  of  contracts  to  labor,  and  so  forth — 
Congress  has  no  power  to  create  a  holiday  in  the  states. 

Though  the  first  of  January  is  a  truly  national  holiday,  it  is  not  a  legal  holiday 
in  the  States  of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Island.  All  ordinary 
transactions  are  legal  in  those  States  on  that  day,  and  contracts  made  on  them 
may  be  enforced. 

The  same  is  true  as  to  the  22A  of  February  in  Arkansas,  Iowa,  and  Mississippi, 
and  as  to  the  30th  of  May  in  several  states. 

The  Congressional  enactment  makes  Labor  Day  a  legal  public  holiday  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  places  the  closing  of  all  Federal  offices  throughout  the 
Union  under  the  same  regulations  on  this  day  as  on  Christmas,  New  Year's, 
Memorial  Day,  and  Independence  Day. 

Congress  and  the  Executive  have  simply  done  what  is  in  their  power  to 
give  to  the  day  chosen  by  organized  labor  as  its  special  anniversary  equal  honor 
with  the  birthday  of  the  Nation,  the  birthday  of  Washington  and  the  other  general 
holidays. — Y.  C. 


HISTORICAL 

A  FACTORY  BASED  ON  THE  GOLDEN  RULE 


A  great  factory  system  organized  upon 
principles  of  brotherhood,  openly  professing 
the  Golden  Rule  as  its  doctrine,  advocating 
the  care  and  training  of  men's  minds  and 
spirits,  while  employing  their  hands,  is  so 
unique,  so  altogether  captivating,  that  _  it 
would  require  not  above  half  an  hour's  in- 
spection most  effectually  to  silence  for  the 
time  being  the  loudest  grumbler  at  modern 
industrial  conditions.     Quite  the  most  unique 


thing  about  it  all,  too,  is  the  naive  confession 
by  the  company  (The  National  Cash  Regis- 
ter Company)  that  they  find  business  profit 
in  what  they  are  doing  for  their  people.  En- 
ter the  women's  dining  hall  on  the  upper 
floor  of  the  Administration  Building,  or  the 
"  rest-room,"  or  the  bathrooms,  or  bicycle 
sheds,  or  the  working-rooms,  kept  as  clean 
as  your  mother's  kitchen,  painted  in  Colonial 
yellow  to   be   easy   for  the   eye — everywhere 


646 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


the  same  frank  placard  greets  you — "  It 
Pays." 

The  company  pays  good  wages  and  gives 
unusual  attention  to  matters  of  sanitation, 
cleanliness,  light,  ventilation,  heating,  and 
ornamentation.  The  health  of  the  employees 
is  made  a  first  consideration.  Several  years 
ago  the  president  found  a  young  woman 
heating  coffee  in  a  tomato  can  on  a  heater 
for  the  noon  lunch.  He  promptly  furnished 
a  stove  for  heating  lunches,  and  from  this 
has  grown  the  generous  noon  lunch  provided 
to  the  young  women,  at  a  cost  of  one  cent. 
The  dining-room  contains  flowers,  rugs,  pic- 
tures, a  piano  and  a  "  rest-room  "  adjoining, 
with  couches  and  medicines.  The  lunch  is 
estimated  to  cost  three  cents,  but  the  com- 
pany figures  that  the  increased  efficiency  of 
this  department  amounts  to  five  cents  per 
person.  The  young  women  are  required  to 
wear  white  aprons  and  cuffs,  which  are  fur- 
nished and  laundered  at  the  company's  ex- 
pense. They  go  to  work  an  hour  later  than 
the  men  in  the  morning,  and  leave  ten  min- 
utes earlier  in  the  evening.  There  is  a  ten- 
minute  recess  each  morning  and  afternoon 
for  calisthenics  or  rest.  They  also  have  regu- 
lar holidays.  They  receive  ten  hours'  pay 
for  eight  hours'  work.  The  chairs  have  high 
backs  and  foot-rests.  The  young  women  in 
the  binderies  and  at  the  machines  look  as 
neat  as  high-school  girls.  The  object  lesson 
in  cleanliness  is  too  plain  to  be  mistaken. 
The  men  work  nine  hours  and  a  half,  with 
ten  hours'  pay.  Weekly  baths  are  granted 
to  all  on  the  company's  time. 

The  lawns  and  grounds  were  carefully 
planned  by  a  landscape  gardener.  One  of 
the  streets  near  the  factory  has  been  pro- 
nounced in  summer  time  the  most  beautiful 
in  the  world.  The  section  of  the  city  in 
which  the  factory  is  located  was  formerly 
"  Slidertown,"  disreputable  and  unsightly. 
Now  it  is  "  South  Park,''  and  is  rightly 
named.  The  employees  themselves  have 
formed  the  "  South  Park  Improvement  As- 
sociation." For  many  squares  about  the  fac- 
tory the  effect  of  the  factory's  attention  to 
beauty  is  seen  in  the  homes,  in  a  window- 
box  of  flowers,  a  vine-clad  porch,  a  well- 
trimmed  lawn,  or  a  well-kept  back  yard. 

There  are  no  strikes  here  and  no  lockouts. 


Why,  indeed,  should  there  be?  A  prominent 
German  Socialist,  visiting  the  factory,  said : 
"  This  is  all  I  mean  by  Socialism."  Another 
said :  "  You  make  money  and  happiness  at 
the  same  time."  All  this  costs  the  company 
a  large  sum,  but,  besides  getting  its  own 
profits,  the  lives  of  thousands  of  men  and 
women  are  broadened  and  made  more  happy. 
When  capital  becomes  generous  to  labor, 
labor  becomes  generous  to  capital.  The  em- 
ployer realizes  that  it  is  to  his  interest  to 
make  the  enployee  as  much  of  a  man  as  pos- 
sible, physically,  intellectually,  morally.  This 
represents  a  distinct  advance  in  factory  life. 
The  workman  is  not  merely  a  "hand;"  he 
is  a  "  soul."  Put  more  into  his  soul,  give 
him  more  to  think  about,  give  him  a  better 
dwelling  and  better  surroundings,  open  new 
vistas  of  life,  and  he  will,  out  of  his 
strengthened  manhood,  give  you  a  better 
service. 

The  House  of  Usefulness  is  the  social  set- 
tlement. Here  resides  the  deaconess,  and 
here  center  all  the  social  organizations — boys' 
and  girls'  clubs,  musical  organizations,  kin- 
dergarten, mothers'  meetings,  relief  associa- 
tions. The  leverage  obtained  here  upon  the 
lives  of  boys  and  girls  seems  incalculable. 

The  Sunday-school  has  seven  hundred 
members,  and  meets  on  the  third  floor  of  one 
of  the  factory  buildings.  A  printed  program 
is  used,  with  a  Scripture  lesson.  First  there 
is  a  drill  of  the  Boys'  Brigade ;  then  a  choir 
processional ;  then  singing  and  responsive 
reading,  and  quotation  of  selected  verses, 
Scriptural  and  otherwise ;  then  a  twenty- 
minute  address,  and  remarks  by  the  deacon- 
ess. The  subjects  of  study  are  practical  life 
lessons,  such  as  "  Work,''  "  Charity,"  "  Child 
Life,"  "  Liberty."  The  basis  of  the  study  is 
the  Scriptures,  but  illustrative  material  from 
every  source  is  welcome.  Often  the  stereop- 
ticon  is  used  in  the  school  to  show  scenes  of 
travel,  the  beauties  of  nature,  best  methods 
of  homemaking  or  landscape  gardening. 

There  is  nothing  traditional,  nothing  hoary- 
headed  about  this  factory  system,  not  even  in 
the  Sunday-school.  Walking  amidst  these 
new  industrial  conditions,  one  feels  as  if  he 
had  already  pushed  through  the  door  of  the 
new  century. — I. 


HOUSING  THE  CITY  POOR 


It  is  coming  to  be  recognized  more  and 
more  that  the  housing  of  the  poor  vitally  af- 
fects the  health  and  safety  of  the  rest  of  the 
people  in  every  community.  We  partake  of 
one  another's  sufferings,  whether  we  will  or 
no.  This  consideration,  if  no  higher  one, 
gives  interest  to  figures  presented  to  show 
how  the  lowly  in  New  York  and  other  large 
cities  are  compelled  to  live. 

Mr.  Jacob  A.  Riis,  well  known  as  an  ex- 
pert on  the  condition  of  New  York's  poor, 
tells  us,  in  an  article  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly, 


that  n-.ore  than  half  of  New  York's  millions 
live  in  tenements,  not  counting  those  who  live 
in  the  better  class  of  flats.  The  tenth  ward, 
which  holds  the  unenviable  eminence  of  be- 
ing the  most  crowded  in  the  world,  con- 
tained 643  persons  to  the  acre  in  1895,  and 
was  still  growing  rapidly.  One  block  was 
crowded  to  the  rate  of  1,526  to  the  acre,  and 
one  in  the  eleventh  ward  to  1,774.  Fre- 
quent murders  and  suicides  by  those  who 
live  in  the  crowded  districts  bear  witness 
to    the    fact    that    their    miserable    condition 


LABOR  DAY 


647 


leads  them  to  place  a  cheap  value  on  human 
life. 

It  would  cost  only  ten  per  cent,  more  to 
build  the  tenements  fireproof,  and  the  extra 
outlay  would  come  back  in  decreased  insur- 
ance rates  and  repair  expense,  yet  this  fact 
finds  no  echo  in  legislation,  or  in  the  prac- 
tise of  builders.  The  law  permits  a  tenement 
to  cover  only  sixty-five  per  cent,  of  its  lot, 
yet  some  of  them  go  far  over  this  limit,  one 
house  covering  ninety-three  per  cent.,  leav- 
ing but  seven  per  cent,  for  the  light  and  air 
to  struggle  through  for  from  100  to  150  peo- 
ple. Many  of  the  worst  are  built  in  the  back 
yards  of  other  tenement-houses,  shut  out 
from  light  and  air  themselves,  and  cutting 
off  the  light  and  air  from  the  tenements 
near. 

It  was  in  such  barracks  as  these  that  the 
infant  death-rate  rose  one  year  to  325  per 
1,000 — one  in  three  had  to  die.  In  a  list  of 
sixty-six  old  houses  it  was  found  that  one- 


quarter  of  the  5,460  tenants  died  in  five 
years.  The  results  of  the  sins  of  the  land- 
lords are  visited  upon  the  tenants.  Yet  the 
worst  feature  of  the  tenement  "  blight,"  as 
Mr.  Riis  calls  it,  is  the  fact  that  it  makes 
real  homes  impossible.  Self-respect  and 
morality  cannot  be  preserved  where  the 
separateness  and  sacredness  of  the  home  are 
interfered  with  as  they  are  in  the  crowded 
tenement-houses. 

The  cure  for  the  blight  is  being  attempted, 
with  encouraging  success,  by  a  company  of 
wealthy  men,  who,  with  a  capital  stock  of 
$2,000,000,  are  putting  up  model  tenement- 
houses  in  which  the  evils  mentioned  above 
are  provided  against.  Over  350  families  have 
already  been  housed  in  these,  and  more  tene- 
ments are  in  process  of  building.  The  same 
company  has  built  a  hundred  cottages  in  the 
suburbs  of  Brooklyn,  and  has  sold  most  of 
them  to  families  who  would  otherwise  be  in 
tenement-houses. — H.   R, 


OUR  WORKING-WOMEN 


Among  the  saddest  chapters  in  industrial 
history  are  those  which  record  the  treatment 
to  which  women  and  children  have  been  sub- 
jected. The  changes  in  their  favor  have  been 
great,  such  as  are  due  to  the  factory  acts  in 
England  and  to  legislation  in  their  behalf  in 
other  countries.  Even  where  workmen  are 
thought  capable  of  managing  their  own  af- 
fairs it  is  admitted  that  the  condition  of 
women  and  children  in  the  industries  is  such 
as  to  require  legal  enactments  for  their  wel- 
f.^.re.  Investigations  in  the  most  advanced 
countries  have  shown  that  the  legal  protec- 
tion received  is  not  sufficient,  that  abuses  are 
still  frequent,  and  that  for  their  deliverance 
from  existing  evils  something  besides  legis- 
lative action  is  needed. 

Compared  with  England  and  other  Euro- 
pean countries,  the  position  of  American 
working-women  is  favorable.  The  propor- 
tion of  those  obliged  to  work  in  factories  is 
certainly  not  as  large  in  the  United  States  as 
in  continental  industrial  nations.  The  aver- 
age wage  of  women  in  the  English  industries 
is  reported  at  a  little  more  than  three  dollars 
a  week.  Many  for  hard  work  and  long  days 
receive  only  a  few  shillings  a  week,  say  from 
four  to  six  or  seven,  and  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing is  necessarily  low.  With  all  the  improve- 
ments due  to  the  factory  laws,  to  inspectors, 
and  to  other  causes,  recent  official  investiga- 
tions in  England  have  revealed  conditions 
among  the  women  workers  which  are  shock- 
ing. Some  are  obliged  to  be  at  their  posts 
over  one  hundred  hours  a  week ;  sanitary 
arrangements  are  often  defective;  what 
should  be  conveniences  are  frequently  filthy 
and  outrageously  indecent ;  and  the  moral 
character  is  endangered.  The  reports  of  the 
existing  horrors  are  extensively  discussed, 
and  English  reformers  are  eagerly  searching 
for  the  means  to  remove  them. 


American  optimism  is  so  sure  that  things 
are  moving  along  smoothly,  that  each  can 
best  take  care  of  his  own  interests,  and  that 
evils  will  right  themselves,  that  the  condi- 
tion of  our  working-women  has  not  received 
the  attention  it  deserves.  Perhaps  our  tra- 
ditional chivalry  makes  it  self-evident  that 
their  treatment  is  admirable.  Fortunately, 
we  have  definite  information  before  us  in  tlic 
Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor.  The  report  is  based 
on  statistics  gathered  from  twenty-five  cities, 
north,  south,  east,  and  west,  and  may  be 
taken  as  truly  representative  of  the  country 
at  large.  "  The  study  comprehends  three 
hundred  and  forty-three  distinct  industries 
of  the   large   number   now   open   to   women. 

.  .  .  By  working-women  is  meant  that 
class  of  women  who  earn  their  living  in  the 
occupations  calling  for  manual  labor.  .  .  . 
Those  women  who  work  in  great  city  manu- 
factories upon  light  manual  or  mechanical 
labor,  and  in  stores,  are  the  ones  that  we 
recognize  under  the  popular  term  '  working- 
women.'  "  Those  engaged  in  families  as 
servants  are  therefore  excluded.  The  investi- 
gation included  the  affairs  of  17.427  working- 
women,  from  six  to  seven  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  number  of  women  engaged  in  the  in- 
dustrial pursuits  investigated.  Of  those 
whose  family  relations  were  examined  15.387 
were  single;  745  married;  1.038  widows; 
12,020  are  in  comfortable  home  conditions ;  of 
4.693  the  home  was  poor,  and  "  poor  in  this 
investigation  means  poor  indeed."  The  aver- 
age earnings  of  the  working-women  in  the 
industries  of  our  great  cities  is  $5.24,  a  large 
amount  compared  with  the  earnings  of  work- 
ing-women in  other  lands. 

Saddest  of  all  is  the  condition  when  the 
earnings  of  the  father  must  be  supplemented 
by  the  toil  of  the  wife  and  children  in  fac- 


648 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


tories,  and  when  a  widowed  mother  is 
obliged  to  support  her  children  by  work  away 
from  home.  The  percentage  of  such  is  prob- 
ably smaller  than  in  other  lands,  yet  it  is  too 
large.  How  can  there  be  a  proper  home-life, 
with  the  wife  and  mother  at  work  all  day  in 
a  factory?  Of  those  who  are  single,  many 
are  thrown  on  their  own  resources  and 
obliged  to  give  part  of  their  earnings  for  the 
support  of  the  family,  while  others  are  not 
driven  by  the  same  necessity,  but  want  to  add 
to  their  income  from  the  family  and  to  be- 
come more  independent.  Very  many,  of 
course,  earn  much  less  than  the  average 
given  above.  When  away  from  home,  as  a 
large  proportion  are,  it  becomes  a  difficult 
problem  how  to  make  the  meager  income 
meet  the  expense  of  lodging,  board,  and 
dress,  to  say  nothing  of  recreation.  Many  a 
worker  is  obliged  to  live  in  a  gloomy,  badly 
furnished  room,  in  a  crowded  and  unhealthy 
part  of  the  city.  Company  must  be  received 
in  this  one  room  or  not  at  all.  Fuel  may  be 
too  dear,  and  a  comfortable  public  place  may 
present  irresistible  attractions.  The  dangers 
of  such  a  situation  are  apparent.  For  those 
who  are  at  home,  or  have  some  family  con- 
nection, the  circumstances  are,  of  course,  far 
more  favorable. 

Peculiar  difficulties  are  connected  with  sta- 
tistics as  to  morals  and  religion ;  we  cannot 
get  at  the  heart  but  must  estimate  them  ac- 
cording to  their  outward  manifestations. 
The  church  attendance  of  over  16.000  of 
the  working-women  was  ascertained.  The 
number  attending  Protestant  churches  was 
5,854;  7,769  attended  Roman  Catholic  serv- 
ices, and  369  the  Jewish  synagog ;  but  the 
large  number  of  2,309  attended  no  church. 

The  view,  prevalent  in  some  quarters,  that 
the  girls  and  women  engaged  in  the  indus- 
tries furnish  an  undue  proportion  of  the  pro- 
fessional prostitutes  is  not  confirmed  by  the 
investigation;  the  private  morals  were  of 
course  not  a  subject  of  inquiry.  With  pleas- 
ure we  record  the  following  result :  "  From 
all  that  can  be  learned  one  need  not  hesitate 
in  asserting  that  the  working-women  of  the 
country  are  as  honest  and  as  virtuous  as  any 
class  of  our  citizens."  This  is  significant, 
and  deserves  emphasis.  The  report  well  says : 
"  The  virtuous  character  of  our  working- 
women  is  all  the  more  attractive  when  the  cost 
of  their  virtue  is  recognized.  With  their  poor 
pay,  if  they  continue  virtuous  they  are  the 
more  entitled  to  our  applause,  and  certainly 
one  must  recognize  the  heroic  struggle  they 
make  to  sustain  life,  to  appear  fairly  well, 
and  to  remove  what  every  honorable-minded 
man  and  woman  seeks  to  remove,  the  appear- 
ance of  poverty." 

The  investigation  was  conducted  by  women 
and  included  inquiries  into  the  former  occu- 
pations of  prostitutes.  Of  3,866  prostitutes  in 
different  cities  it  was  found  that  1,155,  or 
29.88  per  cent,  had  been  engaged  in  house- 
work, hotel-work,  table-work,  and  cooking. 
Most  surprising,  and  most  instructive,  is  the 
fact  that  1,236  or  31.97  per  cent.,  nearly  one- 
third  of  the  whole,  entered  prostitution  di- 
rectly from  their  homes !     One  of  the  many 


lessons  that  the  home,  the  family,  must  be 
improved  if  society  is  to  be  regenerated  and 
public  morality  advanced. 

Of  the  particular  conditions  in  certain 
cities  we  can  refer  to  a  few  only;  and  they 
are  mentioned  in  the  hope  that  the  ministers 
and  churches  in  these  cities  will  investigate 
the  facts  and  undertake  the  removal  of  the 
wrong. 

It  is  into  the  poorer  quarters  that  our 
working-women  are  driven,  often  the  slums, 
and  they  are  obliged  to  share  all  the  evils  of 
the  surroundings.  The  report  thus  describes 
parts  of  Brooklyn  inhabited  by  them : 
"  Whole  streets  and  districts  of  tenement- 
houses  are  given  over  to  poverty,  filth,  and 
vice,  the  sanitary  and  moral  unwholesome- 
ness  of  which  is  manifest." 

We  are  sure  that  few  in  the  wealthier  sec- 
tions and  elegant  suburbs  of  Cincinnati  are 
aware  of  the  abominations  to  which  many  of 
their  workers  are  subjected.  These  workers 
live  where  "  the  streets  are  dirty  and  closely 
built  up  with  ill-constructed  houses,  holding 
from  two  to  six  families.  Many  poorer  parts 
of  Cincinnati  are  as  wretched  as  the  worst 
European  cities,  and  the  population  looks  as 
degraded." 

This  seems  incredible ;  yet  this  official  re- 
port is  not  the  only  testimony  respecting  this 
degraded  condition.  We  turn  to  New  York, 
with  respect  to  which  we  are  prepared  to  be- 
lieve almost  anything.  Yet  of  that  city  we 
read :  "  The  crowded  condition  of  the  poor 
and  struggling  is  beyond  belief  unless  actu- 
ally witnessed.  This  brings  with  it  disease, 
death,  immorality,  etc.  Tall  rear  tenements 
block  up  the  small  air-spaces  that  are  insuffi- 
cient even  for  the  front,  and  often  a  third 
house  stands  behind  the  second.  Sewerage 
is  lacking  or  defective,  and  stenches  of  all 
kinds  prevail  in  the  poorer  quarters.  .  .  . 
As  respects  ventilation,  a  properly  regulated 
workshop  is  the  exception.  The  average 
room  is  either  stuffy  and  close,  or  hot  and 
close,  and  even  where  windows  abound  they 
are  seldom  opened.  Toilet  facilities  are  gen- 
erally scant  and  inadequate,  a  hundred  work- 
ers being  dependent  sometimes  on  a  single 
closet  or  sink,  and  that  too  often  out  of 
order." 

It  is  common  to  regard  laborers  as  mere 
machines,  not  as  personalities.  This  we 
know,  and  yet  we  are  shocked  when  the 
brutal  reality  is  stated  as  plainly  as  in  the  fol- 
lowing quotation  from  the  report :  "  When- 
ever the  employer  was  personally  acquainted 
with  his  people  the  standard  of  conduct  was 
apt  to  be  excellent.  In  many  an  instance, 
however,  the  employer  openly  declared  that 
so  long  as  his  work  was  done  he  did  not  in- 
quire or  care  how  bad  the  girls  might  be." 
Were  we  prepared  for  this,  even  in  New 
York?  After  we  have  duly  pondered  this, 
and  relieved  our  American  conscience  by  the 
reflection  that  this  disgraceful  condition  must 
be  due  to  the  foreign  element,  let  us  close 
our  meditation  with  this  statement :  "  For- 
eigners are  often  found  to  be  more  consider- 
ate of  their  help  than  native-born  men." 

Philadelphia,    the    city    of    homes    and    of 


LABOR  DAY 


649 


brotherly  love,  presents  much  more  favorable 
conditions  than  New  York.  Yet  even  of  the 
Quaker  City  we  learn  with  respect  to  the  mills 
that  "  the  sanitary  condition  of  most  is  open 
to  criticism.  .  .  .  The  worsted-yarn  mills 
employ  very  young  girls,  sometimes  violating 
the  law  against  child-labor."  Little  Rhode 
Island  ought  to  be  able  to  ov.erlook  its  small 
territory  and  present  a  model  condition  to  the 
larger  states.  Yet  we  read  of  Providence : 
"  The  older  mills  are  defective  in  light,  ven- 
tilation, and  space,  are  often  without  dressing 
rooms,  and  frequently  the  ordinary  sanitary 
arrangements  are  disregarded." 

Various  Christian  associations,  Protestant 
and  Catholic,  are  doing  noble  work  in  behalf 
of  the  working-women ;  yet  it  is  a  very  in- 
significant part  of  what  might  and  ought  to 
be  done.  Many  of  the  girls  need  home  and 
companionship,  sympathy  and  help.  Cannot 
their  cause  be  laid  on  the  hearts  of  our 
churches.  To  our  Christian  women  an  ap- 
peal comes  from  the  condition  of  their  toiling 
sisters  for  consecration  and  sacrifice  in  their 
behalf;    and  the  work  to  be  done  in  this  re- 


spect is  as  noble  and  as  urgently  needed  as 
that  in  any  foreign  mission  field. 

Gladly  we  make  room  for  one  more  quota- 
tion. Yet  the  query  arises.  Why  is  it  called 
for  in  a  governmental  report?  Perhaps  the 
saddest  fact  in  this  official  document  is  the 
fact  that  things  which  ought  to  be  self-evi- 
dent to  a  Christian  conscience  must  be  urged 
on  the  attention  of  Christians.  We  trust  that 
this  quotation  will  serve  to  emphasize  Chris- 
tian duty : 

"  The  honest  working-woman  is  entitled  to 
the  respect  of  all  honest-minded  people.  She 
should  be  welcomed  in  the  churches  of  the 
cities,  and  should  be  drawn  into  the  best  as- 
sociations, where  social  and  moral  surround- 
ings would  aid  her  in  cultivating  her  own 
self-respect,  and  in  which  mutual  assistance 
could  be  rendered.  At  least,  it  should  not  be 
possible  to  class  her  as  the  '  forgotten 
woman,'  for  her  struggle  is  too  heroic,  her 
hardships  too  painful,  her  lot  too  dreary,  for 
Christian  people  thoughtlessly  to  pass  her 
by."— H.  R. 


REPRESENTATIVE  WORKINGMEN 


By  H.  D.  Jenkins,  D.D. 


When  at  one  time  application  was  made  to 
Judge  Hallet,  of  Denver,  for  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  Federal  Government  to  restore 
order  in  the  state,  he  replied  that  if  a  state 
chose  to  select  for  executive  positions  "  so- 
cialists and  imbeciles "  it  must  suffer  the 
consequences ;  and  it  was  not  the  province 
of  the  General  Government  to  save  a  com- 
monwealth from  its  own  folly.  Several  of 
our  western  states  have  had  a  severe  lesson, 
and  it  may  be  hoped  that  they  will  profit  by 
it.  Demagogs  find  it  for  their  profit  to  pose 
as  the  "  friends  of  the  workingmen,"  ignor- 
ing the  simple  fact  that  the  real  working- 
man's  best  friend  is  himself. 

Our  own  Iowa  was  once  the  dumping 
ground  of  "  industrial  armies,"  from  the  fur- 
ther West,  shoved  across  the  Missouri  by 
officials,  like  one  mayor  of  Omaha,  who 
would  not  permit  them  to  set  foot  on  Ne- 
braska soil,  but  who,  immediately  that  the 
horde  of  irresponsible  wanderers  was  safely 
in  another  state,  began  vociferous  protests 
against  the  "  inhumanity "  which  refused 
free  rides  as  well  as  free  meals  to  men  who 
would  not  work  and  could  scarce  be  forced 
to  walk. 

It  seemed  to  me  at  this  time  worth  all  it 
would  cost  to  ascertain  by  personal  inves- 
tigation the  condition  of  the  working  classes, 
the  manual  laborers,  in  our  own  cities.  I 
heard  of  "  naked  thousands,"  of  "  starva- 
tion wages,"  until  I  really  began  to  think 
that  labor  was,  perhaps,  more  oppressed  in 
this  country  than  in  the  Old  World  from 
which  so  many  of  our  discontented  came. 
Accordingly  I  visited  workshops  of  all  the 
prominent  trades,  and  investigated  the  men 


found  at  labor  as  to  their  sources  and 
amounts  of  income,  their  personal  habits,  the 
condition  of  their  families,  and  their  relation 
to  the  higher  interests  of  society.  I  was 
especially  interested  to  know  whether  our 
churches  were  "  driving  the  poor  men  out 
bj'^  excessive  costs,"  a  question  of  especial 
interest  to  me  as  a  pastor  of  a  church  where, 
during  my  whole  pastorate,  there  never  had 
been  a  pew  rented.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
only  way  to  know  the  facts  concerning  the 
workingman  was  to  go  to  him  at  his  work, 
and  not  to  take  the  word  of  some  fellow  who 
might  apply  at  the  back  door  of  the  parson- 
age for  cold  victuals.  And  I  give  below  the 
unvarnished  statements  of  our  Iowa  work- 
ingmen from  their  own  lips. 

The  first  man  I  interviewed  was  the  smith 
who  shoes  my  horse.  He  is  a  young  Scotch- 
man who  has  been  in  this  country  seven 
years.  When  he  landed  he  had  just  $15  in 
his  pocket.  He  lost  the  first  three  years  of 
his  residence  in  this  country  largely  through 
the  attempt  to  become  a  farmer  in  Dakota. 
When  he  recognized  that  the  conditions  of 
success  in  that  must  first  be  learned  before 
they  could  be  put  into  practice,  he  fell  back 
upon  his  trade.  He  has  now  been  at  work 
four  years ;  he  owns  his  shop ;  has  accumu- 
lated $6,000  worth  of  property,  part  of  which 
is  drawing  interest ;  his  income  last  year  was 
$2,000  or  upward,  and  he  has  sent  $1,500 
lately  home  to  make  life  more  cheerful  for 
the  "  old  folks  "  in  the  land  beyond  the  sea. 
He  is  not  married,  and  attends  no  church, 
but  contributes  $12  a  year  to  one.  Beer 
costs  him  about  $1  a  month,  mostly  for  treat- 
ing customers.     He  thinks  this  a  pretty  good 


650 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


country  for  a  workingman,  and  does  not  care 
to  have  Congress  donate  to  tramps  what  it 
cost  him  industry  to  acquire. 

The  next  man  I  sought  at  his  home.  He 
is  a  carpenter,  and  during  the  dull  time  has 
been  "  pretty  close."  When  at  work  he  gets 
$2.50  to  $3  a  day;  is  married  and  has  two 
children.  Up  to  last  year  he  has  been  stead- 
ily employed ;  has  saved  nothing,  and  con- 
tributed nothing  to  church  or  benevolence ; 
does  not  go  to  church,  altho  his  parents  did. 
He  never  drinks,  hut  likes  a  good  cigar  and 
does  not  deny  himself  this  "  when  he  feels 
like  it."  He  takes  in  all  the  ball  games  when 
not  at  work.  His  wife  contributes  to  the 
support  of  the  family  by  taking  in  boarders. 
Sundays  he  '"  brushes  up,"  reads  the  papers, 
and  enjoys  his  smoke.  He  owns  nothing, 
but  owes  nothing,  and  trusts  to  have  "  better 
luck  this  year."  This  man  is  American  born, 
has  not  a  single  vicious  habit,  is  a  kind 
husband  and  father ;  but,  despite  the  fact 
that  his  annual  income  for  some  years  has 
never  before  fallen  below  $700  to  $900  a 
year,  he  is  to-day  largely  dependent  upon  the 
assistance  of  his  wife  for  the  well-being  of 
the  family. 

The  next  man  was  a  butcher's  helper.  He 
gets  $60  a  month.  He  is  married  and  has 
one  child.  When  married  his  whole  worldly 
possessions  consisted  of  a  horse  and  buggy 
and  a  cottage  organ.  To-day  he  has  his 
home,  worth  $2,000,  nearly  paid  for,  and 
upon  this  he  makes  regular  monthly  pay- 
ments, by  which  it  will  presently  be  cleared. 
He  is  a  church  member,  and  contributes  $18 
a  year  to  the  maintenance  of  that,  but  spends 
nothing  for  liquors  or  tobacco.  He  keeps 
up  a  $2,000  insurance  upon  his  life. 

Walking  into  the  composing  room  of  one 
of  our  dailies  I  addressed  the  first  printer  I 
met,  a  perfect  stranger.  He  gets  $3  a  day. 
and  has  $150  a  year  besides  as  an  official  in 
the  Typographical  Union,  making  up  an  in- 
come of  $1,050  a  year.  He  is  not  married, 
seldom  goes  to  church,  and  contributes  noth- 
ing regularly  to  church  or  Y.  M.  C.  A.  He 
pays  $150  a  year  for  life  insurance,  and  this 
is  all  he  saves.  He  does  not  drink ;  but  his 
pipe  costs  him  about  $12  a  year.  He  pays 
$312  a  year  for  board,  $150  a  year  for  his 
clothes  and  $10  to  his  union.  He  does  not 
know  what  becomes  of  the  rest  of  the  in- 
come, but  "  it  goes." 

The  bookbinder  in  the  next  room  gets  $925 
a  year;  is  married  and  has  three  children. 
Rent  and  food  cost  about  half  of  this.  He 
pays  $21  a  year  in  an  assessment  company 
for  $2,000  insurance.  He  is  not  a  church 
member  and  contributes  nothing  in  religious 
societies,  but  spends  $50  a  year  for  cigars. 
He  does  not  own  his  home  or  help  in  the 
support  of  any  indigent  relatives.  He  is 
satisfied  with  his  condition,  and  thinks  he 
could  save  a  little  something,  but  it  would 
cut  pretty  close.  Would  cut  off  his  cigar 
most  likely. 

Down  the  street  I  found  my  next  repre- 
sentative in  a  wholesale  fruit  house  as  a 
porter.  He  earns  $10  a  week,  $520  a  year. 
He  is  married  and  has  one   child.     He  has 


paid  for  his  home  through  a  building  asso- 
ciation. He  has  besides  his  home  a  cow,  a 
lot  of  poultry,  and  a  garden.  His  life  in- 
surance costs  him  $20  a  year.  He  is  not  a 
church  member;  but  his  wife  is,  and  gives 
$12  a  year. 

His  neighbor,  a  tinner,  earns  $750  a  year. 
This  man  is  married,  and  has  one  child.  He 
owns  his  own  home,  bought  through  a  build- 
ing association,  and  worth  $1,500.  He  saves 
in  the  bank  about  $180  yearly,  altho  he  spends 
$50  a  year  for  tobacco.  He  is  not  a  church 
member,  and  contributes  nothing  to  religious 
causes ;    but  his  lodge  costs  him  $7  a  year. 

My  colored  friend,  the  janitor,  told  me 
that  he  earns  about  $540  a  year.  Out  of  this 
he  is  paying  for  some  lots  in  an  "  addition," 
upon  which  he  has  laid  down  several  hun- 
dred dollars,  and  will  soon  own  them  in  fee 
simple.  He  owns  a  place  of  three  acres, 
upon  which  his  wife's  father  supports  him- 
self now.  He  has  a  small  pension,  %J2  a 
year ;  but  he  gives  this  to  his  mother.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  African  Church,  and 
contributes  $18  a  year  to  that.  The  lodge 
costs  him  $30  a  year;  but  he  spends  nothing 
for  liquors  or  tobacco. 

The  next  man  I  stopped  upon  the  street 
was  also  colored — a  jovial,  happy-go-lucky 
man-of-all-work.  He  was  born  a  slave ;  is 
not  married;  does  all  sorts  of  odd  jobs,  and 
picks  up  about  $365  a  year.  He  taught  him- 
self to  read,  and  owns  about  $200  worth  of 
standard  books,  and  takes  the  leading  maga- 
zines and  reviews,  or  reads  such  as  he  does 
not  take  at  the  public  library,  He  has  in- 
vested about  $140  in  some  lots,  but  does  not 
think  he  made  a  very  good  bargain,  and  does 
not  know  whether  to  complete  payment ; 
could  do  so  if  he  thought  best.  He  is  also  a 
member  of  the  church,  and  contributes  $18 
a  year  to  that ;  but  he  smokes  $50  worth  of 
cigars  a  year.     "  Does  not  like  a  pipe." 

To  make  up  the  number  to  ten  I  button- 
holed a  railroad  employee,  who  tends  the 
lamps  that  hang  upon  the  switches  at  one  of 
our  stations.  He  said  he  was  not  married, 
was  a  member  of  the  church,  and  contributed 
$18  a  year  to  that.  He  is  temperate,  and  does 
not  use  liquor  or  tobacco.  It  cost  him  for 
board  about  $200  a  year ;  but  for  this  he  has 
a  good  table  and  an  exceptionally  clean  and 
wholesome  room.  He  put  about  $640  of  his 
savings  into  some  real  estate,  which  he  later 
sold  for  $800,  and  this  he  has  at  interest.  He 
likes  his  work,  and  has  nothing  to  complain 
of  in  this  country,  of  which  he  is  a  native- 
born  citizen. 

Here  are  ten  men,  representing  as  many 
different  kinds  of  manual  labor.  Instead  of 
it  being  impossible  for  a  man  to  support  a 
family  in  such  employmenis,  I  found  that  the 
married  men  were  almost  the  only  ones  ''  get- 
ting ahead  "  in  the  world.  Instead  of  finding 
that  the  church  was  "  an  intolerable  burden," 
the  highest  any  workingman  was  paying  to 
the  church  was  $18  or  $20  a  year,  while  three 
of  the  ten  spent  $50  a  year  for  tobacco.  That 
so  little  was  spent  for  liquor  was  simply  due 
to  the  fact  that  in  hard  times  the  drinking 
men   "  must  go,"    and  they   have  been   long 


LABOR  DAY 


651 


since  "  fired  "  from  shop  and  forge,  and  are 
now  presumably  tramping  over  the  country 
and  demanding  "  relief,"  presenting  "  peti- 
tions in  boots,"  it  may  be. 

The  question  of  prosperity,  I  soon  found, 
resolved  itself  not  into  one  of  wages  so  much 
as  into  one  of  character.  Nothing  impressed 
me  more  favorably  than  the  self-respect  of 
these  men,  who  were  almost  wholly  strangers 
to  me.  The  church  members,  as  a  rule,  were 
by  far  the  most  prosperous  instead  of  the 


most  burdened.  There  was  no  hostility  to 
religion  manifest,  but  at  the  most  indiffer- 
ence. Between  such  as  these  and  the  church 
there  exists  no  impassable  gulf.  The  study 
was  of  incalculable  value  to  me  as  a  pastor, 
and  I  present  its  methods  and  results  to  any 
who  may  be  interested  to  know  the  facts  in 
an  issue  which  seems  to  be  joined  largely 
upon  false  statements  of  the  real  condition  of 
the  social  problem. — I 


LABOR'S  GRIEVANCES 


By  Rev.  C.  H.  Parkhurst,  D.D. 


A  reliable  statistician  says  that  between 
'60  and  '81  wages  increased  thirty-one  per 
cent.,  while  prices  of  staple  commodities 
increased  forty-one  per  cent. — the  laborer 
received  more  wages,  but  not  so  much  more 
as  food,  clothes,  and  rent  cost  him  more. 
But  alongside  of  that  put  the  fact  that 
during  that  time  the  national  wealth  nearly 
trebled ;  and  the  wage-worker  knows  per- 
fectly well  that  it  was  in  considerable  meas- 
ure by  his  own  perspiration  that  that  na- 
tional wealth  was  trebled;  whether  justly 
or  unjustly,  he  is  convinced  that  he  is  not 
receiving  nearly  his  share  of  the  profit  that 
his  own  brawn  is  helping  to  produce. 

And  then,  just  at  the  time  when  he  is 
barely  making  the  ends  meet,  he  reads  in  the 
papers  that  in  one  year  ten  Wall  Street  men 
made  an  aggregate  profit  of  eighty  million 
dollars.  We  do  not  say  that  that  newspaper 
statement  is  true ;  we  do  not  say  that,  even 
if  it  were,  the  poor  wage-worker  ought  not 
to  go  on  serenely  picking  his  bone  and 
sweetly  munching  his  crust.  We  are  simply 
trying,  at  love's  behest,  to  feel  our  way  into 
the  circumstances  of  these  people,  so  as  to 
survey  facts  from  their  standpoint  and  be 
able  to  judge  whether  it  is  only  at  the  im- 
pulse of  unreasoning  malignity  that  these 
people  confer  and  organize  and  confront 
combinations  of  capital  with  combinations 
of  labor. 

Add  to  this  the  fact,  so  commonly  true, 
that  labor  is  treated  as  pure  commodity,  as 
impersonal  a  matter  as  cotton  or  wheat.  The 
dealer  in  grain,  coffee,  tobacco,  wool,  buys 
in  the  cheapest  market.  Purchase  and  sales 
are  regulated  by  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. The  employer,  so  it  is  urged,  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  proceeds  on  the  same  im- 
personal principle ;  contracts  with  the  em- 
ployee with  no  reference  to  the  human  ele- 
ment that  differentiates  him  from  an  ox,  an 
ass,  or  a  barrel  of  potatoes ;  is  bound  to  the 
wage-worker  by  only  a  "  cash-nexus ;  "  does 
not  remunerate  him  with  any  reference  to 
his  actual  worth  to  him ;  will  make  300 
per  cent,  off  his  labor,  if  possible,  without 
such  a  profit  seeming  even  to  suggest  that 
market  rates  of  labor  ought  not  to  be  alto- 
gether trusted  as  criterion  of  compensation ; 


and  so  from  first  to  last  holds  himself  to  his 
hireling  in  the  same  relation  in  which  the 
merchant  stands  to  his  wares  and  the  team- 
ster to  his  cattle.  Labor  reduces  to  chattel, 
and  the  wage-worker  to  a  marketable  animal. 
And  not  only  that.  Not  only  does  capital 
use  labor  as  a  tool,  but  in  this,  as  in  all  in- 
stances, the  tool  is  a  good  deal  more  likely 
to  depreciate  than  appreciate  with  the  usage. 
The  severe  competition  of  modern  mercantile 
and  productive  interests  has  brought  about 
one  peculiar  condition  that  fifty  years  ago 
was  utterly  unknown.  I  mean  division  of 
labor.  In  order  that  the  mechanic  may  best 
promote  the  interests  of  his  employer,  he  is 
taught  to  do  only  one  thing.  If  he  is  a  pi- 
ano-maker, he  is  confined  to  only  one  mi- 
nutely specialized  part  of  the  instrument.  If 
he  is  a  needle  manufacturer,  he  is  limited  to 
one  only  of  the  many  processes  necessary  to 
its  production ;  and  as  competition  grows 
sharper,  labor  is  more  and  more  minutely 
divided.  Now  the  important  principle  in  the 
case  is  that  a  man  is  always  narrowed  to  the 
scope  of  his  employment.  What  can  you  ex- 
pect of  a  man  in  a  bank  who  does  nothing 
from  morning  till  night  but  draw  checks? 
of  a  man  on  the  elevated  railway  whose  only 
employment  it  is  to  punch  tickets?  of  a  fac- 
tory employee  who  ten  hours  a  day  for  twenty 
years  has  been  doing  nothing  but  point  pins? 
Such  is  the  stress  and  trend  of  things  that 
the  employer  not  only  is  using  his  employee, 
but  is  using  him  up,  is  coining  hireling  in- 
telligence into  dividends,  and  so  is  grinding 
soul  as  well  as  body  into  grist  to  satisfy 
rapacity  or  meet  the  exigencies  of  competi- 
tion. 

Now,  however  the  wage-worker  may  be 
given  to  exaggeration,  there  is  an  element 
of  truth  in  all  these  complaints,  and  the  first 
thing  that  Christianity  has  to  do  is  frankly 
to  acknowledge  it.  So  long  as  there  remains 
one  track  of  unbaptized  self-seeking  in  the 
human  heart,  the  man  that  is  on  the  top  will 
always  tend  to  make  a  slave  and  a  chattel 
of  the  man  that  is  under.  And  when  we 
have  frankly  acknowledged  that  to  a  degree 
labor  has  been  wronged,  then  the  next  step 
is  to  right  the  wrong.  When  we  deal  justly 
I  with  the  just  elements  in  the  indictment,  the 


652 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


unjust  elements  will  fall  to  pieces  of  them- 
selves. The  strength  of  all  error  is  the  truth 
that  is  mixed  with  it.  My  confidence  in  the 
average  man  is  so  complete  that  I  believe 
labor  will  show  itself  reasonable  when  rea- 


sonably approached,  and  will  show  itself 
manly  to  the  degree  in  which  capital  deals 
with  it  in  the  capacity  of  manhood,  and  not 
at  the  grade  of  a  chattel  or  serf. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


CABLYLE'S  VIEW  OF  THE  LABOR 

QUESTION.— Carlyle  taught  that  work  is 
a  social  function,  and  property  a  social 
trust.  Again,  he  discerned  and  proclaimed 
that  the  great  economic  problem  of  the 
age  is  the  proper  division  of  the  fruits 
of  labor ;  and  that  we  can  no  longer  leave 
that  division  "  to  be  scrambled  for  by  the 
Law  of  the  Strongest,  Law  of  Supply  and 
Demand,  Law  of  Laissez-faire,  and  other  idle 
laws  and  unlaws."  "  A  fair  day's  wage  for 
a  fair  day's  work,  is  as  just  a  demand  as 
governed  men  ever  made  of  governors.  It  is 
the  everlasting  right  of  man." — W.  S.  Lilly. 

CRIME  AND  THE  PRICE  OF  BREAD. 

— Crime  increases  when  the  price  of  bread 
goes  up,  is  the  conclusion  reached  by  Pro- 
fessor Brentano,  the  well-known  Berlin 
specialist  on  sociology.  He  has  just  pub- 
lished statistical  comparisons  between  the 
price  of  grain  used  for  bread  and  the  number 
•of  thefts  per  100,000  of  population  in  Ba- 
varia, and  the  result  shown  is,  that  on  the 
average  since  1835,  for  every  penny  of 
increase  in  the  price  of  grain  there  has  been 
a  corresponding  increase  of  one  in  the  num- 
ber of  thefts.  When  the  price  of  bread  goes 
down,  the  thefts  are  diminished  in  propor- 
tion.   Here    are    the    figures    from    1882    to 

1891 : 

Thefts  per  Grain, 

100,000  Pennies 

Year  of  pop.  per  kilo. 

1882 535  152.3 

1883 518  1447 

1884 509  1433 

1885 486  140.6 

1886 480  130.6 

1887 470  120.9 

1888 459  134-5 

1889 434  153-5 

1890 494  170.0 

1891 511  211. 2 

H.  R. 

liABOR. — Labor  at  first  inflicted  as  a 
curse,  seems  to  be  the  gentlest  of  all  punish- 
ments, and  is  fruitful  of  a  thousand  bless- 
ings :  the  same  Providence  which  permits 
diseases,  produces  remedies ;  when  it  sends 
sorrows,  it  often  sends  friends  and  support- 
ers ;  if  it  gives  a  scanty  income,  it  gives  good 
sense,  and  knowledge,  and  contentment, 
which  love  to  dwell  under  homely  roofs ; 
with  sickness  come  humility,  and  repentance, 
and  piety;  and  afifliction  and  grace  walk 
hand  in  hand. — Jortin. 

LABOR. — Labor  is  one  of  the  great  ele- 
ments  of   society — the   great    substantial    in- 


terest on  which  we  all  stand.  Not  feudal 
service,  or  predial  toil,  or  the  irksome  drudg- 
ery by  one  race  of  mankind  subjected  to 
another,  but  labor,  intelligent,  manly,  inde- 
pendent, thinking  and  acting  for  itself,  earn- 
ing its  own  wages,  accumulating  those  wages 
into  capital,  educating  childhood,  maintain- 
ing worship,  claiming  the  right  of  elective 
franchise,  and  helping  to  uphold  the  great 
fabric  of  the  state.  That  is  American  labor, 
and  all  my  sympathies  are  with  it,  and  my 
voice,  till  I  am  dumb,  will  be  for  it. — Daniel 
Webster. 

LABOR  AGITATIONS?  What  is  Likely 
to  Be  the  End  of  the. — What  seems  likely 
here  and  to-day  seems  unlikely  in  another 
place  and  next  week.  A  banker  recently 
asked  a  similar  question ;  and,  when  pressed 
to  give  his  own  view,  he  admitted  that  he 
saw  no  way  out  except  by  means  of  legisla- 
tion ;  but  he  neither  knew  what  legislation 
was  required,  nor  did  he  believe  that  any 
legislation  would  afford  a  remedy  unless  bet- 
ter executed  than  economic  legislation  is  at 
present.  The  question  itself  is  becoming 
more  frequent.  It  is  asked  now  by  many 
until  recently  indifferent  to  the  social  prob- 
lem. The  time  is  past  when  laborers  alone 
are  supposed  to  be  interested  in  the  question. 
This  growth  of  interest  in  the  problem  is 
itself  a  hopeful  sign.  Our  hope  of  a  peace- 
able solution  rests  on  the  belief  that  all 
classes  will  consider  the  problem  and  co- 
operate in  its  solution.  This  hope  is  bright 
in  exact  proportion  as  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
is  applied  to  the  burning  industrial  questions. 
— H.  R. 

LABOR,  Eminence  and. — When  we  read 
the  lives  of  distinguished  men  in  any  depart- 
ment, we  find  them  almost  always  celebrated 
for  the  amount  of  labor  they  could  perform. 
Demosthenes,  Julius  Caesar,  Henry  of  France, 
Lord  Bacon,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Franklin, 
Washington,  Napoleon,  different  as  they  were 
in  their  intellectual  and  moral  qualities,  were 
all  renowned  as  hard  workers.  We  read 
how  many  days  they  could  support  the  fa- 
tigues of  a  march ;  how  early-  they  rose ; 
how  late  they  watched ;  how  many  hours 
they  spent  in  the  field,  in  the  cabinet,  in  the 
court ;  how  many  secretaries  they  kept  em- 
ployed ;  in  short,  how  hard  they  worked.—^ 
Edward  Everett. 

LABORERS,  Hiring.— Morier,  in  the 
record  of  his  second  journey  through  Persia, 
mentions  having  noted  in  the  market-place  at 
Hamadan,  a  custom  like  that  alluded  to  in 
the  parable  of  the  laborers.     "  Here  we  ob' 


LABOR  DAY 


653 


served  every  morning  before  the  sun  rose, 
that  a  numerous  band  of  peasants  were  col- 
lected with  spades  in  their  hands,  waiting  to 
be  hired  for  the  day,  to  work  in  the  sur- 
rounding fields.  This  custom  struck  me  as  a 
most  happy  illustration  of  our  Savior's  para- 
ble, particularly  when,  passing  by  the  same 
place  late  in  the  day,  we  found  others  stand- 
ing idle,  and  remembered  His  words,  '  Why 
stand  ye  here  all  the  day  idle?  '  as  most  ap- 
plicable to  their  situation,  for  on  putting  the 
very  same  question  to  them,  they  answered 
us,  '  Because  no  man  hath  hired  us.'  "  Jo- 
sephus  says  that  Ananus  paid  the  workmen 
who  were  employed  in  the  rebuilding  or 
beautifying  of  the  temple,  a  whole  day's  pay, 
even  tho  they  should  have  labored  but  a 
single  hour. — F.  II. 

liABOREBS,  Parable  of  the. — Lightfoot 
quotes  from  the  Talmud  concerning  a  cele- 
brated rabbi,  who  died  at  a  very  early  age,  as 
follows :  "  To  what  was  R.  Bon  Bar  Chaiza 
like?  To  a  king  who  hired  many  laborers, 
among  whom  there  was  one  hired  who  per- 
formed his  task  extraordinarily  well.  What 
did  the  king?  He  took  him  aside,  and  walked 
with  him  to  and  fro.  When  even  was  come, 
those  laborers  came  that  they  might  receive 
their  hire,  and  he  gave  him  a  complete  hire 
with  the  rest.  And  the  laborers  murmured, 
saying.  '  We  have  labored  hard  all  the  day, 
and  this  man  only  two  hours,  yet  he  hath  re- 
ceived as  much  wages  as  we.'  The  king  said 
to  them,  '  He  hath  labored  more  in  those  two 
hours  than  you  in  the  whole  day.'  So  R. 
Bon  plied  the  law  more  in  eight  and  twenty 
years  than  another  in  a  hundred  years." — 
F.  II. 

LABOR,  Faithful  in.— Bonaventura,  the 
Seraphic  Doctor,  was  general  of  the  Francis- 
can order,  one  of  whose  rules  required  a 
rotation  of  work  among  the  members. 
Gregory  X.  sent  him  a  cardinal's  hat  by  two 
nuncios,  who  found  him  in  the  kitchen  wash- 
ing the  plates  after  dinner.  The  nuncios 
were  amazed.  The  Seraphic  Doctor,  with- 
out a  blush,  excused  himself  from  attending 
to  their  business,  till  he  had  finished  his 
dishes.  So  the  cardinal's  hat  was  hung  on  a 
dog-wood  tree  near  the  kitchen  door,  till  the 
dishes  were  finished  and  the  new  cardinal's 
hands  were  dried. — F.  II. 

liABOn,  Healthfulness  of. — There  is  a 
story  in  the  Arabian  Nights'  Tales  of  a  king 
who  had  long  languished  under  an  ill  habit 
of  body,  and  had  taken  abundance  of  reme- 
dies to  no  purpose.  At  length,  a  physician 
cured  him  by  the  following  method:  He 
took  a  hollow  ball  of  wood,  and  filled  it  with 
several  drugs ;  after  which  he  closed  it  up 
so  artfully  that  nothing  appeared.  He  like- 
wise took  a  mall,  and  after  having  hollowed 
the  handle,  and  that  part  which  strikes  the 
ball,  he  closed  in  them  several  drugs  after 
the  same  manner  as  in  the  ball  itself.  He 
then  ordered  the  Sultan,  who  was  his  pa- 
tient, to  exercise  himself  early  in  the  morn- 
ing with  these  rightly  prepared  instruments 
till  such  time  as  he  should  sweat ;  when,  as 
the  story  goes,  the  virtue  of  the  medicaments 


perspiring  through  the  wood  had  so  good  an 
influence  on  the  Sultan's  constitution,  that 
they  cured  him  of  an  indisposition  which  all 
the  compositions  he  had  taken  inwardly  had 
not  been  able  to  remove.  This  Eastern  alle- 
gory is  finely  contrived  to  show  us  how 
beneficial  bodily  labor  is  to  health,  and  that 
exercise  is  the  most  efifectual  physic. — Addi- 
son. 

LABOR,  Honors  to. — Statues  in  every 
public  place  should  record  its  wonders ;  ora- 
torios should  be  composed  in  its  honor ;  its 
insignia — the  plow,  the  spade,  and  the  loom 
— should  decorate  state  carriages,  and  orna- 
ment churches  and  public  halls ;  while  its 
successful  votaries  should  wear  the  honored 
decoration  of  "  The  Order  of  Industry." — J. 
Johnson. 

LABOR,  Incessancy  of. — The  more  we 
accomplish,  the  more  we  have  to  accomplish. 
All  things  are  full  of  labor;  and,  therefore, 
the  more  we  acquire,  the  more  care  and  the 
more  toil  to  secure  our  acquisitions.  Good 
men  can  never  retire  from  their  works  of 
benevolence ;  their  fortune  is  never  made.  I 
never  heard  of  an  apostle,  prophet,  or  public 
benefactor,  retiring  from  their  respective 
fields  of  labor.  Moses,  and  Paul,  and  Peter, 
died  with  their  harness  on.  So  did  Luther, 
and  Calvin,  and  Wesley,  and  a  thousand 
others  as  deserving,  tho  not  so  well  known 
to  fame.  We  are  inured  to  labor.  It  was 
first  a  duty ;  it  is  now  a  pleasure.  Still  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  overworking  rnan  and 
beast,  mind  and  body.  The  mainspring  of  a 
watch  needs  repose,  and  is  the  better  for  it. 
The  muscles  of  an  elephant,  and  the  wings 
of  a  swift  bird,  are  at  length  fatigued. 
Heaven  gives  rest  to  the  earth  because  it 
needs  it;  and  winter  is  more  pregnant  with 
blessings  to  the  soil  than  summer  with  its 
flowers  and  fruits.  But  in  the  war  for  truth 
and  against  error,  there  is  no  discharge. — A. 
Campbell. 

LABOR,  Law  of. — There  is  nothing  truly 
valuable  which  can  be  purchased  without 
pains  and  labor.  The  gods  have  set  a  price 
upon  every  real  and  noble  pleasure.  If  you 
would  gain  the  favor  of  the  Deity,  you  must 
be  at  the  pains  of  worshiping  Him;  if  the 
friendship  of  good  men,  you  must  study  to 
oblige  them;  if  you  would  be  honored  by 
your  country,  you  must  take  care  to  serve  it. 
In  short,  if  you  would  be  eminent  in  war  or 
peace,  you  must  become  master  of  all  the 
qualifications  that  can  make  you  so. — Addi- 
son. 

LABOR,  Life- character  of. — Labor  is 
life:  from  the  inmost  heart  of  the  worker 
rises  his  God-given  Force — the  sacred  celes- 
tial life-essence  breathed  into  him  by  the  Al- 
mighty God! — Carlyle. 

LABOR,  Need  of. — King  Antigonus,  when 
he  had  not  for  a  long  time  seen  Cleanthes, 
the  philosopher,  said  to  him,  "  Dost  thou  yet, 
O,  Cleanthes,  continue  to  grind?"  "Yes, 
sir,"  replied  Cleanthes,  "  I  still  grind,  and 
that  I  do  to  gain  my  living,  and  not  to  depart 


654 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


from  philosophy."  How  great  and  generous 
was  the  courage  of  this  man,  who,  coming 
from  the  mill  and  the  kneading-trough,  did 
with  the  same  hand  which  had  been  employed 
m  turning  the  stone  and  molding  the  dough, 
"write  of  the  nature  of  the  gods,  moon,  stars, 
and  sun. — Plutarch. 

liABOR,  No  Best  from. — Miserable  is  he 
who  slumbers  on  in  idleness,  miserable  the 
workman  who  sleeps  before  the  hour  of  his 
rest,  or  who  sits  down  in  the  shadow  while 
his  brethren  work  in  the  sun.  There  is  no 
rest  from  labor  on  earth.  There  are  always 
duties  to  perform  and  functions  to  exercise, 
functions  which  are  ever  enlarging  and  ex- 
tending in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  our 
moral  and  mental  station.  Man  is  born  to 
work,  and  he  must  work  while  it  is  day. 
"  Have  I  not,"  said  a  great  worker,  "  an 
eternity  to  rest  in?" — Tunman. 

LABOR,  Place  for,— See  the  spider  cast- 
ing out  her  film  to  the  gale,  she  feels  per- 
suaded that  somewhere  or  other  it  will  ad- 
here and  form  the  commencement  of  her 
web.  She  commits  the  slender  filament  to 
the  breeze,  believing  that  there  is  a  place 
provided  for  it  to  fix  itself.  In  this  fashion, 
should  we  believingly  cast  forth  our  endeav- 
ors in  this  life,  confident  that  God  will  find 
a  place  for  us.  He  who  bids  us  play  and 
work  will  aid  our  efforts  and  guide  us  in  His 
Providence  in  a  right  way.  Sit  not  still  in 
despair,  O  son  of  toil,  but  again  cast  out  the 
floating  thread  of  hopeful  endeavor  and  the 
wind  of  love  will  bear  it  to  its  resting  place. 
— Spurgeon. 

LABOR,  Power  for. — Karamsin,  the 
Russian  traveler,  having  observed  Lavater's 
diligence  in  study,  visiting  the  sick,  and  re- 
lieving the  poor,  greatly  surprised  at  his  ac- 
tivity, said  to  him,  "  Whence  have  you  so 
much  strength  of  mind  and  power  of  en- 
durance?" "My  friend,"  replied  he,  "man 
rarely  wants  the  power  to  work,  when  he 
possesses  the  will ;  the  more  I  labor  in  the 
discharge  of  my  duties,  so  much  the  more 
ability  and  inclination  to  labor  do  I  con- 
stantly find  within  myself." — F.  II. 

LABOR,  Prayer  and. — Labor  is  of  noble 
birth ;  but  prayer  is  the  daughter  of  Heaven. 
Labor  has  a  place  near  the  throne,  but  prayer 
touches  the  golden  scepter.  Labor,  Martha- 
like, is  busy  with  much  serving;  but  prayer 
sits  with  Mary  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  Labor 
climbs  the  mountain-peak  with  Moses ;  but 
prayer  soars  upward,  with  Elijah,  in  a  chariot 
of  fire.  Labor  has  the  raven's  wing,  yet  some- 
times goes  forth  in  vain ;  but  prayer  has  the 
pinions  of  the  dove,  and  never  returns  but 
with  the  olive-leaf  of  blessing! — W.  H. 
Groser. 

LABOR,  Prayer  with. — Anthony  the  her- 
mit, was  sitting  in  his  cell  in  the  wilderness, 
grievously  tempted  with  importunate 
thoughts,  and  fell  into  sadness  and  darkness. 
Then  he  prayed,  "  Lord,  I  desire  to  be  saved, 
but  my  thoughts  are  a  hindrance  to  me. 
What   shall    I    do   in   my   present   affliction? 


How  shall  I  be  saved?  "  Soon  after  he  went 
outside  of  his  cell  and  saw  a  man  sitting  and 
working,  then  leaving  his  work  to  pray,  after- 
wards sitting  down  to  his  work  twisting  a 
palm  rope,  and  after  a  time  engaging  again 
in  prayer.  He  concluded  this  to  be  an  angel 
sent  from  God  to  instruct  him  in  duty.  Then 
the  angel  addressed  him  and  said,  "  Do  so, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  Thereafter  the 
great  hermit  and  all  his  followers  were  dili- 
gent in  labor  and  in  prayer. — F.  II. 

LABOR,  Value  of.— God  is  constantly 
teaching  us  that  nothing  valuable  is  ever  ob- 
tained without  labor ;  and  that  no  labor  can 
be  honestly  expended  without  our  getting  its 
value  in  return.  He  is  not  careful  to  make 
everything  easy  to  man.  The  Bible  itself  is 
no  light  book ;  human  duty  no  holiday  en- 
gagement. The  grammar  of  deep  personal 
religion,  and  the  grammar  of  real  practical 
virtue,  are  not  to  be  learned  by  any  facile 
Hamiltonian  methods. — Binney. 

POVERTY     AND     BIRTHRATE.— The 

fact  that  the  birthrate  is  higher  in  the  poor 
districts  than  in  the  rich  is  often  remarked 
upon,  but  it  is  seldom  made  the  subject  of 
official  inquiry  and  report.  M.  Jacques  Ber- 
tillon,  in  a  bulletin  of  the  International  In- 
stitute of  Statistics,  makes  an  interesting 
treatment  of  the  variations  in  the  birthrate 
in  the  different  strata  of  society  in  Paris, 
Berlin,  Vienna  and  London.  He  finds  that 
the  birth-rate  is  invariably  low  among  the 
rich  and  high  among  the  poor.  The  follow- 
ing table,  for  Paris,  for  the  period  of  1889-93, 
shows  the  number  of  births  per  thousand 
women  between  the  ages  of  15  and  50: 

In  5  very  poor  districts 108  per  1,000 

In  3  poor  "       95     "       " 

In  5  comfortable     "       72    "       " 

In  2  very  comf'ble  "       65     "       " 

In  4  rich  "       53     "       " 

In  I  very  rich  district 34    "       " 

In  Berlin  for  the  period  1886-94  the  births 
per  thousand  adult  women  were  as  follows: 

In  2  very  poor  districts 157  per  1,000 

In  3  poor  "       129    "       " 

In  4  comfortable     "       114    "       " 

In  3  very  comf'ble  "       96    "       " 

In  3  rich  "       68    "       " 

In  I  very  rich  district 47     "       " 

London  revealed  a  similar  condition: 

In  5  very  poor  districts 147  per  l.ooo 

In  5  poor  "       140    "       " 

In  3  comfortable     "       107     "       " 

In  6  very  comf'ble  "       107    "       " 

In  7  rich  "       87    "       " 

In  2  very  rich         "       63     "       " 

Vienna,  too,  showed  a  result  of  the  same 
character,  namely : 

In  4  very  poor  districts 200  per  l,000 

In  4  poor  "       164    "       " 

In  3  comfortable     "       155     "        " 

In  2  very  comf'ble  "       153     "       " 

In  5  rich  '\      107    "       " 

In  I  very  rich  district 71     "       " 


LABOR  DAY 


655 


These  tables,  representing  peoples  of  differ- 
€nt  nationality,  language,  and  customs,  are 
so  similar  that  it  cannot  be  far  wrong  to  take 
the  proportions  shown  here  as  true  for  the 
cities  of  all  civilized  countries. — H.  R. 

SOCIOLOGICAL  STUDY,  A.— The  inter- 
ests of  the  laboring  classes  lie  close  to  if  not 
well   within   the   religious   field.     But   unfor- 
tunately   writers    take    their    data    too    often 
iFrom  the  inner  consciousness  of  the  reporter 
or   the   campaign   orator   than    from   the   re- 
searches of  patient   investigators.     The   Sta- 
tistical  Society  of   Great   Britain   is  an  hon- 
orable body  of  economic  experts,  and  one  of 
their    most    valuable    reports    was   that    read 
before    a    meeting    held    in    London    (1900). 
If  the  poor  be  steadily  growing  poorer  this 
association,    whose    duty    it    is    to   know   the 
facts,  has  failed  to  discover  it.     A  statistical 
study  of  the  working  classes  of  Great  Britain 
covering  the  past   thirty  or   forty  years  was 
presented  showing  conclusively  from  official 
and  trades-union  data  that  the  laboring  classes 
of  England  have  within  one  generation  in- 
creased   their    money    wages    105    per    cent., 
and  their   per   capita   consumption   of  staple 
foods    and    their    use    of    textile    fabrics    45 
per  cent.     This  showing  is  not  made  by  ex- 
amining the  condition  of  some  single  family 
or  isolated  hamlet,  but  is  the  result  of  a  care- 
ful   investigation    of    reports    made   both    by 
government   inspectors  and  by  the   laborers' 
associations.     The  scale  of  living  has  notably 
advanced   so  that  the  rise  of  money  wages 
has   not   been   wholly   offset   by   any   rise   in 
prices,    for    the    laboring    classes    are    better 
housed  and  better  clothed  and  better  fed  than 
they  were  in   i860,  the  year  from  which  the 
computations  start.     A  very  interesting  chart 
was  presented,  drawn  on  a  logarithmic  scale, 
in  which  one  could  trace  by  the  eye  the  rise 
in  wages,  the  increase  in  purchase  of  home- 
comforts  and  a  corresponding  increase  in  the 
number  of  marriages.     Contrary  to  the  theo- 
ries of  certain  economists,  there  was  shown 
with  the  increase  in  wages  an  increase  in  the 
number    employed.     This    latter    number,    by 
the    way,    is    nothing    like    what    those    who 
write    of    "  the    struggle    for   bread "    would 
have    us    believe.     In    i860   the    unemployed 


amounted  to  but  2.71  in  a  hundred ;  and  now, 
despite  the  introduction  of  so  much  machin- 
ery, it  is  iDUt  3.25  per  hundred.  It  was  also 
shown  by  means  of  this  chart  that  when 
money  wages  rose,  consumption,  employment, 
and  marriages  rose,  while  in-door  pauperism 
fell.  With  a  drop  in  wages  everything  else 
dependent  dropped,  but  in-door  pauperism 
rose.  That  shows  us  how  perilously  close 
to  the  line  of  dependence  the  majority  of 
workmen  still  live.  Periods  of  depression  in 
trade  which  used  to  occur  about  once  in  ten 
years  now  come  round  once  in  seven,  as  it 
takes  but  a  shorter  time  to-day  to  overstock 
the  market.  Whatever  may  be  the  faults  and 
defects  of  our  present  systems  it  is  indis- 
putably true  that  the  condition  of  the  laborer 
is  steadily  improving  in  every  Christian  land. 
—In. 

STRIKES.— While  the  United  States  in 
five  years  had  7,229  strikes,  there  were  4,526 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  during  the  same 
period,  1,866  in  France,  1,075  in  Italy  in  fif- 
teen years,  and  205  in  two  years  in  Austria- 
Hungary. — Selected. 

TOIL,  The  Dignity  of.— In  the  world's 
life,  just  as  in  the  life  of  a  man,  there  are 
certain  periods  of  eager  and  all-absorbing 
action,  and  these  are  followed  by  periods  of 
memory  and  reflection.  We  then  look  back 
upon  our  past  and  become  for  the  first  time 
conscious  of  what  we  are,  and  of  what  v;e 
have  done.  We  then  see  the  dignity  of  toil, 
and  the  grand  results  of  it;  the  beauty  and 
the  strength  of  faith,  and  the  fervent  power 
of  patriotism. — William  Hurrell  Mallock. 

WORK.— Oh,  it  is  great,  and  there  is  no 
other  greatness.  To  make  some  nook  of 
God's  Creation  a  little  fruitfuler,  better,  more 
worthy  of  God ;  to  make  some  human  hearts 
a  little  wiser,  manfuler,  happier, — more 
blessed,  less  accursed!  It  is  work  for  a 
God.     .     .     . 

Noble  fruitful  Labor,  growing  ever  nobler, 
will  come  forth, — the  grand  sole  miracle  of 
Man ;  whereby  man  has  risen  from  the  low 
places  of  this  earth,  very  literally,  into  di- 
vine Heavens. — Thomas  Carlyle. 


POETRY 


AmerlcaxL  Aristocracy 

By  John  G.  Saxe 

Of  all  the  notable  things  on  earth, 
The  queerest  one  is  pride  of  birth 

Among  our  "fierce  democracy!" 
A  bridge  across  a  hundred  years. 
Without  a  prop  to  save  it  from  sneers, 
Not  even  a  couple  of  rotten  peers, — 
A  thing  for  laughter,  fleers,  and  jeers, 

Is  American  aristocracy ! 

English,  and  Irish.  French  and  Spanish, 
Germans,  Italians,  Dutch  and  Danish, 


Crossing  their  veins  until  they  vanish 

In  one  conglomeration ! 
So  subtle  a  tangle  of  blood,  indeed, 
No  Heraldry  Harvey  will  ever  succeed 

In  finding  the  circulation. 

Depend  upon  it,  my  snobbish  friend, 
Your  family  thread  you  can't  ascend, 
Without  good  reason  to  apprehend 
You  may  find  it  waxed,  at  the  farther  end. 

By  some  plebeian  vocation : 
Or,  worse  than  that,  your  boasted  line 
May  end  in  a  loon  of  stronger  twine. 

That  plagued  some  worthy  relation  I 


656 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Clear  the  "Way 

By  Charles  Mackay 

Men  of  thought,  be  up  and  stirring  night  and 

day: 
Sow   the    seed — withdraw   the   curtain — clear 

the  way ! 
Men  of  action,  aid  and  cheer  them,  as  ye  may ! 
There's  a  fount  about  to  stream, 
There's  a  light  about  to  beam, 
There's  a  warmth  about  to  glow, 
There's  a  flower  about  to  blow ; 
There's  a  midnight  blackness  changing  into 

gray. 
Men    of   thought    and    men   of   action,    clear 
the  way ! 

Once    the    welcome    light    has    broken,    who 

shall  say 
What  the  unimagined  glories  of  the  day? 
What  the  evil  that  shall  perish  in  its  ray? 

Aid  the  dawning,  tongue  and  pen ; 

Aid  it,  hopes  of  honest  men, 

Aid  it,  paper ;    aid  it,  type ; 

Aid  it,  for  the  hour  is  ripe, 
And  our  earnest  must  not  slacken  into  play. 
Men    of   thought   and   men    of   action,    clear 
the  way ! 

Lo!    a  cloud's  about  to  vanish  from  the  day; 
And  a  brazen  wrong  to  crumble  into  clay. 
Lo !     the    right's    about    to    conquer ;     clear 
the  way ! 

With  the  right  shall  many  more 
Enter  smiling  at  the  door : 
With  the  giant  wrong  shall  fall 
Many  others,  great  and  small, 
That   for  ages   long  have  held   us   for  their 

prey. 
Men   of  thought   and   men   of  action,   clear 
the  way ! 

Cleon  and  I 
By  Charles  Mackay 

Cleon  hath  a  million  acres — ne'er  a  one  have 

I; 
Cleon  dwelleth  in  a  palace — in  a  cottage,  I ; 
Cleon  hath  a  dozen  fortunes — not  a  penny,  I ; 
But  the  poorer  of  the  twain  is  Cleon,  and 

not  L 

Cleon,  true,  possesseth  acres — but  the  land- 
scape, I ; 

Half  the  charms  to  me  it  yieldeth,  money 
cannot  buy ; 

Cleon  harbors  sloth  and  dullness — freshening 
vigor,  I ; 

He  in  velvet,  I  in  fustian ;    richer  man  am  L 

Cleon  is  a  slave  to  grandeur — free  as  thought 
am  I ; 

Cleon  fees  a  score  of  doctors — need  of  none 
have  L 

Wealth-surrounded,  care-environed,  Cleon 
fears  to  die ; 

Death  may  come — he'll  find  me  ready — hap- 
pier man  am  L 

Cleon  sees  no  charm  in  nature — in  a  daisy,  I ; 
Cleon  hears  no  anthem  ringing  in  the  sea  and 
sky. 


Nature  sings  to  me  forever — earnest  listener, 

I; 
State  for  state,  with  all  attendants,  who  would 

change?     Not  L 

The  Song  of  the  Forge 

Anonymous 

Clang,  clang!    the  massive  anvils  ring; 

Clang,    clang!     a    hundred   hammers    swing; 

Like  the  tnunder-rattle  of  a  tropic  sky. 

The  mighty  blows  still  multiply, — 

Clang,  clang ! 

Say.  brothers  of  the  dusky  brow, 

What  are  your  strong  arms  forging  now? 

Clang,  clang ! — we  forge  the  coulter  now, — 
The  coulter  of  the  kindly  plow. 
Sweet  Mary  Mother,  bless  our  toil ! 
May  its  broad  furrow  still  unbind 
To  genial  rains,  to  sun  and  wind, 
The  most  benignant  soil ! 

Clang,  clang! — our  coulter's  course  shall  be 
On  many  a  sweet  and  sheltered  lea. 
By  many  a  streamlet's  silver  tide; 
Amidst  the  song  of  morning  birds, 
Amidst  the  low  of  sauntering  herds, 
Amidst  soft  breezes,  which  do  stray 
Through   woodbine   hedges   and   sweet   May, 
Along  the  green  hill's  side. 

When  regal  Autumn's  bounteous  hand 
With  wide-spread  glory   clothes  the  land, — 
When  to  the  valleys,  from  the  brow 
Of  each  resplendent  slope,  is  rolled 
A  ruddy  sea  of  living  gold, — 
We  bless,  we  bless  the  plow. 

Clang,  clang ! — again,  my  mates,  what  grows 
Beneath  the  hammer's  potent  blows? 
Clink,  clank ! — we  forge  the  giant  chain, 
Which  bears  the  gallant  vessel's  strain 
Midst  stormy  winds  and  adverse  tides; 
Secured  by  this,  the  good  ship  braves 
The  rocky  roadstead,  and  the  waves 
Which  thunder  on  her  sides. 

Anxious  no  more,  the  merchant  sees 

The  mist  drive  dark  before  the  breeze, 

The  storm-cloud  on  the  hill ; 

Calmly  he  rests, — tho  far  away, 

In  boisterous  climes,  his  vessel  lay, — 

Reliant  on  our  skill. 

Say  on  what  sands  these  links  shall  sleep. 
Fathoms  beneath  the  solemn  deep? 
By  Afric's  pestilential  shore; 
By  many  an  iceberg,  lone  and  hoar ; 
By  many  a  balmy  western  isle. 
Basking  in  Spring's  perpetual  smile; 
By  stormy  Labrador. 

Say,  shall  they  feel  the  vessel  reel, 

When  to  the  battery's  deadly  peal 

The  crashing  broadside  makes  reply; 

Or  else,  as  at  the  glorious  Nile, 

Hold  grappling  ships,  that  strive  the  while 

For  death  or  victory? 


LABOR  DAY 


657 


Hurrah! — cling,     clang! — once     more,     what 
glows. 

Dark  brothers  of  the  forge,  beneath 
The  iron  tempest  of  your  blows. 

The  furnace's  red  breath? 

Clang,  clang ! — a  burning  torrent,  clear 
And  brilliant  of  bright  sparks,  is  poured 

Around,  and  up  in  the  dusky  air, 
As  our  hammers  forge  the  sword. 

The  sword ! — a  name  of  dread !    yet  when 

Upon  the  freeman's  thigh  'tis  bound, — 

While  for  his  altar  and  his  hearth, 

While  for  the  land  that  gave  him  birth. 

The  war-drums  roll,  the  trumpets  sound, — 

How  sacred  is  it  then ! 

Whenever   for  the  truth   and   right 

It  flashes  in  the  van  of  fight, — 

Whether  in  some  wild  mountain  pass, 

As  that  where  fell  Leonidas ; 

Or  on  some  sterile  plain  and  stern, 

A  Marston  or  a  Bannockburn ; 

Or  amidst  crags  and  bursting  rills. 

The  Switzer's  Alps,  gray  Tyrol's  hills; 

Or  as,  when  sunk  the  Armada's  pride. 

It  gleams  above  the  stormy  tide, — 

Still,  still,  whene'er  the  battle  word 

Is  liberty,  when  men  do  stand 

For  justice  and  their  native  land, — 

Then  Heaven  bless  the  sword ! 

The  Man  with  the  Ho© 
By   Edwin   Markham 

Bowed  by  the  weight  of  centuries  he  leans 
Upon  his  hoe  and  gazes  on  the  ground. 
The  emptiness  of  ages  in  his  face. 
And  on  his  back  the  burden  of  the  world. 
Who  made  him  dead  to  rapture  and  despair, 
A    thing    that    grieves    not    and    that    never 

hopes, 
Stolid  and  stunned,  a  brother  to  the  ox? 
Who  loosened  and  let  down  his  brutal  jaw? 
Whose  was  the  hand  that  slanted  back  this 

brow  ? 
Whose  breath  blew  out  the  light  within  this 

brain? 

Is  this  the  Thing  the  Lord  God  made  and 

gave 
To  have  dominion  over  sea  and  land; 
To  trace  the  stars  and  search  the  Heavens 

for  power ; 
To  feel  the  passion  of  Eternity? 
Is  this  the  Dream  He  dreamed  who  shaped 

the  suns 
And  pillared  the  blue  firmament  with  light? 
Down  all  the  stretch  of  Hell  to  its  last  gulf 
There  is  no  shape  more  terrible  than  this — 
More  tongued   with   censure  of  the   world's 

blind  greed — 
More  filled  with  signs  and  portents  for  the 

soul — 
More  fraught  with  menace  to  the  universe. 

What  gulfs  between  him  and  the  seraphim ! 
Slave  of  the  wheel  of  labor,  what  to  him 
Are  Plato  and  the  swing  of  Pleiades? 
What  the  long  reaches  of  the  peaks  of  song. 


The  rift  of  dawn,  the  reddening  of  the  rose? 
Through  this  dread  shape  the  suffering  ages 

look; 
Time's  tragedy  is  in  that  aching  stoop; 
Through  this  dread  shape  humanity  betrayed. 
Plundered,  profaned,  and  disinherited, 
Cries  protest  to  the  Judges  of  the  World, 
A  protest  that  is  also  prophecy. 

O  masters,  lords,  and  rulers  in  all  lands. 
Is  this  the  handiwork  you  give  to  God, 
This    monstrous    thing    distorted    and    soul- 
quenched? 
How  will  you  ever  straighten  up  this  shape; 
Give  back  the  upward  looking  and  the  light; 
Rebuild  in  it  the  music  and  the  dream; 
Touch  it  again  with  immortality ; 
Make  right  the  immemorial  infamies. 
Perfidious  wrongs,  immedicable  woes? 

O  masters,  lords,  and  rulers  in  all  lands. 
How  will  the  Future  reckon  with  this  Man? 
How  answer  his  brute  question  in  that  hour 
When    whirlwinds    of    rebellion    shake    the 

world? 
How    will    it    be    with    kingdoms    and    with 

kings — 
With  those  who  shaped  him  to  the  thing  he 

is — 
When  this  dumb  Terror  shall  reoly  to  God 
After  the  silence  of  the  centuries? 

Labor 

Toil  is  the  lot  of  all,  and  bitter  wo 
The  fate  of  many. 

Bryant's  Homer's  Iliad.    Bk.  XXI. 

Line  646. 

Such  hath  it  been — shall  be — beneath  the  sun 
The  many  still  must  labor  for  the  one. 

Byron — The  Corsair.     Canto  I.     St.  8. 

Labor,  wide  as  the  Earth,  has  its  summit 
in  Heaven. — Carlyle — Essays.     Work. 

Without  Labor  there  were  no  Ease,  no 
Rest,  so  much  as  conceivable. — Carlyle — 
Essays.     Characteristics. 

Labor  is  discovered  to  be  the  grand  con- 
queror, enriching  and  building  up  nations 
more  surely  than  the  proudest  battles. — 
Channing — War. 

Work,    feed    thyself,    to    thine    own    powers 

appeal, 
Nor  whine  out  woes,  thine  own  right-hand 

can  heal. 

Crabbe — Parish  Register.     Pt.  III. 

Honest  labor  bears  a  lovely  face. 
Thos.  Dekker — Patient  Grisscll. 
Act  I.     Sc.  I. 

Men  must  work  and  women  must  weep. 
Charles  Kingsley — The  Three  Fishers. 

From  labor  there  shall  come  forth  rest. 
Longfellow — To  a  child.    Line  162. 

Taste  the  joy 
That  springs  from  labor. 
Longfellow — Masque  of  Pandora. 
Pt.  VI.     In  the  Garden. 


658 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 

Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight, 
But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 
Were  toiling  upward  in  the  night. 

Longfellow — The  Ladder  of  St. 
Augustine. 

No  man  is  born  into  the  world,  whose  work 
Is  not  born  with  him ;  there  is  always  work. 
And  tools  to  work  withal,  for  those  who  will ; 
And  blessed  are  the  horny  hands  of  toil ! 

Lowell. 

Let  no  one  till  his  death 
Be   called  unhappy.     Measure  not  the  work 
Until  the  day's  out  and  the  labor  done. 

E.  B.  Browning. 

And  many  strokes,  tho  with  a  little  ax, 
Hew  down  and  fell  the  hardest-timber'd  oak. 
Henry  VI.     Pt.  III.     Act.  II.     Sc.  i. 

Now  the  hungry  lion  roars, 
And  the  wolf  behowls  the  moon ; 

Whilst   the    heavy   plowman    snores, 
All  with  weary  task  fore-done. 
Midsummer  Niglit's  Dream.     Act  V. 

Sc.  2. 

The  labor  we  delight  in,  physics  pain. 
Macbeth.     Act  II.     Sc.  3. 

Why  such  impress  of  shipwrights  whose  sore 

task 
Does  not  divide  the  Sunday  from  the  week. 
Hamlet.    Act  I.     Sc.  i. 

I    worked    with    patience    which    is    almost 
power. — E.  B.  Browning. 

Light  is  the  task  when  many  share  the  toil. 

Bryant. 

Labor  is  Worship 

By  Frances  S.  Osgood 

Pause  not  to  dream  of  the  future  before  us; 
Pause  not  to  weep  the  wild  cares  that  come 

o'er  us; 
Hark,  how  Creation's  deep,  musical  chorus, 

Unintermitting,  goes  up  into  Heaven  ! 
Never  the  ocean  wave  falters  in  flowing; 
Never  the  little  seed  stops  in  its  growing; 
More  and  more  richly  the  rose-heart  keeps 
glowing. 

Till  from  its  nourishing  stem  it  is  riven. 

"Labor  is  worship!" — the  robin  is  singing; 
"  Labor  is  worship  1  " — the  wild  bee  is  singing ; 
Listen !    that  eloquent  whisper  upspringing 
Speaks  to  thy  soul  from  out  Nature's  great 

heart. 
From   the   dark   cloud   flows   the   life-giving 

shower ; 
From  the  rough  sod  blows  the  soft-breathing 

flower ; 
From  the  small  insect,  the  rich  coral  bower ; 
Only  man,  in  the  plan,  ever  shrinks  from 

his  part. 

Labor  is  life !     'Tis  the  still  water  faileth ; 

Idleness  ever  despaireth,  bewaileth ; 

Keep  the  watch  wound,  for  the  dark  rust  as- 

saileth ; 
Flowers  droop  and  die  in  the  stillness  of 

noon. 


Labor  is  glory ! — the  flying  cloud  lightens ; 
Only  the  waving  wing  changes  and  brightens ; 
Idle  hearts  only  the  dark  future  frightens; 
Play   the    sweet    keys,    wouldst   thou   keep 
them  in  tune. 

Labor  is  rest  from  the  sorrows  that  greet  us, 
Rest  from  all  petty  vexations  that  meet  us, 
Rest   from  sin-promptings  that  ever  entreat 
us, 
Rest  from  world-sirens  that  lure  us  to  ill. 
Work — and  pure  slumbers  shall  wait  on  thy 

pillow  ; 
Work — thou   shalt  ride  over   Care's   coming 

billow ; 
Lie  not  down  wearied  'neath  Wo's  weeping- 
willow  ; 
Work  with  a  stout  heart  and  resolute  will! 

Labor  is  health.    Lo,  the  husbandman  reaping 
How  through  his  veins  goes  the  life  current 

leaping ! 
How   his   strong  arm,   in  its   stalwart   pride 

sweeping. 
True  as  a  sunbeam  the  swift  sickle  guides. 
Labor  is  wealth !     In  the  sea  the  pearl  grow- 

eth; 
Rich  the  queen's  robe  from  the  frail  cocoon 

floweth ; 
From  the  fine  acorn  the  strong  forest  blow- 

eth; 
Temple  and  statue  the  marble  block  hides. 

Droop  not,  tho  shame,  sin,  and  anguish  are 

round  thee ; 
Bravely    fling   off  the   cold   chain   that   hath 

bound  thee ; 
Look   to  yon   pure   Heaven   smiling   beyond 
thee; 
Rest  not  content  in  thy  darkness — a  clod. 
Work  for  some  good,  be  it  ever  so  slowly; 
Cherish  some  flower,  be  it  ever  so  lowly; 
Labor !    all  labor  is  noble  and  holy ; 

Let  thy  great  deeds  be  thy  prayer  to  thy 
God. 

Surden  of  Labor 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

Labor  with  what  zeal  we  will. 
Something  still  remains  undone, 

Something  uncompleted  still 
Waits  the  rising  of  the  sun. 

By  the  bedside,  on  the  stair, 

At  the  threshold,  near  the  gates, 

With  its  menace  or  its  prayer. 
Like  a  mendicant  it  waits ; 

Waits,  and  will  not  go  away; 

Waits,  and  will  not  be  gainsaid; 
By  the  cares  of  yesterday 

Each  to-day  is  heavier  made; 

Till  at  length  the  burden  seems 

Greater    than    our    strength    can   bear, 

Heavy  as  the  weight  of  dreams, 
Pressing  on  us  everywhere. 

And  we  stand  from  day  to  day. 
Like  the  dwarfs  of  times  gone  by. 

Who,  as  northern  legends  say. 
On  their  shoulders  held  the  sky. 


LABOR  DAY 


659 


The  Village  Blacksmith 

By  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 

Under  a  spreading  chestnut-tree 

The  village  smithy  stands; 
The  smith,  a  mighty  man  is  he, 

With  large  and  sinewy  hands; 
And  the  muscles  of  his  brawny  arms 

Are  strong  as  iron  bands. 

Week   in,    week   out.    from   morn  till   night, 
You  can  hear  his  bellows  blow; 

You  can  hear  him  swing  his  heavy  sledge, 
With  measured  beat  and  slow, 

Like  sexton  ringing  the  village  bell. 
When  the  evening  sun  is  low. 

.  •  • 

Toiling,   rejoicing,   sorrowing. 

Onward  through  life  he  goes; 
Each  morning  sees  some  task  begin. 

Each  evening  sees  it  close ; 
Something  attempted,  something  done, 

Has  earned  a  night's  repose. 

Thanks,  thanks  to  thee,  my  worthy  friend, 
For  the  lesson  thou  hast  taught ! 

Thus  at  the  flaming  forge  of  life 
Our  fortunes  must  be  wrought; 

Thus  on  its  sounding  anvil  shaped 
Each  burning  deed  and  thought  I 

Objects  of  Labor 

By  William  Drummond 

A  good  that  never  satisfies  the  mind, 
A  beauty  fading  like  the  April  flowers, 
A  sweet  with  floods  of  gall  that  runs  com- 
bined. 
A  pleasure  passing  ere  in  thought  made  ours, 
An  honor  that  more  fickle  is  than  wind, 
A  glory  at  opinion's  frown  that  lowers, 
A  treasury  which  bankrupt  time  devours, 
A    knowledge    than    grave    ignorance    more 

blind. 
A  vain  delight  our  equals  to  command, 
A  style  of  greatness,  in  effect  a  dream, 
A  swelling  thought  of  holding  sea  and  land, 
A  servile  lot.  decked  with  a  pompous  name, 
Are  the  strange  ends  we  toil  for  here  below, 
Till  wisest  death  make  us  our  errors  know. 

Original  Labor 

By  John  Milton 

Now  came  still  evening  on,   and  twilight 
gray 
Had  in  her  sober  livery  all  thmgs  clad; 
Silence  accompanied;    for  beast  and  bird. 
They  to  their  grassy   couch,   these  to  their 

nests, 
Were  slunk,  all  but  the  wakeful  nightingale ; 
She  all  night  long  her  amorous  descant  sung. 
Silence  was  pleased;    now  glowed  the  firma- 
ment 
With  living  sapphires ;    Hesperus,  that  led 
The  starry  host,  rode  brightest,  till  the  moon, 
Rising  in  clouded  majesty,  at  length 
Apparent  queen,  unveiled  her  peerless  light, 


And  o'er  the  dark  her  silver  mantle  threw. 
When  Adam  thus  to  Eve :     "  Fair  consort, 
the  hour 
Of  night,  and  all  things  now  retired  to  rest, 
Mind  us  of  like  repose,  since  God  hath  set 
Labor  and  rest,  as  day  and  night,  to  men 
Successive;    and  the  timely  dew  of  sleep, 
Now  falling  with  soft  slumberous  weight,  in- 
clines 
Our  eyelids.     Other  creatures  all  day  long 
Rove  idle,  unemployed,  and  less  need  rest; 
Man  hath  his  daily  work  of  body  or  mind 
Appointed,  which  declares  his  dignity, 
And  the  regard  of  Heaven  on  all  his  ways; 
While  other  animals   unactive  range, 
And  of  their  doings  God  takes  no  account. 
To-morrow,  ere  fresh  morning  streak  the  east 
With  first  approach  of  light,  we  must  be  risen, 
And  at  our  pleasant  labor,  to  reform 
Yon  flowery  arbors,  yonder  alleys  green. 
Our  walk  at  noon,  with  branches  overgrown. 
That  mock  our  scant  manuring,  and  require 
More  hands  than  ours  to  lop  their  wanton 

growth. 
Those    blossoms    also,    and   those    dropping 

gums 
That  lie  bestrewn,  unsightly  and  unsmooth. 
Ask  riddance,  if  we  mean  to  tread  with  ease ; 
Meanwhile,   as   Nature   wills,   night  bids   us 
rest." — Paradise  Lost. 

Mrs.  Lofty  and  I 

Anonymous 

Mrs.  Lofty  keeps  a  carriage, 

So  do  I; 
She  has  dapple  grays  to  draw  it, 

None  have  I; 
She's  no  prouder  with  her  coachman 

Than  am  I 
With  my  blue-eyed  laughing  baby 

Trundling  by; 
I  hide  his  face,  lest  she  should  see 
The   cherub  boy.   and   envy  me. 

Her  fine  husband  has  white  fingers. 

Mine  has  not; 

He  could  give  his  bride  a  palace. 

Mine  a  cot; 

Her's  comes  beneath  the  star-light. 

Ne'er   cares   she: 

Mine  comes  in  the  purple  twilight, 

Kisses  me. 

And  prays  that   He  who  turns  life's  sands, 

Will  hold  his  lov'd  ones  in  His  hands. 

Mrs.  Lofty  has  her  jewels. 

So  have  I; 
She  wears  hers  upon  her  bosom. 

Inside  I; 
She  will  leave  hers  at  death's  portals, 

By  and  by: 
I  shall  bear  the  treasure  with  me. 

When  I  die; 
For  I  have  love,  and  she  has  gold; 
She  counts  her  wealth,  mine  can't  be  told. 

She  has  those  that  love  her  station. 

None  have  I; 

But  I've  one  true  heart  beside  me. 

Glad  am  I; 


66o 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


I'd  not  change  it  for  a  kingdom, 

No,  not  I; 

God  will  weigh  it  in  his  balance. 

By  and  by; 

And  then  the  diff'rence  'twill  define 

'Twixt  Mrs.  Lofty's  wealth  and  mine. 


The  Night  Cometh 
By  S.  Dyer 

Work,  for  the  night  is  coming; 

Work,  through  the  morning  hours; 
Work,  while  the  dew  is  sparkling; 

Work,  'mid  springing  flowers ; 
Work,    when  the   day  grows   brighter, 

Work,  in  the  glowing  sun ; 
Work,   for  the   night   is  coming, 

When  man's  work  is  done. 

Work,  for  the  night  is  coming, 

Work  through  the  sunny  noon; 
Fill  brightest  hours  with  labor. 

Rest  comes  sure  and  soon. 
Give  every  flying  minute 

Something  to  keep  in  store: 
Work,  for  the  night  is  coming. 

When  man  works  no  more. 

Work,  for  the  night  is  coming, 

Under  the  sunset  skies ; 
While    their    bright    tints    are    glowing, 

Work,  for  daylight  flies. 
Work  till  the  last  beam  fadeth, 

Fadeth  to  shine  no  more ; 
Work  while  the  night  is  darkening, 

When  man's  work  is  o'er. 

The  Song  of  the  Shirt 
By  Thomas  Hood 

With  fingers  weary  and  worn. 

With  eyelids  heavy  and  red, 
A  woman  sat,  in  unwomanly  rags. 

Plying  her  needle  and  thread — 
Stitch  !    stitch  !    stitch  ! 

In  poverty,  hunger,  and  dirt, 
And  still,  with  a  voice  of  dolorous  pitch, 

She  sang  the  "  Song  of  the  Shirt !  " 

"  Work !    work !    work ! 

While  the  cock  is  crowing  aloof: 
And  work — work — work  ! 

Till  the  stars  shine  through  the  roof! 
It's  oh !    to  be  a  slave 

Along  with  the  barbarous  Turk, 
Where  woman  has  never  a  soul  to  save, 

If  THIS  is  Christian  work ! 

"  Work — work — work  ! 

Till  the  brain  begins  to  swim! 
Work — work — work  ! 

Till  the  eyes  are  heavy  and  dim! 
Seam,  and  gusset,  and  band. 

Band,  and  gusset,  and  seam. 
Till  over  the  buttons  I  fall  asleep. 

And  sew  them  on  in  my  dream ! 

"  Oh  !   men  with  sisters  dear  ! 

Oh  I    men  with  mothers  and  wives ! 


It  is  not  linen  you're  wearing  out, 

But  human  creatures'  lives ! 
Stitch — stitch— stitch  ! 

In  poverty,  hunger,  and  dirt. 
Sewing  at  once,  with  a  double  thread, 

A  SHROUD  as  well  as  a  shirt ! 

"  But  why  do  I  talk  of  death. 

That  phantom  of  grisly  bone? 
I  hardly  fear  his  terrible  shape. 

It  seems  so  like  my  own — 
It  seems  so  like  my  own. 

Because  of  the  fast  I  keep : 
O  God!    that  bread  should  be  so  dear, 

And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap ! 

"  Work — work — work ! 

My  labor  never  flags; 
And  what  are  its  wages?     A  bed  of  straw, 

A  crust  of  bread — and  rags: 
A  shatter'd  roof — and  this  naked  floor — 

A  table — a  broken  chair — 
And  a  wall  so  blank,  my  shadow  I  thank 

For  sometimes  falling  there ! 

"  Work — work — work ! 

From  weary  chime  to  chime : 
Work — work — work  ! 

As  prisoners  work  for  crime ! 
Band,  and  gusset,  and  seam. 

Seam,  and  gusset,  and  band, 
Till   the   heart   is    sick,    and   the   brain   be- 
numb'd. 

As  well  as  the  weary  hand ! 

"  Work — work — work ! 

In  the  dull  December  light; 
And  work — work — work ! 

When  the  weather  is  warm  and  bright: 
While  underneath  the  eaves 

The  brooding  swallows  cling, 
As  if  to  show  me  their  sunny  backs. 

And  twit  me  with  the  spring. 

"  Oh  !    but  to  breathe  the  breath 

Of  the  cowslip  and  primrose  sweet; 
With  the  sky  above  my  head. 

And  the  grass  beneath  my  feet: 
For  only  one  short  hour 

To  feel  as  I  used  to  feel. 
Before  I  knew  the  woes  of  want, 

And  the  walk  that  costs  a  meal ! 

'■  Oh  !    but  for  one  short  hour! 

A  respite,  however  brief ! 
No  blessed  leisure  for  love  or  hope, 

But  only  time  for  grief ! 
A  little  weeping  would  ease  my  heart — 

But  in  their  briny  bed 
My  tears  must  stop,  for  every  drop 

Hinders  the  needle  and  thread !  " 

With  fingers  weary  and  worn, 

With  eyelids  heavy  and  red, 
A  woman  sat.  in  unwomanly  rags. 

Plying  her  needle  and  thread : 
Stitch— stitch— stitch ! 

In  poverty,  hunger,  and  dirt ; 
And  still  with  a  voice  of  dolorous  pitch — 
Would  that  its  tone  could  reach  the  rich!— 

She  sung  this  "  Song  of  the  Shirt !  " 


DISCOVERY  DAY  66 1 


DISCOVERY  DAY 

PRESIDENT'S  PROCLAMATION 
1892 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America.     A  Proclamation, 

WHEREAS,  By  joint  resolution,  approved  June  29,  1892,  it  was  resolved 
by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  Congress  assembled,  "  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be 
authorized  and  directed  to  issue  a  proclamation  recommending  to  the  people  the 
observance  in  all  their  localities  of  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery 
of  America,  on  the  twenty-first  day  of  October,  1892,  by  public  demonstrations 
and  by  suitable  exercises  in  their  schools  and  other  places  of  assembly." 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Benjamin  Harrison;  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  pursuance  of  the  aforesaid  joint  resolution,  do  hereby  appoint  Friday, 
October  21,  1892,  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  America 
by  Columbus,  as  a  general  holiday  for  the  people  of  the  United  States.  On  that 
day  let  the  people,  so  far  as  possible,  cease  from  toil  and  devote  themselves  to 
such  exercises  as  may  best  express  honor  to  the  discoverer,  and  their  appreciation 
of  the  great  achievements  of  the  four  completed  centuries  of  American  life. 

Columbus  stood  in  his  age  as  the  pioneer  of  progress  and  achievement.  The 
system  of  universal  education  is  in  our  age  the  most  prominent  and  salutary 
feature  of  the  spirit  of  enlightenment,  and  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate  that  the 
schools  be  made  by  the  people  the  center  of  the  day's  demonstration.  Let  the 
national  flag  float  over  every  school-house  in  the  country,  and  the  exercises  be 
such  as  shall  impress  upon  our  youth  the  patriotic  duties  of  American  citizenship. 

In  the  churches  and  in  other  places  of  assembly  of  the  people  let  there  be 
expressions  of  gratitude  to  Divine  Providence  for  the  devout  faith  of  the  dis- 
coverer, and  for  the  Divine  care  and  guidance  which  has  directed  our  history,  and 
so  abundantly  blessed  our  people. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of 
the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington  this  twenty-first  day  of  July,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-two,  and  of  the  Independence 
of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and  seventeenth. 

BENJAMIN   HARRISON. 
By  the  President. 

John  W.  Foster,  Secretary  of  State. 


662 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


ADDRESSES 

FOUR  CENTURIES  COMPLETED 

By  Francis  Bellamy 

[Address  prepared  under  the  auspices  of  the  "  Youth's  Companion  "  for  the  National  School 

Exercises,  October  26,  1892.] 


The  spectacle  America  presents  this  day  is 
unique,  without  precedent  in  history.  From 
ocean  to  ocean,  in  city,  village,  and  country- 
side, children  of  the  states  are  marshaled  and 
marching  under  the  banner  of  the  Nation : 
citizens  are  gathering  around  the  school- 
house.  The  attention  of  the  world  is  fo- 
cused on  the  American  schoolmaster  and  his 
pupils. 

Men  are  recognizing  to-day  the  most  im- 
pressive anniversary  since  Rome  celebrated 
her_  thousandth  year, — the  four-hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  stepping  of  a  hemisphere 
into  the  world's  life :  four  completed  cen- 
turies of  a  new  social  order;  the  celebration 
of  liberty  and  enlightenment  organized  into  a 
civilization.  And  while,  during  these  hours, 
the  Federal  Government  of  these  United 
States  strikes  in  one  chosen  spot  the  key- 
note of  this  great  American  day.  we,  the 
.people,  assemble  around  the  common  Amer- 
ican institution,  which  not  only  unites  us  all, 
but  also  embodies  the  American  principle  of 
universal  enlightenment  and  equality  and  is 
itself  the  most  characteristic  product  of  the 
four  centuries  of  American  life, — the  Free 
School, — and  take  up  the  solemn  and  ex- 
ultant music. 

Four  hundred  years  ago  this  morning  the 
Pinta's  gun  broke  the  silence  and  announced 
the  discovery  of  this  hemisphere. 

It  was  a  virgin  world.  Human  life  hitherto 
upon  it  had  been  without  significance.  Eu- 
ropean eyes  that  possibly  had  beheld  it  were 
holden  that  they  should  not  see  and  report 
its  opportunities.  In  the  Old  World  for 
thousands  of  years  civilized  men  had  been 
trying  experiments  in  social  order,  and  they 
had  been  found  wanting.  But  here  an  un- 
touched soil  lay  ready  for  a  new  experiment 
in  civilization.  From  the  dawn  of  time  na- 
ture had  been  preparing  this  place  for  the 
civilization  of  enlightenment. 

In  the  fulness  of  time  Columbus  came.  All 
things  were  ready.  A  new  method  was  pres- 
ent for  a  new  civilization.  New  forces  had 
come  to  light  of  late, — the  mariner's  compass, 
gunpowder,  printing,  the  spur  of  intellectual 
awakening;  these  were  new  things  for  Eu- 
rope, and  full  of  overturning  power  in  the 
Old  World.  But  in  the  New  World  they 
were  to  work  together  in  a  mighty  harmony. 

It  was  for  Columbus,  when  the  right  hour 
struck,  forced  and  propelled  by  this  fresh 
life,  to  reveal  the  land  where  these  new  prin- 
ciples were  to  be  brought,  and  where  the 
awaited  trial  of  the  new  civilization  was  to 
be  made. 


To-day  we  reach  our  most  memorable  mile- 
stone. We  look  backward  and  we  look  for- 
ward. 

Backward,  we  see  the  first  mustering  of 
modern  ideas;  their  long  conflict  with  Old 
World  theories  also  transported  hither.  We 
see  stalwart  men  and  brave  women,  one  mo- 
ment on  the  shore,  then  disappearing  in  dim 
forests.  We  hear  the  ax ;  we  see  the  flames 
of  burning  cabins,  and  hear  the  cry  of  the 
savage.  We  see  the  never-ceasing  wagon- 
trains  always  toiling  westward.  We  behold 
log  cabins  becoming  villages,  then  cities.  We 
watch  the  growth  of  institutions  out  of  little 
beginnings, — schools  becoming  an  educational 
systern;  meeting-houses  leading  into  organic 
Christianity;  town-meetings  growing  to  po- 
litical movements;  county  discussions  de- 
veloping federal  governments.  We  see  these 
hardy  men,  with  intense  convictions,  grap- 
pling, struggling,  often  amid  battle-smoke, 
and  some  idea  characteristic  of  the  New 
World  always  triumphing.  We  see  settle- 
ments knitting  together  into  a  nation  with 
smgleness  of  purpose.  We  note  the  birth  of 
the  modern  system  of  industry  and  commerce, 
and  its  striking  forth  into  undreamed-of 
wealth,  making  the  millions  members  one  of 
another  as  sentiment  could  never  bind.  And 
under  it  all,  and  through  it  all,  we  fasten  on 
certain  principles  ever  operating  and  regnant. 
— the  leadership  of  manhood;  equal  rights 
for  every  soul;  universal  enlightenment  as 
the  source  of  progress.  These  are  the  prin- 
ciples that  have  shaped  America;  these  prin- 
ciples are  the  true  Americanism. 

We  look  forward.  We  are  conscious  we 
are  in  a  period  of  transition.  Ideas  in  educa- 
tion, in  political  economy,  in  social  science, 
are  undergoing  revision.  There  is  a  large 
uncertainty  about  the  outcome.  But  faith  in 
the  underlying  principles  of  Americanism 
and  m  God's  destiny  for  the  Republic  makes 
a  firm  ground  of  bright  hope.  Whatever  else 
may  come,  it  may  at  least  be  held  as  certain 
that  the  coming  century  will  be  more  than 
ever  the  age  of  the  people;  that  it  will  de- 
velop a  greater  care  for  the  rights  of  the 
weak;  that  it  will  disclose  an  increased  pur- 
pose that  every  one  shall  start  in  life  without 
handicaps;  that  it  will  make  a  more  solid 
provision  for  the  rounded  development  of 
each  individual  in  the  education  that  meets 
his  need. 

Had  our  fathers  of  a  century  ago  celebrated 
the  three-hundredth  anniversary  of  America, 
could  any  prophet  of  them  have  pictured  what 
the  new  century  was  to  do?  No  lesson  drawn 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


663 


from  America's  three  earlier  centuries  could 
have  even  hinted  the  bewildering  rush  of  her 
fourth  century. 

No  man  can  this  day  reach  out  and  grasp 
the  hundred  years  that  are  now  beginning. 
On  the  victorious  results  of  the  completed 
centuries  the  persisting  principles  of  Amer- 
icanism will  build  our  fifth  century.  Its  ma- 
terial progress  will  be  too  amazing  for  man 
to  try  to  imagine.  But,  holding  our  hand  on 
the  currents  that  are  passing,  we  may  be  sure 
that  in  the  social  relations  of  men  with  men 
the  most  important  gains  are  to  be  expected. 
America's  fourth  century  has  been  glorious. 
America's  fifth  century  must  be  made  happy. 

One  institution  more  than  any  other  has 
wrought  out  the  achievements  of  the  past, 
and  is  to-day  most  trusted  for  the  future. 
Our  fathers  in  their  wisdom  knew  that  the 
foundations  of  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity must  be  universal  education.  The  free 
school,  therefore,  was  conceived  the  corner- 
stone of  the  Republic.  Washington  and  Jef- 
ferson recognized  that  the  education  of  citi- 
zens is  not  the  prerogative  of  Church  or  of 
other  private  interest ;  that  while  religious 
training  belongs  to  the  Church,  and  while 
technical  and  higher  culture  may  be  given  to 


private  institutions,  the  training  of  citizens  in 
the  common  knowledge  and  the  common  du- 
ties of  citizenship  belongs  irrevocably  to  the 
state. 

We,  therefore,  on  this  anniversary  of  Amer- 
ica, present  the  Public  School  as  the  proudest 
and  noblest  expression  of  the  principle  of  en- 
lightenment which  Columbus  grasped  by 
faith.  We  uplift  the  system  of  free  and  uni- 
versal education  as  the  master-force  which, 
under  God,  has  been  informing  each  of  our 
generations  with  the  peculiar  truths  of  Amer- 
icanism. America,  therefore,  gathers  her 
sons  around  the  schoolhouse  to-day  as  the 
institution  closest  to  the  people,  most  char- 
acteristic of  the  people,  and  fullest  of  hope 
for  the  people. 

To-day  America's  fifth  century  begins.  The 
world's  twentieth  century  will  soon  be  here. 
To  the  thirteen  millions  now  in  the  American 
schools  the  command  of  the  coming  years 
belongs.  We,  the  youth  of  America,  who 
to-day  unite  to  march  as  one  army  under  the 
sacred  flag,  understand  our  duty.  We  pledge 
ourselves  that  the  flag  shall  not  be  stained, 
and  that  America  shall  mean  equal  oppor- 
tunity and  justice  for  every  citizen,  and  broth- 
erhood for  the  world. 


MEMORIAL  DESERTS  OF  COLUMBUS 


Well  might  the  mail-clad  monarchs  of  the 
earth  refuse  their  countenance  to  Columbus 
and  reward  his  matchless  exploit  with  beg- 
gary and  chains.  He  projected  and  he  ac- 
complished that  which,  in  its  ultimate  and 
inevitable  consequences,  was  to  wrest  from 
their  hands  the  implements  of  their  ferocious 
sport,  to  "  break  their  bow  and  snap  their 
spear  in  sunder,'  and  all  but  to  extinguish  the 
sources  of  their  proudest  and  most  absolute 
prerogative. 

"  No  kingly  conqueror,  since  time  began 
The  long  career  of  ages,  had  to  man 
A  scope  so  ample  given  for  trade's  bold  range, 
Or  caused  of  earth's  wide  stage  such  rapid, 
mighty  change." 

From  the  discovery  of  the  New  World, 
the  mercantile  spirit  has  been  rapidly  gaining 
upon  its  old  antagonist ;  and  the  establish- 
ment upon  these  shores  of  our  Republic,  whose 
union  was  the  immediate  result  of  commer- 
cial necessities,  whose  independence  found 
its  original  impulse  in  commercial  oppression, 
and  of  whose  Constitution  the  regulation  of 
commerce  was  the  first  leading  idea,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  epoch  at  which  the  martial 
spirit  finally  lost  its  supremacy,  which,  it  is 
believed  and  trusted,  it  can  never  again  ac- 
quire.— Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  and 
there  was  little  or  no  necessity  of  that  sort 
at  Syracuse.  But  everything  for  which  a 
demand  existed  Archimedes  was  able  to  sup- 
ply, and  actually  did  supply  it.  It  was  not  re- 
served for  him  to  find  a  place  for  doing  more. 
It  was  not  his  destiny  to  discover  the  fulcrum, 
by  poising  his  mighty  lever  upon  which  the 


world,  as  he  knew  it,  could  be  moved.  But 
sixteen  hundred  years  afterwards,  at  the  head 
of  the  very  gulf  on  which  Sicily  stands,  the 
man  was  born  to  whom  that  lofty  destiny 
was  vouchsafed.  Columbus,  a  native  of 
Genoa,  discovered  the  New  World,  and  the 
Old  World  has  been  moving  ever  since. — 
Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

I  drove  along  this  incomparable  road  (the 
Cornice  Road,  near  the  Mediterranean)  dur- 
ing three  days  of  delicious  weather,  and  on 
the  fourth  day  entered  that  superb  city,  which 
a  grander  admiral  than  Farragut  might  well 
have  been  proud  to  claim  as  his  birthplace, 
Christopher  Columbus,  a  native  of  Genoa. 

A  noble  monument  to  Columbus,  recently 
finished,  surmounted  by  a  striking  likeness  of 
him,  and  adorned  by  a  series  of  bas-reliefs 
illustrating  the  strange,  eventful  history  of 
his  life,  from  which  I  need  hardly  say  the 
discovery  of  America  was  not  wholly  omitted, 
greeted  us  at  the  gates  with  the  simple  in- 
scription, in  Italian,  "  To  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, from  his  Country."  And  as  I  gazed 
upon  it  with  admiration,  I  could  not  help 
feeling  that  it  was  not  there  alone  that  a 
monument  and  a  statue  were  due  to  his  mem- 
ory ;  but  that  upon  the  shores  of  our  own 
hemisphere,  too,  there  ought  to  be  some 
worthy  memorial  of  the  discoverer  of  the 
New  World,  an  exact  reproduction  of  this 
admirable  monument  at  Genoa,  so  that  hemi- 
sphere should  seem  to  respond  to  hemisphere 
in  a  common  tribute  to  the  heroic  and  match- 
less old  navigator.  It  would  be  some  sort  of 
atonement,  I  thought,  on  the  part  of  Amer- 
ica,— tardy  and  inadequate,  indeed,  but  better 
than    nothing. — for   having  allowed  another^ 


664 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


however  meritorious,  to  usurp  the  place  to 
which  his  name  was  so  preeminently  entitled 
in  the  geographical  nomenclature  of  the  globe. 
— Robert  C.  Winthrop. 

From  the  hour  when  Columbus  and  his 
compeers  discovered  our  continent,  its  ulti- 
mate political  destiny  was  fixed.  At  the  very 
gateway  of  the  Pantheon  of  American  lib- 
erty and  American  independence  might  well 
be  seen  a  triple  monument,  like  that  to  the 
old  inventors  of  the  art  of  printing  at  Frank- 
fort, including  Columbus,  Americus  Vespu- 
cius,  and  Cabot. 

They  were  the  pioneers  in  the  march  to 
independence.    They  were  the  precursors  in 


the  only  progress  of  freedom  which  was  to 
have  no  backward  steps.  Liberty  had  strug- 
gled long  and  bravely  in  other  ages  and  in 
other  lands.  It  had  made  glorious  mani- 
festations of  its  power  in  Athens  and  in 
Rome ;  in  the  medieval  republics  of  Italy ; 
on  the  plains  of  Germany ;  along  the  dikes  of 
Holland;  among  the  icy  fastnesses  of  Swit- 
zerland, and,  more  securely  and  hopefully 
still,  in  the  sea-girt  isle  of  Old  England.  But 
it  was  the  glory  of  these  old  navigators  to 
reveal  a  standing-place  for  it,  at  last,  where 
its  lever  could  find  a  secure  fulcrum  and  rest 
safely  until  it  had  moved  the  world. — Robert 
C.  Winthrop.     (Col.  S.) 


THE  COLUMBIAN  ORATION 

By  Chauncey  M.  Depew 


[Delivered  at  the  Dedication  Ceremonies  of  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  October  21st,  1892.] 


This  day  belongs  not  to  America,  but  to 
the  world.  The  results  of  the  event  it  com- 
memorates are  the  heritage  of  the  peoples  of 
every  race  and  clime.  We  celebrate  the 
emancipation  of  man.  The  preparation  was 
the  work  of  almost  countless  centuries ;  the 
realization  was  the  revelation  of  one.  The 
cross  on  Calvary  was  hope ;  the  cross  raised 
on  San  Salvador  was  opportunity.  But  for 
the  first,  Columbus  would  never  have  sailed ; 
but  for  the  second,  there  would  have  been 
no  place  for  the  planting,  the  nurture,  and 
the  expansion  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
Ancient  history  is  a  dreary  record  of  unstable 
civilizations.  Each  reached  its  zenith  of  ma- 
terial splendor,  and  perished.  The  Assyrian, 
Persian,  Egyptian,  Grecian,  and  Roman  em- 
pires were  proofs  of  the  possibilities  and 
limitations  of  man  for  conquest  and  intellec- 
tual development.  Their  destruction  involved 
a  sum  of  misery  and  relapse  which  made 
their  creation  rather  a  curse  than  a  blessing. 
Force  was  the  factor  in  the  government  of 
the  world  when  Christ  was  born,  and  force 
was  the  source  and  exercise  of  authority  both 
by  Church  and  State  when  Columbus  sailed 
from  Palos.  The  Wise  Men  traveled  from  the 
East  toward  the  West  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Star  of  Bethlehem.  The  spirit  of  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  God  and  the  law 
moved  westward  from  Calvary  with  its  revo- 
lutionary influence  upon  old  institutions,  to 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Columbus  carried  it 
westward  across  the  seas.  The  emigrants 
from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales, 
from  Germany  and  Holland,  from  Sweden 
and  Denmark,  from  France  and  Italy,  from 
Spain  and  Portugal,  under  its  guidance  and 
inspiration,  moved  west,  and  again  west, 
building  states  and  founding  cities  until  the 
Pacific  limited  their  march.  The  exhibition 
of  arts  and  sciences,  of  industries  and  inven- 
tions, of  education  and  civilization,  which  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States  will  here  pre- 
sent, and  to  which,  through  its  chief  Magis- 
trate,   it   invites    all    nations,    condenses   and 


displays    the    flower    and    fruitage    of    this 
transcendent  miracle. 

The  anarchy  and  chaos  which  followed  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Roman  Empire  neces- 
sarily produced  the  feudal  system.  The  peo- 
ple, preferring  slavery  to  annihilation  by 
robber  chiefs,  became  the  vassals  of  terri- 
torial lords.  The  reign  of  physical  force  is 
one  of  perpetual  struggle  for  the  mastery. 
Power  which  rests  upon  the  sword  neither 
shares  nor  limits  its  authority.  The  king  de- 
stroyed the  lords,  and  the  monarchy  suc- 
ceeded feudalism.  Neither  of  these  institu- 
tions considered  or  consulted  the  people. 
They  had  no  part  but  to  suffer  or  die  in  this 
mighty  strife  of  masters  for  the  mastery. 
But  the  throne,  by  its  broader  view  and 
greater  resources,  made  possible  the  con- 
struction of  the  highways  of  freedom.  Under 
its  banner,  races  could  unite  and  petty  prin- 
cipalities be  merged,  law  substituted  for 
brute  force  and  right  for  might.  It  founded 
and  endowed  universities,  and  encouraged 
commerce.  It  conceded  no  political  privi- 
leges, but  unconsciously  prepared  its  subjects 
to  demand  them. 


Fifty  years  before  Columbus  sailed  from 
Palos,  Gutenberg  and  Faust  had  forged  the 
hammer  which  was  to  break  the  bonds  of 
superstition  and  open  the  prison  doors  of  the 
mind.  They  had  invented  the  printing  press 
and  movable  types.  The  prior  adoption  of  a 
cheap  process  for  the  manufacture  of  paper 
at  once  utilized  the  press.  Its  first  service, 
like  all  its  succeeding  efforts,  was  for  the 
people.  The  universities  and  the  schoolmen, 
the  privileged  and  the  learned  few  of  that 
age,  were  longing  for  the  revelation  and 
preservation  of  the  classic  treasures  of  antiq- 
uity, hidden,  and  yet  insecure  in  monastic 
cells  and  libraries.  But  the  firstborn  of  the 
marvelous  creation  of  these  primitive  printers 
of  Mayence  was  the  printed  Bible.  The 
priceless  contributions  of  Greece  and  Rome 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


665 


to  the  intellectual  training  and  development 
of  the  modern  world  came  afterwards, 
through  the  same  wondrous  machine  The 
force,  however,  which  made  possible  Amer- 
ica and  its  reflex  influence  upon  Europe  was 
the  open  Bible  by  the  family  fireside.  And 
yet  neither  the  enlightenment  of  the  new 
learning,  nor  the  dynamic  power  of  the 
spiritual  awakening,  could  break  through  the 
crust  of  caste  which  had  been  forming  for 
centuries.  Church  and  State  had  so  firmly 
and  dexterously  interwoven  the  bars  of 
privilege  and  authority  that  liberty  was  im- 
possible from  within.  Its  piercing  light  and 
fervent  heat  must  penetrate  from  without. 

Civil  and  religious  freedom  are  founded 
upon  the  individual  and  his  independence, 
his  worth,  his  rights,  and  his  equal  status 
and  opportunity.  For  his  planting  and  de- 
velopment a  new  land  must  be  found  where, 
with  limitless  areas  for  expansion,  the 
avenues  of  progress  would  have  no  bars  of 
custom  or  heredity,  of  social  orders  or  privi- 
leged classes.  The  time  had  come  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  mind  and  soul  of  hu- 
manity. The  factors  wanting  for  its  fulfil- 
ment were  the  new  world  and  its  discoverer. 

Neither  realism  nor  romance  furnishes  a 
more  striking  and  picturesque  figure  than 
that  of  Christopher  Columbus.  The  mystery 
about  his  origin  heightens  the  charm  of  his 
story.  That  he  came  from  among  the  toilers 
of  his  time  is  in  harmony  with  the  struggles 
of  our  period.  Forty-four  authentic  portraits 
of  him  have  descended  to  us,  and  no  two  of 
them  are  the  counterfeits  of  the  same  person. 
Each  represents  a  character  as  distinct  as  its 
canvas.  Strength  and  weakness,  intellectual- 
ity and  stupidity,  high  moral  purpose  and 
brutal  ferocity,  purity  and  licentiousness,  the 
dreamer  and  the  miser,  the  pirate  and  the 
Puritan,  are  the  types  from  which  we  may 
select  our  hero.  We  dismiss  the  painter,  and 
piercing  with  the  clarified  vision  of  the  dawn 
of  the  twentieth  century  the  veil  of  four  hun- 
dred years,  we  construct  our  Columbus. 

The  perils  of  the  sea  in  his  youth  on 
the  rich  argosies  of  Genoa,  or  in  the  service 
of  the  licensed  rovers  who  made  them  their 
prey,  had  developed  a  skilful  navigator  and 
intrepid  mariner.  They  had  given  him  a 
glimpse  of  the  possibilities  of  the  unknown 
beyond  the  highways  of  travel,  which  roused 
an  unquenchable  thirst  for  adventure  and  re- 
search. The  study  of  the  narratives  of  pre- 
vious explorers  and  diligent  questionings  of 
the  daring  spirits  who  had  ventured  far  to- 
wards the  fabled  West  gradually  evolved  a 
theory  which  became  in  his  mind  so  fixed  a 
fact  that  he  could  inspire  others  with  his  own 
passionate  beliefs.  The  words,  "  That  is  a 
lie,"  written  by  him  on  the  margin  of  nearly 
every  page  of  a  volume  of  the  travels  of 
Marco  Polo,  which  is  still  to  be  found  in  a 
Genoese  library,  illustrate  the  skepticism  of 
his  beginning,  and  the  first  vision  of  the  New 
World,  the  fulfilment  of  his  faith. 

To  secure  the  means  to  test  the  truth  of 
his  speculations,  this  poor  and  unknown 
dreamer  must  win  the  support  of  kings  and 


overcome  the  hostility  of  the  Church.  He 
never  doubted  his  ability  to  do  both,  tho  he 
knew  of  no  man  living  who  was  so  great  in 
power,  or  lineage,  or  learning,  that  he  could 
accomplish  either.  Unaided  and  alone,  he 
succeeded  in  arousing  the  jealousies  of  sov- 
ereigns, and  dividing  the  councils  of  the 
ecclesiastics.  "  I  will  command  your  fleet 
and  discover  for  you  new  realms,  but  only 
on  condition  that  you  confer  on  me  hereditary 
nobility,  the  Admiralty  of  the  Ocean  and  the 
Vice-Royalty  and  one-tenth  the  revenues  of 
the  New  World."  were  his  haughty  terms  to 
King  John  of  Portugal.  After  ten  years  of 
disappointment  and  poverty,  subsisting  most 
of  the  time  upon  the  charity  of  the  enlightened 
monk  of  the  Convent  of  Rabida,  who  was  his 
unfaltering  friend,  he  stood  before  the  throne 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and,  rising  to  im- 
perial dignity  in  his  rags,  embodied  the  same 
royal  conditions  in  his  petition. 

It  was  a  happy  omen  of  the  position  which 
woman  was  to  hold  in  America  that  the  only 
person  who  comprehended  the  majestic  scope 
of  his  plans  and  the  invincible  quality  of  his 
genius  was  the  able  and  gracious  Queen  of 
Castile.  Isabella  alone  of  all  the  dignitaries 
of  that  age  shares  with  Columbus  the  honors 
of  his  great  achievement.  She  arrayed  her 
kingdom  and  her  private  fortune  behind  the 
enthusiasm  of  this  mystic  mariner,  and  pos- 
terity pays  homage  to  her  wisdom  and  faith. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Mohammedan 
power  in  Spain  would  have  been  a  forgotten 
scene  in  one  of  the  innumerable  acts  in  the 
grand  drama  of  history  had  not  Isabella  con- 
ferred immortality  upon  herself,  her  hus- 
band, and  their  dual  crown,  by  her  recogni- 
tion of  Columbus.  The  devout  spirit  of  the 
Queen  and  the  high  purpose  of  the  ex- 
plorer inspired  the  voyage,  subdued  the  mu- 
tinous crew,  and  prevailed  over  the  raging 
storms.  They  covered  with  the  divine  radi- 
ance of  religion  and  humanity  the  degra- 
ding search  for  gold  and  the  horrors  of  its 
quest,  which  filled  the  first  century  of  con- 
quest with  every  form  of  lust  and  greed. 

The  mighty  soul  of  the  great  admiral  was 
undaunted  by  the  ingratitude  of  princes  and 
the  hostility  of  the  people  by  imprisonment 
and  neglect.  He  died  as  he  was  securing 
the  means  and  preparing  a  campaign  for  the 
rescue  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  at  Jerusalem 
from  the  infidel.  He  did  not  know  what  time 
has  revealed,  that  while  the  mission  of  the 
crusades  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  Rich- 
ard of  the  Lion  Heart  was  a  bloody  and 
fruitless  romance,  the  discovery  of  America 
was  the  salvation  of  the  world.  The  one  was 
the  symbol,  the  other  the  spirit ;  the  one 
death,  the  other  life.  The  tomb  of  the 
Savior  was  a  narrow  and  empty  vault,  pre- 
cious only  for  its  memories  of  the  supreme 
tragedy  of  the  centuries,  but  the  new  conti- 
nent was  to  be  the  home  and  temple  of  the 
living  God. 

The  rulers  of  the  Old  World  began  with 
partitioning  the  New.  To  them  the  discov- 
ery was  expansion  of  empire  and  grandeur 
to  the  throne.    Vast  territories,  whose  prop- 


666 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


erties  and  possibilities  were  little  understood, 
and  whose  extent  was  greater  than  the  king- 
doms of  the  sovereigns,  were  the  gifts  to 
court  favorites  and  the  prizes  of  royal  ap- 
proval. But  individual  intelligence  and  in- 
dependent conscience  found  here  haven  and 
refuge.  They  were  the  passengers  upon  the 
caravel  of  Columbus,  and  he  was  uncon- 
sciously making  for  the  port  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  Thinkers  who  believed 
men  capable  of  higher  destinies  and  larger 
responsibilities,  and  pious  people  who  pre- 
iferred  the  Bible  to  that  union  of  Church  and 
State  where  each  serves  the  other  for  the 
temporal  benefit  of  both,  fled  to  those  dis- 
tant and  hospitable  lands  from  intolerable 
and  hopeless  oppression  at  home.  It  required 
three  hundred  years  for  the  people  thus 
happily  situated  to  understand  their  own 
powers  and  resources  and  to  break  bonds 
which  were  still  reverenced  or  loved,  no 
matter  how  deeply  they  wounded  or  how 
hard  they  galled. 

Ihe  nations  of  Europe  were  so  completely 
absorbed  in  dynastic  difficulties  and  devas- 
tating wars,  with  diplomacy  and  ambitions, 
that,  if  they  heard  of,  they  did  not  heed  the 
growing  democratic  spirit  and  intelligence  in 
their  American  colonies.  To  them  these 
provinces  were  sources  of  revenue,  and  they 
never  dreamed  that  they  were  also  schools  of 
liberty.  That  it  exhausted  three  centuries 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  the 
evolution  of  freedom  on  this  continent  de- 
monstrates the  tremendous  strength  of  custom 
and  heredity  when  sanctioned  and  sanctified 
by  religion.  The  very  chains  which  fettered 
became  inextricabJy  interwoven  with  the 
habits  of  life,  the  associations  of  childhood, 
the  tenderest  ties  of  the  family,  and  the  sa- 
cred offices  of  the  Church  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  It  clearly  proves  that  if  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Old  World  and  their  descendants 
had  not  possessed  the  opportunities  afforded 
by  the  New  for  their  emancipation,  and  man- 
kind had  never  experienced  and  learned  the 
American  example,  instead  of  living  in  the 
light  and  glory  of  nineteenth-century  condi- 
tions they  would  still  be  struggling  with  me- 
dieval problems. 

The  northern  continent  was  divided  among 
England,  France,  and  Spain,  and  the  southern 
between  Spain  and  Portugal.  France,  want- 
ing the  capacity  for  colonization,  which  still 
characterizes  her,  gave  up  her  western  pos- 
sessions and  left  the  English,  who  have  the 
genius  of  universal  empire,  masters  of  North 
America.  The  development  of  the  experi- 
ment in  the  English  domain  makes  this  day 
memorable.  It  is  due  to  the  wisdom  and 
courage,  the  faith  and  virtue,  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  this  territory,  that  government  of 
the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people 
was  inaugurated  and  has  become  a  tri- 
umphant success.  The  Puritan  settled  in 
New  England  and  the  Cavalier  in  the  South. 
They  represented  the  opposites  of  spiritual 
and  temporal  life  and  opinions.  The  pro- 
cesses of  liberty  liberalized  the  one  and  ele- 
vated the  other.  Washington  and  Adams 
were  the  new  types.  Their  union  in  a  com- 
mon cause  gave  the  world  a  Republic  both 


stable  and  free.  It  possessed  conservatism 
without  bigotry,  and  liberty  without  license. 
It  founded  institutions  strong  enough  to  re- 
sist revolution,  and  elastic  enough  for  in- 
definite expansion  to  meet  the  requirements 
in  government  of  ever-enlarging  areas  of 
population  and  the  needs  of  progress  and 
growth.  It  was  nurtured  by  the  toleration 
and  patriotism  which  bound  together  in  a 
common  cause  the  Puritans  of  New  England 
and  the  Catholics  of  Maryland,  the  Dutch  Re- 
formers of  New  York  and  the  Huguenots  of 
South  Carolina,  the  Quakers  and  Lutherans 
of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Episcopalians,  Meth- 
odists, Presbyterians,  Baptists,  and  religion- 
ists of  all  and  of  opposite  opinions  in  the 
other  colonies. 

The  Mayflower,  with  the  Pilgrims,  and  a 
Dutch  ship  laden  with  African  slaves  were 
on  the  ocean  at  the  same  time,  the  one  sailing 
for  Massachusetts,  and  the  other  for  Vir- 
ginia. This  company  of  saints  and  first  cargo 
of  slaves  represented  the  forces  which  were 
to  peril  and  rescue  free  government.  The 
slaver  was  the  product  of  the  commercial 
spirit  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  greed  of  the 
times  to  stimulate  production  in  the  colonies. 
The  men  who  wrote  in  the  cabin  of  the  il/a.v- 
flower  the  first  charter  of  freedom,  a  govern- 
ment of  just  and  equal  laws,  were  a  little 
band  of  Protestants  against  everv  form  of 
injustice  and  tyranny.  The  leaven  of  their 
principles  made  possible  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  liberated  the  slaves,  and 
founded  the  free  commonwealths  which  form 
the  Republic  of  the  United  States. 

Platforms  of  principles,  by  petition  or  pro- 
test or  statement,  have  been  as  frequent  as 
revolts  against  established  authority.  They 
are  a  part  of  the  political  literature  of  all 
nations.  The  Declaration  of  Independence 
proclaimed  at  Philadelphia,  July  4,  1776.  is 
the  only  one  of  them  which  arrested  the  at- 
tention of  the  world  when  it  was  published 
and  has  held  its  undivided  interest  ever  since. 
The  vocabulary  of  the  equality  of  man  had 
been  in  familiar  use  by  philosophers  and 
statesmen  for  ages.  It  expressed  noble  sen- 
timents, but  their  application  was  limited  to 
classes  or  conditions.  The  masses  cared  little 
for  them,  nor  remembered  them  long.  Jef- 
ferson's superb  crystallization  of  the  popular 
opinion  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal,  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights,  that  among  these  are 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness," 
had  its  force  and  effect  in  being  the  deliberate 
utterance  of  the  people.  It  swept  away  in  a 
single  sentence  kings  and  nobles,  peers  and 
prelates.  It  was  Magna  Charta  and  the  Pe- 
tition of  Rights  planted  in  the  virgin  soil  of 
the  American  wilderness,  and  bearing  richer 
and  riper  fruit.  Under  its  vitalizing  influ- 
ence upon  the  individual,  the  farmer  left  his 
plow  in  the  furrow,  the  lawyer  his  books  and 
briefs,  the  merchant  his  shop,  and  the  work- 
man his  bench,  to  enlist  in  the  patriot  army. 
They  were  fighting  for  themselves  and  their 
children.  They  embodied  the  idea  in  their 
Constitution  in  the  immortal  words  with 
which  that  great  instrument  of  liberty  and 
order  began : — 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


667 


"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  do 
ordain." 

The  scope  and  limitations  of  this  idea  of 
freedom  have  neither  been  misinterpreted 
nor  misunderstood.  The  laws  of  nature  in 
their  application  to  the  rise  and  recognition 
of  men  according  to  their  mental,  moral, 
spiritual,  and  physical  endowments  are  left 
undisturbed.  But  the  accident  of  birth  gives 
no  rank  and  confers  no  privilege.  Equal 
rights  and  common  opportunity  for  all  have 
been  the  spurs  of  ambition  and  the  motors  of 
progress.  They  have  established  the  common 
schools  and  built  the  public  libraries.  A  sov- 
ereign people  have  learned  and  enforced  the 
lesson  of  free  education.  The  practise  of 
government  is  itself  a  liberal  education.  Peo- 
ple who  make  their  own  laws  need  no  law- 
givers. After  a  century  of  successful  trial, 
the  system  has  passed  the  period  of  experi- 
ment, and  its  demonstrated  permanency  and 
power  are  revolutionizing  the  governments 
of  the  world.  It  has  raised  the  largest  armies 
of  modern  times  for  self-preservation,  and 
at  the  successful  termination  of  the  war  re- 
turned the  soldiers  to  the  pursuits  of  peace. 
It  has  so  adjusted  itself  to  the  pride  and 
patriotism  of  the  defeated  that  they  vie  with 
the  victors  in  their  support  of  and  enthusiasm 
for  the  old  flag  and  our  common  country. 
Imported  anarchists  have  preached  their  bale- 
ful doctrines,  but  have  made  no  converts. 
They  have  tried  to  inaugurate  a  reign  of 
terror  under  the  banner  of  the  violent  seizure 
and  distribution  of  property  only  to  be  de- 
feated, imprisoned,  and  executed  by  the  law 
made  by  the  people  and  enforced  by  juries 
selected  from  the  people,  and  judges  and 
prosecuting  officers  elected  by  the  people. 
Socialism  finds  disciples  only  among  those 
who  were  its  votaries  before  they  were  forced 
to  fly  from  their  native  land,  but  it  does  not 
take  root  upon  American  soil.  The  State 
neither  supports  nor  permits  taxation  to 
maintain  the  Church.  The  citizen  can  wor- 
ship God  according  to  his  belief  and  con- 
science, or  he  may  neither  reverence  nor 
recognize  the  Almighty.  And  yet  religion 
has  flourished,  churches  abound,  the  min- 
istry is  sustained,  and  millions  of  dollars  are 
contributed  annually  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  world.  The  United  States  is  a  Chris- 
tian country,  and  a  living  and  practical  Chris- 
tianity is  the  characteristic  of  its  people. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  philosopher  and  pa- 
triot, amused  the  jaded  courtiers  of  Louis 
XVI.  by  his  talks  about  liberty,  and  enter- 
tained the  scientists  of  France  by  bringing 
lightning  from  the  clouds.  In  the  reckoning 
of  time,  the  period  from  Franklin  to  Morse, 
and  from  Morse  to  Edison  is  but  a  span, 
and  yet  it  marks  a  material  development  as 
marvelous  as  it  has  been  beneficent.  The 
world  has  been  brought  into  contact  and  sym- 
pathy. The  electric  current  thrills  and  uni- 
fies the  people  of  the  globe.  Power  and  pro- 
duction, highways  and  transports  have  been 
so  multiplied  and  improved  by  inventive 
genius,  that  within  the  century  of  our  inde- 
pendence sixty-four  millions  of  people  have 
happy  homes  and  improved  conditions  within 
our  borders.     We  have  accumulated  wealth 


far  beyond  the  visions  of  the  Cathay  of 
Columbus  or  the  El  Doradc  of  De  Soto.  But 
the  farmers  and  freeholders,  the  savings 
banks  and  shops  illustrate  its  universal  dis- 
tribution. The  majority  are  its  possessors 
and  administrators.  In  housing  and  living, 
in  the  elements  which  make  the  toiler  a  self- 
respecting  and  respected  citizen,  in  avenues 
of  hope  and  ambition  for  children,  in  all  that 
gives  broader  scope  and  keener  pleasure  to 
existence,  the  people  of  this  Republic  enjoy 
advantages  far  beyond  those  of  other  lands. 
The  unequaled  and  phenomenal  progress  of 
the  country  has  opened  wonderful  oppor- 
tunities for  making  fortunes,  and  stimulated 
to  madness  the  desire  and  rush  for  the  ac- 
cumulation of  money.  Material  prosperity 
has  not  debased  literature  nor  debauched  the 
press ;  it  has  neither  paralyzed  nor  repressed 
intellectual  activity.  American  science  and 
letters  have  received  rank  and  recognition  in 
the  older  centers  of  learning.  The  demand 
for  higher  education  has  so  taxed  the  re- 
sources of  the  ancient  universities  as  to  com- 
pel the  foundation  and  liberal  endowment  of 
colleges  all  over  the  Union.  Journals,  re- 
markable for  their  ability,  independence,  and 
power,  find  their  strength,  not  in  the  patron- 
age of  government,  or  the  subsidies  of  wealth, 
but  in  the  support  of  a  Nation  of  newspaper 
readers.  The  humblest  and  poorest  person 
has,  in  periodicals  whose  price  is  counted  in 
pennies,  a  library  larger,  fuller,  and  more 
varied  than  was  within  the  reach  of  the  rich 
in  the  time  of  Columbus. 

The  sum  of  human  happiness  has  been  in- 
finitely increased  by  the  millions  from  the 
Old  World  who  have  improved  their  condi- 
tions in  the  New,  and  the  returning  tide  of 
lesson  and  experience  has  incalculably  en- 
riched the  Fatherlands.  The  divine  right  of 
kings  has  taken  its  place  with  the  instru- 
ments of  medieval  torture  among  the  curi- 
osities of  the  antiquary.  Only  the  shadow 
of  kingly  authority  stands  between  the  gov- 
ernment of  themselves,  and  the  people  of 
Norway  and  Sweden.  The  union  in  one  em- 
pire of  the  States  of  Germany  is  the  symbol 
of  Teutonic  power  and  the  hope  of  German 
liberalism.  The  petty  despotisms  of  Italy 
have  been  merged  into  a  nationality  which 
has  centralized  its  authority  in  its  ancient 
capitol  on  the  hills  of  Rome.  France  was 
rudely  roused  from  the  sullen  submission  of 
centuries  to  intolerable  tyranny  by  her  sol- 
diers returning  from  service  in  the  American 
Revolution.  The  wild  orgies  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror  were  the  revenges  and  excesses  of 
a  people  who  had  discovered  their  power, 
but  were  not  prepared  for  its  beneficent  use. 
She  fled  from  herself  into  the  arms  of  Napo- 
leon. He,  too,  was  a  product  of  the  Amer- 
ican experiment.  He  played  with  kings  as 
with  toys  and  educated  France  for  liberty. 
In  the  processes  of  her  evolution  from  dark- 
ness to  light,  she  tried  Bourbon  and  Orleanist 
and  the  third  Napoleon,  and  cast  them  aside. 
Now  in  the  fulness  of  time,  and  through  the 
training  in  the  school  of  hardest  experience, 
the  French  people  have  reared  and  enjoy  a 
permanent  republic.  England  of  the  May- 
flower and  of  James  XL,  England  of  George 


668 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


HL  and  of  Lord  North,  has  enlarged  suffrage 
and  is  to-day  animated  and  governed  by  the 
democratic  spirit.  She  has  (1892)  her  throne 
admirably  occupied  by  one  of  the  wisest  of 
sovereigns  and  best  of  women,  but  it  would 
not  survive  one  dissolute  and  unworthy  suc- 
cessor. She  has  her  hereditary  peers,  but 
the  House  of  Lords  will  be  brushed  aside 
the  moment  it  resists  the  will  of  the  people. 
The  time  has  arrived  for  both  a  closer 
union  and  greater  distance  between  the  Old 
World  and  the  New.  The  former  indis- 
criminate welcome  to  our  prairies  and  the 
present  invitation  to  these  palaces  of  art  and 
industry  mark  the  passing  period.  Unwatched 
and  unhealthy  immigration  can  no  longer  be 
permitted  to  our  shores.  We  must  have  a 
national  quarantine  against  disease,  pauper- 
ism, and  crime.  We  do  not  want  candidates 
for  our  hospitals,  our  poorhouses  or  our 
I  ails.  We  cannot  admit  those  who  come  to 
undermine  our  institutions  and  subvert  our 
laws.  But  we  will  gladly  throw  wide  our 
gates  for,  and  receive  with  open  arms,  those 
who  by  intelligence  and  virtue,  by  thrift  and 
loyalty,  are  worthy  of  receiving  the  equal  ad- 
vantages of  the  priceless  gift  of  American 
citizenship.  The  spirit  and  object  of  this  ex- 
hibition are  peace  and  kinship. 

Three  millions  of  Germans,  who  are  among 
the  best  citizens  of  the  Republic,  send  greet- 
ing to  the  Fatherland,  expressing  their  pride 
in  its  glorious  history,  its  ripe  literature,  its 
traditions  and  associations.  Irish,  equal  in 
number  to  those  who  still  remain  upon  the 
Emerald  Isle,  who  have  illustrated  their  de- 
votion to  their  adopted  country  on  many  a 
battlefield,  fighting  for  the  Union  and  its  per- 
petuity, have  rather  intensified  than  dimin- 
ished their  love  for  the  land  of  the  shamrock 
and  their  sympathy  with  the  aspirations  of 
their  brethren  at  home.  The  Italian,  the  Span- 
iard, and  the  Frenchman,  the  Norwegian,  the 
Swede,  and  the  Dane,  the  English,  the  Scotch, 
and  the  Welsh,  are  none  the  less  loyal  and 
devoted  Americans  because  in  this  congress 
of  their  kin  the  tendrils  of  affection  draw 
them  closer  to  the  hills  and  valleys,  the  leg- 
ends and  the  loves  associated  with  their  youth. 
Edmund  Burke,  speaking  in  the_  British 
Parliament  with  prophetic  voice,  said :  "  A 
great  revolution  has  happened — a  revolution 
made,  not  by  chopping  and  changing  of 
power  in  any  of  the  existing  states,  but  by 
the  appearance  of  a  new  state,  of  a  new  spe- 
cies, in  a  new  part  of  the  globe.  It  has  made 
as  great  a  change  in  all  the  relations  and 
balances  and  gravitations  of  power  as  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  new  planet  would  in  the  sys- 
tem of  the  solar  world."  Thus  was  the  hu- 
miliation of  our  successful  revolt  tempered 
to  the  motherland  by  pride  in  the  state 
created  bv  her  children.  If  we  claim  herit- 
age in  Bacon,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton,  we 
also  acknowledge  that  it  was  for  liberties 
guaranteed  Englishmen  by  sacred  charters 
our  fathers  triumphantly  fought.  While 
wisely  rejecting  throne  and  caste  and  privi- 
lege and  an  Established  Church  in  their  new- 
born state,  they  adopted  the  substance  of 
English  liberty  and  the  body  of  English  law. 
Closer  relations  with  England  than  with  other 


lands,  and  a  common  language  rendering  easy 
interchanges  of  criticisms  and  epithet,  some- 
times irritate  and  offend,  but  the  heart  of  re- 
publican America  beats  with  responsive  pulsa- 
tions to  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Great  Britain. 

The  grandeur  and  beauty  of  this  spectacle 
are  the  eloquent  witnesses  of  peace  and 
progress.  The  Parthenon  and  the  cathedral 
exhausted  the  genius  of  the  ancient,  and  the 
skill  of  the  medieval  architects,  in  housing 
the  statue  or  spirit  of  Deity.  In  their  ruins 
or  their  antiquity  they  are  mute  protests 
against  the  merciless  enmity  of  nations,  which 
forced  art  to  flee  to  the  altar  for  protection. 
The  United  States  welcome  the  sister  repub- 
lics of  the  Southern  and  Northern  conti- 
nents, and  the  nations  and  peoples  of  Eu- 
rope and  Asia,  of  Africa  and  Australia,  with 
the  products  of  their  lands,  of  their  skill  and 
of  their  industry,  to  this  city  of  yesterday, 
yet  clothed  with  royal  splendor  as  the  queen 
of  the  Great  Lakes.  The  artists  and  archi- 
tects of  the  country  have  been  bidden  to 
design  and  erect  the  buildings  which  shall 
fitly  illustrate  the  height  of  our  civilization 
and  the  breadth  of  our  hospitality.  The 
peace  of  the  world  permits  and  protects  their 
efforts  in  utilizing  their  powers  for  man's 
temporal  welfare.  The  result  is  this  park  of 
palaces.  The  originality  and  the  boldness  of 
their  conceptions,  and  the  magnitude  and 
harmony  of  their  creations,  are  the  contribu- 
tions of  America  to  the  oldest  of  the  arts  and 
the  cordial  bidding  of  America  to  the  peoples 
of  the  earth  to  come  and  bring  the  fruitage 
of  their  age  to  the  boundless  opportunities  of 
this  unparalleled  exhibition. 

If  interest  in  the  affairs  of  this  world  is 
vouchsafed  to  those  who  have  gone  before, 
the  spirit  of  Columbus  hovers  over  us  to-day. 
Only  by  celestial  intelligence  can  it  grasp  the 
full  significance  of  this  spectacle  and  cere- 
monial. 

From  the  first  century  to  the  fifteenth 
counts  for  little  in  the  history  of  progress, 
but  in  the  period  between  the  fifteenth  and 
twentieth  is  crowded  the  romance  and  reality 
of  human  development.  Life  has  been  pro- 
longed, and  its  enjoyment  intensified.  The 
powers  of  the  air  and  the  water,  the  resistless 
forces  of  the  elements,  which  in  the  time  of 
the  Discoverer  were  the  visible  terrors  of  the 
wrath  of  God,  have  been  subdued  to  the  service 
of  man.  Art  and  luxuries  which  could  be 
possessed  and  enjoyed  only  by  the  rich  and 
noble,  the  works  of  genius  which  were  read 
and  understood  only  by  the  learned  few,  do- 
mestic comforts  and  surroundings  beyond 
the  reach  of  lord  or  bishop,  now  adorn  and 
illumine  the  homes  of  our  citizens.  Serfs 
are  sovereigns  and  the  people  are  kings.  The 
trophies  and  splendors  of  their  reign  are  com- 
monwealths, rich  in  every  attribute  of  great 
States,  and  united  in  a  Republic  whose  power 
and  prosperity  and  liberty  and  enlighten- 
ment are  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the 
world. 

All  hail,  Columbus,  discoverer,  dreamer, 
hero,  and  apostle !  We  here,  of  every  race 
and   country,    recognize   the    horizon    which 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


669 


bounded  his  vision  and  the  infinite  scope  of 
his  genius.  The  voice  of  gratitude  and  praise 
for  all  the  blessings  which  have  been  show- 
ered upon  mankind  by  his  adventure  is  lim- 
ited to  no  language,  but  is  uttered  in  every 
tongue.     Neither    marble    or   brass    can    fitly 


form  his  statue.  Continents  are  his  monu- 
ment, and  unnumbered  millions  present  and 
to  come,  who  enjoy  in  their  liberties  and  their 
happiness  the  fruits  of  his  faith,  will  rever- 
ently guard  and  preserve,  from  century  to 
century,  his  name  and  fame. — W.  B.  O. 


SERMONS 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS:  A  MODERN  ABRAHAM 

By  Rev.  Robert  S.  McArthur,  D.D. 
And  he  went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  went. — Hebrews  xi:  8 


I  need  scarcely  remind  you  that  these 
words  were  originally  spoken  of  Abraham, 
the  father  of  the  faithful.  You  know  that 
he  was  ignorant  of  the  country  to  which  he 
was  to  be  led.  Doubtless  he  had  some  inti- 
mation of  its  nature,  and  also  of  the  general 
direction  in  which  it  lay ;  but  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  his  knowledge  of  geography 
was  very  imperfect,  that  the  country,  judged 
by  the  mode  of  travel  of  that  day,  was  very 
distant,  that  it  lay  beyond  a  trackless  desert, 
and  that  probably  no  traveler  had  ever  made 
the  journey  and  returned  to  report.  Abra- 
ham's position,  therefore,  was  trying  in  the 
extreme.  Strong  faith  was  needed  on  his 
part ;  strong  faith  was  possessed  by  him,  and 
a  grand  result  in  glory  to  God  and  in  blessing 
to  the  race  was  secured  as  the  result  of  that 
faith. 

Had  these  words  been  written  by  the  pen 
of  inspiration  of  Columbus  they  could  not 
more  fittingly  state  the  facts  in  his  case.  He, 
too,  went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  went, 
and  he  never  fully  knew ;  he  died  under  an 
utter  misapprehension  of  the  nature  of  the 
country  he  had  visited  and  of  the  character 
of  the  discoveries  he  had  made.  He,  too, 
realized  the  necessity  of  great  faith,  and  of 
divine  guidance.  God  went  before  Abraham, 
and  before  even  Columbus,  altho  he  was  a 
very  imperfect  man,  as  truly  as  when  by  the 
pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire 
by  night  He  went  before  the  children  of  Is- 
rael on  their  weary  march. 

This  journey  on  the  part  of  Columbus  was 
begun  during  a  time  of  great  interest  in  the 
history  of  Spain,  and  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  It  was  the  time  of  the  revival  of 
learning ;  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  great 
Protestant  Reformation,  and  with  it  came  a 
vast  increase  of  intelligence.  The  days  of 
monkish  ignorance  were  happily  passing 
away,  and  the  dawn  of  light  and  liberty  was 
at  hand.  About  this  time  came  the  invention 
of  the  printing-press,  and  the  discovery  of 
the  mariner's  compass,  and  soon  the  discovery 
of  America  itself.  Then  came  many  naviga- 
tors such  as  Vespucci,  Cabot,  Verrazani  and 
others ;  and  later  those  who  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  this  republic,  planting  the  seeds 
which  have  blossomed  and  bloomed  into  the 


flower  and  fruit  of  the  liberty  we  enjoy  to- 
day. It  may  be  well,  however,  for  us  to 
glance  for  a  moment  or  two  at  some  of  the 
previous  voyages  which  we  have  reason  to 
believe  were  made  to  our  shores.  Our  es- 
teemed friend,  Mr.  Frederick  Saunders,  the 
librarian  of  the  Astor  Library,  in  his  recent 
book  entitled  The  Story  of  the  Discovery 
OF  THE  New  World,  reminds  us  that  in  the 
fifth  century  of  our  era  the  Chinese  sent 
Hoei-Shin,  a  Buddhist  monk,  who,  it  is  be- 
lieved, reached  this  continent  and  visited  what 
is  now  called  Mexico.  Then  came  the  North- 
men. They  were  the  sea-rovers  of  the  world ; 
they  were  the  terror  of  Europe  from  the 
North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  In  860 
of  our  era  they  discovered  Iceland;  having 
been  driven  by  a  fierce  storm  they  landed 
upon  what  was  to  them  an  unknown  shore,  a 
shore,  which  became  a  permanent  settlement 
of  their  countrymen.  A  similar  accident 
drove  them  to  the  coasts  of  what  is  now 
Greenland.  Two  of  their  number,  named 
Leif  and  Bjarni,  voyaged  along  the  coast  and 
discovered  what  is  now  Newfoundland.  A 
little  later,  pressing  their  way  onward,  they 
reached  Nova  Scotia,  which  they  called  Mark- 
land  because  they  found  it  well  wooded. 
After  two  days  more  of  sailing  they  made 
land  on  the  coast  of  New  England,  perhaps 
at  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts.  There 
is  evidence  leading  us  to  suppose  that  on  the 
shores  of  the  Charles  River  near  Cambridge, 
there  are  traces  of  houses  erected  by  these 
Northmen.  The  more  this  subject  is  investi- 
gated the  more  conclusive  the  evidence  of  this 
seems  to  be.  It  is  stated  that  the  first  child 
born  of  European  parents  on  this  continent — 
the  first  certainly  so  far  as  known — was 
Snorri,  son  of  Karlsfre,  born  in  what  was 
called  Vineland — in  the  year  1007  of  our  era; 
and  what  is  very  interesting,  it  is  afiirmed — 
I  think  on  reasonably  solid  grounds — that 
Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Danish  sculptor,  was 
a  descendant  of  this  first  child  of  European 
parents  born  on  American  soil.  The  manu- 
scripts that  are  now  preserved  in  the  Royal 
Library  of  Copenhagen,  manuscripts  that  were 
found  in  a  monastery  on  the  Island  of  Flato, 
on  the  west  coast  of  Iceland,  are  authority 
for  these  statements.     These  manuscripts  lay 


670 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


forgotten  for  centuries,  but  they  have  recently 
been  discovered,  and  they  confirm  the  opinion 
that  many  had  vaguely  cherished  previous  to 
their  discovery. 

There  are  stories  also  of  a  Welsh  colony, 
stories  which  seem  to  have  an  historical  basis. 
It  is  said  that  this  colony  with  Prince  Madoc 
in  command  reached  this  country  in  the  year 
1 1 70.  They  made  discoveries  which  are  prov- 
ing valuable  in  the  development  of  American 
history.  It  is  believed  that  some  tribes  of  In- 
dians as  a  result  of  this  intermingling  of 
races  are  partially  of  Welsh  origin.  Among 
these  were  the  Mandans,  whose  color,  whose 
hair  and  whose  eyes  were  different  from 
those  of  most  Indian  tribes.  Their  religious 
rites,  their  domestic  habits,  their  mode  of 
building  their  tents  after  the  form  of  druid- 
ical  abodes,  such  as  we  see  in  Great  Britain, 
all  point  to  an  element  of  British  life  in  this 
Indian  race.  I  have  been  interested  also  in 
the  discovery  that  the  so-called  Pawnee  tribe 
are  believed  to  have  in  them  an  intermingling 
of  Welsh  blood.  The  name  of  this  tribe  was 
originally  spelled  "  Panis,"  but  pronounced 
"  Pawnee,"  and  so  we  have  come  to  have  the 
spelling  that  is  common  in  our  own  day. 

It  would  be  quite  unfair  in  any  historical 
summary  to  pass  over  the  work  done  by 
Prince  Henry  of  Portugal.  He  was  one  of 
the  great  navigators  of  the  Portuguese  race. 
He  stimulated  many  travelers  and  made  many 
interesting  discoveries  in  the  Mediterranean 
and  in  other  seas.  He  gave  up  the  pleasures 
of  the  court  and  lived  on  the  promontory  of 
Sagres,  in  which  secluded  and  inhospitable 
place  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of 
nautical  science,  building  observatories,  col- 
lecting charts,  and  with  princely  liberality  se- 
curing the  aid  of  the  most  skilled  and  the 
bravest  navigators. 

The  times  in  which  Columbus  lived,  and 
€specially  those  which  marked  the  beginning 
of  his  voyages,  were  times  of  profoundest  in- 
terest to  all  students  of  history.  The  great 
■wars  in  Spain,  leading  to  the  expulsion  of  the 
Moors,  were  still  in  progress  during  the 
■earlier  part  of  his  residence  in  that  country, 
but  were  nearing  their  completion.  Isabella 
and  Ferdinand  were  united  in  hand  and  heart 
under  a  patriotic  and  religious  movement  for 
the  conquest  of  the  Moors  and  for  driving 
them  from  Spanish  soil.  It  was  a  time  of 
great  excitement  throughout  the  entire  land 
of  Spain.  Columbus  himself  was  present  at 
the  battle  and  conquest  of  Granada.  When 
this  last  stronghold  of  the  Moors  was  taken 
Isabella  and  Ferdinand  entered  into  Granada 
in  triumph,  while  300,000  Moors  marched  out, 
bedewing  the  soil  of  their  beloved  city  with 
their  patriotic  tears  and  with  their  heart's 
blood.  Columbus  was  present.  He.  perhaps, 
saw  Cardinal  Mendoza  ascend  the  Torre  de 
la  Vela  and  first  raise  the  Christian  flag, 
while  he  shouted,  "  Granada  is  taken !  Gran- 
ada is  taken !  "  It  was  also  the  time  of  the 
Inquisition.  This  is  a  page  of  Spanish  his- 
tory which  many  eulogists  of  Spain  and  en- 
comiasts of  Columbus  will  not  mention  to- 
day. It  is  a  page  of  hi.story  not  very  wel- 
come to  us,  standing  beneath  this  American 


flag  and  standing  upon  this  American  soil; 
but  he  would  be  a  faithless  historian  and  an 
unjust  narrator  who  should  not  make  allu- 
sion to  this  vile  blot  on  the  history  of  Spain, 
on  the  name  of  Christianity  and  on  the 
human  race  itself.  Isabella  never  gave  will- 
ingly her  consent  to  the  introduction  of  the 
Inquisition.  It  was,  as  Prescott  has  reminded 
us,  wrung  from  her  under  the  influence  of 
her  priestly  confessors ;  and  it  was,  as  Pres- 
cott further  says,  the  only  stain  in  the  pure 
white  marble  of  Isabella's  life.  But  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  Prescott  is  unduly  eulo- 
gistic of  this  Queen ;  more  candid  writers 
are  now  showing  her  in  her  true  character 
as  a  woman  of  at  least  the  average  cruelty  of 
her  time  and  Church.  She  was  induced  to 
give  her  consent  to  the  Inquisition  because 
of  the  greater  glory  which  she  was  led  to  be- 
lieve it  would  bring  to  the  Roman  Church ; 
but  Ferdinand  endorsed  it  because  of  the 
gold  it  would  bring  into  the  Spanish  coffers. 
Wherever  there  was  a  rich  Jew  he  became 
the  subject  of  the  Inquisition;  wherever  there 
was  a  Protestant,  rich  or  poor,  he  must  be 
tortured  by  the  Inquisition.  God  had  a  great 
purpose  in  the  discovery  of  America  just  at 
that  hour.  Europe  was  overcrowded ;  liberty 
was  strangled ;  hope  was  dying.  The  Jews 
were  driven  from  Spain,  the  Moors  soon 
crossed  the  strait  to  their  native  soil,  and  God 
flung  wide  open  the  doors  of  this  New  World 
that  there  might  be  a  place  where  Liberty 
could  breathe,  and  where  a  republic  could  be 
born. 

Time  permits  me  only  to  touch  the  history 
of  Columbus  very  briefly,  and  I  do  not  regard 
it  as  very  necessary  that  I  should  dwell  in 
detail  upon  the  hsitory.  His  name  is  itself 
interesting.  Columbus  is  its  Latin  form,  Co- 
lombo the  Italian  form,  and  Colon  is  its 
Spanish  form.  Christoval  Colon  is  his  Span- 
ish name.  The  feminine  form  of  Columbus 
means  a  dove,  and  Christopher  means  "  Christ- 
bearer."  He  was  born  in  Genoa,  probably 
in  the  year  1436,  tho  some  say  1446.  His 
origin  was  very  obscure;  and  the  details  of 
his  life  are  extremely  meager.  His  father 
was  Dominico  Colombo,  and  was  a  wool- 
carder  or  comber  by  trade.  In  a  will  dated 
1494  he  speaks  of  himself  as  "  formerly  a 
weaver."  Some  suppose  that  Columbus  was 
of  illustrious  descent ;  but  his  son  Fernando, 
the  son  of  the  Cordovan  woman,  but  not  the 
Cordovan  wife,  used  wise  words  when  he 
said,  "  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  I  should  de- 
rive less  dignity  from  any  nobility  of  an- 
cestry than  from  being  the  son  of  such  a 
father."  The  mother  of  Columbus  was 
named  Susanna  Fontanrossa,  and  there  were 
in  the  family  three  sons  and  one  daughter. 
The  brothers  were  named  Bartholomew,  Gia- 
como,  and  Diego.  Bartholomew  was  sent  to 
England  to  interview  Henry  VII. ;  the  King 
gave  him  encouragement,  and  but  for  the 
action  of  Isabella,  England  would  have  had 
the  glory  of  the  great  discovery.  The  sister 
married  a  man  in  very  humble  life,  a  man 
whose  name  v/as  Giacomo  Baravello,  but  a 
man  of  no  importance.  In  his  boyhood  Co- 
lumbus was  sent  to  the  University  of  Pavia, 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


671 


where  his  studies  were  history,  cosmography, 
philosophy  and  other  sciences,  and  especially 
drawing-. 

But  at  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  a  sailor, 
a  fact  which  contributed  much  to  his  later 
taste  for  navigation.  A  relative  of  Colum- 
bus, who  was  named  Columbus  also,  was 
commander  of  a  cruiser  in  the  service  of 
Rene,  Count  of  Provence,  and  Columbus 
made  journeys  with  him  to  the  Isle  of  Thule, 
now  supposed  to  be  Iceland.  Doubtless  many 
of  these  excursions  were  piratical,  and  he 
doubtless  was  a  youthful  pirate ;  but  that 
was  in  an  age  when  piracy  was  considered 
legitimate  activity  for  the  brave  and  dashing 
spirits  of  the  youthful  Genoese.  During  a 
sea-fight,  when  the  opposing  vessels  were 
chained  together,  a  fire  broke  out  that  was 
likely  to  destroy  both  vessels,  and  Columbus, 
it  is  said,  leaped  into  the  sea  with  an  oar  in 
his  hand  and  swam  six  miles,  reaching  the 
coast  of  Portugal,  and  then  walked  to  Lis- 
bon, which  was  at  that  time  the  headquarters 
of  a  number  of  navigators.  This  was  prob- 
ably about  the  year  1470,  altho  all  these  dates 
are  doubtful.  His  son  Ferdinand,  of  whom  I 
have  spoken,  has  written  an  account  of  his 
father's  personal  appearance  at  this  time. 
Altho  young,  the  son  tells  us  that  his  hair 
was  perfectly  white,  that  he  was  tall  and 
was  commanding  in  appearance  and  in  man- 
ner. He  was  married  to  Felipa  Monis  de 
Palestrello,  daughter  of  an  Italian  cavalier, 
who  was  an  able  navigator,  and  had  been 
governor  of  Porto  Santo,  but  who  became 
poor  and  died  leaving  little  except  charts  and 
instruments.  Columbus  helped  in  the  sup- 
port of  his  father's  family  and  also  his  wife's 
by  making  maps  and  charts.  At  this  time 
fables  of  unknown  lands  were  constantly  re- 
peated— fables  of  the  Island  of  the  Seven 
Cities  and  of  the  Island  of  St.  Brandan,  on 
which  the  Scottish  priest  landed  in  the  sixth 
century.  There  came  from  Greece  the  story 
of  Atlantis,  which  Plato  was  said  to  have 
learned  from  the  Egyptians.  The  idea  of  a 
western  nation  was  conceived  when  there 
came  floating  pieces  of  wood,  strangely 
carved,  great  reeds,  and  especially  when  the 
discovery  was  made  of  two  bodies  of  a  race 
widely  different  from  the  European.  The 
idea  of  a  western  ocean-way  to  India  filled 
the  mind  of  Columbus,  and  soon  he  entered 
into  correspondence  with  Toscanelli,  who 
greatly  strengthened  his  theories. 

With  this  conviction  Columbus  applied  to 
Genoa,  but  Genoa  refused  the  application ; 
then  to  Venice,  but  Venice  refused.  Then  to 
John  II.  of  Portugal,  who  long  kept  him 
waiting  with  half  promises,  finally  dismissed 
him,  and  then  sent  out  an  expedition  of  his 
own,  trying  to  secure  the  honor  of  discovery 
and  to  rob  Columbus  of  his  due.  His  wife 
died  about  this  time,  and  he  left  Portugal  in 
disgust  at  the  treatment  of  the  court  and  in 
deep  domestic  grief,  and  went  first  to  Spain 
in  1484.  He  proposed  to  the  Duke  of  Medina 
Sidonia  and  afterward  to  the  Duke  of  Me- 
dina Cell  that  they  organize  an  excursion 
for  discovery,  but  they  declined.  We  find 
him  next  at  Cordova,  where  the  court  was 


held  for  a  time,  and  where  preparations  were 
making  for  the  final  onset  which  resulted  in 
the  fall  of  Granada  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  Moors.  A  few  weeks  ago  I  went 
one  Thursday  morning  through  the  streets 
of  Cordova.  Cordova  is  to-day  only  an 
echo,  only  a  ghost  of  what  it  was  then.  It 
is  now  a  decaying  city;  but  the  tramp  of 
horsemen  and  splendor  of  the  chivalry  of  the 
days  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  recalled 
to  my  mind.  I  sat  for  an  hour  and  a  half 
in  the  Grove  of  Oranges  waiting  for  my  train 
to  arrive,  and  I  could  people  the  silent  streets 
with  the  flower  and  chivalry  of  Spain  march- 
ing under  the  banner  of  Castile  and  Leon, 
and  I  could  picture  Columbus  following  the 
court  to  Cordova  to  press  his  suit.  From 
Cordova  he  went  to  Salamanca,  where  he 
pleaded  his  cause  before  the  learned  pro- 
fessors and  philosophers,  who  laughed  him 
to  scorn.  The  mariner  stood  alone  before 
that  brilliant  company  of  officials,  civil  and 
ecclesiastic,  and  heard  them  sneer  at  his  pro- 
posals, and  was  himself  almost  overwhelmed 
by  their  opposition. 

We  follow  him  as  he  turned  his  steps  to- 
ward the  Convent  La  Rabida,  with  his  little 
boy,  Diego,  the  son  born  at  Porto  Santo,  the 
son  of  his  dead  wife,  asking  for  bread  and 
water,  father  and  boy  hungry,  thirsty,  friend- 
less, and  unknown.  But  in  his  soul  great 
thoughts  were  burning;  while  every  ear  was 
deaf  and  every  heart  was  cold,  his  ear  was 
open  to  the  divine  voice,  which  he  was  con- 
stantly hearing,  and  his  heart  was  aglow 
with  great  plans.  The  prior  became  deeply 
interested,  and  gave  him  letters  to  Fernando 
de  Talevera,  confessor  to  Isabella.  With 
these  letters  he  hastened  once  more  to  the 
court ;  but  the  exchequer  is  empty  and  he 
leaves  with  little  hope.  I  follow  him  for  a 
m.oment  as  he  comes  down  past  Santa  Fe 
and  reaches  the  Bridge  of  Pines  on  his  way 
to  France.  He  turns  his  back  on  Spain ;  he 
is  going  to  France,  and  France  or  England 
shall  have  the  glorv  of  the  discovery.  Bar- 
tholomew, his  brother,  has  gone  to  England. 
Will  these  countries  help?  It  is  a  critical 
moment ;  imperishable  history  is  now  mak- 
ing. There  comes  to  Isabella  a  message  from 
Luis  de  Santangel,  begging  her  to  listen  to 
Columbus.  He  secures  her  consent,  a  mes- 
senger is  despatched  and  reaches  Columbus 
at  the  Bridge  of  Pines,  and  he  turns  and 
comes  back  into  the  presence  of  the  Queen. 
This  was  a_  turning-point  in  the  history  of 
Columbus — in  the  history  of  Spain.  Isabella 
consented  to  an  expedition,  but  Ferdinand 
complained  that  the  war  with  the  Moors  had 
exhausted  his  exchequer.  But  she  declared 
that  she  would  undertake  it  for  her  own 
crown  of  Castile,  and  that  she  would  sell  her 
jewels  for  the  money  if  necessary.  All  honor 
to  Isabella !  All  honor  to  woman  !  Woman 
made  the  discovery  of  Columbus  possible, 
and  on  her  head  to-day  I  put  the  crown  of 
glory.  Ferdinand  finally  acquiesced  and  the 
contract  was  signed  by  the  sovereigns  at 
Santa  Fe,  April  17,  1492. 

August  the  3d,  1492,  before  daylight  Co- 
lumbus is  watching  the  direction  of  the  winds 


672 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


from  the  little  monastery  of  La  Rabida.  The 
voice  of  prayer  is  in  his  ear.  It  is  eight 
o'clock.  The  winds  fill  the  sails,  and  from 
Palos,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  on 
the  Nina,  the  Pinta,  and  the  Santa  Maria, 
he  starts  upon  his  immortal  journey. 

It  is  not  necessary,  as  my  aim  is  not  to 
give  what  can  readily  be  found  in  books  of 
reference,  that  I  trace  this  journey  or  his 
subsequent  discoveries ;  neither  is  it  neces- 
sary that  I  should  call  your  attention  to  the 
fact  that  through  the  influence  of  Bobadilla 
he  was  finally  sent  back  in  chains  to  Spain ; 
nor  that  I  should  remind  you  that  on  May 
20,  1506,  alone  and  friendless,  moneyless  and 
helpless,  he  died  at  Valladolid.  Isabella  was 
dead.  Ferdinand  was  ungrateful ;  he  never 
had  the  heart  of  a  man.  He  finally  gave 
Columbus  a  pompous  funeral  and  a  magnifi- 
cent monument.  It  would  have  been  better 
if  he  had  given  him  bread  when  he  was 
starving  and  friendship  when  he  was  friend- 
less ! 

Will  you  allow  me  now  in  the  few  further 
minutes  that  I  may  claim  to  sum  up  the 
characteristics  of  this  great  man? 

Columbus  was  very  far  from  being  a  per- 
fect man ;  he  does  not  even  come  up  to  the 
best  ideas  of  his  own  age  and  religion.  More 
than  that,  perhaps,  we  ought  not  to  expect ; 
less  than  that  we  cannot  permit  without  rea- 
sonable criticism.  Attention  has  been  called 
to  the  fact  that  during  all  these  Columbian 
festivities  (1892)  not  one  descendant  of  the 
race  discovered  by  Columbus  will  be  present. 
The  Carib  race  was  utterly  destroyed  in  a  few 
years.  All  writers  agree  that  the  "  Indians," 
so-called  by  Columbus,  were  healthy  and  ro- 
bust. It  is  also  certain  from  many  allusions 
that  their  numbers  were  great ;  but  during 
the  last  twenty  years  the  most  careful  re- 
search reveals  no  trace  of  the  race.  There 
is  nothing  more  certain  than  that  these  early 
discoverers  were  thirsty  for  blood  and  greedy 
for  gold.  They  enslaved  these  kind-hearted 
people,  and  drove  them  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Las  Casas  tells  us  that  40,000  perished 
on  one  group  of  islands  "  in  a  short  time  by 
the  sword  of  the  soldier  and  the  lash  of  the 
driver."  The  name  of  Columbus,  it  must  be 
admitted,  is  stained  by  the  blood  of  these  in- 
nocent thousands,  whose  hospitality  he 
readily  received  and  whom  he  wickedly  de- 
stroyed. In  a  large  measure,  his  glory  is 
purely  imaginary.  He  has  had  the  credit  of 
discovering  America,  and  now  America  is 
discovering  him.  He  died  without  any  ac- 
curate knowledge  of  the  country  which  he 
had  discovered,  and  we  have  lived  until  lately 
without  any  accurate  knowledge  of  him.  We 
have  idealized  and  so  idolized  him  too  long. 
School  books  have  utterly  misled  the  youth 
of  our  land.  But  the  critical  historic  method 
of  recent  days  shows  Columbus  in  his  true 
character. 

It  shows  us  that  he  was  a  consummate  de- 
ceiver ;  that  he  made  deception  a  fine  art ; 
and  that  he  cannot  be  called  a  chivalrous 
knight  until  theft,  murder,  and  slave-making 
are  chivalrous  acts.  All  who  had  dealings 
with  him,  from  the  sovereign  to  the  sailor, 


as  Dunlop  has  shown,  treated  him  with  dis- 
trust and  aversion.  In  early  life  his  voyage 
from  the  kingdom  of  Naples  was  marked  by 
deception,  and  he  dwells  upon  his  crimes  with 
special  pride.  Deception  characterized  his 
entries  on  the  log-book  of  his  western  jour- 
ney. It  is  very  doubtful  if  he  saw  the  light 
which  he  claims  to  have  seen  on  the  night  of 
Oct.  nth,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  he  made 
a  claim  for  the  thirty  crowns  a  year  which 
"  their  highnesses "  promised  to  him  who 
should  first  see  land,  and  that  he  cheated 
Benejo,  the  sailor  to  whom  the  honor  and 
money  belonged.  His  selfishness  and  arro- 
gance are  shown  in  his  demands  for  liberal 
terms  before  he  would  enter  upon  his  voyage 
of  discovery,  and  yet  he  and  those  who  would 
canonize  him  call  this  greedy,  deceptive,  and 
cruel  man  the  "  Christ-bearer." 

He  was  as  perfidious  as  he  was  pious,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  from  Alonzo 
Sanchez,  who  died  in  his  house,  leaving 
charts  and  maps,  he  derived  the  knowledge 
which  made  his  discoveries  possible.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  Arabs  enlightened  Spain 
and  all  the  world  for  centuries  on  all  cosmo- 
graphical  questions.  Bishop  Boyle,  who  was 
appointed  by  the  Pope  as  apostolic  vicar  in 
these  western  lands,  was  so  disgusted  with 
the  avarice,  licentiousness,  and  brutality  of 
those  under  Columbus  that  he  desired  to 
return  to  Spain.  Finally,  acting  with  the  au- 
thority of  his  position,  he  excommunicated 
Columbus.  Columbus  took  revenge  by  re- 
fusing to  furnish  the  Pope's  vicar  with  nec- 
essary provisions,  and  as  a  result  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  New  World.  After  Co- 
lumbus had  sent  500  Indians  to  Spain  as 
slaves  he  attacked  these  innocent  savages  in 
the  New  World,  who  had  so  confidingly  wel- 
comed him  as  their  guest,  with  twenty  blood- 
hounds, and  with  horsemen  more  savage 
than  the  dogs,  he  butchered  them  with  spear 
and  lance,  and  the  bloodhounds  tore  them  in 
a  manner  too  horrible  to  describe.  Even 
Washington  Irving  has  to  admit  the  throw- 
ing of  Moxica  from  the  walls  of  the  fortress 
into  the  fosse  below,  tho  this  biographer 
softens  the  act  by  euphemistic  phrase.  He 
affirmed  that  gold  was  the  greatest  of  bless- 
ings, as  it  not  only  secures  happiness  here, 
but  he  declared  in  so  many  words  that  it 
procured  eternal  salvation  hereafter.  Some 
of  the  innocent  "  heathen,"  seeing  his  love 
for  gold,  would  hold  a  bit  of  it  up  and  say, 
*'  Behold  the  Christian's  god !  "  If  his  be- 
setting sin  was  not  impurity  it  was  cupiditj'. 
As  the  originator  of  American  slavery  he 
never  can  receive  the  unqualified  praise  of 
those  who,  by  blood  and  treasure  destroyed 
American  slavery. 

Isabella,  who  has  been  altogether  over- 
praised by  Prescott  and  others,  pretended  to 
be  much  shocked  at  the  slavery  which  he 
introduced,  but  in  1503  she  signed  an  order 
obliging  these  innocent  Americans  to  toil  as 
slaves.  Against  them  it  is  likely  that  the 
charge  of  cannibalism  made  by  Columbus 
was  false,  and  was  made  to  justify  his  cru- 
elty toward  them.  It  is  almost  certain  that 
he  wilfully  misrepresented  the  facts  concern- 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


673 


ing  his  discoveries  in  such  matters  as  finding 
a  race  of  men  with  tails,  and  equally  foolish 
statements.  He  constantly  contradicts  him- 
self concerning  the  events  of  his  own  life. 
His  son  Fernando  affirms  that  his  father 
knew  better  than  to  suppose  that  he  was  on 
the  border  of  Cathay,  and  states  that  he  gave 
out  this  impression,  and  named  the  people 
Indians,  because  all  Europeans  knew  the  im- 
mense wealth  of  the  Indies.  Koselly  de  Lor- 
gues  and  other  would-be  canonizers  claim 
for  Columbus  all  the  virtues  of  a  saint. 
Bancroft  only  incidentally  mentions  him,  but 
correctly  sets  forth  his  many  infirmities. 
Prescott,  as  is  well  known,  tends  constantly 
to  adulation ;  but  even  he,  when  discussing 
the  vagaries  of  Columbus,  suspects  "  a  tem- 
porary alienation  of  mind."  Aaron  Good- 
rich shows  a  constant  tendency  to  deprecia- 
tion and  even  to  denunciation.  Dr.  Shea,  the 
Romanist,  recognizes  the  fact  that  Columbus 
could  never  attach  to  himself  either  those 
above  or  below  him  so  that  there  were  but 
few  "  who  adhered  loyally  to  his  cause." 
Washington  Irving  has  written  of  Columbus 
as  if  he  had  accepted  a  retainer  to  magnify 
all  his  merits  and  to  deny,  or  at  least  mini- 
mize, all  his  demerits.  His  statements  must 
often  be  taken  with  many  grains  of  salt.  Justin 
Winsor  has  written  with  equal  intelligence 
and  fairness.  He  has  presented  what  seems 
to  be  the  true  picture  of  Columbus ;  this  vol- 
ume will  be  the  standard  for  years  to  come. 
He  has  given  both  praise  and  blame,  and 
sums  up  his  character  with  historical  accu- 
racy and  judicial  candor.  The  volume  by 
Mr.  Frederick  Saunders,  of  the  Astor  Li- 
brary, will  serve  an  admirable  purpose  as  a 
popular  presentation  of  the  man  and  his 
times. 

We  shall  all  give  him  praise  for  his  great 
perseverance.  He  overcame  almost  all  the 
disadvantages  of  his  youth ;  he  overcame  dis- 
appointments which  might  have  dampened 
the  ardor  of  almost  any  discoverer  or  in- 
ventor. Amerigo  Vespucci  received  the  honor 
of  giving  his  name  to  the  New  World,  but  I 
ought  to  say  that  Vespucci  was  not  responsi- 
ble for  this  honor.  We  are  indebted  for  the 
name  of  America  to  a  German  professor. 
Part  of  the  writings  of  Vespucci  were  pub- 
lished in  German,  and  this  German  professor 
gave  to  the  new  country  the  name  of  Amer- 
ica. Humboldt,  I  think,  has  shown  very 
clearly  that  Vespucci  was  not  at  all  to  blame, 
that  he  had  no  idea  of  robbing  Columbus  of 
honor ;  indeed,  Columbus  has  had  too  much 
honor  in  connection  with  the  discovery  of 
this  Western  continent.  Humiliating,  indeed, 
it  was  to  Columbus  that  he  should  have  been 
sent  back  to  Spain  in  irons,  but  he  never  lo.st 
hope,  never  lost  courage ;  he  preserved  those 
irons  to  the  very  last ;  he  had  them  hung  up 
where  his  friends  could  see  them,  and  he  re- 
garded them  as  a  mark  of  honor.  His  per- 
severance never  failed;  when  rejected  at 
Genoa,  rejected  at  Venice,  rejected  in  Portu- 
gal, delayed  in  England  and  delayed  in  Spain, 
he  still  persevered,  amid  all  the  trials  of  his 
immortal  voyage  until  on  the  morning  of  the 
I2th  of  October,  1492,  he  saw  the  sand  glis- 
tening on  the  shores  of  the  New  World,  and 


in  a  little  while  heard  one  of  the  men  on  the 
Pinta  call  out,  "Land!  land!"  and  a  new 
world  was  discovered. 

But  most  of  all  we  emphasize  the  piety  of 
Columbus,  altho  it  was  often  of  a  very  ques- 
tionable kind.  The  success  of  his  enterprise 
was  due  to  two  errors — the  supposed  extent 
of  Asia  to  the  east,  and  the  supposed  small- 
ness  of  the  earth.  Columbus  never  knew  the 
land  he  discovered ;  he  thought  all  the  while 
he  was  going  to  India,  and  he  stumbled  on 
America.  That  is  why  he  called  the  islands 
"  West  Indies,"  and  why  the  inhabitants  were 
called  "  Indians,"  He  thought  he  was  going 
to  Asia ;  he  thought  Cuba  was  Japan,  He 
was  under  the  influence  of  Marco  Polo,  and 
constantly  interpreted  all  he  saw  by  the  preju- 
dices existing  already  in  his  mind,  and  he 
died  without  knowing  the  lands  he  had  dis- 
covered, unless  we  can  adopt  the  explanation 
which  his  son  has  given.  He  died  utterly  in 
error  as  to  their  nature  or  as  to  the  continent 
itself.  God  overruled  these  errors.  Colum- 
bus was  wrong  in  the  main  question,  and  his 
opponents  at  Salamanca  were  right  when 
they  affirmed  that  he  could  not  find  Asia  by 
going  in  that  direction,  but  he  clung  to  his 
purpose.  He  heard  voices  in  dreams ;  he 
believed  that  he  was  prophesied  of  in  many 
parts  of  the  Word  of  God ;  that  he  was  the 
subject  of  the  prophecy  in  the  nineteenth 
Psalm  and  the  fourth  verse,  and  the  thought 
gave  him  hope  and  cheer :  "  Their  line  is 
gone  out  through  all  the  earth  and  their 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world."  That  was 
his  thought.  He  wrote  the  sacred  name  of 
Christ  on  his  banner  and  gave  Him  all  honor. 
He  landed  on  the  shores  of  this  New  World 
dressed  in  the  resplendent  robes  of  an  ad- 
miral, with  a  sword  in  one  hand  and  the  ban- 
ner of  Christ  in  the  other.  The  company 
fell  upon  their  knees  and  praised  God  for 
His  wonderful  goodness.  This  New  World 
was  consecrated  to  God  from  the  very  mo- 
ment of  its  first  discovery.  This  country  is 
a  Christian  land ;  the  highest  authority  has 
recently  pronounced  it  to  be  a  Christian  land, 
and  it  ought  to  be  recognized  as  a  Christian 
land,  and  the  holy  Sabbath  be  observed  when 
the  great  Columbian  Exposition  shall  be  held. 
Wo  to  us  as  a  people  if  we  lower  our  flag,  if 
we  dishonor  our  history,  if  we  forsake  our 
God! 

When  he  had  returned  to  Barcelona  and 
had  told  his  story  before  the  King  and 
Queen,  all  fell  upon  their  knees  and  joined  in 
singing  the  Te  Deum.  Columbus  was  not  a 
great  man ;  in  many  important  respects  he 
was  weak  and  wicked.  But  he  was  great  in 
his  perseverance :  he  was  great  in  a  certain 
conception  which  he  had  of  religious  truth; 
but  he  blundered  constantly.  He  was  in  utter 
error  as  to  the  course  he  pursued  and  the 
countries  he  discovered.  He  was  an  utter 
failure  as  a  planter  of  colonies  and  a  ruler 
of  men.  No  greater  failure  in  the  effort  to 
plant  colonies  in  any  land  can  be  discovered 
than  the  failure  of  Columbus  in  that  regard. 
I  want  to  hold  the  balances  justly.  I  want 
to  give  praise  where  praise  is  due,  and  I 
want  to  withhold  it  from  him  where  praise  is 
not  due.   No  sooner  had  he  left  the  colonists 


674 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


than  everything  went  to  destruction.  I  have 
emphasized  his  failures  and  rightly,  and  I 
have  striven  to  give  him  the  due  meed  of 
praise ;  but  there  are  chapters  in  the  life  of 
Columbus  which  are  a  reproach  to  a  noble 
manhood,  which  are  opposed  to  the  laws  of 
man  and  which  are  rebuked  by  the  laws  of 
God.  Historians  have  immortalized  him, 
poets  have  idealized  him,  and  priests  now 
would  canonize  him,  altho  once  some  of  them 
were  readv  to  cannonade  him.  In  the  Biblio- 
teca  Colombina  is  his  tract,  placed  there  by 
his  son  Fernando,  written  when  he  was  afraid 
of  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition,  because  the 
priests  believed  that  his  discovery  was  against 
the  Church  and  against  their  traditional  in- 
terpretations of  the  Bible. 

He  was  buried  at  Valladolid,  where  he 
died ;  but  soon  his  remains  were  taken  to  the 
Carthusian  monastery  of  Las  Cuevas,  in  Se- 
ville ;  the  remains  of  Diego,  the  second  ad- 
miral, were  also  buried  there.  But  in  1536 
the  bodies  of  father  and  son  were  taken  over 
the  sea  to  Hispaniola,  or  San  Domingo,  and 
interred  in  the  cathedral.    In  1795  or   1796, 


on  the  occasion  of  the  cession  of  that  island 
to  the  French,  the  relics  were  transferred  to 
the  cathedral  of  Havana,  where  ihey  now  re- 
pose ;  if,  indeed,  the  remains  re-exhumed  and 
reburied  were  those  of  Columbus,  a  matter 
which  must  remain  doubtful.* 

My  beloved  friends,  life  is  a  strange  voy- 
age. Beyond  it  is  an  unknown  country.  You 
and  I  are  voyagers.  There  is  only  one  bark 
in  which  we  can  safely  sail — the  bark  of 
faith.  There  is  only  one  banner  under  which 
we  may  make  the  journey — the  banner  of 
Christ.  Columbus  was  an  Abraham,  for  he 
went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  went.  Co- 
lumbus was  a  Moses,  for  he  endured  as  see- 
ing Him  who  is  invisible.  Only  the  man  of 
faith  is  the  man  of  power.  Only  he  who  can 
see  the  invisible  can  do  the  impossible.  God 
grant  that  to-day  in  that  bark  we  may  be 
wafted  by  God's  blessing,  and  may  land  at 
last  on  the  shores  of  Heaven,  where  we  shall 
sing  a  sweeter  Te  Deum  than  that  which 
awoke  the  echoes  on  the  soil  of  virgin  Amer- 
ica, or  those  amid  the  splendors  of  the  court 
at  Barcelona. — P.  T. 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


AMERICA,  Discovering. — The  statement 
is  sometimes  made  that  Queen  Isabella  of 
Spain  pawned  her  jewels  in  order  to  provide 
funds  for  fitting  out  the  expedition  for  the 
discovery  of  America.  This  is  a  very  old 
story,  first  told  not  long  after  the  death  of 
Columbus,  and,  tho  it  is  not  true,  its  origin 
is  not  difficult  to  discover.  As  every  fact 
about  the  great  voyage  is  of  interest  to  Amer- 
icans, we  will  briefly  give  the  facts  about  the 
raising  of  the  money. 

Columbus  went  to  the  Spanish  court  to  lay 
his  ambitious  project  before  the  King  and 
Queen  just  as  the  last  great  stronghold  of  the 
Moors,  Granada,  had  surrendered  to  the 
forces  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

In  some  respects  it  was  an  inopportune  time. 
The  country  was  exhausted  by  the  war  which 
had  just  closed  with  this  splendid  success, 
and  the  joint  monarchs  were  not  inclined  to 
embark  upon  any  new  and  uncertain  adven- 
ture ;  and  what  was  more  important,  the 
treasuries  of  both  Aragon  and  Castile  were 
nearly  empty.  Queen  Isabella,  in  fact,  had 
been  obliged  to  pledge  her  jewels  to  get 
money  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  against 
the  Moors. 

The  Genoese  navigator  pleaded  his  cause 
in  vain.  Both  King  and  Queen  listened 
coldly  to  his  enthusiastic  plans,  in  which  the 
recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  from  the 
Turks  was  strangely  mingled.  They  refused 
to  assist  his  enterprise,  and  Columbus  in 
despair  left  Granada,  intending  to  make  a 
final  eflFort  for  assistance  at  the  French  court. 

At  his  audience  with  the  Spanish  mon- 
archs, however,  there  were  two  persons  who 


were  convinced  of  the  truth  of  his  daring 
theories,  or  at  least  of  the  wisdom  of  attempt- 
ing to  prove  them  to  be  true.  They  were, 
singularly,  the  finance  ministers  of  the  two 
crowns,  St.  Angel  for  Aragon  and  Quin- 
tanilla  for  Castile. 

St.  Angel  obtained  an  audience  as  soon  as 
possible  with  the  Queen,  and  so  warm  was 
his  advocacy  of  the  theories  of  the  Genoese 
stranger,  so  convincing  his  arguments  for 
assisting  him.  that  Isabella,  fired  by  his  en- 
thusiasm, exclaimed,  "  I  undertake  the  en- 
terprise for  my  own  crown  of  Castile,  and 
will  pledge  my  private  jewels  to  raise  the 
necessary  funds." 

The  minister  assured  her  that  this  gener- 
ous measure  would  be  unnecessary,  and  ha- 
stened from  the  royal  presence  to  send  a 
messenger  after  Columbus,  who  speedily  re- 
turned to  Granada.  The  arrangements  for 
the  expedition  were  speedily  made.  St.  Angel 
supplied  about  seventeen  thousand  florins 
from  the  treasury  of  Aragon. 

The  three  Pinzon  brothers,  ship-builders  at 
Palos  de  Moguer,  loaned  Columbus  one- 
eighth  of  the  necessary  money,  he  having  as- 
sumed this  share  of  the  expense  in  considera- 
tion of  his  receiving  one-eighth  of  the  profits. 
They  also  furnished  additional  money  and 
two  of  the  vessels,  and  all  three  of  the  broth- 
ers went  on  the  expedition,  two  as  captains 
of  the  caravels  La  Nina  and  La  Pinta.  the 
other  as  a  pilot.  The  third  vessel.  Santa 
Maria  was  impressed,  to  the  great  terror  of 
the  owner  and  the  crew. 

It  may  be  well  to  add  that  Columbus  re- 
paid the  loan  made  by   St.   Angel  with  the 


♦The  remains  of  Columbus  were  transferred  on  D  >cember  12,  i8g8,  from  the  Cathedral  in  Havana  to  the 
gunboat  Conde  de  Venadigo  which,  escorted  by  the  Alfonso  XII.  and  the  Infanta  Isabel.,  were  sent  to  take 
the  ashes  of  the  discoverer  to  Spain. — Col.  .An. 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


675 


gold  which  he  brought  back  from  the  New 
World  on  his  first  voyage.  A  portion  of  this 
gold  was  employed  in  gilding  the  vaults  and 
ceilings  of  the  royal  saloon  of  King  Fer- 
dinand's grand  palace  at  Zaragoza,  or  Sara- 
gossa.  the  Aljaferia,  where  possibly  it  may 
still  be  visible  to  the  American  pilgrim. — 
Y.  C. 

ASIEIIICA,  Future  of.— Agassiz  says  the 
American  continent  was  the  first  created ;  it 
will  be  the  last  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  de- 
signs of  the  Creator.  A  cosmopolitan  land — 
cosmopolitan  in  the  intentions  of  its  founders, 
in  the  bloody  struggle  of  its  defenders — God 
has  in  store  for  you  who  people  it  the  accom- 
plishment of  admirable  results.  Northward 
are  the  Esquimaux ;  southward  is  Africa. 
You  summon  from  walled  China  the  unmov- 
ing  people  to  dwell  amid  the  moving  Nation, 
the  stationary  to  mingle  with  the  progressive ; 
all  impelled  by  the  breath  of  you,  the  great 
humanitarian  people.  The  foundation  of 
your  people  is  the  Bible,  the  book  that  speaks 
of  God,  the  living  word  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
an  admirable  manifesto  from  your  President 
there  shines  through  his  words  the  Christian 
faith.  A  belief  in  Jesus  is  at  the  root  of  this 
Nation ;  and  when  I  return  I  shall  tell  Eu- 
rope that  I  have  found  here  liberty  associated 
with  Christianity,  and  have  been  among  a 
people  who  do  not  think  that  to  be  free  they 
must  be  parted  from  God. — Hyacinthe. 

AMEBICA,  Imperial. — There  is  danger 
in  the  current  shouting  for  "  Imperial  Amer- 
ica." if  it  be  for  the  glory  of  the  American 
people  rather  than  for  the  glory  of  God. 
Lust  for  territory,  eagerness  for  the  expan- 
sion of  the  national  limits,  may  be  the  out- 
come of  mere  pride  and  vainglory,  and  may 
easily  result  in  dangerous  or  even  disastrous 
complications.  There  is  all  the  greater  neces- 
sity, therefore,  that  the  man  in  the  pulpit — 
who  can  so  greatly  help  to  mold  and  direct 
public  opinion — should  keep  his  head  level 
and  his  heart  right  with  God.  He  should  re- 
member that  at  the  outset  it  was  settled  once 
for  all  that  the  war  with  Spain  was  not  en- 
tered upon  for  conquest  and  imperial  ex- 
pansion, but  in  the  interest  of  freedom  and 
humanity.  The  course  of  preacher  and  Na- 
tion alike  should  be  decided  in  full  recogni- 
tion of  that  fact.  Nevertheless  the  war  bids 
fair  to  change  not  only  the  map,  but  also  the 
history,  of  the  world,  and  the  new  and 
altogether  unlooked  for  conditions  must  be 
recognized  and  reckoned  with. 

The  advent  of  the  United  States  as  a  Sixth 
Power  in  the  world  has  made  obsolete  all  the 
traditions  and  diplomacy  that  have  known 
only  the  Five  Great  Powers  of  Europe.  Six 
months  have  made  the  United  States  one  of 
the  greatest  factors  in  the  history  of  the  fu- 
ture by  making  this  Nation  the  disinterested 
champion  of  freedom  in  the  world.  The  die 
is  cast.  There  can  be  no  retreat,  no  drawing 
back.  It  is  demanded  of  our  Government  and 
people,  that  they  shall  take  their  place  in  the 
councils  of  the  nations,  and  inaugurate  and 
carry  out,  in  the  spirit  of  disinterestedness,  a 
Christian    policy    and    diplomacy,    in    accom- 


plishing the  extraordinary  task  providentially 
assigned  to  them. 

In  taking  its  new  and  larger  place,  this 
Nation,  if  it  remembers  its  solemn  promises 
to  God  and  man,  will  see  to  it  that  no  foot 
of  land  over  which  its  flag  has  been  raised — 
from  Porto  Rico  to  the  farthest  of  the  Phil- 
ippines— shall  be  remanded  again  to  Spanish 
oppression  and  butchery  or  to  monkish  tyr- 
anny and  robbery.  The  duty  of  assuring  free- 
dom and  good  government — self-government, 
if  possible,  which  is  the  nearest  to  that,  next 
in  order — rests  upon  the  Nation  and  cannot 
safely  be  shirked.  The  unexpected  commer- 
cial and  political  development  doubtless  de- 
mands the  stations  requisite  for  our  new 
lines  of  intercourse  and  commerce,  but  that 
may  be  reconciled  with  our  promises  and 
duty  to  the  races  involved  and  interested. 
The  task  may  be  great,  but  it  is  a  God-ap- 
pointed one,  and  so  carries  with  it,  if  the  Na- 
tion honestly  essays  it,  the  promise  of  Divine 
help  and  assured  success  in  the  interests  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God. — Gregory.     (H.  R.) 

AMEBICA,  Land  of.— Before  Columbus 
and  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  em- 
barked on  board  the  Santa  Maria,  the  Pinta, 
and  the  Nina,  on  their  eventful  voyage,  what 
did  they  do?  Took  the  Sacrament  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Coming  in  sight  of  land, 
what  song  goes  up  from  all  three  decks? 
"  Gloria  in  Excelsis."  What  did  they  first 
do  stepping  from  shipboard  to  solid  ground? 
All  knelt  in  prayer,  consecrating  the  New 
World  to  God.  What  did  the  Huguenots 
do,  landing  in  the  Carolinas ;  and  the  Hol- 
landers, landing  in  New  York ;  and  the  Puri- 
tans, landing  in  New  England?  With  bent 
knees,  uplifted  faces  and  heaven-beseeching 
prayer,  they  took  possession  of  this  Continent 
for  God.  How  did  they  open  the  first  Amer- 
ican Congress?  With  prayer  in  the  name  of 
Christ.  Beside  that,  see  what  God  has  done 
for  us.  Open  the  map  of  our  North  Amer- 
ican Continent,  and  see  how  the  land  was 
shaped  for  immeasurable  prosperities.  Behold 
the  navigable  rivers,  greater  and  more  numer- 
ous thai  those  of  any  other  land,  running 
down  to  the  sea  in  all  directions — prophecy 
of  large  manufactures  and  easy  commerce. 
Look  at  the  great  ranges  of  mountains,  tim- 
bered with  wealth  on  the  tops  and  sides,  and 
metaled  with  wealth  underneath ;  180,000 
square  miles  of  coal ;  180,000  square  miles  of 
iron.  The  land  so  contoured  that  extreme 
weather  seldom  lasts  more  than  three  days. 
For  the  most  of  the  year  the  climate  is  bra- 
cing, and  favorable  for  brawn  and  brain.  All 
fruits,  all  minerals,  all  harvests.  Scenery 
which  displays  an  autumnal  pageantry  which 
no  other  land  pretends  to  rival.  No  South 
American  earthquakes.  No  Scotch  mists. 
No  English  fogs.  No  Egyptian  plagues.  No 
Germanic  divisions.  The  happiest  people  on 
the  earth  are  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
The  poor  man  has  more  chance,  the  industri- 
ous man  more  opportunity.  How  good  God 
was  to  our  fathers !  How  good  God  is  to  us 
and  our  children !  To  Him,  blessed  be  His 
mighty  name,  to  Him  of  the  Cross  and  the 
triumph,    to    Him    who    still    remembers   the 


676 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


prayers  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Hugue- 
nots and  Holland  refugees,  to  Him  this  land 
shall  be  consecrated. — Talmage. 

"AMERICA,"  Why?— How  did  it  hap- 
pen that  the  Continent  discovered  by  Christo- 
pher Columbus  received  its  name  from  Amer- 
icus  Vespucius?  Thanks  to  the  zeal  with 
which  investigation  has  been  recently  pushed 
into  all  these  matters,  this  most  natural  query 
can  be  answered  now  much  more  intelligently 
than  it  could  a  few  years  ago.  The  first 
printed  map  on  which  the  name  America  ap- 
pears was  published  at  Lyons  in  15 16,  ten 
years  after  the  death  of  Columbus.  But  it 
was  in  1507  that  there  issued  from  the  ob- 
scure college  press  of  the  town  of  St.  Die  in 
Lorraine  a  little  book  or  pamphlet,  called 
CosMOGRAPHi^  Introductio,  by  Martin 
Waldseemijller,  in  which  such  use  of  the 
name  was  first  proposed.  It  came  about  in 
this   way: 

Vespucius,  a  Florentine  of  high  repute  as  a 
navigator,  a  friend  of  Columbus,  stirred  by 
his  discoveries,  went  with  Ojeda  in  1499  to 
explore  the  northern  coast  of  South  America, 
and  again  in  1501-1503  he  made  voyages 
which  opened  up  to  knowledge  the  coast  of 
Brazil. 

He  wrote,  soon  after,  an  account  of  his 
travels  so  racy  and  graphic  that  it  instantly 
became  popular  and  passed  through  many 
editions  in  the  various  tongues  of  Europe. 
One  of  these  booklets  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  little  band  of  scholars  at  St.  Die,  and 
gave  rise  to  their  suggestion  that  a  good 
name  for  the  New  World  which  Vespucius 
had  done  so  much  to  bring  to  the  notice  of 
the  Old  World,  and  which  lay  directly  over 
against  Africa,  would  be  America. 

There  was  no  thought  whatever  at  this 
time  of  appending  the  name  to  anything  but 
the  continental  mass,  of  unknown  shape  and 
size,  which  lay  behind  the  Brazilian  shore, 
and  which  was  looked  upon  as  a  totally  dis- 
tinct region  from  the  islands  which  had  been 
discovered  by  Columbus,  while  as  to  any 
continent  north  of  the  islands  there  was  as 
yet  very  little  knowledge. 

With  this  Brazilian  land,  first  seen  through 
an  accident  by  Cabral  in  1500,  no  other  name 
was  now  so  prominently  and  legitimately 
connected  as  that  of  Americus  Vespucius. 

No  protest  was  raised  against  the  proposed 
name  by  the  heirs  or  friends  of  Columbus. 
It  was  not  regarded  as  in  any  way  invading 
or  invalidating  the  claims  and  rights  of  the 
discoverer  of  the  regions  farther  north.  The 
name,  therefore,  as  applied  to  the  southern 
continent  easily  came  into  general  acceptance. 
It  soon  became  widely  adopted,  especially  in 
the  German  and  French  maps  and  globes, 
and  in  fact  throughout  central  and  northern 
Europe. 

Vespucius  died  in  1512.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence  connecting  him   with   the   naming,   or 

•  Christopher  Columbus.  His  Own  Book  of  Privileges,  1502.  Photog^raphic  Facsimile  of  the  Manu- 
script in  the  Archives  of  the  Foreign  Office  in  Paris,  for  the  First  Time  Published,  with  Expanded  Text 
TransUtion  into  English,  and  an  Historical  Introduction.  The  Translation  and  Transliteration  by  George 
F.  Barwick,  of  the  British  Museum;  the  Introduction  by  Henry  Harnsse  ;  the  Whole  Compiled  and  Edited, 
with  Preface,  by  Benjamin  Franklin  Stevens.  London:  4  Trafalgar  Square,  Charmg  Cross:  B.  F.  Stevens. 
Limited  Edition.  Foolscap  folio,  thick,  handmade  paper,  half  pigskin,  with  plankwood  sides  and  clasps, 
pp.  Ixv,  284.    $30.00. 


with  any  false  pretension  in  regard  to  the 
discovery. 

Not  till  1541,  by  which  time  it  began  to  be 
certain  that  the  northern  lands  were  not,  as 
had  been  previously  supposed,  a  part  of  Asia, 
did  any  map  appear  giving  the  name  America 
to  the  whole  of  the  Western  Continent,  and 
not  till  a  few  years  previons  to  this  did  it 
seem  to  occur  to  any  that  injustice  was  being 
done,  or  might  be  done,  by  this  name,  to  the 
superior  claims  of  Columbus. 

Las  Casas  and  other  friends  spoke  up  now 
for  "  Columba ;  "  but  it  was  too  late — the 
mischief  had  been  wrought.  And  all  had 
been  done,  as  is  quite  evident,  with  entire  in- 
nocence and  naturalness. 

Had  the  prominent  thing  in  connection 
with  Columbus'  discoveries  been  the  Conti- 
nent instead  of  the  islands,  and  had  not  his 
fame  been  under  so  great  an  eclipse  at  the 
time  of  his  death  and  for  quite  a  period  after- 
ward, and  had  Spain  pursued  a  less  selfish, 
exclusive,  secretive  policy  in  regard  to  all 
its  information  about  the  New  World,  it 
would  not  have  been  left  to  other  lands  to 
name  this  Continent  and  to  take  from  Spain's 
great  admiral  this  deserved  recognition. — 
Y.  C. 

COLUMBUS  BOOK  OF  PRIVILEGES,* 
The. — The  origin  of  this  remarkable  volume 
is  explained  by  Mr.  Harrisse  in  the  Introduc- 
tion which  he,  better  than  any  other  man, 
was  qualified  to  write  for  it. 

When  Columbus  was  on  the  eve  of  his  last 
voyage  in  1502  he  was  full  of  misgivings  lest 
his  rights  should  not  descend  to  his  son 
Diego.  The  Crown  lawyers  advised  that  the 
capitulations  embodying  his  rights  were  void ; 
and  with  the  view  of  placing  the  proof  of  his 
rights  beyond  the  reach  of  his  enemies,  Co- 
lumbus, before  he  sailed,  had  four  copies 
made  and  lodged  in  safe  places.  Two  were 
to  be  sent  to  Genoa,  one  to  the  monastery 
of  Las  Cuevas,  where  his  body  reposed  for  a 
time  previous  to  its  transmission  to  San  Do- 
mingo. These  three  were  made  with  ex- 
treme care  on  parchment.  A  fourth  copy, 
made  on  paper,  was  sent  to  this  country,  and 
lost,  being  probably  consumed  by  worms  and 
ants  in  San  Domingo.  There  is  some  reason 
to  believe  that  the  copy  sent  to  Las  Cuevas 
came  into  the  possession  of  Edward  Everett, 
and,  tho  now  lost,  may  be  recovered. 

The  other  two  copies  were  carried  to  Genoa 
by  Nicolo  Oderigo.  special  envoy  of  the  Re- 
public, to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  appar- 
ently a  friend  of  the  admiral.  One  of  these 
copies  was  sent  inclosed  in  a  bng  of  Cordo- 
van lenber  with  a  silver  clasn.  which  is 
now  shewn  at  Genoa  and  is  reproduced  in 
the  volume  we  are  considering.  The  other 
was  among  the  plunder  carried  off  by  Napo- 
leon to  Paris  and  not  included  in  the  general 
return  made  after  the  Restoration  by  the 
allies. 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


677 


It  was  supposed  to  be  lost  until,  in  1880, 
when  I\I.  de  Freycinet  became  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  the  archives  of  the  depart- 
ment were  thrown  open  to  the  public,  and 
here  in  the  collection  in  the  Palace  of  the 
Quai  d'Orsay,  May  31.  1880,  Mr.  Harrisse,  to 
his  surprise  and  delight,  laid  his  hand  upon 
a  volume  bound  in  green  morocco  and 
stamped  with  the  initials  of  the  French  Re- 
public, which  proved  to  be  the  lost  copy  of  the 
privileges,  patents  and  concessions  granted 
to  Columbus,  and  originally  taken  by  Oderigo 
to  Genoa. 

These  are  the  documents  which  are  repro- 
duced in  the  Columbus  Book  of  Privileges. 
Apart  from  the  history  which  is  full,  clear 
and  sufficient  on  all  points,  the  documents 
are  attested  by  comparison  with  the  original 
series  owned  by  the  present  Duke  of  Veragua. 

These  documents,  forty-four  in  number 
and    bound    under    the    general    title.    Codex 

DiPLOMATICUS     OF     CHRISTOPHER     CoLUMBUS, 

are  reproduced  by  Mr.  Stevens  in  the  Book 
OF  Privileges  (1502)  with  unsurpassed  fidel- 
ity and  intelligence.  First  we  have  in  his 
own  Preface  a  full  account  of  his  general 
method  of  reproduction  and  of  the  plan  on 
which  the  work  was  to  be  done.  The  volume 
itself  matches  in  size  and  style  the  others  in 
the  series  of  elegant  and  useful  Stevens' 
Facsimiles  of  Manuscripts  in  European 
Archives  relating  to  America.  Every  manu- 
script page  is  reproduced  in  facsimile,  and 
inset  in  the  volume  so  as  to  have  on  the  pages 
opposite  an  exact  transliteration  of  the  Span- 
ish text  and  a  correct  translation  into  Eng- 
lish. 

The  substantial  facts  of  his  discovery  were 
made  known  by  Mr.  Harrisse  in  1884,  in  his 
Life  of  Columbus,  published  that  year. 
They  are  presented  again  with  careful 
elaboration  in  the -introduction  to  this  vol- 
ume. The  case  as  to  the  lost  manuscript  of 
Las  Cuevas  does  not  seem  to  be  quite  so  hope- 
less as  Mr.  Harrisse  appears  to  think.  Tho 
it  has  disappeared  it  is  not  impossible  that  it 
may  be  found,  and  meantime  we  know  rather 
more  about  it  than  Mr.  Harrisse  supposed 
through  a  brief  description  in  the  North 
American  Rcviczv  (October,  1825)  by  Caleb 
Cushing. 

The  editor  has  added  at  the  end  reproduc- 
tions and  illustrations,  in  the  same  style,  of 
three  Columbus  letters,  introduced  into  the 
collection,  we  suppose,  for  their  allusions,  to 
the  Admiral's  interest  in  the  evidence  he  was 
collecting  in  this  way  to  substantiate  his 
rights. 

The  volume  has  a  novel  and  extremely  ap- 
propriate binding  in  pigskin  back,  with  beech- 
wood  boards  oddly  clasped  to  complete  the 
covers.  The  paper  is  heavy  linen-laid  parch- 
ment with  uncut  edges  in  foolscap  folio  size. 
—I. 

COLUMBUS,  The  Wife  of.— The  tradi- 
tional high  standing  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus seems  likely  to  suffer  not  a  little  at  the 
hands  and  by  the  standards  of  our  modern 
historians.  Says  The  Voice:  He  has  been 
presented  to  us  during  the  generations  past 
as  a  man  of  heroic  mold,  of  stern  morality. 


deep  piety,  and  of  such  unyielding  confidence 
in  his  own  conclusions,  that  the  opposition 
of  the  whole  world  and  the  lapse  of  many 
years  could  not  daunt  him.  And  now  comes 
a  historian  from  Boston  (Justin  Winsor),  in 
a  work  highly  commended  for  accuracy,  and 
gives  us  this  picture  of  Columbus : 

"  Hardly  a  name  in  profane  history  is  more 
august  than  his.  Hardly  another  character 
in  the  world's  record  has  made  so  little  of 
its  opportunities.  His  discovery  was  a 
blunder;  his  blunder  was  a  new  world,  the 
new  world  is  his  monument !  Its  discoverer 
might  have  been  its  father ;  he  proved  to  be 
its  despoiler.  He  might  have  given  its  yoimg 
days  such  a  benignity  as  the  world  likes  to 
associate  with  a  maker;  he  left  it  a  legacy 
of  devastation  and  crime.  He  might  have 
been  an  unselfish  promoter  of  geographical 
science;  he  proved  a  rabid  seeker  for  gold 
and  a  viceroyalty.  He  might  have  won  con- 
verts to  the  fold  of  Christ  by  the  kindness 
of  his  spirit ;  he  gained  the  execrations  of 
the  good  angels.  He  might,  like  Las  Casas, 
have  rebuked  the  fiendishness  of  perverted 
belief.  The  triumph  of  Barcelona  led  down 
to  the  ignominy  of  Valladolid,  with  every 
step  in  the  degradation  palpable  and  resultant." 

This  is_  relentless.  So  is  the  same  writer's 
characterization  of  Queen  Isabella  as  "  an 
unlovely  woman  at  the  best,  and  an  ob- 
structor of  Christian  charity."  For  one,  we 
will  not  accept  the  portraits  as  true  ones, 
until  they  are  endorsed  by  a  reasonably  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  historians.  But  what  a 
wrecking  of  the  honored  reputations  of  he- 
roes of  the  past  this  generation  has  had  to 
submit  to !  One  is  almost  tempted  to  pro- 
test that  even  the  demands  of  historical  truth 
should  leave  sacred  the  memories  the  world 
has  learned  to  revere.  But  John  Locke's 
words  come  to  mind  on  second  thought: 
"To  love  truth  for  truth's  sake  is  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  human  perfection  in  this  world, 
and  the  seed-plot  of  all  other  virtues." 

It  may  be  that  the  halo  which  has  crowned 
the  head  of  the  husband  hitherto,  is  now  to 
circle  about  Mrs.  Columbus.  It  is  suggested 
that  to  the  wife  of  Columbus  is  due  a  large 
portion  of  the  credit  for  his  discoveries,  and 
the  meager  record  of  her  life  goes  far  to 
substantiate  this  idea.  It  is  known  that  her 
father  was  himself  a  navigator  of  consider- 
able distinction  ;  that  his  daughter  frequently 
accompanied  him  on  his  geographical  investi- 
gations and  entered  with  enthusiasm  into  all 
his  projects.  To  Columbus  she  brought  not 
only  the  invaluable  charts  and  records  which 
her  father  had  compiled  during  his  lifetime, 
but  better  than  all.  she  brought  her  own  ripe 
experience  and  mature  judgment.  Altho  his- 
tory is  silent  on  this  point,  it  is  very  probable 
that  to  his  ambition  for  exploration  more 
than  to  his  skill  as  a  suitor,  Columbus  owed 
the  fact  that  he  won  this  woman  for  his  wife. 
Neither  is  it  unlikely  that  to  her  encourage- 
ment more  than  to  the  jewels  of  Queen  Isa- 
bella the  world  owes  the  result  of  his  life 
work. — E. 

COUNTRY,  Some  Facts  About  Our.— It 
is    the    largest    political    subdivision    in    the 


678 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


Western  Hemisphere,  having  a  total  land 
and  water  area  of  3,594,880  square  miles. 

Its  largest  state,  Texas,  has  an  area  of 
265,780  square  miles ;  its  smallest,  Rhode 
Island.  1,085  square  miles. 

Its  largest  territory  is  Alaska,  with  an  area 
of  570.000  square  miles,  whose  principal 
river,  the  Yukon,  is  now  claimed  to  be  larger 
than  the  Mississippi. 

Its  most  populous  states  are :  New  York. 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  and  Ohio.  The  two 
former  have  more  than  5,000,000,  and  the 
two  latter  more  than  3,000,000  inhabitants 
respectively. 


It  contains  three  of  the  eleven  cities  in  the 
world  numbering  respectively  more  than 
1,000.000  population.  London,  Paris,  Tokio. 
Berlin,  Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  Canton  and 
Peking  are  the  other  cities  that  enjoy  this 
distinction. 

"  Union  "  is  the  word  most  used  in  naming 
the  various  localities,  there  being  356  bearing 
this  appellation.  "  Liberty "  is  also  a  a  fa- 
vorite name.  Next  in  order  come  the  names 
of  presidents  and  other  prominent  public  men, 
that  of  the  "  Father  of  His  Country  "  leading 
with  more  than  300  places  named  in  his  honor. 
— W.  HiNTON.      (Y.  C.) 


POETRY 


America 

(The  Morning  of  the  Discovery,  October  21, 
1492.) 

By  Hezekiah  Butterworth 

Immortal  morn,  all  hail, 
That  saw  Columbus  sail 

By  Faith  alone. 
The  skies  before  him  bowed, 
Back  rolled  the  ocean  proud, 
And  every  lifting  cloud 

With  glory  shone. 

Fair  Science  then  was  born 
On  that  celestial  morn, 

Faith  dared  the  sea; 
Triumphant  o'er  her  foes, 
Then  Truth  immortal  rose. 
New  heavens  to  disclose 

And  earth  to  free. 

Strong  Freedom  then  came  forth 
To  liberate  the  earth 

And  crown  the  right: 
So  walked  the  pilot  bold 
Upon  the  sea  of  gold. 
And  darkness  backward  rolled 

And  there  was  light. 

Sweep,  sweep  across  the  seas. 
Ye  rolling  jubilees, 

Grand  chorals  raise ; 
The  world  adoring  stands, 
And  with  uplifted  hands 
Offers  from  all  the  lands. 

To  God  its  praise. 

Ye  hosts  of  Faith,  sing  on ; 
The  victories  ye  have  won 

Shall  time  increase. 
And,  like  the  choral  strain 
That  fell  on  Bethlehem's  plain, 
Inspire  the  perfect  reign 

Of  Love  and  Peace. 


Col.  S. 


An  Ode  to  America 


The  great  exhibition  in  Paris  was  naturally 
marked  by  an  interchange  of  courtesies  among 
the  representatives  of  all  the  nations.  There 
were    speeches    of    friendship    at    dozens    of 


ceremonies.  These  addresses,  however,  were 
in  prose,  with  but  one  exception.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  inauguration  of  the  American 
pavilion  M.  Edouard  Lance  read  at  the  Amer- 
ican Club  an  original  composition  in  verse. 
Of  this  "  Ode  a  I'Amerique "  a  copy  has 
reached  us,  and  we  transcribe  it,  in  appre- 
ciative mood,  as  follows : 

A  l'amerique 

Avec  les  souvenirs  de  leurs  gloires  passees, 
L'Amerique  et  la  France,  en  ce  jour  enlacees, 

Ne  forment  qu'une  nation. 
Le  Commerce  et  les  Arts  scellent  leur  alli- 
ance, 
Et  leurs  brillants  travaux  celebrent  la  puis- 
sance 
De  la  civilisation. 

De  meme  qu'autrefois  ce  siecle  a  son  aurore 
A  vu  flotter  les  plis  du  drapeau  tricolore, 

Au  tien  uni  dans  le  devoir, 
II    voit,    a    son    declin,    claquer    les    oandes 

franches 
Ou  rouge  et  blanc  et  bleu,   semes   d'etoiles 
blanches. 
Font  un  firmament  plein  d'espoir ! 

Que   n'etes-vous   vivants,    Rochambeau,    La- 
fayette, 
Vous  qui  vintes,  apres  la  sublime  conquete, 

Faire  entendre  vos  males  voix, 
Afin  de  contempler  votre  oeuvre,  si  feconde : 
La  Liberte,  de  loin  eclairant  le  vieux  Monde, 

Et  frappant  de  stupeur  les  rois ! 

Car  elle  a  triomphe,  superbe,  epanouie, 
Couronnant  les  efforts  de  la  lutte  inouie 

Des  Franklins  et  des  Washingtons. 
Et  vous,  Americains,  fils  de  sa  chere  fille, 
Gardez  comme  un  tresor  la  clef  de  la  Bastille, 

Fetiche  pour  vos  rejetons. 

Sous  le  fier  bouclier  de  chaque  Republique, 
Unissons      les      drapeaux      de      France      et 
d'Amerique, 
Marchons  en  nous  serrant  les  mains. 
Liberte  !    Liherte !    Bientot  la  Providence 
Nous  fera  triompher  dans  la  sainte   defense 
De  tous  les  grands  progres  humains ! 

N.  Y.  T. 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


679 


The  American  Eagle 
By  Charles  West  Thomson 

Bird  of  Columbia,  well  art  thou 

An  emblem  of  our  native  land ; 
With   unblanched  front  and  noble  brow, 

Among  the  nations  doomed  to  stand; 
Proud  like   her  mighty  mountain  woods ; 

Like  her  own   rivers   wandering  free ; 
And  sending  forth   from   hills  and  floods 

The  joyous   shout  of  liberty. 
Like  thee,  majestic  bird,  like  thee. 
She  stands  in  unbought  majesty. 
With  spreading  wing,  untired  and  strong 
That  dares  a  soaring  far  and  long, 
That  mounts  aloft,  nor  looks  below. 
And  will  not  quail  tho  tempests  blow. 

The  admiration  of  the  earth. 

In  grand  simplicitv  she  stands ; 
Like  thee,  the  storms  beheld  her  birth, 

And  she  was  nursed  by  rugged  hands; 
But,  past  the  fierce  and  furious  war, 

Her  rising  fame  new  glory  brings, 
For  kings  and  nobles  come  from  far 

To  seek  the  shelter  of  her  wings. 
And  like  thee,  rider  of  the  cloud, 
She  mounts  the  heavens,  serene  and  proud, 
Great  in  a  pure  and  noble  fame, 
Great  in  her  spotless  champion's  name. 
And  destined  in  her  day  to  be 
Mighty  as  Rome, — more  nobly  free. 

My  native  land,  my  native  land. 

To  her  my  thoughts  will  fondly  turn; 
For  her  the  warmest  hopes  expand, 

For  her  the  heart  with  fears  will  yearn. 
Oh,  may  she  keep  her  eye,  like  thee, 

Proud  eagle  of  the  rocky  wild. 
Fixed  on  the  sun  of  Liberty, 

By  rank,  by  faction,  unbeguiled; 
Remembering  still  the  rugged  road 
Our  venerable  fathers  trod. 
When  they  through  toil  and  danger  pressed 
To  gain  their  glorious  bequest. 
And  from  each  lip  the  caution  fell 
To  those  who  followed,  "  Guard  it  well." 

Col.  S. 

Christophorus,  the  "  Christ-Bearer  " 
By  Henry  B.  Carrington 

(Historical   Columbian   Ode   for   School 
Exercise.) 

The  myth  which  gives  the  origin  of  the 
name  Christopher,  from  the  Greek  X/Oz^ros, 
"  Christ,"  and  the  verb  (pipoo,  "  I  carry,"  is 
fragrant  with  sweetness. 

The  four  centuries  which  succeeded  the 
discovery  of  America  are  traced  by  the  foot- 
steps of  Christian  progress,  however  re- 
tarded or  misdirected  at  times  by  human 
avarice,  ambition,  and  passion. 

Each  of  the  sixteen  quarter-centuries  de- 
veloped some  type  of  discovery,  invention, 
or  struggle,  which  found  a  fit  place  in  the 
maturity  which  had  its  world-wide  recogni- 
tion October  21,   1892. 


The  free  constitutions  of  Aragon  and  Cas- 
tile, which  guaranteed  the  liberties  of  the 
people  through  the  Cortes,  or  representative 
governments  of  those  kingdoms  before  rep- 
resentation was  granted  the  commons  of  any 
other  European  country,  are  suggestive  of 
the  broader  and  grander  sway  of  the  people, 
then  so  faintly  foreshadowed  and  now 
realized. 

The  Columbian  Ode,  with  its  historic  gen- 
eral trend,  has  for  its  purpose  to  emphasize 
other  by-gone  centuries  in  their  relations  to 
Christianity  as  the  fundamental  and  ultimate 
basis  of  all  genuine  liberty. 

The  story  of  Columbus  is  full  of  sug- 
gestive facts,  and  through  tablets,  declama- 
tion, and  essays  there  may  be  found  fresh 
stimulus  for  historical  research  and  study 
by  accepting  the  syllabus  as  a  guide.  It 
may  be  placed  upon  a  blackboard,  or  on  the 
margin  of  a  tablet-sheet,  and  thus  elicit  in- 
terest and  willing  work  on  the  part  of  youth. 

SYLLABUS    OF    COLUMBIAN    ODE 

I. — The   Royal   Marriage.     The   Queen's 
Choice. 
II. — The  Conquest  of  Granada. 
III. — Peace  and  its  New  Plans  Unfold. 
IV. — Foreign  Adventure  and  Conquest  As- 
sert Their  Claims. 
V. — The    Brave    but    Humble    Volunteer, 
Christopher. 
VI. — The  Royal  Outfit  and  its  Departure. 
VII. — Visions  of  Glory  Dimmed  by  Envy. 
VIII. — The  Queen's  Benediction.    The  Hero's 
Faith. 
IX. — The    Perilous    Voyage   and    its    Inci- 
dents. 
X. — The      Vision      Realized.     The      New 
World  Found. 
XL — Rival  Ventures  and  Cunning  Schemes 

Fail. 
XII. — Passion  and  Plunder  in  the  Ascend- 
ant. 
XIII. — Slavery  Bars  the  Sway  of  Christoph- 

orus. 
XIV.— The    Rights    of    Man    Assert    Their 
Sway.     Freedom   Advances. 
XV. — Columbia      Delivered.     Church      and 

School  Assert  Their  Higher  Law. 
XVI. — Henceforth    Man's    Best    Aim    to    be 
"  The  Christ-bearer." 

The  Golden  Age  of  Andalusian  pride 

Matured  when  Aragon  and  bright  Castile 

Their  wedded  sovereigns  seated  side  by  side 
Upon  a  double  throne,  all  feuds  to  heal ; 

And  the  bride,  so  fair,  held  chiefly  precious 

To  be,  in  faith  and  deed,  Christophorus. 

Granada's  great  Alhambra  felt  the  tread 
Of  Spanish  lords,  their  knightly  spurs  to 
win. 
And  Moorish  chiefs  sought  rest  at  night,  in 
dread 
Of    morning's     dawn,     fresh     conflict     to 
begin ; 
While    heathen    hate,    so    stern    and   treach- 
erous. 
Shrank  back  appalled  before  Christophorus. 


68o 


HOLY-DAYS   AND  HOLIDAYS 


Then     Peace     her    mantle    cast    about    the 
throne, 
To  shield  the  trophies  by  high  valor  won; 
The  Standard-Bearer  by  himself,  alone 
Bemoaned   the    end   of    strife    and    battles 
done; 
Yet  still  the  Queen,  intent  and  serious. 
Sought    other    fields    to    prove    Christoph- 

ORUS. 

New^    worlds    to    compass,    new    realms    to 
conquer. 
New    pathways    trace    to    India's    golden 
strands ; 

New  gems  to  find,  and  never-failing  treasure, 
New    converts    seek    in    waiting    heathen 
lands ; 

While,  as  the  State  waxed  stronpr  and  pros- 
perous, 

No  knight  arose  to  be  Christophorus. 

One  seaman  bold,  with  richly-cultured  brain, 
Who  deftly  handled  either  helm  or  spar, 

Repelled    at    other    Courts,    paid    court    to 
Spain 
For  grant  to  search  the  regions  distant  far. 

O'er  Ocean's  wildest  Seas,  tempestuous, 

And  prove  himself  to  be  Christophorus. 

The    anxious    Queen   this    royal    grant   pro- 
cured, 
Her     ready     purse     supplied     the     ample 
means : 

Three     fragile     barks     and     needed     crews 
secured. 
Her   pledge,   once   made,   this  gift   in   full 
redeems. 

So  sails  the  fleet  with  wishes  generous. 

And,  to  execute  her  will,  Christophorus. 

No  venture  e'er  before  like  object  sought. 
Nor  shared  so  many  hopes  with  doubting 
fears ; 
No  other  Age  so  well  the  spirit  caught. 
Which  grasps  at  once  the  fate  of  coming 
years ; 
While  yet  the  proud,  benighted,  envious, 
Had  naught  but  scorn  for  this  Christoph- 
orus. 

The   Queen's   own   banner   waved   the   fleet 
"  Adieu," 
And    trumpet    echoes    cheered    the    hero 
bold, 

Imparting  courage  to  the  humble  crew. 
His  plans  and  hopes  to  help  unfold; 

And  he,   with  nerve  high-strung,  but  cour- 
teous, 

With  prayer  joined  faith  to  be  Christoph- 
orus. 

No  lashing  seas,  nor  tempests  fierce  and  wild, 
No  angry  threats  his  earnest  life  to  take, 

No  chafing  of  his  temper,  firm  and  mild. 
Could  make  him  from  his  solemn  purpose 
break ; 

But  as  such  strokes  grew  madly  furious. 

The  more  he  dared  to  be  Christophorus. 


The    seas    once    crossed,    the    New    World 
surely  found. 
He    gave    it    hallowed    name,     "  Salvator 
Blest," 
And  planted  royal  banner  in  the  ground. 
With    honors    duly    borne    from    East    to 
West. 
By  faith  discerning  nations  numerous, 
The  future  subjects  of  Christophorus. 

From  other  Eastern  lands  and  British  Isles, 
As  years  rolled  on,  the  swift-winged  trans- 
ports   flew 
On  rival  ventures,  and  by  cunning  wiles 
Sought  each  to  bind  the  Old  World  to  the 
New, 
Yet     lost,     through     methods     harsh     and 

tyrannous, 
The  spirit  of  a  true  Christophorus. 

Then,  maddened  year  by  year  through  treas- 
ure found. 
And  Passion's  greed  for  titles,  lands,  and 
pelf. 
The  natives  of  the  soil,  in  bondage  ground, 
Were  used  alone  to  meet  behests  of  Self; 
And  Christ-like  graces,  pure  and  plenteous, 
Were  lost  to  view  without  Christophorus. 

And  thus  it  came,   while  kings  and  mighty 

thrones 

Made  merchandise  of  men  for  selfish  ends. 

Despising  man,  as  man,  his  wail  and  groan, 

And  each  with  other  only  plunder  blends. 

The      New-Found     World,      so     fair      and 

beauteous. 
Must  longer  wait  for  true   Christophorus. 

The  years  rolled  on,  and  many  score  were 
told, 
Till  centuries  twain,  and  more  sad  record 
made. 

When,    as   the    rights    of   man    their    claims 
unfold. 
Just  rights  for  all,  whate'er  their  race  or 
grade. 

There     sprang     to     view,     with     Freedom 
glorious. 

The  sway  and  charm  of  known  Christoph- 
orus. 

And  thus  Columbia's  soil,  set  free  at  last 
From    rule    by    brutish    force    and    selfish 
aims, 

Through  Independence  gained  and  dangers 
passed, 
A  higher   law,    the  Law   of   Right,   main- 
tains ; 

While     Church     and     School,     with     savor 
gracious. 

Proclaim  the   conquests  of   Christophorus. 

Henceforth,  the  aim  of  nations  to  be  great, 
Win    lasting    wealth,    and    compass    true 
renown. 
While  each  the  other's  merit  seeks  to  mate. 
And  only  honor's  course  with  glory  crown, 
Shall  be  to  prove  most  wise  and  virtuous. 
And  man  become  indeed  Christophorus. 

Col.   S. 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


68 1 


Columbus 

By  Richard  E.  Burton 

I  see  a  galleon  of  Spanish  make 

That  westward  like  a  winged  creature  flies 

Above  a  sea   dawn-bright,  and  arched  with 

skies 
Expectant  of  the  sun  and  morning-break. 
The  sailors  from  the  deck  their  land-thirst 

slake 
With  peering  o'er  the  waves,  until  their  eyes 
Discern  a  coast  that  faint  and  dream-like  lies, 
The  while  they  pray,  weep,  laugh, — or  madly 

take 
Their  shipmates  in  their  arms  and  speak  no 

word. 
And  then  I  see  a  figure,  tall,  removed 
A  little  from  the  others,  as  behooved, 
That  since  the  dawn  has  neither  spoke  nor 

stirred : 
A  noble  form  the  looming  mast  beside, 
Columbus,  calm,  his  prescience  verified. 

Selecetd. 

The  Vision  of  Columbus* 

By  Joel  Barlow 

(Soliloquy  of  Columbus  in  prison.    Written 
in  1807) 

Land  of  delights,  ah,  dear,  delusive  coast, 
To  these  fond,  aged  eyes  forever  lost, 
No  more  thy  flowery  vales  I  travel  o'er. 
For    me    thy    mountains    rear   the    head    no 

more, 
For  me  thy  sparkling  rocks  no  gems  unfold. 
Nor  streams   luxuriant  wear  their  paths   in 

gold: 
From    realms    of    promised    peace    forever 

borne, 
I  hail  mute  anguish,  and  in  secret  mourn. 
But    dangers    past,    a    world    explored    in 

vain, 
And    foes    triumphant,    show    but    half    my 

pain. 
Dissembling   friends,    each   early   joy   who 

gave. 
And  fired  my  youth  the  storms  of  fate  to 

brave. 
Swarmed    in    the    sunshine    of    my    happier 

days, 
Pursued  the  fortune  and  forsook  the  praise, 
Now    pass    my    cell    with    smiles    of    sour 

disdain, 
Insult  my  woes,  and  triumph  in  my  pain. 
One  gentle  guardian  once  could  shield  the 

brave ; 
But  now  that  guardian  slumbers  in  the  grave. 
Hear  from  above,  thou  dear  departed  shade, 
As  once  my  hopes,  my  present  sorrows  aid; 
Burst,     my     full     heart, — afford     that     last 

relief, — 
Breathe    back   my    sighs,    and    reinspire   my 

grief. 
Still  in  my  sight  thy  royal  form  appears, 
Reproves  my  silence,  and  demands  my  tears. 
Even  on  that  hour  no  more  I  joy  to  dwell, 
When  thy  protection  bade  the  canvas  swell, 
When    kings    and    churchmen    found    their 

factions  vain, 


Blind  Superstition  shrunk  beneath  her  chain,  ~ 
The  sun's  glad  beam  led  on  the  circling  way. 
And  isles  rose  beauteous  in  Atlantic  day; 
For  on  those  silver  shores,  that  new  domain, 
What  crowds  of  tyrants  fix  their  murderous 

reign ! 
Her  infant  realm,  indignant  Freedom  flies, 
Truth  leaves  the  world,  and  Isabella  dies. 

(Hesper,  visiting  Spirit,  addresses  Colum- 
bus, and  bears  him  up'ward  where  the  out- 
spread earth  gladdens  his  eyes  and  the  future 
of  the  New  World  is  unfolded  to  his  mental 
vision.) 

Rise,  trembling  chief,  to  scenes  of  rapture 

rise, 
This    voice    awaits    thee    from    the    western 

skies : 
Indulge  no  longer  that  desponding  strain. 
Nor  count  thy  toils  nor  deem  thy  labor  vain. 
Thou  seest  in  me  the  guardian  power  who 

keeps 
The    new-found    world    that    skirts    Atlantic 

deeps, 
Hesper    my    name,— my    seat    the    brightest 

throne 
In  Night's  whole  Heaven, — my  sire  the  living 

sun. 
This  hand  which  formed  and  in  the  tides  of 

time 
Laves  and  improves  the  'meliorating  clime, 
Which  taught  thy  prow  to  cleave  the  track- 
less way. 
And  hailed  thee  first  in  occidental  day. 
To  all  thy  worth  shall  vindicate  thy  claim, 
And  raise  up  nations  to  revere  thy  name. 

In  this  dark  age  the  blinded  faction  sways, 
And  wealth  and  conquest  gain  the  palm  of 

praise; 
Awed   into   slaves,   while   groveling  millions 

groan. 
And   blood-stained   steps   lead  upward  to   a 

throne. 
Far    other    wreaths    thy    virtuous    temples 

twine. 
Far  nobler  triumphs  crown  a  life  like  thine. 
Thine  be  the  joys  that  minds  immortal  grace, 
As  thine  the  deeds  that  bless  a  kindred  race. 
Now  raise  thy  sorrowed  soul  to  views  more 

bright, 
The  visioned  ages  rushing  on  thy  sight. 
Worlds   beyond  worlds  shall   bring  to   light 

their  stores ; 
Time,    Nature,    Science,    blend    their   utmost 

powers. 
To  show,  concentered  in  one  blaze  of  fame, 
The  ungathered  glories  that  await  thy  name. 

Long  gazed   the   mariner,   when   thus   the 

guide : 
"  Here    spreads    the    world    thy    daring    sail 

descried, 
'  Hesperia  '   called,   from  my  anterior  claim, 
But  now  Columbia,  from  thy  patriarch  name. 
Ages  unborn  shall  bless  the  happier  day 
That  saw  thy  streamer  shape  the  guideless 

way, 
Their    bravest    heroes    trace    the    path    you 

lead, 


*  From  The  Columbiad. 


682 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


And    sires    of    nations    through    the    regions 

spread. 
A-north    from   that   broad   gulf    where    ver- 
dant rise 
Those  gentler  mounds  that  skirt  the  temper- 
ate skies, 
A  happier  hemisphere  invites  thy  view. 
'Tis  there  the  Old  World  shall  embrace  the 

New, 
Where  Europe's  better  sons  their  seat  shall 

trace, 
And  change  of  government  improve  the  race. 
Through  all  the  mid-sky  zones,  to  yon  blue 

pole, 
Their  green  hills  lengthen,  their  bright  rivers 

roll. 
And    sloping    westward,    how    their    cham- 
paigns run, 
How  slope  their  uplands  to  the  morning  sun. 
There  lies  the  path  thy  future  sons  shall 
trace, — 
Plant  here  their  arts  and  rear  their  vigorous 

race, — 
A  race  predestined  in  these  choice  abodes 
To    teach    mankind    to    tame    their    fluvial 

floods ; 
Retain  from  ocean,  as  their  work  requires. 
Those  great  auxiliars  raised  by  solar  fires ; 
Force  them  to  form  ten  thousand  roads,  and 

girth 
With    liquid    belts    each    verdant    mound    of 

earth ; 
To  aid  the  colon's  as  the  carrier's  toil, 
To  drive  the  coulter  and  to  fat  the  soil ; 
Learn  all  mechanic  arts,  and  oft  regain 
Their  native  hills,  in  vapor  and  in  rain. 

But  now  no  more  the  patriotic  mind 
To  narrow  views  and  local  laws  confined. 
Makes   patriot    views   and   moral    views   the 

same. 
Works   with    enlightened   zeal,   to   see   com- 
bined 
The   strength  and  happiness  of  humankind. 
At  this  blest  period,  when  the  total  race 
Shall    speak    one    language    and    all    truths 

embrace. 
Instruction  clear  a  speedier  course  shall  find, 
And  open  earlier  on  the  infant  mind, 
Nor   dark   authorities,   nor   names   unknovi^n. 
Fill  the  learned  head  with  ignorance  not  its 

own. 
But    Wisdom's    eye    with    beams    unclouded 

shine. 
And  simplest  rules  her  native  charms  define; 
Triumphant  Virtue,  in  the  garb  of  Truth, 
Win  a  pure  passage  to  the  heart  of  youth. 
Pervade  all  climes  where  suns  or  oceans  roll. 
And  warm  the  world  with  one  great  moral 

soul, — 
To   see,    facilitate,   attain   the   scope 
Of  all  their  labor  and  of  all  their  hope." 

Thus  heard  Columbus,  eager  to  behold 
The    famed    Apocalypse    its    years    unfold. 
The   soul   still   speaking  through  his   gazing 

eyes. 
And  thus  his  voice: 

"  Oh,  let  the  vision  rise ! 
Command,    celestial    guide,    from    each    far 
pole. 


John's  visioned  morn  to  open  on  my  soul. 
And  raise  the  scene  by  his  reflected  light. 
Living  and  glorious,  to  my  longing  sight. 
Let    Heaven,    unfolding,    show    the    eternal 

throne. 
And  all  the  conclave  flame  in  one  clear  sun ; 
On  clouds  of  fire,  with  angels  at  his  side. 
The    Prince   of    Peace,    the   King   of    Salem 

ride. 
With  smiles  of  love  to  greet  the  bridal  earth. 
Call  slumbering  ages  to  a  second  birth. 
With    all    His    white-robed   millions   fill    the 

train, 
And  here  commence  His  interminable  reign." 
"  Such    views,"    the    saint    replies.     "  for 

sense  too  bright. 
Would  seal  thy  vision   in   eternal   night ; 
Man  cannot  face  nor  seraph  power  display 
The  mystic  beams   of  such  an  awful   day. 
Enough   for  thee   that  thy  delighted   mind 
Should    trace    the    temporal    actions    of   thy 

kind." 

■'  Here,   then,"    said   Hesper   with   a   blissful 

smile, 
"  Behold  the  fruits  of  thy  long  years  of  toll. 
To  yon  bright  borders  of  Atlantic  day. 
Thy  swelling  pinions  led  the  trackless  way. 
And   taught   mankind  such   useful    deeds   to 

dare, 
To  trace  new  seas  and  happy  nations  rear. 
Till  by  fraternal  hands  their  sails  unfurled 
Have  waved  at  last  in  union  o'er  the  world. 
Then  let  thy  steadfast  soul  no  more  com- 
plain 
Of   dangers    braved    and   griefs    endured    in 

vain. 
Of  courts  invidious.  Envy's  poisoned  stings. 
The  loss  of  empire,  and  the  frown  of  kings, 
While  these  broad  views  thy  better  thoughts 

compose. 
To  spurn  the  malice  of  insulting  foes, 
And  all  the  joys  descending  ages  gain 
Repay  thy  labors  and  remove  thy  pain." 

Col.  S. 

The  Discovery 

By  Mary  Isabella  Forsyth 

Beneath  a  summer  sky. 
One  sailed  of  old,  in  eager,  earnest  quest, 
Who  heard  an  unborn  nation's  voiceless  cry 

Afar,  from  out  the  West. 

His  heart  expectant  swelled. 
The  Christ,  whose  name  he  bore,   his  hope 

inspired. 
A  force  Divine  his  onward  course  impelled. 

His  inner  vision  fired. 

He  cleft  far  wider  seas 
Than    met    his    gaze. — He    never    heard    the 

roar 
Of  waves  of  wondrous  human  destinies 

Upon  that  farther  shore. 

The  sweep  of  centuries 
Shows  sails  unnumbered  following  his  wake. 
Far    more   to    men    than   pleasure,    comfort, 
ease, 

To  hear  those  billows  break! 


DISCOVERY  DAY 


683 


Forever  must  they  roll, 
Till  all  humanity  has  understood 
That  highest  liberty  means  self-control, 

And  law  means  brotherhood. 

Y.  C. 

The  Prophet  Bird — 1492 

By  Hezekiah   Butterworth 

The  sails  hung  listless  on  the  pictured  sea 
Where  green  Sargasso  meadows  pulsed  and 

dreamed 
In  liquid  atmosphere ;   the  sea  birds  free, 
On     silken     pinions,     sank     and     rose     and 

gleamed — 
A  sea  of  glass  and  mingling  gold  it  seemed. 
The  great  sun  rose,  an  open  gate  of  Heaven, 
And   landless   seas  filled  the  horizon  broad. 
Columbus  gazed;  when,  from  some  far  shore 

driven 
By  venturous  wings,  a  happy  land  bird  came 
And    sang    upon    the    spars.      The    Prophet 

Pilot  heard 
That  winged  messenger,  on  seas  aflame. 
That    the    dead    air    with    mystic    warblings 

stirred. 
And,  as  a  lone  discoverer,  hailed  the  bird 
Sent   out  to  lead  the  New  World's  ark  of 

God. 

So,  when  the  soul  draws  near  its  final  haven, 
The  advent  anthem  palpitates  the  light. 
The  sea  grows  calm,  tho  in  the  morn  and 

even 
No  hills  of  palms  rise  radiant  on  the  sight. 
Nor    silver    shores,    nor   crowns    of    temples 

white. 
Monitions  come,  impalpable  to  sense. 
The    sea   winds    feel    the    distant    highland's 

breath. 
And  venturous  birds  the  songs  of  Providence 
Waft    through    the    air    above    the    tides    of 

death. 
We  know  celestial  airs  around  us  glow, 
We  know  celestial  tides  course  through  the 

sea, 
Of  spheres  unseen  we  feel  the  influence, 


The  eye  of  faith  looks  forward  and  believes. 
And  lo !  the  white  winged  dove  brings  olive 
leaves. 

Y.  C 

Our  Country  for  the  World 

By  Denis  Wortman,  D.D. 

Our  country  for  the  World !  we  sing, 

But  in  no  worldly  way : 
Our  Country  to  the  Lord  we  bring 

And  fervent  for  her  pray : 
God  make  her  true ;    God  make  her  pure ; 

God  make  her  wise  and  good ; 
And  through  her  may  the  Christ  make  sure 

Man's  world-wide   Brotherhood ! 
America !     America ! 

'Gainst  wrong  thy  might  be  hurled; 
For  thee  we  lift  our  loud  Huzza ! 

Our  Country  for  the  World ! 

Oh,  broader  than  her  wide  domains 

Be  her  designs  divine ; 
And  richer  than  her  golden  veins 

Her  charities  divine ; 
Firmer    than    stalwart    mountain-tower 

Her  fixed  faith  in  Thee, 
Her  triumphs  nobler  through  Thy  power 

Than  gain  on  land  or  sea ! 
America !     America ! 

'Gainst  wrong  thy  might  be  hurled; 
For  thee  we  lift  our  loud  Huzza ! 

Our  Country  for  the  World! 

Great  God!  our  Country  for  the  World, 

And  all  the  world  for  Thee ! 
Christ's  banners  o'er  all  lands  unfurled 

In   high   exultancy ! 
O  Day  of  God,  speed  on,  speed  on ! 

Speed  truth  and  peace  and  love ! 
Till  all  below   for  Him  be  won — 

Who  reigns  o'er  realms  above! 
America !     America ! 

'Gainst  wrong  thy  might  be  hurled; 
For  thee  we  lift  our  loud  Huzza ! 

Our  Country  for  the  World! 

C.  G. 


684  HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


ELECTION  DAY 

( November) 

THE  BALLOT-BOX 

I  AM  aware  that  the  ballot-box  is  not  everywhere  a  consistent  symbol ;  but  to  a 
large  degree  it  is  so.  I  know  what  miserable  associations  cluster  around 
this  instrument  of  popular  power.  I  know  that  the  arena  in  which  it  stands  is 
trodden  into  mire  by  the  feet  of  reckless  ambition  and  selfish  greed.  The  wire- 
pulling and  the  bribing,  the  pitiful  truckling  and  the  grotesque  compromises,  the 
exaggeration  and  the  detraction,  the  melodramatic  issues  and  the  sham  patriotism, 
the  party  watchwords  and  the  party  nicknames,  the  schemes  of  the  few  paraded 
as  the  will  of  the  many,  the  elevation  of  men  whose  only  worth  is  in  the  votes 
they  command, — vile  men,  whose  hands  you  would  not  grasp  in  friendship,  whose 
presence  you  would  not  tolerate  by  your  fireside — incompetent  men,  whose  fitness 
is  not  in  their  capacity  as  functionaries,  or  legislators,  but  as  organ  pipes ; — the 
snatching  at  the  slices  and  offal  of  office,  the  intemperance  and  the  violence,  the 
finesse  and  the  falsehood,  the  gin  and  the  glory;  these  are  indeed  but  too  closely 
identified  with  that  political  agitation  which  circles  around  the  ballot-box. 

But,  after  all,  they  are  not  essential  to  it.  They  are  only  the  masks  of  a 
genuine  grandeur  and  importance.  For  it  is  a  grand  thing, — something  which 
involves  profound  doctrines  of  right, — something  which  has  cost  ages  of  effort 
and  sacrifice, — it  is  a  grand  thing  that  here,  at  last,  each  voter  has  just  the  weight 
of  one  man ;  no  more,  no  less ;  and  the  weakest,  by  virtue  of  his  recognized  man- 
hood, is  as  strong  as  the  mightiest.  And  consider,  for  a  moment,  what  it  is  to 
cast  a  vote.  It  is  the  token  of  inestimable  privileges,  and  involves  the  responsi- 
bilities of  an  hereditary  trust.  It  has  passed  into  your  hands  as  a  right,  reaped 
from  fields  of  suffering  and  blood.  The  grandeur  of  history  is  represented  in  your 
act.  Men  have  wrought  with  pen  and  tongue,  and  pined  in  dungeons,  and  died 
on  scaffolds,  that  you  might  obtain  this  symbol  of  freedom,  and  enjoy  this  con- 
sciousness of  a  sacred  individuality.  To  the  ballot  have  been  transmitted,  as  it 
were,  the  dignity  of  the  scepter  and  the  potency  of  the  sword. 

And  that  which  is  so  potent  as  a  right,  is  also  pregnant  as  a  duty;  a  duty 
for  the  present  and  for  the  future.  If  you  will,  that  folded  leaf  becomes  a  tongue 
of  justice,  a  voice  of  order,  a  force  of  imperial  law ;  securing  rights,  abolishing 
abuses,  erecting  new  institutions  of  truth  and  love.  And,  however  you  will,  it  is 
the  expression  of  a  solemn  responsibility,  the  exercise  of  an  immeasurable  power 
for  good  or  for  evil,  now  and  hereafter.  It  is  the  medium  through  which  you 
act  upon  your  country, — the  organic  nerve  which  incorporates  you  with  its  life 
and  welfare.  There  is  no  agent  with  which  the  possibilities  of  the  Republic  are 
more  intimately  involved,  none  upon  which  we  can  fall  back  with  more  confidence 
than  the  ballot-box. — Edwin  H.    Chapin,  D.D.       (G.  F.) 


ELECTION  DAY 


685 


HISTORICAL 
POLITICAL  AND  PERSONAL   LIBERTY 

By  Judge  David  J.  Brewer 
[U.  S.  Supreme  Court] 


Liberty  has  been  the  dream  of  humanity 
through  all  the  ages ;  and  this  side  the  waters 
there  have  been  two  great  steps  forward  in 
the  way  of  realizing  its  high  ideals.  The 
first  was  in  that  proclamation  whose  anni- 
versary we  celebrate — the  proclamation  of 
political  liberty,  the  great  Declaration  which 
ushered  into  the  world  a  government  of  and 
by  and  for  the  people,  which  dethroned  a 
single  monarch  and  made  all  men  rulers,  and 
which  gave  to  the  world  a  Nation  whose 
career  has  been  and  is  the  hope  and  inspira- 
tion of  humanity.  Only  in  a  new  world 
where  the  traditions  of  monarchy  had  faded 
away,  where  the  divine  right  of  the  king  had 
become  an  obsolete  thought,  where  men  felt 
the  touch  and  inspiration  of  the  free  air 
which  blows  over  our  mountains  and  prairies, 
and  looked  to  themselves  as  the  immediate 
messengers  of  the  divine  purpose  to  lift  each 
man  up  into  a  personal  and  inalienable  in- 
heritance, was  such  a  declaration  and  such  a 
nation  then  possible. 

A  century  and  more  has  passed,  and  as  the 
foundations  of  this  Government  are  more 
firmly  settled,  as  the  great  structure  reared  by 
the  fathers  now  spans  the  continent  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  and  has  victoriously  estab- 
lished its  right  to  be,  political  liberty  has 
ceased  to  be  the  mere  dream  of  the  enthusi- 
ast, and  has  become  the  everyday  fact  of  the 
men  of  thought  and  action  in  the  world. 

This  was  the  first  step ;  and  we  are  here 
to  glory  in  it,  and  to  boast  of  those  ancestors 
who  suffered  and  toiled  and  fought  to  ac- 
complish it. 

The  second  came  in  our  day.  Political  lib- 
erty did  not  mean  personal  liberty.  On  the 
southern  horizon  was  a  dark  cloud,  ever 
threatening  the  peace  and  life  of  the  Nation — 
the  cloud  of  slavery.  A  multitude  of  human 
loeings,  as  vast  as  the  whole  population  of  the 


colonies    in    1776,    were    held    as    chattels. 
Wealth  and  political  power  perpetuated  the 
injustice,   and  it   seemed   so   fully   intrenched 
within  constitutional  protection  as  to  be  be- 
yond the  danger  of  disturbance.     But  "  whom 
the  gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make  mad." 
Untimely  greed  precipitated  the  irrepressible 
conflict.     That   lone,   strange  man,  John  the 
Baptist  of  the  New  Dispensation,  struck  with 
his    single    lance    the    grim    monster.    John 
Brown  died  upon  the  scaffold.     In  that  rare 
heroic  hour  of  death,  as  the  eye  grew  dim  to 
the   visions   of   sense,   did   the   Good   Master 
bless   him   with   a  glimpse,   by   faith,   of  the 
glory  whose  door  he  was  thus  unlocking  for 
Humanity.     He  ''  lost,  but  losing,  won."    The 
dormant     conscience     of     the     Nation     was 
aroused,  lethargic  patriotism  was  wondrously 
startled,   and   from   Maine  to   California  the 
glad  refrain  of  the  responsive  song,  "  We  are 
coming.  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred  thou- 
sand more,"  was  the  Jubilate  Deo  of  the  new 
era.     It  was  the  crisis  of  the   Nation's  life. 
We  saw  the  awful  horror  of  civil  war ;    the 
wrong  and  suffering  of  the  slave  were  bal- 
anced in  the  equipoise  of  eternal  justice,  by 
the  blood  and  tears  of  the  race  that  enslaved 
him;    the  trailing  garments  of  universal  sor- 
row still  linger  and  shadow  every  home,  and 
Decoration  Day  is  the  great  In  M cmoriam  of 
the  Nation's  sacrifice.    But  out  of  that  strug- 
gle came  personal  liberty,   and  for  the  first 
time  there  was  written  into  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  in  the  thirteenth  amend- 
ment, the  terrible  word  slavery;    and  written 
in  it  only  to  contain  the  Nation's  declaration 
that    it    should    nevermore    exist    within    its 
borders.     Personal  liberty  became  the  univer- 
sal  affirmation   of  the   law,   and   the   second 
great  step  forward  along  the  lines  of  human 
freedom  was  taken. — I. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  CITIES 


The  problem  of  the  control  of  cities  has  at 
last  become  a  pressing  one.  We  have  had 
many  other  important  questions  to  settle  in 
the  United  States  and  have  given  but  little 
attention  hitherto  to  the  science  of  municipal 
government.  Now  that  the  evils  of  our  lack 
of  system  have  become  so  widespread,  so  evi- 
dent, and  so  intolerable,  men  have  set  them- 
selves to  work  in  earnest  to  see  what  can  be 
done,  and  the  first  thing  that  we  find,  to  our 
surprise,  is  that  we  are  far  behind  the  rest 
of  the  world  in  this  important  matter.  In  the 
exuberance  of  our  zeal  for  republican  insti- 


tutions, and  of  our  pride  in  what  we  have  ac- 
complished, we  like  to  speak  occasionally  of 
the  "  effete  "  institutions  of  old  Europe  and 
to  flatter  ourselves  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  form  of  effective  government  of  the  peo- 
ple which  we  do  not  understand  and  which 
we  have  not  illustrated  in  our  own  country. 

But  we  have  had  our  eyes  opened,  and  it 
now  seems  strange  to  us  that  we  should  have 
been  blind  so  long  to  our  shortcomings  in  the 
matter  of  the  government  of  our  cities.  We 
have  had  large  and  important  cities  for  many 
years;    but  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 


686 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


our  urban  population  has  increased  so  rap- 
idly, and  so  many  large  and  flourishing  cities 
have  sprung  up,  that  the  problem  of  the  con- 
trol of  our  cities  becomes  palpably  a  more 
important  one  every  year,  and  we  begin  to 
understand  how  necessary  it  is  to  our  pros- 
perity as  a  people,  that  our  cities  should  be 
honestly  and  efficiently  governed. 

The  business  interests  represented  by  the 
administration  of  a  large  city  are  much  larger 
than  those  of  the  state  in  which  it  is  situated. 
Take  New  York  City,  for  example.  Its  fi- 
nances are  (1894)  five  or  six  times  as  great 
as  those  of  the  State  to  which  it  belongs.  In 
i8g3  the  receipts  of  the  city  treasury  were 
nearly  $92,000,000.  and  the  payments  almost  a 
million  larger,  while  those  of  the  State,  for 
the  same  period,  were  about  $18,000,000.  The 
State,  fortunately,  has  no  debt,  but  the  present 
indebtedness  of  the  city  is  over  $103,000,000. 
These  enormous  figures  show  how  important 
are  the  finances  which  the  rulers  of  this  great 
city  must  manage.  For  so  great  a  financial 
trust,  business  men  would  at  once  admit  that 
officers  of  the  highest  character  and  of  the 
widest  experience  should  be  chosen.  And 
yet,  as  some  point  out.  these  are  the  very 
men  who  most  generally  neglect  their  duty 
as  voters,  and  allow  the  politicians  and  the 
rabble  to  control  the  nominations  and  city 
elections.  Such  large  business  interests  are 
represented  in  the  government  of  a  great  city, 
and  there  are  so  many  salaried  positions  and 
so  many  contracts  to  be  awarded,  that  the 
politicians  find  in  municipalities  the  largest 
scope  for  their  shrewdness  and  the  largest 
rewards  for  their  activity. 

It  is  to  our  discredit  as  an  independent  and 
progressive  people  that  we  have  not  seemed 
to  be  aware  of  the  extent  and  character  of 
the  evils  of  our  municipal  government,  and 
that  we  have  made  but  little  study  of  methods 
and  systems.  The  city  campaigns  fit  in  nicely 
with  the  plans  of  the  politicians,  and  we  have 
blindly  allowed  the  national  parties  to  con- 
trol, through  their  machinery,  the  afifairs  of 
our  cities.  When  we  come  to  turn  the  ques- 
tion over  in  our  minds  we  see  at  once  that 
there  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  Republi- 
cans and  Democrats,  as  such,  should  nomi- 


nate our  municipal  tickets,  and  make  them- 
selves responsible  for  our  municipal  govern- 
ment. There  are  great  national  questions 
with  which  as  partisans  they  are  properly 
concerned.  But  what  has  the  management 
of  the  finances,  the  care  of  the  streets,  the 
parks,  the  health,  peace,  order  and  safety  of 
our  cities  to  do  with  the  tarifif,  or  with  the 
silver  question,  or  with  the  admission  of  new 
states,  or  with  our  foreign  policy,  or  indeed 
with  any  of  the  great  interests  which  are 
national  in  their  scope  and  character?  Mu- 
nicipal policies  are  widely  different  from  na- 
tional policies,  and  ought  to  be  separated  in 
our  politics. 

Many  writers  agree  that : 

(i)  Municipal  elections  should  be  entirely 
separate  from  state  and  national  elections. 
The  reasons  for  this  they  give  at  length,  and 
few  can  read  them  without  agreeing  that  they 
are  conclusive.  The  problems  of  the  city 
dififer  from  those  of  the  state,  and  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  why  the  elections  should  be 
combined. 

(2)  The  interests  of  the  city  are  chiefly 
business  interests,  and  honest  and  efficient 
men,  men  of  experience,  should  be  selected  to 
control  them. 

(3)  The  decent  and  intelligent  element 
should  take  a  larger  and  more  constant  inter- 
est in  municipal  elections.  Many  who  have 
large  business  afifairs  which  they  look  after 
very  carefully,  pay  no  attention  whatever  to 
their  duties  as  citizens.  They  allow  the  sa- 
loon-keeper and  the  practical  politician  to 
have  things  their  own  way.  and  are  only 
roused  to  their  duty  when  the  evils  of  bad 
government  become  unendurable.  We  can- 
not have  good  local  government  unless  the 
best  citizens  do  their  part  in  securing  and 
maintaining  it. 

(4)  The  cities  should  have  home  rule. 
They  should  not  be  subject  to  the  constant 
interference  of  state  legislatures.  The  fre- 
quent changes  made  in  city  charters  are  not 
often  in  the  interest  of  better  government. 
They  are  more  likely  to  give  larger  scope  to 
the  machinations  of  those  who  manage  mu- 
nicipal politics  for  the  income  they  get. — I. 


THE  QUESTION  OF  PATRIOTISM 


A  distinguished  minister,  speaking  gener- 
ally and  not  for  print,  made  a  query  which 
has  occurred  to  many  minds :  Why  should  a 
man's  patriotism  be  doubted  because  he  is  in 
honest  and  conscientious  opposition  to  a  for- 
eign policy  of  his  government?  Is  not  this 
an  attempt  to  terrorize  the  exercise  of  a  right 
upon  which  the  safety  and  even  the  existence 
of  free  government  depend?  A  free  govern- 
ment must  have,  in  order  to  its  good  adminis- 
tration, an  opposition,  a  party  watchful  and 
ever  eager  to  detect  and  expose  flaws.  Where 
a  policy  reaches  over  into  the  field  of  morals, 
as  nearly  all  policies  do.  is  there  not  even  a 
higher  necessity  for  a  moral  "  opposition  ?  " 


Is  it  not  therefore  both  unreasonable  and  ty- 
rannical to  question  a  man's  patriotism  be- 
cause he  is  in  opposition? 

But  opposition  has  its  limitations ;  and  the 
history  of  our  own  country  has  furnished  the 
data  for  surveying  it  with  approximate  accu- 
racy— the  line  which  the  consensus  of  patri- 
otic public  opinion  has,  at  every  new  exi- 
gency, drawn  through  the  same  points.  The 
people  were  divided  at  the  time  immediately 
preceding  the  Revolution,  in  their  loyalty  to 
the  then  existing  government,  the  British 
crown.  It  was  held  then,  and  since,  by  the 
verdict  of  history,  that  both  parties  were 
equally  entitled  to  rank  as  patriots  up  to  the 


ELECTION  DAY 


687 


battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  That  battle  made  an 
armed  struggle  between  the  colonies  and  the 
crown  inevitable.  The  verdict  of  history  is 
that  it  was,  after  that  battle,  unpatriotic  for  a 
colonist  to  stand  by  the  crown  against  his 
fellow  countrymen. 

The  war  of  1812  was  strenuously  opposed 
by  the  Federal  party.  This  did  not  discount 
the  patriotism  of  the  Federalists  up  to  the 
time  when  Congress  declared  war.  Because 
the  opposition  was  continued  after  the  dec- 
laration of  war,  the  Federalist  party  became 
so  odious  to  the  people  that  it  ceased  to  exist. 

The  Mexican  war  gave  another  equally  im- 
pressive example.  That  was  a  war  of  un- 
provoked aggression  and  conquest  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  extension  of  slavery.  The  op- 
position to  it  was  therefore  intense.  The 
Whig  party  was  in  opposition  and  maintained 
it,  during  the  war.  In  1848  it  righted  itself 
politically  by  nominating  General  Taylor  and 
won,  temporarily,  but  that  was  its  last  cam- 
paign. In  1852  it  tried  the  same  tactics,  nomi- 
nating General  Scott,  but  was  beaten  to  death, 
and  disappeared. 

The  Democratic  party  was  in  opposition 
during  the  Civil  War.  With  great  advantages 
on  its  side,  it  seated  but  one  man  in  the  presi- 
dential chair  between  the  years  1856  and  1900, 
or  forty-four  years. 

The  verdict  of  the  American  people  af- 
firmed, and  three  times  reaffirmed,  appears  to 
be  this,  that  opposition  must  cease  in  the 
presence  of  an  armed  enemy.  This  was  mis- 
translated into  a  thoroughly  false  principle,  a 
false  patriotism — "  Our  country  right  or 
wrong."  An  honest  man  cannot  say  that. 
Patriotism  is  a  virtue,  but  honest  manhood  is 


a  higher  virtue.  A  true  man  will  not  turn 
his  conscience  over  to  the  keeping  of  an  ad- 
ministration. That  which  is  inherently  wrong 
cannot  be  made  conventionally  right.  What 
then  is  the  significance  of  a  now  well-estab- 
lished line  between  legitimate  and  illegitimate 
opposition  ?  We  must  not  say  that  it  is  an 
arbitrary  and  an  immoral  line.  The  consen- 
sus for  a  century  and  a  quarter,  of  the  opinion 
of  the  most  enlightened  of  nations  would  not 
crystallize  an  immoral  principle  into  a  law, 
a  law  that  is  none  the  less  provided  with 
sanctions  because  it  is  unwritten. 

The  British  opposition  is  now  giving  the 
answer.  They  say  that  they  will  bow  to  the 
will  of  the  majority,  because  that  is  a  con- 
dition precedent  to  the  existence  of  free  gov- 
ernment ;  that  they  will  support  the  armies 
and  do  nothing  to  discourage  them,  because 
that  is  the  shortest  way  out  of  a  bad  situa- 
tion, and  because  they  are  morally  bound  to 
back  the  men  who  are  putting  their  lives  be- 
tween the  flag  and  the  enemy.  Thus  they  s:iy 
that  new  moral  factors  come  into  the  ques- 
tion when  war  is  declared  against  their  coun- 
try, and  that  these  moral  considerations  for 
the  time  preponderate  and  must  control.  But 
they  also  say,  that  having  discharged  their 
patriotic  duty  during  an  exigency  for  which 
they  were  not  responsible,  and  to  the  pre- 
cipitation of  which  they  were  actively  op- 
posed, they  purpose,  when  it  is  past,  to  take 
hold  of  the  government  with  clean,  irre- 
proachable and  strong  patriotic  hands,  and 
flmg  it  out  of  power,  and  proceed  to  right 
any  wrongs  that  the  government  may  have 
committed. — In. 


FUNDS  FOR  POLITICAL  PURPOSES 


By  Thomas  L.  James 
[Ex-Postmaster-General  of  the  United  States.] 


The  approach  of  a  presidential  canvass  al- 
ways provokes  more  or  less  discussion  on  the 
subject  of  the  use  of  money  in  elections.  I 
am  requested  by  The  Independent  to  give  my 
views  on  this  subject. 

Of  course,  money  must  be  had  to  carry  on 
any  enterprise,  good  or  bad;  because  all 
human  undertakings  require  a  certain  amount 
of  work,  and  that  work  has  to  be  paid  for  in 
money.  The  first  question  of  moral  import- 
ance is.  How  is  the  money  for  a  presidential 
campaign  raised?  In  political  campaigns,  so 
far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  money  is  raised 
by  contributions.  The  prominent,  especially 
the  wealthy  men  of  the  party,  are  approached 
by  managers  of  the  organization,  or  their 
agents,  who  attend  to  the  details  of  party  man- 
agement, and  are  requested  to  donate  as  large 
a  sum  as  they  can  afford  toward  the  expenses 
of  the  campaign.  A  considerable  sum  is 
raised  before  the  meeting  of  the  nominating 
convention.  I  have  been  informed  that  some 
men  pay  or  contribute  a  certain  sum  for  the 


privilege  of  being  delegates  to  the  national 
convention.  This  is  the  first  time  that  I  have 
heard  of  such  a  thing  being  done,  and  tho 
there  may  be  such  cases,  I  think  they  must 
be  very  rare,  because  the  honor  of  attending 
such  a  national  gathering  is  all-sufficient  for 
hundreds  of  prominent  and  competent  men 
who  are  able  to  represent  the  interests  of  the 
party  on  such  an  occasion.  Then,  again,  if  a 
man  is  more  or  less  actively  interested  in 
politics,  the  fact  that  he  has  been  a  member 
of  a  national  convention  is  of  value  to  him 
in  the  eyes  of  the  party;  it  is  a  sort  of  politi- 
cal asset  and.  when  combined  with  ability, 
character,  and  influence,  helps  him  later  on 
to  obtain  some  position  of  honor  or  emolu- 
ment within  the  gift  of  higher  officials. 
Delegates  to  a  national  convention  pay  all 
their  own  expenses,  the  occasion  is  not  one 
where  a  free  excursion  and  "  a  good  time  " 
can  be  had  at  the  expense  of  the  party. 

Where  does  the  money  that  is  raised  for 
political   purposes   go   to?     It   goes   to  build 


688 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


and  furnish  the  big  convention  hall,  to  pay 
for  music,  flags,  transparencies,  and,  when 
the  campaign  opens,  speakers,  singers  and 
their  traveling  expenses,  the  printing  of  po- 
litical documents,  posters,  handbills,  adver- 
tising, and  a  hundred  incidental  expenses, 
which,  in  the  aggregate,  amount  to  a  con- 
siderable sum.  These  are  all  legitimate  ex- 
penses. It  may  be  asked,  Who  pays  for  the 
time  and  the  expenses  of  the  carloads  of 
shouters  who  leave  the  large  cities  in  the 
V  interests  of  their  favorite  candidate,  and 
whose  business  it  is  to  "  work  up  "  enthusi- 
asm for  him  in  the  convention  city?  A  large 
proportion  of  them,  like  the  delegates,  pay 
their  own  expenses;  and,  just  as  the  dele- 
gates esteem  it  an  honor  and,  in  a  certain 
sense,  a  political  advantage  to  be  able  to 
attend  such  a  gathering,  so  the  more  promi- 
nent "  shouters  "  are  more  thoroughly  iden- 
tified with  the  party  by  their  attendance ;  and, 
in  case  of  its  success,  have  a  better  chance  of 
securing  recognition  from  an  official  from 
whom  they  may  desire  to  obtain  a  political 
appointment.  The  expenses  of  many  are  paid 
by  political  clubs  or  organizations  in  the 
cities,  who  raise  money  for  party  purposes 
on  their  own  account,  and  who  naturally  de- 
sire to  do  all  that  they  can  to  win  success 
for  the  national  ticket. 

Altho  I  believe  the  contributions  are  gen- 
erally used  for  proper  purposes,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  a  certain  class  of  politicians  be- 
lieve in  using  money  for  the  purchase  of 
delegates  and  voters.  There  is  a  story  told 
by  a  prominent  politician  of  New  York,  which 
peculiarly  illustrates  the  business-like  meth- 
ods of  such  proceedings.  Some  few  years 
ago,  the  members  of  the  colored  delegation 
from  one  of  the  Southern  states  to  a  national 
convention  were  considered  rather  "  uncer- 
tain "  in  regard  to  their  allegiance  to  the  fa- 
vorite candidate.  They  intimated  that  they 
were  open  to  the  power  of  persuasion,  if  it 
came  to  them  in  a  financial  form.  Mr.  B., 
who  had  charge  of  the  funds,  saw  their 
leader,  and  agreed  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  delegates,  they  having  been  elected  for  a 
certain  candidate  whom  they  were  to  vote 
for  in  the  convention.  He  paid  $3,000.  The 
convention  was  held,  and  the  colored  mem- 
bers voted  for  another  candidate.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  convention  they  had  the  ef- 


frontery to  demand  $1,000  more,  claiming 
that  their  expenses  amounted  to  $4,000  and 
saying  that  if  he  did  not  pay  them  promptly 
they  would  sue  him  for  it. 

As  a  matter  of  policy  alone,  aside  from  the 
violation  of  good  morals,  the  improper  use 
of  money  in  political  campaigns  is  really  a 
source  of  weakness  instead  of  strength.  Its 
use  does  a  party  more  harm  than  good.  The 
people  who  are  in  politics  simply  for  pay  and 
for  what  they  can  "  get  out  of  it "  are  really 
of  no  benefit  to  an  organization.  Among  our 
public  speakers,  the  most  distinguished  ones, 
and  those  who  render  the  greatest  service  to 
the  party — men,  for  instance,  like  Chauncey 
M.  Depew,  Warner  Miller,  Charles  Emory 
Smith,  Joseph  H.  Choate,  and  many  others 
who  might  be  named  in  both  of  the  great 
parties — such  men  do  not  receive  pay  for  their 
speeches. 

Any  man  who  will  take  pay  for  his  vote, 
either  in  a  nominating  convention  or  at  the 
polls,  should  be  disfranchised  and  sent  to 
prison  for  the  offense.  Such  a  crime  strikes 
at  the  very  foundation  of  our  Government. 
Our  country  would  soon  cease  to  be  repre- 
sentative among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
without  a  free  and  honest  ballot  and  an 
equally  honest  expression  of  the  public  voice 
in  the  choice  of  presidential  nominees  at  the 
great  national  conventions.  But,  because  elec- 
tion campaigns  cost  so  much  money  at  the 
present  time,'  we  must  not  become  pessimistic 
and  say  that  it  is  altogether  the  result  of  cor- 
ruption. The  campaign  in  this  State,  in  1856, 
I  do  not  believe,  cost  more  than  $20,000,  and 
that  was  fought  very  bitterly,  from  start  to 
finish ;  but,  in  considering  the  large  sums 
spent  now,  we  must  remember  the  changed 
conditions  of  modern  life.  The  population  is 
much  larger.  We  are  more  luxurious  in  our 
ideas.  We  spend  more  money  in  every  di- 
rection. The  methods  of  carrying  on  a  po- 
litical campaign,  owing  to  the  increase  in 
population,  must  necessarily  be  more  complex 
and  diversified  than  they  were  forty  years 
ago,  when  the  style  of  living,  as  well  as  the 
manner  of  conducting  all  public  affairs,  was 
simpler  than  it  is  at  the  present  time.  In 
other  words,  large  expenditure  of  campaign 
funds  is  not,  necessarily,  a  sign  of  political 
corruption. — I. 


THE  USE  OF    MONEY    IN    POLITICAL    CAMPAIGNS 


By  Silas  W.  Burt 


The  large  use  of  money,  both  before  and 
after  election,  in  the  political  campaigns  of 
the  present  day,  is  a  phase  of  modern  public 
life  that  represents  one  of  the  great  changes 
in  our  political  methods  since  our  fore- 
fathers established  and  practised  the  princi- 
ples laid  down  in  the  Constitution.  The  Con- 
stitution, as  we  know,  was  based  on  the  pure 
democratic  idea  of  government,  in  which  all 
power  and  imitation  should  proceed  from  the 


people  themselves.  Gradually  we  have  sub- 
stituted for  this,  which  we  might  call  the 
spontaneous  expression  of  the  people,  a 
mechanism  by  which,  instead  of  the  people's 
instructing  their  delegates,  the  presumption 
is  that  the  delegates  are  going  to  instruct  the 
people.  In  other  words,  we  have  absolutely 
inverted  the  original  idea  that  lay  at  the  basis 
of  our  political  fabric. 

Concurrently  with  this  has  been  introduced 


ELECTION  DAY 


689 


into  the  political  or  partisan  practises  the 
mercenary  idea  which  appears  to  taint  every 
part  of  the  political  fabric  to-day.  This  is 
demonstrated  in  many  ways  :  by  the  purchase 
of  places  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States ; 
by  the  large  contributions  that  are  levied 
upon  the  men  who  want  to  be  nominated  or 
appointed  to  office ;  by  the  immense  sum  for 
campaign  funds  that  is  raised  and  disbursed 
without  any  audit.  It  has  been  sought  to 
remedy  some  of  these  evils  by  legislation,  in 
which  there  should  be  a  publication  of  these 
contributions  and  a  limitation  of  the  uses  to 
which  they  might  be  applied.  This  legisla- 
tion, however,  has  been  deplorably  defective 
in  the  fact,  so  far.  that  it  does  not  require  an 
accounting  from  political  committees,  but  only 
from  individual  candidates. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  cost  of  a 
great  presidential  campaign.  There  is  no 
doubt  but  what  it  might  be  measured  by  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  apart  from  the  loss  involved 
in  the  general  destruction  of  business.  It  has 
been  said  that  frequent  elections  have  their 
value  in  keeping  alive  public  interest  in  public 
affairs,  and  in  educating  the  people  upon  the 
great  questions  that  are  to  be  solved.  But 
when  we  recollect  that  a  great  part  of  the 
exoenses  of  the  campaign  are  spent  in  badges, 
torchlight  processions,  and  other  appeals  to  the 
imagination  and  sensation  rather  than  to  rea- 
son, it  seems  probable  that  a  very  large  part 
of  this  expenditure  is  practically  valueless, 
so  far  as  the  education  of  the  people  is  con- 
cerned, and  is  really  spent  to  pervert  their  in- 
telligence. 

We   have   long   had   the   "  political   boss," 


who  has  taken  advantaee  of  his  power  to 
levy  contributions  upon  corporations  and 
others  interested  in  legislation  and  also  in 
procuring  the  spoils  of  office  for  his  "  heel- 
ers; "  but  a  new  figure  is  now  projected  upon 
the  political  stage,  and  that  is  "  the  president 
maker." 

It  is  difficult  to  devise  a  prompt  remedy  for 
these  evils  that  have  become  gradually  em- 
bedded in  our  political  methods.  The  reform 
of  the  civil  service  is  wresting  from  the 
bosses  the  offices  so  long  used  as  bribes  or 
rewards.  This  will  weaken  the  machinery 
by  which  they  control  and  sell  legislation,  tho 
this  outrageous  abuse  can  be  effectively  cured 
only  by  such  an  awakening  of  the  public  con- 
science as  shall  make  such  practices  as  odious 
as  treason,  of  which  indeed  they  are  a  phase. 
There  remains  the  potent  remedy  of  partisan 
independence  at  the  ballot  boxes,  that  has 
achieved  much  of  good  in  recent  years,  and  is 
a  constantly  increasing  force  that  terrifies  the 
"  political  workers." 

Parties  are  an  essential  part  of  representa- 
tive governments,  and  can  be  effective  only 
by  organization ;  but  when  organization  de- 
generates into  a  brutal  machinery  that  stifles 
intelligence  and  true  patriotism,  the  republic 
is  moribund.  As  the  perfunctory  and  bigoted 
exercise  of  the  suffrage  has  gradually  extin- 
guished much  of  the  manhood  of  American 
citizenship,  so  the  restoration  of  intelligence, 
conscience,  and  individual  independence  in 
this  prime  duty  will  be  the  sole  effective 
means  of  curing  many  existing  evils  and  pre- 
venting others  that  might  be  equally  danger- 
ous.— I. 


HOW  BAD  MEN  ARE  CHOSEN  TO  RULE 

By  Fulton  McMahon 


One  of  the  greatest  living  theologians  has 
published  an  essay  in  which  he  brings  home 
to  Christian  citizens  the  duty  of  making  their 
influence  felt  in  politics.  It  does  not,  per- 
haps, detract  from  the  absolute  value  of  the 
exhortation  to  know  that  the  celebrated  au- 
thor has,  during  a  long  life  in  a  ring-ridden 
city,  never  cast  a  ballot ;  but  it  incites  reflec- 
tion. This  excellent  man  clearly  belongs  to 
the  better — indeed  what  ought  to  be  the  best 
"  element."  His  neighbors  are  of  the  same 
general  class.  When  he  and  they  discuss 
problems  of  sociology  and  local  administra- 
tion, much  is  said  about  foreign  illiterates, 
the  great  undercurrent  of  official  immorality, 
the  deterioration  of  civic  virtue,  and  the  ex- 
ploitation by  bad  men  of  politics  as  a  busi- 
ness. Yet  in  that  neighborhood,  which  con- 
tains no  ignorant  immigrants  and  no  profes- 
sional politicians,  there  are,  within  one  block, 
twenty-five  homes  that  did  not  send  a  single 
voter  to  the  polls. 

Who  is  to  blame  if  our  cities  are  badly  gov- 
erned? Let  us  look  at  New  York.  Some 
men  of  intelligence  and  reputed  character  are 
publicly  declaring  that  the  city  is  not  only 


well,  but  excellently  governed.  This,  how- 
ever, need  not  deter  us  from  affirming  that 
the  metropolis  presents  nearly  every  phase  of 
bad  municipal  administration.  Great  effort 
is  constantly  making  to  correct  these  evils  by 
improving  the  form  of  the  government.  Since 
the  city  is  a  quasi-corporation,  a  creature  of 
the  State,  it  has  been  easy  to  experiment  with 
theories  by  tinkering  with  the  charter.  It 
may  safely  be  said  that  these  alterations,  so 
far  as  they  were  conscious  efforts  to  improve 
matters,  were  nearly  all  induced  by  the  bad 
character  of  the  men  who  were  in  power 
when  the  changes  were  demanded.  Good 
men  did  not  realize  that  in  adopting,  and  re- 
lying upon,  such  means  to  remedy  evils  they 
were  abandoning  the  one  ground  on  which 
they  could  stand  in  ultimate  victory.  They 
have  gone  on  perfecting  a  system  which  only 
serves  the  evil  purposes  of  bad  men  a  little 
better  than  did  the  old  systems.  This  should  be 
kept  in  mind,  also,  by  the  people  who  are  ex- 
pecting great  reforms  through  the  action  of  the 
last  Constitutional  Convention  (1894).  It  is  a 
fact  beyond  dispute  that  our  existing  form  of 
local  government  is  adequate  to  all  our  needs. 


690 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


If  the  right  kind  of  men  were  in  control,  a 
few  minor  modifications,  conservatively  made, 
would  afford  us  as  good  an  administration 
of  public  affairs  as  we  may  reasonably  de- 
sire. 

The  trouble  is  not  in  our  institutions,  im- 
perfect as  they  doubtless  are.  The  crying 
necessity  for  reform  springs  from  the  fact 
that  while  our  institutions  are  representative 
theoretically,  our  public  officials  are  not  so, 
actually.  The  normal  operation  of  social  and 
political  laws  would  only  rarely  and  sporadi- 
cally elevate  to  positions  of  trust  and  power 
such  men  as  now  give  the  character  to  our 
municipal  public  service.  The  question  thus 
raised  concerns  the  explanation  of  this  un- 
natural condition  of  things.  What  prevents 
the  best  men  from  being  chosen  to  office? 
This  question  need,  perhaps,  not  to  be  an- 
swered; for  we  know  there  are  numerous 
considerations,  not  here  relevant,  that  com- 
monly preclude  the  selection  of  the  very  best 
men  on  the  ground  of  non-availability.  But 
what  is  the  hindrance  to  the  choice  of  good 
men  and  fit? 

Do  good  citizens  knowingly  elect  bad  offi- 
cials? Yes,  in  many  instances.  Sometimes 
they  are  deceived,  but  too  often  they  are 
morally  responsible  for  great  public  wrongs. 
Blind  partisanship  in  national  politics  con- 
duces to  the  sacrifice  of  principle  in  local  mat- 
ters as  a  means  hallowed  by  an  end.  "  Our 
ticket,  tho  Satan  head  it,"  is  the  motto  of 
thousands  who  dare  not  utter  it.  This  same 
spirit  has  to  be  contended  with  in  every 
effort  looking  to  an  extension  of  civil  service 
reform.  Indeed,  the  city  problem  is  nothing 
else  than  that.  Men  who  take  this  or  that 
view  of  the  tariff  and  who  have  come  to 
blame  the  very  weather  or  the  opposition 
party  cannot  readily  be  brought  to  forego  any 
even  imaginary  partisan  advantage  by  the 
discontinuance  of  the  patronage  system.  The 
local  machine  is  so  built  that  its  cogs  form 
an  integral  part  of  the  national  complex. 
Patronage  is  the  oil  that  makes  it  go.  That 
which  the  Nation  and  State  afford  is  not 
enough,  especially  when  the  party  is  in  oppo- 
sition;  so  the  local  spoils  must  be  used. 
Campaign  funds  are  raised  and  treated  in  a 
like  manner.  Such  mutuality  of  tickling  leads 
to  a  hopeless  entanglement  of  national  and 
local  interests.  Moreover,  the  city  men  who 
really  go  into  politics  on  principle  generally 
confine  their  appreciative  participation  to  na- 
tional affairs  and  naturally  regard  the  local 
organizations  merely  as  means  to  national 
success.  But  meantime  the  vital  local  matters 
of  taxation,  justice,  order,  health,  and  com- 
fort have  been  made  to  sink  or  swim  with  the 
wholly  irrelevant  contest  over  high  and  low 
tariff.  Yes,  let  it  again  be  replied,  good  citi- 
zens do  knowingly  elect  bad  men  to  local 
offices,  and  for  no  better  reason  than  that  a 
party  boss  has  said  the  local  sacrifice  condi- 
tions national  victory.  When  this  question  is 
seriously  considered  in  all  its  aspects.  Chris- 
tian men  must  see  that  morality  as  well  as 
expediency  enters  into  it.  Shall  attachment 
to  political  theories  usurp  the  place  of  con- 
science ? 


Many  citizens  who  see  the  unreasonable- 
ness of  choosing  city  officials  on  a  national 
platform  continue  to  support  this  system,  on 
the  ground  that  no  other  is  practicable.  Such 
is  the  refuge  of  all  men  who  have  no  real 
faith  in  the  moral  principles  they  profess. 
Very  few  thinkers  any  longer  pretend  that 
there  is  a  true  analogy  between  municipal  and 
state  or  federal  government.  An  assumed 
analogy  of  this  kind  has  been  the  cause  of 
great  confusion  in  the  modern  treatment  of 
the  subject.  It  would,  further,  explain  in  large 
measure  why  Mr.  James  Bryce  is  able  to  state 
so  positively  that  our  institutions  break  down 
in  cities.  It  has  also  brought  about  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  the  uninformed  public  mind, 
which  honestly  imagines  that  these  or  those 
opinions  regarding  national  policy  are  proper 
qualifications  for  a  local  court  clerk  or  tax 
officer.  With  the  further  spread  of  right 
ideas  about  civil  service  such  false  concep- 
tions will  cease  to  confuse  intelligent  minds. 
But  the  men  who  reject  non-partisan  city 
government  solely  on  the  ostensible  ground 
of  impracticability,  expose  themselves  either 
to  the  charge  of  moral  insincerity  or  to  the 
imputation  of  self-interested  action. 

Granting  that  there  is  rightfully  no  politics 
in  local  affairs  such  as  police  justice  and 
street-cleaning,  men  of  character  and  in- 
telligence are  bound  in  the  performance  of 
their  simplest  public  duty  to  combine  their 
efforts  to  eliminate  this  irrelevant  and  dis- 
turbing element.  Shall  the  Christian  mer- 
chant be  driven  to  commercial  cheating  be- 
cause, forsooth,  the  failure  to  adopt  such  an 
expedient  may  give  his  business  competitor 
an  advantage?  Where,  in  that  event,  is  his 
Christianity?  Shall  the  Christian  citizen  of 
one  national  party  continue  his  support  of  an 
unnatural  and  immoral  intermingling  of  un- 
related interests — shall  he  refuse  to  lend  his 
aid  to  obtaining  a  purely  business  administra- 
tion of  local  affairs — because,  forsooth,  such 
action  may  threaten  to  strengthen  the  other 
national  party?  Where,  in  that  event,  is  his 
Christianity?  Observe  that  this  is  not  ille- 
gitimately identifying  a  popular  reform 
movement  with  our  religion.  We  are  assum- 
ing that  the  men  so  appealed  to  honestly  en- 
tertain the  conviction,  as  great  numbers 
avowedly  do,  that  the  now  prevalent  bal- 
ancing and  trading  of  national  and  local  in- 
terests are  wrong  and  unnecessary  save  as 
they  may  seem  to  be  demanded  by  expediency. 
And  since  when  has  mere  difficulty  of  realiza- 
tion become  a  sufficient  excuse  for  the  aban- 
donment of  ideals?  If  we  know,  or  are  con- 
vinced, that  a  thing  is  right,  we  are  bound 
to  make  it  practicable.  The  attainment  of  a 
personal  Christian  character  is  not  a  result, 
but  a  process,  and  an  unending  striving  after 
the  unattainable.  So  also  there  is  no  prac- 
ticable perfection  in  human  society  or  gov- 
ernment, but  a  Christian  citizenship  has  no 
right  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

There  are  some  religionists  of  correct  lives 
who  refuse  to  employ  the  services  in  any  ca- 
pacity  of   persons   holding   a   different    faith 
from  their  own.     We  do  not  regard  this  as 
I  a  high  type  of  religion.     No  more  can  we  ac- 


ELECTION  DAY 


691 


cept  as  a  high  standard  of  Christian  citizen- 
ship the  man  who  does  not  believe  a  neighbor 
of  another  political  faith  worthy  to  be  in- 
trusted with  local  administrative  functions. 
A  little  observation  will  disclose  how  amaz- 
ingly common  this  attitude  is  among  men 
whose  first  law  of  mind  and  action  should  be 
charity.  Universal  mugwumpery  would  be  a 
sad  state  for  a  free  people,  and  fortunately 


impossible ;  but  it  need  not  impair  a  man's 
party  loyalty  one  iota  to  declare  and  prove 
himself  absolutely  and  unqualifiedly  an  In- 
dependent in  municipal  elections.  Until  in- 
telligent Christian  men  take  this  broad  view, 
and  also  liee  the  reproach  of  indifference  to 
civic  obligations,  there  is  little  ground  for 
hope  that  our  cities  will  speedily  be  freed 
from  ring  rule. — I. 


THE  SOURCE  OF  PARTY  WISDOM 

By  James  A.  Garfield 


I  have  seen  the  sea  lashed  into  fury  and 
tossed  into  spray,  and  its  grandeur  moves  the 
soul  of  the  dullest  man;  but  I  remember  that 
it  is  not  the  billows,  but  the  calm  level  of  the 
sea,  from  which  all  heights  and  depths  are 
measured.  When  the  storm  has  passed  and 
the  hour  of  calm  settles  on  the  ocean,  when 
the  sunlight  bathes  its  smooth  surface,  then 
the  astronomer  and  surveyor,  take  the  level 
from  which  to  measure  all  terrestrial  heights 
and  depths.  Gentlemen  of  the  convention, 
your  present  temper  may  not  mark  the  health- 
ful pulse  of  our  people  when  our  enthusiasm 
has  passed.  When  the  emotions  of  this  hour 
have  subsided,  we  shall  find  that  calm  level 
of  public  opinion  below  the  storm,  from  which 
the  thoughts  of  a  mighty  people  are  to  be 
measured,  and  by  which  their  final  action 
will  be  determined.  Not  here  in  this  brilliant 
circle,   where   fifteen   thousand  men   are  as- 


sembled, is  the  destiny  of  the  Republican 
party  to  be  declared.  Not  here,  where  I  see 
the  faces  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty-six  dele- 
gates waiting  to  cast  their  votes  in  the  urn 
and  determine  the  choice  of  the  Republic,  but 
by  four  million  Republican  firesides,  where 
the  thoughtful  voters,  with  wives  and  chil- 
dren about  them,  with  the  calm  thoughts  in- 
spired by  the  love  of  home  and  country,  with 
the  history  of  the  past,  the  hopes  of  the  fu- 
ture, and  a  knowledge  of  the  great  men  who 
have  adorned  and  blessed  our  Nation  in  days 
gone  by — there  God  prepares  the  verdict  that 
shall  determine  the  wisdom  of  our  work  to- 
night. Not  in  Chicago,  in  the  heats  of  June, 
but  in  the  sober  quiet  that  comes  to  them 
between  now  and  November;  in  the  silence 
of  deliberate  judgment  will  the  great  question 
be  settled. — Selected. 


SERMONS 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  POLITICAL 

MORALITY 

By  Rev.  Bernard  Paine 


This  question,  which  demands  a  practical 
solution  in  the  states  and  in  the  Nation,  sug- 
gests a  larger  one,  viz. :  the  relation  of 
Christianity  to  the  moral  condition  and  the 
moral  improvement  of  society.  In  this  dis- 
cussion, therefore,  we  consider  the  Church 
as  synonymous  with  Christianity.  When  the 
Christian  Church  is  true  to  its  mission,  and 
just  so  far  as  it  is  true  to  the  teachings  and  to 
the  example  of  Christ,  it  is  the  salt  of  the 
earth.  It  saves  it  from  utter  corruption  and 
purifies  it  with  a  new  life  and  a  new  morality. 
The  truth  is,  if  we  examine  closely  into 
Christ's  work,  we  learn  that  immediately, 
constantly,  and  by  indirect  methods  as  well. 
He  was  correcting  the  relations  of  people  in 
society.  His  words  let  the  light  in,  and  smote 
the  sources  of  wrong  moral  conduct.  One 
thing  which  He  was  ever  enforcing  was  the 
proper  estimate  of  man  apart  from  his  con- 
dition. 


Every  man  is  a  child  of  God.  This  is  His 
great  revelation  as  to  man.  Christ  has  given 
to  every  man  on  earth  the  charter  of  his  lib- 
erty, the  right  to  a  filial  and  equal  relation  in 
God's  family,  and  to  the  moral  and  inalien- 
able right  to  be,  as  a  man,  on  a  fundamental 
equality  with  every  other  man.  Boundaries 
of  Nations  cannot  fence  off  and  cast  out  any 
men  regardless  of  their  rights  as  men.  The 
color  of  the  skin  cannot  obliterate  the  man,  or 
make  him  anything  else  than  a  man.  Educa- 
tion, culture,  refinements  of  society,  occupation 
— especially  the  luxurious  living  of  the  wealthy 
— may  make  a  striking  difference  in  the  ex- 
ternal appearance  of  those  who  are  so  favored 
from  those  of  the  large  majority  whose  hands 
are  bony  and  calloused  with  daily  toil,  and 
whose  dress  is  plain  and  worn.  The  innocent 
and  amiable  will  carry  a  sweet  face,  while  the 
ugly  and  vicious  will  betray  their  vices  to  the 
world   in   the   countenances  that   they   wear. 


692 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


But  notwithstanding  these  wide  diversities, 
there  is  the  human  soul  under  all  beating 
with  common  impulses,  feelings,  and  desires ; 
and  Christ  opened  the  door  of  hope  and  life 
to  each  and  to  all. 

In  close  connection  with  this,  Jesus  taught 
the  duty  and  Christian  privilege  of  self-sacri- 
fice in  place  of  selfishness.  In  this  He  showed 
the  only  practicable  way  of  exercising  love 
for  our  neighbor.  If  a  Christian  loves  his 
neighbor  as  himself,  there  will  be  no  end  of 
opportunities  to  assist  him  out  of  trouble  and 
help  to  better  things;  and  in  doing  these 
things,  he  will  be  denying  himself  and  mak- 
ing personal  sacrifices  in  order  to  attain  his 
end,  and  bringing  to  his  brother  man  every- 
where the  help  that  he  needs.  And  it  is  in 
relation  to  this  wide  opportunity  afforded  in 
this  free  land  of  ours — a  Nation  so  open  to  all 
kinds  of  effort  and  influence  for  the  uplifting 
of  great  masses  of  human  brothers — it  is  at 
this  point  of  view  that  we  should  cultivate 
our  Christian  patriotism,  and  learn  to  honor 
and  love  our  native  land.  We  need  not  con- 
done her  faults;  but  with  all  the  faults  and 
imperfections  of  our  country,  for  this  liberty 
in  Christ's  work  we  love  her  still. 

The  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  moral 
condition  of  society  in  our  land  and  to  its  im- 
provement is  one  of  responsibility  as  well  as 
privilege.  Take  one  instance — the  family. 
Upon  its  sacredness  and  peace,  its  unity  and 
virtue,  the  whole  structure  of  society  rests. 
Whatever  touches  its  integrity  or  weakens  its 
life  tends  to  destroy  the  home  and  spread 
the  virus  of  unfaithfulness  and  libertinism 
through  the  land.  Now,  Christianity  has 
lifted  marriage  to  the  level  of  a  sacrament. 
It  elevates  the  relation  between  husband  and 
wife  to  a  holy  unity,  symbolizing  the  relation 
between  Christ  and  His  Church.  It  holds  up 
before  us  the  relative  duties  and  affections  of 
parents  and  children  as  an  affecting  mirror  in 
which  we  behold  the  face  of  our  Heavenly 
Father,  and  the  filial  piety  that  is  due  to  ?Iim 
from  all  His  earthly  children.  Every  Chris- 
tian family  is  a  pivot  on  which  the  Church 
moves  the  lever  of  personal  life  to  herald 
forth  and  carry  Christ  to  the  people.  The 
families  of  a  Church  are  like  planetary  stars, 
of  varying  brightness,  sending  light  into  the 
intervening  spaces  from  Christ,  the  central 
luminary.  This  light  is  their  good  works, 
which  men  see  and  for  which  they  bless  God, 
because  they  come  from  God.  This  testi- 
mony is  not  weak,  but  purifying  and  aggres- 
sive. The  Church  never  will  rest  or  be  silent 
so  long  as  the  laws  of  the  state  make  it  easy 
for  the  marriage  covenant  to  be  annulled.  It 
cannot  cease  to  cry  aloud  until  the  laws  of 
the  state  are  made  parallel  to  the  law  of 
Christ.  We  see  in  this  one  instance  how 
closely  the  Church  is  related  to  the  moral 
condition  of  society,  and  how  it  constantly 
and  powerfully  works  for  the  improvement 
of  that  condition.  We  also  may  see  how  this 
aggressive  power  for  good  may  be  increased 
through  the  enactment  of  laws  which  favor 
the  virtue  and  sanctity  of  the  family.  Every 
Christian  man  is  a  citizen  of  a  free,  self- 
governed  nation.     He  need  not  go  out  of  the 


kingdom  of  Heaven  to  become  a  citizen,  but 
remains  in  it,  a  Christian  man.  The  Church 
has  a  mighty,  aggressive  power  to  exert 
through  her  citizen  membership. 

And  now  we  approach  another  phase  of  our 
subject.  We  speak  of  the  suffrages  of  the 
people,  and  of  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  a 
freeman.  Let  us  not  be  ashamed  to  ask. 
What  is  a  ballot?  A  ballot  is  a  vote  upon 
some  question,  or  measure,  or  law,  as  a  con- 
stitutional law,  brought  before  the  citizen 
voters  to  decide.  More  commonly,  it  is  a  vote 
by  which  each  citizen  makes  his  choice  of  the 
men  tliat  he  prefers  should  hold  certain  offices 
of  trust,  especially  for  men,  whether  in  the 
state  or  nation,  who  are  to  enact  and  to 
execute  laws.  The  ballot  is  a  piece  of  paper. 
It  means  nothing  except  in  the  hands  of  a 
citizen  who  is  privileged  to  show  by  his  use 
of  it  what  kind  of  a  man  he  is.  By  a  figure 
of  speech,  the  term  "  ballot "  is  used  to 
cover  the  power,  use,  and  privilege  of  the 
voting  citizen  in  the  making  of  laws,  and  in 
the  governing  of  the  Nation.  When  we  speak 
of  the  purification  of  the  ballot,  we  mean  the 
purification  of  the  men  and  their  acts  in  the 
use  or  misuse  of  the  ballot.  We  have  been 
taught  from  the  early  days  of  the  Republic 
that  a  free  nation  depends  for  its  stability 
and  prosperity  upon  the  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence of  her  citizens.  It  is  a  maxim  of  free- 
dom's defenders.  The  ballot  is  the  true 
measure  of  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  a 
citizen.  Upon  the  sacredness  of  the  ballot 
rests  the  future  of  the  Nation.  Whatever 
corrupts  it  strikes  a  blow  at  the  life  of  the 
Republic.  Is  such  corruption  at  all  prevalent 
in  our  State  'and  Nation? 

Professor  McCook,  of  Trinity  College, 
Hartford,  has  made  a  careful  inquiry.  Hav- 
ing been  chosen  chairman  of  a  committee  to 
examine  into  the  expenditures  for  alms  and 
charity  in  the  city  of  Hartford,  his  report  of 
the  facts  was  given  to  the  world,  and  made 
the  basis  of  a  reformation  in  that  city.  He 
then  extended  his  investigations  to  the  State, 
more  especially  to  learn  the  facts  concerning 
the  amount  of  venality  at  the  polls.  These 
facts  have  been  given  out  through  various 
periodicals.  He  discusses  the  subject  in  TJie 
Homilctic  Feviciv  for  June,  1893.  Speaking 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  practical  politician 
gets  into  office,  he  says :  "  It  has  come  to 
pass  that  20,000  votes  of  Connecticut's  166,- 
000  votes  are  liable  to  be  cast  for  money  or 
some  other  valuable  consideration.  The  gauge 
has  been  thrust  into  the  barrel  at  haphazard 
in  three  places — two  country  towns  and  one 
city  ward — bringing  up  11.3  per  cent,  of  venal. 
Again,  it  has  gone  down  into  17  towns  and 
one  large  city  and  brought  up  15.9  per  cent. 
As  a  result,  the  mean  number  of  voters  for 
sale  in  the  open  market  is  22,576,  and  the 
sums  paid  have  been  found  to  range  from 
$1.50  to  $50. 

This  information  comes  from  the  practical 
politician  "  unembarrassed,"  as  the  writer 
says,  "  by  the  consciousness  of  moral  guilt  or 
civic  delinquency."  Professor  AlcCook  fur- 
ther testifies  that  "  The  practical  politician 
I    effects  bribery  of  this  kind  through  money, 


ELECTION  DAY 


693 


flour,  cows ;  through  shooting  parties,  with 
free  conveyance  and  free  refreshment,  both 
solid  and  liquid,  attached,  and  like  gross  re- 
wards." Let  us  smother  our  moral  feelings 
and  coolly  look  these  facts  in  the  face.  More 
than  one-eighth  of  the  citizen  voters  of  this 
State,  this  famed  "  land  of  steady  habits  "  can 
be  purchased  for  such  various  mercenary  re- 
wards. Moreover  they  are  being  purchased. 
What  does  this  mean?  It  means,  for  one 
thing,  that  this  venal  vote  rules  the  election 
in  every  doubtful  state,  and  probably  in  every 
doubtful  town  and  city.  What,  now,  becomes 
of  the  ballot,  the  power  and  glory  of  the  Re- 
public? Where  are  the  virtuous  and  intelli- 
gent American  citizens,  who,  whether  in  one 
party  or  the  other,  may  be  outvoted  by  a 
band  of  lawless  tramps  and  drunkards,  who 
are  bought  by  money,  cows,  or  beer?  What 
kind  of  men  will  get  into  office  while  such 
voting  prevails?  Will  not  the  practical  poli- 
tician get  to  the  State  Capitol  ?  "  One  has 
only  to  follow  the  proceedings  of  a  state  leg- 
islature day  by  day,"  says  Professor  McCook, 
"  to  find  the  evidence  of  bribery  no  less  real, 
tho  perhaps  less  gross."  Then,  besides,  there 
is  the  venal  influence  and  work  of  the  third 
house.  Only  a  few  years  since,  the  lobby  of 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  underwent  an 
investigation.  It  was  found  that  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  were  in  the  hands  of 
this  lobby,  and  operated  with  the  connivance 
of  prominent  politicians. 

An  article  in  the  March  Forum  (1894) 
shows  how  municipal  corruption  is  reduced 
to  a  science.  The  writer  says :  "  Municipal 
government  is  corrupt  simply  because  corrupt 
and  corruptible  men  are  elected  to  office.  Cor- 
rupt men  are  elected  to  office  because  office 
'  pays,'  and  corruptible  men  yield  because 
they  make  money  by  yielding.  If  municipal 
governments  had  no  profitable  contracts  to 
award,  if  school  boards  had  no  text-books  to 
select,  we  should  have  no  '  municipal  prob- 
lem.' "  In  this  way  the  writer  opens  up  a 
vast  but  well-defined  system  of  bribery  on 
the  part  of  business  firms,  operating  upon  city 
councils,  the  selectmen  of  towns,  and  the 
school  boards  of  town  and  city  to  introduce 
water-works,  school-books,  heating  apparatus, 
etc.  These  things  are  being  practised  widely 
all  over  the  country.  But  the  spirit  of  right- 
eous reform  is  not  dead.  It  was  such  right- 
eous reform  that  abolished  the  Tweed  ring  in 
New  York  City.  It  was  such  a  national  spirit 
of  protest  and  revolt  that  withered  the  repu- 
tation of  every  man  whose  name  was  in  any 
way  connected  with  the  "  Credit  Mobilier  " 
scandal  in  Congress.  This  righteous  spirit  of 
reform  has  its  source  in  the  Christian  Church. 

One  of  the  most  iniquitous  forms  of  taking 
from  an  American  citizen  his  right  to  a  free 
ballot  is  through  intimidation.  This  is  not 
bribery;  it  is  oppression.  It  is  oppression  in 
a  free  land.  It  is  practised  by  both  parties, 
sometimes  through  corporations  and  capital- 
ists, and  sometimes  by  threats  of  violence  at 
the  polls.  The  evidence  is  spread  before  the 
Nation  that  it  is  practised  at  elections  in  vari- 
ous states  at  the  South  for  the  suppression 
of  the  colored  voters.     I  do  not  know  what 


legislation  is  wise  in  such  a  crisis ;  but  one 
thing  the  Church  knows,  and  that  is  that  the 
Ethiopian  as  well  as  the  Caucasian  is  a  man 
in  Christ's  view,  and  as  an  American  citizen 
he  has  the  right  to  a  free  ballot ;  and  when- 
ever force  or  intimidation  drives  him  from 
the  polls,  the  Nation  has  the  duty  and  the 
power  to  protect  him.  Is  anything  being 
done  to  correct  these  evils  that  surround  the 
elections?  Yes;  and  the  current  of  reform 
is  in  this  case  started  from  across  the  water. 
Fortunately,  we  have  a  very  encouraging  ex- 
ample in  the  very  thorough  legislation  upon 
the  corrupt  practises  at  elections  which  was 
eiifected  in  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain 
in  1883.  This  was  one  of  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  Mr.  Gladstone's  cabinet,  and  the 
man  who  had  special  charge  of  the  work 
was  Sir  Henry  James,  the  attorney-general  at 
that  time.  The  author  of  the  act  gives  a 
very  interesting  account  of  it  in  the  April 
(1894)  number  of  the  Forum.  The  evil  had 
become  gigantic,  spreading  and  taking  deeper 
root  for  many  generations.  It  seemed  to  defy 
reform.  Many  attempts  had  been  made  and 
laws  passed,  but  they  had  little  eff^ect.  Says 
Sir  Henry :  "  A  most  unsatisfactory  aspect 
of  the  matter  was  that  in  many  localities 
bribery  and  treating  were  resorted  to  by  men 
in  responsible  positions,  who  seemed  to  be 
blind  to  any  moral  evil  m  the  corrupt  prac- 
tises they  had  almost  openly  resorted  to. 
From  the  reports  it  was  found  that  justices 
of  the  peace,  members  of  the  governing  local 
bodies,  and  professional  men  were  conspic- 
uous offenders."  But  as  these  corrupt  prac- 
tises were  investigated  and  exposed,  the  pub- 
lic demanded  reform  and  the  press  of  the 
whole  realm  did  valiant  service.  A  striking 
feature  of  this  law  is  its  thoroughness.  The 
courts  and  mode  of  conviction  were  clearly 
marked  and  the  penalties  severe.  For  exam- 
ple, "  If  upon  the  trial  of  an  election  petition, 
the  Election  Court  reports  that  the  offenses 
of  bribery  and  personation  have  been  com- 
mitted by  or  with  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  a  candidate,  or  that  the  offenses  of  treat- 
ing or  undue  influence  have  been  committed 
by  a  candidate,  such  candidate  shall  not  be 
capable  of  being  elected  to  a  sitting  in  the 
House  of  Commons  for  the  county  or 
borough  to  which  the  report  refers,  and  if 
elected,  his  election  is  void."  The  same  re- 
sult follows  if  a  candidate  is  guilty  "  by  his 
agents."  The  act  has  been  in  existence  ten 
years.  The  author  says :  "  Corrupt  practises 
have  in  most  localities  ceased  to  exist.  No 
member  since  the  passing  of  the  act  has  been 
unseated  for  bribery." 

The  act  passed  by  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 
lature in  1892  for  a  similar  purpose  is  also 
set  forth  in  the  same  number  of  the  Forum 
by  its  author,  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy.  He  says : 
"  While  it  defines  and  forbids  certain  acts  as 
constituting  '  corrupt  practices,'  its  main  pro- 
visions are  directed  merely  to  securing  a  full 
and  public  account  of  all  political  expendi- 
tures; but  no  limitation  is  imposed  upon 
their  amount,  and  they  are  not  confined  to 
certain  specified  objects,  as  they  are  in  the 
English   act."     These   expenditures   must   be 


694 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


made  through  a  political  committee.  Each 
such  committee  must  have  a  treasurer,  and 
this  treasurer  is  obliged  to  keep  a  record  of 
all  moneys  received  and  paid  out,  with  names 
of  each  person  contributing,  and  the  amount 
given.  He  is  not  allowed  to  solicit  or  make 
any  assessment  upon  any  candidate.  Within 
thirty  days  after  election  this  treasurer  must 
make  a  sworn  statement  of  all  the  receipts 
and  disbursements.  Mr.  Quincy  says :  "The 
Massachusetts  act  has  worked  so  well  at  its 
first  trial  as  to  afford  decided  encouragement 
for  the  introduction  of  similar  legislation 
elsewhere."  Mr.  Bishop,  of  New  York,  criti- 
cizes the  Massachusetts  law,  as  well  as  those 
in  New  York  and  Michigan,  in  not  making 
sufficiently  definite  the  courts  before  which 
the  offenses  are  to  be  tried  and  the  manner 
of  bringing  them  to  trial.  The  proposed  Con- 
necticut act,  which  goes  to  the  next  General 
Assembly  (1894)  seems  to  me  to  remedy  this 
defect.  This  proposed  act  "  to  suppress  cor- 
rupt practices  at  elections  "  is  published,  to- 
gether with  an  improved  ballot  law,  with  the 
acts  of  the  last  Assembly,  a  copy  of  which 
ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  citizen  of 
the  State  and  read.  This  law  ought  to  be  en- 
acted. It  should  be  so  well  understood  by  the 
public  as  to  call  forth  a  strong  public  senti- 
ment in  its  support,  so  that  it  shall  not  be 
weakened  by  the  amendments  of  practical 
politicians,  but,  if  necessary,  made  stronger 
by  the  corrections  and  additions  of  the 
framers  and  friends  of  the  bill.  This  reform 
has  come ;  it  is  a  pressing  need,  and  it  ha- 
stens to  its  goal  What  is  the  sphere  of  the 
Church  in  such  a  reform?  A  brief  outline 
must  suffice  in  my  closing  words: 

I.  It  must  recognize  and  hold  up  before 
men  the  moral  character  of  this  corruption 
of  the  ballot.  Bribery  is  a  sin.  It  is  con- 
demned in  the  laws  of  Moses :  "  And  thou 
shalt  take  no  gift ;  for  a  gift  blindeth  the 
wise,  and  perverteth  the  words  of  the  right- 
eous." These  words  are  as  true  to-day  as 
when  they  were  written.  The  warning  is  re- 
peated in  Deuteronomy  and  other  parts  of  the 
Bible:  "Thou  shalt  not  wrest  judgment; 
thou  shalt  not  respect  persons ;  neither  take 
a  gift;  for  a  gift  doth  blind  the  eyes  of  the 
wise,  and  pervert  the  words  of  the  right- 
eous." If  it  will  blind  the  eyes  of  the  wise, 
what  effect  must  it  have  upon  the  common 
people — upon  the  foolish?  Will  it  not  destroy 
the  moral  sense?  When  Simon  the  Sorcerer 
tried  to  bribe  Peter  with  money,  he  said  to 
him:  "Thy  money  perish  with  thee,  because 
thou  hast  thought  that  the  gift  of  God  may 
be  purchased  with  money."  Even  our  Lord 
was  made  subject  to  the  temptation  of  liribory 
by  the  arch-deceiver.  He  showed  him  all  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world,  their  riches,  and  the 
glory  of  them,  and  said,  "  All  these  will  I 
give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship 
me"  But  this  was  most  abhorrent  to  the 
holy  nature  of  Christ.  His  reply  was  quick, 
with  disgust  and  sharp  rebuke :  "  Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan."  Bribery  under  all  cir- 
cumstances is  wicked ;  but  in  the  political 
life  of  a  people,  it  is  most  degrading.  Cor- 
ruption is  the  proper  word. 


2.  The  Church  furnishes  a  standard  for  po- 
litical morality.  Outside  of  Christianity,  there 
is  no  one  standard  of  morality  for  all  people 
and  times.  Governments  are  of  various 
forms.  Circumstances  and  customs  call  forth 
diverse  ideals  and  tests  of  what  is  justifiable 
and  right.  But  God  does  not  change.  Jesus 
Christ  "  is  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever."  In  setting  up  His  kingdom,  there 
is  to  be — there  is  only  one  standard ;  it  is  the 
will  of  God.  How  repugnant  to  bribery  is 
the  thought  of  God!  God's  love  does  not 
trifle  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
weak.  It  does  not  permit  a  stumbling-block 
to  rest  before  the  feet  of  our  Irother. 

3.  Once  more,  for  the  elevation  of  political 
morality   the   Church   is   to   furnish   motives. 
The   motives    furnished  by   the   State   in   its 
regulation    of    conduct    are    limited    in    their 
range.     They  appeal  to  fears,  chiefly  in  the 
restraints  put  upon  personal  liberty  and  the 
disgrace  of  convict  life.     The  State  does  well 
to   call   in  the   Church  and   her   ministers  to 
help    reform    the    character    of    the    convicts. 
But  what  can  the  State  do  toward  changing 
the  moral  character  of  the  people  in  the  com- 
munity at  large?     How  rid  them  of  a  wrong 
bias?     How  straighten  the  crooked  places  in 
man's   fallen   nature?     How   restore   the  lost 
balance?     She  knows  nothing  of  these  things. 
Dr.  Parker  says  concerning  Christ's  work  of 
adjusting  human  relations  :    "  A  very  subtle 
thing  is  the  equipoise.     An  extra  handful  of 
dust  on  the  side  of  a  plant  might  endanger 
the  universe."     There  is  something  in  human 
nature  that  the  State  cannot  reach.     A  writer 
in  Lux  Mundi  says :    "  If  states  and  societies 
are   as   the    individuals   who   compose   them, 
then  any  theory  of  society  must  rest  upon  the 
theory  of  man ;    and  the  theory  of  man  is  im- 
perfect  unless   it   recognizes  the   fact   of   sin. 
This  fact  of  sin,  of  course,   is  broader  and 
deeper  than  any  acts,   whether  moral  or  im- 
moral.    The     State,     therefore,     needs     the 
Church  to  furnish  the  motives  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  political  morality.     Her  resources  for 
this  are  quite  inadequate,  and  need  to  be  sup- 
plemented   by    those    of     Christianity.     The 
State    fails    to    give    principles    and    motives 
which    apply    to    all    moral    conduct."     And 
again  we  quote  these  conclusive  words :  "  The 
State  can  only  secure  a  minimum  of  morality, 
shifting  with  the  general  morality  of  the  com- 
munity.    It    is    in    its    appeal    to    the    higher 
motives  that  the   State  is  weak ;    it  is  in  its 
appeal  to  the  higher  motives  that  the  Church 
is  strong." 

Brethren,  we  believe  in  the  coming  of  a 
better  future  to  the  world.  We  have  not  lost 
the  vi:  ion  of  the  seers.  We  are  now  living 
in  the  bright  to-morrow  of  ancient  days ;  and 
every  to-morrow  will  be  brighter  than  the 
one  before  it.  But  how  is  this  hope  of  the 
ages  to  be  realized?  The  prophets,  with  one 
voice,  say,  by  the  increase  of  righteousness. 
"  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,"  and  noth- 
ing else  can,  "  He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh 
shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption."  Sodom 
found  it  so ;  Nineveh  had  experience  of  the 
truth ;  so  did  Babylon,  Rome ;  and  the  na- 
tions of  heathenism  in   every  age  affirm  the 


ELECTION  DAY 


695 


truth.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  to  be  a 
kingdom  of  saloons.  It  is  said  the  brewers 
of  New  York  city  rule  the  entire  municipality. 
How  ?  By  mortgaging  6,000  saloons,  and 
holding  the  keepers  in  political  subjection. 
Does  not  the  city  need  Dr.  Parkhurst  and  the 
churches  behind  him  to  smite  the  vampire  of 
debauchery  and  corruption?  "And  a  high- 
way shall  be  there,  and  the  unclean  shall  not 
walk  therein."  The  better  to-morrow  will 
see  a  great  diminution  of  almhouses  and 
miseries  of  poverty.  Professor  McCook  says 
more  than  56  per  cent,  of  the  expense  of 
almhouses  and  charity  in  Hartford  is  due  to 
intemperance.  In  1890  intemperance  cost  the 
city  the  sum  of  $68,432  in  alms  and  charity. 
The  kingdom  of  God  that  we  are  praying  for 


is  not  a  far-away  kingdom,  somewhere  in  the 
outside  universe.  It  is  coming  on  the  earth. 
The  inhabitants  shall  not  want.  Poverty  and 
sickness  will  be  swept  away.  The  strife  of 
tongues  shall  cease.  Peace  shall  reign  on 
earth  as  in  Heaven.  The  New  Jerusalem 
comes  down  to  earth.  It  is  "  four-square." 
It  hath  foundations.  The  measuring  line  in 
its  erection  is  the  plummet  of  righteous- 
ness. Its  cornerstone  is  Christ.  Through  His 
reign  righteousness  and  peace  are  promised 
throughout  the  world. 

In  every  movement  that  Christianity  makes 
to  eradicate  the  corrupt  practises  of  men  in 
political  and  in  social  life  Christ  is  setting 
up  His  kingdom  on  the  earth. — H.  R. 


THE  USE  AND  ABUSE  OF  PARTY  POLITICS 

By  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes 
Let  your  forbearance  be  known  unto  all  men. — Phil,  iv:  5 


In  the  Authorized  Version,  as  every  one 
knows,  it  is  translated  "  moderation."  It  is 
a  very  good  thing,  probably,  to  get  rid  of  that 
word,  because  so  many  people  imagine  that  it 
has  some  special  or  exclusive  reference  to  the 
use  of  strong  drink.  Of  course  the  apostle 
is  not  thinking  of  anything  of  the  sort.  "  Let 
your  forbearance  be  known  unto  all  men." 
In  the  margin,  as  an  alternative  suggestion, 
the  word  gentleness  is  used — "  Let  your  gen- 
tleness be  known  unto  all  men."  Many  will 
remember  that  Matthew  Arnold  translated 
the  word,  with  much  of  his  usual  verbal 
felicity,  sweet  reasonableness — "  Let  your 
sweet  reasonableness  be  known  unto  all  men." 
The  word,  in  fact,  is,  in  itself,  a  very  high 
tribute  to  the  delicate  and  lofty  morality 
which  the  best  Greek  minds  have  reached, 
and  it  expresses  the  state  of  mind  in  which 
we  make  due  allowance  for  the  conduct  of 
others,  and  especially  of  our  opponents,  and 
in  which  we  are  alive  to  our  own  mental 
defects. 

Now  I  need  scarcely  remind  you  or  prove 
to  you  that  there  is  no  sphere  of  life  in  which 
this  moderation  or  forbearance  or  gentleness 
or  sweet  reasonableness  is  more  urgently  de- 
manded than  in  the  region  which  men  call 
politics ;  and  I  have  to  speak  this  afternoon 
of  "  The  Use  and  Abuse  of  Party  Politics." 
But  before  I  say  a  word  about  party  politics, 
I  must  try  to  bring  home  to  everybody's  mind, 
altho  there  seems  to  be  some  extraordinary 
difficulty  in  the  process,  that  there  is  an  im- 
mense difference  between  politics  and  party 
politics,  altho  the  great  majority  of  those 
who  either  speak  or  think  or  write  upon  the 
subject  seem  to  be  incapable  of  grasping  the 
idea  tliat  there  is  anything  which  may  be 
called  politics  except  that  with  which  we  are 
almost  too  familiar,  and  which  is  more 
properly  called  party  politics. 

But  what  is  politics,  in  the  legitimate  sense 
of  that  word?  Why,  it  is  the  science  of  So- 
cial   Conduct !     And   every   act  of  your  life 


outside  the  domestic  circle  is  a  political  act. 
There  are  a  great  many  acts  of  your  life,  also, 
inside  the  domestic  circle,  which  are  strictly 
political.  So  that  the  man  who  says,  as  a 
great  many  unthinking  or  ill-informed  men 
say,  that  he  is  not  a  politician  is  like  that  re- 
markable man,  in  the  well-known  French 
play,  who  expressed  his  astonishment  at  the 
discovery  that  he  had  been  talking  grammar 
all  his  life  without  knowing  it  Why,  every- 
body is  a  politician !  You  cannot  help  beim; 
a  politician.  You  cannot  live  for  an  hour 
without  being  a  politician.  But  what  a  man 
generally  means  when  he  says  that  he  is 
not  a  politician  I  am  afraid  is  this — 
that  he  has  been  all  his  life  enjoying  hs 
political  privileges  and  grossly  neglecting  his 
political  duties ;  and  in  that  sense  the  ob- 
servation is  scarcely  to  his  credit.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  politics,  properly  understood,  is 
simply  Science  of  Life — the  doctrine  of  the 
way  in  which  I  am  to  do  my  duty  to  my 
neighbor,  which  is  an  essential  part  of  true 
religion.  It  is  nothing  in  the  world  except 
Religion  applied  to  human  society ;  in  fact, 
it  is  the  practical  recognition  of  the  Second 
Table  of  the  Law  of  God. 

But  if  this  is  so.  how  is  it  that  so  many 
persons  who  sincerely  desire  to  please  God, 
and  to  do  the  will  of  God,  speak  so  suspi- 
ciously and  so  disparagingly  of  politics?  How 
is  it  that  politics  have  been  so  much  misun- 
derstood and  disparaged?  It  is  because  uoli- 
tics,  as  I  have  already  said,  have  been  con- 
founded with  party  politics  ;  have  often  been 
contemptible  and  wicked  beyond  description  ; 
and,  indeed,  when  not  carried  so  far  as  thnt, 
there  are  a  great  inany  persons  who  positively 
cannot  discuss  politics  without  losing  their 
temper.  And  this  is  so  well  known  that  the 
subject  is  tabooed  to  a  very  great  extent  in 
polite  society,  so-called,  so  that  if  you  go  to 
a  dinner  party  the  one  thing  of  which  you 
must  not  speak  is  politics,  and  the  place  that 
might  reasonably  be  occupied  by  noble  and 


696 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


instructive  conversation  about  the  science  and 
art  of  life,  and  human  progress,  is  occupied 
by  inane,  and  worse  than  inane,  gossip. 

Then,  again,  it  is  very  much  too  common 
on  the  part  of  those  who  either  talk  or  write 
about  politics  to  impute  the  vilest  motives 
to  their  political  opponents,  and  to  carry  on 
their  observations  in  a  perfect  shower  of 
personalities.  And  I  am  bound  to  add  fur- 
ther that,  in  consequence  of  these  pollutions, 
and  of  this  unhappy  temper  of  mind,  the  argu- 
ments in  which  a  great  many  persons  who  dis- 
cuss politics  indulge  are  of  the  most  puerile 
and  even  asinine  character.  I  am  bound,  with 
some  reluctance  and  shame,  to  add  that  I 
know  not  a  few  Christians,  sincere  Christians, 
who  have  been  so  eaten  up  with  party  politics 
that  thev  have  even  sacrificed  their  church 
to  the  supposed  interests  of  their  political 
party,  have  put  loyalty  to  their  party  chiefs 
before  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ ;  and  you  can- 
not imagine  anything  more  disgraceful  than 
that  on  the  part  of  a  Christian. 

Moreover,  party  political  prejudice  and  pas- 
sion have  been  carried  so  far  in  this  country 
that  a  public  speaker,  like  myself,  never  dares 
to  mention  in  a  mixed  assembly  the  name  of 
any  great  statesman,  because  the  moment  you 
do  that,  not  only  will  his  friends  and  sup- 
porters cheer  him,  which  is  an  innocent  and 
inoffensive  amusement  on  their  part,  but  a 
number  of  geese  in  the  audience  begin  at 
once  to  hiss.  Now,  I  say  that  a  country  in 
which  that  takes  place  is  not  yet  civilized ; 
that  if  a  man  cannot  restrain  his  feelings  so 
far  as  to  abstain  from  insulting  those  with 
whom  he  does  not  happen  to  agree,  the  mnn  is 
a  savage;  because,  one  of  the  fundamentil 
distinctions  between  a  savage  and  a  civilized 
man  is,  that  a  civilized  man  is  able  to  restrain 
himself.  But  every  one  who  listens  to  me  is 
aware  that  this  miserable  party  spirit  has 
been  carried  so  far  in  this  country  that  pub- 
lic speakers  like  myself  are  never  able  to 
quote  prominent  politicians  even  on  issues 
that  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  party 
politics,  because  we  hear  these  offensive 
sounds.  The  truth  is,  political  discussions 
have  been  carried  on  in  this  country  hitherto 
so  completely  outside  the  pale  of  religion,  and 
even  of  ordinary  social  restraints,  that  when 
men  discuss  politics  they  seem  to  give  a  free 
rein  to  their  temper,  and  to  take  leave  of 
their  reason. 

Now,  this  being  to  a  very  great  extent  the 
case,  what  ought  you  and  I  to  do?  Some  one 
might  say:  "  Take  no  part  in  politics  at  all." 
I  have  heard  a  great  many  persons  say  that. 
The  great  majority  of  my  co-religionists  said 
it  when  I  was  a  boy ;  I  do  not  think  they  say 
it  now.  But  there  are  a  great  many  people 
who  do  say  it.  Some  excellent  Christians 
said  so  to  me  last  week,  and  I  found  thev 
were  strongly  urging  me  to  take  no  part  in 
politics  because  they  imagined  that  I  did  not 
agree  with  tlieir  political  opinions,  which  is 
not  a  sufficient  reason,  in  all  cases,  for  ab- 
stention. I  very  much  astonished  them  by 
saying  that  I  had  never  taken  part  in  party 
politics,  that  I  had  never  voted,  except  for 
my  university,  and  that  I  had  never  appeared 


upon  a  party  political  platform.  But  the  diffi- 
culty of  such  excellent  persons  is,  that  they 
have  never  yet  distinguished  between  politics 
and  party  politics.  I,  for  my  part,  hold  very 
strongly  that,  as  a  rule.  Christian  ministers 
would  do  well  to  abstain  from  taking  an 
active  part  in  party  politics  ;  but  I  am  bound 
to  say  that,  if  politicians  choose  to  discuss 
questions  that  have  moral  issues,  I  am  not 
going  to  be  gagged  and  muzzled.  For  I  have 
a  prior  claim  to  be  heard  on  everything  that 
affects  righteousness  and  character  and  mo- 
rality. 

But  not  referring  to  persons  who,  like  my- 
self, are  Christian  ministers,  and  who  there- 
fore occupy  a  somewhat  exceptional  position, 
and  who  are  bound  to  remember  that  in  their 
congregations  they  have  every  variety  of  po- 
litical opinion — what  is  the  course  under  these 
painful  circumstances  which  ordinary  Chris- 
tians ought  to  take?  The  hasty  and  super- 
ficial reply  of  many,  as  I  have  already  said, 
is  this :  As  people  cannot  discuss  politics 
without  losing  their  tempers,  as  so  much  mud 
is  flung  about,  as  it  is  so  disturbing  to  the 
serene  spirit  of  the  devout  man — lake  no  part 
in  politics  whatever.  There  are  several  ob- 
jections to  that;  but,  perhaps,  one  that  I  may 
name  will  suffice — it  is  advice  that  if  is  im- 
possible to  take,  for,  as  I  have  already  ex- 
plained, everybodv  must  be  a  politician  if  he 
happens  to  live  in  a  countr}'^  like  this.  If  he 
takes  himself  off  with  his  wife  and  children 
to  a  solitarj^  island,  perhaps  he  may  live  with- 
out being,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  a 
politician ;  but  the  moment  he  employs  a 
servant  politics  enters,  for  his  relation  to  the 
person  whom  he  employs  has  to  be  deter- 
mined. It  is  very  difficult,  therefore,  even  in 
a  very  thinly  populated  island,  to  avoid  being 
a  politician ;  but  it  is  absolutely  impossible  in 
England,  and  it  is  all  nonsense  to  talk  about  it. 
It  only  indicates  a  man's  ignorance,  that  he 
should  suppose  it  is  possible  for  him  to  abstain 
from  being  a  politician.  I  quite  admit,  as  I  have 
alread}'  said,  that  he  may  abstain  in  the  sense 
of  neglecting  his  political  duty,  and  allowing 
the  country  to  go  to  the  devil  as  far  as  he  is 
concerned,  but  that  is  not  the  sort  of  ex- 
ample a  Christian  minister  can  commend,  or 
that  would  have  any  commendation  what- 
ever in  the  Bible.  So  far  as  men  abstain 
from  discharging  their  political  duties,  be- 
cause that  discharge  involves  annoyance,  or 
perhaps  loss  in  business,  or  introduces  some 
painful  element  into  life,  they  are  cowards. 
They  are  treacherous  to  Jesus  Christ,  they 
are  deserting  the  post  of  duty ;  and.  so  far 
as  they  are  concerned,  they  are  handing  over 
all  the  resources  of  civilization  to  the  devil, 
to  which  I,  personally,  strongly  object.  I 
have  fully  admitted  that  political  activity  is 
liable  to  abuse,  but  all  good  things  are  liable 
to  abuse,  and  the  better  they  are  the  more 
liable  are  they  to  abuse ;  but  the  fact  that 
this  peril  exists  should  not  reduce  us  to  po- 
litical impotence,  but  should  set  us  on  our 
guard,  and  teach  us  to  set  our  neighbors  a 
better  example.  Free  and  just  political  in- 
stitutions are  absolutely  essential  to  the  prog- 


ELECTION   DAY 


697 


ress  and  development  both  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  race. 

I  know  there  are  some  persons — they  must 
be  very  ill-informed,  and  they  must  be  abso- 
lutely ignorant  of  history — who  cherish  the 
delusion  that  personal  happiness  and  the  in- 
terests of  religion  are  not  dependent  in  any 
sense  upon  political  institutions.  This  is  the 
exact  opposite  of  the  truth.  I  appeal  to  the 
whole  course  of  human  history  from  its 
dawn.  The  great  outburst  of  ancient  thought 
and  art  in  Greece  took  place  among  the  free 
citizens  of  Athens,  and  not  among  the  mili- 
tary slaves  of  Sparta.  It  was  just  the  same 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  just  the  same  in 
Modern  Europe  to-day.  It  is  a  lesson  drawn 
from  the  history  of  all  ages,  that  Literature, 
Art,  Science,  as  well  as  Religion,  always  fol- 
low the  fortunes,  and  flourish  under  the  flag. 
of  political  freedom.  It  is,  therefore,  a  part 
of  our  high  duty  to  God  and  man  to  use  all 
our  influence  in  every  direction  to  establish 
and  to  extend  political  freedom,  and  just  po- 
litical institutions.  It  is  a  matter  of  life  and 
death  to  everybody  who  loves  God  and  his 
neighbor  to  do  his  duty  in  this  direction. 
Yes,  you  say,  that  may  be  all  right,  it  is  quite 
evident  to  any  one  who  takes  an  intelligent 
and  scriptural  sense  of  the  scope  of  human 
duty  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  neglect  our 
political  duty  without  neglecting  both  our  duty 
to  God  and  man,  but  what  of  party  politics  ? 
That  is  no  duty. 

It  is  an  old  saying  among  thinkers  that 
every  man  who  is  born  into  this  world  is 
naturally  either  a  follower  of  Plato  or  a  fol- 
lower of  Aristotle ;  and  we  might  say  with 
respect  to  life  that  everybody  is  naturally  a 
Conservative  or  a  Liberal,  and  that  there  must 
always  therefore  be,  in  some  form  or  other, 
and  with  some  name  or  other,  these  two  great 
tendencies  of  the  human  mind  expressing 
themselves  in  two  great  organizations.  The 
Conservative  is  predominantly  anxious  to 
conserve  existing  good,  and  he  is  very  sensi- 
tively alive  to  the  perils  of  change.  On  the 
other  hand  the  Liberal  is  predominantly  anx- 
ious to  realize  further  improvement,  and  he  is 
so  conscious  of  that  that  he  gladly  runs  the 
risk  of  any  peril  that  improvement  may  in- 
volve. But  whatever  view  we  may  take  of 
political  opinion,  when  we  think  over  the 
matter  calmly  we  must  admit  that  there  is  no 
justification  whatever  for  the  violent  lan- 
guage which  politicians  are  too  apt  to  use 
with  respect  to  their  opponents.  Probably 
the  best  excuse  for  it  is  that  really  they  do 
not  believe  it  themselves,  and  use  it  simply 
in  a  Pickwickian  sense.  When  politicians 
address  great  gatherings  of  their  own  ad- 
herents, they  seem  to  think  it  is  necessary  to 
put  all  that  pepper,  mustard,  and  vinegar 
into  their  speech  so  as  to  keep  the  meeting 
lively,  and  if  it  is  quite  understood  that  it 
means  nothing  I  do  not  know  that  it  does 
very  much  harm.  But  at  any  rate  this  is 
certain — looking  at  this  important  phase  of 
human  life,  especially  on  the  eve  of  the  Gen- 
eral Election — that  every  Christian  is  bound, 
if  he  is  a  real  Christian,  to  keep  his  temper 
when  he  discusses  politics,  and  that  any  Chris- 


tian who  loses  his  temper  ought  to  be  excom- 
municated until  he  publicly  repents.  I  say 
that  he  is  not  only  not  a  Christian  but  he  is 
not  a  civilized  man,  and  has  no  pretense 
whatever  to  elementary  civilization.  We  have 
been  far  too  tolerant  of  the  naughty  tempers 
of  people  when  they  discuss  politics,  and  we 
must  insist  upon  the  introduction  of  polite- 
ness and  courtesy  into  public  life.  The 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  insists 
upon  it  there,  where  no  doubt  his  influence  is 
very  much  needed  in  that  direction.  I  think 
that  the  chairman  of  a  public  meeting  ought 
to  have  a  similar  power  of  restraining  the 
impetuosity  of  ardent  advocates.  Unless  there 
is  some  very  exceptional  occasion  we  ought 
to  admit  that  those  who  differ  from  us  are, 
as  a  rule,  quite  as  honest  as  we  are,  that  their 
ideal  is  a  lofty  one,  even  if  we  prefer  our 
own;  and  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is 
no  political  party  which  has  the  absolute 
monopoly  of  Right  and  Truth,  and  that  it 
would  not  really  be  to  the  permanent  advan- 
tage of  the  British  Empire  that  either  of  the 
two  great  political  parties  should  disappear. 

I  think,  further,  that  we  are  fully  agreed 
that  every  intelligent  Christian  ought  to  take 
a  keen  and  active  interest  in  politics,  and  if 
any  one  doubts  that.  I  need  simply  utter  the 
words  "  United  States."  Let  any  one  go  to 
the  United  States  of  America,  as  I  did  last 
year;  let  him  consider  the  awful  state  of 
New  York;  let  him  consult  intelligent  men 
in  any  part  of  the  States  with  respect  to  the 
condition  of  public  affairs,  and  he  will  find  a 
general  consensus  of  opinion  among  the  up- 
right citizens  of  America  that  politics  there 
have  become  so  unscrupulous  and  so  mer- 
cenary and  so  dirty  that  good  men  cannot 
afford  to  touch  them.  To  that,  of  course,  my 
answer  was  :  "  Your  good  men  are  the  cause  ; 
for  if  you  had  been  touching  them  they  would 
never  have  been  found  in  the  position  in 
which  they  are  to-day." 

What  is  it  that  has  saved  this  old  country, 
with  all  its  corruption  and  with  all  its  tend- 
ency to  these  abuses,  from  sinking  so  low? 
One  has  said,  "  Monarchy."  I  do  not  wish 
to  discuss  that  question  now,  but  I  am  afraid 
that  the  mere  existence  of  monarchy  in  itself 
is  not  sufficient  without  the  co-operation  of 
all  good  citizens  to  secure  the  objects  which 
are  desired.  I  should  like  to  remind  my 
friend,  without  in  the  least  degree  disputing 
the  immense  importance  of  monarchy  in  this 
country — which  I  never  have  done — that  there 
are  some  monarchical  countries  in  this  world 
that  are  even  more  degraded  than  the  United 
States ;  and  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
most  degraded  countries  in  the  world  at  this 
moment  are  monarchical.  I  might  also  say 
that  in  some  respects  the  Monarchy  in  this 
country  is  not  so  powerful  as  the  Presidency 
is  in  America,  so  long  as  it  lasts.  But  this 
is  rather  taking  us  off  the  logical  line  of 
thought.  By  all  means,  at  the  right  time,  let 
us  advocate  the  immense  importance  of  mon- 
archy; but  I  am  sure  of  this,  that  whether 
you  happen  to  call  the  Constitution  of  your 
country  Monarchical  or  Republican — and  the 
difference    is    very    often    more    verbal    than 


698 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


real — whatever  be  its  title,  it  is  impossible  to 
maintain  the  purity  of  public  life,  and  to  pre- 
vent bribery  and  corruption  and  the  utmost 
degradation  of  the  State  unless  every  individ- 
ual citizen  discharges  his  duty  as  constantly 
and  honestly  as  I  am  proud  to  think  Queen 
Victoria  has  during  her  public  life.  For  my 
own  part,  I  confess  that  I  am  very  anxious  in 
all  possible  ways  to  secure  the  co-operation  of 
good  women  as  well  as  of  good  men  in  the 
public  service  of  my  country. 

It  is  very  astonishing  that  so  many  people 
talk  so  much  about  politics  without  having 
ever  studied  them  and  without  knowing  any- 
thing about  them.  I  am  afraid  the  majority 
of  the  free  and  independent  electors  of  this 
country  really  do  not  know  much  about  poli- 
tics. I  think  if  you  pursue  your  inquiries  in 
the  cities,  as  well  as  in  the  villages,  you  will 
find  that  there  are  a  great  many  persons  who 
vote  who  really  know  nothing  at  all  about 
politics.  It  is  a  very  serious  thing  when  we 
consider  that  the  great  interests  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  through  the  British  Empire  of 
the  human  race,  are  very  largely  dependent 
upon  the  votes  of  persons  who  have  never 
taken  the  least  trouble  to  understand  either 
the  history  of  their  country  or  the  meaning 
of  political  terms. 

Politics  is  the  only  serious  subject  that  men 
think  themselves  qualified  to  act  upon  with- 
out any  previous  education  or  instruction 
whatever.  If  it  happened  to  be  astronomy, 
or  botany,  or  medicine,  or  law,  he  would  never 
be  allowed  to  work  in  any  of  these  arts,  or  to 
take  a  decisive  part  in  the  history  of  any  one 
of  these  sciences  without  having,  at  least, 
acquired  the  A  B  C  of  it ;  but  the  awful  fact 
of  politics  is  that  we  do  not  take  the  trouble 
seriously  to  understand  the  political  situation. 
I  am  afraid  most  men  who  even  try  to  ac- 
quire some  information  from  the  newspapers 
— a  very  ambiguous  source  of  information — 
constantly  read  those  with  which  they  agree 
instead  of  those  with  which  they  differ.  I 
confess  it  gives  me  no  pleasure  to  read  those 
with  which  I  agree ;  I  spend  all  my  time  in 
reading  the  papers  with  which  I  do  not  agree. 
It  is  not  always  very  pleasant  reading,  but  I 
am  sure  it  is  more  profitable  than  merely 
hearing  my  own  views  echoed. 

Now,  I  do  implore  those  who  are  listening 
to  me  to  realize  the  gravity  of  all  these  ques- 
tions. There  is  nothing  that  you  do  in  all 
your  life  for  which  you  are  more  accountable 
to  God,  or  which  is  more  serious,  than  the 
vote  which  many  of  you  are  going  to  give  at 
the  approaching  General  Election  (1892).  I 
dare  say  you  have  already  made  up  your  mind 
which  party  you  are  going  to  vote  for,  but  I 
confess  I  have  some  suspicion  that,  even  in 
an  unusually  intelligent  audience  like  this,  if 
I  brought  some  of  you  up  to  this  platform 
and  elicited  from  you  for  whom  you  were 
going  to  vote,  and  then  were  permitted  to 
cross  examine  you  as  to  why  you  were  going 
to  give  that  vote,  the  answers  which  you 
would  give  would  not  satisfy  yourselves  or 
the  audience.  It  is  a  very  serious  matter. 
You  may  have  time,  even  now,  before  the 
General  Election,  to  acquire  a  more  intelligent 


knowledge  of  the  questions  which  will  be 
submitted  to  the  people  of  this  country  when 
that  grave  event  takes  place. 

Let  me  say,  in  conclusion,  that  I  hope  we 
shall  all  learn  two  lessons — deeply  religious 
lessons,  from  one  of  the  greatest  political 
thinkers  of  our  race — Edmund  Burke.  One 
is  this,  that  party  politics  are  inevitable,  that 
we  must  tolerate  the  existence  of  two  great 
parties  in  the  State,  which  from  time  to  time 
will  hold  office  under  the  Crown ;  and,  there- 
fore, our  business  is  to  try  and  narrow  the 
area  of  controversy  and  to  cultivate  to  the 
utmost  extent  mutual  confidence  and  mutual 
good  will. 

And.  secondly,  let  those  of  us  who  feel 
most  keenly  and  most  deeply  on  these  ques- 
tions— as  the  best  Christians  and  those  who 
have  most  of  the  mind  of  Christ  must  feel — 
remember  the  great  saying  of  Edmund  Burke  : 
"  Compromise  is  the  soul  of  politics."  As 
the  human  race  is  inevitably  divided  into  two 
great  parties,  as  we  cannot  help  looking  at 
different  sides  of  the  shield,  as  the  very  con- 
stitution of  our  minds  compel  us  to  take 
somewhat  divergent  standpoints — it  is  per- 
fectly ridiculous  for  any  man  to  expect  that 
he  is  going  to  have  all  his  own  way,  or  that 
the  party  to  which  he  belongs  must  triumph 
all  along  the  line,  and  must  carry  out  its 
policy  absolutely.  The  real  progress  of  this 
country,  and  the  absence  hitherto  of  the  bitter 
strife  which  has  desolated  families  and 
churches,  has  been  due  to  a  sort  of  saving 
common  sense  which  has  characterized  the 
British  people,  and  especially  the  English 
people,  which  has  led  those  who  are  most 
opposed  to  certain  changes  to  accept  them 
and  to  have  done  with  them  when  they  have 
become  inevitable ;  and  which  has  led  the 
reformers  to  realize  that  they  must  consult 
the  convictions  of  others  as  well  as  their  own, 
and  that  the  honorable  solution  of  all  con- 
troversy is  some  reasonable  compromise. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  splendid  and 
imperishable  services  which  the  Queen  has 
rendered  to  this  country  from  time  to  time, 
but  of  all  her  great  services  I  think  that  none 
was  greater,  more  courageous,  or  more  saga- 
cious than  the  course  which  she  took  on  a 
certain  occasion,  when  there  seemed  to  be 
a  possibility  of  a  deadlock  between  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament,  and  some  bitter  and 
disastrous  strife,  in  relation  to  the  last  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise,  when  she  used  her  im- 
mense influence  to  compel  all  political  parties 
lo  come  together,  and  by  an  honoral ic  coii- 
promise  to  accept  that  Extension  of  the  Fran- 
chise and  Redistribution  of  Seats  under  which 
we  now  live.  The  Queen  herself  used  her 
great  influence  on  that  occasion  to  bring  the 
controversy  to  an  end  and  to  secure  a  peace- 
ful solution.  And  I  cannot  but  think,  with 
respect  to  other  bitter  controversies,  about 
which  opinion  is  inevitably  divided,  that  the 
Queen  herself  could  occupy  no  nobler  or 
more  patriotic  position  than  that  of  a  peace- 
maker, and  of  one  who  will  compel  politicians 
of  all  parties  to  avoid  the  falsehood  of  ex- 
tremes.— H.  R. 


ELECTION  DAY 


699 


WHAT   CAN   THE    MINISTRY    DO  TO    PURIFY   OUR 

POLITICS  ? 


By  Howard  Crosby,  D.D. 


There  is  an  idea  common  to  the  worldly 
mind,  as  shown  in  the  newspaper  press,  that 
the  Church  is  a  sort  of  police  arrangement  to 
busy  itself  with  poverty  and  crime,  and  pro- 
vide for  every  form  of  distress.  Some  Chris- 
tians who  are  readily  led  by  the  newspapers, 
are  foolish  enough  to  foster  this  idea.  It  is 
this  notion  put  into  operation  that  made  the 
Church  of  the  early  centuries  grow  into  a 
political  power  of  gigantic  magnitude,  by 
which  transmutation  it  became  fearfully  cor- 
rupt and  cruelly  tyrannical.  The  Church,  as 
Christ  made  it,  is  a  spiritual  body  designed 
to  preserve  and  nourish  its  own  spirituality, 
and  to  convert  unbelievers  to  the  Savior.  Its 
high  province  is  to  hold  and  hold  forth  the 
truth  of  God  in  Christ.  As  true  believers  in 
Christ  are  generally  despised  and  oppressed 
by  the  world,  the  Church  is  to  look  after  its 
own  poor  and  needy  ones,  and  to  make  due 
provision  for  their  wants.  This  is  all  the 
relation  that  the  Church,  as  an  organization, 
bears  to  the  poor. 

But  the  doctrines  of  Christ  are  doctrines 
of  love  and  helpfulness  toward  all  men,  and 
hence  the  individual  Christian  is  to  seek  every 
man's  good.  To  this  end,  he  can  and  ought 
to  unite  with  others  in  benevolent  enterprises, 
and  show  practical  kindness  to  every  form  of 
need.  But  the  Church  organization  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  this.  If,  as  an  organization, 
it  takes  hold  of  public  affairs  outside  of  its 
own  limits,  it  inevitably  loses  its  spirituality 
in  secular  work,  and  as  invariably  becomes  a 
political  party,  either  to  be  crushed  or  to  be- 
come a  tyrant.  Pastors,  elders,  deacons, 
church  councils,  presbyteries,  synods,  and  all 
other  church  governments,  must  confine 
themselves  to  their  own  spiritual  fields,  if 
they  would  remain  pure  and  true  to  Christ. 
It  looks  very  pious  for  a  Church  to  run  itself 
out  into  committees  and  meetings  for  the 
poor  in  general.  And  the  public  will  applaud, 
but  a  church  which  spends  its  strength  in 
that  way  will  have  very  little  spiritual  life. 
It  will  reduce  the  Gospel  standard  of  piety, 
which  demands  a  holy  life,  to  the  care  of  the 
poor,  which  the  Church  can  attend  to  at  the 
same  time  that  it  upholds  theaters  and  fash- 
ionable follies.  Why  are  we  to  have  the 
world  tell  us  what  piety  is?  A  true  piety  is 
in  the  communion  of  the  soul  with  God,  and 
the  religion  that  flows  from  such  piety  will 
necessarily  visit  the  widow  and  the  fatherless. 
But  if  visiting  the  widow  and  the  fatherless 
(or  rather  having  them  visited  by  paid 
agents)  is  made  the  core  of  piety,  then  com- 
munion with  God  will  be  neglected,  and  the 
man  will  not  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world. 

There  is  an  enormous  amount  of  error 
afloat  on  this  subject,  simply  because  Chris- 
tians go  to  the  world  to  know  how  they  oughl 


to  live,  when  they  should  go  only  to  God's 
word,  where  they  will  find  that  the  soul's 
relation  to  God  is  the  first  and  main  thing, 
and  that  the  Church  is  the  spiritual  house- 
hold of  faith,  the  fruits  of  which  faith,  in 
doing  good  to  every  one  as  we  have  oppor- 
tunity, are  to  be  seen  in  the  Christian  indi- 
vidual life.  But  the  doing  of  good  to  cer- 
tain classes  is  not  to  be  considered  the  main 
thing,  nor  is  it  to  be  a  substitute  for  vital 
union  with  God,  nor  is  it  a  Church  duty  in 
any  way,  but  a  Christian  duty,  in  which 
Christians  are  free  to  act  with  any  one  in  or 
out  of  the  Church.  I  have  given  these 
thoughts  as  preliminary  to  answering  the 
question  at  the  head  of  this  article,  "  What 
Can  the  Ministry  Do  to  Purify  our  Politics?  " 
In  accordance  with  these  thoughts,  I  reply : 

1.  The  ministry  as  such  have  nothing  to  do 
with  politics.  They  are  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  not  of  the  nation,  nor  of 
the  world.  The  nation  and  the  world  have 
no  more  claim  on  them  as  ministers  than 
they  have  on  the  presidents  of  banks  or  the 
head-masters  of  schools.  Their  function  is 
to  minister  to  God's  people — if  pastors,  then 
to  the  special  flock  that  each  is  called  to  tend. 
Before  the  nation  and  the  world,  the  min- 
ister is  simply  a  man,  a  Christian  man,  bound 
to  use  his  influence  as  any  other  Christian 
(no  less  and  no  more)  for  the  good  of  all. 
Putting  the  clergy  (as  they  are  falsely  called) 
into  the  secular  government  as  clergy,  as  the 
Papacy  did  wholly  when  it  had  a  temporal 
kingdom,  and  as  England  does  partially  to- 
day with  its  lord-bishops  in  Parliament,  is 
an  enormity  calculated  to  do  evil,  and  only 
evil,  both  to  Church  and  State.  It  is  putting 
two  things  together  that  have  totally  different 
aims  and  totally  different  functions,  and 
hence,  friction,  collision,  and  destruction  are 
necessary  consequences.  The  Church  has  as 
its  aim  the  conversion  of  men  to  God  and  the 
upbuilding  of  God's  people  in  their  spiritual 
lives,  and  its  function  is  to  use  the  divine 
means  to  this  end.  The  State  has  as  its  aim, 
the  preservation  of  the  persons  and  property 
of  men  in  this  world,  and  its  function  is  to 
pass  laws  and  enforce  them  that  will  achieve 
this  object.  The  spheres  of  operation  are 
dissimilar.  There  is  a  point  of  contact  be- 
tween them,  it  is  true,  but  that  point  of  con- 
tact is  made  by  the  individual.  It  is  the  in- 
dividual Christian  who  can  promote  the 
preservation  of  persons  and  property  by  good 
laws.  The  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with 
this.  The  individual  Christian  can  do  this, 
as  a  man,  but  the  Church  is  not  a  man,  but 
an  aggregate  of  men  in  a  spiritual  capacity, 
having  no  earthly  functions.  Hence  our 
proposition  that  the  ministry  as  such  have 
nothing  to  do  with  politics. 

2.  TJic   ministry   can   instruct  their  people 


700 


HOLY-DAYS   AND   HOLIDAYS 


in  their  duty  to  promote  riglitcousncss  as  in- 
dividuals. A  faithful  setting  forth  of  Chris- 
tian duty  at  the  polls,  not  to  vote  for  this  or 
that  man,  but  to  vote  conscientiously  as  be- 
fore God,  and  to  make  the  use  of  the  fran- 
chise a  solemn  duty  to  be  prayerfully  per- 
formed, is  a  part  of  the  minister's  function, 
when  he  is  teaching  his  people  how  to  live 
on  earth  as  representatives  of  God's  truth. 
If  a  minister  goes  beyond  this,  and,  as  a 
minister,  advocates  a  special  political  course 
on  which  good  men  differ,  or  a  special  can- 
didate, when  there  are  several,  he  is  using 
his  spiritual  position  carnally  and  degrading 
the  ministry.  He  may,  as  a  man  and  citizen, 
when  great  causes  are  at  stake,  exercise  his 
liberty  and  advocate  the  righteous  cause  and 
what  he  believes  to  be  the  righteous  man, 
but  he  must  keep  this  matter  clear  from  his 
Church  duties.  He  is  not  to  drag  the  Church 
into  his  private  views,  however  important 
and  intense  they  may  be.  His  pulpit  is  not 
for  politics  of  any  kind,  nor  is  his  pastoral 
work  to  propagate  his  political  views.  And 
because  many  will  not  discriminate  between 
the  man  and  the  minister,  he  is  to  be  careful 
in  regard  to  his  liberty  as  a  man  to  advocate 
causes  and  men.  He  ought  to  do  something 
in  this  way — it  is  his  duty  as  a  citizen,  which 
he  has  no  right  to  lay  aside — but  he  must  do 
it  prudently,  and  ever  with  an  eye  to  the 
preservation  of  the  spiritual  character  of  his 
office  as  a  minister.  It  is  a  bad  thing  for  a 
minister  to  be  counted  a  politician.  He 
makes  a  poor  minister  and  a  poor  politician. 
A  minister  may  be  patriotic  and  public-spir- 
ited, and  yet  not  compromise  his  holy  office. 
He  will  never  be  a  partisan  while  he  urges 
his  people  to  use  their  influence  for  purifying 
the  politics  of  the  State.  He  is  in  the  world, 
and  is  to  instruct  his  people  as  to  their  con- 
duct in  the  world,  and  their  relation  to  the 
State  cannot  rightfully  escape  his  attention. 

3.  The  ministry  can  place  clearly  before 
their  people  any  gross  injustice  or  glaring 
wickedness-  in  lazv  or  its  administration, 
which  calls  for  Christian  action.  They  can 
concentrate  and  systematize  thought  about  it, 
so  as  to  suggest  a  plan  of  activity,  which 
merely  a  vague  notion  could  not  bring  about. 
People  generally  are  so  immersed  in  their 
secular  vocations  that  they  only  descry  an 
evil  and  groan  over  it,  but  do  not  take  time 
to  examine  its  character  and  causes,  and  dis- 
cern its  cure.  The  minister  accustomed  to 
deal  with  such  matters,  and  not  having  secu- 
lar affairs  to  absorb  him.  can  more  readily 
digest  the  subject  for  his  people  and  guide 
them  to  the  activity  of  reform. 

In  this,  again,  the  minister  is  to  be  careful 
lest  he  take  up  a  doubtful  cause.  The  case 
must  be  a  clear  one.     It  may  be  cruelty  to 


children,  or  cruelty  to  animals,  or  the  protec- 
tion of  evil  houses,  or  the  shielding  of  law- 
breakers, or  any  matter  regarding  the  right 
and  wrong  in  which  there  cannot  be  a  ques- 
tion. If  the  laws  or  the  law  officers  plainly 
are  guilty  of  these  outrages,  then  it  is  also 
plainly  the  duty  of  the  minister  to  speak 
plainly  to  his  people  about  it  that  they  may 
act  plainly  in  the  matter.  A  minister's  com- 
mon sense  should  tell  him  where  the  boun- 
dary line  is  here,  beyond  which  he  would  be 
only  a  partisan  and  not  a  Christian  minister. 
And  if  a  minister  has  not  common  sense  to 
discern  this,  the  sooner  he  leaves  the  ministry 
the  b:tter. 

I  end,  as  I  began,  with  an  earnest  protest 
against  political  preaching  and  political 
preachers.  They  mingle  the  Church  and  the 
world  to  the  sad  detriment  of  the  Church, 
and  without  the  slightest  good  to  the  world. 
Instead  of  leading  the  soul  upward  to  the 
holy  contemplation  of  Christ,  they  lead  their 
hearers  into  the  dust  and  turmoil  of  political 
factions,  where  the  soul  becomes  smirched 
and  loses  its  power  to  rise  to  heavenly  con- 
templations. And  I  also  protest  against  the 
flimsy  newspaper  doctrine  which  reduces  re- 
ligion to  economics  and  makes  the  Church 
merely  a  benevolent  society.  Bringing  the 
Church  thus  down  to  their  level  the  glib 
writers  presume  to  instruct  it  and  to  give  it 
their  approbation  or  condemnation,  as  the 
case  may  be. 

Ministers  and  churches  that  listen  to  such 
nonsense  and  are  moved  by  it  disgrace  them- 
selves. What  is  the  Church  of  Christ  that  it 
should  go  to  the  world  for  guidance?  Has 
Christ,  its  Guide  and  Savior,  abandoned  it? 
Has  the  Holy  Spirit,  promised  by  Him, 
failed?  Has  the  truth  left  the  Church  and 
taken  up  its  residence  in  the  editors  of  the 
journals  that  publish  prize-fights  and  licen- 
tious advertisements?  Away  with  this  foul 
blot  upon  God's  Church !  As  our  Savior 
drove  out  from  the  holy  precincts  of  the  Tem- 
ple the  changers  of  money  and  those  that 
bought  and  sold,  so  let  us,  in  His  holy  name, 
drive  out  from  the  Church  this  carnalism 
that  would  secularize  all  holy  things  and 
would  guide  divine  matters  by  the  groveling 
expediencies  of  the  selfish  and  greedy  world. 
Let  the  ministry  hold  high  and  fast  the  stand- 
ard of  Christ's  cross,  which  means  pardon 
and  renewal  to  every  sinner  that  repents  and 
trusts  in  His  atoning  sacrifice.  Let  this  be 
the  first  and  main  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  and  from  this,  as  a  source,  let  the 
life  of  both  minister  and  people  be  fitted  to 
discharge  the  personal  duties  which  belong 
to  them  both  as  men  and  citizens.  So  will 
the  ministry  best  work  to  purify  our  politics 
and  to  serve  the  State. — H.  R. 


SUGGESTIVE    THOUGHTS 


BALLOT-BOX,  The  Christian  and  the. 

—State  and  municipal  elections  call  for  the 
most  strenuous  efforts  on  the  part  of  all  true 
citizens  to  secure  the  success  of  those  who 


truly  represent  the  supreme  interests  of  the 
people.  Occasionally  one  among  the  many  is 
able  to  make  his  political  power  felt  most 
forcibly  in  some  other  function  than  that  of 


ELECTION   DAY 


701 


a  voter.  So  Dr.  Parkhurst,  as  President  of 
the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime ;  so. 
too.  Jolin  W.  Gofif,  in  his  conduct  of  the  ex- 
amination into  the  scandals  of  the  metropoH- 
tan  police  force,  before  the  Lexow  Com- 
mittee. But  the  average  citizen  impresses 
his  individuality  upon  the  state  more  strongly 
at  the  ballot-box  than  anywhere  else. 

"  His  individuality,"  we  say.  For  the  bal- 
lot-box is  expressive  not  simply  of  choice, 
but  of  the  character  behind  the  choice.  Ever 
over  against  it  stands  a  balance  in  which  is 
weighed  the  man  who  casts  the  ballot.  To 
vote  for  a  candidate  known  to  be  unworthy 
is  to  declare  one's  self  unworthy  to  exercise 
the  prerogative  of  the  voter.  To  exalt  the 
party  and  its  interest  above  the  city  or  state 
and  its  good,  is  to  forfeit,  morally,  the  right 
of  franchise.  Patriotism  is  a  grace  second 
only  to  godliness  ;  but  partisanship  may  be  a 
disgrace  second  only  to  devilishness.  Espe- 
cially true  is  this,  if  a  given  party  supports  in 
its  platform  a  plank  that  gives  encouragement 
to  immorality,  or  countenances  in  its  policy 
any  form  of  public  evil.  The  dictum  of  a 
well-known  ex-United  States  Senator  that 
the  Decalog  and  the  Golden  Rule  have  no 
place  in  politics  was  answered  a  few  years 
ago  with  his  retirement.  His  constituents 
doubtless  felt  that  such  an  assertion  was  too 
much  of  the  nature  of  a  self -arraignment. 
The  men  needed  for  all  our  offices  are  men 
to  whom  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  are  obligations  which  they  feel 
called  upon  to  fulfil — not  men  who,  like 
Felix,  tremble,  self-convicted,  when  these  are 
urged  upon  them.  A  candidate  for  office 
should  be  as  white  in  principle  and  in  prac- 
tise as  his  title  indicates  or  suggests  that  he 
is.— H.  R. 

ELECTION  DAY.— The  Men  for  Office. 
"  Look  even  out  the  best  and  meetest  of 
your  master's  sons,  and  set  him  on  his  fa- 
ther's throne,  and  fight  for  your  master's 
house. — 2  Kings  x :  3. 

Wanted,  a  Man.  "  I  defy  the  armies  of 
Israel  this  day:  give  me  a  man,  that  we  may 
fight  together." — i  Sam.  xvii :  10. 

Bossism  vs.  Conscientiousness.  "  No  man 
can  serve  two  masters :  for  either  he  will 
hate  the  one  and  love  the  other ;  or  else  he 
will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other." — 
Matt,   vi :  24.— H.   R. 

OFFICE,  Disappointed  Seeker  of. — Pas- 
daretus,  when  he  was  not  chosen  among  the 
three  hundred  (which  was  the  highest  office 
and  honor  in  the  city),  went  away  cheerfully 
and  smiling,  saying  he  was  glad  if  the  city 
had  three  hundred  better  citizens  than  him- 
self.— Plutarch. 

OFFICE,  Love  of.— Profligacy  in  taking 
office  is  so  extreme,  that  we  have  no  doubt 
public  men  may  be  found,  who  for  half  a 
century  would  postpone  all  remedies  for  a 
pestilence,  if  the  preservation  of  their  places 
depended  upon  the  propagation  of  the  virus. 
— S.  Smith. 


OFFICE-SEEKERS,     Hungry.— A     fox, 

while  crossing  a  river,  was  driven  by  the 
stream  into  a  narrow  gorge,  and  lay  there 
for  a  long  time,  unable  to  get  out.  covered 
with  myriads  of  horse-flies  that  had  fastened 
themselves  upon  him.  A  hedgehog,  who  was 
wandering  in  that  direction,  saw  him ;  and, 
taking  compassion  on  him,  asked  him  if  he 
should  drive  away  the  flies  that  were  so 
tormenting  him.  But  the  fox  begged  him  to 
do  nothing  of  the  sort.  "Why  not?"  asked 
the  hedgehog,  "  Because,"  replied  the  fox, 
"  these  flies  that  are  upon  me  now,  are  al- 
ready full,  and  draw  but  little  blood,  but 
should  you  remove  them,  a  swarm  of  fresh 
and  hungry  ones  will  come,  who  will  not 
leave  a  drop  of  blood  in  my  body." — F.  II. 

POLITICAL  AGITATION.— All  hail. 
Public  Opinion !  To  be  sure,  it  is  a  danger- 
ous thing  under  which  to  live.  It  rules  to- 
day in  the  desire  to  obey  all  kinds  of  laws, 
and  takes  your  life.  It  rules  again  in  the  love 
of  liberty,  and  rescues  Shadrach  from  Bos- 
ton Court  House.  It  rules  to-morrow  in  the 
manhood  of  him  who  loads  the  musket  to 
shoot  down — God  be  praised ! — the  man- 
hunter  Gorsuch.  It  rules  in  Syracuse,  and 
the  slave  escapes  to  Canada.  It  is  our  inter- 
est to  educate  this  people  in  humanity,  and  in 
deep  reverence  for  the  rights  of  the  lowest 
and  humblest  individual  that  makes  up  our 
numbers.  Each  man  here,  in  fact,  holds  his 
property  and  his  life  dependent  on  the  con- 
stant presence  of  an  agitation  like  this  of 
anti-slavery.  Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price 
of  liberty :  power  is  ever  stealing  from  the 
many  to  the  few.  The  manna  of  popular 
liberty  must  be  gathered  each  day,  or  it  is 
rotten.  The  living  sap  of  to-day  outgrows 
the  dead  rind  of  yesterday.  The  hand  in- 
trusted with  power,  becomes  either  from  hu- 
man depravity  or  esprit  de  corps,  the  neces- 
sary enemy  of  the  people.  Only  by  continual 
oversight  can  the  democrat  in  office  be  pre- 
vented from  hardening  into  a  despot ;  only 
by  unintermitted  agitation  can  a  people  be 
kept  sufficiently  awake  to  principle  not  to  let 
liberty  be  smothered  in  material  prosperity. 

All  clouds,  it  is  said,  have  sunshine  behind 
them,  and  all  evils  have  some  good  result ; 
so  slavery,  by  the  necessity  of  its  abolition, 
has  saved  the  freedom  of  the  white  race  from 
being  melted  in  the  luxury  or  buried  beneath 
the  gold  of  its  own  success.  Never  look, 
therefore,  for  an  age  when  the  people  can  be 
quiet  and  safe.  At  such  times  Despotism, 
like  a  shrouding  mist,  steals  over  the  mirror 
of  Freedom.  The  Dutch,  a  thousand  years 
ago,  built  against  the  ocean  their  bulwarks 
of  willow  and  mud.  Do  they  trust  to  that? 
No.  Each  year  the  patient,  industrious  peas- 
ant gives  so  much  time  from  the  cultivation 
of  his  soil  and  the  care  of  his  children  to 
stop  the  breaks  and  replace  the  willow  which 
insects  have  eaten,  that  he  may  keep  the  land 
his  fathers  rescued  from  the  water,  and  hid 
defiance  to  the  waves  that  roar  above  his 
head,  as  if  demanding  back  the  broad  fields 
man  has  stolen  from  their  realm. — Wendell 
Phillips. 


702 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


POLITICAL  IDEAS.— Political  parties 
are  based  upon  ideas.  They  are  the  organ- 
ized expression  of  public  thought. 

The  size  of  the  idea  determines  the  size 
of  the  party.  Local  interests  may  be  in- 
flated into  a  national  importance,  but  a  re- 
action is  sure  to  follow.  A  part  can  never 
be  made  to  equal  the  whole. 


When  the  idea  and  its  representative  sepa- 
rate, then  loyalty  to  a  party  becomes  loyalty 
to  a  name.  The  living  tenant  has  moved  out 
and  nothing  remains  but  an  empty  house. 
Bigotry  is  adverse  to  motion.  It  seldom  leads 
and  never  follows.  The  result  is  the  political 
bigot  sits  on  the  door  step  and  doesn't  know 
the  house  is  empty. 

There  is  no  real  reform  that  does  not  touch 
and  transform  the  internal  idea.  Every  mob 
has  its  mission.  It  may  be  chaotic  and  lost 
sight  of,  but  a  central  dominant  idea  exists 
somewhere.  The  mob  may  be  dispersed,  but 
until  the  idea  is  met  and  satisfied  the  diffi- 
culty still  remains.  The  execution  of  John 
Brown  was  one  thing,  but  to  halt  the  march 
of  his  soul  quite  another.  The  politics  of 
Heaven  are  ideal.  They  are  not  dependent 
upon  men  or  methods.  Men  die  and  methods 
change,  but  Right  is  a  perpetual  nominee. 
Defeated  and  beaten,  it  arises  out  of  its  grave 
and  claims  recognition.  The  campaigns  of 
God  are  not  ended  at  sunset.    They  go  on 


and  on  and  on,  into  the  most  distant  genera- 
tions. The  issues  that  were  raised  under 
Abraham,  Saul,  Herod,  Charles  or  George 
appear  in  the  reign  of  Victoria.  Right  is  the 
heir  to  every  crown,  and  until  its  claims  are 
recognized  the  throne  is  vacant. 

Under  God's  government  the  judges  stood 
for  justice,  but  the  people  clamored  for  might, 
so  the  Lord  gave  them  a  king.  From  that 
day  until  this  the  king  has  been  a  political 
necessity.  But  his  hereditary  right  was  dis- 
puted from  the  first.  The  sons  of  Saul  be- 
came subjects.  Revolutions  are  the  birth 
throes  of  republics  and  to  that  end  has  ever 
been  the  trend  of  history.  Few  nations  have 
reached  that  degree  of  moral  fitness  by  which 
this  is  possible.  And  here  comes  in  the  rec- 
ognition of  that  eternal  something  we  call 
Right.  Our  Revolutionary  fathers,  with  all 
their  worth,  failed  to  realize  its  importance. 
They  fought  for  the  equality  of  man,  and  at 
the  same  time  made  color  the  test  of  man- 
hood. It  was  an  injustice  to  the  black  man 
and  still  more  so  to  the  white.  That  wrong 
has  been  the  whip  with  which  God  has 
scourged  the  back  of  this  Republic.  War  de- 
cides nothing  beyond  the  relative  strength  of 
the  contestants.  It  gained  the  black  man  his 
liberty  and  then  forced  upon  him  privileges 
for  which  he  had  no  preparation.  No  one 
can  vote  for  another ;  that  question  must  be 
decided  by  the  voter  himself.  The  black 
man  must  be  lifted  up  to  the  ballot  box,  else 
the  country  has  still  an  account  to  settle  with 
God. — Selected. 


POETRY 


The  Ballot 

By  William  G.  Haeselbarth 

As  noiseless  fall  those  printed  slips 

As   fall   the   silent   dews  of  night, 
Yet  never  words  from  human  lips 

Had  greater  majesty  and  might. 
They  are  the  fiat  and  the  will 

Of  patriots  who  love  their  land, 
Who  aim  their  duty  to  fulfil, 

And  on  that  firmly  take  their  stand. 

Millions  on  millions  through  the  land 

Fall  noiseless  as  the  rain  and  snow, 
A  puff  of  wind  may  from  the  hand 

Release  and  whirl  it  to  and  fro. 
Administrations  rise  and  fall. 

And  parties  rise  or  cease  to  be, 
Obedient  to  the  ballot's  call. 

The  weapon  of  a  people  free. 

Over  the  noisy,  wordy  war 

And  jangle  of  opposing  views, 
The  ballot  falls— a  word  and  law 

That  none  may  question  or  refuse. 
More  powerful  far  than  shot  or  shell, 

Because  no  wounds  are  left  to  heal, 
Each  one  can  feel  that  all  is  well. 

And  safe  and  well  the  Commonweal. 


Long  may  a  ballot  pure  proclaim 

The  Nation's  righteous,  sovereign  will, 
Their  highest  thought  and  loftiest  aim 

Their  own  high  mission  to  fulfil. 
Thus  shall  the  ballot  prove  a  guide 

To  point  the  way  that  should  be  trod, 
And  prove  to  them  no  less,  beside, 

The  people's  voice  the  voice  of  God. 

c.  w. 

An  Eclectic 
By  James  Russell  Lowell 

I'm  an  eclectic ;    ez  to  choosin' 

T'wixt  this  an'  thet,  I'm  plaguy  lawth; 
I  leave  a  side  thet  looks  like  losin'. 

But  (wile  there's  doubt)  I  stick  to  both; 
I  Stan'  upon  the  Constitution, 

Ez  preudunt  statesmen  say,  who've  planned 
A  way  to  git  the  most  profusion 

O'  chances  ez  to  ware  they'll  stand. 

God  "Will  Weigh  the  "Votes 

By  Joel  Swartz 

Men  may  count  but  God  will  weigh 
Votes  cast  on  election  day ; 
'Mid  the  voters  He  will  stand, 
With  a  winnow  in  His  hand. 


ELECTION  DAY 


703 


And  will  purge  the  threshing  floor 
Of  the  Land  from  shore  to  shore, 
And  will  garner  every  grain 
Which  the  voters'  chests  contain ; 
But  the  chaff,  in  righteous  ire, 
Will  consume  with  flaming  fire. 

U.   S. 

What  lilr.   Bobiusou  Thinks 

By  James  Russell  Lowell 

Guvener  B.  is  a  sensible  man ; 

He  stays  to  his  home  and  looks  arter  his 
folks ; 
He  draws  his  furrer  ez  straight  ez  he  can, 
An'  into  nobody's  tater  patch  pokes; 
But  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  he  wunt  vote  for  Guvener  B. 

My !    ain't  it  terrible !     Wut  shall  we  du  ? 
We   can't   never   choose   him   o'    course — 
thet's  flat; 
Guess  we  shall  hev  to  come  round,    (don't 
you?) 
An'   go  in   fer  thunder  an'   guns,   an'   all 
that; 

Fer  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  he  wunt  vote  for  Guvener  B. 

Gineral  C.  is  a  drefiie  smart  man; 

He's  ben  on  all   sides  thet  give  places  or 
pelf; 
But  consistency  still  was  a  part  of  his  plan; 
He's   ben   true  to  one  party, — an'   thet  is 
himself; — 
So  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  he  shall  vote  fer  Gineral  C. 

Gineral  C.  he  goes  in  fer  the  war; 

He  don't  vally  principle  more'n  an  old  cud ; 
Wut  did  God  make  us  raytional  creetur's  fer, 
But    glory    an'    gunpowder,    plunder    an' 
blood? 

So  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  he  shall  vote  fer  Gineral  C. 

We  were  gittin'  on  nicely  up  here  to  our  vil- 
lage, 
With  good  old  idees  o'  wut's  right  an'  wut 
ain't. 


We  kind  o'  thought  Christ  went  agin  war  an' 
pillage 
An'  thet  eppyletts  wornt  the  best  mark  of  a 
saint ; 

But  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  this  kind  o'  thing's  an  exploded  idee. 

The  side  of  our  country  must  oilers  be  took 
An'   President  Polk,  you  know,  he  is  our 
country. 
An'  the  angel  thet  writes  all  our  sins  in  a 

book, 
Puts  the  debit  to  him,  an'  to  us  the  per  con- 
try; 

An'  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  this  is  his  view  o'  the  thing  to  a  T. 

Parson  Wilbur  he  calls  all  these  argimunts 

lies ; 
Sez  they're  nothin'  on  airth  but  jest  fee,  faw, 

fum: 
An'  thet  all  this  big  talk  of  our  destinies 
Is  half  on  it  ign'ance,  an'  t'other  half  rum; 
But  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  it  ain't  no  sech  thing;    an'  of  course,  so 
must  we. 

Parson  Wilbur  sez  he  never  heerd  in  his  life 
Thet  th'  apostles  rigged  out  in  their  swal- 
ler-tail  coats. 
An'  marched  round  in  front  of  a  drum  an'  a 
fife. 
To  git  some  on  'em  office,  an'  some  on  'em 
votes ; 

But  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez   they    didn't   know   everythin'    down    in 
Judee. 

Wal,  it's  a  marcy  we've  got  folks  to  tell  us 
The  rights  an'  the  wrongs  o'  these  matters, 
I  vow, — 
God  sends  country   lawyers,  an'   other  wise 
fellers 
To  start  the  world's  team  wen  it  gits  in  a 
slough ; 

Fer  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez,  the  world'U  go  right,  ef  he  hollers  out, 
Gee! 


704  HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 

FOREFATHERS'  DAY 

(December  21) 

AMONG  the  sentiments  which  appeal  most  profoundly  to  men  and  which 
operate  most  powerfully  upon  their  characters,  we  find  the  impulse  to 
revere  and  honor  their  forefathers.  With  it  we  find  coupled  the  love  of  posterity, 
and  the  two  together  exercise  a  potent  influence  on  nations  as  well  as  individuals. 
That  chieftain  of  the  ancient  Britons  who  endeavored  to  rally  his  followers  for 
one  more  struggle  against  the  Roman  invader  struck  a  responsive  chord  in  the 
hearts  of  those  barbarians  when  he  cried  aloud  to  them,  "  Think  of  your  fore- 
fathers and  of  your  posterity !  " 

Affectionate  reverence  for  ancestors  appeals  in  greater  or  less  measure  to  all 
nations,  but  to  the  American  people  the  veneration  of  our  forefathers  must  appeal 
with  peculiar  power.  The  nations  of  Europe  in  attempting  to  trace  their  ancestry 
must  follow  the  line  back  into  a  maze  of  tradition  and  myths.  The  oriental 
nations,  while  perhaps  their  history  extends  farther  back  into  antiquity,  must 
still,  with  the  exception  of  the  Jewish  nation,  lose  their  beginnings  in  vague  legends 
and  stories.  The  American  nation,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a  distinct  and  authenti- 
cated beginning,  and  the  American  who  honors  his  forefathers  looks  back  to  men 
who  in  reality,  not  in  myths,  stood  for  those  qualities  and  principles  which  have 
made  the  American  people;  and,  therefore,  there  is  every  reason  why  the  cele- 
bration of  Forefathers'  Day  should  meet  a  response  in  the  heart  of  every  loyal 
citizen  of  our  country. 

The  day  itself,  December  21,  celebrates  particularly  the  landing  of  the  Puritan 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  December  21,  1620,  and  was  at  first  brought 
into  prominence  in  New  England  and  in  the  Congregational  churches  throughout 
the  country.  While  it  is  in  no  state  a  legal  holiday.  Forefathers'  Day  is,  neverthe- 
less, loved  and  revered  in  many  states  of  the  Union,  and  the  event  which  it  com- 
memorates is  lauded  and  memorialized  in  schools,  in  public  meetings,  and  at 
banquets  and  other  functions  both  private  and  public. 

But  Forefathers'  Day  has  a  broader  and  deeper  significance  than  simply  the 
commemoration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  It  calls  upon  the 
American  people  to  honor  these  men,  truly,  but  with  them  all  those  first  settlers 
of  our  land  who  were  actuated  by  the  same  noble  motives,  and  in  whose  hearts 
thrilled  the  same  love  of  freedom  and  hatred  of  oppression.  Forefathers'  Day  in 
its  broadest  acceptance  glorifies  the  memory  of  the  Puritans  from  England,  the 
Beggars  from  Holland,  the  Huguenots  from  France,  the  Covenanters  from  Scot- 
land, the  Scotch-Irish  from  Ireland,  and  any  other  people  from  any  other  nations, 
who,  from  noble  and  exalted  motives,  abandoned  their  native  lands  and  devoted 
thei/  lives  to  the  founding  and  continuance  of  America  upon  those  principles  which 
should  enable  her  to  become  the  home  of  political  and  religious  liberty,  a  Nation 
whose  God  is  the  Lord,  and  whose  people  rejoice  in  that  chiefest  among  national 
and  individual  blessings,  a  God-given  freedom. 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


705 


HISTORICAL 


THE  PILGRIMS 

By  John  G.  Whittier 


A  worthy  New  England  deacon  once  de- 
scribed a  brother  in  the    church  as  a  very 
good  man   Godward,   but   rather   hard  man- 
ward.     It  cannot  be  denied   that   some   very 
satisfactory  steps  have  been  taken  in  the  lat- 
ter direction,  at  least,  since  the  days  of  the 
Pilgrims.     Our  age  is  tolerant  of  creed  and 
dogma,  broader  in  its  sympathies,  more  keenly 
sensitive    to    temporal    need,    and   practically 
recognizing    the    brotherhood    of    the    race ; 
wherever  a  cry  of  suffering  is  heard  its  re- 
sponse is  quick  and  generous.     It  has  abol- 
ished   slavery,    and    is    lifting    woman    from 
world-old  degradation  to  equality  with  man 
before  the  law.     Our  criminal  codes  no  longer 
embody  the  maxim  of  barbarism,   "  An  eye 
for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  but  have 
regard  not  only  for  the  safety  of  the  com- 
munity, but  to  the  reform  and  well-being  of 
the    criminal.     All    the    more,   however,    for 
this  amiable  tenderness  do  we  need  the  coun- 
terpoise of  a  strong  sense  of  justice.     With 
our   sympathy   for  the   wrong-doer  we  need 
the  old  Puritan  and  Quaker  hatred  of  wrong- 
doing;   with  our  just  tolerance  of  men  and 
opinions  a  righteous  abhorrence  of  sin.     All 
the  more  for  the  sweet  humanities  and  Chris- 
tian liberalism  which,  in  drawing  men  nearer 
to  each  other,  are  increasing  the  sum  of  social 
influences  for  good  or  evil,  we  need  the  bra- 
cing atmosphere,  healthful,  if  austere,  of  the 
old  moralities.     Individual  and  social  duties 
are   quite   as   imperative   now   as   when  they 
were  minutely  specified  in  statute-books  and 
enforced  by  penalties   no   longer   admissible. 
It    is    well    that    stocks,    whipping-post,    and 
ducking-stool  are  now  only  matters  of  tradi- 
tion;   but  the  honest  reprobation  of  vice  and 
crime   which  they   symbolized  should  by  no 
means  perish  with  them.     The  true  life  of  a 
nation   is   in    its    personal    morality,    and   no 
excellence  of  constitution  and  laws  can  avail 
much  if  the  people  lack  purity  and  integrity. 
Culture,   art,    refinement,    care   for   our   own 
comfort  and  that  of  others,  are  all  well;   but 


truth,  honor,  reverence,  and  fidelity  to  duty 
are  indispensable. 

The  Pilgrims  were  right  in  affirming  the 
paramount  authority  of  the  law  of  God.  If 
they  erred  in  seeking  that  authoritative  law, 
and  passed  over  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
for  the  stern  Hebraisms  of  Moses ;  if  they 
hesitated  in  view  of  the  largeness  of  Christian 
liberty;  if  they  seemed  unwilling  to  accept 
the  sweetness  and  light  of  the  good  tidings, — 
let  us  not  forget  that  it  was  the  mistake  of 
men  who  feared  more  than  they  dared  to 
hope,  whose  estimate  of  the  exceeding  awful- 
ness  of  sin  caused  them  to  dwell  upon  God's 
vengeance  rather  than  His  compassion ;  and 
whose  dread  of  evil  was  so  great  that,  in 
shutting  their  hearts  against  it,  they  some- 
times shut  out  the  good.  It  is  well  for  us  if 
we  have  learned  to  listen  to  the  sweet  per- 
suasion of  the  Beatitudes ;  but  there  are 
crises  in  all  lives  which  require  also  the  em- 
phatic "  Thou  shalt  not  "  of  the  Decalog 
which  the  founders  wrote  on  the  gate-posts 
of  their  commonwealth. 

Let  us,  then,  be  thankful  for  the  assurances 
which  the  last  few  years  have  afforded  us 
that 

"  The  Pilgrim  spirit  is  not  dead. 
But  walks  in  noon's  broad  light." 

We  have  seen  it  in  the  faith  and  trust  which 
no  circumstances  could  shake,  in  heroic  self- 
sacrifice,  in  entire  consecration  to  duty.  The 
fathers  have  lived  in  their  sons.  Have  we 
not  all  known  the  Winthrops  and  Brewsters, 
the  Saltonstalls  and  Sewalls,  of  old  times,  in 
gubernatorial  chairs,  in  legislative  halls, 
around  winter  camp-fires,  in  the  slow  mar- 
tyrdoms of  prison  and  hospital?  The  great 
struggle  through  which  we  have  passed  has 
taught  us  how  much  we  owe  to  the  men  and 
women  of  the  Plymouth  Colony, — the  no- 
blest ancestry  that  ever  a  people  looked  back 
to  with  love  and  reverence.  Honor,  then,  to 
the  Pilgrims !  Let  their  memory  be  green 
forever ! — Selected. 


SALEM'S    BONFIRES 

iBy  Rev.  James  L.  Hill,  D.D. 


Come  to  Salem,  all  of  you  who  lament  the 
absence  of  great  gatherings  with  noise  and 
music  and  banners  on  Independence  Day, 
and  who  believe  that  pure,  clean  patriotism 
is  no  longer  powerful  enough  to  give  us  the 
ardent  celebrations  which  were  once  the  joy 
and  glory  of  our  Nation's  natal  morning. 
Just  as  the  clock  is  striking  twelve,  thus  add- 


ing another  year  to  the  era  of  American  In- 
dependence, your  eyes  will  be  drawn  irresist- 
ibly to  a  towering  monument  of  hogsheads 
and  barrels  and  casks  that  raises  its  huge 
form  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  high, 
and  bulks  against  the  midnight  sky.  This 
topgallant  monticle  is  stacked  as  symmetri- 
cally as  a  church  steeple. 


7o6 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


At  the  impressive  moment,  by  means  of  a 
wire  tackle,  a  bundle  of  cotton  waste  satu- 
rated with  oil  is  raised  to  the  turret,  ignited, 
and  thus  a  crown  of  flame  is  laid  upon  the 
beetling  pile.  The  high  pyramid  usually 
burns  evenly  all  round,  and  stands  persist- 
ently up  until  it  is  at  least  two-thirds  gone. 
Hear  the  great  wave  of  indistinct  "  Oh's  " 
and  "  Ah's "  which  seem  to  issue  unbidden 
from  the  surging  sea  of  faces,  that,  lighted 
up  by  the  fountain  of  fire,  suggest  the  im- 
posing audiences  in  the  vast  amphitheater  of 
ancient  Rome.  Salem  sits  in  the  bottom  of 
the  saucer,  nearly  environed  by  communities 
that  come  in  throngs,  bringing  whole  stores 
of  noise-producers  which  are  not  seen  until 
they  are  heard.  Horses  cannot  seem  to  un- 
derstand the  Fourth  of  July.  Steam-cars 
and  trolley-cars  assemble  the  people  to  the 
number  of  twenty  thousand. 

Two  rival  demonstrations  excite  their 
wonder  and  admiration.  The  Gallows  Hill 
Bonfire  Association  lights  its  exalted  beacon 
on  an  historic  eminence  where  nineteen  vic- 
tims of  the  witchcraft  delusion  were  hung. 
The  Broad  Street  Social  Club  stacks  its 
twenty-four  tiers  of  oily  barrels  on  Lookout, 
which  is  nearer  the  city.  The  small  boys 
have  their  miniature  pillars  of  flame,  which 
by  common  consent,  as  boys  are  impatient, 
are  earliest  ignited,  and  in  the  light  of  whose 
glittering  splendor  the  mastodons  whose 
doom  is  imminent  stand  forth  in  their  amaz- 
ing proportions. 

These  incinerations,  one  of  them  having 
been  lighted  by  the  same  hand  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  have  so  taken  hold  of  the 
public  mind  that  the  youngsters  about  Col- 
lins Cave,  near  Fort  Avenue,  love  to  build  a 
raft,  pile  it  high  with  barrels,  and  let  the 
gorgeous  spectacle  float  out  into  the  open 
water.  These  blazing  summits,  engaging  in 
responsive  service  and  announcing  widely 
that  the  night  has  turned  into  the  morning 
of  a  new  year  of  liberty,  are  vivid  reminders 
of  those  beacon-fires  once  lighted  on  Olivet 
to  announce  to  the  scattered  Jews  the  exact 
moment  of  the  rising  of  the  paschal  moon, 
which  were  instantly  answered  by  lights  on 
mountains  more  remote,  these  flames  being 
thus  projected,  a  line  of  fiery  telegraphs, 
until  they  were  mirrored  in  the  waters  of 
the  Euphrates,  where  the  children  of  the 
Hebrews  wept  as  they  remembered  Zion. 
Hawthorne  was  born  in  Salem  on  the  Fourth 
of  July.  That  victory  over  the  Spanish  fleet  an- 
nounced to  the  American  people  on  our  Inde- 
pendence Day  (1898)  caused  every  star  in  our 
banner  to  flash  anew  with  liberty.     The  vestal 


fires  of  truest  patrioti^^m  burn  with  perennial 
purity  upon  our  American  altars.     Two  days 
before  our  anniversary  was  inaugurated.  July 
2,   1776.  Jolin   Adams  in   writing  to  his  wife 
about    an    appropriate    celebration    suggested 
"  bells,    bonfires,    and    illuminations."     Salem 
rises    to    his    suggestion.      The    substratum 
of  sound  is  of  cow-bells,  any  bells,  while  the 
general    din    is    punctuated    by    pistol-shots, 
cannon,  and  those  huge  crackers  loaded  with 
dynamite  that  give  an  ear-splitting  detonation. 
Brass   bands   are   employed   to   entertain    the   ■ 
multitude  until  time  for  the  pageant,  and  as  M 
much    of    the    music    as    can    be    heard    is  1 
excellent. 

John  Adams  in  his  next  specification  must 
have  held  Salem  in  prophecy.  Eight  thou- 
sand barrels  burning  in  one  shaft,  and 
throwing  a  flame  higher  than  Bunker  Hill  j 
Monument,  illuminating  the  heavens  for  I 
miles  around,  would  have  gratified  the  heart  ■ 
of  the  old  man  eloquent.  Nothing  surpasses 
or  equals  Salem's  bonfires  in  New  England, 
and  probably  not  in  the  world.  Prepara- 
tions begin  weeks  in  advance.  Guards  are 
stationed  to  keep  away  fun-loving  boys  who 
might  be  playing  with  matches  on  the  day 
before  the  Fourth.  Four  thousand  barrels 
have  been  bought  in  one  lot  for  the  great 
event,  besides  thirty-eight  greasy  hogsheads 
to  stand  at  the  base  and  hold  combustible 
material. 

The  cylinder  at  the  top  is  painted  in  the 
national  colors.  Previous  to  the  fire  Old 
Glory  waves  from  the  summit.  Thus  deco- 
rated, the  colossus  looms  up  at  night  like  a 
ship  in  a  fog.  The  stars  that  may  have  hid 
their  faces  at  certain  scenes  enacted  upon 
these  promontories  designed  by  nature  for 
these  peaceful  displ.iys,  look  kindly  down 
upon  young  America,  full  of  the  fresh  feel- 
ing of  life  when  one  must  run  up  steep 
places.  Time  and  money — one  hundred 
dollars  is  appropriated  by  the  city — are  bet- 
ter spent  in  celebrating  the  birth  of  freedom 
than  in  the  synagogs  of  Satan. 

Like  a  magnificent  building  after  an  earth- 
quake, nothing  but  a  pile  of  debris  is  soon 
left  to  tell  the  story  of  the  labors  of  many 
hours  during  summer  evenings  and  holidays. 
In  about  an  hour  the  crowd  usually  feels  it- 
self in  the  wrong  place,  and  then  comes  an 
exeunt  o)unes.  None  need  to  be  rocked  to 
sleep  when  they  have  sought  their  beds. 

Patriotism  grows  by  its  expression.  Like 
religion  it  must  have  utterance.  It  is  not 
enough  to  feel  patriotic ;  for,  if  the  senti- 
ment never  manifests  itself,  even  its  exist- 
ence is  held  upon  a  very  uncertain  tenure. 
— C.  E.  W. 


IN  PILGRIM  PLYMOUTH 

By  Priscilla  Leonard 


Practically,  one  goes  to  Plymouth  by  train 
from  Boston,  and  lands  in  the  side  streets  of 
the  modern  town.  But  historically  one  must 
land    at    Plymouth    Rock.      It    may    be    that 


Mary  Chilton  did  not  step  first  upon  it,  but 
it  is  the  beginning  of  New  England  history 
none  the  less.  It  may  also  be  that  the  Pil- 
grim  Fathers  themselves   did   not   first   land 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


707 


there,  but  anchored  the  MayHowcr  for  a 
month  instead  in  the  harbor  of  what  is  now 
Provincetown.  Cape  Cod,  while 
Plymouth  they  explored  the  coast  for  a 
Rock  suitable  place  to  settle.  These 
are  shocks  to  the  lover  of  tra- 
dition, but  they  do  not  hinder  the  fact  that 
Forefathers'  Rock  is  a  foundation  stone  of 
American  liberty.  It  is  also  something  of  a 
shock  to  find  that  Plymouth  Rock  is  very 
small  and  retiring  in  appearance.  It  is  the 
only  bit  of  stone,  apparently,  for  miles  round. 
Far  out  on  the  outer  face  of  Alanomet,  south 
of  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  the  "  breaking 
waves  "  may  occasionally  "  dash  high " 
against  the  rocks,  but  everywhere  else  the 
beach  is  a  low.  long,  level  stretch  of  yellow- 
gray  sand,  and  the  wide,  shallow  bay  is  as 
pretty  and  peaceful  as  possible.  Still,  tho 
the  coast  was  not  rock-bound,  it  must  have 
been  freezingly  cold  and  bleak  when  the 
"  band  of  exiles  moored  their  bark  "  there ; 
and,  indeed,  we  are  told  that  the  first  explor- 
ing party  was  nearly  frozen  on  Clark's 
Island ;  so  that  the  faith  and  courage  of  the 
Pilgrims  was  quite  enough  tried. 

Plymouth  Rock,  by  the  way,  would  be  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  land  upon  nowadays, 
because  it  is  quite  a  distance  from  the  water. 
It  is  the  real  historic  rock,  however,  and  the 
sea  must  have  lapped  its  sides  in  those  long- 
ago  days,  because  Elder  Thomas  Faunce,  of 
Duxbury,  in  1741  (being  then  a  man  of 
ninety-five),  was  brought  thither  in  an  arm- 
chair, and  sitting  upon  the  Rock, 
Its         made     public     declaration     that 

History  when  a  boy  he  had  been  fre- 
quently told  by  the  Pilgrims 
themselves,  and  by  his  father,  who  came  over 
in  1623,  that  a  landing  was  made  upon  this 
identical  stone.  "  The  aged  elder  then  took 
his  last  look  at  the  spot  so  endeared  to  his 
memory,  and  bedewing  it  with  tears,  bade  it 
farewell."  That  must  have  been  one  of  the 
most  dramatic  scenes  the  Rock  has  witnessed. 
However,  part  of  it  has  had  rather  an  ad- 
venturous career;  for  in  1774  the  top  was 
split  ofif  and  drawn  to  the  Town  Hall  by 
twenty  yoke  of  oxen,  to  be  used  as  the  ped- 
estal of  a  liberty  pole,  whose  flag  bore  the 
patriotic  motto,  "  Liberty  or  Deatli."  Here 
the  Pilgrim  relic  remained  until  1834,  when, 
on  the  Fourth  of  July,  it  was  removed,  ac- 
companied by  a  formal  procession,  to  the 
front  of  Pilgrim  Hall.  Meanwhile  the  rest 
of  the  Rock  was  preserved  on  the  original 
site,  surrounded  by  a  stone  pavement.  In 
1859  the  present  canopy  over  it  was  buill. 
It  took  eight  years  to  complete  this,  which  is 
"ne  of  the  homeliest  structures  ever  designed 
by  mortal  man.  In  1880  the  vagrant  top  was 
restored  to  its  place  and  firmly  cemented 
there,  to  roam  no  more.  Anyone  can  now 
go  into  the  little  kiosk,  and  si;  on  the  sacred 
stone,  or  step  on  it,  as  preferred.  Most  peo- 
ple sit  on  it,  for  sight-seeing  is  weary  work. 
But  if  one  wants  to  see  all  Plymouth,  the 
rest  here  must  be  only  a  momentary  one,  for 
there   is  no  time  to   spare. 

The  proper  place  to  begin  in  Plymouth, 
historically,  is,  as  has  been  said,  the  Rock. 


The  best  spot,  geographically,  is  the  hill  from 
which  the  National  Monument  to  the  Fore- 
fathers overlooks  town  and  harbor.  From 
a  broad,  open  space  the  great  granite  pile 
rises,  surmounted  by  the  massive  statue  of 
Faith,  one  hand  holding  a  Bible,  the  other 
pointing  upward  to  Heaven.  On  the  four  cor- 
ners of  the  pedestal  are  emblematic  figures 
of  Morality,  Law,  Education,  and  Freedom. 
From  its  foot,  looking  down  over  the  tree- 
shaded,  rambling,  irregular  streets  below,  one 
soon  gets  the  bearings  of  Plymouth,  and  can 
trace  the  old  town  lying  within  its  four 
streets,  with  Burial  Hill  as  its  fortress  site. 
Below,  nearer  the  Rock  on  the  shore,  is  Cole's 
Hill,  where  the  dead  were  buried  in  that 
terrible  "  first  sickness  "  and  where  corn  was 
planted  next  season  to  hide  the  graves  from 
the  Indians,  so  that  they  might  not  know 
how  reduced  the  little  colony  had  become. 
The  "  labors,  sacrifices,  and  sufferings "  of 
the  Pilgrim  band,  commemorated  in  the  in- 
scription on  the  monument,  seem  very  real 
as  we  look  down  at  the  spot  where  they 
struggled  so  bravely  for  God  and  liberty 
against  many  foes  in  an  inhospitable  land. 

Going  down  from  the  monument  hill  one 
can  ramble  round  the  older  part  of  Ply- 
mouth at  leisure,  finding  something  of  in- 
terest at  every  step.  Here  is  the  ■"  town 
brooke,"  into  which  the  "  many  delicate 
springs  "  still  run — a  favorite  spot  for  art- 
ists.    Here  is  Leyden  Street,  the 

Leyden  first  one  laid  out  by  the  Pilgrims, 
Street  who  built  here  their  "  common 
house  "  where  all  could  rendez- 
vous while  the  work  was  going  on,  and  then 
proceeded  to  "  measure  out "  the  grounds ; 
and  "  first  wee  tooke  notise  how  many  fami- 
lies there  were,  willing  all  single  men  that 
hadde  no  wives  to  join  with  some  family  as 
they  thought  fitte,  soe  that  wee  might  build 
fewer  houses ;  which  was  done,  and  wee  re- 
duced them  to  nineteen  families.  To  greater 
families  wee  allotted  larger  plots ;  to  every 
person  half  a  pole  in  breadth  and  three  in 
length,  and  soe  lots  were  cast  where  every 
man  should  lie ;  which  was  done  and  staked 
out,"  and  thus  Leyden  Street  was  built,  run- 
ning up  from  the  water's  edge  to  the  fort  and 
watchtower  on  Burial  Hill.  Where  Main 
Street  now  crosses  it  stood  Governor  Brad- 
ford's house,  with  four  guns  mounted,  "  so 
as  to  flank  along  the  streets." 

But  the  governor's  house  has  long  ago 
vanished,  and  so  have  fort  and  watchhouse. 
The  wide  outlook  from  the  watchhouse  over 
town  and  sea  made  it  valuable  to  the  tiny 
garrison.  Its  brick  foundation  is  still  there, 
about  a  foot  below  the  surface,  and  the  very 
hearthstone  on  which  the  Pilgrims  built  their 
watch-fires  lies  on  the  southern  side,  where 
they  placed  it  more  than  two  centuries  and  a 
half  ago.  To-day,  when  all  America  is  the 
home  of  religion  and  civilization,  it  is  hard 
to  realize  the  splendid  courage  necessary  to 
this  group  of  pioneers,  who  met  the  unknown 
forces  of  a  continent  without  fear,  trusting 
in  God  v/ith  a  deep  and  victorious  faith,  will- 
ing to  die  in  the  wilderness  rather  than  sur- 
render a  pure  worship  of  Him.    The  sea  was 


7o8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


behind  them,  the  trackless  woods  in  front; 
they  stood  alone  against  a  mighty  and  mys- 
terious land  of  savagery,  and  yet  they  were 
not  dismayed.  Here,  on  Burial  Hill,  in  their 
rude  fort,  they  held  their  worship,  and  took 
courage  from  it  to  strive  and  toil  and  con- 
quer ;  and  the  most  careless  heart  feels  a 
thrill  in  this  hallowed  and  historic  spot. 

The  feeling  is  intensified  as  one  visits 
Pilgrim  Hall.  There  has  been  so  much 
joking  about  the  furniture  brought  over  in 
the  Mayiiozver,  that  one  thinks  of  it  as 
handsome  and  valuable.  It  is  in  reality  very 
different.  Plain,  rudely-carved  chairs,  solid 
tables   and   stools,   chipped  with 

Pilgrim  long  use,  iron  cooking  pots,  pew- 
Hall  ter  platters,  everything  was  of 
the  simplest  and  strongest  kind, 
for  those  colonists  were  in  marching  and 
fighting  trim  and  needed  no  luxuries.  They 
were  cultured — many  of  them  had  coats  of 
arms,  indeed ;  but  they  were  of  true  Spartan 
breed;  and  met  their  new  conditions  with 
resolute  adaptability.  One  book  they  had 
and  read — their  Bible.  Alden's  Bible  is  here, 
and  Winslow's,  and  Brewster's  Commen- 
taries on  The  Proverbs.  The  Proverbs  were 
just  such  meat  as  these  righteous,  sturdy 
men  and  women  of  Plymouth  needed  and  en- 
joyed. One  can  imagine  that  little  Wrestling 
Brewster  (whose  christening  blanket  is  pre- 
served here,  and  is  about  as  thick  as  a  piece 
of  unbleached  muslin — poor  child!)  aiid 
Peregrine  White,  the  first  white  child  born  in 
New  England,  and  Lora  Standish,  must  have 
learned  The  Proverbs  by  heart  in  early  child- 
hood. They  did  not  learn  the  three  R's  very 
well,  however — at  least.  Peregrine  White's 
will  is  signed  only  by  his  mark,  a  queer, 
trembly  "  P.  W.,"  which  has  to  be  interpreted 
liberally  to  be  anything  at  all. 

John  Alden  and  Priscilla  Molines  (not 
Mullins)  are  very  much  in  evidence  at  Pil- 
grim Hall.  It  is  a  pretty  romance,  and  one 
hesitates  to  find  Longfellow  in  the  wrong  in 
any  way ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  the  facts  to 
mention  that  Priscilla  did  not  ride  on  a  milk- 
white  steer  through  the  woods  to  her  new 
home,  as  the  poet  pictures  her, 

Longfel-    for  two  reasons :  first  there  were 

low's  John  no  domestic  animals  larger  than 

and        goats    in    Plymouth    when    John 

Priscilla  and  Priscilla  were  married;  and, 
secondly,  there  was  no  settle- 
ment on  the  other  side  of  the  bay  at  that 


period.  Only  the  two  rows  of  houses  on 
Leyden  Street  were  standing,  and  there  were 
therefore  no  woods  to  go  through  to  reach 
Alden's  home  on  the  slope  of  Burial  Hill. 
Still,  in  1627,  not  so  many  years  afterwards, 
the  young  couple  did  remove  to  Duxbury,  and 
John  Alden  built  first  a  small  house,  and  then 
a  larger  and  more  substantial  one,  which  is 
standing  to  this  day,  and  round  which  memo- 
ries of  the  Pilgrim  pair  cling  in  abundance, 
much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  John  of  the 
seventh  generation,  who  inhabits  the  old 
homestead,  and  to  the  satisfaction,  too,  of  five 
thousand  other  Alden  descendants,  scattered 
over  the  United  States.  Governor  Bradford 
is  the  only  Pilgrim  whose  descendants  out- 
number those  of  John  and  Priscilla,  it  is 
said. 

Indeed,  of  the  forty-one  who  signed  the 
compact  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayiiozver, 
as  she  lay  off  Provincetown  that  cold  No- 
vember day  (their  names,  by  the  way,  are 
duly  inscribed  on  the  forty-one  festoons  of 
the  remarkable  railing  round  the  tablet  which 
commemorates  the  compact) 
The  Forty-  nearly  all  have  many  descendants. 
One        The    curator    at    Pilgrim    Hall, 

Signers  himself  descended  from  eight  of 
the  signers,  receives  daily  letters 
from  East  and  West  asking  for  information 
about  the  Pilgrim  ancestors  of  the  writers. 
Far  and  wide  the  descendants  of  the  Mayffozuer 
band  have  gone,  carrying  everywhere  the 
faith,  the  energy,  and  the  high  ideals  of  their 
forefathers.  The  great  West  and  the  awak- 
ening South  have  felt  the  influence  of  the 
same  sturdy  endurance,  enterprise,  and  reso- 
lute faith  that  drove  the  famous  little  com- 
pany to  brave  the  unknown  dangers  of  a 
bleak  and  hostile  country.  Plymouth,  his- 
toric and  filled  with  interest  as  it  is.  does 
not,  and  cannot,  hold  the  full  story  of  the 
Pilgrims.  That  story  is  written  in  letters  of 
light  over  the  whole  continent ;  all  over  the 
country,  wherever  they  have  gone,  they  have 
carried  with  them  a  respect  for  law,  a  rever- 
ence for  God,  education  and  freedom  of 
worship,  and  a  courage  to  uphold  them,  that 
has  made  this  our  great  Nation  the  "  land  of 
the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave."  May 
America,  with  her  churches,  her  schools,  her 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  her  great  past  and 
her  glorious  future  be  truly  and  forever  the 
"  land  of  the  Pilgrims'  pride." — C.  E.  W. 


PERSONAL  RESPONSIBILITY 


By  William  T.  Ellis 


"  My  country,  'tis  of  thee."  Yes,  she  is 
tny  country,  and  not  the  country  of  the  pro- 
fessional politician  and  office-holder,  appear- 
ances to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  The 
country  is  the  heritage  of  the  individual  citi- 
zen. To  him  she  looks  for  protection ;  upon 
him  she  leans  for  support.  When  he  ceases 
to  love  her  with  an  ardent  love,  and  when  he 


becomes  indifferent  to  her  welfare,  then  the 
saddest  day  in  her  history  will  have  dawned. 
There  is  a  great  difference  between  a  home 
and  a  hotel,  and  the  home  is  the  more  pre- 
cious of  the  two,  tho  it  may  be  but  a  humble 
cottage,  while  the  hotel  may  be  a  palace.  It 
is  the  sense  of  possession  that  makes  the  dif- 
ference.    The  home  is  ours.     It  does  not  be- 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


709 


long  to  the  public;  it  is  sacred  to  us  alone. 
Therefore  we  prize  it  and  guard  it.  The 
same  spirit  of  personal  relation  is  needed 
toward  our  country.  We  have  a  proprietary 
interest  in  her ;  she  belongs  to  us.  There 
is  no  person  alive  who  has  a  better  right  than 
every  one  of  us  who  live  beneath  the  flag 
to  say,  "  This  is  my  country." 

"  I  am  the  State !  "  cried  a  famous  king. 
In  no  such  arrogant  and  selfish  sense,  but 
even  more  truly,  the  least  American  may 
say.  "  I  am  the  State."  The  government  is 
not  a  thing  distinct  from  the  governed.  The 
people  are  the  Nation.  All  its  responsibilities 
are  our  responsibilities.  Its  burdens  are  our 
burdens.  Its  problems  are  problems  that  are 
to  be  settled,  not  by  the  government  in  the 
abstract,  but  by  the  individual  citizen  in  the 
aggregate. 

A  patriot  cannot  turn  his  troubles  over  to 
the  policemen,  or  to  any  other  officeholder. 
Citizenship  has  its  burdens,  and  we  must 
bear  them.  That  is  the  price  we  pay  for  a 
republican  form .  of  government.  The  in- 
stant we  withdraw  our  shoulders  from  under 
our  share  of  the  national  load,  trouble  be- 
gins for  our  country.  By  that  act  we  imperil, 
to  a  degree,  the  national  stability.  For  the 
Nation  is  only  sure  and  strong  when  her 
people  are  awake  to  their  duties  to  the  State. 

Private  indifference  to  public  affairs  is  the 
greatest  menace  that  confronts  America. 
Good  men  relegate  the  direction  of  the  Na- 
tion to  politicians,  who  are  too  often  greedy 
and  unpatriotic.  Then  they  wonder  why  their 
prayers  for  her  purity  and  peace  are  not  al- 
ways answered.  This  is  a  case  wherein  God 
will  hear  only  the  prayers  of  our  hands  and 
our  feet.  He  will  not  perform  our  duties  for 
us.  If  we  are  not  enough  interested  to  as- 
sume to  the  last  ounce  our  obligations  of 
citizenship,  we  cannot  expect  him  miracu- 
lously to  intervene  to  save  the  country  from 
her  enemies   within. 

It  should  be  a  personal  offense  to  every 
citizen  when  an  officeholder  goes  wrong. 
Any    man    who    deals    dishonorably   by    the 


government  deserves,  and  should  receive,  the 
manifest  condemnation  of  every  patriot.  A 
more  vigorous  treatment  of  political  evil 
doers,  on  the  part  of  citizens,  is  urgently  de- 
manded in  these  times.  We  should  be  readier 
to  measure  out  punishment — and  ostracism — 
to  offenders  against  the  State  than  to  of- 
fenders against  our  personal  rights — and 
such,  indeed,  are  the  former,  and  in  larger 
degree.  A  quickened  public  spirit  needs  to 
be  awakened  in  this  respect,  that  Americans 
may  understand  that  he  who  betrays  an  offi- 
cial trust  insults  and  injures  every  individual 
in  the  community. 

Indift'erence  is  unpatriotic.  The  best  friend 
of  the  Nation's  foes  is  the  man  who  does  not 
concern  himself  about  public  affairs.  The 
political  evil  doers  ask  only  that  the  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  be  dulled  in  the  minds 
of  the  people ;  for  this  means  success  to  their 
worst  schemes.  If  the  community  will  only 
concern  itself  altogether  with  business  and 
pleasure  seeking,  and  pay  no  attention  to 
matters  of  government  or  politics,  the  poli- 
ticians and  spoilsmen  will  waste  no  gray  mat- 
ter in  anxiety.  Their  safety  and  success — 
and  the  Nation's  danger  and  failure — lie  in 
the  indifference  of  the  people. 

Here  is  a  serious  need  of  our  Nation :  The 
arousal  of  her  citizens  to  an  appreciation  of 
their  personal  responsibility.  Give  us  a  peo- 
ple who  are  awake  to  all  the  questions  of 
the  hour,  and  who  view  with  jealous  eye  the 
conduct  of  public  servants,  and  America  will 
arise  to  a  might  and  a  purity  undreamed  of 
by  our  fathers.  Her  destiny  will  be  glorious 
because  her  inhabitants  are  true. 

"  God  give  us  men ;  a  time  like  this  demands 
Great  hearts,  strong  minds,  true  faith,  and 

willing    hands. 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy ; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 
Men  who  have  honor;  men  who  will  not 
lie." 

C.  E.  W. 


ADDRESSES 
ORATION  AT  PLYMOUTH* 

By  John  Quincy  Adams 


Among  the  sentiments  of  most  powerful 
operation  upon  the  human  heart,  and  most 
highly  honorable  to  the  human  character,  are 
those  of  veneration  for  our  forefathers,  and 
of  love  for  our  posterity.  They  form  the 
connecting  links  between  the  selfish  and  the 
social  passions.  By  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  Christianity,  the  happiness  of  the  in- 
dividual is  interwoven,  by  innumerable  and 
imperceptible  ties,  with  that  of  his  contem- 
poraries. By  the  power  of  filial  reverence 
and    parental    affection,    individual    existence 


is  extended  beyond  the  limits  of  individual 
life,  and  the  happiness  of  every  age  is  chained 
in  mutual  dependence  upon  that  of  every 
other.  Respect  for  his  ancestors  excites,  in 
the  breast  of  man,  interest  in  their  history, 
attachment  to  their  characters,  concern  for 
their  errors,  involuntary  pride  in  their  vir- 
tues. Love  for  his  posterity  spurs  him  to 
exertion  for  their  support,  stimulates  him  to 
virtue  for  their  example,  and  fills  him  with 
the  tenderest  solicitude  for  their  welfare. 
Man,  therefore,   was  not  made   for  himself 


*  Delivered  at  Plymouth  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  December,  1802,  in  Commemoration  of  the  Landing 
of  the  Pilgrims. 


7ro 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


alone.  No,  he  was  made  for  his  country,  by 
the  obligations  of  the  social  compact ;  he 
was  made  for  his  species,  by  the  Christian 
duties  of  universal  charity;  he  was  made 
for  all  ages  past,  by  the  sentiment  of  rever- 
ence for  his  forefathers ;  and  he  was  made 
for  all  future  times,  by  the  impulse  of 
affection  for  his  progeny.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  these  principles,  "  Existence  sees 
him  spurn  her  bounded  reign." 

They  redeem  his  nature  from  the  subjec- 
tion of  time  and  space ;  he  is  no  longer  a 
"  puny  insect  shivering  at  a  breeze ;  "  he  is 
the  glory  of  creation,  formed  to  occupy  all 
time  and  all  extent ;  bounded,  during  his  resi- 
dence upon  earth,  only  to  the  boundaries  of 
the  world,  and  destined  to  life  and  immortal- 
ity in  brighter  regions,  when  the  fabric  of  na- 
ture itself  shall  dissolve  and  perish. 

The  voice  of  history  has  not,  in  all  its 
compass,  a  note  but  answers  in  unison  with 
these  sentiments.  The  barbarian  chieftain, 
who  defended  his  country  against  the  Roman 
invasion,  driven  to  the  remotest  extremity 
of  Britain,  and  stimulating  his  followers  to 
battle  by  all  that  has  power  of  persuasion 
upon  the  human  heart,  concluded  his  per- 
suasion by  an  appeal  to  these  irresistible  feel- 
ings. "  Think  of  your  forefathers  and  of 
your  posterity."  The  Romans  themselves,  at 
the  pinnacle  of  civilization,  were  actuated  by 
the  same  impressions,  and  celebrated,  in  anni- 
versary festivals,  every  great  event  which  has 
signalized  the  annals  of  their  forefathers.  To 
multiply  instances  where  it  were  impossible  to 
adduce  an  exception  would  be  to  waste  your 
time  and  abuse  your  patience ;  but  in  the 
Sacred  Volume,  which  contains  the  substance 
of  our  firmest  faith  and  of  our  most  precious 
hopes,  these  passions  not  only  maintain  their 
highest  efficacy,  but  are  sanctioned  by  the 
express  injunctions  of  the  Divine  Legislator 
to  His  chosen  people. 

The  revolutions  of  time  furnish  no  pre- 
vious example  of  a  nation  shooting  up  to 
maturity  and  expanding  into  greatness  with 
the  rapidity  which  has  characterized  the 
growth  of  the  American  people.  In  the  luxu- 
riance of  youth,  and  in  the  vigor  of  man- 
hood, it  is  pleasing  and  instructive  to  look 
backwards  upon  the  helpless  days  of  infancy ; 
but  in  the  continual  and  essential  changes  of 
a  growing  subject,  the  transactions  of  that 
early  period  would  soon  be  obliterated  from 
the  memory  but  for  some  periodical  call  of 
attention  to  aid  the  silent  records  of  the 
historian.  Such  celebrations  arouse  and 
gratify  the  kindliest  emotions  of  the  bosom. 
They  are  faithful  pledges  of  the  respect  we 
bear  to  the  memory  of  our  ancestors  and  of 
the  tenderness  with  which  we  cherish  the  ri- 
sing generation.  They  introduce  the  sages  and 
heroes  of  ages  past  to  the  notice  and  emula- 
tion of  succeeding  times ;  thev  are  at  once 
testimonials  of  our  gratitude,  and  schools  of 
virtue  to  our  children. 

These  sentiments  are  wise ;  they  are  honor- 
able ;  they  are  virtuous ;  their  cultivation  is 
not  merely  innocent  pleasure ;  it  is  incum- 
bent duty.  Obedient  to  their  dictates,  you, 
my  fellow-citizens,   have   instituted  and  paid 


frequent  observance  to  this  annual  solemnity. 
And  what  event  of  weightier  intrinsic  im- 
portance, or  of  more  extensive  consequences 
was  ever  selected  for  this  honorary  distinc- 
tion? 

In  reverting  to  the  period  of  our  origin, 
other  nations  have  generally  been  compelled 
to  plunge  into  the  chaos  of  impenetrable  an- 
tiquity, or  to  trace  a  lawless  ancestry  into  the 
caverns  of  ravishers  and  robbers.  It  is  your 
peculiar  privilege  to  commemorate,  in  this 
birthday  of  your  Nation,  an  event  of  which 
the  principal  actors  are  known  to  you  fa- 
miliarly, as  if  belonging  to  your  own  age ; 
an  event  of  a  magnitude  before  which  im- 
agination shrinks  at  the  imperfection  of  her 
powers.  It  is  your  further  happiness  to  be- 
hold, in  those  eminent  characters,  who  were 
most  conspicuous  in  accomplishing  the  set- 
tlement of  your  country,  men  upon  whose 
virtue  you  can  dwell  with  honest  exultation. 
The  founders  of  your  race  are  not  handed 
down  to  you,  like  the  father  of  the  Roman 
people,  as  the  sucklings  of  a  wolf.  You  are 
not  descended  from  a  nauseous  compound 
of  fanaticism  and  sensuality,  whose  only  ar- 
gument was  the  sword,  and  whose  onlv  para- 
dise was  a  brothel.  No  Gothic  scourge  of 
God,  no  Vandal  pest  of  nations,  no  fabled 
fugitive  from  the  flames  of  Troy,  no  bastard 
Norman  tyrant,  appears  among  the  list  of 
worthies  who  first  landed  on  the  Rock,  which 
your  veneration  has  preserved  as  a  lasting 
monument  of  their  achievement.  The  great 
actors  of  the  day  we  now  solemnize  were  il- 
lustrious by  their  intrepid  valor  no  less  than 
by  their  Christian  graces,  but  the  clarion  of 
conquest  has  not  blazoned  forth  their  names 
to  all  the  winds  of  Heaven.  Their  glory  has 
not  been  wafted  over  oceans  of  blood  to  the 
remotest  regions  of  the  earth.  They  have  not 
erected  to  themselves  colossal  statues  upon 
pedestals  of  human  bones,  to  provoke  and  in- 
sult the  tardy  hand  of  heavenly  retribution. 
But  theirs  was  "  the  better  fortitude  of  pa- 
tience and  heroic  martyrdom."  Theirs  was 
the  gentle  temper  of  Christian  kindness,  the 
rigorous  observance  of  reciprocal  justice,  the 
unconquerable  soul  of  conscious  integrity. 
Worldly  fame  has  been  parsimonious  of  her 
favor  to  the  memory  of  those  generous  com- 
panions. Their  numbers  were  small ;  their 
stations  in  life  obscure;  the  object  of  their 
enterprise  unostentatious ;  the  theater  of  their 
exploits  remote ;  how  could  they  possibly  be 
favorites  of  worldly  Fame — that  common 
crier,  whose  existence  is  only  known  by  the 
assemblage  of  multitudes;  that  pander  of 
wealth  and  greatness,  so  eager  to  haunt  the 
palacL^  of  fortune,  and  so  fastidious  to  the 
houseless  dignity  of  virtue ;  that  parasite  of 
pride,  ever  scornful  to  meekness,  and  ever 
obsequious  to  insolent  power ;  that  heedless 
trumpeter  whose  ears  are  deaf  to  modest 
merit,  and  whose  eyes  are  blind  to  bloodless, 
distant  excellence? 

When  the  persecuted  companions  of  Rob- 
inson, exiles  from  their  native  land,  anx- 
iously sued  for  the  privilege  of  removing  a 
thousand  leagues  more  distant  to  an  untried 
soil,  a  rigorous  climate,  and  a  savage  wilder- 


FOREFATHERS'   DAY 


711 


ness,  for  the  sake  of  reconciling  their  sense 
of  religious  duty  with  their  affections  for 
their  country,  few,  perhaps  none  of  them, 
formed  a  conception  of  what  would  be,  within 
two  centuries,  the  result  of  their  undertaking. 
When  the  jealous  and  niggardly  policy  of 
their  British  sovereign  denied  them  even 
that  humblest  of  requests,  and  instead  of  lib- 
erty would  barely  consent  to  promise  con- 
nivance, neither  he  nor  they  might  be  aware 
that  they  were  laying  the  foundations  of  a 
power,  and  that  he  was  sowing  the  seeds 
of  a  spirit,  which,  in  less  than  two  hundred 
years,  would  stagger  the  throne  of  his  de- 
scendants, and  shake  his  united  kingdoms  to 
the  center.  So  far  is  it  from  the  ordinary 
habits  of  mankind  to  calculate  the  import- 
ance of  events  in  their  elementary  principles, 
that  had  the  first  colonists  of  our  country 
ever  intimated  as  a  part  of  their  designs  the 
project  of  founding  a  great  and  mighty  na- 
tion, the  finger  of  scorn  would  have  pointed 
them  to  the  cells  of  bedlam  as  an  abode 
more  suitable  for  hatching  vain  empires  than 
the  solitude  of  a  transatlantic  desert. 

These  consequences,  then  so  little  foreseen, 
have  unfolded  themselves,  in  all  their 
grandeur,  to  the  eyes  of  the  present  age.  It 
is  a  common  amusement  of  speculative  minds 
to  contrast  the  magnitude  of  the  most  im- 
portant events  with  the  minuteness  of  their 
primeval  causes,  and  the  records  of  mankind 
are  full  of  examples  for  such  contemplations. 
It  is,  however,  a  more  profitable  employment 
to  trace  the  constituent  principles  of  future 
greatness  in  their  kernel;  to  detect  in  the 
acorn  at  our  feet  the  germ  of  that  majestic 
oak,  whose  roots  shoot  down  to  the  center, 
and  whose  branches  aspire  to  the  skies.  Let 
it  be,  then,  our  present  occupation  to  inquire 
and  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  causes  first  put 
in  operation  at  the  period  of  our  commemora- 
tion, and  already  productive  of  such  magnifi- 
cent effects ;  to  examine  with  reiterated  care 
and  minute  attention  the  characters  of  those 
men  who  gave  the  first  irripulse  to  a  new 
series  of  events  in  the  history  of  the  world ; 
to  applaud  and  emulate  those  qualities  of 
their  minds  which  we  shall  find  deserving  of 
our  admiration ;  to  recognize  with  candor 
those  features  which  forbid  approbation  or 
even  require  censure,  and,  finally,  to  lay  alike 
their  frailties  and  their  perfections  to  our 
own  hearts,  either  as  warning  or  as  ex- 
ample. 

Of  the  various  European  settlements  upon 
this  continent,  which  have  finally  merged  in 
one  independent  Nation,  the  first  establish- 
ments were  made  at  various  times,  by  several 
nations,  and  under  the  influence  of  different 
motives.  In  many  instances,  the  conviction 
of  religious  obligation  formed  one  and  a 
powerful  inducement  of  the  adventures ;  but 
in  none,  excepting  the  settlement  at  Ply- 
mouth, did  they  constitute  the  sole  and  ex- 
clusive actuating  cause.  Worldly  interest  and 
commercial  speculation  entered  largely  into 
the  views  of  other  settlers,  but  the  commands 
of  conscience  were  the  only  stimulus  to  the 
emigrants  from  Leyden.  Previous  to  their  ex- 
peditions  hither,    they   had    endured   a   long 


banishment  from  their  native  country.  Un- 
der every  species  of  discouragement,  they 
undertook  the  voyage ;  they  performed  it  in 
spite  of  numerous  and  almost  insuperable  ob- 
stacles ;  they  arrived  upon  a  wilderness  bound 
with  frost  and  hoary  with  snow,  without  the 
boundaries  of  their  charter,  outcasts  from  all 
human  society,  and  coasted  five  weeks  to- 
gether, in  the  dead  of  winter,  on  this  tem- 
pestuous shore,  exposed  at  once  to  the  fury 
of  the  elements,  to  the  arrows  of  the  native 
savage,  and  to  the  impending  horrors  of 
famine. 

Courage  and  perseverance  have  a  magical 
talisman,  before  which  difficulties  disappear 
and  obstacles  vanish  into  air.  These  qualities 
have  ever  been  displayed  in  their  mightiest 
perfection,  as  attendants  in  the  retinue  of 
strong  passions.  From  the  first  discovery  of 
the  Western  Hemisphere  by  Columbus  until 
the  settlement  of  Virginia  which  immediately 
preceded  that  of  Plymouth,  the  various  ad- 
venturers from  the  ancient  world  had  ex- 
hibited upon  innumerable  occasions  that  ar- 
dor of  enterprise  and  th.it  stubbornness  of 
pursuit  which  set  all  danger  at  defiance,  and 
chained  the  violence  of  nature  at  their  feet. 
But  they  were  all  instigated  by  personal  in- 
terests. Avarice  and  ambition  had  tuned 
their  souls  to  that  pitch  of  exaltation.  Selfish 
passions  were  the  parents  of  their  heroism. 
It  was  reserved  for  the  first  settlers  of  New 
England  to  perform  achievements  equally 
arduous,  to  trample  down  obstructions  equally 
formidable,  to  dispel  dangers  equally  terrific, 
under  the  single  inspiration  of  conscience. 

To  them  even  liberty  herself  was  but  a  sub- 
ordinate and  secondary  consideration.  They 
claimed  exemption  from  the  mandates  of  hu- 
man authority,  as  militating  with  their  sub- 
jection to  a  superior  power.  Before  the 
voice  of  Heaven  they  silenced  even  the  calls 
of  their  country. 

Yet,  while  so  deeply  impressed  with  the 
sense  of  religious  obligation,  they  felt,  in  all 
its  energy,  the  force  of  that  tender  tie  which 
binds  the  heart  of  every  virtuous  man  to  his 
native  land.  It  was  to  renew  that  connection 
with  their  country  which  had  been  severed  by 
their  compulsory  expatriation,  that  they  re- 
solved to  face  all  the  hazards  of  a  perilous 
navigation  and  all  the  labors  of  a  toilsome 
distant  settlement.  Under  the  mild  protection 
of  the  Batavian  government,  they  enjoyed  al- 
ready that  freedom  of  religious  worship,  for 
which  ihey  had  resigned  so  many  comforts 
and  enjoyments  at  home ;  but  their  hearts 
panted  for  a  restoration  to  the  bosom  of  their 
country.  Invited  and  urged  by  the  open- 
hearted  and  truly  benevolent  people  who  had 
given  them  an  asylum  for  the  persecution  of 
their  own  kindred  to  form  their  settlement 
within  the  territories  then  under  their  juris- 
diction, the  love  of  their  country  predomi- 
nated over  every  influence  save  that  of  con- 
science alone,  and  they  preferred  the  precari- 
ous chance  of  relaxation  from  the  bigoted 
rigor  of  the  English  government  to  the  certain 
liberality  and  alluring  offers  of  the  Holland- 
ers. Observe,  my  countrymen,  the  generous 
patriotism,  the  cordial  union  of  soul,  the  con- 


712 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


scious  yet  unaffected  vigor  which  beam  in 
their  application  to  the  British  monarch : 

"  They  were  well  weaned  from  the  deli- 
cate milk  of  their  mother  country,  and  inured 
to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange  land.  They 
were  knit  together  in  a  strict  and  sacred  bond, 
to  take  care  of  the  good  of  each  other  and  of 
the  whole.  It  was  not  with  them  as  with 
other  men,  whom  small  things  could  dis- 
courage, or  small  discontents  cause  to  wish 
themselves  again  at  home.'" 

Children  of  these  exalted  Pilgrims!  Is 
there  one  among  you  who  can  hear  the  simple 
and  pathetic  energy  of  these  expressions  with- 
out tenderness  and  admiration?  Venerated 
shades  of  our  forefathers !  No,  ye  were  in- 
deed, not  ordinary  men !  That  country  which 
had  ejected  you  so  cruelly  from  her  bosom 
you  still  delighted  to  contemplate  in  the  char- 
acter of  an  affectionate  and  beloved  mother. 
The  sacred  bond  which  knit  you  together  was 
indissoluble  while  you  lived;  and  oh,  may  it 
be  to  your  descendants  the  example  and  the 
pledge  of  harmony  to  the  latest  period  of 
time !  The  difficulties  and  dangers,  which  so 
often  had  defeated  attempts  of  similar  es- 
tablishments, were  unable  to  subdue  souls 
tempered  like  yours.  You  heard  the  rigid  in- 
terdictions ;  you  saw  the  menacing  forms  of 
toil  and  danger,  forbidding  your  access  to 
this  land  of  promise ;  but  you  heard  without 
dismay ;  you  saw  and  disdained  retreat.  Firm 
and  undaunted  in  the  confidence  of  that  sa- 
cred bond;  conscious  of  purity,  and  con- 
vinced of  the  importance  of  your  motives, 
you  put  your  trust  in  the  protecting  shield  of 
Providence,  and  smiled  defiance  at  the  com- 
bining terrors  of  human  malice  and  elemental 
strife.  These,  in  the  accomplishment  of  your 
undertaking,  you  were  summoned  to  en- 
counter in  their  most  hideous  forms ;  these 
you  met  with  that  fortitude,  and  combated 
with  that  perseverance,  which  you  had  prom- 
ised in  their  anticipation ;  these  you  com- 
pletely vanquished  in  establishing  the  founda- 
tions of  New  England,  and  the  day  which  we 
now  commemorate  is  the  perpetual  memorial 
of  your  triumph. 

It  were  an  occupation  peculiarly  pleasing 
to  cull  from  our  early  historians,  and  exhibit 
before  you  every  detail  of  this  transaction ; 
to  carry  you  in  imagination  on  board  their 
bark  at  the  first  moment  of  her  arrival  in 
the  bay ;  to  accompany  Carver,  Winslow, 
Bradford,  and  Standish,  in  all  their  excur- 
sions upon  the  desolate  coast ;  to  follow  them 
into  every  rivulet  and  creek  where  they  en- 
deavored to  find  a  firm  footing,  and  to  fix, 
with  a  pause  of  delight  and  exultation,  the 
instant  when  the  first  of  these  heroic  adven- 
turers alighted  on  the  spot  where  you,  their 
descendants,  now  enjoy  the  glorious  and 
happy  reward  of  their  labors.  But  in  this 
grateful  task,  your  former  orators,  on  this 
anniversary,  have  anticipated  all  that  the 
most  ardent  industry  could  collect,  and  grati- 
fied all  that  the  most  inquisitive  curiosity 
could  desire.  To  you,  my  friends,  every  oc- 
currence of  that  momentous  period  is  already 
familiar.  A  transient  allusion  to  a  few  char- 
acteristic instances,  which  mark  the  peculiar 


history  of  the  Plymouth  settlers,  may  prop- 
erly supply  the  place  of  a  narrative,  which 
to  this  auditory,  must  be  superfluous. 

One  of  these  remarkable  incidents  is  the 
execution  of  that  instrument  of  government 
by  which  they  formed  themselves  into  a  body 
politic,  the  day  after  their  arrival  upon  the 
coast,  and  previous  to  their  landing.  This 
is  perhaps,  the  only  instance  in  human  his- 
tory of  that  positive,  original  social  compact, 
which  speculative  philosophers  have  imagined 
as  the  only  legitimate  source  of  government. 
Here  was  a  unanimous  and  personal  assent, 
by  all  of  the  individuals  of  the  community, 
to  the  association  by  which  they  became  a 
nation.  It  was  the  result  of  circumstances 
and  discussions  which  had  occurred  during 
their  passage  from  Europe,  and  is  a  full  dem- 
onstration that  the  nature  of  civil  govern- 
ment, abstracted  from  the  political  institutions 
of  their  native  country,  had  been  an  object  of 
their  serious  meditation.  The  settlers  of  all 
the  former  European  colonies  had  contented 
themselves  with  the  powers  conferred  upon 
them  by  their  respective  charters,  without 
looking  beyond  the  seal  of  the  royal  parch- 
ment for  the  measure  of  their  rights  and  the 
rule  of  their  duties.  The  founders  of  Ply- 
mouth had  been  impelled  by  the  peculiarities 
of  their  situation  to  examine  the  subject  with 
deeper  and  more  comprehensive  research. 
After  twelve  years  of  banishment  from  the 
land  of  their  first  allegiance,  during  which 
they  had  been  under  an  adoptive  and  tem- 
porary subjection  to  another  sovereign,  they 
must  naturally  have  been  led  to  reflect  upon 
the  relative  rights  and  duties  of  allegiance 
and  subjection.  They  had  resided  in  a  city, 
the  seat  of  a  university,  where  the  polemical 
and  political  controversies  of  the  times  were 
pursued  with  uncommon  fervor.  In  this 
period  they  had  witnessed  the  deadly  struggle 
between  the  two  parties,  into  which  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  Provinces  after  their  sepa- 
ration from  the  crown  of  Spain,  had  divided 
themselves.  The  contest  embraced  within  its 
compass  not  only  theological  doctrines,  but 
political  principles,  and  Maurice  and  Barnevelt 
were  the  temporary  leaders  of  the  same  rival 
factions,  of  which  Episcopius  and  Polyander 
were  the  ecclesiastical  champions. 

That  the  investigation  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  government  was  deeply  impli- 
cated in  these  dissensions  is  evident  from  the 
immortal  work  of  Grotius,  upon  the  rights  of 
war  and  peace,  which  undoubtedly  originates 
from  them.  Grotius  himself  had  been  a  most 
distinguished  actor  and  sufferer  in  those  im- 
portant scenes  of  internal  convulsion,  and  his 
work  was  first  published  very  shortly  after 
the  departure  of  our  forefathers  from  Leyden. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  course  of  the 
contest  Mr.  Robinson  more  than  once  ap- 
peared, with  credit  to  himself,  as  a  public 
disputant  against  Episcopius ;  and  from  the 
manner  in  which  the  fact  is  related  by  Gov- 
ernor Bradford,  it  is  apparent  that  the  whole 
English  Church  at  Leyden  took  a  zealous  in- 
terest in  the  religious  part  of  the  controversy. 
As  strangers  in  the  land,  it  is  presumable  that 
they  wisely  and  honorably  avoided  entangling 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


713 


themselves  in  the  political  contentions  in- 
volved with  it.  Yet  the  theoretic  principles, 
as  they  were  drawn  into  discussion,  could 
not  fail  to  arrest  their  attention,  and  must 
have  assisted  them  to  form  accurate  ideas 
concerning  the  origin  and  extent  of  authority 
among  men,  independent  of  positive  institu- 
tions. The  importance  of  these  circumstances 
will  not  be  duly  weighed  without  taking  into 
consideration  the  state  of  opinion  then  preva- 
lent in  England.  The  general  principles  of 
government  were  there  little  understood  and 
less  examined.  The  whole  substance  of  hu- 
man authority  was  centered  in  the  simple 
doctrine  of  royal  prerogative,  the  origin  of 
which  was  always  traced  in  theory  to  divine 
institution.  Twenty  years  later,  the  subject 
was  more  industriously  sifted,  and  for  half  a 
century  became  one  of  the  principal  topics  of 
controversy  between  the  ablest  and  most  en- 
lightened men  in  the  Nation.  The  instru- 
ment of  voluntary  association  executed  on 
board  the  Mayflozver  testifies  that  the  parties 
to  it  had  anticipated  the  improvement  of 
their  Nation. 

Another  incident,  from  which  we  may  de- 
rive occasion  for  important  reflections,  was 
the  attempt  of  these  original  settlers  to  es- 
tablish among  them  that  community  of  goods 
and  of  labor,  which  fanciful  politicians,  from 
the  days  of  Plato  to  those  of  Rousseau,  have 
recommended  as  the  fundamental  law  of  a 
perfect  republic.  This  theory  results,  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  from  principles  of 
reasoning  most  flattering  to  the  human  char- 
acter. If  industry,  frugality,  and  disinter- 
ested integrity  were  alike  the  virtues  of  all. 
there  would,  apparently,  be  more  of  the  so- 
cial spirit,  in  making  all  property  a  common 
stock,  and  giving  to  each  individual  a  pro- 
portional title  to  the  wealth  of  the  whole. 
Such  is  the  basis  upon  which  Plato  forbids, 
in  his  Republic,  the  division  of  property. 
Such  is  the  system  upon  which  Rousseau  pro- 
nounces the  first  man  who  enclosed  a  field 
with  a  fence,  and,  said,  "  This  is  mine,"  a 
traitor  to  the  human  species.  A  wiser  and 
more  useful  philosophy,  however,  directs  us 
to  consider  man  according  to  the  nature  in 
which  he  was  formed ;  subject  to  infirmities, 
which  no  wisdom  can  remedy ;  to  weak- 
nesses, which  no  institution  can  strengthen ; 
to  vices,  which  no  legislation  can  correct. 
Hence,  it  becomes  obvious  that  separate  prop- 
erty is  the  natural  and  indisputable  right  of 
separate  exertion ;  that  community  of  goods 
without  community  of  toil  is  oppressive  and 
unjust;  that  it  counteracts  the  laws  of  na- 
ture, which  prescribe  that  he  only  who  sows 
the  seed  shall  reap  the  harvest ;  that  it  dis- 
courages all  energy,  by  destroying  its  re- 
wards ;  and  makes  the  most  virtuous  and 
active  members  of  society  the  slaves  and 
drudges  of  the  worst.  Such  was  the  issue 
of  this  experiment  among  our  forefathers, 
and  the  same  event  demonstrated  the  error 
of  the  system  in  the  elder  settlement  of  Vir- 
ginia. Let  us  cherish  that  spirit  of  harmony 
which  prompted  our  forefathers  to  make  the 
attempt,  under  circumstances  more  favorable 
to   its   success   than,   perhaps,   ever   occurred 


upon  earth.  Let  us  no  less  admire  the  can- 
dor with  which  they  relinquished  it.  upon 
discovering  its  irremediable  inefficacy.  To 
found  principles  of  government  upon  too  ad- 
vantageous an  estimate  of  the  human  char- 
acter is  an  error  of  inexperience,  the  source 
of  which  is  so  amiable  that  it  is  impossible  to 
censure  it  with  severity.  We  have  seen  the 
same  mistake,  committed  in  our  own  age, 
and  upon  a  larger  theater.  Happily  for  our 
ancestors,  their  situation  allowed  them  to  re- 
pair it  before  its  efifects  had  proved  destruc- 
tive. They  had  no  pride  of  vain  philosophy 
to  support,  no  perfidious  rage  of  faction  to 
glut,  by  persevering  in  their  mistakes  until 
they  should  be  extinguished  in  torrents  of 
blood. 

As  the  attempt  to  establish  among  them- 
selves the  community  of  goods  was  a  seal  of 
that  sacred  bond  which  knit  them  so  closely 
together,  so  the  conduct  they  observed  to- 
wards the  natives  of  the  country  displays  the 
steadfast  inherence  to  the  rules  of  justice 
and  their  faithful  attachment  to  those  of 
benevolence  and  charity. 

No  European  settlement  ever  formed  upon 
this  continent  has  been  more  distinguished 
for  undeviating  kindness  and  equity  towards 
the  savages.  There  are,  indeed,  moralists 
who  have  questioned  the  right  of  the  Euro- 
peans to  intrude  upon  the  possessions  of  the 
aboriginals  in  any  case,  and  under  any  limita- 
tions whatsoever.  But  have  they  maturely 
considered  the  whole  subject?  The  Indian 
right  of  possession  itself  stands,  with  regard 
to  the  greatest  part  of  the  country,  upon  a 
questionable  foundation.  Their  cultivated 
fields;  their  constructed  habitations;  a  space 
of  ample  sufficiency  for  their  subsistence,  and 
whatever  they  had  annexed  to  themselves 
by  personal  labor,  was  undoubtedly,  by  the 
laws  of  nature,  theirs.  But  what  is  the  right 
of  the  huntsman  to  the  forest  of  a  thousand 
miles  over  which  he  has  accidentally  ranged 
in  quest  of  prey?  Shall  the  liberal  bounties 
of  Providence  to  the  race  of  man  be  monop- 
olized by  one  of  ten  thousand  for  whom  they 
were  created?  Shall  the  exuberant  bosom 
of  the  common  mother,  amply  adequate  to 
the  nourishment  of  millions,  be  claimed  ex- 
clusively by  a  few  hundreds  of  her  offspring? 
Shall  the  lordly  savage  not  only  disdain  the 
virtues  and  enjoyments  of  civilization  him- 
self, but  shall  he  control  the  civilization  of 
the  world?  Shall  he  forbid  the  wilderness 
to  blossom  like  a  rose?  Shall  he  forbid  the 
oaks  of  the  forest  to  fall  before  the  ax  of  in- 
dustry, and  to  rise  again,  transformed  into 
the  habitations  of  ease  and  elegance?  Shall 
he  doom  an  immense  region  of  the  globe  to 
perpetual  desolation,  and  to  hear  the  bowlings 
of  the  tiger  and  the  wolf  silence  forever  the 
voice  of  human  gladness?  Shall  the  fields 
and  valleys,  which  a  beneficent  God  has 
formed  to  teem  with  the  life  of  innumerable 
multitudes,  be  condemned  to  everlasting  bar- 
renness? Shall  the  mighty  rivers,  poured 
out  by  the  hand  of  nature,  as  channels  of 
communication  between  numerous  nations, 
roll  their  waters  in  sullen  silence  and  eternal 
solitude    to    the    deep?     Have    hundreds    of 


714 


HOLY-DAYS  AND   HOLIDAYS 


commodious  harbors,  a  thousand  leagues  of 
coast,  and  a  boundless  ocean,  been  spread  in 
the  front  of  this  land,  and  shall  every  pur- 
pose of  utility  to  which  they  could  apply  be 
prohibited  by  the  tenants  of  the  woods?  No, 
generous  philanthropists !  Heaven  has  not 
been  thus  inconsistent  in  the  works  of  its 
hands.  Heaven  has  not  thus  placed  at  ir- 
reconcilable strife  its  moral  laws  with  its 
physical  creation.  The  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth 
obtained  their  right  of  possession  to  the  ter- 
ritory on  which  they  settled,  by  titles  as  fair 
and  unequivocal  as  any  human  property  can 
be  held.  By  their  voluntary  association  they 
recognized  their  allegiance  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Britain,  and  in  process  of  time  re- 
ceived whatever  powers  and  authorities  could 
be  conferred  upon  them  by  a  charter  from 
their  sovereign.  The  spot  on  which  they 
fixed  had  belonged  to  an  Indian  tribe,  to- 
tally extirpated  by  that  devouring  pestilence 
which  had  swept  the  country  shortly  before 
their  arrival.  The  territory,  thus  free  from 
all  exclusive  possession,  they  might  have 
taken  by  the  natural  right  of  occupancy.  De- 
sirous, however,  of  giving  ample  satisfaction 
to  every  pretense  of  pride  or  right,  by  formal 
and  solemn  conventions  with  the  chiefs  of 
the  neighboring  tribes,  they  acquired  the  fur- 
ther security  of  the  purchase.  At  their  hands 
the  children  of  the  desert  had  no  cause  for 
complaint.  On  the  great  day  of  retribution, 
what  thousands,  what  millions  of  the  Amer- 
ican race  will  appear  at  the  bar  of  judgment 
to  arraign  their  European  invading  conquer- 
ors!  Let  us  humbly  hope  that  the  fathers 
of  the  Plymouth  Colony  will  then  appear  in 
the  whiteness  of  innocence.  Let  us  indulge 
in  the  belief  that  they  will  not  only  be  free 
from  all  accusation  of  injustice  to  these  un- 
fortunate sons  of  nature,  but  that  the  testi- 
monials of  their  acts  of  kindness  and  be- 
nevolence towards  them  will  plead  the  cause 
of  their  virtues,  as  they  are  now  authenti- 
cated by  the  record  of  history  upon  earth. 

Religious  discord  has  lost  her  sting;  the 
cumbrous  weapons  of  theological  warfare  are 
antiquated;  the  field  of  politics  supplies  the 
alchemists  of  our  times  with  materials  of 
more  fatal  explosion,  and  the  butchers  of 
mankind  no  longer  travel  to  another  world 
for  instruments  of  cruelty  and  destruction. 
Our  age  is  too  enlightened  to  contend  upon 
topics  which  concern  only  the  interests  of 
eternity;  the  men  who  hold  in  proper  con- 
tempt all  controversies  about  trifles,  except 
such  as  inflame  their  own  passions,  have 
made  it  a  commonplace  censure  against  your 
ancestors,  that  their  zeal  was  enkindled  by 
subjects  of  trivial  importance;  and  that  how- 
ever aggrieved  by  the  intolerance  of  others, 
they  were  alike  intolerant  themselves. 
Against  these  objections  your  candid  judg- 
ment will  not  require  an  unqualified  justifica- 
tion; but  your  respect  and  gratitude  for  the 
founders  of  the  State  may  boldly  claim  an 
ample  apology.  The  original  grounds  of  their 
separation  from  the  Church  of  England  were 
not  objects  of  a  magnitude  to  dissolve  the 
bonds  of  communion,  much  less  those  of 
charity,  between  Christian  brethren  of  the 
same    essential    principles.     Some    of    them. 


however,  were  not  inconsiderable,  and  nu- 
merous inducements  concurred  to  give  them 
an  extraordinary  interest  in  their  eyes.  When 
that  portentous  system  of  abuses,  the  Papal 
dominion,  was  overturned,  a  great  variety  of 
religious  sects  arose  in  its  stead  in  the  sev- 
eral countries,  which  for  many  centuries  be- 
fore had  been  screwed  beneath  its  subjec- 
tion. 

The  fabric  of  the  Reformation,  first  un- 
dertaken in  England  upon  a  contracted  basis, 
by  a  capricious  and  sanguinary  tyrant,  had 
been  successively  overthrown  and  restored, 
renewed  and  altered,  according  to  the  vary- 
ing humors  and  principles  of  four  successive 
monarchs.  To  ascertain  the  precise  point  of 
division  between  the  genuine  institutions  of 
Christianity  and  the  corruptions  accumulated 
upon  them  in  the  progress  of  fifteen  cen- 
turies, was  found  a  task  of  extreme  diffi- 
culty throughout  the  Christian  world. 

Men  of  the  profoundest  learning,  of  the 
sublimest  genius,  and  of  the  purest  integrity, 
after  devoting  their  lives  to  the  research, 
finally  differed  in  their  ideas  upon  many  great 
points,  both  of  doctrine  and  discipline.  The 
main  question,  it  was  admitted  upon  all 
hands,  most  intimately  concerned  the  highest 
interests  of  man,  both  temporal  and  eternal. 
Can  we  wonder  that  men  who  felt  their  hap- 
piness here  and  their  hopes  of  hereafter, 
their  worldly  welfare  and  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  at  stake,  should  sometimes  attach  an 
importance  beyond  their  intrinsic  weight  to 
collateral  points  of  controversy,  connected 
with  the  all-involving  object  of  the  Reforma- 
tion? The  changes  in  the  forms  and  prin- 
ciples of  religious  worship  were  introduced 
and  regulated  in  England  by  the  hand  of 
public  authority. 

But  that  hand  had  not  been  uniform  or 
steady  in  its  operations.  During  the  persecu- 
tions inflicted  in  the  interval  of  Popish  res- 
toration under  the  reign  of  Mary,  upon  all 
who  favored  the  Reformation,  many  of  the 
most  zealous  reformers  had  been  compelled 
to  fly  their  country.  While  residing  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  they  had  adopted  the 
principles  of  the  most  complete  and  rigorous 
reformation,  as  taught  and  established  by 
Calvin.  On  returning  afterwards  to  their 
native  country,  they  were  dissatisfied  with 
the  partial  reformation,  at  which  as  they 
conceived,  the  English  establishment  had 
rested ;  and  claiming  the  privilege  of  private 
conscience,  upon  which  alone  any  departure 
from  the  Church  of  Rome  could  be  jusrifid, 
they  insisted  upon  the  right  of  adhering  t  i 
the  system  of  their  own  preference,  and,  of 
course,  upon  that  of  nonconformity  to  the 
establishment  prescribed  by  the  royal  author- 
ity. The  only  means  used  to  convince  them 
of  error  and  reclaim  them  from  dissent  was 
force,  and  force  served  but  to  confirm  the 
opposition  it  was  meant  to  suppress.  By 
driving  the  founders  of  the  Plymouth  Colony 
into  exile,  it  constrained  them  to  absolute 
separation  from  the  Church  of  England ;  and 
by  the  refusal  afterward  to  allow  them  a 
positive  toleration,  even  in  this  American 
wilderness,  the  council  of  James  I.  rendered 


FOREFATHERS'   DAY 


715 


that  separation  irreconcilable.  Viewing  their 
religions  liberties  here,  as  held  only  by 
sufferance,  yet  bound  to  them  by  all  the  ties 
of  conviction,  and  by  all  their  sufferings  for 
them,  could  they  forbear  to  look  upon  every 
dissenter  among  themselves  with  a  jealous 
eye?  Within  two  years  after  their  landing, 
they  beheld  a  rival  settlement  attempted  in 
their  immediate  neighborhood ;  and  not  long 
after,  the  laws  of  self-preservation  compelled 
them  to  break  up  a  nest  of  revelers,  who 
boasted  of  protection  from  the  mother  coun- 
try, and  who  had  recurred  to  the  easy  but 
pernicious  resource  of  feeding  their  wanton 
idleness,  by  furnishing  the  savages  with  the 
means,  the  skill,  and  the  instruments  of  Eu- 
ropean destruction.  Toleration,  in  that  in- 
stance, would  have  been  self-murder,  and 
many  other  examples  might  be  alleged,  in 
which  their  necessary  measures  of  self-de- 
fense have  been  exaggerated  into  cruelty, 
and  their  most  indispensable  precautions  dis- 
torted into  persecution.  Yet  shall  we  not 
pretend  that  they  were  exempt  from  the  com- 
mon laws  of  mortality,  or  entirely  free  from 
all  the  errors  of  their  age.  Their  zeal  might 
sometimes  be  too  ardent,  but  it  was  always 
sincere.  At  this  day.  religious  indulgence  is 
one  of  our  clearest  duties,  because  it  is  one 
of  our  undisputed  rights.  While  we  rejoice 
that  the  principles  of  genuine  Christianity 
have  so  far  triumphed  over  the  prejudices  of 
a  former  generation,  let  us  fervently  hope  for 
the  day  when  it  will  prove  equally  victorious 
over  the  malignant  passions  of  our  own. 

In  thus  calling  your  attention  to  some  of 
the  peculiar  features  in  the  principles,  the 
character,  and  the  history  of  our  forefathers, 
it  is  as  wide  from  my  design,  as  I  know  it 
would  be  from  your  approbation,  to  adorn 
their  memory  with  a  chaplet  plucked  from 
the  domain  of  others.  The  occasion  and  the 
day  are  most  peculiarly  devoted  to  them,  and 
let  it  never  be  dishonored  with  a  contracted 


and  exclusive  spirit.  Our  affections  as  citi- 
zens embrace  the  whole  extent  t)f  the  Union, 
and  the  names  of  Raleigh.  Smith,  Winthrop, 
Calvert,  Penn,  and  Oglethorpe,  excite  in  our 
minds  recollections  equally  pleasing  and 
gratitude  equally  fervent  with  those  of  Car- 
ver and  Bradford.  Two  centuries  have  not 
elapsed  since  the  first  European  foot  touched 
the  soil  which  now  constitutes  the  American 
Union.  Two  centuries  more  and  our  num- 
bers must  exceed  those  of  Europe  itself.  The 
destinies  of  this  empire,  as  they  appear  in 
prospect  before  us,  disdain  the  powers  of 
human  calculation.  Yet,  as  the  original 
founder  of  the  Roman  state  is  said  once  tO' 
have  lifted  upon  his  shoulders  the  fame  and 
fortunes  of  all  his  posterit}',  so  let  us  never 
forget  that  the  glory  and  greatness  of  all 
our  descendants  is  in  our  hands.  Preserve 
in  all  their  purity;  refine,  if  possible,  from 
all  their  alloy,  those  virtues  which  we  this 
day  commemorate  as  the  ornament  of  our 
forefathers.  Adhere  to  them  with  inflexi- 
ble resolution,  as  to  the  horns  of  the  altar; 
instil  them  with  unwearied  perseverance  into- 
the  minds  of  your  children ;  bind  your  souls 
and  theirs  to  the  national  Union  as  the 
chords  of  life  are  centered  in  the  heart,  and 
you  shall  soar  with  rapid  and  steady  wing  to 
the  summit  of  human  glory.  Nearly  a  cen- 
tury ago,  one  of  those  rare  minds  to  whom  it 
is  given  to  discern  future  greatness  in  its 
seminal  principles,  upon  contemplating  the 
situation  of  this  continent,  pronounced,  in  a 
vein  of  poetic  inspiration,  "  Westward  the 
star  of  empire  takes  its  way."  Let  us  unite 
in  ardent  supplication  to  the  Founder  of  na- 
tions and  the  Builder  of  worlds,  that  what 
then  was  prophecy  may  continue  unfolding 
into  history, — that  the  dearest  hopes  of  the 
human  race  may  not  be  extinguished  in  dis- 
appointment, and  that  the  last  may  prove  the 
noblest  empire  of  time. — W.  B.  O. 


THE  HEROISM  OF  THE  EARLY  COLONISTS 


By  Rufus  Choate 


If  one  were  called  on  to  select  the  most 
glittering  of  the  instances  of  military  hero- 
ism to  which  the  admiration  of  the  world 
has  been  constantly  attracted,  he  would  make 
choice,  I  imagine,  of  the  instance  of  that 
desperate  valor,  in  which,  in  obedience  to 
the  laws,  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred 
Spartans  cast  themselves  headlong,  at  the 
passes  of  Greece,  on  the  myriads  of  their 
Persian  invaders.  From  the  simple  page  of 
Herodotus,  longer  than  from  the  Amphic- 
tyonic  monument,  or  the  games  of  the  com- 
memoration, that  act  speaks  still  to  the  tears 
and  praise  of  all  the  world. 

Judge,  if  that  night,  as  they  watched  the 
dawn  of  the  last  morning  their  eyes  could 
ever  see ;  as  they  heard  with  every  passing 
hour  the  stilly  hum  of  the  invading  host,  its 
dusky  lines  stretched  out  without  end,  and 
now  alinost  encircling  them  round ;    as  they 


remembered  their  unprofaned  home,  city  of 
heroes  and  the  mother  of  heroes, — judge  if, 
watching  there,  in  the  gateway  of  Greece, 
this  sentiment  did  not  grow  to  the  nature 
of  madness,  if  it  did  not  run  in  torrents  of 
literal  fire  to  and  from  the  laboring  heart ; 
and  when  morning  came  and  passed,  and 
they  had  dressed  their  long  locks  for  battle, 
and  when,  at  a  little  after  noon,  the  count- 
less invading  throng  was  seen  at  last  to  move, 
was  it  not  with  a  rapture,  as  if  all  the  joy, 
all  the  sensation  of  life,  was  in  that  one  mo- 
ment, that  they  cast  themselves,  with  the 
fierce  gladness  of  mountain  torrents,  head- 
long in  that  brief  revelry  of  glory? 

I  acknowledge  the  splendor  of  that  trans- 
action in  all  its  aspects.  I  admit  its  moral- 
ity too,  and  its  useful  influence  on  every 
Grecian  heart,  in  that  greatest  crisis  of 
Greece. 


7i6 


HOLY -DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


And  yet,  do  you  not  think  that  whoso  could, 
by  adequate  description,  bring  before  you 
that  winter  of  the  Pilgrims, — its  brief  sun- 
shine ;  the  nights  of  storm,  slow  waning ; 
the  damp  and  icy  breath,  felt  to  the  pillow  of 
the  dying;  its  destitutions,  its  contrasts  with 
all  their  former  experience  in  life,  its  utter 
insulation  and  loneliness,  its  deathbeds  and 
burials,  its  memories,  its  apprehensions,  its 
hopes;  the  consultations  of  the  prudent;  the 
prayers  of  the  pious ;  tne  occasional  cheerful 
hymn,  in  which  the  strong  heart  threw  off  its 
burden,  and,  asserting  its  unvanquished  na- 
ture, went  up,  like  a  bird  of  dawn,  to  the 
skies; — do  ye  not  think  that  whoso  could  de- 
scribe them  calmly  waiting  in  that  defile, 
lonelier  and  darker  than  Thermopylae,  for 
the  morning  that  might  never  dawn  or  might 
show  them,  when  it  did,  a  mightier  arm 
than  the  Persian  raised  as  in  act  to  strike, 
would  he  not  sketch  a  scene  of  more  difficult 
and  rarer  heroism?  A  scene,  as  Words- 
worth has  said,  "  melancholy,  yea,  dismal, 
yet   consolatory  and  full  of  joy;"  a  scene 


even  better  fitted  to  succor,  to  exalt,  to  lead 
the  forlorn  hopes  of  all  great  causes,  till  lime 
shall  be  no  more  !  I  have  said  that  I  deemed 
it  a  great  thing  for  a  nation,  in  all  the  periods 
of  its  fortunes,  to  be  able  to  look  back  to  a 
race  of  founders,  and  a  principle  of  institu- 
tion, in  which  it  might  rationally  admire  the 
realized  idea  of  true  heroism.  That  felicity, 
that  pride,  that  help,  is  ours.  Our  past,  with 
its  great  eras,  that  of  settlement,  that  of  in- 
dependence, should  announce,  should  com- 
pel, should  spontaneously  evolve  as  from  a 
germ,  a  wise,  moral,  and  glowing  future. 
Those  heroic  men  and  women  should  not 
look  down  on  a  dwindled  posterity.  That 
broad  foundation,  sunk  below  frost  or  earth- 
quake, should  bear  up  something  more  per- 
manent than  an  encampment  of  tents,  pitched 
at  random,  and  struck  when  the  trumpet  of 
march  sounds  at  next  daybreak.  It  should 
bear  up,  as  by  a  natural  growth,  a  structure 
in  which  generations  may  come,  one  after 
another,  to  the  great  gift  of  the  social  life. — 
W.  B.  O. 


THE  DUTY  OF  ENTHUSIASM 

By  M.  W.  Stryker,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Mr.  President,  Sisters  and  Brothers:  I 
have  always  prayed  that  I  might  be  delivered 
from  my  traducers  and  from  my  introducers. 
I  have  suffered  many  things  of  many  presi- 
dents. I  stand  before  you  to-day  as  the  vic- 
tim of  circumstances.  I  have  been  delighted, 
as  you  all  have  been,  to  hear  the  honorable 
member  from  the  Worcester  District  sauce 
Massachusetts.  There  is  no  one  outside  the 
bounds  of  Massachusetts  who  can  speak  his 
mind  so  freely  about  Harvard  College.  1 
should  begin  the  words  I  have  to  say  this 
day  by  an  apology  for  ever  having  graduated 
from  a  college !  I  should  make  a  further 
apology  for  having  anything  to  do  with  the 
faculty  of  a  college.  But  I  do  not  impugn 
the  logic  of  my  friend,  because  I  remember 
that  there  are  colleges  and  colleges,  that  as 
"  they  didn't  know  everything  down  in  Ju- 
dee."  so  they  do  not  know  everything  even  in 
the  great  colleges  of  New  England,  tho  they 
know  a  little  of  everything.  There  are  col- 
leges and  colleges.  There  are  Congressmen 
and  Congressmen.  I  suppose  our  friend  who 
preceded  me  (Representative  Walker  of 
Massachusetts),  does  not  want  free  sugar  in 
his.  but  there  are  some  Congressmen  who  do. 
I  desire  to  put  myself  outside  the  range  of  his 
syllogisms,  and  to  say.  that,  however  humble 
may  be  my  relation  to  college  work.  I  will 
not  stand  in  the  shoes  of  any  cold-blooded 
expounder  of  what  has  been  so  well  called 
The  Dismal  Science,  because  it  first  leaves 
out  God,  and  second,  it  leaves  out  man. 

This  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  had  a 
chance  to  detain  the  eyes  and  ears  of  New 
Englanders.  and  if  I  can  help  it,  it  shall  not 
be  the  last  time  that  I  shall  do  so.  There  is 
a  certain  independence  in  speaking  to  people 


who  are  like  the  farmer  to  whom  Whittier 
loaned  his  copy  of  "  Plato,"  who  came  back 
and  said :  "  I  like  that  fellow ;  he  has  some 
of  my  idees."  The  New  Englander  takes  his 
ideas  always  mixed  with  brains.  The  multi- 
tude of  those  who  are  gathered  here  to- 
day are  not  to  be  measured  by  arithmetic, 
but  by  ethics,  rather.  New  Englanders  are 
not  to  be  counted,  but  are  to  be  weighed. 
You  do  not  take  yours  by  the  dozen,  but 
by  the  pound.  This  is  a  representative  audi- 
ence. 

I  feel  as  if  I  were  speaking  into  a  telephone- 
that  had  universal  connections.  I  hope  that 
I  shall  be  heard  at  the  other  end  of  the  line 
with  as  much  emphasis  as  was  illustrated  by 
what  happened  at  one  of  the  telephones  when 
a  farmer  went  into  the  office  and  was  having 
the  thing  explained  to  him,  and  was  asked 
to  put  his  ear  to  it.  Just  then  there  was  a 
clap  of  thunder,  and  he  called  up  his  wife 
and  exclaimed :  "  That's  Maria  !  "  He  rec- 
ognized the  voice.  One  of  our  speakers  said 
something  about  the  boycotts  that  were  such 
a  trouble,  or  blessing  not  unmixed,  and  a 
friend  of  mine  who  sat  near  me.  and  who 
always  sits  very  near  to  me.  suggested  that 
the  girl-cotts  had  something  to  do  with  it, 
too.  I  am  thankful  for  both  the  boycotts 
and  the  girl-cotts  of  that  sort.  I  think  the 
women,  who  make  the  majority  of  this  and 
perhaps  every  other  crowd  in  New  England 
— and  out  of  it,  too — where  brains  are  at  all 
in  demand,  may  well  take  comfort  to  them- 
selves from  a  toast  which  was  given  at  a  New 
England  dinner  in  New  York,  in  which  a 
man  said  that  he  would  like  to  propose  a 
toast  to  the  Pilgrim  Mothers ;  that  they  en- 
dured all  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  en- 
dured ;  and  they  had  endured  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  besides. 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


717 


I  am  glad  we  started  off  to-day  with  "  Yan- 
kee Doodle."  It  is  a  good  tune.  It  is  classic, 
with  something  better  than  the  classicism 
of  art.  Every  New  Englander  ought  to 
know  that  story  of  how  when  the  first  regi- 
ment went  down  from  these  great  hills  that 
hold  down  the  memories  of  an  honorable 
race,  and  they  were  gathered  into  the  Astor 
House  in  New  York,  the  first  New  England 
regiment  to  go  to  the  front,  Broadway  from 
curb  to  curb  was  thronged,  and  as  the  first 
glitter  and  flash  of  the  front  file  issued  from 
the  doorway  of  that  historic  inn,  about  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  band  struck  up 
"  Yankee  Doodle,"  of  all  tunes  in  the  world, 
and  the  people  set  up  such  a  mighty  roar  and 
tempest  of  sympathy  and  determination  that 
it  seemed  to  rock  the  very  granite  walls. 
There  was  no  uncertainty  after  New  England 
had  set  that  tune  of  how  the  city  of  New 
York  would  go. 

This  concourse  to-day  (July  4,  1894)  is  a 
witness  that  patriotism  is  not  a  lost  art,  and 
the  day  that  gathers  us  is  not  simply  a  bright 
legend.  We  stand  here  on  classic,  on  sacred 
ground.  We  are  in  the  heart  of  venerable 
New  England — a  name  that  is  written  on  no 
map,  but  a  name  that  shines  wherever  law, 
truth,  faith,  are  held  in  reverence.  We  stand 
within  the  bounds  of  no  mean  commonwealth 
(Connecticut),  rather  of  one  whose  historic 
honor  is  so  bright  that  when  one  reads  her 
annals,  it  is  to  wonder  what  is  left  to  record 
for  the  fame  of  the  other  stars  of  our  con- 
stellation. It  is  a  record  legible  and  luminous 
all  the  way  from  Buckingham  to  Morris. 
Under  what  better  motto  could  we  gather 
than  Connecticut's  "Qui  transfulit  sustinct"! 
But  to-day,  men  and  women  of  a  score  of 
states,  perhaps  of  every  state,  where  that 
dear  banner  answers  the  heavens  with  its 
stellar  and  auroral  beauty — to-day  we  are 
each  and  all  Americans !  Thanks  to  the  host 
(Henry  C.  Bowen),  who  calls  us  here.*  Joy 
to  the  hearts  that  answer  him !  Peace,  plenty, 
above  all  piety,  unsullied,  unbounded,  unfal- 
tering, to  the  land  we  love  and  call  our  own ! 
But  we  are  all  here  not  only  to  remember ; 
we  are  also  here  to  resolve,  highly,  humbly, 
fervently  and  with  unanimous  consecration. 
No  one  can  attempt  to  voice  your  wills 
with  a  deeper  sense  of  inadequacy  than 
mine  is  as  I  think  how  many  notable  and 
noble  souls  have  brought  their  best  to  this 
illustrious  rendezvous.  How  poor  shall  be 
the  largess  that  the  best  can  bring  to  this 
great   love   feast   of   our   loyalty ! 

Dear  America!  "Beautiful  my  country!" 
"  Nation  and  company  of  nations  !  "  I  hail 
my  privilege  to  lay  my  offering  among  the 
laurels  of  this  day  of  days.  Massachusetts, 
the  mother  of  Adams ;  New  York,  proud 
foster  mother  of  Alexander  Hamilton;  Il- 
linois, dear  to  us  forever  for  those  two  sons 
of  Anak  who  smote  home  for  the  cause  of 
mankind's  emancipation  and  enfranchisement 
— I  have  loved  all  these  with  a  filial  love ;  but 
were  any  or  all  of  them  to  lift  recreant  and 
insane  hands  against  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia,   I    am   for   my   whole   country !      Thank 


God,  undistinguishable,  indisseverable,  all 
those  stars  blend  in  one  ever  crescent  light. 
How  shall  Texas  say  "  This  is  mine,"  or 
Ohio  say  "  This  is  mine?  "  All  are  ours,  and 
we  are  for  them  all ! 

But  we  are  here  for  a  mission.  That  were 
but  tawdry  declamation  that  should  deal  in 
glittering  vagueness.  A  duty  summons  us- 
— a  divine,  a  holy  trust  is  in  our  hands  at 
such  an  hour,  in  such  a  land,  when  still 
portent  and  promise  are  so  strangely  blended. 
It  is  ours  in  the  name  of  the  fathers  who 
"  having  served  their  generation  by  the  will 
of  God  have  fallen  asleep,"  to  recognize  the 
demands  upon  our  total  powers  and  to  pledge 
ourselves  that  the  hastening  future  of  our 
fatherland  shall  be  epical  and  not  tragic. 

I  am  asked  to  speak  to  you  to-day  of  The 
Duty  of  Enthusiasm.  I  wanted  a  big  text, 
and  it  is  a  big  one.  Enthusiasm  is  a  great 
word.  A  true  master  of  our  English  ut- 
terance who  gave  language  new  form  by  his 
idiomatic  use  of  it — Isaac  Taylor — wrote  a 
book  once  upon  the  Natural  History  of 
Enthusiasm.  But  his  whole  treatment  of 
his  theme  dealt  with  the  lower  and  oblique 
associations  of  that  word  and  gave  warn- 
ing against  perverse,  unreasoned,  and  mis- 
taken zeal.  He  noted  the  quixotic  and  fan- 
atical elements  of  the  mere  rhapsodist — the 
dogmatism  and  violence  of  the  self-opinion- 
ate — the  passion  that  lacks  wisdom  and  the 
ecstasy  that  is  sanguine  without  sense.  It  is 
of  the  better  and  truer  significance  of  en- 
thusiasm that  I  would  speak.  The  word 
means  full  of  the  god.  It  shall  stand  with 
us  for  inspiration,  for  consecration,  for  that 
joyful  and  dauntless  purpose  which  never 
rests  in  the  superficiality  of  averages  and 
which  hastens  the  kingdom  of  that  truth 
which  it  is  persuaded  of  and  hails  from  afar. 
True  enthusiasm  means  daring  and  uncom- 
promising devotion.  It  is  not  a  sentiment 
and  an  intoxicant,  but  an  ardent  and  quench- 
less hope  that  what  should  be  shall  be !  This 
is  dedication — the  sublime  surrender  of  the 
whole  being  to  the  guidance  of  the  ever  on- 
going God.  And  this  is  duty.  Because  it 
is  a  duty  it  is  a  possibility.  It  is  our  privi- 
lege and  our  right.  I  summon  your  souls 
to  see  that  nothing  less  than  such  a  sur- 
render to  our  Maker  can  answer  the  voices 
of  the  times  and  fulfill  the  obligations  of 
high  manhood  and  womanhood. 

It  is  the  conquest  of  the  soul  by  great  and 
profound  ideals  that  makes  great.  This  is 
the  stuff  whereof  pioneers  and  prophets  are 
made.  Said  Swedenborg :  "  Such  as  the  love 
is,  such  is  the  wisdom."  Men  see  with  their 
hearts,  and  the  heart  that  counts  no  sacrifice 
costly  if  ultimate  truth  may  reign  is  the 
heart  that  is  full  of  the  god.  The  three 
great  elements  of  power  are  these — judg- 
ment, imagination,  hope.  He  who  has  these 
is  complete  and  furnished  to  every  good 
work.  One  may  have  either  without  the 
others — then  he  is  gibbous  instead  of  spher- 
ical. The  true  leader  and  the  true  follower 
— each  is  one  who  will  take  great  risks  for 
great  reasons. 


*  Roseland  Park,  Windham  County,  Conn, 


7i8 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


"  He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 
Or  his  deserts  are  small, 
Who  will  not  put  it  to  the  touch. 
And  win  or  lose  it  all." 

But  this  non-prudential  eagerness  does  not 
forget  the  critical,  it  rather  consummates  its 
conclusions  in  executive  decisions.  There  is 
to-day  a  cant  of  moderation.  It  is  one  of  the 
affectations  of  conventional  propriety  to  sup- 
press impulse  and  to  cry  down  intensity  of 
conviction.  This  blase  theory  of  behavior, 
this  ennui  of  life  avoids  elemental  serious- 
ness. It  never  breathes  deep  enough  to 
breathe  hard.  It  skims  the  mere  rim  of  real- 
ity. It  dwells  in  petty  fads,  and  gushes  over 
them  with  abundant  adjectives.  It  is  su- 
perlative because  it  is  not  positive,  and  takes 
the  whole  English  language  in  vain  to  orna- 
ment a  whim.  It  lives  in  the  subjunctive  in- 
stead of  the  indicative  mood.  It  wishes,  but 
it  never  wills.  The  simulation  of  enthusiasm 
is  its  death.  Shallow  intent  destroys  the 
very  capacity  of  high  thoughts  and  deep  life. 
Dawdling  selfishness  is  the  damnation  of 
dudes  and  impotents. 

"  For  life  is  not  as  idle  ore. 

But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom. 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears, 
And  dipped  in  baths  of  hissing  tears. 

And  battered  with  the  stroke  of  doom, 
To  shape  and  use." 

We  need  to  read  and  get  by  heart  Paul's 
characterization  of  Epaphroditus,  who  "  for 
the  work  of  God  was  nigh  unto  death,  gam- 
bling away  his  life." 

A  wise  Frenchman  wrote  a  book  upon  the 
proposition  that  ''  Eloquence  is  a  Virtue."  It 
is  a  faithful  saying.  When  the  real  man  ar- 
rives he  speaks  with  tones  that  smite  his  time 
of  stupidity  as  the  thunders  break  the  op- 
pression of  the  heavy  summer  day.  John  the 
Baptist,  Martin  Luther.  Cromwell,  IMirabeau, 
Samuel  Adams,  O'Connell.  John  Bright,  Gar- 
rison, Phillips,  Lincoln — these  are  the  men 
whose  enthusiasm  interrupts  and  crushes  the 
stolidity  of  custom  and  irresolution  of  policy. 
The  great  orator  is  the  implacable  man. 
With  molten  speech,  with  the  naked  power 
of  a  conviction  that  scorns  half-truths,  a 
terror  to  the  bad  and  to  the  timid,  impeaching 
that  absolute  infidelity  to  the  hour  and  the 
opportunity  which  often  intrenches  itself  in 
the  most  consummate  orthodoxy  in  thesi — 
not  sinister  and  never  merely  dextrous,  but 
two-handed  and  whole-hearted  the  Voice 
leaps  alive  into  the  midst  of  a  stagnant  and 
querulous  time,  challenging  its  practical 
atheisms  with  all  the  sublimity  and  mastery 
of  the  truth  itself.  Such  men  God  sends  as 
the  couriers  of  repentance,  and  they  are  the 
herald  angels  of  the  Evangel.  They  disdain 
the  paltry  evasions  and  subterfuges  of  ex- 
pediency, and  trembling  themselves  in  the 
reality  of  that  kindling  ideal  which  both  con- 
sumes and  compels  them — taking  fire  like 
meteors  by  the  rapidity  and  friction  of  their 
passage-  they  are  the  avatars  of  the  message 
they  announce ! 


But  to  us  all  God  is  ever  saying:  "  Whom 
shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for  us?"  A 
deep  voice  sounding  out  the  lonely  truth  is 
like  a  midnight  bell ;  it  rings  into  innumerable 
ears,  which  wake,  and  listen,  and  thank  God 
for  another  day.  God  guide  and  guard  that 
prophet,  who,  in  the  face  of  vast  reproach,  is 
rousing  the  hypnotized  conscience  of  Man- 
hattan Island.  The  Tammanv  Goliath  may 
vaunt,  and  the  Republican  Eliab  may  sneer, 
but  this  latest  David,  not  in  the  Saul's  armor 
of  the  place  holder  and  pelf  distributor,  but 
with  the  smooth  stone  slung  true  shall  slay 
his  tens  of  thousands.  The  one  great  mission 
of  the  Hebrew  Prophets  was  to  preach  right- 
eousness to  their  times — they  were  in  politics 
for  all  they  were  worth  !  It  is  an  antediluvian 
heresy  that  denies  the  right  or  neglects  the 
duty  of  such  an  enthusiasm  as  knows  how  to 
perceive  the  power  of  contemporary  iniquity 
and  to  arraign  it  with  the  voice  of  a  Micah 
or   a   Joel. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  characteristic  alike  of  the 
scientist,  the  historian,  the  poet,  the  true 
statesman,  the  apostle,  the  saint.  Inspiration 
is  the  note  and  accent  of  every  life  that 
touches  its  age  with  the  dateless  law  of  duty. 
They  who  "  prefer  bondage  with  ease  to 
strenuous  liberty  "  are  those  who  have  said 
of  the  idols  of  material  success — "  these  be 
thy  gods."  Shall  it  be  Aaron,  with  the  cultus 
of  the  calf — the  worship  of  the  visible — or 
Moses,  with  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
before  me !  "  There  is  no  slavery  so  base  and 
blind  as  the  prostitution  of  enthusiasm  at  the 
altars  of  Mammon — where  to-day  ''  the  great 
man  boweth  down,  and  the  mean  man  hum- 
bleth  himself."  The  last  question  is.  who 
shall  reign?  The  sovereignty  of  God  is  the 
final  truth.  Deep  and  ominous,  if  we  heed  it 
not,  the  long  roll  is  already  beating,  and 
from  gate  to  gate  the  whisper  will  swell  to  a 
voice  like  the  storm  "  who  is  on  the  Lord's 
side." 

Americans  are,  of  all  people  on  earth,  most 
avid  of  congratulation  and  averse  to  censure. 
But  a  merely  provincial  patriotism  that  wor- 
ships either  knowledge  or  skill  or  strength  or 
plenty  will  no  more  preserve  our  semi-Chris- 
tian civilization  from  becoming  godless  than 
these  saved  Babylon !  Americans  do  not  love 
their  Jeremiahs ;  but  they  well  may  heed 
them.  We  are  not  in  such  danger  to-day 
from  foreigners  as  we  are  from  ourselves.  I 
for  one,  because  I  am  a  patriot,  will  remem- 
ber that  the  best  part  of  the  word  "  father- 
land "  is  the  first  part;  and,  repudiating  that 
toast  of  Stephen  Decatur's  "  Our  Country 
Right  or  Wrong,"  I  will  pray  "  Our  Father 
which  art  in  Heaven,"  and  "'  Our  Country 
Right  and  Never  Otherwise."  "  Vox  Dei, 
vox  populi"  must  be  the  new  patriotism.  It 
is  only  the  discipline  of  obedience  to  the 
high  God  that  can  apply  the  power  of  en- 
thusiasm to  public  life,  eagerness  of  con- 
science must  be  trained  by  common  consent 
to  effective  programs.  We  need  to-day  a  new 
oath  of  allegiance  to  that  God  whom  upon 
our  coinage  we  say  we  trust.  We  need  to 
publish  a  new  Declaration  of  Dependence. 
Public  opinion  is  not  infallible.     Majorities 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


719 


are  not  final.  Righteous  minorities  are  the 
real  rulers — not  screaming  themselves  hoarse 
with  that  terrestrial  apotheosis  of  man  in 
the  " Aiix  amies  les  braves"  of  the  "Mar- 
seillaise," but  chorusing  the  deeper  purpose 
and  the  sublimer  enthusiasm  of  "  Ein  feste 
Burg  ist  unser  Gott!  " 

Liberty's  statue  yonder  in  New  York  Har- 
bor is  but  a  hollow  idol  unless  it  upholds 
the  lamp  that  God  alone  can  kindle  and  keep ! 
Providential  America,  daughter  of  privilege 
and  opportunity,  understand  thyself  by  that 
philosophy  of  history  which  thine  open  Bible 
gives  thee,  by  that  enthusiasm,  that  fulness 
of  God,  whose  prayers  become  prophecies ! 
For  here  is  truest  taught  and  easiest  learned 
what  makes  a  nation  happy  and  keeps  it  so, 
what  ruins  kingdoms  and  lays  cities  flat. 
Upon  the  Saxon  race  lies  the  triple  mission  of 
Greek.  Roman,  and  Hebrew.  It  stands  triply 
for  culture,  for  law,  for  reverence.  Not 
alone  in  these  tongues,  but  in  our  own  dear 
English  let  it  be  written — in  the  tongue  of 
Wiclif  and  Milton,  and  Tennyson,  and  Whit- 
tier,  and  Lanier,  "This  is  the  King!" 

The  Saxon  never  wore  the  yoke  easily  or 
long.  With  the  power  of  conscience  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  truth,  he  has  conquered  his 
conquerors.  He  may  perish,  but  he  can  only 
perish  by  his  own  moral  suicide.  The  Saxon 
is  invited  to  the  headship  of  the  nations.  He 
rules  as  Caesar  never  dreamed  of  ruling.  He 
holds  the  commanding  influence  in  four  con- 
tinents, and  is  sole  master  of  the  fifth.  He 
girdles  the  round  earth  with  nations.  His 
righteous  will  may  be  law  for  the  planet.  He 
must  not  swerve  from  God.  Christ  has 
raised  up  tliis  solid  front  of  a  hundred  mil- 
lion men.  What  pencil  dipped  in  the  dawn 
can  write  its  possible  glories,  or  dipped  in  the 
smoke  of  Hell  can  limn  its  obloquy !  The 
switch  points  are  set  close  for  either  line. 

"  To-day  we  fashion  destiny,  the  web  of  fate 

we  spin. 
To-day  for  all  hereafter  choose  we  holiness 

or  sin  ; 
E'en   now    from    starry   Gerizim   or    Ebal's 

cloudy  crown 
We  call  the  dews  of  blessing  or  the  bolts 

of  cursing  down." 

There  is  an  optimism  which  boasts  in  its 
own  strength  and  there  is  a  pessimism  which 
cravenly  invites  the  woes  it  dreads.  There  is 
a  tertiiwi  quid,  the  cross  of  Christ ;  above  us 
Heaven,  beneath  us  the  pit,  about  us  God ! 
Not  optimism,  not  pessimism,  but  enthusiasm. 
There  are  dangers  dire  and  dark,  demagogs 
and  monopolists,  poltroons  and  panderers, 
with  sophisms  that  slander  manhood  and 
doubts  that  slander  God !  But  by  the  arm 
of  God  we  can  beat  them  down  ! 

Back  in  1871,  when  men  in  Chicago  were 
hanging  themselves  to  lamp-posts  and  drown- 
ing themselves  in  the  lake,  a  man  put  an  ad- 
vertisement in  one  of  the  papers,  reading: 
"  Men  of  Chicago.  Take  hope.  Our  fathers 
raised  her  from  the  bog,  and  we  can  raise  her 
from  the.  ashes."  It  is  that  spirit  that  has 
raised  that  Phenix  City  by  the  shore  of  Lake 


]\Iichigan.  It  is  that  Chicago  spirit  trans- 
lated and  transfigured  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
that  we  need  to-day,  every  one  of  us,  to  put 
whole  souls  into  all  our  affairs.  God  will 
give  us  light  if  we  ask  Him  for  it.  Hope  is 
creative,  doubt  is  abortive.  Let  us  hope,  let 
us  act.  The  men  who  are  willing  to  deny 
themselves  any  possible  gain,  who  forget  that 
a  vote  is  a  vow,  who  forget  that  a  candidate 
is  a  man  clad-in-white,  who  forget  the  pa- 
triotism of  paying  taxes,  who  forget  that  law 
is  like  a  bicycle  and  that  the  way  to  keep  it 
standing  is  to  keep  it  going,  whose  very 
bones  are  flabby  with  civil  neglect,  whose 
minds  are  mere  kennels  for  vagrant  theories, 
and  who  recant  the  old-fashioned  law  of  duty 
and  "  the  faith  that  comes  by  self-control," 
and  by  self-sacrifice,  too — these  moral  spend- 
thrifts and  soul  paupers,  these  are  the  incxibi 
of  the  times.  Such  a  man  is  not  a  man,  but 
a  manikin.  But  upon  the  souls  who  are  full 
of  the  enthusiasm  of  duty  rests  the  uncon- 
querable State.  To  these  "  the  Christ  that  is 
to  be  "  flings  wide  His  effectual  doors.  Ruled 
by  such  a  ken,  life  can  never  seem  shabby  nor 
hope  irrational.  To  him  who  truly  lives  and 
does,  the  veil  of  the  visible  becomes  more  and 
more  diaphanous.  Such  an  one  shall  be  able 
to  say,  with  brave  Walter  Scott,  what  he  so 
simply  uttered  as  he  drew  near  the  end  of  his 
life  of  honor :  "  I  think  that  next  week  I 
shall  be  in  the  secret."  There  are  such  men. 
We  do  not  always  listen  to  hear  the  deep 
breathing  of  the  people  ready  to  respond  to 
the  prophet  of  conscience ;  we  bite  into  one 
blasted  ear,  and  forget  the  green  sabers  of 
the  corn  that  array  a  thousand  prairies.  We 
find  one  brackish  pool,  and  forget  the  trick- 
ling of  a  myriad  translucent  springs ;  we  see 
one  whirling,  copper  cloud,  and  doubt  the 
sun.  But  God  reigns !  God  reigns !  God 
reigns ! 

On  some  level  shores  the  tides  rise,  invisi- 
bly percolating  all  the  sands.  One  instant  it 
is  shore,  and  the  next  up  comes  the  ocean  and 
it  is  sea ;  the  ebb  is  no  more,  the  flood  tide 
is  on.  Such  is  the  apparent  spontaneity  and 
instantaneousness  of  many  a  great  movement 
under  the  Sovereign  Spirit. 

Thou  who  didst  steer  the  little  MayHoiver 
to  her  desired  haven,  bring  America  to  port ! 
Grant  tliat  upon  this  gathering  of  the  people 
our  dear  flag  may  shine  with  the  light  of  an 
Evangel,  pure  as  the  sweet  influences  of  the 
Pleiades  and  firm  as  the  bands  of  Orion. 
Thou  who  dost  guide  Arcturus,  grant  that 
those  stars  may  glow  in  the  coronet  of  Christ. 
In  the  enthusiasm  of  loyalty  to  God  and  ser- 
ried against  the  evils  and  forebodings  of  the 
time  we  will  march  in  the  footsteps  of  a  be- 
lieving ancestry.  Let  every  flagstaff  and  bel- 
fry, every  throbbing  dome  and  thundering 
cannon,  every  eloquent  orator  and  voice  of 
multitudes,  every  prayer  of  gratitude  and 
every  tear  of  joy,  carry  the  name  that  is 
above  every  name  and  swear  it  with  a  mighty 
oath :  "  This  God  is  our  God.  as  he  was  our 
father's  God,  and  he  shall  be  ours  forever  and 
forever."  And  we  can  say  with  all  high  con- 
fidence after  the  great  poet  now  asleep : 


720 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


"  Are    there    thunders    moaning   in    the    dis- 
tance ? 
Are  there  specters  moving  in  the  darkness? 
Trust  the  hand  of  light  will  guide  His  people 


Till  the  thunders  pass,  the  specters  vanish, 
And  the  light  is  victor,  and  the  darkness 
Dawns  into  the  jubilee  of  the  ages." 

God  Save  America!  I, 


SUGGESTIVE   THOUGHTS 


rOREFATHERS'  DAY,  The  True.— It  is 

conceded  that  Captain  Jones  of  the  May- 
Hower  sighted  Cape  Cod  November  9,  1620, 
O.  S.,  but  a  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock  is 
mentioned  December  22,  1620,  N.  S.  Old 
style  was  the  calendar  of  Julius  Caesar,  dating 
from  the  third  century,  which  made  the  days 
too  long,  and  provided  too  many  leap  years. 
In  1582  Pope  Gregory  found  there  had  been 
ten  superfluous  leap  years  and  took  ten  days 
out  of  the  calendar,  and  reduced  the  future 
number  of  leap  years.  In  1752  the  English 
adopted  the  system,  allowing  eleven  days  for 
error,  as  it  had  been  constantly  increasing. 
This  is  a  very  simple  matter,  but  it  has  puz- 
zled old  heads. 

The  Mayftozuer  remained  in  Provincetown 
harbor  thirty-four  days,  dunng  which  Pere- 
grine White,  the  first  child,  was  born,  and 
Dorothy  May  Bradford,  the  wife  of  the  fu- 
ture Governor  and  historian,  died.  Three 
expeditions  were  sent  out,  the  third  of  which, 
consisting  of  sixteen  men,  four  of  whom 
were  seamen  of  the  Mayflower,  reached 
Plymouth  December  11,  1620,  O.  S.,  and  im- 
mediately returned  to  the  Mayflower  at 
Provincetown.  The  date  was  clearly  Decem- 
ber 21,  N.  S.,  and  that,  and  not  December  22, 
is  the  true  Forefathers'  Day.— Charles  W. 
Felt.     (N.  Y.  S.) 

MARRIAGE  IN  PURITAN  DAYS.— 
The  brides  of  old-time  Puritan  days  were 
solemnly  adjured  to  wear: 

Something  old  and  something  new ; 
Something  borrowed,  something  blue. 

They  were  seldom  married  in  church; 
often  in  the  new  house  that  was  destined  to 
be  their  home,  and  you  may  believe  it  was 
generally  bleak  enough  to  give  an  almost 
funereal  aspect  to  the  affair.  It  was  bad 
luck  to  look  in  the  mirror  after  the  toilet 
was  completed— even  the  maidens  of  that 
day  were  superstitious. 

The  wedding  gown  was  first  displayed  in 
public  at  meetings.  Indeed,  there  was  no 
other  place  where  the  bride  could  surely 
count  upon  finding  all  her  friends  together. 

The  bride  and  groom  and  bridal  party 
began  the  display  by  proudly  walking  in  a 
little  procession  through  the  narrow  streets 
to  the  meeting  house  on  the  Sabbath  follow- 
inr;  the  marriage. 

In  Larned's  History  of  Windham  County, 
Conn.,  may  be  found  a  description  of  such 
an  amusing  scene  in  Brooklyn,  Conn. 

Further  public  notice  was  drawn  to  the 
bride  by  allowing  her  to  choose  the  text  for 
the  sermon  preached  on  the  first  Sunday  of 


the  coming  out  of  the  newly  married  couple. 
Much  ingenuity  was  exercised  in  finding  ap- 
propriate and  sometimes  startling  Bible  texts 
for  these  wedding  sermons. 

The  instances  are  well  known  of  the  mar- 
riage of  Parson  Smith's  two  daughters,  one 
of  whom  selected  the  text,  "  Mary  hath 
chosen  that  good  part,"  while  the  daughter 
Abbie,  who  married  John  Adams,  decided 
upon  the  text,  "  John  came  neither  eating 
nor  drinking,  and  they  say  he  hath  a  devil." 
— Selected. 

MAYFLOWER  AND  OCEANIC— Those 
persons  who  are  on  the  lookout  for  coinci- 
dences may  find  one  in  the  sailing  of  the 
Mayflower  with  the  Pilgrim  fathers  and  the 
departure  of  the  Oceanic  on  her  first  voyage. 

The  MayUoiver  sailed  from  Plymouth  for 
the  land  of  the  West  on  Wednesday,  Septem- 
ber 6,  1620.  The  new  Oceanic  sailed  from 
Liverpool  for  New  York  on  Wednesday, 
September  6,  1899. 

It  will  be  of  interest  also  to  compare  the 
size  of  the  Mayflower  with  that  of  the 
Oceanic.  The  Mayflower  was  said  to  be  180 
tons  burden.  The  Oceanic  is  17,274  tons, 
gross  measurement.  The  former  carried  100 
passengers.  The  latter  will  carry  1,575  Pas- 
sengers and  450  crew. 

A  male  child  born  on  board  the  Mayflower 
was  christened  Oceanus.  A  resident  in  Bel- 
fast who  was  presented  with  a  daughter  on 
January  14,  1899,  the  day  of  the  launching 
of  the  Oceanic,  christened  the  child  with  the 
name  of  the  new  ship. — Selected. 

MAYFLOWER,  The.— That  little  ship, 
the  Mayflozver,  was  destined  for  a  memora- 
ble place  in  history.  Within  its  cabin  this 
Republic  had  its  origin  in  the  compact  that 
was  signed  by  brave  and  religious  men. 
declaring  their  faith  in  God  and  the  right  of 
men  to  worship  Him  according  to  the  dictates 
of  conscience,  a  compact  sealed  with  tears  of 
faith  and  made  holy  by  prayer. 

The  last  Sabbath  of  that  voyage  was  spent 
upon  the  vessel  in  holy  worship.  Earnest, 
fervent  prayers  were  offered.  Hymns  of 
praise  were  sung  and  covenants  with  God 
were  renewed. 

"  Amidst  the  storm  they  sang, 

And  the  stars  heard  and  the  sea. 
And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods 
rang 
To  the  anthems  of  the  free." 

The  Pilgrims  are  dead.  The  Mayflower's 
little  company  all  sleep  along  the  shores'  of 
their  New  World  home.  But  the  songs 
which  awakened  the  echo  upon  that  wintry 


FOREFATHERS'   DAY 


721 


Sabbath  morning  are  still  floating  through 
the  forests  and  over  the  hills  and  plains  of 
our  land  in  unison  with  the  song  of  peace 
and  good- will  to  men.  They  being  dead  yet 
speak     The  music  of  that  grand  chorus  rings 


in  our  ears'  to-day !  And  down  in  the  future, 
when  the  singers  are  forgotten,  it  will  still 
have  its  influence  as  an  educating  power 
among  the  masses. — Rev.  John  W.  Sayers 
(C.  G.) 


POETRY 


That   Gray,    Cold   Christmas   Day 

By   Hezekiah    Butterworth 

They  sailed  away  from  Provincetown  Bay 

In  the  fireless  light  of  the  sun, 
And  they  came  at  night  to  a  havened  height. 

And  the  journey  at  last  was  done. 
With  rain  and  sleet  were  the  tall  masts  iced, 

And  frosty  and  dark  was  the  air. 
But   they  looked    from   the   crystal   sails   to 
Christ 
As  they  moored  in  the  harbor  fair. 
The  sky  was  cold  and  gray, 
And  there  were  no  ancient  bells  to  ring. 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing, 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king, 
That  gray,  cold  winter  day. 

The  snow  came  down  on  the  vacant  seas 

And  deep  on  the  lone  rocks  lay; 
But  their  axes  rung  'mid  the  evergreen  trees, 

And  followed  the  Sabbath  day. 
The  Christmas  came,  in  a  crimson  haze. 

And  the  workmen  said  at  dawn : 
"  Shall  our  axes  swing  on  this  day  of  days 
When  the  Lord  of  Light  was  born?" 
The  sky  was  cold  and  gray, 
And  there  were  no  ancient  bells  to  ring, 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing, 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king, 
That  gray,  cold  Christmas  day. 

"  The  old  town's  bells  we  seem  to  hear: 

They  are  ringing  sweet  on  the  Dee; 
They  are  ringing  sweet  on  the  Haarlem  Meer, 

And  sweet  on  the  Zuyder  Zee. 
The  pines  are  frosted  with  snow  and  sleet. 

Shall  we  our  axes  wield, 
When  the  bells  of  Lincoln  are  ringing  sweet 
And  the  bells  of  Austerfield?" 
The  sky  was  cold  and  gray, 
And  there  were  no  ancient  bells  to  ring. 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing, 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king. 
That  gray,  cold  Christmas  day. 

Then  the  master  said :    "  Your  axes  wield ; 

Remember  ye  Malabarre  Bay, 
And   the   covenant   there   with   the   Lord  ye 
sealed ; 
Let  your  axes  ring  to-day. 
You  may  talk  of  the  old  town's  bells  to-night, 

When  your  work  for  the  Lord  is  done ; 
And  your  boats  return,  and  the  shallops  light 
Shall  follow  the  light  of  the  sun. 
The  sky  is  cold  and  gray. 
And  here  are  no  ancient  bells  to  ring. 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing. 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king, 
This  gray,  cold  Christmas  day. 


"  If  the  Lord  was  born  on  Christmas  Day, 

And  the  day  of  Him  is  blest. 
Then  low  at  His  feet  the  evergreens  lay. 

And  cradle  His  Church  in  the  West. 
Immanuel  waits  at  the  temple  gates 

Of  the  nation  to-day  ye  found, 
And  the  Lord  delights  in  no  empty  rites — 
To-day  let  your  axes  sound !  " 
The  sky  was  cold  and  gray. 
And  there  were  no  ancient  bells  to  ring, 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing, 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king. 
That  gray,  cold  Christmas  day. 

Their  axes  rang  through  the  evergreen  trees, 

Like  the  bells  on  the  Thames  and  Tay, 
And  they,  cheering,  sang  by  the  windy  seas. 

And  they  thought  of  Malabarre  Bay. 
On  the  lonely  heights  of  Burial  Hill 

The  old  Precisioners  sleep, 
But  did  ever  men  with  a  nobler  will 
A  goodlier  Christmas  keep — 

When  sky  was  cold  and  gray, 
And  there  were  no  ancient  bells  to  ring, 
No  priests  to  chant,  no  choirs  to  sing, 
No  chapel  of  baron,  lord  or  king, 
That  gray,  cold  Christmas  day? 

F. 
The  Storming  of  Bunker  Hill 

By  Francis  Zuri  Stone 

Twice  on  the  low  redoubt,  ere  noon,  the 
Regulars  advanced. 

And  from  their  burnished  bayonets  the  sun 
of  morning  glanced; 

Twice  all  the  bristling  fire-locks  flashed  be- 
hind that  sullen  mound. 

And  with  a  coronet  of  flame  the  thundering 
rampart  crowned. 

And  twice  the  English  columns  red,  like 
Fundy's  mighty  tide. 

Rolled  back  and  left  their  stranded  wreck 
heaped  up  on  ev'ry  side : 

Down,  down  the  flame-whipped,  shot- 
scourged  slope,  the  panting  soldiers  fled. 

While  through  the  smoke  clouds,  glowed  like 
coals,  strewn  on  the  ground,  their  dead! 

Now  reinforced  by  Clinton's  troops,  over 
their  comrades  slain. 

With  faces  grim  the  grenadiers  move  to  as- 
sault again ; 

But  ere  to  storm  that  stubborn  height  they 
form  in  close  array, 

As  swimmers  strip  to  bufifet  tides,  their  knap- 
sacks cast  away. 

No  empty  volleys  herald  them: — this  time 
the  King  shall  deal 

His  mercy  to  the  "  Rebel "  horde  on  gleam- 
ing rows  of  steel ! 


722 


HOLY-DAYS  AND  HOLIDAYS 


The  anchored   ships   their   broadsides   cease, 

and  silence  settles  down, 
Save    that    the    church-bells,    cannon- jarred, 

still  clang  in  Boston  town. 

"  Once   more   stand  firm,   ye   heroes,   stand ! 

Once  more  repel  the  foe ! 
God  for  our  Cause !     Stand  fast,  ye  Brave, 

and  meet  the  final  blow ! 
Stand !    for  your   wives   and   children   watch 

from  every   belfry   high, 
And  when  such  prayers  attend  his  soul,  what 

patriot   fears  to  die? 
See.  where  in  seething  billows  red  the  flames 

o'er  Charlestown  roll ! 
Hark !    thundering   from   its   steeple   burned, 

hear  ye  the  church-bell  toll ! 
It  summoned  ye  to  worship  once — now  with 

expiring  breath 
It  summons  ye  to  victory,  or  to  a  glorious 

death !  " 

"Halt!"  And  a  hedge  of  bayonets  fronts 
each  determined  line. 

Like  icicles  in  winter's  sun  the  musket  bar- 
rels s'hine. 

"  Charge!  "  and  as  the  myriad  autumn  leaves 
before  a  gale  are  whirled, 

Lord  Howe  against  that  wall  of  earth  his 
mad  battalions  hurled. 

Now  'neath  the  tattered  pine-tree  flag  a  line 
of  fire  runs 

Along  the  curtain  of  the  fort,  and  empty  are 
the  guns, 

And  wave  on  wave  of  grenadiers  against  the 
breastwork  surge, 

To  fall  as  breakers  from  a  rock  the  Equi- 
noxes scourge ! 

Yet  as  successive  waves,  flung  back,  return 

with  heavier  stroke. 
So  o'er  the  parapet  at  last  the  spray  of  bayo- 
nets broke, 
And  as  when  Ocean  conquers  dikes  she  hides 

the  barrier  crossed. 
Beneath  that  crest  of  British  steel  the  wall 

to  sight  was  lost ! 
So     from    the     long-contested    ground    our 

smoke-grimed  troops  retreat. 
And  carry   with   them  victory   from   such   a 

dear  defeat 
And    tho    forced    back    'cross    Charlestown 

Neck  they  doggedly  withdrew. 
The  battle-storm  had  only  ceased,   to  burst 

the  sky  anew  ! 

Puit  like  a  master-mariner  who  will  not  leave 
his  post 

Tho  sinks  his  ship  beneath  his  feet,  so 
lingered  'gainst  the  host 

The  champion  of  Young  Liberty,  and  gal- 
lant  Warren   fell. 

Not  unremembered  in  the  land  for  which  he 
fought  so  well ; 

For  where,  on  land  or  sea,  shall  float  our 
proud  flag  from  its  staff. 

There  towers  in  her  Stars  and  Stripes  the 
Patriot's    cenotaph! 

Y.  C. 


The   Lexington  Minute-Man 

By  Laura  E.  Richards 

'Twas  the  gray  of  the  morning,  Revere  at  the 
gate 

With  whipstock  and  fist  he  did  din  it,  man ! 
"  The  British  are  marching,  the  hour  is  late! 

Make  ready,  each  Lexington  minute-man  !  " 

A  hand  to  the  musket — a  word  to  the  wife — 
The  cockade,  who  but  she  then  should  pin 
it,  man? 
And  there  in  the  doorway  she  leaned  for  her 
life. 
Gazing  after  her  Lexington  minute-man. 

And  hurry  and  scurry  we  ran  to  the  green; 

Not  a  lad  but  was  bound  he'd  be  in  it,  man ! 
There  Hadley  and  Muzzj-  and  Parker  were 
seen. 

All  proud  of  the  name  of  the  minute-man. 

And    Raymond    and    Harrington    ran    with 
Munroe, 
And  Winship  and  Wyman  did  spin  it,  man ! 
And  Comee  and  Farmer  and  Estabrook  too 
Sprang  quick  to  the  call  for  the  minute- 
man. 

Now  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  eyes  to  the 

front ! 

The  shooting,  leave  them  to  begin  it,  man ! 

The    Nation's   behind    us,    but    we    bear   the 

brunt ; 

Stand  fast,  every  Lexington  minute-man ! 

If  they  will  have  a  war,  let  its  first  shot  be 
here ! 
They  begin,  but  we'll  end  it  and  win  it, 
man ! 
So  steady,  in  valor  and  constancy  clear. 
Stand  fast,  every  Lexington  minute-man ! 

Ah !  well,  'tis  long  over !  our  land  is  long 
free; 

My  hair,  Time's  beginning  to  thin  it,  man ! 
But  still  at  my  work  or  my  rest  tho  I  be. 

My  heart  beats  the  tune  of  the  minute-man ! 

And  tho  my  old  limbs  should  be  paralyzed 
clean ; 
Ay !  e'en  tho  the  grave  I  were  in  it,  man. 
Yet  it's  odds  but  you'd  find  me  on  Lexington 
green. 
If  the  drum  beat  the  call  for  the  minute- 
man. 

Y.  C. 
The  Pilgrim's  Vision 

By  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 

I    saw    in    the    naked    forest    our    scattered 

remnant  cast, 
A  screen  of  shivering  branches  between  them 

and  the  blast ; 
The  snow  was  falling  round  them,  the  dying 

fell  so  fast ; 
I  looked  to  see  them  perish,   when,  lo !  the 

vision  passed. 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


723 


Again  mine  eyes  were  opened:  the  feeble  had 

waxed  strong, 
The   babes    had   grown   to   sturdy   men,   the 

remnant  was  a  throng; 
By  shadowed  lake  and  winding  stream,  and 

all  the  shores  along, 
The    howling    demons    quaked,    to   hear   the 

Christians'  godly  song. 

They  slept,  the  village  fathers,  by  rivers, 
lake,  and  shore, 

When  far  adown  the  steep  of  Time  the  vision 
rose  once  more; 

I  saw  along  the  winter  snow  a  spectral  col- 
umn pour. 

And  high  above  their  broken  ranks  a  tattered 
flag  they  bore. 

Their  leader   rode  before   them,   of  bearing 

calm  and  high. 
The  light  of  Heaven's  own  kindling  throned 

in  his  awful  eye; 
These  were  the  Nation's  champions,  her  dread 

appeal  to  try! 
"  God  for  the  right !  "  I  faltered,  and,  lo !  the 

train  passed  by. 

Once  more:  the  strife  was  ended,  the  solemn 

issue  tried; 
The  Lord  of  Hosts,   His  mighty  arm,   had 

helped  our  Israel's  side; 
Gray  stone  and  grassy  hillock  told  where  her 

martyrs  died, 
And  peace  was  in  the  borders  of  victory's 

chosen  bride. 

A  crash,  as  when  some  swollen  cloud  cracks 

o'er  the  tangled  trees! 
With  side  to  side,  and  spar  to  spar,  whose 

smoking  decks  are  these? 
I  know   St.   George's  blood-red  cross,   thou 

mistress  of  the  seas ; 
But  what  is  she,  whose  streaming  bars  roll 

out  before  the  breeze? 

Ah !  well  her  iron  ribs  are  knit,  whose  thun- 
ders strive  to  quell 

The  bellowing  throats,  the  blazing  lips,  that 
pealed  the  Armada's  knell ! 

The  mist  was  cleared;  a  wreath  of  stars  rose 
o'er  the  crimsoned  swell. 

And  wavering  from  its  haughty  peak,  the 
cross  of  England  fell ! 

O   trembling   Faith!   tho   dark  the   morn,   a 

heavenly  torch  is  thine ! 
While    feebler   races   melt   away,   and   paler 

orbs  decline. 
Still    shall   the   fiery  pillar's   ray   along  thy 

pathway  shine, 
To  light  the  chosen  tribe  that  sought  this 

Western  Palestine! 


I  see  the  living  tribe  roll  on;  it  crowns  with 
flaming  towers 

The  icy  capes  of  Labrador,  the  Spaniard's 
"  land  of  flowers ;  " 

It  streams  beyond  the  splintered  ridge  that 
parts  the  northern  showers, — 

From  eastern  rock  to  sunset  wave  the  conti- 
nent is  ours. 

Landing   of   the   Pilgrim  Fathers 

By  Felicia  Dorothea  Remans 

The  breaking  waves  dashed  high 
On  a  stern  and  rock-bound  coast, 

And  the  woods  against  a  stormy  sky 
Their  giant  branches  tossed. 

And  the  heavy  night  hung  dark 

The  hills  and  waters  o'er. 
When  a  band  of  exiles  moored  their  bark 

On  the  wild  New  England  shore. 

Not  as  the  conqueror  comes. 

They,  the  true-hearted,  came; 
Not  with  the  roll  of  the  stirring  drums. 

And  the  trumpet  that  sings  of  fame. 

Not  as  the  flying  come. 

In  silence  and  in  fear; 
They  shook  the  depths  of  the  desert  gloom 

With  their  hymns  of  lofty  cheer. 

Amidst  the  storm  they  sang, 
And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea; 

And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods 
rang 
To  the  anthem  of  the  free. 

The  ocean  eagle  soared 

From  his  nest  by  the  white  wave's  foam; 
And  the  rocking  pines  of  the  forest  roared^ 

This  was  their  welcome  home  I 

There  were  men  with  hoary  hair 

Amidst  that  pilgrim  band ; — 
Why  had  they  come  to  wither  there. 

Away  from  their  childhood's  land? 

There  was  woman's  fearless  eye. 

Lit  by  her  deep  love's  truth; 
There  was  manhood's  brow  serenely  high, 

And  the  fiery  heart  of  youth. 

What  sought  they  thus  afar? 

Bright  jewels  of  the  mine? 
The  wealth  of  seas,  the  spoils  of  war? 

They  sought  a  faith's  pure  shrine! 

Ay,  call  it  holy  ground. 
The  soil  where  first  they  trod; 

They  left  unstained  what  there  they  found- 
Freedom  to  worship  God. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


727 


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Bingham,   Joseph. — Origines   Ecclesiasticae, 

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Chambers,  R. — The  Book  of  Days.     [2  vols.] 

(  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia.) 
Coleman,  Lyman. — Ancient  Christianity  Ex- 
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John  Kelly.]        (Alexander  Strahan,  Lon- 
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(Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York.) 
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Lock  &  Co.,  London,  England.) 
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Lock  &  Co.,  London,  England.) 
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Christianorum.       (Original     Ed.,     Zurich, 

1612.) 
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Nelson  &  Sons,  New  York.) 
Ken,  Bishop  Thomas. — Hymns  for  all  the 

Festivals  in  the  Year.     (B.  M.  Pickering. 

London,  England.) 


LocKYER,  J,  N.— Origin  of  the  Year,  [Na- 
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Lyra  Germanica.— Tr.  by  Catherine  Wink- 
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MacArthur,  Robert  S.— The  Christian 
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Neale,  John  Mason. — Church  Festivals  and 
Their  Household  Words.  (J.  T.  Hayes, 
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Neale,  John  Mason. — Hymns  of  the  Eastern 
Church.     (J.  T.  Hayes,  London,  England.) 

Neale,  John  Mason.— Mediaeval  Hymns  and 
Sequences.  (Joseph  Masters,  London, 
England.) 

Newman,  John  H.— Use  of  Saints'  Days. 
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Noble,  Franklin. — Thoughts  for  the  Occa- 
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PooLE,  William  F. — Index  to  Periodical  Lit- 
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Riddle,  Joseph  E.— Manual  of  Christian 
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England.) 

Sacred  Lyrics  from  the  German. —  (Pres- 
byterian Board  of  Publication,  Philadel- 
phia.) 

Sanderson,  Joseph. — Thoughts  for  the  Oc- 
casion, Patriotic  and  Secular.  (E.  B. 
Treat  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Schaff  and  Gilman. — Library  of  Religious 
Poetry.  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Treasury  of  Religious  Thought.  [Vols. 
i-xix.]     (E.  B.  Treat  £.  Co.,  New  York.) 

Venner,  G.  U. — The  Church  Year.  [Lu- 
theran Quarterly,  vol.  xxiv,  p.  455.]  (Get- 
tysburg, Pa.) 


Iboli?  2)a^9 


NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


Banks,  Louis  A. — Motto  for  the  Year. 
[Paul  and  His  Friends,  p.  i.]  (Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.     1898.) 

Boswell,  James. — New  Year  Day  Observed. 
[Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  p.  134.]  (Hen- 
ry Washbourne,  London,  England.) 

Grant,     A.     H. — Circumcision     of     Christ. 


[Church  Seasons,  p.  73.]  (Thomas  Whit- 
taker, New  York.     1893.) 

Gray,  J.  Comper. — New  Year's  Day.  [Bib- 
lical Museum,  r.  e.  Gen.  to  ii,  Kings,  pp 
270,  439]  (E.  R.  Herrick  &  Co.,  New 
York.     1898.) 

Hepworth,  George  H.— A  Happy  New  Year. 


728 


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[Herald  Sermons,  p.  46.]    (E.  P.  Button  & 

Co.,  New  York.     1894.) 
McLaren,     Alexander. — The     New     Year. 

[Secret  of  Power,     p.    187.]      (The  Mac- 

millan  Co.,  London  and  New  York.) 
Neander,     August. — New     Year's     Festival. 

[History    of    the    Christian    Religion    and 

Church,  vol.  ii,  pp.  350-351.]     (Houghton, 

Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.     1871.) 
Parkhurst,  C.  H. — Looking  Forward  to  the 


New  Year.  [Treasury  of  Religious 
Thought,  vol.  xvii,  p.  686.]  (E.  B.  Treat 
&  Co.,  New  York.) 

Spurgeon,  C.  H. — A  New  Year's  Benedic- 
tion. [Sermons,  vol.  vii,  p.  11.]  (Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Talmage,  T.  D. — Forward.  [The  Brooklyn 
Tabernacle  Sermons,  p.  389.]  (Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 


EPIPHANY 


Brooks,  Phillips. — The  Heroism  of  Foreign 
Missions.  [Sermons,  vol.  v,  p.  i.]  (E.  P. 
Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Century  of  Christian  Progress,  A. — (Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York.) 

Christlieb,  Theodor. — Protestant  Foreign 
Missions.  (Congregational  House,  Bos- 
ton.) 

Dennis.  James  S. — Christian  Missions  and 
Social  Progress.  [3  vols.]  (Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.,  New  York.) 

Encyclopedia  of  Missions. — [2  vols.]  (Funk 
&  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Evangelization  of  the  World.  (Fleming 
H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York.) 


Leonard,  D.  L. — A  Hundred  Years  of  Mis- 
sions. (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Pierson,  Arthur  T. — Crisis  of  Missions. 
(Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  New  York.) 

Pierson,  Arthur  T. — The  Miracles  of  Mis- 
sions. [First,  Second,  and  Third  Series.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Storrs,  Richard  S. — Addresses  on  Foreign 
Missions.  (Congregational  House,  Bos- 
ton.) 

Upham,  Prof.  F.  W. — The  Star  of  Our  Lord. 
(Nelson  &  Phillips,  New  York.) 

Upham,  Prof.  F.  W.— The  Wise  Men :  Who 
They  Were.  (Nelson  &  Phillips,  New 
York.) 


LENT 


Brooks,  Phillips. — Sermons.  [Vol.  ii,  p. 
200.]  (E.  p.  Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York. 
1881.) 

Bruce,  Alexander  B. — Fasting.  [The  Train- 
ing of  the  Twelve,  p.  69.]  (T,  &  T. 
Clark,  Edinburgh.     1877.) 

Collier,  Price. — A  Lenten  Sermon.  [Ser- 
mons, p.  161.]  (E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  New 
York.     1892.) 

Farrar,  Dean  F.  W. — A  Study  of  Tempta- 
tion. [The  Homiletic  Rtview.  vol.  xxx, 
p.  126.]   (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Hodge,  Charles. — Mortify  the  Deeds  of  the 
Body. — [Conference  Papers,  1879,  p.  150.] 
(Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.) 


Hodge,  Charles. — Fasting.  [Conference 
Papers  1879,  P-  262.]  (Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York.) 

Parkhurst,  Charles  H. — A  Man  of  Sor- 
rows. [Homiletic  Review,  vol.  xxv,  p. 
230.]    (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Peck,  J.  O. — Revival  Methods.  [Homiletic 
Review,  vol.  ix,  p.  351.]  (Funk  &  Wag- 
nalls Co.,  New  York.) 

Potter,  Henry  C. — Revival  Agencies.  [Hom- 
iletic Review,  vol.  xxi,  p.  331.]  (Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Robertson,  Fi  ederick  W. — Worldliness. 
[Sermons,  p.  330.]  (Harper  &  Brothers, 
New  York.    1870.) 


PALM  SUNDAY 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward. — Palm  Sunday  Ser- 
mon. [Christian  World  Pulpit,  vol.  viii,  p. 
100.]     (London.) 

Hoare,  Charles  James. — The  Exaltation  of 
Qirist.  [Sermons  for  the  Church's  Year, 
edited  by  W.  Benham,  p.  296.]  (E.  P. 
Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Lives  of  Christ  [in  loco.] 

McCulloch.  D.D.— The  Man  on  the  Throne. 
[The  Evangelical  Church,  ed.  by  Henry 
Tullidge,  p.  700.]  (Thomas  Whittaker, 
New  York.     1879.) 

Palm  Sunday. —  [Christian  World  Pulpit, 
vol.  xix,  p.  140.]     (London.) 

Robinson,    Edward. — Researches.    [3    vols.. 


vol.  i,  p.  473.]  (Crocker  &  Brewster, 
Boston.     1887.) 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H. — Sermons.  [Vol. 
xii,  p.  96;  xiv,  p.  90.]  (Funk  &  Wagnalls 
Co.,  New  York.) 

Stanley,  Arthur  P. — Sinai  and  Palestine, 
[pp.  188-191.]  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
New  York,   1868.) 

Talmage,  T.  D.— CHirist  Over  All.  [Pulpit 
Power  and  Eloquence,  723.]  (F.  M.  Bar- 
ton. Cleveland.) 

Thomson,  William  M. — The  Land  and  the 
Book.  [3  vols.,  vol.  i,  pp.  408-414.]  (Har- 
per &  Brothers,  New  York.     1880.) 


COMMUNION  SUNDAY 


Beecher,  C. — Emblems  in  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. [New  England  Magazine,  vol.  xli,  p. 
516.]     (Warren   F.   Kellogg,   Boston.) 


Brandt,  John  L. — The  Lord's  Supper.    (The 

Standard  Publishing  Co.,  Cincinnati.) 
Bruce,  Alexander  Balmain. — The  Training 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


729 


of  the  Twelve,  [p.  359.]  (A.  C.  Arm- 
strong &  Son,  New  York.     1900.) 

Earle,  A.  M. — Church  Communion  Tokens. 
[Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  Ixxiv,  p.  210.] 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

KoHLER,  K. — Jewish  View  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  [Public  Opinion,  vol.  xiii,  p.  238.] 
(New  York.) 

Maurice,  Frederick  D. — The  Eucharist  Con- 
sidered as  a  Declaration  of  Christ's  Death 
to  Mankind.  [Lincoln's  Inn  Sermons,  6 
vols.,  vol.  iv,  p.  97.]  (The  Macmillan  Co., 
New  York.) 


Murray,  Andrew. — The  Lord's  Table. 
(Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York.) 

New  England  Magazine. — The  Lord's  Sup- 
per a  Eucharistic  Service.  [Vol.  xlv,  p. 
868.]      (Warren  F.  Kellogg,  Boston.) 

Robertson,  Frederick  W. — The  Sacrifice  of 
Christ.  [Sermons,  1870,  p.  495]  (Har- 
per &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Sigmund,  W.  S. — Lutheran  Doctrine  of 
Lord's  Supper.  [Lutheran  Quarterly  Re- 
view, vol.  xxvi,  p.  248.]    (Gettysburg,  Pa.) 


GOOD    FRIDAY 


Atonement,  The,  in  Modern  Religious 
Thought.  A  Theological  Symposium. 
(Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York.     1901.) 

Cook,  Joseph. — The  Conquering  Cross  of 
Christ.  [Our  Day,  vol.  xiii,  p.  541.]  (Our 
Day  Publishing  Co.,  Boston.) 

CORWIN,  C.  E. — Development  of  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Atonement,  from  the  Time  of  Christ 
until  730  a.  d.  [Reformed  Quarterly,  vol. 
xliii,  p.  375;  730-1710,  p.  497].  (Re- 
formed Church  Publication  Society,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.> 

Heisler,  C.  W. — The  Day  of  the  Crucifixion 
of  Jesus  Christ.  [Lutheran  Quarterly  Re- 
view, vol.  XXV,  p.  209.]     (Gettysburg,  Pa.) 

Holck,  L.  G. — Real  Meaning  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion. [New  Church  Review,  1883,  vol.  iii, 
P-  504.]     (Fairbanks  &  Palmer,  Chicago.) 


King,  E. — The  Seven  Words  from  the  Cross. 
[The  Sermon  Year  Book,  for  1891,  p.  136.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Lane,  C.  R. — The  Suffering  of  Jesus  Christ: 
Was  It  in  His  Divine  Nature?  [Re- 
formed Quarterly,  vol.  xxxix,  p.  173.] 
(Reformed  Church  Publication  Society, 
Philadelphia.) 

Robertson,  Frederick  W. — The  Loneliness 
of  Christ.  [Sermons,  p.  168.]  (Harper 
&  Brothers,  New  York.     1870.) 

Smyth,  J.  K. — Gladstone  on  the  Atonement. 
[New  Church  Review,  vol.  ii,  p.  112.] 
(Fairbanks  &  Palmer,  Chicago.) 

Voight,  a.  G. — New  Testament  Idea  of  the 
Atonement.  [  Lutheran  Quarterly,  vol. 
xxv,  p.  310,]     (Gettysburg  Pa.) 


EASTEB 


Bent,  J.  T. — Easter  in  Greece.  [Living  Age, 
vol.  clii,  p.  402.]  (Living  Age  Co.,  Boston.) 

Champion,  T.  E. — Easter  Observances. 
[Canadian  Magazine,  vol.  ii,  p.  458.] 
(Ontario  Publishing  Co.,  Toronto.) 

Easter. — [T.  M.  Clark,  A.  G.  Haygood,  and 
others.  Magazine  of  Christian  Literature, 
vol.  vi,  p.  142.]  (Christian  Literature  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  New  York.) 

Easter.  Date  of. —  [Leisure  Hour,  vol.  xxv, 
pp.  256,  494.]     (London,  England.) 

Easter  in  Rome. — [Catholic  World,  vol.  xli, 
p.  120.]  (Catholic  World  Magazine,  New 
York.) 

Gotwald,     L.     a. — Resurrection    of    Jesus 


Christ.  [Lutheran  Quarterly,  vol.  xxiv,  p. 
546.]      (Gettysburg,  Pa.) 

MiLLiGAN,  William. — The  Resurrection  of 
Our  Lord.  (The  Macmillan  Co.,  London 
and  New  York.) 

Rice,  W.  N.— The  Credibility  of  the  Res- 
urrection of  Christ.  [Methodist  Review, 
vol.  Iv,  p.  177.]  (Methodist  Quarterly 
Review,  New  York.) 

Westcott,  Brooke  F. — The  Gospel  of  the 
Resurrection.  (The  Macmillan  Co.,  Lon- 
don and  New  York.) 

Westcott,  B.  F. — The  Revelation  of  the 
Risen  Lord.  (The  Macmillan  Co.,  London 
and  New  York.) 


SUNDAY 


Crafts,  Wilbur  F. — The  Sabbath  for  Man. 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Crafts,  Wilbur  F. — Sabbath  Reform  Prac- 
ticable. [Our  Day,  vol.  xiii,  p.  520.] 
(Boston.) 

Ellis,  A.  B. — Origin  of  Sabbaths  and 
Weeks.  [Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol. 
xlvi,  p.  329.]  (McClure,  Phillips  &  Co., 
New  York.) 

Gardiner,  G.  W. — Sabbath,  Shall  We  Have 
One  and  How?  [Baptist  Review,  vol.  ii, 
p.  584.]  (Baptist  Publication  Society, 
Philadelphia.) 

Gilfillan,  James. — The  Sabbath.  (Ameri- 
can Tract  Society,  New  York.) 


Lord's  Day,  Eight  Studies  of  the. — 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

Oswald,  F.  L. — Sabbatarianism  an  Expen- 
sive Delusion.  [North  American  Review, 
vol.  clxii,  p.  125.]  (Harper  &  Brothers, 
New  York.) 

Robinson,  S. — Sunday  Laws  in  the  U.  S. 
[Catholic  Presbyterian,  vol.  ii,  p.  87.]  (A. 
D.  F.  Randolph,  New  York.) 

Sabbath,  The  English  and  American. — 
[The  Nation,  vol.  Ivi,  p.  122.]  (Evening 
Post  Publishing  Co.,  New  York.) 

Ward,  J.  H. — Future  of  Sunday  Journalism. 
[Forum,  vol.  i,  p.  389.]  (Forum  Publish- 
ing Co.,  New  York.) 


730 


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ASCENSION  DAY 


Banks,  Louis  Albert. — Christ  and  His 
Friends.  [The  Divine  Magnet,  p.  324J 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.    1895  ) 

Brubaker,  J. — Ascension  of  Jesus  Christ. 
[Lutheran  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxiv.  p. 
155.]     (Gettysburg,  Pa.) 

Expositors'  Bible. — Commentary  on  Acts  i : 
9-1 1,  [p.  43.]  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 
New  York.    1900.) 

Kingsley,  Charles. — Ascension  Day.  [All 
Saints'  Day  and  Other  Sermons,  p.  116.] 
(Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  1878.) 


MiLLiGAN,  William. — The  Ascension  and 
Heavenly  Priesthood  of  Our  Lord.  (The 
Macmillan  Co.,   London  and  New  York.) 

Pearson,  John. — Pearson  on  the  Creed. 
[Article  VL]  (Henry  G.  Bohn,  London, 
England.) 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H. — Lessons  of  the  As- 
cension. [Sermons,  vol.  xvii,  p.  381.  J 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Westcott,  Brooke  F. — The  Revelation  of  the 
Risen  Lord.  [Chapters  x,  xi.]  (The  Mac- 
millan Co.,  London  and  New  York.) 


WHITSUNDAY 


Church  at  its  Dawn,  The. — [New  Church 
Review,  vol.  i,  p.  196.]  (Fairbanks  & 
Palmer,  Chicago.) 

Congregationalist,  The. — Theories  of  the 
Church.     [Vol.  vii,  p   174.]     (Boston.) 

Crosbie,  W. — The  Lesson  of  Pentecost. 
[The  Congregationalist,  vol.  vii,  p.  577-] 
(Boston.) 

Lane,  C.  R.— The  Holy  Spirit.  [Reformed 
Quarterly,  vol.  xxxiii,  p.  439.]  (The  Re- 
formed Church  Publication  Society,  Phila- 
delphia.) 

London  Quarterly  Review. — The  Holy 
Spirit  Between  the  Resurrection  and  Pen- 
tecost. [Vol.  Ix,  p.  165.]  (London,  Eng- 
land.) 

Maurice,   Frederick   Denison. — The   Mean- 


ing of  the  Gift  of  Tongues.  [Sermons, 
6  vols,  p.  14.]  (The  Macmillan  Co.,  Lon- 
don and  New  York.     1892.) 

Pepper,  G.  D.  B. — The  Holy  Spirit  the 
Need  of  the  Church. — [Baptist  Review, 
vol.  vi,  p.  13.]  (Baptist  Publication  So- 
ciety, Philadelphia.) 

Rennell,  T. — 'Christians  the  Temple  of  the 
Spirit.  [Sermons  for  the  Church  Year. 
Edited  by  W.  Benham,  vol.  i,  p.  382.]  (E. 
P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Robertson,  Frederick  W. — The  Dispensation 
of  the  Spirit.  [Sermons,  p.  455.]  (Har- 
per &  Brothers,  New  York.     1870.) 

Waterhouse,  C.  W. — Day  of  Pentecost. 
[Baptist  Review,  vol.  vii,  p.  229.]  (Baptist 
Publication  Society,  Philadelphia.) 


CHILDREN'S   DAY 


Chesebrough,    Amos    S. — Children    Trained 

for  Disciple-ship.     (Hartford,   Conn.) 
Crafts,  Wilbur  F. — Talks  to  Boys  and  Girls 

About  Jesus.    (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New 

York.     1881.) 
Foster's  Cyclopedia  of  Prose  and  Poetical 

Illustrations — 4      vols.  [See      under 

"Child",   "Boy",  "  S.   S.",  etc.]      (Funk 

&  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 
HowATT,     J.     Reid — The     Children's     Pew. 

(Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York.) 
HowATT,  J.  Reid — The  Children's  Preacher. 

(Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York.) 
Noble,  Franklin. — Thoughts  for  the  Occa- 


sion, Anniversary  and  Religious.  [Index 
under  Children's  Day.]  (E.  B.  Treat  & 
Co.,  New  York.) 

Stall,  Sylvanus. — Five-Minute  Object  Ser- 
mons to  Children.  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 
New  York.) 

Stories  of  the  Festivals,  Fasts,  and 
Saints"  Days  of  the  Church.  (Thomas 
Whittaker,  New  York.) 

Sunday  School  Ways  of  Working. — ^(J. 
D.  Wattles  &  Co.,  Philadelphia.) 

Trumbull,  Henry  Clay. — Hints  on  Child 
Training.  (J.  D.  Wattles  &  Co.,  Phila- 
delphia.) 


TRINITY    SUNDAY 


Apple,  T.  G. — God  in  Christ.  [Reformed 
Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxix,  p.  131.]  (Re- 
formed Church  Publication  Society,  Phila- 
delphia.) 

Maurice,  Frederick  D. — The  Uniting  Name. 
[Sermons,  6  vols.,  vol.  iv,  p.  29.]  (The 
Macmillan   Co.,  London  and  New  York.) 

Sherwood,  E. — Mystery  of  the  Trinity. 
[Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  liv,  p. 
584.]     (New  York.) 

Spurgeon,  C.  H. — Personality  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  [Sermons,  vol.  i,  p.  55.]  (Funk  & 
Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Strong,  A.  H. — The  Two  Natures  of  Christ. 
[Philosophy  and  Religion,  p.  201.]  (A.  C. 
Armstrong  &  Son,  New  York.) 


Trinity  Really  Unity. — [New  Church  Re- 
viczv,  vol.  iii,  p.  258.]  (Fairbanks  & 
Palmer.   Chicago.) 

Van  Pelt,  D. — Reformed  Quarterly  Review. 
[Vol.  xxix,  p.  232.]  (Reformed  Church 
Publication   Society,  Philadelphia.) 

Vaughan,  J.  S. — Trinity  as  Seen  in  Material 
Creation.  [Dublin  Review,  vol.  cxii,  p. 
16.]      (Dublin,  Ireland.) 

Wallace,  H. — ^Human  Nature  a  Witness  to 
the  Trinity.  [British  and  Foreign  Evan- 
gelical Review,  vol.  xxxii,  p.  35.]  (London, 
England.) 

Walworth,  C.  A. — The  Trinity  in  Simple 
English.  [Catholic  World,  vol.  xlii,  p.  289.] 
(New  York.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


731 


ALL    SAINTS'    DAY 


Deems,  Charles  F. — In  Memoriam.  [Ser- 
mons, p.  172.]  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 
New  York.) 

Haven,  Gilbert. — Two  Greek  Books  on  the 
Life  Beyond.  [Pulpit  Power  and  Elo- 
quence, p.  325.]  (F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland, 
1901.) 

KiNGSLEY,  Charles. — All  Saints'  Day.  [All 
Saints'  Day  and  Other  Sermons,  p.  i.] 
(Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.) 

Little,  W.  J.  Knox. — The  Resurrection  of 
the  Body.  [The  Perfect  Life,  p.  189.] 
(Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London  and 
New  York.) 

Plumptre,  E.  H. — Our  Life  in  Heaven. 
[Sermons  for  the  Church's  Year.  Edited 
by  W.  Benham,  2  vols.,  vol.  ii,  p.  322.] 
(E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 


Robinson,  Frederick  W. — God's  Revelation 

of    Heaven.     [Sermons,    p.    23.]      (Harper 

&  Brothers,  New  York.     1870.) 
Spurgeon,   Charles  H. — Remains  of  the  Dust 

of  the  Saints.     [Sermons,  vol.  iv,  p.  164.] 

(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 
Spurgeon,     Charles     H. — Saints     Are     in 

Christ's   Companionship.        [Sermons,   vol. 

xvii.  p.  82.]     (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New 

York.) 
Stalker,  James. — Heaven.       [Pulpit  Power 

and   Eloquence,  p.  699.]      (F.   M.    Barton, 

Cleveland.) 
Talmage,  T.  Dewitt. — Shall  We  Know  Each 

Other  There?     [The  Brooklyn  Tabernacle 

Sermons,  p.  49.]      (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 

New  York.) 


THANKSGIVING     DAY 


Da  Costa,  B.  F. — Origin  of  Ihanksgiving 
Day.  [Magazine  of  American  History, 
vol.  xiv,  p.  556.]     (New  York.) 

Gibson,  J.  Monro. — The  Chain  of  Blessing. 
[Thanksgiving  Sermons  and  Outlines,  p. 
64.]     (Wilbur  B.  Ketcham,  New  York.) 

Gracey,  L.  L. — Beginnings  of  Thanksgiving 
Day  in  the  U.  S.  [Chautauquan  Magazine, 
vol.  xvi,  p.  174.]      (Cleveland.) 

Hardy,  E.  J. — Thankfulness.  [Good  Words, 
vol.  xxiv,  p.  241.]     (London,  England.) 

Macmillan,  Hugh. — The  Table  Prepared  in 
Presence  of  Foes.  [Thanksgiving  Ser- 
mons and  Outlines,  p.  11.]  (Wilbur  B. 
Ketcham,  New  York.) 

Norton,  C.  L. — Thanksgiving  Day  Past  and 


Present.  [Magazine  of  American  History,. 
vol.  xiv,  p.  556.]     (New  York.) 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H. — Thanksgiving. 
[Morning  by  Morning,  p.  321.]  (Passmore 
&  Alabaster,  London,  England.) 

Stanley,  Arthur  P. — The  National  Thanks- 
giving. [Sermons  on  Special  Occasions,  p. 
15,  Harper's  Franklin  Square  Library.] 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Thanksgiving  Time  Fancies. — [Scribner's 
Magazine,  vol.  xviii,  p.  557.]  (Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.) 

Whitford,  J.  B.— The  Hand  of  God  in  His- 
tory. [Pulpit  Treasury,  vol.  xii,  p.  441.] 
(E.  B.  Treat  &  Co.,  New  York.) 


ADVENT 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward. — The  Second  Ad- 
vent. [Christian  World  Pulpit,  vol.  xiv, 
p.  88.]  (The  Christian  World,  London, 
England.) 

Butler,  H.  M. — The  Three  Comings  of 
Christ.  [Sermon  Bible,  vol.  xii,  p.  102.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Guinness,  H.  H. — Watch.  [Pulpit  Power 
and  Eloquence,  p.  270.]  (F.  M.  Barton, 
Cleveland.) 

Hall,  John.— What  Shall  the  End  Be? 
[Questions  of  the  Day,  p.  225.]  (Dodd, 
Mead  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Jebb,  Bishop. — Children  of  the  Night  and 
of  the  Day.  [Sermons  for  the  Church's 
Year,  W.  Benham,  p.  i.]  (E.  P.  Dutton 
&  Co.,  New  York.) 


KiNGSLEY,  Charles. — All  Saints'  Day  and 
Other  Sermons,  [p.  41.]  (Charles  Scrib- 
ner's Sons,  New  York.) 

Man's  Increased  Responsibility  Through 
THE  Advent  of  Christ.  [Spence  and 
Exell,  in  Homiletical  Library,  vol.  i,  p.  i.] 
(A.  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

MozLEY,  J.  B.— The  Reversal  of  Human 
Judgment.  [Pulpit  Power  and  Eloquence, 
P-  543]     (F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland.) 

Preparation  for  the  Coming  Day. — [Spence 
and  Exell,  in  Homiletical  Library,  vol.  i, 
p.  10.]  (A.  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H. — Paul  the  Ready. 
[Pulpit  Power  nnd  Eloquence,  p.  695.] 
(F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland.) 


CHRISTMAS  DAY 


Banks,  Louis  Albert. — God's  Love  and  Its 
Gift.  [Christ  and  His  Friends,  p.  139.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York. 
1895-) 

Brooks,  Phillips. — Christmas  Sermon. 
[Century  Magazine,  vol.  xxv,  p.  179.] 
(The  Centurv  Company,  New  York.) 


Buchanan,     Claudius. — The    Star    in    the 

East.     [Pulpit    Power    and    Eloquence,    p. 

46.]      (F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland.     1901.) 
Chambers'    Journal. — Christmas    in    Other 

Countries.      [Vol.    Ixii,   p.   801.]      London, 

England.) 
Crafts,    Wilbur    F. — The    Birth    of    Jesus. 


732 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


[Talks  to  Boys  and  Girls  About  Jesus,  p. 

68.]     (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York. 

1881.) 
Deems,    Charles    F. — No    Room   for  Jesus. 

[Sermons,  p.  66.]     (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 

New  York.     1885.) 
Hepworth,     George     H. — Christ's     Glorious 

Coming.     [Treasury  of  Religious  Thought, 

vol.  i,  p.  462.]     (E.  B.  Treat  &  Co.,  New 

York.) 


RusKiN,  John.— The  Birth  of  Jesus.  [Talks 
to  Boys  and  Girls  About  Jesus,  p.  75.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.     1881.) 

Stockton,  Thomas  H. — Glory  to  God. 
[Pulpit  Power  and  Eloquence,  p.  707.] 
(F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland.     1901.) 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley. — Christmas  in 
Former  Times.  [Harper's  Magazine,  vol. 
Ixxx,  p.  I.]  (Harper  &  Brothers,  New 
York.) 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 


Bailey,  Philip  James. — Life.  [Library  of 
Choice  Literature,  Compiled  by  A.  R. 
Spofford,  vol.  vi,  p.  25.]  (Gebbie  Publish- 
ing Co.,  Philadelphia.     i8q5.) 

Bancroft.  Thomas. — Man's  Life.  [Library 
of  Choice  Literature,  Compiled  by  A.  R. 
Spofford,  vol.  ii,  p.  329.]  (Gebbie  Publish- 
ing Co.,  Philadelphia.     1895.) 

Banks,  Louis  Albert. — Burning  the  Bridges 
in  the  Rear.  [Paul  and  His  Friends,  p.  110.] 
(Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.   1898.) 

Bishop,  Samuel. — Man's  Life.  [Library  of 
Choice  Literature,  Compiled  by  A.  R. 
Spofford,  vol.  ii,  p.  328.]  (Gebbie  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  Philadelphia.     1895.) 

Campbell,  Thomas.— The  Last  Man.  Poem. 
[Poems,  p.  261.]  (E.  Moxon,  Son,  &  Co., 
London,  England.) 


CuYLER,  Theodore  L. — The  Last  Words  ot 
the  Dying  Year.  [Homiletic  Review,  vol. 
ii,  p.  139.]  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Deems,  Charles  F.— How  Old  Art  Thou? 
[Sermons,  p.  198.]  (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 
New  York.     1885.) 

Hepworth,  George  H. — A  Wasted  Life. 
[Herald  Sermons,  p.  68.]  (E.  P.  Dutton 
&  Co.,  New  York.     1894.] 

Robertson,  Frederick  W. — Christian  Prog- 
ress by  Oblivion  of  the  Past.  [Sermons,  p. 
57.]  (Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York. 
1870.) 

Taylor,  William  M. — Providence.  [Limita- 
tions of  Life,  p.  249.]  (A.  C.  Armstrong 
&  Son,  New  York.    1879.) 


IboUDaps 

LINCOLN'S    BLRTHDAY 


Arnold,   I.   N. — Life   of  Abraham   Lincoln. 

(A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago.) 
Atlantic  Monthly. —  [Vols,  xxxvii,  21 ;  xli, 

366,  454;  Iviii,  556:  Ixvii,  721.]    (Houghton, 

Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 
Beecher,   Henry   Ward. — Abraham  Lincoln. 

[p.    701.]       (Fords.    Howard    &    Hulbert, 

New  York.     1889.) 
Hapgood,    Norman.— Abraham    Lincoln,    the 

Man  of  the  People.     (The  Macmillan  Co., 

London  and  New  York.) 
Herndon     and     Weik. — Abraham     Lincoln. 

[3  vols.]     (D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York. 

1889.) 


Holland,  John  G. — Abraham  Lincoln.     (C. 

A.  Nichols,  Springfield,  Mass.) 
Independent,    The. — Symposium    on    Abra- 
ham Lincoln.     [The  Independent,  Apr.  4, 

1895.]     (New  York.) 
Lamon,    W.    H. — Recollections    of    Lincoln. 

(A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago.) 
NicoLAY    AND    Hay. — Complete    Works    of 

Lincoln.     (The  Century  Co.,  New  York.) 
NicoLAY  AND  Hay. — Abraham  Lincoln.      [10 

vol.  ed.  and  2  vol.  ed.      (The  Century  Co., 

New  York.     1890.) 
Tarbell,  Ida  M. — Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

[2  vols.]     (McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  New 

York.) 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 


Allibone,  Samuel  Austin. — Dictionary  of 
Authors.  [Gives  Opinions  of  Eminent 
Authors,  vol.  iii.  p.  2596.]  (J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott  Co.,  Philadelphia.) 

Bancroft,  George. — History  of  the  U.  S. 
(D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York.     1884.) 

Everett,  Edward. — Orations  and  Speeches. 
[4  vols.;  vol.  i,  564;  iv,  3.]  (Little,  Brown 
&  Co.,  Boston.) 

Ford,  W.  C— Complete  Works  of  George 
Washington.  [14  vols.]  (G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  New  York.) 

Hale,  Edward  Everett. — Life  of  Washing- 
ton.    (G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York.) 


Headley,  J.  T. — Washington  and  His  Gen^ 
erals.  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New 
York.) 

Independent,  The. — Washington  Number. 
[April  25,  1889,  pp.  1-18,  22-24.]  (New 
York.) 

Irving,  Washington. — Life  of  George 
Washington.  [5  vols.]  (G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  New  York.) 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot. — Life  of  George 
Washington.  [American  Statesmen  Se- 
ries, 2  vols.]  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co., 
Boston.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


733 


Webster,  Daniel. — Washington.  [Web- 
ster's Works,  6  vols. ;  vol.  i,  p.  219.]  (Lit- 
tle, Brown  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

Whipple,  Edward  P. — Character  and  Char- 


acteristic   Men.       [p.    293.]       (Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 
Wilson,     Woodrow. — George     Washington. 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.     1900.) 


ARBOR  DAY 


Arbor  Day  Annual. — [Write  to  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  in  the 
capital  cities  of  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Wis- 
consin, Illinios,  New  York,  and  other 
States.] 

Baldwin,  James. — Harper's  School  Speaker: 
Arbor  Day  and  Memorial  Day.  (Harper 
&  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Fuller,  Andrew  S. — Practical  Forestry. 
[A  Treatise  on  the  Proper  Planting  and 
Cultivation,  with  a  Description,  and  the 
Botanical  and  Popular  Names  of  all  the 
Indigenous  Trees  of  the  U.  S.,  both  Ever- 
green and  Deciduous,  together  with  Notes 
on  a  large  number  of  the  most  valuable 
Exotic  Species.  Illustrated.]  (Orange 
Judd  Co.,  New  York.) 

Furnas,  Robert  W.— Arbor  Day.  [1888.] 
(State  Journal  Co.,  Printers,  Lincoln, 
Neb.) 

Mueller,  Ferdinand  von. — Select  Extra- 
Tropical  Plants  Readily  Eligible  for  In- 
dustrial Culture  or  Naturalization,  with 
Indications  of  their  Native  Countries  and 


Some  of  Their  Uses.  (George  S.  Davis, 
Detroit,  Mich.) 

Pinchot,  Gifford. — A  Primer  of  Forestry. 
[Part  I:  The  Forest.  Part  II:  Practical 
Forestry.  Washington,  Bulletin  24,  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Division  of 
Forestry,  2d  ed.  Authorized  by  Congress, 
April  18,  1900.] 

SuDwoRTH,  George  B. — Check  List  of  the 
Forest  Trees  of  the  U.  S.,  Their  Names 
and  Ranges,  Pamphlet.  1898.  [Prepared 
under  the  direction  of  B.  E.  Fernow, 
Chief  of  the  Division  of  Forestry,  Wash- 
ington, U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture.] 
(Bulletin  No.  17.) 

TouMEY,  J.  W. — Practical  Tree  Planting  in 
Operation.  [Pamphlet.  Washington.  U. 
S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Division  of 
Forestry.     1900.] 

Western  School  Journal.  [March  Num- 
ber of  each  Year.]     (Topeka,  Kansas.) 

Willis,  Annie  I. — Exercises  for  Arbor  Day. 
(New  England  Publishing  Co.,  3  Som- 
erset St.,  Boston,  Mass.) 


EMPIRE    DAY 


Bede,  Venerable. — Description  of  Britain. 
[Library  of  Choice  Literature,  A.  R.  Spof- 
ford,  vol.  vii,  p.  353.]  (The  Gebbie  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  Philadelphia.) 

Dickens,  Charles. — Child's  History  of  Eng- 
land.    (Chapman  &  Hall,  London.) 

Froude,  James  Anthony. — History  of  Eng- 
land. [12  vols.]  (Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  New  York.) 

Green,  John  Richard. — History  of  the  Eng- 
lish People,  [i  vol.  ed.,  4  vol.  ed.]  (Har- 
per &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Knight,  Charles. — 'History  of  England.  [2 
vols.]    (Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  New  York.) 

Littell's   Living   Age. — Reign   of   Victoria. 


[Vol.  cviii,  p.  450.]  (Living  Age  Co., 
Boston.) 

Macaulay,  Thomas  B. — History  of  Eng- 
land. [5  vols.]  Harper  &  Brothers, 
New  York.) 

McCarthy,  Justin. — Political  Influence  of 
Queen  Victoria.  [Outlook,  vol.  67,  p.  297. 
February,  1901.]     (New  York.) 

Mitchell,  Donald  G. — English  Lands,  Let- 
ters and  Kings.  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
New  York.) 

Stead,  W.  T.— King  Edward  VII.,  A  Char- 
acter Study.  [Review  of  Reviews,  vol. 
xxiii.  No.  134,  Mar.  1901,  p.  294.]  (New 
York.) 


MEMORIAL  DAY 


Beck,  J.  M. — War,  the  Distress  of  Nations. 
[American  Magazine  of  Civics,  vol.  vii,  p. 
I.]     (A.  J.  Palm  &  Co..  New  York.) 

Burton,  R. — Memorial  Day.  (Copeland  & 
Day,  Boston.) 

Copeland,  H. — Memorial  Day  at  the  Cor- 
ners. [New  England  Magazine,  vol.  xiv, 
p.  472.]     (Warren  F.  Kellogg,  Boston.) 

Doane,  William  C — Follies  and  Horrors  of 
War.  [North  American  Review,  vol.  clxii, 
p.  190.]  (Harper  &  Brothers,  New 
York.) 

FiSKE,  A.  W. — Decadence  of  the  Grand 
Army.  [The  Nation,  vol.  Ix,  p.  342.] 
(Evening  Post  Publishing  Co.,  New 
York.) 


How  TO  Avoid  War. — [North  American  Re- 
view, vol.  clxii,  p.  119.]  (Harper  & 
Brothers,  New  York.) 

Hubbard,  G.  H. — Cost  of  War.  [New  Eng- 
lander,  vol.  Ivi,  p.  222.]  (New  Haven, 
Conn.) 

Jewett,  S.  O. — Decoration  Day:  A  Story. 
[Harpers  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxxviii,  p.  84.} 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Mendes,  H.  p.— The  Solution  of  War. 
[North  American  Review,  vol.  clxi,  p.  161.] 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Taylor,  H.  C— Study  of  War.  [North 
American  Review,  vol.  clxii,  p.  181.) 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 


734 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


FLAG-BAISING  DAY 


Champion,  Mrs.  S.  E.— Our  Flag.  (Tuttle, 
Morehouse  &  Taylor,  New  Haven,  Conn.) 

Griffis,  W.  E. — First  Salute  to  the  U.  S. 
Flag.  [New  England  Magazine,  vol.  viii, 
p.  576.]      (Warren  F.  Kellogg,  Boston.) 

HoLDEN,  E.  B. — Our  Country's  Flag  and 
Flags  of  Foreign  Countries.  (D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

HuLME,  F.  E.— Flags  of  the  World.  [Illus- 
trated.] (Frederick  Warne  &  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Kellogg,  E.  L. — 1898 — Flag  Day  in  the  School 
Room.    (E.  L.  Kellogg  &  Co.,  New  York.) 


Morris,  R.  A. — Washington,  Lincoln,  and  the 
American  Flag.  [Patriotic  Birthday  Ex- 
ercises.] (Helman,  Taylor  Co.,  Cleveland, 
Ohio.) 

R.\ndolph,  John  .C. — Patriotic  Songs  for 
School  and  Home.  (Oliver  Ditson  &  Co., 
Boston.) 

Street,  G.  G. — ^Our  Flag.  (Courier  Co., 
Buffalo.) 

TiTHERiNGTON,  R.  H. — Story  of  the  Flag. 
{Munsey's  Magazine,  vol.  xiii,  p.  401.] 
(Frank  A.  Munsey,  New  York.) 


DOMINION   DAY 


BouRiNOT,  J.  G. — Canada.  (G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.  New  York.) 

BouRiNOT,  J.  G. — Canada  Under  British  Rule. 
[1796-1900.]  (The  Macmillan  Co.,  London 
and  New  York.) 

DuFFERiN,  Lady. — My  Canadian  Journal. 
(D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York.) 

Parkman,  Francis. — The  Old  Regime  in 
Canada.     (Little,   Brown  &   Co.,   Boston.) 

Peacock,  E.  R. — Canada.  (Warwick  Broth- 
ers &  Rutter,  Toronto.) 


Pepper,  Mary  S. — Maids  and  Matrons  of 
New  France.  (Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Bos- 
ton.) 

Ralph,  Julian. — On  Canada's  Frontier. 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Rand,  Theodore  H. — Treasury  of  Canadian 
Verse.     (William  Briggs,  Toronto.) 

Ross,  G.  W. — Patriotic  Recitations.  (War- 
wick Brothers  &  Rutter,  Toronto.) 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley. —  Baddeck. 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 


INDEPENDENCE    DAY 


Bauslin,  D.  H. — Civil  Liberty  and  the 
Reformation.  [Lutheran  Quarterly,  vol. 
xxii,  p.  547.]     (Gettysburg,  Pa.) 

Cabot,  E.  T. — E.  Atkinson — Personal  Lib- 
erty. [Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol.  xl, 
p.  433.]  (McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Deshler,  C.  D. — How  the  Declaration  was 
Received  in  the  Old  Thirteen.  [Harper's 
Magazine,  vol.  Ixxxv.  p.  165]  (Harper 
&  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Howe,  J.  W. — How  the  Fourth  of  July 
Should  Be  Celebrated.  [The  Forum,  vol. 
XV,  p.  567.]  (Forum  Publishing  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Smith,  J.  M. — Limits  of  Individual  Liberty 
and  State  Authority.    [American  Magazine 


of  Civics,  vol.  ix,  p.  288.]  (A.  J.  Palm  & 
Co.,  New  York.) 

Sprague,  H.  B. — The  Mayflower  Compact 
and  the  Jeffersonian  Heresy.  [Our  Day, 
vol.  xiv,  p.  145.]  (Our  Day  Publishing 
Co..    Boston.) 

Story  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
— [Open  Court,  vol.  v.  p.  2859.]  (Open 
Court   Publishing  Co.,   Chicago.) 

Strong,  Josiah. — Our  Country.  (Baker  & 
Taylor  Co.,  New  York.) 

Werner,  E.  S. — Readings  and  Recitations. 
(E.  S.  Werner  Publishing  Co.,  New  York.) 

Williams,  Elizabeth  M. — Anecdotes  of  the 
First  Fourth  of  July.  [Magazine  of  Amer- 
ican History,  vol.  xxx,  p.  91.]  (New 
York.) 


LABOR  DAY 


Barnes,  William  E. — The  Labor  Problem. 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

Behrends,  a.  J.  F. — Socialism  and  Chris- 
tianity.   (Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  New  York.) 

Bliss,  William-  D.  P.  [Ed.] — The  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Social  Reforms.  (Funk  &  Wag- 
nalis  Co.,  New  York.) 

Franke,  K. — Socialistic  Situation  in  Ger- 
many. [The  Nation,  vol.  Ixi,  p.  132.] 
(The  Evening  Post  Publishing  Co.,  New 
York.) 

Oilman,  Nicholas  P. — Socialism  and  the 
American  Spirit.  (Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.,  Boston.) 

Independent,    The. — Strife    between    Labor 


and  Capital.  A  Symposium.  [Feb.  7, 
1895]     (New  York.) 

Independent,  The. — Labor  Unions.  A  Sym- 
posium. [May  2,  1895.  1900,  vol.  52.] 
(New  York.) 

Laugel,  a. — Socialism  and  Militarism  in 
France.  [The  Nation,  vol.  Iviii,  p.  8. 
1894.]  (The  Evening  Post  Publishing  Co., 
New  York.) 

Sumner,  William  Graham. — What  Social 
Classes  Owe  to  Each  Other.  (Harper  & 
Brothers,  New  York.) 

Trevor,  J. — Religion  of  the  Labor  Move- 
ment. [Forum,  vol.  xviii,  p.  597.]  (The 
Forum  Publishing  Co.,  New  York.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


735 


DISCOVERY   DAY 


Anderson,  R.  B. — Stephens  on  the  Discov- 
ery of.  America  by  Madoc.  [The  Dial, 
vol.  xvi,  p.  138.]     (Chicago.) 

Castel.\r.  E. — Christopher  Columbus.  [Cen- 
tury Magazine,  vol.  xxii,  pp.  123-921.] 
(The  Century  Co.,  New  York.) 

Hubbard,  G.  G. — Discoveries  of  America. 
[National  Geographic  Magazine,  vol.  iv, 
p.   1.]      (Washington.) 

Independent,  The. — Symposium  on  Colum- 
bus.    [June  2,  1892.]     (New  York.) 

KiEFFER,  John  B. — Causes  Which  Led  to  the 
Discovery  of  America.  [Reformed  Quar- 
terly Review, ^  vol.  xl,  p.  122.]  (Reformed 
Church  Publication  Society,  Philadelphia.) 


Littell's  Living  Age. — Discovery  of  Amer- 
ica.    [Vol.  cxciv,  p.  771.]     (Boston.) 

Long,  R.  S. — Discovery  of  America  by  the 
Chinese.  [Eclectic  Magazine,  vol.  cxx,  p. 
201.]     (Living  Age  Co.,  Boston.) 

Newberry,  J.  S. — Ancient  Civilization  of 
America.  [Popular  Science  Monthly,  vol. 
xli,  p.  187.]  (McClure,  Phillips  &  Co., 
New  York.) 

RuGE,  S. — Christopher  Columbus.  [Harper's 
Magazine,  vol.  Ixxxv,  p.  681.]  (Harper  & 
Brothers,  New  York.) 

WiNSOR,  J. — The  Discovery  and  Naming  of 
America.  [The  Nation,  vol.  Ixiii,  p.  143.] 
(The  Evening  Post  Pub.  Co.,  New  York.) 


ELECTION  DAY 


Bishop,  J.  B. — Secret  Voting.  [The  Nation, 
vol.  V,  p.  368.]  (The  Evening  Post  Pub. 
Co..  New  York.) 

Bishop,  J.  B. — Power  of  the  Independent 
Vote  in  the  U.  S.  [The  Nation,  vol.  liv, 
p.  164.]  (The  Evening  Post  Pub.  Co., 
New  York.) 

Dembitz,  L.  N. — ^Advent  of  the  Australian 
Ballot.  [The  Nation,  vol.  liv,  pp.  32,  87.] 
(The  Evening  Post  Pub.  Co.,  New  York.) 

Lusk,  H.  H.— The  American  Ballot.  [The 
Forum,  vol.  xxii,  p.  225.]  (The  Forum 
Publishing  Co.,  New  York.) 

Mace,  J. — Universal  Suffrage  in  France. 
[North  American  Reviezv,  vol.  clvi,  p.  27.] 
(Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.) 

McCooK,  J.  J. — Alarming  Proportion  of 
Venal  Voting.     [The  Forum,  vol.  xiv,  p. 


I.]  (The  Forum  Publishing  Co.,  New 
York.) 

McCooK,  J.  J.— Venal  Voting  Methods  and 
Remedies.  [The  Forum,  vol.  xiv,  p.  159.] 
(The  Forum  Publishing  Co.,  New  York.) 

NoRDHOFF,  Charles. — Politics  for  Young 
Americans.  (Harper  &  Brothers,  New 
York.) 

Satterthwaite,  L. — Independence  in  Poli- 
tics. [New  Englander,  vol.  Ivi,  p.  180.] 
(Wm.  L.  Kingsley,  New  Haven.) 

St.  John,  W.  P.— A  National  Platform  for 
the  American  Independents  of  1896.  [The 
Arena,  vol.  xvi,  p.  67.]  (The  Arena  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  New  York.) 

Tufts,  W.  W.— Defects  of  Patent  Ballot 
Boxes.  [The  Nation,  vol.  Ivii,  p.  155.] 
(The  Evening  Post  Pub.  Co.,  New  York.) 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 


Brainerd,  Cephas. — The  New-England  So- 
ciety Orations,  1820-1885.  (The  Century 
Co.,  New  York.) 

Campbell,  Douglas. — The  Puritans  in  Hol- 
land, England  and  America.  (Harper  & 
Brothers.  New  York.) 

Dow,  J.  G. — Puritans  and  Jews.  [Jezvish 
Quarterly,  vol.  iii,  p.  52.]  (D.  Nutt,  Lon- 
don.) 

Dutch,  Influence  in  America. — [Atlantic 
Monthly,  vol.  Ixx,  p.  698.]  (Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

Earle,  a.  M. — Puritanism,  Influence  on 
National  Character.  [Nineteenth  Century, 
vol.  xxxviii,  p.  312.]  (Leonard  Scott  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  New  York.) 


FiSKE,  John.— The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colo- 
nies in  America.  (Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.,  Boston.) 

FiSKE,  John. — The  Beginnings  of  New  Eng- 
land.    (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

Graves,  H. — The  Huguenots  in  New  Eng- 
land. [New  England  Magazine,  n.  s.,  vol. 
xi,  p.  497.]     (Warren  F.  Kellogg,  Boston.) 

HiGGiNSON,  Thomas  W. — The  Puritans  in 
New  England.  [Atlantic  Essays,  p.  189.] 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston.) 

Wendell,  B. — (Hiaracteristics  of  the  Puri- 
tans. [Harvard  Monthly,  vol.  xiv,  p.  45.] 
(Cambridge,  Mass.) 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


737 


TOPICAL  INDEX 

Ibol^  Dags 

NEW  YEAR'S  DAY 


PAGE 

Future,  The  Plea  of  the, 
— Henry  A.  Brown,...       9 

New  Year,  A  Greeting  to 
the,— J.  R.  Miller,  D.D.,      7 

New  Year,  A  Happy, — J. 
M.  Buckley,  D.D 8 

New  Year's  Day 3 

New  Year's  Day  in  the 
East, — Alcide  de  An- 
dria,    5 

New  Year's  Eve  and 
Day, — Alice  M.  Earle,.       3 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Future,  Discounting  the, 
— H.  C.  Potter,  D.D.,..     12 

Guide,  Our, — James 
Stalker,  D.D., 10 

Life.  The  Dimensions  of, 
— Phillips  Brooks, 
D.D 23 

Lot's  Choice  (To  Sunday 
School  Children), — 
John  Hall,  D.D., 18 

New  Year,  The, — Anony- 
mous      22 

New  Year  Themes  and 
Texts 24 

Oc^\jpy  Till  I  Come,— A. 
McLaren,    D.D., 18 

Opportunity,  The  Golden 
Gate  of,— G.  B.  F.  Hal- 
lock,  D.D 21 

To-Day,  —  Charles  F. 
Deems,   D.D.,   LL.D.,..     23 

Year  Also,  This,— C.  H. 
Spurgeon,  15 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 

Illustrations 

Action,  Pledge  of, 27 

Aim.  A  Christian, — C.  H. 

Spurgeon, 27 

Aim,  Effective 27 

Aim,  Effort  and, 28 

Aim,  Execution  and, 28 

Aim,      High, — G.      Mog- 

ridge,   28 

Aim,  Importance  of  Defi- 
nite,— Percy 28 

Aim,    Want    of,— W.    F. 

Crafts,     28 

Anxiety,  Prevention  of, — 

William  Jay, 28 

Aspiration,      Heavenly, — 

H.  W.  Beecher, 29 

Aspiration.    Universal, — 

H.  W.  Beecher, 29 


PAGE 

Beginning,  Delayed, — T. 
D.   Talmage, 29 

Beginning,  Evil, — ^John 
Flavel,     29 

Beginning,    Faulty, 29 

Beginning,  Good, — Poly- 
bius,  29 

Beginning,    Prayerful,...     29 

Brooding,  A  Remedy  for, 
— E.  N.  Westcott, 29 

Capacities,  Special, — R. 
W.    Emerson, 29 

Character,  Light  of, — 
Fowler,   30 

Children,  Treatment  of, 
— Kate  D.  Wiggin,. ...     30 

Christians,  Aim  of, — 
Cawdray,    30 

Concession,  The  First, — 
^sop 30 

Courtesy, — John  Lyly,   . ,     30 

Days, — Addison,    30 

Days, — R.  W.  Emerson,.     30 

Days,  Common, — Maltbie 
D.    Babcock,    D.D.,...     30 

Days,  Divine, — R.  W. 
Emerson,    30 

D  e  f  e  a  t, — F.  Marion 
Crawford,    30 

Disagreeable  Things, — 
Hunt,    30 

Doubt,  When  in, — Sam- 
uel Clemens 30 

Drudgery,  What  Men 
Call,— H.  W.  Long- 
fellow,         30 

Emulation,  Necessity  of,.     30 

Example, — M  a  d  a  m  e 
Anne  Sophie  Swet- 
chine,    31 

Faith  Cord,  The,— C.  H. 
Parkhurst.   D.D 31 

Foresight, — S  i  r  John 
Lubbock,     31 

Future,  Dodging  the,....     31 

Germany,  New  Year  in,.     31 

God,  The  Guidance  of, — 
Matthew   Henry, 31 

Groaning  and  Grum- 
bling       31 

Guidance, — A.  F.  Schauf- 
fler,    D.D., 31 

Guidance, — G.  A.  Chad- 
wick,    31 

Guidance,  —  Alexander 
McLaren,   D.D., 31 

Hope,  Benefit  of, — Bacon,     31 

Hope,  Refuge  i  n, — 
George   Eliot, 31 


PAGE 

Humor, — Washington  Ir- 
ving,       31 

Individual  Life 31 

Intentions,  B  i  b  1  i  c  a  1, — 

Bowes,   31 

Intentions,      Transient, — 

Warburton,    32 

January,  The  First  of, — 

Charles  Lamb, 32 

Japan,    New   Year's  Day 

in,  32 

Jesus,     Illustration     of 

Looking  to, 32 

Jesus,  Influence  of  Look- 
ing to 32 

Jewish  New  Year's  Day, 

The,   32 

Laugh,       A, — C  h  a  r  1  e  s 

Lamb,    33 

Life, — George  Eliot 33 

Life, — B  rander  Mat- 

thews,    33 

Life, — E.  Chester, 33 

Life,        Business        in, — 

Thomas    Carlyle, 23 

Life,   End  of, — Henry 

Drummond,  33 

Life,  Object  of,— J. Bail- 
lie,    33 

Luck, — C.  H.  Spurgeon,.  2$ 
Man,  The  Wise,— W.  E. 

Gladstone,    33 

Mark,    To    Hit    the,— H. 

W.  Longfellow, 33 

Maze,  In  the, 33 

Motive,        Want        of,— 

George   Eliot,    33 

New  Year  Brevities 22 

New    Year,    Facing    the, 

— Theodore   L.   Cuyler, 

D.D.,    33 

New  Year  Nonsense....  33 
New  Year  Thoughts....  34 
Nothing  Is  Ever  Lost...  34 
Past  and  Future, — Henry 

Kirk    White, 34 

Patterns,     Highest,— Til- 

lotson, 34 

Present,  The,— H.  W. 

Longfellow,     34 

Progress,  Alternative  of, 

— H.  W.  Beecher, 34 

Progress,  Conservative, — 

Bishop   Simpson, 34 

Progress,       Laws      of, — 

Goulburn 34 

Purpose,   Dominant, 34 

Purpose,  Emblem  of, — H. 

W.    Beecher, ,     35 


738 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


mew  YEAB'S  DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Purpose,  Execution  of, . .     35 

Purpose  in  Life, — 
Thomas   Carlyle, 35 

Purpose  in  Life, — Phil- 
lips Brooks 35 

Purpose,  Persevering, — 
T.  B.  Macaulay, 35 

Purpose,  Steadiness  of>, 
W.  M.  Punshon,  D.D.,.     35 

Right,  The  One  Inalien- 
able,— F  rederick  R. 
Marvin 35 

Sadness,   Birds  of 35 

Sin,  Beginning  of, — Al- 
sop 35 

Spirit  of  Man,  The, — 
Singletary,     35 

Sunset  in  Life,  The, — ' 
George  Macdonald 35 

Time, — Thomas  Carlyle,.     36 

Time, — H.  W.  Longfel- 
lowr 36 

Time,  The  Calculation  of, 
— C.  An 36 

Time,  Well  Disposed, — 
Bishop  Home, 36 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  Ad- 
vice of, 36 

Wisdom    36 

Wishing, — George  Eliot,.     36 

World,  A  Topsy-turvy, — 
Anon.,   36 

Year,  The, — Lucy  Lar- 
com,  36 

Poetry 

Annus  Mirabilis, — Edith 
M.    Thomas, 36 

Bless  the  Year, — Mary 
D.    Brine, 36 

Century,  The  Cry  of  the 
New,    40 

Chance,  The  Main, — 
Samuel  Butler 36 

Christ.  The  World  for, 
(A  New  Year  Rallying 
Song) — Fanny  Crosby,     40 

Day,  The  New, — Susan 
Coolidge,    36 

Death,  Expect  but  Fear 
not, — Quarles, 36 

Deeds,   The   Power  of,.  .     36 

Destiny,  In  the  Fields 
of, — Raphael,     37 

Development,  M  a  n's, — 
Alfred    Tennyson 37 

Duty,  M  a  n's,— E.  B. 
Browning 37 

Eternity, — Thomas  Car- 
lyle,         37 

Experience    37 

Farther  On, — Helen  Boy- 
den,  40 

Future,  The, — Henry  Je- 
rome   Stockard, 41 

Future,  T  h  e,— O.  W. 
Holmes,    37 


PAGE 

Future,  Trust  in  the, — J. 
G.    Whittier 41 

Gradatim, — J.  G.  Holland,    41 

Height,  Man's,— H.  W. 
Longfellow,   37 

He  Knows, — Mary  G. 
Brainard,    41 

Hope   37 

Hours,  The  Precious, — 
G.    Morison 37 

January,  The  W  hi  t  e 
Flowers  of  (New 
Year's  Hymn)— Will- 
iam   Sharp,    42 

Life, — Philip  J.  Bailey,. . .     42 

L  i  f  e's  Journey, — Chris- 
tina G.   Rossetti, 37 

Life's  Way,  On, — Charles 

F.  Deems, 37 

Life,  The  Last  of, — E.  B. 

Browning 37 

Life,    Twofold. — Pope,...     37 

Losses  and  Crosses,— 
Robert    Burns 37 

Move,  All  Things,— Al- 
fred   Tennyson, 37 

New,  The,— Helen  Hunt 
Jackson,    37 

New  Year  as  Peace- 
make  r, — Frank  Wal- 
cott  Hutt 45 

New  Year  Dawn,  The, — 
Louise  C.  Moulton, ...     43 

New     Yea  r's,     1900, — 

E.  S.  Martin, 43 

New  Year's  Eve, — Alfred 

Tennyson, 44 

New  Year's  Eve 44 

New    Year's    Eve, — Mrs. 

Charles  F.  Thomas,..  43 
New    Year's    Meditation, 

A,  42 

New  Year's  Mine,  The, — 

Amos   R.   Wells, 44 

New     Year's   Morning, — 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson,. .  42 
New  Year's  Prayer,  A,..  45 
New  Year's  Prayer,  A, — 

John  Hall,  D.D 46 

New     Year's     Reminder, 

A,— Mary  F.  Butts 44 

New    Year,    The, — Mary 

G.  Brainard 37 

New  Year,  The, — Horatio 

Nelson  Powers 37 

New  Year,  The, — Chris- 
tina G.   Rossetti, 38 

New  Year,  The, — Celia 
Thaxter,   42 

New  Year,  The, — Mrs. 
M.  A.  Kidde 43 

New  Year,  The, — Rev.  C. 

F.  M'Kown 43 

New  Year.  The  Door  of 

the, — Lucy    Larcom, ...     44 
New     Year,     Uncertainty 
of  the, — William   Cow- 
per,    45 


PAGE 

Old  Year,  The,  and 
Young  Year, — Nora 
Perry,    47 

Opportunity,  —  Edward 
Rowland  Sill, 45 

Opportunity,  —  Mabel 
Earle,     45 

Opportunity, — Rev.  Ben- 
jamin   Copeland, 45 

Plans,    God's, 38 

Power,  Human, — Phoebe 
Gary,   38 

Present,  Past,  and  Fu- 
ture,— Schiller 38 

Present,  Past,  and  Fu- 
ture,— Martial,    38 

Problem,  The  Common, 
— Robert  Browning,...     38 

Reward,  Life's, — Charles 
Kingsley,    38 

Smile,  The  Test  of  a, — 
Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,.     38 

Sonnet  LXIV,— William 
Shakespeare,    46 

Strength  and  Weak- 
ness,— Madame  Anne 
Sophie    S  wet  chine 38 

Teach  Me  Thy  Way, — 
Marianne  Farmingham,     46 

Thought,  New  Year, — 
Julia  C.  R.  Dorr, 38 

Threshold  of  the  New 
Year 44 

Time, — Pittacus,    38 

Time, — 'Shakespeare,    ....     38 

Time, — Lewis  J.  Bates,..     38 

Time  and  Tide, — Will- 
iam Somerville, 38 

Time's  Glory, — Shakes- 
peare,         38 

Time,  The  Accepted 46 

Time,  The  Flight  of, — 
Thomas  Love  Peacock,     38 

Time,  The  Flight  of, — 
Campbell 38 

Time,  The  Flight  of, — 
Southwell,    38 

Time,  The  Flood  of, — 
Shelley 39 

Time,  The  Greatness  of, 
— George    Eliot 39 

Time,  The  Hand  of, — H. 
W.   Longfellow, 39 

Time,  the  Host, — Shakes- 
peare,       39 

Time,  The  Lack  of, — 
Henry  Taylor 39 

Time,  The  River  of, — 
Benjamin  F.   Taylor,..     39 

Time,  The  Tread  of, — 
Young 39 

Time,  The  Value  of, — 
Earl   of  Chesterfield,. .     39 

Time,  The  Waters  of, — 
Shelley 39 

Time,  The  Wheel  of., — 
Charles  Cowden 
Clarke,    39 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


739 


NEW   YEAR'S   DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Time,  The  Work  of, — 
Swift,   39 

To-days  and  Yesterdays, 
Our,— H.  W.  Longfel- 
low,         39 

Truth  and  Falsehood, — 
J.  G.  Whittier 39 

Voices,  The  Three 46 

Work,  God-appointed, — 
Jean    Ingelow, 39 


Ecumenical  Conference, 
1900,  Extracts  from 
Addresses  before  the,.     56 

Ecumenical  Conference 
on  Foreign  Missions, 
1900,    The, 54 

Epiphany    48 

Evangelization,  Outlook 
for  the  World's, — Rev. 
J.  A.  Graham, 48 

Gospel,  The  Transform- 
ing Power  of  the, — Ar- 
thur T.   Pierson,  D.D.,     51 

Missions,  The  Finger  of 
God  in  Modern, — Ar- 
thur T.  Pierson,  D.D.,.     49 

Opportunities,  Present 
Obstacles  and,  1898. ...     52 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Doeth  Wondrous  Things, 
Who  Only, — S  i  d  n  e  y 
Dickinson,    D.D d"] 

Epiphany,  The  Festival 
of.— H.    Melvill,    D.D.,    70 

Food  of  the  World,  The, 
— Alexander  McLaren, 
D.D., 69 

Gerasa,  The  Demoniac 
of,  Type  of  Heathen- 
ism      69 

Giving  and  Doing  for  the 
Lord,— F.  N.  Peloubet, 
D.D., 66 

Great  Commission.  The, 
— F.  N.  Peloubet,  D.D.,    68 

Harvest  and  the  Labor- 
ers, The, — F.  N.  Pelou- 
bet, D.D., 67 

Missionary  Duty  of  the 
Church,  The, — F.  N. 
Peloubet,    D.D., 69 

Missionary  Field,  The, — 
R.   S.    Storrs,   D.D.,...     59 

Missionary  Idea.  The, 
C.  H.  Fowler,  D.D.,...     61 


Christ's      Last      Words: 

"  It  Is  Finished," 81 

Lenten  Thoughts 80 

Sermons   and   Outlines 
Apostolic  Service  and 


PAGE 

World,  All's  Right  with 
the, — Robert  Brown- 
ing      39 

World  Treasures, — R.  L. 
Stevenson,    39 

Year  is  Dawning,  An- 
other,        40 

Years,  The  Eternal, — 
Frederick  Faber,  D.D.,    47 

EPIPHANY 

Missions,  The  Principle 
of  Christian, — A.  J.  F. 

Behrends,    D.D., d^t 

Souls,  The  Winner  of,..     67 
World,     The     Light     of 
the,— F.     D.     Maurice, 
D.D.,    70 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Angels,  Ministry  of, — 
Professor      Austin 

Phelps,    71 

Church,  The  Light  of  the,  71 
Epiphany,    The    Festival 

of  the,— H.  P.  Liddon,.  71 

God,  One  and 71 

Heathen,    The    Right    of 

the,     71 

Jews,  The  King  of  the,. .  72 

Magi,  The  Gifts  of  the,. .  72 

Missionary  Consecration.  "^2 

Missionary   Influence....  72 

Missionary  Sermons  ....  ^2 

Missionary    Spirit 72 

Missionary  Work.  Mod- 
ern, The  Facilities 

for 72 

Missionary,   Zeal   of  a,..  ^2 

Missions   and   Science...  72 

Missions,  Basis  for, 72 

Missions,   Era  of, -jj, 

Missions,    Gold    for,....  ']2> 

Missions,   Love   for, "jT) 

Missions,  Martyrs  of,.  . . .  yj, 

Missions,   Mystery  of,...  "jj) 
Missions,  Official  Tribute 

to,    y^, 

Missions  Pay  Financial- 
ly? Do, 'jz 

Missions,   Providence 

and,    74 

Missions,  Result  of  Love 

,  for,    74 

Missions,   The    Spirit   of, 

—Max  Muller,   74 

LENT 

Temptation,  —  Joseph 

Parker,   D.D., 90 

Ash   Wednesday, — E.   M. 

A. 88 

Christ's  Personal  Virtue, 

The    Trial    of,— S.    E. 

Herrick,   D.D.,    82 


page 

Years,  The  Flight  of, — 
Alexander  Pope, 39 

Years,  The  Friend  of, — 
James  G.  Clarke, 39 

Year,  The  Building  of 
t  h  e, — Frank  Walcott 
Hutt,    46 

Year,  The  Next,— Lil- 
lian Knapp, 39 


Moravian  Brotherhood, 
The, — Dean   Farrar, ...     74 

Nations,  The  Oneness  of 
the, — B  i  s  h  o  p  West- 
cott,    74 

Sermon,  Outline  for  a 
Missionary,    75 

Star  in  the  East,  The,— 
F.  N.  Peloubet,  D.D.,.     75 

Testimony,  More,  Con- 
c  e  r  n  i  n  g  Missions, — 
Lord  Harris 75 

Tradition,  A  Beautiful,— 
Ellicott, -j^i 

World,  The  Light  of  the, 
—Prof.    Tyndall, 76 

Xavier,    Francis, 76 

Poetry 

Christ  for  the  World,— 
S.     Wolcott, 76 

Christ's  D  o  m  i  n  i  o  n, — 
Isaac   Watts,    77 

Epiphany,  Attendants  of 
the, — Ephraim  Syrus,  .     76 

Epiphany  Hymn, — Aure- 
lius  Clemens  Pruden- 
tins,    77 

Epiphany,  T  h  e, — Fred- 
erick  W.  Kitter- 
master,    y-j 

Kings.  The  Three,— F. 
W.   Faber,   D.D 78 

Light,  Let  There  be, — 
John   Marriott 78 

Missionary  Convocation, 
— W.  B.  Collyer, 79 

Missionaries,  —  William 
Bingham  Tappan, 79 

Missions,  Home, — Will- 
iam C.  Bryant 79 

Righteousness,  Sun  of, — 
W.    Williams 79 

Wise  Men,  Song  of  the, 
— David  Vedder, 78 


Fast  Day,  —  Phillips 
Brooks.  D.D., 89 

Fasting,  The  Purpose  of, 
— W.    C.    Smith, 89 

Lent  80 

Lent,  Rev.  E.  P.  Cache- 
maille,   88 


740 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


PAGE 

Revival,  The  True  Meth- 
od of  Securing  a, — 
Frederick  Wagstaff , . . .     91 

Self-renunciation  the 
Law  of  Self-preserva- 
tion.— Joseph  Roberts, 
D.D.,    85 

Spiritual  Life,  Meditation 
Essential  to  the  De- 
velopment of, — A.  E. 
Kittredge,   D.D., 90 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Christ's  Fast  and  Morti- 
fication, —  Archbishop 

Trench,   92 

Christ's  Fast  Our  Ex- 
ample,—W.  H.  Mill,..     92 

Conflict  92 

Days,  Forty, — Archbishop 

Trench,  92 

Devil,  Craftiness  of  the,.  92 
Devil,  Persistency  of  the,  93 
Earth,  Inheriting  the,...  93 
Ember  and  Rogation 

Days    93 

Fasting   93 

Fasting  and  Self-Control, 
~W.  C.  E.  Newbolt, 
•D.D.,    93 


IiENT  —  Continued 

PAGE 

Fasting  as  an  Act  of  Obe- 
dience,—E.    B.    Pusey, 

D.D.,    93 

Fasting,  Benefits  of, — 

Bishop    Kip, 93 

Fasting,    True, 94 

Fasts.   Church, 94 

Life,  The  Austerity  of,— 

Ian  Maclaren, 94 

Self-mortification,        Ne- 
cessity of, — George 

Body,     94 

Sin     is     against     God, — 

Archbishop    Magee,  ...     94 
Sin  Man's  Great  Enemy, 

—P.  G.  Medd, 95 

Suffering    95 

Temptation 95 

Temptation     and     Afflic- 
tion         95 

Temptation  and  Holiness  95 
Temptation  and  Prayer.  95 
Temptation  Follows 

Graces 95 

Temptation  the  Road  to 

Glory 95 

Temptation,     The     Safe 
Course  in, — R.  I.  Bud- 

ington 96 

Temptation,      To      Live 

Without,     96 

Tempter,   The, 96 


PAGE 

Ulysses     and     the     En- 
chanted  Isle 96 

Poetry 

Ash     Wednesday, — ^John 
Keble, 96 

Deer,      The     Stricken, — 

William  Cowper, 97 

Fast,     A     True, — Robert 

Herrick,    98 

Fasting,        Acceptable, — 

Francis   Quarles, 97 

Lent,— F.  W.  Faber,....  98 
Lenten    Fasting, — George 

Herbert,    97 

Lent,  The  Second  Sun- 
day in, — John  Keble, . .  98 
Lent,  The  True,— W.  M. 

Punshon,    99 

Pain  to  Pain,  From, — F. 

W.    Faber, 99 

Repentance,    —    Charles 

Mackay,    . 99 

Repentance  and  Faith, — 

Rev.  W.  Alexander,  . .     99 

Selections,  A  Few, 100 

Temptation  of  Adam  by 

Eve, — John  Milton, 100 

Trials,  Through, — Rosen- 

garten,  100 

World,  Renouncing  the, — 

Jane  Taylor, loi 


Holy  Week 102 

Palm  Sunday 102 

Sermons   and  Outlines 

Christ  is  King,— Charles 
F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  no 

Christ  Our  King in 

Christ's  Coronation  Pro- 
cession, The  Com- 
mencement  of, 108 

Christ's  Entrance  into 
Jerusalem, — J.  C.  Hare, 
D.D.,    109 

Christ's  Entry  into  Jeru- 
salem     no 

Contrasts,  Three, — A.  F. 
Schauffler,    D.D 108 

Edom?  Who  Is  This 
That  Cometh  from, — 
Phillips  Brooks,  D.D.,.    107 

Jesus,  The  King, — J. 
Vaughan,   D.D., in 

King,  The  Glory  of  the, 
— Alexander  McLaren, 
D.D.,    105 

Palms,  The  Day  of, — - 
Rev.  George  Hodges, 
D.D.,  LL.D., 103 


PALM  SUNDAY 

Throne  and  the  Rainbow, 
The,— C.  S.  Robinson, 
D.D.,   112 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Christ,  The  Coming  of,..   113 
Christ,  The  Enthroned, — 

Burdett  Hart _ 113 

Christ,    The    Enthusiasm 

for,  113 

End,    The    Beginning   of 

the,  113 

Entry,     A    Triumphal, — 

A.  F.  Schauffler.  D.D.,.   113 
Garments  in  the  Way. — 
Dr.  Edward  Robinson,  114 

Jesus,  The  King 114 

Jesus  the  Prince  of  Peace  114 
Jesus,  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
— Prof.   Frederick   Go- 

det,  114 

Messiah,    Jesus    Presents 

Himself  as  the 114 

Palm  Tree.  Use  of  the,.  .   114 
Peace,  The  Prince  of,...   115 
Pompey's   Triumph......   115 

Procession,  The  Invisi- 
ble,—F.  N.  Peloubet, 
D.D.,    ns 


Procession,  The  Tri- 
umphal,— ^James  Mori- 
son 115 

Queen,  Only  One, 115 

Raleigh   and   the   Queen, 

— James  Morison,    ....   115 
Sorrow  Over  Those  Who 
Refused  to  Join  in  the 

Triumph  115 

Triumph  of  Jesus,  The,. .   116 
Vision,  The  Present, — A. 
F.  Schauffler,  D.D.,  ...   116 

Poetry 

Alleluia, — Robert  Robin- 
son,    no 

Hymn,  A  New, — S.  F. 
Smith 117 

Jesus    Reigns, — T.    Kelly,  117 

Jesus,  The  Name  of, — 
Caroline  M.  Noel 116 

Kingdom   Come,  Thy,...   117 

King,  The,— Mary  F. 
Butts 117 

Lord  Is  King,  The, — 
Charles  Wesley,. 117 

Palm  Branches, — Theo- 
dore T.  Barker, 118 

Seraphs,  The  Song  of  the, 
— Matthew  Bridges,...    118 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


741 


PAGE 

Communion    Sunday 119 

Lord's  Supper,  The, — 
Prof.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.D.,  120 

Sermons   and  Outlines 

Communion,  Desire  for, 
— T.  D.  Witherspoon, 
D.D., 130 

Communion  Table,  At 
the, — H.    Lyman, 128 

Last  Supper,  Preparation 
for  the, — Stephen  H. 
Tyng,  Sr.,  D.D., 120 

Lord's  Supper,  The;  A 
Declaratory  R  i  t  e, — 
Alexander  McLaren, 
D.D.,    125 

Lord's  Supper,  The, — 
Rev.  Charles  A.  Sav- 
age,        121 

Lord's  Supper,  The;  A 
Eucharist, — Rev.  David 
Gregg,    123 

Sacramental  Cup,  The, — 
Rev.  T.  A.  Nelson,  D.D.,  130 

Sacrament,  The  Impor- 
tance of  the, — Charles 
F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,   129 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Atonement,  The  Infinite,  131 


Cross  of  Jesus  Christ, 
Exalt      the, — Theodore 

L.    Cuyler,   D.D., 140 

Cross,    The, — Charles    F. 

Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D.,...  141 
Cross,  The  Death  of  the,.   139 

Crucified  One,  The, 139 

Good    Friday, 138 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Atonement,  Th  e, — 
Dwight  L.   Moody 151 

Cross,  Groups  at  the ;  and 
Why  They  Were 
There,— Rev.  William 
N.    Pile 153 

Cross  of  Christ,  Pre-emi- 
nent Glory  of  the 155 

Cross,  The  Title  on  the,.   154 

Cross,  The  Voice  of  the, 
— Amory  H.  Bradford, 
D.D.,    142 

Crucifixion,  The, — F.  W. 
Farrar,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,. .   145 

Death,  The  Loneliness  in, 
— C.  J.  Vaughan,  D.D.,  152 

Good  Friday,  The  First, 
— P  h  i  1 1  i  p  s  Brooks, 
D.D.,    149 

Lamb  of  God,  The, — 
John  Hall,  D.D., I55 


COMMUNION    SUNDAY 

page 

Bread,   The    Living, 131 

Christ,  On  the  Body  of,.  131 
Communion,      Conditions 

of    Acceptable, 132 

Communion,  D  i  v  i  n  e, — 

Bowes,     132 

Communion,  Sacramen- 
tal,— Macharness, 132 

Communion,     Spirit    and 

Substance    of, 132 

Lord's    Supper,   Above, — 

C  J.  Tuthill,  D.D......   132 

Lord's     Supper,     Import 

of    the, 133 

Lord's  Supper,  Memorial, 

— John    Flavel, 133 

Lord's       Supper,       Real 

Presence   in   the, 133 

Lord's    Supper,    Title    in 

the, — John  Flavel, 133 

Lord's  Supper,  Typical,.  133 
Remembrance      of      Me, 

In,     133 

Sacrament,  Reconciliation 

before  the, 133 

Salvation,  The  Cup  of,..   133 

Poetry 

Bread  of  Heaven, — ^Josiah 
Conder,     134 

GOOD  FRIDAY 

Unbelief,  Man's,— H. 
Bonar,  D.D., 153 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Atonement,  Accepting 
the, — John  Flavel, 156 

Atonement,  Appropriat- 
ing the, — John  Flavel,.   156 

Atonement  by  the  Cross, 
— Evelyn,    156 

Atonement,  Effects  of 
the, — Walker,    156 

Atonement,    Idea    of,....   157 

Atonement,  Illustrating 
the, — A.  A.  Bonar, 157 

Atonement,  Jewish  Cus- 
tom  of, 157 

Atonement,  Need  of,....   157 

Atonement,  Objection  to 
the, — Dr.    Thomas, 158 

Atonement,   Pagan 158 

Atonement,  Voluntary, — 
John   Flavel,    158 

Blood,  Accusing, — ^John 
Flavel,     158 

Blood,  Cleansing, — Dr. 
Guthrie,    158 

Blood  of  Christ,  a  Mys- 
tery,       158 


PAGE 

Bread  of  the  World,— 
Reginald    Heber, 134 

Brother,  Closer  Than  a, 
— J.    Newton, 134 

Communion  Hymn, — 
Johann  Frank, 134 

Cross,  Before  the, — ^J. 
Allen,     135 

Grateful  and  Tender  Re- 
membrance,— Rev.  Ge- 
rard  Thomas    Noel,...   135 

Heart,  Take  My, 135 

Jesus  All  in  All,— Ray 
Palmer,    D.D 135 

Lamb's  High  Feast,  The, 
— Robert    Campbell,...   135 

Last  Supper,  Hymn  of 
the, — John   Pierpont,  .  .   136 

Last  Supper,  The, — 
Robert   Hall   Baynes,. .   136 

Sacrament,  T  h  e, — Ar- 
thur Cleveland  Coxe, 
D.D..    136 

Supper  Instituted,  The, — 
Isaac   Watts, 136 

Supper  of  Thanksgiving, 
The, — Horatius    Bonar,  137 

Table,  At  the,— Isaac 
Watts,    136 

Till  I  Come,— E.  H.  Bick- 
ersteth,    134 


Blood  of  Christ,  Com- 
fort  from   the, 158 

Blood  of  Christ,  Equality 
of  the, — Moody,   158 

Blood  of  Christ,  Experi- 
ence   of    the, 159 

Blood  of  Christ,  Hope  in 
the,   159 

Blood  of  Christ,  Medi- 
tating Upon  the, 
— Brooks,  159 

Blood  of  Christ, 
Preached, — Moody,    ...   159 

Blood  of  Christ,  Relying 
on    the, 159 

Blood.   Purifying  by 158 

Christ,  Death  of,— Rous- 
seau,    160 

Cross,  Apparition  of  the,  160 

Cross,  Christ  on  the, 160 

Cross,  Clinging  to  the, — 
Guthrie, 160 

Cross,  Glory  of  the, — 
M'Laurin 160 

Cross,  Glory  of  the, 161 

Cross,  Index  of  the, — 
Dr.     Curry, 161 

Cross,  Legend  of  the,...   161 

Cross,  Might  of  the, — 
Hare,    161 


742 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


PAGE 

Cross,    Our    Only    Hope 

in  the, i6i 

Cross,  Our  Sins  on  the, — 

Byfield,    i6i 

Cross,  Power  of  the,....   i6i 
Cross,    Predominance    of 

the,   i6i 

Cross,  Refuge  of  the, . . .   162 
Cross.  Resting  upon  the, 

— G.  Gilfillan 162 

Cross,   Soldiers  of  the,. .   162 
Cross,   Taking   up   the,..   162 

Cross,   The 162 

Cross,  The  Key  of  Para- 
dise,— Secke,    162 

Cross,     The     Pathos     of 
the,  —  Charles      F. 
Deems.  D.D.,  LL.D.,. .   162 
Cross,  Traces  of  the,....   162 
Cross,   Victory   of  the, — 

Ryle,    163 

Cross,  Wo  of  the, — Brad- 
ford,    163 

Crucifixion,  Application 
of   the, 163 

Easter  168 

Easter  and  the  Greek 
Church  in  St.  Peters- 
burg,— Gideon  Draper, 
D.D.,    172 

Easter  in  Jerusalem,  An, 
—J.   L.   Leeper,   D.D.,.   169 

Easter  in  the  Early 
Church    168 

Easter  in  the  Early 
Church    169 

Resurrection  of  Christ  a 
Fundamental  Doctrine, 
The, — B  e  n  j  a  m  i  n  B. 
Warfield,  D.D.,  LL.D.,.   174 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

An  Unrisen  Christ, — 
Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  187 

Christ  Risen?  Has,— 
Rev.  Canon  Liddon, 
D.D.,    182 

Christ's  Resurrection  the 
Promise  and  Prophecy 
of  Our  Own, — T.  De- 
witt  Talmage,   D.D 191 

Christ's  Resurrection  the 
Type  of  Ours, — Rev.  F. 
B.    Meyer, 191 

Easter,— S.  S.  Mitchell, 
D.D.,    177 

Immortality,  —  Phillips 
Brooks.    D.D., 194 

Lilies  of  the  Field,  Con- 
s  i  d  e  r  t  h  e, — Charles 
Kingsley,    190 


GOOD    FBIDAY  —  Continued 

PAGE 

Crucifixion,  Cruelty  of, 
— Fontenelle,   163 

Crucifixion,  Impressing 
the, 163 

Crucifixion,  P  r  e  -  e  m  i- 
nence  of  the, — Ryle, . . .  163 

Death  Prophesied,  The, — 
J.   Rawlinson,    163 

Flowers,  Never  Wither- 
ing,     163 

Gethsemane  Is  as  Para- 
dise,— Dean    Farrar,...   164 

Guilt,  Transfer  of, 164 

Jesus,  Blood  of, — Faber,.   164 

Redemption,  Light  of, — ' 
Coley, 164 

Redemption,  Ownership 
by,— William  McAllis- 
ter,      164 

Redemption,  Prefigured, 
— Beecher,    164 

Poetry 

Atonement  and  Death,^ 
Archibald  Lampman,..  165 

EASTEB 

Resurrection,  Science  and 
the 193 

Resurrection  Study,  A,..   195 

Resurrection  Thoughts 
and  Outlines  192 

Risen  Life,  The,— Rt. 
Rev.  F.  D.  Hunting- 
ton,   D.D., 195 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Anesthetic,   Death   an,...   196 
Christ,    Resurrection    of, 

— Bowes 196 

Christ,     Risen     with, — T. 

L.   Cuyler,   D.D., 196 

Ear-Month,  The, 196 

Easter,     197 

Easter, — Lyman     Abbott, 

D.D 197 

Easter,  Gloriou  s, — 

Bishop    Warren, 197 

Easter,  The  Coming, 197 

Eggs,     The     Origin     of 

Easter,    197 

Grave,    The   Three   Days 

in  the 197 

Hope,     Prisoners    of, — J. 

E.    Holden,   D.D., 198 

Iridescence    of    Decay, — 

Pallette,     198 

Jesus  Christ,  Resurrec- 
tion    Life     of, — David 

Gregg.  D.D 198 

Jesus,  The  Resurrection  of,  198 
Resurrection,    Figures   of 
the, — Thomas    Guthrie, 
D.D.,    199 


PAGE 

Calvary 165 

Calvary,— Mrs.  C.  F.  Al- 
exander,        165 

Cross  and  Crown 165 

Cross,  Under  the, — Hora- 
tius  Bonar,  D.D., 165 

Crucifixion,  Agony  of 
the, — C.  P.  Layard,....   166 

Crucifixion,  Cause  of  the, 
— James  Montgomery,.   166 

Crucifixion,  Miracles  at 
the, — Reginald  Heber, 
D.D,    166 

Crucifixion,  Mystery  of 
the, — R  ay  Palmer, 
D.D.,    166 

Crucifixion,  The, — ^John 
G.    Whittier, 166 

Gethsemane, — ^J  o  h  n  B. 
Douglas,     167 

Gethsemane,  —  Ella 
Wheeler  Wilcox, 167 

Good  Friday,  A  Hymn 
for,    167 

Who  Is  He?— Henry 
Hart  Milman,  D.D.,...  167 


Resurrection     Flower, 

The,   199 

Resurrection  of  Christ  . .  199 
Resurrection,    The, — Sel- 

by, 199 

Resurrection,  T  h  e,— T. 
D.   Talmage,   D.D......   199 

Resurrection,    The, 199 

Resurrection,  The, — Ca- 
non   Liddon, 200 

Resurrection,  The  Chris- 
tian Risen  with  Christ,  199 

Selections,    Various, 200 

Sepulcher,  Woman  at 
the, — Charles  H.  Spur- 
geon,    200 

Poetry 

Bird,  Like  a, — Victor 
Hugo,     200 

Cato's  Soliloquy  on  Im- 
mortality,— ^Joseph  Ad- 
dison,    205 

Easter, — Mary  Clarke 
Huntington,  201 

E  a  s  t  e  r, — M  r  s.  E.  C. 
Whitney,    201 

Easter, — George  T.  Pack- 
ard  201 

Easter  Answer,  The, — 
W.    F.    Warren 200 

Easter  Awakening,  An,. .  202 

Easter,  A  White. — Jessie 
F.    O'Donnell 202 

Easter,  Beautiful. — Har- 
riet McEwen  Kimball,.  203 

Easter  Day. — ^John  Keble, 
D.D.,    203 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


743 


PAGE 

Easter  Flowers 203 

Easter  Hymn  of  Athens, 
— Hezekiah  Butter- 
worth,    204 

Easter  Lilies, — Mabel 
Earle 205 

Easter  Lilies, — Mary  A. 
Denison 204 

Easter  Lilies,  Like, — 
Emma  C.  Dowd, 200 

Easter  Mor  n,— J.  R. 
Lowell,    200 

Easter  Morning, — Phil- 
lips Brooks,  D.D., 205 

Easter  Morning,  For, — 
Louise  C.  Moulton, 205 


Newspaper,  The  Sun- 
day,— Herrick  Johnson, 
D.D.,    215 

Sabbath?  How  Shall  I 
Spend  the, — Dwight  L. 
Moody,    212 

Sabbath.  The  Christian,.  214 

Sabbath,  The  Defense  of 
the,— John  Hall.  D.D., 
LL.D.,   210 

Sunday  209 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Lord's  Day  Is  Kept  by 
Christians,  Why  the, 
— R  eese  F.  Alsop, 
D.D 217 

Sabbath  Duties.— G.  D. 
Boardman,  D.D.,   221 

Sabbath   Question,   The,.  222 

Sabbath,  The, — Howard 
Crosby,    D.D., 220 

Sabbath,  The, — Charles 
F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  221 

Sabbath,  The  Early:  A 
Type  of  the  Heavenly, 
— John  Cairns,  D.D.,..  223 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Beer,  The  Great  Sab- 
bath   Breaker 223 

Desecration,  Process  of 
Sabbath,    224 

Labor  in  Austria, — J.  B. 
Davison,     224 

Labor,   Sunday  Railroad,  224 

Newspapers,  The  Bane 
of  Sunday, — C.  E.  Jef- 
ferson,      224 

Ascension  Day,   233 

Ascension  of  Our  Lord, 

The 235 

Christ's  Coronation  Day, 

— Rev.  Talmage  Root,.  234 


EASTEB.  —  Continued 

page 
Easter     Thanksgiving, 

Margaret  E.   Sangster.,  205 
Holy  Morn,  The, — Edwin 
Forrest    Hallenbeck, . . .  206 

Immortality  200 

Immortality,  —  D.        M. 

Mulock 200 

Immortality,  —  Matthew 

Arnold 200 

Joy  Cometh  in  the  Morn- 
ing,— Annie  L.  Muzzey,  206 
Joy  Cometh  in  the  Morn- 
ing,— Ada  M.  Shaw...  206 
Last,  At, — Helen  Hunt,..  200 
Man,   The   Good, — James 
Montgomery,    201 

SUNDAY 

Sabbath  and  Freedom, 
The,    224 

Sabbath  Breaker,  Fate  of 
the,  225 

Sabbath  Breaker,  Heaven 
of  t  h  e,  —  R.  M. 
M'Cheyne 225 

Sabbath  Breaking,  Ef- 
fects of.— T.  D.  Tal- 
mage,   D.D., 225 

Sabbath  Breaking,  Legend 
of,     225 

Sabbath-day,  Sloth  and 
Trifling 225 

Sabbath  Descration, — 
Cardinal   Gibbons, 225 

Sabbath,  Desecration  of 
the, — Wayland, 225 

Sabbath,  Emblem  of  the, 
— Charles  Reade 226 

Sabbath  Is  Challenged  to 
Prove  Its  Value,  The 
American    226 

Sabbath  Is,  Where  No, — 
Dwight,     226 

Sabbath-keeping  Nations.  226 

Sabbath  Keeping  Pays...  226 

Sabbath  Rest,  Saving,...  227 

Sabbath  Sunshine, — Na- 
thaniel   Hawthorne 227 

Sabbath,  The, — Rev.  G. 
W.  M.  Rigor, 227 

Sabbath,  The  Last, — 
Gumming 227 

Sabbath  Views 226 

Silence,  —  Edward  Gar- 
rett,      227 

Sunday,  Carrying, — T.  D. 
Talmage,    D.D.,    ; 227 

Sunday,  The  Puritan, — 
Senator  Frye 227 

ASCENSION   DAY 

Sermons  and  Outlines 
Ascension    Day, — J.    Os- 
wald Dykes.    D.D., 245 

Ascension  Day  a  Festival 
of   Faith 241 


page 

Outside  and  In, — Charles 
F.  Deems,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  207 

Resurrection, — Donne    . .  201 

Resurrection, — M.  A.  De 
Wolf  Howe,  Jr., 207 

Resurrection,  Man's, — 
Young,    201 

Resurrection,    The, 207 

Riddle,  T  h  e, — Louise 
Imogen  Guiney, 207 

Risen  With  Christ, —E. 
H.    Miller, 201 

The  Power  of  an  End- 
less Life, — Alfred  Ten- 
nyson,  201 

Tired, — Newell  Lovejoy,.  208 


Sunday,    Typology    of, — 

A.    Jukes, 227 

Sunday,  Using, — Banyan,  227 

War  and  Sunday 227 

Warning,  A, 228 

Week,  The  Best  Day  of 
the,  228 

Poetry 

Contrition,  A  Nation's, — 

Margaret  J.  Preston,..  228 
First-day         Thoughts, — 

John  G.  Whittier, 232 

Rest, — Johann   Wolfgang 

von  Goethe, 228 

Rest,      The      Day     of, — 

George  Klingle,    229 

Sabbath  Bells,  The,— 

Charles  Lamb, 229 

Sabbath       E  v  e  n  i  n  g,— 

George  D.  Prentice,...  229 
Sabbath     Hymn,     A, — O. 

E.  Roberts, 229 

Sabbath  Morn,— N.  F.  S. 

Grundtvig 229 

Sabbath    Morning,    The 

Sepulcher       o  n, — 

Thomas     Hastings, 

D.D 231. 

Sabbath,    The,— Rev. 

Henry  Ostram,  230 

Sabbath,      The, — Edward 

Bulwer,   Lord  Lytton,.  230 

Selections,    Various, 230 

Sunday, — James     Edmes- 

ton,     232 

Sunday  Morning  Bells, — 

Dinah  M.  M.  Craik,.  .  228 
Sundays,  —   Henry 

Vaughan,  D.D.,   231 


Ascension  Day  and  Pen- 
tecost,— Prof.  George 
H.  Schodde,  Ph.D......  241 

Ascension  Day,  Sermon 
Sketches  on  Lesson  for,  242 


744 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


ASCENSION  DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Ascension,  Lessons  from 
the,    243 

Ascension,  The 242 

Ascension,  The, — Rev.  C. 
O.  Eldridge, 244 

Ascension,  The  Lesson  of 
Our  Lords, — H.  Kern, 
D.D.,    235 

Christ,  The  Ascended, — 
Charles  F.  Deems, 
D.D.,  LL.D., 237 

Christ,  The  Last  Beati- 
tude of  the  Ascended, 
— A.  McLaren,  247 

Lord,  Our  Ascended,....  246 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Ascension,  Chris  t's, — 
John  Flavel  247 

Ascension  Day, — ^J.  B. 
Mozley,     247 

Ascension,   Difficulties  of 

the,— W.  Bright,  ....  248 
Ascension,   Effect  of  the, 

— H.    Melvill 248 

Ascension,  Fable  of,....  248 
Ascension,      Lessons      of 

the.— Bishop       J.        F. 

Westcott,    D.D., 248 

Ascension,    Need    of 

Christ's, — John    Flavel,  248 

Ascension,  The 248 

Bethany,    The    Place    of 

Christ's       Ascension, — 

W.  M.  Punshon,  D.D.,  249 
Christ    Ascended,    As    a 

Sun  of  Righteousness,.  249 
Christ  Ascended,  Why, — 

S.  A.  Tipple,  D.D......  249 

Christ  Ascended,  Why,..  249 


Holy  Spirit,  The  Litera- 
ture of  the  Office  and 
Work  of  the,— Rev.  D. 
N.  Beach,  261 

Pentecostal  Times, — Rev. 
William  M.  Davis,....  259 

Whitsunday,    258 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Baptism  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  The,   265 

Holy  Ghost,  The,— Jo- 
seph   Parker,    D.D.,...  267 

Pentecostal  Blessings, 
— R  e  V.  D  e  k  a  n  W. 
Pressel,    264 

Pentecostal  Feast,  The, 
— Rev.  Henry  Smith. .  .  266 

Pentecostal    Sermon,    St.  -^ 
Peter's, — Bishop     Har- 
vey Goodwin,    266 


PACa 

Christ  Ascended,  Why, 
— W.  Pulsford,  D.D.,..  249 

Christ  Ascended,   Why,..  249 

Christ,  Ascension  of, 
Biblical, — Bowes,   250 

Christ,   Ascension   of,....  250 

Christ,  Ascension  of, — R. 
S.    Barrett 250 

Christ,  Ascension  of, — 
Malcolm  McCall, 251 

Christ.  Ascension  of, — 
Thomas  Arnold 251 

Christ,  Ascension  of 
Elijah  and  of, — Baum- 
garten 251 

Christ,  Body,  The.  of  the 
Ascended. — W.   Furse,.  251 

Christ,  Exaltation  of, — 
Arnot,     251 

Christ,  Gift  of  the  As- 
cended, —  Charles  H. 
Spurgeon,    251 

Christ  in  Heaven,  The 
Ascended. — J.  H.  New- 
man,   D.D 252 

Christ  in  the  Cloud 252 

Christ  Is  Doing,  What 
the  Ascended,   252 

Christ  Our  Advocate, 
The  Ascended, — J.  W. 
Alexander,  D.D.,   252 

Christ  Our  Intercessor, 
The  Ascended, — ^J.  R. 
Miller,  D.D 252 

Christ  Our  Intercessor, 
The  Ascended, — Henry 
B.   Smith,  D.D 252 

Christ,  Presence  of  the 
Ascended, — A.    Ainger,  253 

Christ,  Seeing  the  As- 
cended,— R.  S.  Barrett,  253 

WHITSUNDAY 

Pentecost,  Faith  of, — C. 
J.  Vaughan,  D.D., 267 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Baptism,  Pentecostal,  and 

Seclusion,     268 

Christianity   268 

Church,  Contributing  for  a,  26 
Holy    Spirit,    Agency    of 

the 269 

Holy  Spirit,  Biblical 269 

Holy  Spirit  of  God-  The,  269 
Holy  Spirit's  Work,  Con- 
viction of  Sin,  The,...   269 

Holy   Spirit.  The 270 

Holy    Spirit.   The 270 

Pentecost,  The  Christian,  270 
Pentecost,    The    Day    of, 
— Francis     L.      Patton, 

D.D..  LL.D 270 

Spirit  of  God,— Flavel. .  270 


page 
C  h  r  i  s  t's      Gift  s, — T. 

Brooks,    251 

Christ    Works    for    Man, 

How  the  Ascended,...  253 
Conduct,  Relation  of  the 
Ascended    Lord    to 
Dailv, — F.  D.   Maurice, 
D.D.,    253 

Poetry 

Ascension  Day,  The, — 
John  Keble,  D.D., 253 

Ascension  Hymn, — The 
Venerable   Bede,    257 

Ascension,  The, — Charles 
Wesley,    254 

Ascension,  The, — Chris- 
topher Wordsworth,   .  .   254 

Gazing  Up,  —  Rev. 
Charles   Wesley,    257 

G  1  o  r  y's  Kin  g, — R  e  v. 
Charles  Wesley,   255 

Hail  the  Day,— Rev. 
Charles  Wesley,  255 

He  Is  Gone,— Arthur  P. 
Stanley,    D.D.,    255 

He  Is  Gone  and  We  Re- 
main,— Arthur  P.  Stan- 
ley,   D.D.,    256 

Lamb,  Worthy  the, — 
James    Allen,    256 

Light,  Beginning  in, — 
Rev.  Matthew  Bridges,  256 

Lord,  The  Ascended, — 
Thomas  Kelly,  D.D.,..  254 

Savior,  The  Ascended, — 
Charles  Coffin 255 

Soul  Ascending  with 
Christ,  The, — Caroline 
May,    255 


Spirit,  Witness  of  the,. .  270 
Spirit,  Witness  of  the,..  270 
Truth,  The  Spirit  of, — A. 
P.   L.,    270 

Poetry 

Church,  The,— John 

Stone,     271 

Holy    Spirit,    Descent    of 

the,— John  Keble,  D.D.,  271 
Holy  Spirit,  Gift  of  the, 

— Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gill.  272 
Holy      Spirit,      Grieving 

the, — ^Georsre  Herliert.  272 
Holy  Spirit  Guide, — 

John  Milton 272 

Holy  Spirit.   Influence  of 

the, — Rev.  John  Mason  272 
Holy     Spirit,     Litany     to 

the, — Rev.  R.  Herrick,  272 
Holy     Spirit,     Offices    of 

the, — John  Hay 27;^ 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


745 


WHITSUNDAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Holy  Spirit,  Power  of 
the, — Harriet    Auber,..  273 

Holy  Spirit,  Prayer  to 
the,   273 

Holy  Spirit,  River  of  the, 
— William    Hurn,    273 


Children's  Day,  Origin 
and  Development  of, — 
James  A.  Worden^ 
D.D.,    275 

Children's  Day  Sugges- 
tions,      276 

Children's  Service,  The,.  281 

Statistics,  S.  S.,  of  All 
Countries 282 

Sunday  School  Teaching, 
Improved  Methods  of, 
— Ellen  Kenyon  War- 
ner,    280 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Anecdotes,  A  Few 288 

Children's  Service 286 

Lilies  Teach  Us,  What 
the,— Rev.        W.        H. 

Booth,   D.D., 286 

Maid,   The  Little 285 

Palace,  The  Strong 
Man's,— Rev.  S.  Win- 
chester   Adriance 288 

Wisdom,  Finding, — Jo- 
seph Parker,  D.D......  283 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Boy,    A    Converted, 290 

Boy,  Heroic, 290 

Boys  and  Mothers 290 

Boys,    Danger   to, 290 

Childhood    290 

Trinity  Sunday, 299 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Believing  on  the  Son,  The 
Importance  of, 311 

Trinitarian  Prayers,  Our, 
(i) — Robert  Balgarnie, 
D.D. 300 

Trinitarian  Prayers,  Our, 
(2) — Robert  Balgarnie, 
D.D.,    302 

Trinities,  The, — Fred- 
erick D.  Power,  D.D.,.  304 

Trinity  Sunday, — Bishop 
Brooke  F.  Westcott, 
D.D. 312 

Trinity,  The, — John  A. 
Broadus,  D.D. 308 


PAGE 

Holy  Spirit,  Temples  of 
the, — Charles  Jenner,..  273 

Lead  Kindly  Light, — 
John  H.  Newman,  D.D.  273 

People  of  God,  The, — 
James  Montgomery,...  271 

CHILDREN'S   DAY 

Children,  Putting  Stum- 
bling    Blocks     in     the 

Way    of, 291 

Children's  Age,  The,....  291 

Children,    Save   the 291 

Children's  Questions, 

How   to   Answer, 291 

Children,  Taking  Care  of 

the,     291 

Children,  The  Faith  of,.  292 
Children     to     Look    Up, 

Teach  the 292 

Child's  Analysis  of  Mo- 
tive, A, 292 

Convert,    A    Young, 292 

Examples,  A   Few, 292 

Girl's   Gift,   A  Little 293 

Rajah,  A  Thoughtful,...  292 
Strawberries,  The  First,.  293 
Sunday- School,    Faithful 

to  the,   293 

Sunday-School,  Recom- 
mendation of  the 293 

Sunday-Schools,  Advan- 
tage of,   294 

Sunday-Schools,  A  Trib- 
ute to,   294 

Sunday- Schools,    Mission 

of,     294 

Tongues,  Velvet,   294 

Poetry 

Childhood,  Beauty  of, — 
N.   P.   Willis, 295 

TRINITY  SUNDAY 

Trinity,  The,  the  Source 
of  Grace  and  Peace,...  311 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Divinity,    Proofs    Which 

Our  Lord  Gave  of  His,  313 
Father,   God   Our  Heav- 
enly,     313 

Father,  God  the, 313 

God  Is  Light 313 

God,  Son  of 313 

God,  The  Fatherhood  of,  314 

God,  The  Infinite, 314 

God,  The  Name, 314 

God,  The  Nature  of, 314 

Jesus  Christ  Lord  of  All, 
Revealed  Truth  Pro- 
claims,     314 


page 
Selections,  Various,  ....  271 
Spirit's  Hour,  The, — Rev. 

John  Ward  Stimson,. .  274 
Veni  Sancte  Spiritus, — F. 

W.   Faber,  D.D., 274 

Whitsunday, — J.  Keble,  .  274 


Childhood,  Crown  of, . . .  295 

Children, — H.  W.  Long- 
fellow,       295 

Children,  Blessing  Upon, 
—James  Grahame,  ....  295 

Children,  Example  for, — 
Rev.    Charles   Wesley,.  295 

Children's  Day,  Well 
May  the  Church  Keep, 
— G  e  o  r  g  e  Edward 
Martin,    297 

Children's  Hour,  The, — 
H.   W.   Longfellow....  294 

Children's  Sunday, 
Hymn  for,  —  Anony- 
mous,       296 

Children's  Voices,  Hark 
to  the, — George  Ed- 
ward Martin, 296 

Farewell,  A,— Charles 
Kingsley,    295 

Greeting  Song,— Laura 
E.   Newell, 296 

Hymn,    Ancient, 297 

Jerusalem, — George  Ed- 
ward   Martin, 297 

Story,  The  Sweet, — Mrs. 
J.  Luke, 298 

Sunbeam  Band, — Laura 
E.   Newell 297 

Way  He  Should  Go,  In 
the, — Reginald  Heber, 
D.D.,    298 

W  e  a  r  i  n  e  s  s, — H.  W. 
Longfellow,   295 


Trinity,  Derivation  of,...  314 

Trinity,  Glory  to  the, 314 

Trinity,  Incomprehensi- 
bility of  the, 314 

Trinity  in  Unity,  The,...  314 

Trinity,   Names  of, 314 

Trinity,  Symbol  of  the,..  314 
Trinity,       Understanding 

the,     315 

Trinity,  Unity  of  the,...  315 
Triune  God,  The, 315 

Poetry 

Clover  Leaf,  To  a, — 
Eliza  Atkins  Stone,...  315 

God,  Ode  to,— G.  R. 
Derzhavin,   315 


746 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


TRINITY  SUNDAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

God's  Glory,  —  Oliver 
Wendell   Holmes,    316 

Love,  Herein  is, — Fred- 
erick W.  Faber,  D.D.,.  316 

Spirit,  Eternal,  —  Rev. 
William   H.   Bathurst,.  317 

Te  Deum  Laudamus, — 
Clarence  Augustus 
Walworth,    317 

Three  in  One — Rev.  Gil- 
bert Rorison,    317 

All  Saints'  Day, 320 

Immortality,  The  Glories 
of, — Alexander  Carson,  320 


Sermons  and  Outlines 

Death,    Precious, — A.    C. 

Dixon,   D.   D., 322 

Death,    The    First    Five 

Minutes    after, — Henry 

P.  Liddon,  D.D., 330 

Heaven,    Recognition    of 

Our  Friends  in, — J.  W. 

Chapman,    D.D., 323 

Palms  and  Robes,  The, — 
T.  DeWitt  Talmage, 
D.D 327 

Redemption  of  the  Body, 
The, — F.  D.  Maurice, 
D.D., 331 

State,  The  Intermediate, 
— J.  H.  Newman,  D.D.,  331 

Tears,  No  More, 332 


People,  For  All  the, 344 

Thanksgiving    Day 340 

Thanksgiving,  —  James 
M.  Ludlow,  D.D., 346 

Thanksgiving  in  Amer- 
ica, The  First, — Henry 
Austin 341 

Thanksgiving  Memories 
and  Habits,  —  William 
Adams,    D.D 347 

Thanksgiving  Proclama- 
tion. First  National,...  343 

Thanksgiving  Thoughts, 
— E.   S.  Martin, 344 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Country,  Our, — J.  P. 
Newman,    D.D. 353 

Home  Gathering,  The, — 
William  Adams,  D.D.,.   361 

Mercies, — Rev.  E.  Mel- 
lor 363 

Open  Door,  God's  Provi- 
dence and  the, 362 


PAGE 

Thrice  Holy, — Christo- 
pher Wordsworth, 317 

Trinity  Adored,  The, — 
Rev.  James  Wallis 
Eastburn,    317 

Trinity,  Analogies  of  the, 
— M.  F.  Tupper, 318 

Trinity,  Blest, — Hervey 
D.    Ganse,    D.D., 318 

Trinity  Hymn, — Edward 
Cooper,    318 

ALL   SAINTS'   DAY 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Death,  Beautiful 332 

Death,   Happiness  after,.  332 

Death  Is  Gain 332 

Death  of  Little  Nell 332 

Death  of  Little  Paul 333 

Death   the   Entrance  into 

Life    333 

Heaven        and         Earth 

Bridged    333 

Heaven   and   Earth,   The 

Things    in, 333 

Heaven  a  Place 333 

Heaven,  Doctrine  of 333 

Heaven,    Names    Written 

^  in.   •  •  •  • 334 

Heaven  Our  Home 334 

Heaven,  Preparation  for,  334 
Joy,  Eternal, 334 

Poetry 

City  of  Rest,  The,— 
James  Buckham, 337 

THANKSGIVING  DAY 

Owe  No  Man  Anything, 
— Henry  C.  Potter, 
D.D., 357 

Thanksgiving    361 

Thanksgiving,  A  Five- 
fold   360 

Thanksgiving  and 
Thanksliving, — Rev.  E. 
J.    Banks 363 

Thanksgiving  Themes 
and    Outlines, 364 

World,  Making  Our 
Own,— Maltbie  D.  Bab- 
cock,  D.D., 350 

Suggestive    Thoughts     and 
Illustrations 

Baskets,  The  Two, 368 

Blessedness    368 

Blessings,    Private, 368 

Blessings,    Vicarious 368 

Blessing,  The  Perspective 

of 368 

Content  and  Discontent. .  368 


page 

Trinity,  Hymn  to  the, — 
William  C.  Doane, 
D.D.,   318 

Trinity  Sunday, — John 
Keble,    D.D., 318 

Trinity,  The  Blessed, — 
Reginald    Heber,   D.D.,  319 

Trisagion, — James  Mont- 
gomery,       319 

Triune  God,  The, — 
Horatius  Bonar,  D.D.,,  319 


Companioned,  —  Lilian 
Whiting    334 

Dead,  The,  —  Richard 
Henry  Stoddard, 334 

Departed,  The  Silence  of 
the, — Joel  S  w  a  r  t  z, 
D.D.,    338 

End,  At  the, — Danske 
Dandridge,     334 

Gone,  Thou  Art, — Regi- 
nald Heber,  D.D., 339 

Good-night, — May  Chris- 
tie,      335 

Heaven, — F.  W.  Faber, 
D.D.,    335 

Heaven, — Thomas  Mac- 
Kellar,     335 

Heaven,  In, — Bell  Stuart,  336 

Heaven,  To  Some  in, — 
Will   Carleton 336 

Life  Beyond,  The, — S. 
F.   Smith,  D.D., 33; 

Loved  Not  Lost,  The,— 
John  Greenleaf  Whit- 
tier,    337 

River,   Over  the, 338 


Contrast,   A   Historic,...  368 

Grateful   Man,   The, 369 

Gratitude    369 

Heart,  The  Thankful,...  369 
Religion,  A  Phase  of,...  369 

Thankfulness    369 

Thankfulness,  Christian,.  369 
Thankfulness,       Emblem 

of.     369 

Thankfulness  To  Be  De- 
clared      3C0 

Thankful,     Not     Brutish 

but 369 

Thanks  Are  Due,  Where,  369 

Thanksgiving    369 

Thanksgiving    369 

Thanksgiving    270 

Thanksgiving  Crescendo.  370 
Thanksgiving  Day  Medi- 
tation    370 

Thanksgiving  Dinner,  An 

Old,    371 

Thanksgiving,  Enter  His 
Gates    with, 741 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


747 


THANKSGIVING  DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Thanksgiving.  Public,...  371 
Thanksgiving,         Reason 

for, 371 

Thanksgiving  Service...  371 
Thanksgiving  Themes...  372 
Thanksgiving  Thoughts  .  372 
Trouble    372 

Poetry 

Canticle,  A  Harvest, — 
Theron  Brown, 272) 

Content,  In  Glad, — Frank 
L.  Stanton, 27i 

Corn,  Five  Kernels  of, — 
Hezekiah    Butterworth,  272> 

November's  Gift, — Emma 
C.   Dowd, 374 

People  Praise  Him,  All 
the,— Will   Carleton,...   374 

Thankful  Time,  A  Song 
of  the, — Rose  Hartwick 
Thorpe 375 

Thanks  be  to  God, — 
Frances  Ridley  Haver- 
gal,   374 

Advent    381 

Advent,  The  Second, — > 
Sir  John  William  Daw- 
son,   LL.D 383 

Second  Coming,  Christ's, 
—John  Hall,  D.D., 
LL.D.,   382 

Sermons  and  Outlines 

Advent,  Christ's  Second, 
— H.  Melvill,  D.D......  388 

Advent  Season,  A 
Blessed, — Pastor  Her- 
mann   Kunze 385 

Advent,  The  Problem 
About,— F.  D.  Mau- 
rice,  D.D., 389 

Books  Opened,  The, — 
Rev.  A.  G.  Houghton,.   392 

Christian's  Position  and 
Duty,  The,— H.  A.  C 
Y.,     391 

Coming,  Faith  at  Our 
Lord's, — Howard  Cros- 
by, D.D., 389 

Future.  How  to  Provide 
for  the, — Rev.  Charles 
Cross 388 

Lord,  The  Day  of  the, — 
Rev.  S.  A.  Brooke 390 

Night  and  Day,— H.  L. 
S.  E 391 

Second  Ciming  of  Christ, 
Preparation  for  the, — ■ 
H.  P.  Liddon,  D.D.,...  392 


page 
Thanks  for  Sorrows  and 

Joys, — Will  Carleton,..  374 
Thanks,     Give, — Carlotta 

Perry, 375 

Thanks,  Giving, — Eliza- 
beth  Ford  Condit 375 

Thanksgiving, — Mrs.      L. 

B.   Hall, 376 

Thanksgiving    376 

Thanksgiving,   —    Hattie 

Whitney 376 

Thanksgiving,     —     Paul 

Lawrence  Dunbar 376 

Thanksgiving,    —    Zoeth 

Howland 376 

Thanksgiving, — Mary     F. 

Butts,     376 

Thanksgiving, — J.    Zitella 

Cocke, 376 

Thanksgiving, —  William 

Lambie,   277 

Thanksgiving,      —     Joel 

Benton,    377 

Thanksgiving, — Mrs.     M. 

E.  Leonhardt, 377 

ADVENT 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Advent,  Christ's  Second,.  393 

Advent,  Expected, 393 

Advent,  Faith  in  the,. . .  .  394 
Advent,  Glory  of  the,. . . .  394 

Advent,  Joy  at  the, 394 

Advent,  Looking  for  the.  394 
Advent,  Prayers  for  the,.  394 
Advent,  The  Second,....  394 
Advent,  The  Second,....  395 
Advent,  Welcoming  the,.  395 
Christ  to  Judge  the 
World,      The      Second 

Coming  of 395 

Duty,    Faithful    to 395 

Freedom,  Watching  for,.  395 
Judgment  Day  Appeal  to 

the,     395 

Judgment    Day,    Awards 

of   the,    396 

Judgment  Day,  Certainty 

of   the, 396 

Judgment  Day,  Dis- 
closures   of    the, 396 

Judgment  Day,  Discours- 
ing on   the, 396 

Judgment  Day,  Univer- 
sal,      396 

Judgment,       Indifference 

to  the,   396 

Judgment,  Lesson  of  the,  396 
Judgment,  Prejudice  in,.  396 
Judgment,  Sinner  at  the  397 
Judgment,   Slighting  the,  396 


PAGE 

Thanksgiving,  A  Song 
of,  —  Helen  Whitney 
Clark, 379 

Thanksgiving,  A  Song 
of. — Clinton    Scollard,.  378 

Thanksgiving  Day,  A 
Psalm  Meet  for,— 
Henry  Van   Dyke 378 

Thanksgiving  Day, — Su- 
san   Coolidge 2)77 

Thanksgiving  Hymn,  A 
Sacramental,  —  T.  M. 
Niven,    378 

Thanksgiving,  Nature's, 
— J.  H.  Bomberger 379 

Thanksgiving  Reunion, — 
Charles  Sprague, 379 

Thanksgiving,  The  Heri- 
tage of, — George  T. 
Packard 38a 

Thanksgiving  to  God,  A, 
— Rev.  Robert  Herrick,  38O' 

Thanks,  In  Everything 
Give, — ^J,  Zitella  Cocke,  375 


Judgment,  Storm  of,....  396- 
Judgment,     The    World- 
ling   at    the, 397 

World,  Destruction  of 
the,     397 

Poetry 

Advent,  Approaching, — 
Horatius  Bonar,  D.D.,.  398 

Advent  Hymn, — F.  B.  D.,  399 

Advent,  Prayer  for  the, — 
Horatius   Bonar,    D.D.,  399 

Advents,  Two, — William 
C.  Doane,  D.D., 400 

Advent,  Suddenness  of 
the,— H.  H.  Milman, 
D.D.,    397 

Advent,  The  First  Sun- 
day in, — John  Keble, 
D.D.,    399 

Advent,  Waiting  for  the 
Second.  —  Anonymous,  398 

Coming  of  the  King,  The, 
— Susan    Coolidge 401 

Dies  Irae,  Tr.  by  William 
J.   Irons,   D.D., 401 

Jesus,  The  Voice  of 401 

Judgment,  The, — Martin 
Luther 401 

Lord,  Come  to  us, — Mar- 
garet E.  Sangster, 402 

Pentecost,  The  New,— 
William  E.  Barton 40a 

Return,  Our  Lord's, — • 
Rev.  A.  N.  Raven,....  40Z 


748 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


PAGE 

Christmas 403 

Christmas  at  Bethlehem, 
— Cunningham  Geikie, 
D.D.,    404 

Christmas  Customs, 
Queer,  408 

Christmas  Customs  the 
World  Aroun  d, — 
Will    M.    Clemens, 407 

Christmas,  Historic  and 
Legendary,     403 

Christmas  in  Constanti- 
nople,— Cyrus  Hamlin, 
D.D.,     406 

Noel,— Mrs.  A.  M.  Gardi- 
ner,       409 

Sermons 

Advent,  The  Time,  Man- 
ner and  Purpose  of 
Christ's,— William     M. 

Taylor,    D.D., 418 

Chimes,   T  h  e,— David 

James  Burrell,   D.D.,..  410 
Christ    Concealing, — J. 

Fleming, 425 

Christmas,— James  Gib- 
bons,  D.D.,    413 

Christmas  and  Oriental 
Scenes, — H.  B.  Tris- 
tram, D.D.,    415 

Christmas      Babe,      The 

Mother    of   the, 413 

Christmas  Day  Principle, 

A 415 

Christmas?  Where  was 
Christ      before, — David 

Gregg,  D.D 411 

Christ,  The  Song  of  the 
Angels  at  the  Birth  of, 
— Matthew        Simpson, 

D.D.,    ....  427 

God  With  Us,— Wayland 

Hoyt,  D.D 424 

Magi  Expected  Christ, 
Why    The.— James 

Mulcahey,  D.D.,  423 

Orient    Are,    We    Three 

Kings         of,  —  David 

James   Burrell,   D.D.,..  416 

Season    of    Peace,    The, 

—Robert     S.     MacAr- 

thur,    D.D.,    426 

Shepherds  of  Judea,  The, 


Century,  The  Nineteenth, 

— N.   Y.   Times, 438 

Old   Year   Day 438 

Year.  The  Dying,— Alex- 
ander   Macaulay, 442 

Sermons   and   Outlines 
Doxology,  A  Midnight,— 
Rev.  C.  J.  Greenwood,  447 


CHEISTMAS  DAY 

PAGE 

—Charles     H.     Hall, 
D.D.,    426 

Word  Amongst  Us,  The, 
— Alexander   Maclaren,  428 

Word,  T  h  e,— F.  D. 
Maurice,  D.D.,    428 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 
Illustrations 

Advent,  Lessons  of  the,. .  429 

Angel's  Chorus,  The, 429 

Bethlehem    429 

Christ    Appeared    on 

Earth     429 

Christ,  Birthday  of, 429 

Christ,  Birth  of, 429 

Christmas     429 

Christmas  and  Brother- 
hood    429 

Christmas  and  Missions.  430 
Christmas    and    Mother- 
hood      430 

Christmas      Custom,      A 

Beautiful,    430 

Christmas  Homily,  A,...  430 

Christmas    Joy 430 

Christmas  Messages 430 

Christmas,   Real    Lessons 

of,  431 

Christmas    Stand    for 

Pleasure,  Let,  431 

Christmas,    The    Twelve 

Days  of 431 

Christ's    Nativity 431 

Day,  The  Sun  of  a  Better,  431 

Dwelt  Among  Us 431 

Gift,  The  Divine  Christ- 
mas.   ■■.......,._ 432 

t-rivmg  and  Receivmg  . . .  432 
Heart,    The    Message    to 

the  Blind  in 432 

Incarnate  Word,  The,...  432 
Incarnation,  Mystery  of,.  432 

Poetry 

Bells,   Christmas, 432 

BetWehem    432 

Bethlehem        Exalted,"— 

Edwin   Arnold 432 

B  e  t  hi  e  h  e  m,  O  Little 
Town      o  f,— Phillips 

Brooks,  D.D., 434 

Child  is  Born,  Unto  Us  a,  432 
Christ   Came,   How, 433 


OLD  YEAR  DAY 

Old   Year  and  the  New, 
Thoughts   for  the,— H. 

R-,    41:0 

Old  Year,  The  Last  Days 

of  the.— H.  R 449 

Sermons  and  Outlines...  443 
Stewardship.     Our, — Ray 

Palmer,     D.D.,     448 

Time,    Redeeming    the, — 

H.  L.  S.  E., 449 


PAGE 

Christ  is  Coming  Down, 
Little, —  Harriet  F. 
Blodgett,  435 

Christmas  Carol,— Phil- 
lips Brooks,  D.D., 435 

Christmas      Carol,      A, 

Dinah  Maria  Mulo'ck 
(Craik),    435 

Christmas  Comes  but 
Once  a  Year 433 

Christmas  Day,  Blessed,— 
Charles  Kingsley,  D.D.,  435 

Christmas    Eternal 433 

Christmas    Joys 433 

Christmas  Peal,  The,— 
Harriet  P.  Spofford. . .  435 

Christmas    Roses,— R     J 

Christmas      Song,      A,— 

Florence  E.  Pratt,.  . .'. .  436 
Christmas   Spectrum, 

The.— Amos   R.   Wells.  436 
Christmas       Tree,       The 

World, "%^3 

Courage,    Take,    433 

Day  Dawn  of  the  Heart.  4^^ 
^°/Vr  the  King f/ 

•jod.   Glory  to, ^-^^ 

God,   Glory  to, a-i^ 

God  Rest  You....  ""  4^:; 
Holy  Month.  The.— j.  'k 

Hoyt, .^y 

Man  Divine,  The,...  '  1/^ 
Mary     in     the      Cave,— 

Louise  D.  Goldsberry,.  4^7 
Mistletoe,    The,    .  H{ 

Month,  The,    Vx 

Prince  of  Peace,  The,. .  lH 
Salvation  Tidings  ....  433 
Savior,  The  Presence  of 

the,     -, . 

Season,  The  Fuif,!!!!!'  434 
Season,    The  Joyous,....  434 

Shepherds'    Singng 434 

Sin,  Ihe  Price  of, 4  J 

Sleep,  Holy  Babe ^34 

Songs  Raise  on  High 4^4 

Spheres,   The  Crystal,...  434 

Star-Beams    437 

Star,      Following     the, 

Florence  E.  Weatherly,  436 
Star  in  the  East,  The,— 

Anonymous 4-J7 

Watchers      That      Fear, 

The,— Frank  W.  Hutt,  437 


Year,  The  Close  of  the, 
—Henry  Alford,   D.D.,  451 

Yesterday  and  To-mor- 
row,—N.D.  Hillis,  D.D.  443 

Suggestive    Thoughts    and 

Illustrations 
Beginning,      Time     of,— 
F-   I-'    451 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


749 


OLD  YEAR  DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Book    of    Life,    Enrolled 
in  the, — D.  L.  Moody,.  451 

Book    of    Life,    Example 
of  the, — Selected 452 

Book  of  Life.  Legend  of 
the,— F.    IL,    452 

Childhood,  Second, — B.  J.  452 

Conversion,  Late, — David 
Thomas.    D.D.,    452 

Days      That      are      Past, 
The,— P.    T 452 

End    of    a    Thing, — Rev. 
John    Foster,    452 

Future,    The, — C.    A.,    . .  453 

Goodness,      Perseverance 
in, — Spencer 453 

Life,    A    Delusion    of, — 
Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher,  . .  453 

Things,      Fleeting, — Ara- 
bian,       453 

Time, — Joseph   Addison,.  453 

Time. — S  i  r      Thomas 
Browne,    453 

Time      a      Destroyer,' — • 
Paulding, 453 

Time  Closing  in  upon  Us, 
— Alexander  Maclaren,  453 

Time,    End    of, — F.    I.,..  453 

Time,      Flight     of, — Ma- 
dame de  Gasparin,  ....  453 

Time,    Fragments    of, — J. 
Stoughton,     454 

Time,  Improvement  of, — 
F-   I-.    454 

Time,      Influencing, — W. 
F.   Steele,   454 

Time, Irrecoverable, — F.I.  454 

Time,   Loss  of, — F.I.,...  454 

Time,    Neglected, — Spen- 
cer,     454 

Time,    Never   Recovered, 
— Mrs.  Sigourney,   ....  454 

Time,    No    L  e  i  s  u  r  e, — 
Scraggs,    454 

Time,    Picture    of, — Bur- 
gess,     454 


PAGE 

Time,    Redeeming    the, — 

Rev.  Thomas  Fuller,..  454 
Time,  Saving, — F.  I......  454 

Time,    The    Flight    of,— 

H.  R., 454 

Time,    The    Treasure, — 

Samuel  Johnson,   455 

Time,      Treasuring, — S. 

Coley,    455 

Time,  Trifling  with.— F.I.  455 
Time,  Unnoted, — Rev.  L. 

Gaussen,     455 

Time,  Used, — Knowles,.  455 
Time,      Use      o  f,— ;J. 

Stoughton,    4c;5 

Time,  Value  of, — F.  I.,..  455 
Time,  Waste  of.— Bates,  455 
Time,    Worth    of — Fene- 

lon,  456 

Year,    Old    and    New, — 

C.  G 456 

Year,  The  End  and  Open- 
ing of  a.— A.   S.  Gum- 

bart,   D.D., 456 

Year,  Wail  of  the  Dying, 
-F.    II., ^  456 

Poetry 

Century,  Ending  of  the 
Eighteenth, —  Theodore 
Dwight,  LL.D., 458 

Days,  The  Lost, — Susan 
Coolidge 458 

If, — Ellwood    Roberts,...  458 

Inn,  The, — James  B.  Ken- 
yon,    458 

Key,  The  Lost, — Priscilla 
Leonard,   456 

Life, — E.  C.  Stedman,...  456 

Life,  —  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly 456 

Life,  The  Gauge  of, — G. 
T.,     459 

Life,  The  True, — Tenny- 
son,       456 


PAGE 

Obituary,    An, — C  u  r  t  i  s 

May,    459 

Old   Year,— W.    H.    Bur- 
leigh,      461 

Old  Year,  Death  of  the, 

— M.  C.  C, 459 

Old  Year,  Death  of  the, 

— Alfred    Tennyson,...  461 
Old  Year,  Good-by  to  the, 

— Jennie   E.   Gates, 459 

Old     Year,     The,— Lotta 

Miller,     46a 

Remember, — G  race     E. 

Channing 460 

Service,    The    Glory    of, 

— John  G.  Whittier 460 

Thanksgiving,  — John  G. 

Whittier, 457 

Time. — Owen    Meredith,.  457 
Time, — Joaquin  Miller.  . .  457 

Time, — Milton,    457 

Time, — Edward  Moore,..  457 

Time, — Owen,   457 

Time, — Parnell,    457 

Time, — T.  L.  Peacock...  457 
Time, — H.    W.    Longfel- 
low,      457 

Time, — Omar  Khayyam,.  457 
Time, — Sir    Walter     Ra- 

^.leigh,    457 

Tmie, — C  h  r  i  s  t  i  n  a    G. 

Rossetti,    457 

Time, — Schiller,    457 

Time, — Dryden,    457 

Time, — Austin  Dobson,..  457 
Years,  The, — J.  R.  Low- 
ell,      457 

Years,    The    Last    of   An 
Hundred,  —  Emma    H. 

Weed 460 

Year.    The,— Rev.    C.    H. 

Spurgeon 458 

Year,       The       Flying, — 

Christian   Burke,    458 

Year,    The    Going, — Mrs. 
Emma   F.   Anderson,..  458 


Holidays,    Legal,    in    the 
United      Kingdom     of 


Lincoln.  Abraham,  Mem- 
orabilia  of, 467 

Lincoln's  Birthday 467 

Historical 

Lincoln  and  Douglas, — 
Edson  C.  Daylon 470 

Lincoln's,  Abraham, 
Early  Years, — Charles 
Carleton  Coffin, 468 


Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, and  in  Canada,. .  466 

LINCOLN'S    BIRTHDAY 

Lincoln's  Foster-Mother, 
— Rev.  G.  G.  Hepburn,  469 

Lincoln's  Murder,  A 
Realistic  Account  of, — 
General    Hamlin, 471 

Addresses 

Lincoln,  Abraham, — 
Emilio  Castelar, 472 

Lincoln,  A  b  r  a  h  a  m, — 
George  H.  Smythe,  Jr.,  473 


Holidays. 
United 


Legal,   in   the 
States, 465 


Lincoln's  Character,  Se- 
lections from  Ad- 
dresses  on,    473 

Lincoln,  The  Assassina- 
tion of, — Lord  Bea- 
consfield,  472 

Sermons 

Lincoln.  Abraham,  The 
Religious  Character  of, 
— B.   B.  Tyler.   D.D.,.  .  47Q 


750 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


LINCOLN'S   BIBTHDAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Lincoln  as  a  Typical 
American,  —  Phillips 
Brooks,  D.D.,   475 

Lincoln,  Effect  of  the 
Death  of,  —  Henry- 
Ward  Beecher,  D.D.,..  477 

Suggestive  Thoughts 

Anecdote,  An, 482 

Camp,  Lincoln  in, 483 

Freedom's  Memorial....  483 
Freedom's  Memorial. . . .  483 
Lincoln   483 


Lincoln  and  the  Biljle. . . .  484 

Lincoln's   Fight 484 

Work,   One's,   484 

Poetry 

Cenotaph,  The, — James 
T.   Mackay,    485 

Lincoln,  Funeral  of, — 
Richard  Henry  Stod- 
dard  487 

Lincoln,  —  Maurice 
Thompson,  485 

Lincoln,  —  John  Vance 
Cheney,   485 


PAGE 

Lincoln,    Abraham, — Joel 

Benton,    484 

Lincoln,     A  b  r  a  h  a  m, — 

Florence  Evelyn  Pratt,  485 
Lincoln,     Abraham, — 

Stuart  Sterne,   485 

Lincoln,      A  b  r  a  h  a  m, — 

James  Russell  Lowrell,.  486 
Proclamation,        T  h  e, — 

John  G.  Whittier,....  486 
Spirit      of      Mortal      Be 

Proud?     Why     Should 

the, — William  Knox,..  487 
Warfare,    The     Moral, — 

John    G.    Whittier,....  486 


Washington's    Birthday,.  489 
Washington's     Birthday : 
Early      Celebrations, — 
Frank   W.    Crane, 490 

Historical 

English  Tombs  of  the 
Sires  of  America's 
First  President,  At  the, 
— Wilbor   F.   Steele,...  502 

Washington,  Character- 
istics   of,     495 

Washington,  Death  of, — 
J.  E.   Rankin,   LL.D.,..   502 

Washington,  George,  En- 
tombment of,  —  Will 
Carleton,     504 

Washington,  Memorabilia 
of, — H.  B.  Carring- 
ton,  493 

Washington,  Providential 
Events  in  the  Life  of. 
— Irving   Allen 497 

Washington's  Birthplace, 
A  Glimpse  of, — Grace 
B.  Johnson, 493 

Washington's  Boyhood, 
Something     of, 494 

Washington's  Inaugura- 
tion,— Edward  Everett 
Hale SCO 

Addresses 

Washington,       Estimates 

of,  508 

Washington     Monument, 


WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 

At  the  Dedication  of, — 
John   W.   Daniel 504 

Washington's  Religious 
Character,  —  William 
McKinley,    507 

Washington's  Service  to 
Education,  —  Charles 
W.    E.    Chapin 508 

Washington,  The  Ma- 
jestic Eminence  of, — 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,..   507 

Washington's  View  of 
Divine  Providence, — J. 
M.    Buckley,    D.D 511 

Sermons 

Greatness  Greater  Than 
Mightiness,    A, 512 

Washington,  George  as 
an  Example  To-Day, 
— James  T.  Bixby, 
D.D.,    512 

Suggestive  Thoughts 

Abuse   of  Washington, — 

T.  W.  Higginson, 513 

Inaugural,  From  Wash- 
ington's,      S13 

Mother,  Washington's,  .  .  514 
Mount    Vernon    Tribute, 
The, — H.    B.    Carring- 

ton,    LL.D 514 

Nation,  Prayer  for  the,..   514 
Swearing,  Washington...  514 
Washington    as    He 
Looked,     515 


Washington,  Said  by, 515 

Washington's  First  Gov- 
ernment   Office, — C.    E. 

W.,     si5 

Washington,  Tribute  to, 
— Charles    James    Fox,  5x6 

Poetry 

Washington, — Francis  T, 
Palgrave,    516 

Washington,  —  Anony- 
mous    516 

Washington, — Byron,   ...   516 

Washington,  —  James 
Russell  Lowell, 518 

Washington,  —  Eliza 
Cook,   520 

Washington, — Mrs.  Mary 
Wingate,   521 

Washington  at  Valley 
Forge. — R.  G.  Suther- 
land.  D.D., 517 

Washington  Ever  Hon- 
ored, The  Birthday  of,  516 

Washington,  George, — 
John  Hall  Ingham 521 

Washington,  Holden's 
Ode  to, 517 

Washington  Month, — 
Will    Carleton, 517 

Washington,  To  the 
Shade  of, — Richard  Al- 
sop 518 

Washington's  Name  in 
the  Hall  of  Fame, — 
Margaret  E.  Sangster,.  517 


Arbor  Day. 


ARBOR  DAY 

422  Descriptive 


Historical 


Arbor  Day  at  the  Indian 
School,— B.  G.  North- 
rup,    524 

Arbor  Day  in  Schools, — 
B.  G.  Northrup 523 


Arboriculture,  An  Act  to 
Encourage,  533 

Forest,  The  Greatest  in 
the  World 532 

Forestry  in  New  York, — 
William  Hoyt  Coleman.  529 

Forests,  Our, 530 


Tree  Planting.  The  Use 
of  Dynamite  in, — 
Charles  P.  Nettleton.. .  526 

Trees,  Criminal  Treat- 
ment   of 528 

Trees,  Planting  and  Pru- 
ning,— Joseph    Meehan,  525 

Trees.  Properties  of, — 
James  Knapp  Reeve,..  531 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


751 


AUBOB   DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Tree    Treatment,— E.    P. 

Powell    526 

Unter   Den   Linden, — W. 

P.  Bailey, 532 

Suggestive  Thoughts 

Arbor   Day 534 

Arbor  Day  Observances, 
—A.  S.  Draper, 534 

Flowers,  Concerning  Na- 
tional, —  George  H. 
Westley 534 

Forests,  The  Destruction 
of,  534 

Oak  Tree,  The  Old,  and 
Its  New  Memorial 
Stone, — Lyman  Whi- 
ting,  D.D., 534 

Scripture  Selections 535 

Empire  Day,   54^ 

Empire,  Our,  and  Em- 
press, and  Our  Empire 

Day,    542 

Queen's  Birthday,  The, — 
George  W.  Ross,  LL.D.,  542 

Historical 

Edward  VII.,  King  of 
England,  —  Arnold 
White,   548 

Queen's  Life,  Brief  Rec- 
ord   of 544 

Queen  Victoria  and  Her 
Reign, — Sir  John  Bour- 
inot,   545 

Sovereigns  of  England. .  544 

Addresses 

England,  The  Races  and 
Classes  o  f , — L  o  r  d 
Beaconsfield,    553 

Roman  and  British  Im- 
perialism, Compared, — 
John  Bright,   553 

Suggestive  Thoughts 

America,  Great  Britain 
and, — Newman  Hall,  . .  555 

British  Empire,  The, — 
W.  E.  Gladstone, 555 

British  Power, — Alexan- 
der Mackenzie 556 

Church  of  England,  The 
Head  of  the, 556 


Decoration  Day  Address, 

— James  A.  Garfield,..  575 
Memorial   Day 566 


Poetry 

PAGE 

Apple  Tree,  Planting  the, 
— William  Cullen  Bry- 
ant,    538 

Arbor  Day,  For, — Edith 
M.   Thomas, 540 

Arbor  Day  Song, — Mary 
A.  Heermans, 536 

Elm,  The,— N.  Dodge,...  540 

Elm  Tree,  The,— S.  B.  B. 
Merrifield,    538 

Flowers,  The  Mystery  of, 
— Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son,    535 

Forest  Hymn, — William 
Cullen   Bryant, 536 

Horse-Chestnut  Trees, 
Our, — S.  K.  Bolton,...  539 

Leaves  Came  Down,  How 
the, — Susan    Coolidge,.  537 

EMPIRE  DAY 

Constitution,  English  Na- 
tional,      556 

Crown,  The,  in  the  Con- 
stitution,'   556 

Drum-Beat,  Morning, — 
Daniel  Webster, 557 

Edward  VII.,  as  a  Social 
and  Political  Factor, — 
Edward  Emerson,  Jr.,.  557 

England,  America's  Rela- 
t  i  o  n  t  o, — E  d  w  a  r  d 
Everett, 557 

Family,  The  Royal, — Se- 
lected,      557 

Guelph,  The  Ubiquitous, 
—Selected,  558 

Luck,  The  Queen's, — 
Mrs.   Crawford, 558 

Reign  of  Victoria,  The 
Long, 558 

Reply,  Victoria's, 558 

Supremacy  of  the  Sea 
and  British  Arrogance.  558 

Union  Jack,  The,  —  Se- 
lected,     558 

Victoria,  Queen, — Arnold 
White,  559 

Victoria's  Mother 559 

Victoria's,  Queen,  Irish 
Descent 559 

Victoria's  Reign,  —  How- 
ard Duffield, 559 

Poetry 

Alfred  Edward,  On  the 
Birth  of,  560 

MEMOBIAL   DAY 

Monument's  Message, 
The, — Charles  Elmer 
Allison,  571 


PAGE 

Maple  Tree,  The,— Se- 
lected,      538 

Oak,  Planting  the,— F.  L. 
Mace,  537 

Pine  Needles, — William 
H.   Hayne, 535 

Pine  Sapling,  To  a, — W. 
B.  Allen, 537 

Plants,  He  Who, — Lucy 
Larcom,     535 

Trees,  Plant, — Lilian  E. 
Knapp,    535 

Trees,   Selected, 535 

Trees,  The, — J.  O.  Ran- 
kin,   LL.D., 536 

Trees,    The,— S.  V.  Cole.  538 

Trees,  Three  Historic, — 
R.  C.  Adams, 539 

Woodman,  Spare  That 
Tree,— G.  P.  Morris ...  539 


America  to  Great  Britain, 
— Washington    Allston,  563 

Britannia, — A.  McLach- 
lan, 561 

Britannia,  Rule, — ^James 
Thomson,  565 

Death    561 

England, — Elizabeth  Bar- 
rett Browning,   .......  563 

England,  —  John  Henry 
Newman,  D.D., 564 

England  and  Her  Colo- 
nies,— William  Watson,  562 

England,  Men  of, — 
Thomas  Campbell,  ....  564 

England.  Ye  Mariners 
of, — Thomas  Campbell,  564 

Englishman,  The, — Eliza 
Cook,  562 

King,  God  Save  the, — 
Henry  Carey,   560 

National  Song, — Alfred 
Tennyson, 562 

Queen,  The,  —  Joseph 
Howe,   560 

Queen,  The  Dying, — Ran- 
dall N.  Saunders, 561 

Queen,  To  the, — Alfred 
Tennyson, 560 

Recessional,  —  Rudyard 
Kipling, 563 

Sonnet,  —  William 
Wordsworth,    562 

Victoria  the  Good, — Sir 
Theodore  Martin, 561 

Wahonomin, — G.  F.  Scott.  561 


Thirty     Years     After, — 
—Rev.  Clark  Wright,. .  567 


752 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


MEMOBIAL  DAY  —  Continued 


Suggestive  Thoughts 

PAGE 

Army-Blue,  The  Faded 
Overcoat    of,    576 

Dead,  Honor  Our  Pa- 
triot,    576 

Dead,  Our  Honored, — 
Henrj'^  Ward  Beecher, 
D.D.,    576 

Defenders,  Our  Country's 
— William    McKinley,.  576 

Heroes,  The  Graves  of, — 
Putnam,    577 

Liberties,  Cost  of  Our,..  577 

Martyrs,  An  Army  of, — 
George  William  Curtis,  577 

Memorial   Day,    577 

Memorial  Day  Remind- 
ers,— James  A.  Garfield,  577 

Messages,  Patriotic,  for 
Memorial  Day, 577 

They  About  Us  ?  Are. ...  S78 

Unknown,  Tribute  to  the,  578 


Flag- Raising  Day. 


588 


Historical 

Flag,    Betsey    Ross    and 
the,  —  Harry    Pringle 

Ford,   591 

Flag  Presentation 593 

Flags,    About, — Eliza    E. 

Clark,    592 

Flag,  The  History  of  the, 

— Zitella  Cocke, 588 

Flag,   The    School, 593 

Stars  and  Stripes,  The, — 
A.  V.  Leech, 589 

Suggestive  Thoughts 

Flag,  Loved  the, 594 

Flag,      Our,— Elsie      M. 

Whiting,     594 

Flag,   The,— Selected,    ..  595 

Flag,  The,  and  the  Hymn,  595 
Flag,  The  Largest, 595 

Dominion  Day 604 

Historical 

Canada  As  a  Nation : 
Material  and  Intellec- 
tual Development — Po- 
litical Rights, — James 
G.  Bourinot,   606 

Historical  Summary 604 

Addresses 

Canada  and  the  United 
States, — Joseph    Howe,  610 


Poetry 

page 

Bivouac  of  the  Dead, 
The— Theo.  O'Hara..  .  578 

Blue  and  the  Gray,  The, 
— F.  M.  Finch, 579 

Brave,  Sleep  of  the, — 
William   Collins,    580 

Cheers,  Three,  for  the 
Olden  Time,  —  Fanny 
Crosby,    580 

Christopher,  A,  of  the 
Shenandoah, — Edith  M. 
Thomas,    587 

Cover  Them  Over, — Will 
Carleton, 580 

Decoration  Day, — S.  F. 
Smith,    D.D.,    579 

Decoration  Da  y, — 
Thomas  D.  English, . . .  582 

Decoration  Day,  —  El- 
bridge  Brooks,   582 

Decoration  Day,  Ode  for, 
— Henry  Peterson 583 

FLAG-RAISINQ    DAY 

Glory,  Old,— A.  S.  Gum- 
bart,  D.D.,   595 

Republic,  The  Hope  of 
the, — John  H.  New- 
man, D.D., 596 

"  Uncle  Sam ''  Was 
Christened,  How, 596 

Poetry 

Color  Guard,  The, — 
Charles  W.  Harwood,.  596 

Colors,  Our, — ^Laura  E. 
Richards,    596 

E  Pluribus  Unum, — G. 
W.    Cutter,    597 

Flag  and  Cross, — Alfred 
J.  Hough, 598 

Flag,  Cross  and, — Fred- 
erick  L.   Hosmer, 597 

Flag  Goes  By  The, — H. 
H.  Bennett, 600 

Flag  of  Our  Union  For- 
ever, The, — George  P. 
Morris,    598 

DOMINION  DAY 

Confederation,  —  Hon. 
George  Brown,    609 

Suggestive   Thoughts 

Advantages,      Natural, — 

John  Schultz,   611 

Advantages,         Racial, — 

John   Schultz 611 

Canada,      Future      of, — 

Richard  Harcourt,  ...  611 
Canada,      Loyalty      to, — 

Alexander  Mackenzie,.  611 


page 

Dirge  for  a  Soldier, — G. 

H.  Boker, 584 

Forget  and  F  o  r  g  i  v  e, — 

Major  J.  W.  Gordon. .  585 
Hallowed       Ground  ? 

What's,  —  Thomas 

Campbell,   585 

Heroes,    A    Ballad    of, — 

Austin  Dobson,    579 

Killed     at     the     Ford,— 

Henry  W.  Longfellow,  584 
Memorial   Day, — Richard 

Watson  Gilder, 585 

Memorial  Day,  Eve  of,..  585 
Nation's     Dead,     The, — 

Anonymous, 581 

New    England's    Dead. — 

Isaac   M'Lellan, 586 

Patriot,     The     Young, — 

Paul  Pastnor 586 

Warrior,      Home      They 

Brought    Her, — Alfred 

Tennyson,    587 


Flag     of     Stars,     The, — 

Grace  Ellery  Channing,  600 
Flag,       Our       Country's 

Starry, — Margaret      E. 

Sangster,    599 

Flags,— Milton,    598 

Flag,   Salute  the,— H.  C. 

Bunner,     599 

Flag   Song,  —  Harriet 

Prescott  Spofford,  ....  599 
Flag,  The,— H.  C.  Potter, 

D.D.,    600 

Flag,     The     American, — 

Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  600 
Flag,      The      Tattered, — 

James  Buckham,   601 

Stars  and  Stripes,  The, — ■ 

Kate  Sumner  Burr,.  . . .  601 
Star     Spangled     Banner, 

The,  — ■  Francis      Scott 

Key,  602 

Union      and      Liberty, — 

Oliver     Wendell 

Holmes,    602 


Canada,  Progress  of, — 
John  Schultz,   612 

Canada's  DiflSculties, — 
Sir  Richard  Cart- 
wright,    612 

Canadian  Power,  Sources 
of, — Lord  Lome, 612 

Civilizations,  C  a  n  a  d  a's 
Two, — G.  M.  Grant, 
LL.D., 612 

Commercial  Relations, 
Anglo-Canadian,    613 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


753 


DOMINION   DAY  —  Continued 


PAGE 

Epochs,    Heroic, — G.    M. 

Grant,  LL.D 613 

Epochs    Historic,    G.    M. 

Grant,  LL.D., 613 

Government,   Canada's, — 

Lord  Duflferin,  613 

Government,       Canada's, 

— Sir      John      Beverly 

Robinson,  613 

Immigration,      —      Hon. 

D'Arcy  McGee,   614 

Imperialism,  The  Future 

of, — John  Lewis,   614 

Indies,    Canada    and    the 

Northwest    Passage   to 

the, — G.       M.       Grant, 

LL.D.,   615 

Loyalty  to  the  Old  Coun- 
try,—W.  J.  Rattray, 615 

Lundy's  Lane,  The  Battle 

of,     615 

Pioneers,      The, — ^Joseph 

Howe,   615 

Political  Development  of 


Independence  Day 622 

Patriotism  in  the  Schools.  624 

Historical 

Independence,  The  Dec- 
laration of, 624 

Independence,  The  Ear- 
liest Celebrations  of, — 
Paul  Leicester  Ford,..  625 

Patriotism,  A  Renais- 
sance of, — George  J. 
Manson,    (i2T 

Addresses 

American  History,  The 
Hand  of  God  in, — Rev. 
Morgan  Dix,  D.D., 632 

American  Progress,  The 
Moral  Forces  Which 
Make, — Edward  Ever- 
ett,      630 

Freedom  or  Slavery, — 
Patrick   Henry,    629 

Rhapsody,  A, — Cassius 
Marcellus  Clay,   632 

Suggestive    Thoughts 

"  America  "    634 

America  First 634 

Country,    Love    of, 634 

Declaration,  How  the, 
Was  Adopted, — John 
T.   Morse,  Jr., 635 


page 
Canada, — G.  M.  Grant, 
LL.D.,   615 

Queen,  Canadian  Attach- 
ment to  the, — Sir  Will- 
iam Young,   615 

Religious  Development, — 
G.  M.  Grant,  LL.D.,..  615 

Slavery   616 

Trade,  Increase  of, 616 

Unity,  Canadian, — Wil- 
frid Laurier,  616 

Poetry 

Annapolis  R  o  y  a  1, — Ed- 
ward Blackadder,   ....  616 

Canada, — Charles  G.  D. 
Roberts,    616 

Canada,  To, — Charles  G. 
D.  Roberts,   617 

Canadian  Dominion,  Our,  617 

Canadian  Folk-Song,  A, 
— Wilfred  Campbell,  . .  621 

Canadians,  Arouse  Ye, 
Brave, — J.  D.  Edgar,..  617 

INDEPENDENCE  DAY 

England  and  America, — 
James  Bryce,    635 

England  and  the  Fourth 
of  July,— W.  T.  Stead,  635 

Family,   A   Patriotic,....  636 

Heroism,   Example   of, . .  636 

Independence  D  a  y, — 
John  Adams,    636 

Liberty  and  Law, — Se- 
lected,     636 

National  Safety, — Se- 
lected,     636 

Nations,  Crises  of, — Cy- 
rus D.  Foss,  D.D......  636 

Patriotism, — J  o  h  n  Ire- 
land.   D.D.,    636 

Patriotism    636 

Patriotism,  Pleasure  of, 
— Bolingbroke,    637 

Patriotism,  Pure,  —  T. 
Dewitt  Talmage,  D.D.,  637 

Patriotism,  Sparta  n, — 
Plutarch 637 

Patriot,  The  True, — ^Se- 
lected,      637 

Religious  Purpose  of  the 
Founders, — Rev.  John 
Lee,    638 

Union,  The  Perpetuity  of 
the, — Daniel   Webster,.  638 

Poetry 

America, — Samuel  Fran- 
cis  Smith,  D.D., 638 


PAGE 

Canadians,  Awake, — A. 
M.   Taylor,    617 

Dominion  Day, — Agnes 
Maule   Machar,    618 

Dominion,  Hurrah  for 
the  New,— A.  McLach- 
lan, 619 

Freedom's  J  o  u  r  n  e  y, — 
Thomas  D'Arcy  Mc- 
Gee,      619 

Heroes  of  Fish  Creek 
and  Batoche,  The, — Se- 
lected,      621 

Land,  Beautiful, — Helen 
M.  Johnson,    616 

La  Prairie,  The  Battle  of, 
— William  D.  Schuy- 
ler-Lighthall,     619 

Ottawa, — Duncan  Camp- 
bell  Scott,    620 

People,  The  Story  of  a, — 
Louis  Honore  Fre- 
chette,    620 

Snowshoeing  Song, — Ar- 
thur  Weir,    620 


Columbia,    the    Land    of 

the    Brave,— David    T. 

Shaw,    639 

Dixie, — Daniel      Decatur 

Emmett,    640 

Fireworks,    Origin    of, — 

H.  M.  Greenleaf, 640 

Freedom  641 

Freedom,  The  Battle  Cry 

of, — George  F.  Root,..  639 
Glory  of  the  State,  The, 

— Sir  William  Jones,..  641 
Hail     Columbia, — Joseph 

Hopkinson,    642 

Heroic  Age,  The, — Rich- 
ard Watson  Gilder,...  638 
Hymn    of   the    Republic, 

B  a  1 1 1  e,— Julia   Ward 

Howe,   639 

Liberty    642 

Marching      Through 

Georgia, — H.  C.  Work.  641 
Our     Country     Saved, — 

James  Russell  Lowell,.  639 

Patriotism    642 

Patriotism, — Sir     Walter 

Scott,     643 

Patriotism,  Love, — Susan 

Coolidge,    643 

Ship     of     State,     The, — 

Henry  W.  Longfellow,  643 
Unguarded    Gates, — 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  643 
Yankee  Doodle 644 


754 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


Historical 

PAGE 

Factory,  A,  Based  on  the 
Golden  Rule,    645 

L  a  b  o  r's  Grievances, — 
Rev.  C.  H.  Parkhurst, 
D.D.,    651 

Poor,  Housing  the  City,.  646 

Workingmen,  R  e  p  r  e- 
sentative, — H.  D.  Jen- 
kins,   D.D.,    649 

Working-Women,  Our,. .  647 

Suggestive    Thoughts 

Carlyle's  View  of  the 
Labor      Question, — W. 

S.  Lilly,   652 

Crime  and  the   Price  of 

Bread,   652 

Labor, — Jortin,   652 

Labor, — Daniel    Webster,  652 
Labor  Agitations?  What 
is  Likely  to  Be  the  End 

of  the,    652 

Labor,  Eminence  and, — 
Edward    Everett,    ....  652 

Laborers,    Hiring, 652 

Laborers,  Parable  of  the,  653 
Labor,  Faithful  in, 653 


Discovery  Day  Proclama- 
tion, 1892, — Benjamin 
Harrison,   661 

Addresses 

Centuries,  Four,  Com- 
pleted, —  Francis  Bel- 
lamy,      661 

Columbian  Oration,  The, 
— Chauncey  M.  Depew,  664 

Columbus,  Memorial  De- 
serts of, — Various  Au- 
thors,      663 

Sermons 

Columbus,  Christopher : 
A  Modern  Abraham, — 
Robert  S.  McArthur, 
D.D.,    669 


Ballot-Box.  The,— E.  H. 
Chapin,  D.D 684 

Historical 

Cities,  The  Control  of,. .  685 
Men,     How     Bad,     Are 
Chosen  to  Rule, — Ful- 
ton McMahon,  689 

Partv       Wisdom,       The 


LABOR  DAY 

PAGE 

Labor,  Healthfulness  of, 
Addison 653 

Labor,  Honors  to, — J. 
Johnson,     653 

Labor,  Incessancy  of, — A. 
Campbell,  D.D.,   653 

Labor,  Law  of, — Addi- 
son,   653 

Labor,  Life-character  of, 
— Carlyle,  653 

Labor,  Need  of, — Plu- 
tarch,    653 

Labor,  No  Rest  from, — 
Tunman,     654 

Labor,  Place  for, — Rev. 
Charles  H.  Spurgeon,.  654 

Labor,   Power   for 654 

Labor,  Prayer  and, — W. 
H.    Groser,    654 

Labor,  Prayer  with, 654 

Labor,  Value  of. — Horace 
Binney,  LL.D., 654 

Poverty  and  Birthrate,..  654 

Sociological    Study,   A,. .  655 

Strikes    655 

Toil,  The  Dignity  of, — 
William  Hurrell  Mal- 
lock,     655 

Work, — Thomas   Carlyle,  655 

DISCOVEBY  DAY 

Suggestive   Thoughts 

America,  Discovering,...  674 
America,      Future     of, — 

Pere  Hyacinthe 675 

America.    Imperial, — D. 

S.  Gregory,  D.D., 675 

America,     Land     of, — T. 

D.  Talmage,  D.D., 675 

America?  Why, 676 

Columbus  Book  of  Privi- 
leges,      676 

Columbus,  The  Wife  of,  677 
Country,      Some      Facts 
About   Our,— W.   Hin- 
ton,    (iT) 

Poetry 

America, — Hezekiah  But- 
terworth 678 

ELECTION  DAY 

Source    of, — James    A. 

Garfield 691 

Patriotism,  The  Question 

of,    686 

Political     and     Personal 

Liberty, — Judge    David 

J.  Brewer, 685 

Political  Campaigns,  The 

Use    of    Money    in, — 

Silas  W.  Burt 688 


Poetry 

PAGE 

American  Aristocracy, — 
John  G.   Saxe, 655 

Blacksmith,  The  Village, 
— Henry  W.  Longfel- 
low,     659 

Cleon  and  I, — Charles 
Mackay,    656 

Forge,  The  Song  of 
the, — Anonymous,    ....  656 

Labor,  Brief  Extracts 
from  the  Poets, 657 

Labor,  Burden  of, — 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  658 

Labor  is  Worship, — 
Frances    S.    Osgood,..  658 

Labor,  Objects  of, — Will- 
iam  Drummond,    659 

Labor,  Original, — John 
Milton,    659 

Man  With  the  Hoe,  The, 
— Edwin  Markham,  . . .  657 

Mrs.  Lofty  and  I, — 
Anonymous,    659 

Night  Cometh,  The,— S. 
Dyer,   660 

Shirt,  The  Song  of  the, — 
Thomas   Hood,    660 

Way,  Clear  the, — Charles 
Mackay,    656 


America,  Ode  t o, — 
Edouard  Lance, 678 

Christophorus,  the 
"  Christ-B  e  a  r  e  r,' — 
Henry  B.  Carrington,. .  679 

Columbus, — Richard  E. 
Burton,   681 

Columbu?.  The  Vision 
of, — Joel   Barlow,    681 

Country,  Our,  for  the 
World,— Denis  Wort- 
man,  D.D.,  683 

Discovery,  The,  —  Mary 
Isabella  Forsyth 682 

Eagle,  The  American, — 
Charles  West  Thom- 
son,     679 

Prophet  Bird,  The,— 
Hezekiah  Butterworth,  683 


Political  Purposes,  Funds 
for, — Thomas  L.  James,  687 

Sermons 

Party  Politics,  The  Use 
and  Abuse  of, — Rev. 
Hugh  Price  Hughes,..  695 

Political  Morality,  The 
Relation  of  the  Church 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


755 


PAGE; 
to,  —  Rev.       Bernard 
Paine,    691 

Politics?  What  Can  the 
Ministry  Do  to  Purify, 
— H.  Crosby,  D.D.,  ....  699 

Suggestive   Thoughts 

Ballot-Box,  The  Chris- 
tian and  the, 700 

Forefathers'  Day,  704 

Historical 

Bonfires,  Salem's, — ^James 

L.  Hill,  D.D., 705 

Pilgrims,   The, — John   G. 

Whittier,    705 

Plymouth,    In   Pilgrim, — 

Priscilla  Leonard, 706 

Responsibility,    Personal, 

—William  T.  Ellis,. ...  708 

Addresses 

Colonists, The  Heroism  of 
the  Early,— R.  Choate.  715 


ELECTION  DAY  — Oontinued 

PAGE 

Election  Day  Texts 701 

Office,  Disappointed 

Seeker    of,    701 

Office,   Love   of, — Sidney 

Smith,   701 

Office-Seekers,  Hungry,. .  701 
Political  Agitation, — 

Wendell  Phillips, 701 

Political   Ideas 702 

FOREFATHEBS'   DAY 

Enthusiasm,  The  Duty  of, 
— M.  W.  Stryker,  D.D.,  716 

Plymouth,  Oration  at, — 
John   Quincy   Adams,.  709 

Suggestive   Thoughts 

Forefathers'     Day,     The 

True, — C  h  a  r  1  e  s    W. 

Felt,  720 

Marriage       in       Puritan 

Days,  720 

Mayflower  and  Oceanic,  720 
Mayflower,  The, — Rev.  J. 

W.  Sayers, 720 


Poetry 


PAGE 


Ballot,    The,  —  William 

G.  Haeselbarth,   702 

Eclectic,      An,  —  James 

Russell    Lowell, 702 

Robinson,      What      Mr., 

Thinks,— J.  R.  Lowell.  703 
Votes,   God  Will  Weigh 

the, — Joel  Swartz,  ....  702 


Poetry 

Bunker  Hill,  The  Storm- 
ing of, — Francis  Zuri 
Stone,    721 

Christmas  Day,  That 
Gray,  Cold, — Hezekiah 
Butterworth,   721 

Minute-Man,  The  Lex- 
ington,      722 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  Landing 
of  the, — Felicia  Doro- 
thea Hemans, 723 

Pilgrim's  Vision,  The, — 
Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes, 722 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


757 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

Abbott,  Lyman,  D.D. — 

Easter   I97 

Adams.  John — 

Independence    Day....  636 
Adams,  John  Quincy — 

Oration  at  Plymouth.  .   709 
Adams.  R.  C. — 

Three  Historic  Trees. .  539 
Adams,  William,  D.D. — 
Thanksgiving      Memo- 
ries and  Habits 347 

The  Home  Gathering. .  361 
Addison,  Joseph — 

Days 30 

Cato's  Soliloquy  on  Im- 
mortality    205 

Time    453 

Healthfulness  of  Labor.  653 

Law  of  Labor 653 

Adriance,    S.   Winches- 
ter. D.D. — 
The  Strong  Man's  Pal- 
ace      288 

^sop — 

Concession,  The  First,.     30 
AiNr.ER.    A. — 

Presence  of  the  As- 
cended Christ 253 

Aldrich,  Thos.  Bailey — 

Unguarded  Gates 643 

Alex.a.nder,  ]\Irs.  C.  F. — 

Calvary  163 

Alexander,    James    W., 
D.D.— 
The    Ascended    Christ 

Our  Advocate 252 

Alexander,        William, 
D.D  — 
Repentance  and  Faith.     99 
Alford.  Henry,  D.D. — 

The  Close  of  the  Year.  451 
Allen.  Irving — 

Providential  Events  in 
the  Life  of  Washing- 
ton      497 

Allen,  J. — 

Before  the  Cross 135 

Allen.  James — 

Worthy  the  Lamb 256 

Allen.  W.  B.— 

To  a  Pine  Sapling....    537 
Allison,     Charles     El- 
mer— 
The  Monument's  Mes- 
sage     571 

Allston,  Washington— 
America  to  Great  Brit- 
ain      563 

Alsop.  Reese  F..  D.D. — 

Sin.  Beginnings  of 35 

Why  the  Lord's  Day  Is 
Kept  by  Christians.  .  217 


Also?,  Richard — 
To  the  Shade  of  Wash- 
ington      518 

Anderson,    Mrs.    Emma 
F.— 

The  Going  Year 458 

Andria,  Alcide  de — 
New  Year's  Day  in  the 

East  5 

Arnold,  IVIatthew — 

Immortality   200 

Arnold,  Thomas,  D.D. — 

Ascension  of  Christ...   251 
Arnot.  William,  D.D. — 

Exaltation  of  Christ. .  251 
Auber.  Harriet — 
Power     of     the     Holy 

Spirit 273 

Austin,  Henry — 
The    First    Thanksgiv- 
ing in  America 341 

Babcock,     Maltbie     D., 
D.D.— 

Days.    Common, 30 

Making       Our       Own 

World   350 

Bacon,     Francis,     Lord 
Verulam — 

Hope,  Benefit  of, 31 

Bailey,  Philip  James — 

Life    42 

Baillie,  Joanna — 

Life,  Object  of, 33 

Balgarnie,     Robert, 
D.D.— 
Our  Trinitarian  Prayers 

(I) 300 

Our  Trinitarian  Prayers 

(II) 302 

Banks.  E.  J. — 
Thanksgiving  and 

Thanksliving 363 

Barker,  Theodore  T. — 

Palm    Branches 118 

Barlow,  Joel — 
The  Vision  of  Colum- 
bus    681 

Barrett,  R.  S. — 

Christ,  Ascension  of,. .  250 
Seeing     the     Ascended 

Christ    253 

Barton,   William   E. — 

The  New  Pentecost...  402 
Bate,  Rev.  F.  S. — 

Waste  of  Time 455 

Bates,  Lewis  J. — 

Time   38 

Bathurst,  Rev.  William 
H.— 
Eternal  Spirit 317 


PAGE 

Baumgarten — 
Ascension     of     Christ 

and  of  Elijah 251 

Baynes,      Rev.      Robert 
Hall — 

The  Last  Supper 136 

Beach,  Rev.  D.  N. — 
The   Literature   of  the 
Office   and   Work  of 

the  Holy  Spirit 261 

Beaconsfield,  Lord — 
The    Assassination    of 

Lincoln 472 

The  Races  and  Classes 

of  England 553 

Bede,  The  Venerable — 

Ascension  Hymn 257 

Beecher.     Rev.     Henry 
Ward — 
Aspiration,    Heavenly,.     29 
Aspiration.    Universal,.     29 
Progress.      Alternative 

of,  34 

Purpose,  Emblem  of,..  35 
Prefigured  Redemption.  164 
A  Delusion  of  Life. . . .  453 
Effect  of  the  Death  of 

Lincoln  477 

Our  Honored  Dead. . . .  576 
Behrends,   Adolphus    T. 
F.,  D.D.— 
The   Principle  of  Chris- 
tian  Missions 63 

Bellamy,   Francis — 
Four    Centuries    Com- 
pleted   661 

Bennett,  H.  H. — 

The  Flag  Goes  By 600 

Benton,  Joel — 

Thanksgiving    377 

Abraham  Lincoln 484 

Bickersteth.     Rev.     Ed- 
ward Henry — 

Till  He  Come 134 

Binney,  Horace,  LL.D. — 

Value  of  Labor 654 

BixBY,  James  T.,  D.D. — 
George  Washington  as 
an  Example  To-Day.  512 
Blackadder,    Edward — 

Royal   Annapolis 616 

Blodgett,  Harriet  F. — 
The    Little     Christ    is 

Coming  Down 43S 

Boardman,     George     D., 
D.D.— 

Sabbath  Duties 221 

Body.   George — 

Self-Mortification,    Ne- 
cessity   of 94 


758 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

BoKER,  George  Henry — 
Dirge  for  a  Soldier...  584 

BOLINGBROKE,    HeNRY    St. 

John — 
Pleasure  of  Patriotism,  (t^ 
Bomberger,  John  Henry, 
D.D.— 
Nature's  Thanksgiving.  379 
BoNAR,       Andrew       A., 
D.D.— 
Atonement,  Illustrating 

the, 157 

BoNAR,  Horatius,  D.D. — 
The  Supper  of  Thanks- 
giving    137 

Man's    Unbelief IS3 

Under  the  Cross 165 

The  Triune  God 319 

Approaching  Advent.. .  398 
Prayer  for  the  Advent.  399 
Booth.     Rev.      W.     H., 
D.D.— 
What  the  Lilies  Teach 

Us    286 

Bourinot,  James  G. — 
Canada   as   a    Nation; 
Material    and    Intel- 
lectual   Development 
of  Political  Rights. .  606 
BouRiNOT,   Sir  John — 
Queen      Victoria      and 

Her  Reign 545 

Bowes,  Rev.  G.  S. — 
Intentions,  biblical,  ...  31 
Communion,  Divine,..  132 
Resurrection  of  Christ.  190 
Ascension  of  Christ. .  250 
Boyden,   Helen — 

Farther  On 40 

Bradford,      Amory      H., 
D.D.— 
The     Voice     of     the 

Cross  142 

Wo  of  the  Cross 163 

Brainard,  Mary  G. — 

New  Year,  The, Z7 

He  Knows 41 

Brewer,      Judge     David 
G.— 
Political   and   Personal 

Liberty    685 

Bridges,  Matthew — 
The      Song      of      the 

Seraphs 118 

Beginning  in  Light.  . . .  256 
Bright,  John — 

Roman  and  British  Im- 
perialism Compared.  553 
Bright,  W. — 
Difficulties  of  the  As- 
cension      248 

Brine,  Mary  D. — 

Bless  the  Year 36 

Brodus,  John  A.,  D.D. — 

The  Trinity 308 

Brooke.     Rev.     Stopford 
A.— 
The  Day  of  the  Lord.  .  390 


page 
Brooks,      Elbridge      G., 
D.D.— 

Decoration  Day 582 

Brooks,  Phillips,  D.D. — 
The      Dimensions      of 

Life    23 

Purpose   in   Life 35 

Fast  Day   89 

Who     Is     This     That 

Cometh  from  Edom?  107 
The    First    Good    Fri- 
day    149 

Meditating     upon     the 

Blood  of  Christ 159 

Immortality   194 

Easter  Morning 205 

O      Little      Town      of 

Bethlehem    434 

Christmas  Carol 435 

Lincoln    as    a    Typical 

American    475 

Brooks,  T. — 

Christ's   Gifts 251 

Brown,  Hon.  George — 

Confederation 609 

Brown,  Henry  A. — 

The  Plea  of  the  Future.      9 
Brown,  Theron — 

A  Harvest  Canticle. . . .  373 
Browne,   Sir   Thomas — 

Time    453 

Browning,       Elizabeth 
Barrett — 

England    563 

Browning,  Robert — 

Duty,  Mans, 2)1 

Life,  The  Last  of 2,1 

Problem,  The  Common,    38 
World,    All's    Right 

with    the, 39 

Bryant,   William   Cul- 
len — 

Home  Missions 79 

Forest   Hymn 536 

Planting      the      Apple 

Tree 538 

Bryce,  James — 

England  and  America.  635 
Buckham,    James — 

The  City  of  Rest 2>yi 

The  Tattered  Flag. . . .  601 
Buckley,    James     M., 
D.D.— 
A  Happy  New  Year. . .       8 
Washington's  View  of 
Divine  Providence...  511 
Budington,    William 
Ives,   D.D.— 
Temptation,    The    Safe 

Course   in, 96 

Bulwer-Lytton,  Edward 
Robert — 

The  Sabbath 230 

Bunner,  Henry  Cuyler — 

Salute  the  Flag 599 

BuNYAN,  John — 

Using  Sunday 227 


PAGE 

Burgess,  Daniel — 

Picture  of  Time 454 

Burke,  Christian — 

The  Flying  Year 458 

Burleigh,  W.  H. — 

Old  Year 461 

Burns,  Robert — 

Losses  and  Crosses.  ...     2)7 
Burr,  Kate  Sumner — 

The  Stars  and  Stripes.  601 
Burrell,    David    James, 
D.D.-- 

The    Chimes 410 

We    Three    Kings    of 

Orient  Are 416 

Burt,  Silas  W. — 

The  Use  of  Money  in 
Political     Cam- 

paigns 688 

Butler,  Samuel — 

Chance,  The  Main, 36 

A     New     Year's     Re- 
minder       44 

The  King 117 

Thanksgiving   376 

Butterworth,       H  e  z  e- 

KIAH — 

Easter    Hymn    of 

Athens 204 

Five  Kernels  of  Corn.  373 

America 678 

The  Prophet  Bird 683 

That    Gray,    Cold 

Christmas  Day 721 

Byfield,      Rev.     Adoni- 

RAM — 
Our  Sins  on  the  Cross.  161 

Cachemaille,   Rev. 
E.  P.— 

Lent 88 

Cairns,  John,  D.D. — 
The  Early  Sabbath :  A 
Type        of        the 

Heavenly 223 

Campbell,      Alexander, 
D.D.— 
Incessancy  of  Labor. .  .  653 
Campbell,  Rev.  Robert — 
The   Lamb's    High 

Feast   135 

Campbell,  Thomas — 
Time,  The  Flight  of,..     38 
Ye    Mariners   of   Eng- 
land     564 

Men  of  England 564 

Carey,   Henry — 

God  Save  the  King. . .  .  560 
Carleton,  Will — 
To  Some  in  Heaven. .  336 
Thanks     for     Sorrows 

and  Joys 374 

All   the    People   Praise 

Him  374 

Entombment  of  George 

Washington 5^4 

Washington-Month  ...  517 
Cover  Them  Over 580 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


759 


PAGE 

Carlyle,  Thomas — 

Life,  Business  in, 33 

Purpose   in   Life 35 

Time   36 

Eternity    Z1 

Life-character  of  Labor  653 
Work 655 

Carrington,    Henry    B. 
LL.D.— 
Historical  Memorabilia 

of  Washington 493 

The     Mount     Vernon 

Tribute 5I4 

Christophorus,        The 
Christ-Bearer  679 

Carson,  Alexander — 
The  Glories  of  Immor- 
tality    320 

Cartwright,    Sir   Rich- 
ard— 
Canada's  Difficulties...  612 

Cary,  Phoebe — 
Power,  Human, 38 

Castelar,  Emilio — 
Abraham  Lincoln 472 

Cawdray — 

Christians,  Aim  of, 30 

Chadwick,  G.  a.,  D.D. — 
Guidance    3^ 

Channing,    Grace    El- 

LERY — 

Remember   400 

The  Flag  of  Stars 600 

Chapin,  C.  W.  E. — 
Washington's     Service 

to  Education 508 

Chapin,       Edwin       H., 
D.D.— 

The     Ballot-Box 684 

Chapman,     J.     Wilbur, 
D.D.— 
Recognition     of     Our 
Friends   in   Heaven.  323 
Cheney,  John  Vance — 

Lincoln   48s 

Chester,  E. — 

Life 33 

Chesterfield,  Earl  of — 

Time,  The  Value  of,..     39 
Choate,  Rufus — 

The  Heroism  of  the. . 

Early    Colonists, 715 

Christie,  May — 

Good-night   335 

Clark,  Eliza  E. — 

About  Flags 592 

Clark,     Helen     Whit- 
ney— 
A  Song  of  Thanksgiv- 
ing     379 

Clarke,    Charles    Cow- 
den — 
Time,  The  Wheel  of,. .     39 
Clarke,  James  G. — 

Years.  The  Friend  of,,.     39 
Clay.   Cassius   Marcel- 

LUS — 
A   Rhapsody 632 


PAGE 

Clemens,  Samuel — 

Doubt,  When  in, 30 

Clemens,      Will      M. — 
Christmas  Customs  the 

World  Around 407 

Cocke,  J.  Zitella — 
In      Everything      Give 

Thanks   375 

Thanksgiving    376 

The     History    of    the 

Flag  588 

Coffin,  Charles — 

The  Ascended  Savior. .  255 
Coffin,  Charles  Carle- 
ton — 
Abraham    L  i  n  c  o  1  n's 

Early  Years 468 

Cole,  Samuel  V. — 

The  Trees 538 

Coleman,      William 

HOYT — 

Forestry  in  New  York.  529 

COLEY,   S. — 
Light   of   Redemption.   164 

Treasuring  Time 455 

Collins,  William — 

Sleep  of  the  Brave. . . .  580 
CoLLYER,  Rev.  W.  B. — 
Missionary       Convoca- 
tion        79 

Conder,  Rev.  Josiah — 

Bread  of  Heaven 134 

CoNDiT,     Eli  zabeth 
Ford — 

Giving  Thanks 375 

Cook,  Eliza — 

Washington 520 

The    Englishman 562 

Coolidge,  Susan — 

Day,  The  New, 36 

Thanksgiving    Day 377 

The     Coming    of    the 

King    401 

The  Lost  Days 458 

How  the  Leaves  Came 

Down    537 

Love    Patriotism 643 

Cooper,  Edward — 

Trinity    Hymn 318 

Copeland,    Rev.    Benja- 
min— 

Opportunity 45 

CowPER,  William — 
Uncertainty  of  the  New 

Year    45 

The  Stricken  Deer 97 

Coxe,     Arthur     Cleve- 
land. D.D. — 

The    Sacrament 136 

Crafts,       Wilbur       P., 
D.D.— 

Aim,  Want  of, 28 

Craik,  Dinah  M.  M. — 

Sunday  Morning  Bells.  228 
Crane,  Frank  W. — 
Washington's        Birth- 
day :   Early   Celebra- 
tions    490 


page 
Crawford,  Mrs. — 

The  Queen's  Luck 558 

Crawford,  F.  Marion — 

Defeat  30 

Crosby,  Fanny — 
The  World  for  Christ, 
a  New  Year  Rallying 

Song    40 

Three    Cheers    for    the 

Olden  Time 580 

Crosby,  Howard,  D.D. — 

The  Sabbath 220 

Faith    at    Our    Lord's 

Coming 389 

What   Can   the   Minis- 
ters    Do    to    Purify 

Politics   699 

Cross,  Rev.  Charles — 
How    to    Provide    for 

the  Future 388 

Gumming,  John,  D.D. — 

The  Last  Sabbath 227 

Curry,  Daniel,  D.D. — 

Index  of  the  Cross. .. .   161 
Curtis,  George  W. — 

An  Army  of  Martyrs. .   577 
Cutter,  G.  W. — 

E   Pluribus   Unum....  597 
CUYLER,  T.  L.,  D.D. — 
New  Year,  Facing  the,    33 
Exalt     the     Cross     of 

Jesus    Christ 140 

Risen  with  Christ 196 

Dandridge,  Danske — 

At  the  End 334 

Daniel,  John  W. — 
Address  at  the  Dedica- 
tion of  the  Washing- 
ton Monument 504 

Davis,  Rev.  Wm.  M. — 

Pentecostal  Times  ....  259 
Davison,  J.  B. — 

Labor  in  Austria 224 

Dawson,  Sir  John  Will- 
iam, LL.D. — 
The  Second  Advent...  383 
Dayton,  Edson  C. — 

Lincoln  and  Douglas.  .  470 
Deems,       Charles       P., 
D.D.,  LL.D.— 

To-Day   23 

Life's  Way,  On 37 

Christ  is  King IIO 

The  Cross 141 

The     Pathos     of     the 

Cross  162 

Outside  and  In 207 

The  Sabbath  221 

The  Ascended  Christ..  237 
Denison,  Mary  A. — 

Easter  Lilies  204 

Depew,    Chauncey    M., 
LL.D.— 
The  Majestic  Eminence 

of  Washington 507 

The    Columbian    Ora- 
tion      664 


76o 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

Derzhavin,  Gabriel  Ro- 
manowicz — 

Ode  to  God 31S 

Dickinson,       Sidney, 
D.D.— 
Who  Only  Doeth  Won- 
drous Things   67 

Dix,       Rev.       Morgan, 
D.D.— 
The   Hand   of   God   in 
American  History...  632 
DixoN.  A.  C,  D.D.— 

Precious  Death 322 

Doane,  William  C. — 
Hymn  to  the  Trinity. .  318 

Two  Advents 400 

Dobson,  Austin — 

Time    457 

A  Ballad  of  Heroes...  579 
Donne,  John,  D.D. — 

Resurrection    201 

Dorr,  Julia  C.  R. — 

Thought,  New  Year,..     38 
Douglas,  Rev.  John  B. — 

Gethsemane   167 

DowD,  Emma  C. — 

Like  Easter  Lilies 200 

November's   Gift 374 

Drake,      Joseph       Rod- 
man— 
The  American  Flag. . .  600 
Draper,  A.  S. — 

Arbor      Day      Observ- 
ances     534 

Draper,  Gideon,  D.D. — 
Easter   and  the    Greek 
Church  in  St.  Peters- 
burg     172 

Drum  mono,  Henry — 

Life,  End  of 23 

Drummond,  William — 

Objects  of  Labor 659 

Dryden,  John — 

Time    457 

DuFFERiN,  Lord — 

Canada's   Government.  613 
DuNBAR,      Paul      Law- 
rence— 

Thanksgiving    376 

DwiGHT,    Theodore    W., 
LL.D.— 
Where  no  Sabbath  Is. .  226 
Ending    of    the    Eigh- 
teenth Century 458 

Dyer,  S. — 

The  Night  Cometh 660 

Dykes,  J.  Oswald — 
Ascension  Day 245 

Earl,  Mabel — 

Opportunity 45 

Easter  Lilies 205 

Earle,  Alice  Morse — 
New    Year's    Eve   and 

Day    3 

Eastburn,     Rev.    James 
Wallis — 
The  Trinity  Adored...  317 


page 

Edgar,  J.  D. — 
Arouse  Ye,  Brave  Can- 
adians     617 

Edmeston,  Rev.  James — 

Sunday   232 

Eldridge,  Rev.  C  O. — 

The  Ascension  Day...  244 
Eliot,    George     ( Marian 
Evans  Cross)  — 

Hope,  Refuge  in, 31 

Life    33 

Motive,  Want  of, 33 

Wishing   36 

Time,    The    Greatness 

of, 39 

Ellicott,  Charles  John, 
D.D.— 
Tradition,  A  Beautiful,    76 
Ellis,  William  T. — 

Personal  Responsibility  708 
Emerson,  Edward,  Jr. — 
Edward  VII.  as  a  So- 
cial     and      Political 

Factor  557 

Emerson,    Ralph    W. — 
Capacities,   Special,. ...     29 

Days 30 

Days 30 

Days,    Divine, 30 

The  Mystery  of  Flow- 
ers      535 

Emmett,   Daniel   Deca- 
tur— 

Dixie  640 

English,        Thomas 
Dunn — 

Decoration  Day   582 

Evelyn,  John — 
Atonement       by       the 

Cross  156 

Everett,  Edward — 
America's    Relation    to 

England    557 

The  Moral  Forces 
Which  Make  Ameri- 
can Progress 630 

Eminence  and  Labor. .  652 

Faber,     Frederick     W., 
D.D.— 

The  Eternal  Year 47 

The  Three  Kings 78 

Lent  . 98 

From  Pain  to  Pain ....     99 

Blood  of  Jesus 164 

Veni,  Sancte  Spiritus. .  274 

Herein  Is  Love 316 

Heaven   335 

Farmingham,  Mari- 

anne— 
Teach  Me  Thy  Way. . .     46 
Farrar,      Frederic     W., 
D.D.,  D.C.L.— 
Moravian  Brotherhood, 

The, 74 

The  Crucifixion  145 

Gethsemane  is  as  Para- 
dise     164 


page 
Felt,  Charles  W. — 
The   True  Forefather's 

Day    720 

Fenelon,  Francis  de 
Salignac  de  la 
Mothe — 

Worth  of  Time 456 

Finch,  F.  M. — 

The  Blue  and  the  Gray.  579 
Flavel,  John — 

Beginning,  Evil 29 

Lord's  Supper,  Memo- 
rial    133 

Lord's  Supper,  Title  in 

the,  133 

Atonement,     Accepting 

the,  156 

Atonement,  Appropria- 
ting the 156 

Voluntary  Atonement  .   158 

Accusing  Blood 158 

Christ's    Ascension....  247 
Need    of    Christ's    As- 
cension      248 

The  Spirit  of  God 270 

Fleming,  J. — 

Concealing   Christ 425 

Ford,  Harry  Pringle — 
Betsy     Ross    and    the 

Flag 591 

Ford.  Paul  Leicester — 
The    Earliest    Celebra- 
tions    of     Independ- 
ence     625 

Forsyth,  Mary  Isa- 
bella— 

The  Discovery 682 

Foss.  Cyrus  D.,  D.D. — 

Crises  of  Nations 636 

Foster,  Rev.  John — 

End  of  a  Thing 45a 

Fowler,      Charles      H., 
D.D.— 
Character,  Light  of, . . .     30 
The  Missionary  Idea. .     61 
Fox,  Charles  James — 

Tribute  to  Washington.  516 
Frank,  Johann — 

Communion  Hymn. . . .  134 
Frechette,  Louise  Hon- 

ORE — 

Story  of  a  People 620 

Frye.  William  P. — 

The  Puritan  Sunday. ,  227 
Fuller,  Rev.  Thomas — 

Redeeming  the  Time. .  454 

Ganse,  Hervey  D. — 

Blest  Trinity 318 

Gardiner,  Mrs.  A.  M. — 

Noel 409 

Garfield,  James  A. — 
Decoration     Day     Ad- 
dress      575 

Memorial  Day  Remind- 
ers      577 

The    Source    of    Party 
Wisdom    691 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


761 


PAGE 

Garrett,  Edward — 

Silence    227 

Gasparin,  Madame  de — 

Flight  of  Time 453 

Gates,  Jennie  E. — 
Good-by    to    the    Old 

Year    459 

Gaussen.  Rev.  Louis — 

Unnoted  Time 455 

Geikie,       Cunningham, 
D.D.— 
Christmas     at     Bethle- 
hem     404 

Gibbons,  James,  D.D. — 
Sabbath  Desecration. . .  225 

Christmas 4^3 

Gilder,    Richard    Wat- 
son— 

The  Heroic  Age 638 

Gilfillan,  G. — 

Resting  upon  the  Cross .  162 
Gill,  Rev.  Thomas  H.— 

Gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  272 
Gladstone,         William 
Ewart — 

Man,  The  Wise. 33 

The  British  Empire...  555 
GoDET,  Frederick,  D.D. — 
Jesus,    the    Prince    of 

Peace "4 

Goethe,  Johann  Wolf- 
gang Von — 
Rest  228 

GOLDSBERRY,  LoUISE  D. — 

Mary  in  the  Cave 437 

Goodwin,    Harvey, 
D.D.- 
St. Peter's  Pentecostal 

Sermon  266 

Gordon,     Major     Jona- 
than W. — 
Forget  and  Forgive . . .  585 
GouLBURN,    Edward   M., 
D.D.— 

Progress,  Laws  of, 

Graham,  Rev.  J.  A.— 
Outlook         for         the 
World's    Evangeliza- 
tion   

Blessing  upon  Children  295 
Grant,  G.  M.,  LL.D.— 
Canada's  Two  Civiliza- 
tions    612 

Heroic  Epochs 613 

Historic  Epochs 613 

Canada  and  the  North- 
west  Passage  to  the 

Indies    615 

Religious  Development.  615 
Greenle.\f,  H.  M. — 

Origin  of  Fireworks. . .  640 
Greenwood,  Rev.  C.  J. — 

A  Midnight  Doxology.  447 
Gregg,  Rev.  David,  D.D.— 
The  Lord's  Supper....   123 
Resurrection     Life     of 

Jesus  Christ 198 

Where  was  Christ  be- 
fore Christmas? 4" 


34 


48 


page 

Gregory,  D.  S.,  D.D. — 

Imperial   America 675 

Groser,  W.  H. — 

Prayer   and   Labor....  654 
Grundtvig,    Nicolai    F. 
S.— 

Sabbath    Morn 229 

GuiNEY,     Louise     Imo- 
gen— 

The  Riddle 207 

GUMBART,  A.   S.,  D.D. — 

The  End  and  Opening 

of  a  Year 456 

Old  Glory 595 

Gu  T  H  R I E,        Thomas, 
D.D.— 

Cleansing   Blood 158 

Clinging  to  the  Cross. .   160 
Figures  of  the  Resur- 
rection    199 

Haeselbarth,    William 
G.— 

The  Ballot 702 

Hale,  Edward  Everett — 
Washington's     Inaugu- 
ration    500 

Hall,  C.   H.,  D.D.— 
The   Shepherds  of  Ju- 

dea   426 

Hall,  John,  D.D.— 
Lot's  Choice  (To  Sun- 
day School  Children)     18 
A  New  Year's  Prayer.     46 

The  Lamb  of  God 156 

The    Defense    of    the 

Sabbath 210 

Christ's    Second    Com- 
ing      382 

Hall,  Mrs.  L.  B.— 

Thanksgiving    3/6 

Hall,  Newman — 

America      and      Great 

Britain    555 

Hallenbeck,  Edwin  For- 
rest— 

The  Holy  Morn 206 

H alloc  K,   Gerald  B.  F., 
D.D.— 
The    Golden    Gate    of 

Opportunity 21 

Hamlin,  Cyrus,  D.D.— 
Christmas  in  Constant!- 

nople    406 

Hamlin,  Gen. — 
A  Realistic  Account  of 
Lincoln's    Murder...  471 
Harcourt,  Richard — 

Future  of  Canada oil 

Hare,  Julius  C,  D.D.— 
Christ's    Entrance  into 

Jerusalem 109 

Might  of  the  Cross loi 

Harris,  Lord — 
Testimony,  More,  Con- 
cerning Missions,  ...     75 
Harrison,  Benjamin— 
Discovery  Day  Procla- 
mation,   1892 061 


PAGI 

Hart,  Burdett,  D.D. — 

Christ,  The  Enthroned,  113 
Harwood,  Charles  W. — 

The  Color  Guard 596 

Hastings,    Thomas, 
D.D.— 
The  Sepulcher  on  Sab- 
bath Morning 231 

Havergal,  Frances  Rid- 
ley— 

Thanks  be  to  God 374 

Hawthorne,      Nathan- 
iel— 

Sabbath  Sunshine 227 

Hay,  John — 
Offices    of    the    Holy 

Spirit 273 

Hayne,  William  H. — 

Pine    Needles 535 

Heber,  Reginald,  D.D. — 
Bread  of  the  World. . .  134 
Miracles  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion     166 

In  the  Way  He  Should 

Go    298 

The  Blessed  Trinity. .  3^9 

Thou  Art  Gone 339 

Heermans,  Mary  A. — 

Arbor  Day  Song 536 

Hemans,    Felicia   Doro- 
thea— 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrim 

Fathers   723 

Henry,  Matthew — 

God,  The  Guidance  of,     31 
Henry,  Patrick — 

Freedom  or  Slavery...  629 
Hepburn,  Rev.  G.  G. — 
Lincoln's       Foster- 

Mother    469 

Herbert,  George — 

Lenten  Fasting 97 

Grieving      the       Holy 

Spirit 272 

Herrick,  Rev.  Robert — 

A  True  Fast 98 

Litany     to     the     Holy 

Spirit 272 

A  Thanksgiving  to  God  380 
Herrick,  S.  E.,  D.D. — 
The    Trial   of    Christ's 
Personal  Virtue  ....     82 
Higginson,      Thomas 
W.— 
Abuse  of  Washington.  513 
Hill,  James  L.,  D.D. — 

Salem's   Bonfire 705 

HiLLis,  Newell  D wight, 
D.D.— 
Yesterday  and  To-mor-. . . . 

row 443 

Hinton,  W. — 

Some  Facts  about  Our 

Country    (i^^ 

Hodges,      Rev.      George, 
D.D.,  LL.D.— 
The  Day  of  Palms 103 


762 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


PAGE 
HOLDEN,  J.  E.,  D.D.— 

Prisoners  of  Hope.  ...   198 

Ode  to  Washington...  517 
Holland,  John  G. — 

Gradatim    41 

Holmes,     Oliver    Wen- 
dell— 

Future.  The, 37 

God's  Glory 316 

Union  and  Liberty 602 

The  Pilgrim's  Vision..  722 
Hood,  Thomas — 

The  Song  of  the  Shirt.  660 
Hopkinson,  Joseph — 

Hail  Columbia 642 

HoRNE,  George,  D.D. — 

Time,  Well  Disposed,  .     36 
HosMER,  Frederick  L. — 

Cross  and  Flag 597 

Hough,  Alfred  J. — 

Flag  and  Cross 598 

Houghton,  A.  G.,  D.D. — 

The  Books  Opened 392 

Howe,  Joseph — 

The  Queen 560 

Canada  and  the  United 
States    610 

The  Pioneers   6x5 

Howe,  Julia  Ward — 

Battle  Hymn  of  the  Re- 
public    639 

Howe,  M.  A.  De  Wolf, 

JR- 
Resurrection   207 

HOWLAND,  ZOETH — 

Thanksgiving    37^ 

HOYT,  J.  K.— 

The  Holy  Month 437 

HoYT,  Wayland,  D.D. — 

God  with  Us 424 

Hughes,      Rev.      Hugh 
Price — 
The  Use  and  Abuse  of 

Party  Politics 695 

Hugo,  Victor — 

Like  a  Bird 200 

Hunt,  Helen  (See  Jack- 
son, Helen  Fiske 
Hunt)— 

At  Last 200 

Huntington,  Rt.  Rev. 
F.  D.,  D.D.— 

The  Risen  Life IQS 

Huntington,  Mary 
Clarke — 

Easter   201 

Hurn,  William — ■ 
River     of     the     Holy 

Spirit 273 

Hutt,  Frank  Walcott — 
New    Year    a.    Peace- 
maker         45 

The    Building    of    the 

Year  46 

The      Watchers      that 

Fear 437 

Hyacinthe,  Pere — 
Future  of  America 675 


page 

Ingelow,  Jean — 

Work,  God-appointed,.     39 
Ireland,  John,  D.D. — 

Patriotism    636 

Irons,  William  J., 
D.D.— 

Dies  Irae  (translation)  401 
Irving,  Washington — 

Humor 31 

Jackson,  Helen  (Fiske) 
Hunt — 

New,  The 37 

New  Year's  Morning. .     42 
James,  Thomas  L. — 
Funds      for       Political 

Purposes 687 

Jay,   William,  D.D. — 

Anxiety,  Prevention  of,     28 
Jefferson,  C.  E. — 

Newspapers,  The  Bane 

of  Sunday 224 

Jenkins,  H.  D.,  D.D.— 
Representative     Work- 

ingmen 649 

Jenner,  Charles — 
Temples    of   the    Holy 

Spirit 273 

Johnson,  Grace  B. — 
A    Glimpse    of    Wash- 
ington's Birthplace. .  493 
Johnson,  Helen   M. — 

Our  Beautiful  Land...  616 
Johnson,  Herrick, 
D.D.— 
The      Sunday      News- 
paper    215 

Johnson,  J. — 

Honors  to  Labor 653 

Johnson,  Samuel — 

The  Treasure,  Time,. .  455 
Jones,  Sir  William — 

The  Glory  of  the  State,  641 
Jortin,  John,  D.D. — 

Labor 652 

Jukes,  Rev.  A. — 

Typology  of  Sunday. .  227 

Keble,  John,  D.D. — 

Ash  Wednesday 96 

The  Second  Sunday  in 

Lent  98 

Easter  Day 203 

The  Ascension  Day...  253 
Descent    of    the    Holy 

Spirit 271 

Whitsunday 274 

Trinity  Sunday 318 

The    First    Sunday    in 
Advent  399 

Relly,   Thomas,   D.D. — 

Jesus  Reigns 117 

The  Ascended  Lord...  254 

Kenyon,  James  B. — 
The  Inn 458 

Kern,  H.,  D.D.— 
The     Lesson     of     our 
Lord's  Ascension. . . .  235 


PAGE 

Key,  Francis  Scott — 
The      Star      Spangled 
Banner  602 

Kidde,  Mrs.  M.  A.— 
The  New  Year 43 

Kimball,    Harriet    Mc- 

EWEN — 

Beautiful  Easter 203 

KiNGSLEY,      Charles, 
D.D.— 

Reward,    Life's 38 

Consider  the  Lilies  of 

the  Field 190 

A  Farewell 295 

Blessed  Christmas  Day.  435 
Kip,  William  I.,  D.D.— 

Fasting,  benefits  of , . . .     93 
Kipling,  Rudyard — 

Recessional  563 

Kittermaster,       F  r  e  d- 
erick  W. — 

The  Epiphany 77 

Kittredge,  a.  E.,  D.D. — 

Meditation  Essential  to 

the    Development    of 

Spiritual  Life 90 

Klingle,  George — 

The  Day  of  Rest 229 

Knapp,  Lillian — 

Year,  The  Next, 39 

Plant  Trees 535 

Knowles,      James      D., 
D.D.— 

Time  Used 455 

Knox,  William — 
Why  Should  the  Spirit 
of  Mortal  be  Proud?  487 
Kunze,      Pastor      Her- 
mann— 
A  Blessed  Advent  Sea- 
son    385 

Lamb,  Charles — 
January,  The  First  of,.     32 

Laugh,   A, 33 

The  Sabbath 229 

Lambie,  William — 

Thanksgiving    377 

Lampman,  Archib.\ld — 

Atonement  and  Death.   165 
Lance,  Edouard — 

Ode  to  America 678 

Larcom,  Lucy — 

Year,  The 36 

The  Door  of  the  New 
Year 44 

He  Who  Plants 535 

Laurier.  Sir  Wilfred — 

Canadian  LTnity 616 

Layard,  C.  p. — 

Agony    of    the    Cruci- 
fixion     166 

Lee,  Rev.  John — 

Religious    Purpose    of 

the    Founders 638 

Leech,  A.  V. — 

The  Stars  and  Stripes.  589 
Leeper,  J.  L.,  D.D. — • 

An  Easter  in  Jerusalem  169 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


763 


PAGE 

Leonard,    Priscilla — 

The   Lost   Key 456 

In  Pilgrim  Plymouth..  706 
Leonhardt,  I\Irs.  M.  E. — 

Thanksgiving  m 

Lewis,  John — 
The  Future  of  Imperi- 
alism      614 

LiDDON,     Henry    Parry, 
D.D.— 
Epiphany,  The  Festival 

of  the 71 

Has  Christ  Arisen?...   182 

The    Resurrection 200 

The  First  Five  IMinutes 

after  Death  33° 

Preparation      for      the 
Second     Coming     of 

Christ    392 

Lilly.  W.  S.— 
Carlyle's   View   of  the 

Labor   Question 652 

Longfellow,       Henry 
Wadsworth — 
Drudgery,    What    Men 

Call 30 

Mark,  To  Hit  the, H 

Present,   The, 34 

Time   36 

Height,    Man's,    37 

Time,  the  liand  of, 39 

To-days     and     Yester- 
days          39 

The   Children's  Hour.  294 

Weariness    295 

Children   295 

Time    457 

Killed  at  the  Ford 584 

The  Ship  of  State 643 

Burden  of  Labor 658 

The      Village      Black- 
smith   659 

Lorne,  Lord — 

Sources     of     Canadian 

Power  612 

Lovejoy,  Newell — 

Tired 208 

Lowell,  James  Russell — 

Easter  Morn 200 

The  Years 457 

Abraham   Lincoln 486 

Washington 518 

Our    Country    Saved.  .  639 
What     Mr.     Robinson 

Thinks    703 

Lubbock,  Sir  John — 

Foresight   31 

Ludlow,  J.  M..  D.D.— 

Thanksgiving    346 

Luke,  Mrs.  J. — 

The  Sweet  Story 298 

Luther.  Martin — 

The  Judgment 401 

Lyly,  John — 

Courtesy  30 

Lyman,   Rev.   Hunting- 
ton— 
At      the      Communion 
Table  128 


page 
MacArthur-,   Robert   S., 
D.D.— 

The  Season  of  Peace..  426 

Christopher  Columbus : 
A  Modern  Abraham.  669 
Macaulay,  Alexander — 

The  Dying  Year 442 

Macaulay,    Thomas 
Babington — 

Purpose,   Preserving,. .     35 
Macdonald,  George — 

Sunset  in  Life,  The,. ..     35 
Mace,  F.  L.— 

Planting  the  Oak 537 

Machar.  Agnes  Maule — 

Dominion  Day 618 

INIackay,  Charles — 

Repentance    99 

Clear  the  Way 656 

Cleon  and  1 656 

Mackay,  James  T. — 

The    Cenotaph 485 

MacKellar,  Thomas — 

Heaven   335 

Mackenzie,    A  l  e  x  a  n- 

DER — 

British    Power 556 

Loyalty  to  Canada....  611 
Maclaren,      Alexander, 

Britannia    561 

Hurrah    for    the    New 

Dominion 619 

MacLaren,    Alexander, 
D.D.— 
Occupy  Till  I  Come..     18 

Guidance    3^ 

The  Food  of  the  World  69 
The  Glory  of  the  King.  105 
The    Lord's    Supper    a 

Declaratory  Rite....   125 
The  Last  Beatitude  of 

the  Ascended  Christ.  247 
The     Work     Amongst 

Us  428 

Magee,  William,  D.D. — 

Sin  is  Against  God...     94 
Mallock,  William  Hur- 
rell — 
The  Dignity  of  Toil.  . .  655 
Man  son,  George  J. — 
A  Renaissance  of  Pa- 
triotism   627 

Markham,  Edwin — 
The     Man     With     the 

Hoe    657 

Marriott,  John — 

Let  There  Be  Light...     78 
Martial    (  Marcus    Va- 
lerius Marti  ALis)  — 
Present,  Past,  and  Fu- 
ture         38 

Martin,  E.  S. — 

New   Year's    1900 43 

Thanksgiving 
Thoughts 344 


PAGE 

Martin,    George   E  d- 

WARD — 

Jerusalem 296 

Hark  to  the  Children's 

Voices  296 

Well   May  the  Church 
Keep     C  h  i  1  d  r  e  n's 

Day 297 

Martin,  Sir  Theodore — 

The  Good  Victoria....  561 
Marvin,  Frederick  R. — 
Right,    The    One    Ina- 
lienable,       35 

Mason,  John — 
Influence   of  the   Holy 

Spirit    272 

Matthews,  James  B  — 

Life    33 

Maurice,    Frederick   D., 
D.D.— 
The      Light      of      the 

World 70 

Relation     of    the     As- 
cended   Christ    to 

Daily   Conduct 253 

The  Redemption  of  the 

Body    331 

The     Problem     About 

Advent    389 

The  Word 428 

May,  Caroline — 
The     Soul     Ascending 

with   Christ 255 

May,  Curtis — 

An  Obituary 459 

McAllister,  Rev.  Will- 
iam— 
Redemption,  Ownership 

by,  164 

McC  A  L  L,   R  E  V.     M  a  L- 
COLM — 

Ascension    of   Christ.  .  251 
McCheyne,  Rev.  R.  M. — 
Sabbath       -       breaker, 

Heaven  of  the, 225 

McGee,    Hon.    D'Arcy — 

Immigration  614 

McKinley,  William — 
Washington's  Religious 

Character  507 

Our  Country's  Defend- 
ers     576 

McKowN,  Rev.  C.  F.— 

The  New  Year 43 

McLachlan,  a. — 

Britannia    561 

Hurrah    for    the    New 

Dominion,    619 

McLaren,  Ian  (Watson, 
Rev.  John)  — 
Life,  The  Austerity  of,.     94 
McLellan.  Isaac — 

New  England's  Dead.  .  586 
McMahon,  Fulton — 
How    Bad    Men    Are 

Chosen  to  Rule 689 

Medd,  Rev.  Peter  G. — 
Sin,    M  a  n's    Great 
Enemy,    95 


764 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

Meehan,  Joseph — 
Planting   and    Pruning 

Trees 525 

Mellor,  Rev.  E. — 

Mercies 363 

Melvill,  Henry,  D.D. — 
The  Festival  of  Epiph- 
any      70 

Effect  of  the  Ascension  248 
Christ's     Second     Ad- 
vent      388 

Meredith,  Owen — 

Time   457 

Merrifield,  S.  B.  B. — 

The  Elm  Tree 538 

Meyer,  Rev.  Fred'k  B. — 
Christ's      Resurrection 
the  Type  of  Ours...   191 
Mill,  W.  H.— 
Christ's  Fast  Our  Ex- 
ample      92 

Miller,  E.  H. — 

Risen  with  Christ 201 

Miller,  James  R.,  D.D. — 
A  Greeting  to  the  New 

Year 7 

The    Ascended    Christ 

our    Intercessor 242 

Miller,  Joaquin — 

Time   457 

Miller,  Lotta — 

The  Old  Year 460 

Milman,    Henry    Hart, 
D.D.— 

Who  Is  He 167 

Suddenness  of  the  Ad- 
vent     397 

Milton,  John — 
Temptation    of    Adam 

and  Eve 100 

Holy   Spirit  Guide....  272 

Time 457 

Original  Labor 659 

Mitchell,  S.  S.,  D.D. — 

Easter   ^11 

Mogridge,  G. — 

Aim,   High 28 

Montgomery,  James — 
Cause  of  the  Crucifix- 
ion     166 

Man,  The  Good 201 

The  People  of  God 271 

Trisagion   3^9 

Moody,  Dwight  L. — 

The  Atonement 151 

Equality  of  the  Blood 

of  Christ 158 

The    Blood    of    Christ, 

Preached,   159 

How  Shall  I  Spend  the 

Sabbaih? 212 

Enrolled   in   the    Book 

of  Life 452 

Morison,  G. — 

Hours,  The  Precious,. .     37 
Morison,  James,  D.D.— 
Procession,    The    Tri- 
umphal,     115 

Raleigh  and  the  Queen.   US 


PAGE 

Morris,  George  P. — 
Woodman,  Spare  That 

Tree    539 

The  Flag  of  Our  Union 

Forever 598 

Morse,  John  T.,  Jr. — 
How    the     Declaration 

Was  Adopted 635 

MouLTON,     Louise 
Chandler — 
The  New  Year  Dawn. .     43 
For  Easter  Morning. .  205 
MOZLEY,  J.  B.— 

Ascension  Day 247 

MuLCAHEY,  James, 
D.D.— 
Why     the     Magi     Ex- 
pected   Christ 423 

MuLLER,  Max — 

Missions,  The  Spirit  of,     74 
Mulock,  (Craik)  Dinah 
Maria — 

Immortality 200 

A  Christmas  Carol 435 

MuzzEY,  Anne  L. — 
Joy     Cometh     in     the 
Morning   206 

Nelson,     Rev.     T.    A., 
D.D.— 
The  Sacramental  Cup.   130 
Nettleton,  Charles  P. — 
The   Use  of  Dynamite 

in  Tree  Planting 526 

Newbolt,     W.      C.     E., 
D.D.— 
Fasting   and    Self-con- 
trol       93 

Newell,   Laura   E. — 

Greeting   Song 296 

Sunbeam  Band 297 

Newman,   John   Henry, 
D.D.— 
The  Ascended  Christ  in 

Heaven     252 

Lead,  Kindly  Light ... .  273 
The  Intermediate  State.  331 

England    564 

The   Hope   of  the  Re- 
public    596 

Newman,   John   Philip, 
D.D.— 

Our  Country 353 

Newton,  Rev.  John — 

Closer  Than  a  Brother.  134 
NiVEN,  T.  M.— 
A  Sacramental  Thanks- 
giving  Hymn 378 

Noel,  Caroline  N. — 

The  Name  of  Jesus 116 

Noel,  Rev.  Gerard  T.— 
Grateful     and     Tender 

Remembrance  I35 

Northrup,  B.  G. — 
Arbor  Day  in  Schools.   523 
Arbor  Day  at  the  In- 
dian   School 524 


PAGE 

O'DoNNELL,  Jessie  F. — 

A  White   Easter 202 

O'Hara,  Theodore — 

The    Bivouac    of    the 

Dead    578 

Omar  Khayyam — 

Time    457 

O'Reilly,  John  Boyle — 

Life    456 

Osgood,  Frances  S. — 

Labor  is  Worship 658 

OsTRAM,  Henry — 

The  Sabbath 230 

Packard,  George  T. — 

Easter   201 

The    Heritage    of 

Thanksgiving    380 

Paine,  Bernard — 
The     Relation    of    the 
Church    to    Political 

Morality   691 

Palgrave.   Francis   T. — 

Washington 516 

Palmer,    Ray,    D.D. — 

Jesus  All  in  All 135 

Mystery  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion   166 

Our  Stewardship 44B 

Parker,  Joseph,  D.D. — 

The  Holy  Ghost 267 

Finding    Wisdom 283 

Parkhurst,  Charles  H., 
D.D.— 

Faith  Cork,  The, 31 

Labor's  Grievances....  651 
Parnell,  Rev.  Thomas — 

Time    457 

Pastnor,  Paul — 

The  Young  Patriot. ...  586 
Patton,      Francis      L., 
D.D.,  LL.D.— 
The  Day  of  Pentecost.  270 
Paulding,  James  K. — 

Time  a  Destroyer 453 

Peacock  , Thomas  L. — 
Time,   The  Flight  of,.     38 

Time    457 

Peloubet,  F.  M.,  D.D., — 
Giving  and   Doing  for 

the    Lord 66 

The    Harvest    and    the 

Laborers    (i^ 

The  Great  Commission.    68 
The    Missionary    Duty 

of  the  Church 69 

Star  in  the  East,  The,.     75 
Procession,  The  Invis- 
ible,       115 

Percy,  Thomas.  D.D, — 
Aim,      Importance     of 

Definite,    28 

Perry,  Carlotta — 

Give  Thanks 375 

Perry,  Nora — 
The     Old     Year     and 

Young   Year 47 

Peterson,  Henry — 
Ode  for  Decoration  Day  583 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


7-5 


PAGE 

Phelps,  Austin,  D.D. — 

Angels.  Alinisiry  of,...     ^\ 
Phillips,  Wendell — 

Political    Agitation 701 

PiERPONT,  John — 
Hymn  of  the  Last  Sup- 
per     136 

PiERSON,     Arthur       T., 
D.D.— 
The  Finger  of  God  in 

Modern  Missions 49 

The  Transforming 
Power  of  the  Gos- 
pel         51 

Pile,  Rev.  William  N. — 
Groups    at    the    Cross 
and  Why  They  Were 
There  153 

PiTTACUS,  OF  MyTILENE — 

Time   3^ 

Plutarch — 
Need  of  Labor 653 

POLYBIUS — 

Beginning,  Good, 29 

Pope,  Alexander — 

Life,  Twofold, Z1 

Years,  The  Flight  of,. .     39 
Potter,        Henry        C, 
D.D.— 
Discounting  the  Future     12 
Owe     No     Man    Any- 
thing     357 

The  Flag 600 

Powell,  E.  P. — 

Tree  Treatment 526 

Power,     Frederick     D., 
D.D.— 

The   Trinities 304 

Powers,    Horatio    Nel- 
son— 

New   Year,  The, Z7 

Pratt,  Florence  E. — 

Abraham  Lincoln 485 

A  Christian  Song 436 

Prentice,  George  D. — 

Sabbath   Evening 229 

Pressel,      Rev.      Dekan 
W.— 
Pentecostal  Blessings  .  264 
Preston,  Margaret  J. — 

A  Nation's  Contrition.  228 
Prudentius,       Aurelius 
Clemens — 

Epiphany   Hymn T] 

Pulsford,  Rev.  W. — 

Why  Christ  Ascended.  249 
Pu  n  s  h  0  n,      William 
Morley,  D.D.— 
Purpose,  Steadiness  of,     35 

The  True  Lent 99 

Bethany,  The  Place  of 
Christ's  Ascension  . .  249 
Purse,  Rev.  W. — 
The   Body   of  the  As- 
cended    251 

Pusey,    Edward   B., 
D.D.— 
Fasting   as   an   Act   of 
Obedience 93 


PAGE 

QuARLES,  Francis — 
Death,  Expect  but  Fear 

Not,   36 

Acceptable  Fasting. ...     97 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter — 

Time    457 

Rankin,  J.  E.,  LL.D. — 

Death  of  Washington.  502 

The  Trees  536 

Rattray,  W.  J. — 

Loyalty  to  the  Old 
Country    615 

Political     Development 

of  Canada   615 

Raven,  Rev.  A.  N. — 

Our  Lord's  Return 402 

Rawlinson,  Rev.  J. — 

The  Prophesied  Death.   163 
Reade,  Charles — 

Emblem  of  the  Sabbath  226 
Reeve,  James  Knapp —  .... 

Properties  of  Trees. . . .  531 
Richards,  Laura  E. — 

Our  Colors 596 

Roberts,  Charles  G.D. — 

Canada    6x6 

To    Canada 617 

Roberts,  Ellwood — 

If    458 

Roberts,  Joseph,  D.D. — 

Self-renunciation  the 
Law  of  Self-preser- 
vation         85 

Roberts,  Rev.  O.  E. — 

A  Sabbath  Hymn 229 

Robinson,  C.  S.,  D.D. — 

The    Throne    and    the 

Rainbow  112 

Robinson,  E.,  D.D. — 

Garments  m  the  Way.   114 
Robinson,  Sir  John  B. — 

Canada's   Government.  613 
Robinson,  Rev.  Robert — 

Alleluia 116 

Root,  George  F. — 

The      Battle     Cry     of 

Freedom 639 

Root,  Rev.  Talmage— 

Christ's         Coronation 

Day    234 

RoRisoN,    G.,   LL.D. — 

Three  in  One 317 

Ross,  George  W.,LL.D. — 

The  Queen's  Birthday.  542 
Rossetti,  Christina  G. — 

Life's   Journey ^7 

New  Year,  The, 38 

Time    457 

Ryle,  John  C,  D.D. — 

Victory  of  the  Cross..   163 

Sangster,  Margaret  E. — 
Easter   Thanksgiving.  .   205 

Come  to  Us.  Lord 402 

Washington's  Name  in 

the  Hall  of  Fame...  517 
Our    Country's    Starry 
I  Flag 599 


PAGE 

Saunders,  Randall  N. — 
The  Dying  Queen 561 

Saxe,  John  G. — 
American  Aristocracy.  655 

SCHAUFFLER,        AdOLPHUS 

F.,  D.D.— 

Guidance    31. 

Three    Contrasts 108' 

Entry,  A  Triumphal,..   113. 
Vision,  The  Present,. .   116 
Schiller,     Johann      C. 
F.— 
Present,  Past,  and  Fu- 
ture         38 

Time   457 

Schodde,      George      H., 
Ph.D.— 
Ascension      Day      and 

Pentecost   241 

Schultz,  John — 
Natural  Advantages  of 

Canada    611 

Racial    Advantages    of 

Canada   6ix 

Progress  of  Canada. . .  612 
Schuyler     -     Lightall, 
William  D. — 
The  Battle  of  La  Prai- 
rie    619 

Scollard,  Clinton — 
A  Song  of  Thanksgiv- 
ing     378 

Scott,  Duncan  C. — 

Ottawa    620 

Scott,  George  F. — 

Wahonomin    561 

ScoTT^  Sir  Walter — 

Patriotism    643, 

Shakespeare,  William — 

Time    38 

Time's    Glory 38 

Time  the  Host 39 

Sonnet  LXIV 46 

Sharp,  William — 
New      Year's     Hymn, 
The   White   Flowers 

of  January 42 

Shaw,  David  T. — 
Columbia  the  Land  of 

the  Brave 639 

Shaw,  Ida  M. — 
Joy     Cometh     in     the 

Morning  200 

Shelley,  Percy  B. — 
Time,  The  Flood  of,. .     39 
Time,  The  Waters  of,.     39 
Sigourney,    Mrs.    Lydia 
H.— 
Time     Never     Recov- 
ered     454 

Sill,  Edward  Rowland — 

Opportunity 45 

Simpson,     Matthew, 
D.D  — 
Progress,  Conservative,    34 
The   Song  of  the  An- 
gels at  the  Birth  of 
Christ    ^27 


766 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


Smith,  Henry  B.,  D.D. — 
The    Ascended    Christ 

Our    Intercessor  ....  252 
The  Pentecostal  Feast.  266 

Smith,    Samuel    Fran- 
cis, D.D.— 

A  New  Hymn ii7 

The  Life  Beyond 337 

Decoration  Day  579 

America    638 

Smith,  Sidney — 

Love  of  Office 701 

Smith,  Rev.  W.  C— 
The   Purpose  of  Fast- 


mg 


Smythe,  George  H.,  Jr.— 

Abraham   Lincoln 473 

Sqmerville,  William — 

Time  and  Tide 3° 

Southwell,  Robert — 

Time,  The  Flight  of,..     3° 
Spofford,  Harriet  Pres- 
cott — 
The  Christmas  Peal...  435 

Flag  Song 599 

Sprague,  Charles— 

Thanksgiving  Reunion,  379 
Spurgeon,  Rev.  Charles 
H.— 

This  Year  Also i5 

Aim,  A  Christian, 27 

Luck    ••     33 

Woman  at  the   Sepul- 

cher   200 

Gifts  of  the  Ascended 

Christ    251 

The  Year 45» 

Place   for  Labor 654 

Stalker,  James,  D.D. — 

Our  Guide  ••     10 

Stanley.      Arthur     P., 
D.D.— 

He  is  Gone 255 

He    is    Gone    and    We 

Remain   256 

Stanton,  Frank  L.— 

In  Glad  Content 373 

Stead,  William  T.— 
England        and        the 

Fourth  of  July 035 

Stedman,  Edmund  Clar- 
ence— 

Life    456 

Steele,  Wilbur  F. — 

Influencing  Time 454 

At  the  English  Tombs 
of  the  Sires  of  Amer- 
ica's First  President.  502 
Sterne,  Stuart — 

Abraham   Lincoln 485 

Stevenson,  R.  L. — 

World  Treasures 39 

Stimson,  John  Ward — 

The  Spirit's  Hour 274 

Stock  ARD,     Henry     Je- 
rome— 
The  Future 4i 


Stoddard,  Richard  Hen- 
ry— 

The    Dead 334 

Funeral  of  Lincoln.  . . .  487 
Stone,  Eliza  Atkins — 

To  a  Clover  Leaf 315 

Stone,  Francis  Zuri — 
The        Storming        of 

Bunker    Hill 721 

Stone,      Rev.      Samuel 
John — 

The    Church 271 

D.D.— 
Storrs,       Richard       S., 

An  Unrisen  Christ 187 

The  Missionary  Field.     59 
Stoughton,  J. — 
Fragments  of  Time...  454 

Use  of  Time 455 

Stryker,     M.    Woolsey, 
D.D.— 
The  Duty  of  Enthusi- 
asm      716 

Stuart,  Bell — 

In  Heaven 336 

Sutherland,       R.       G., 
D.D.— 
Washington   at    Valley 

Forge    517 

SwARTz,  Joel,  D.D. — 
The  Silence  of  the  De- 
parted     338 

SwETCHiNE,    Anne    So- 
phie— 

Example  31 

Strength  and  Weakness    38 
Swift,  Jonathan — 

Time,  The  Work  of,..     39 
Syrus,  Ephraim — 
Attendants       of       the 
Epiphany    76 

Talmage,     T.     Dewitt, 

D.D.— 

Beginning,  Delayed,...     29 

Christ's      Resurrection 

the       Promise      and 

Prophesy      of      Our 

Own  191 

The    Resurrection 199 

Sabbath   Breaking,  Ef- 
fects  of, 225 

Sunday  Carrying 227 

The  Palms  and  Robes.  327 

Patriotism    637 

Land  of  America 675 

Tappan,  William  Bing- 
ham— 

Missionaries    79 

Taylor,  A.  M.— 

Canadians,  Awake 617 

Taylor,  Benjamin  F. — 

Time,  The  River  of,..     39 
Taylor,  Henry— 

Time,  The  Lack  of 39 

Taylor.  Jane — 
Renouncing  the  World.  loi 


PAGE 

Taylor,  Wm.  M.,  D.D.— 

The      Time,      Manner, 

and       Purpose       of 

Christ's  Advent 418 

Tennyson,  Alfred — 
Development,   Man's,..     37 

Move,  All  Things, Z^ 

New  Year's  Eve 44 

The  Power  of  an  End- 
less Life 201 

The  True  Life 456 

Death  of  the  Old  Year.  461 

To  the  Queen 560 

National   Song 562 

Home    They    Brought 
Her  Warrior  Dead. .  587 
Thaxter,  Celia — 

The  New  Year 42 

Thomas,   Mrs.    Charles 
F.— 

New  Year's  Eve 43 

Thomas,  David,  D.D. — 
Objection  to  the  Atone- 
ment       158 

Late   Conversion 452 

Thomas,  Edith  M. — 

Annus    Mirabilis 36 

A    Christopher    of    the 

Shenandoah 587 

Thomas,  James — 

Rule,  Britannia 565 

Thompson,  Maurice — 

Lincoln 485 

Thomson,      Charles 
West — 
The  American  E^gle. .  679 
Thorpe,      Rose      Hart- 
wick 

A  Song  of  the  Thanks- 
giving Time 373 

TiLLOTsoN,  John,  D.D. — 

Patterns,  Highest, 34 

Tipple,  Rev.  S.  A. — 

Why  Christ  Ascended.  249 
Trench,  Archbishop — 
Christ's  Fast  and  Mor- 
tification        93 

Days,  Forty, 92 

Tristram,      Henry     B., 
D.D.— 
Christmas  and  Oriental 

Scenes 415 

TuppER,       Martin       F., 
D.C.L.— 
Analogies  of  the  Trin- 
ity,      318 

TUTHILL,  C.  J.,  D.D. — 

Lord's  Supper,  Above,.   132 
Tyler,  B.  B.,  D.D.— 
The  Religious  Charac- 
ter of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln      479 

Tyndall,  John. — 
World,    The   Light   of 

the 76 

Tyng,   Stephen  H.,  Sil* 
D.D  — 
Preparation      for      the 
Last   Supper 129 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS 


767 


PAGE 

Van  Dyke,  Henry — 

A     Psalm     Meet     for 
Thanksgiving    Day..  378 
Vaughan,  C.  J.,  D.D.— 

The       Loneliness       in 
Death 152 

The  Faith  of  Pentecost.  267 
Vaughan,  Henry — 

Sundays    231 

Vaughan,  J.,  D.D. — 

Jesus,  The  King, 11 1 

Vedder,  D.wid — 

Song  of  the  Wise  Men.     78 

Wagstaff,  Rev.  Freder- 
ick— 
The    True    Method    of 
Securing  a  Revival..     91 
Walworth,        Clarence 
Augustus — 
Te  Deum  Laudamus. .  317 
Warburton,       William 
D.D.— 
Intentions,    Transient,.     32 
Warfield,  Benjamin  B., 
D.D.— 
The     Resurrection     of 
Christ  a   Fundamen- 
tal Doctrine 174 

Warner,     Ellen     Ken- 
yon — 
Improved    Methods    of 
Sunday      -       School 

Teaching    280 

Warren,      Henry      W., 
D.D  — 

Glorious  Easter 197 

Warren,     William     P., 
D.D.— 
The  Easter  Answer. . .  200 
Washington,  George — 
Inaugural   Address. . . .  513 
Said  by  Washington.  .  515 
Watson,  William — 
England  and  Her  Col- 
onies      562 

Watts,  Isaac,  D.D. — 

Christ's    Dominion....     TJ 
The  Supper  Instituted.   136 

At  the  Table 136 

W  A  Y  L  A  N  D,      Francis, 
D.D.— 
Sabbath,  Desecration  of 

the,  225 

Weatherly,       Florence 
E.— 
Following  the  Star. . . .  436 


PAGE 

Webster,  Daniel — 
Morning  Drum-beat...  557 
The   Perpetuity  of  the 

Union    638 

Labor 652 

Weed,  Emma  H. — 

The  Last  of  an  Hun- 
dred Years 460 

Weir,  Arthur — 

Snowshoeing  Song. . . .  620 

Wells,  Amos  R. — 
The  New  Year's  Mine.     44 
The    Christmas    Spec- 
trum    436 

Wescott,  E.  N. — 
Brooding,    A    Remedy 
for,  29 

Wesley,  Charles — 

The  Lord  is  King 117 

The  Ascension 254 

Glory's  King 255 

Hail  the  Day 255 

Gazing  Up 257 

Example  for  Children.  295 

Westcott,  B.  p.,  D.D.— 
Nations,    The   Oneness 

of  the, 74 

Lessons  of  the  Ascen- 
sion      248 

Trinity    Sunday 312 

Westley,  George  H.— 
Concerning       National 
Flowers 534 

White,  Arnold — 

Edward  VII.,  King  of 

England    . ._ 545 

Queen  Victoria 559 

White,  Henry  Kirke — 
Past  and  Future 34 

Whiting,  Elsie  M. — 
■Our  Flag 594 

Whiting,  Lilian — 

Companioned    334 

Whiting,    Rev.    Lyman, 
D.D.— 
The  Old  Oak  Tree  and 
Its    New    Memorial 
Stone 534 

Whitney,  Mrs.  E.  C. — 
Easter   201 

Whitney,  Hattie — 
Thanksgiving    Zl^ 

Whittier,  John  G. — 
Truth  and  Falsehood..     39 
Trust  in  the  Future...     41 

The  Crucifixion 166 

First-day   Thoughts...  232 


page 
Whittier,  John  G.— 

The  Loved  Not  Lost. .  ZZI 

Thanksgiving    457 

The  Glory  of  Service.  .  460 

The  Proclamation 486 

The  Moral  Warfare...  486 

The    Pilgrims 705 

WiGGiN,    Kate    Douglas 
(Mrs.  Riggs)  — 
Children,  Treatment  of,     30 
Wilberforce,     William, 
D.D.— 
Advice  of  Wilberforce.     36 
Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler — 
Smile,  The  Test  of  a,..     38 

Gethsemane  167 

Williams,     Rev.     Will- 
iam— 
Sun  of  Righteousness.     79 
Willis,  Nathaniel  P. — 

Beauty  of  Childhood.  .  295 
Wingate.  Mrs.  Mary — 

Washington 521 

Witherspoon,     Thomas 
D.,  D.D.— 
Desire  for  Communion.  130 
WoLcoTT,    Samuel, 
D.D  — 
Christ  for  the  World. .     ^d 
Wolf,  Prof.  E.  J.,  D.D.— 

The  Lord's  Supper 120 

WoRDEN,       James       A., 
D.D  — 
Origin     and     Develop- 
ment    of     Children's 

Day    275 

Wordsworth,     Christo- 
pher— 

The  Ascension 254 

Thrice   Holy 317 

Wordsworth,  William — 

Sonnet 562 

Work,  Henry  Clay — 
Marching  Through 

Georgia 641 

Wortman,  Denis,  D.D. — 
Our  Country  for  the 

World   683 

Wright,  Rev.  Clark — 
Thirty  Years  After 567 

Young,  Edward — 
Time,  The  Thread  of,.     39 
Man's   Resurrection...  201 

Young,  Sir  William — 
Canadian      Attachment 
to  the  Queca 615 


768 


INDEX  TO  TEXTS 


INDEX  TO  TEXTS 


PAGE 

Genesis  viii:  22 25 

xxviii:   12   .  .  .  333 

xli:   9,   12....  372 

xlvii:  8 456 

Exodus  xx:   8-1  i....  221 

xxxv:   20-27..  66 

Numbers  xxiv:   17...  423 
Deuteronomy  xvi:  9- 

12  266 

Joshua   i:    8 226 

iii:  4   21 

1.  Samuel  xix:  4,  5.   372 

XX :    6    361 

2.  Kings  v:   2,  4....  285 
I.  Chronicles  xvi:  8  365 

Ezra   iii:    i^ 365 

Psalms    xxii :    34....  364 

■ xxiii:   i    286 

• XXX :  14 364 

xxxi:    IS    ....  22 

xxxviii:   18   .  .  83 

xxxviii:  cf.   i, 

Chronicles  xvi:  8.  365 

xli:    I     372 

1:23 365 

Ixiii:    24    . . .  .  10 

Ixxii:    18   .  .  .  .  67 

Ixxix:    34    ...  364 

xc:    9    454 

xc:   12 443 

xci:  9-11    ....  26 

xcvi:    I    25 

xcvii:  12  ....  372 

c:  4  371 

ci :    I    25 

cii:  27   27 

civ:    33,    34..  366 

cxvi:    12    ....  366 

'^^'^j.-.  12-14  •  •  133 

cxviii:  24    ...  217 

cxix:    62.  372,  447 

cxlvii:  20   .  .  .  3S.1 

cl :  I   361 

Proverbs  viii:  17....  24 

xi:   30   67 

xvi:   32    512 

• xvii:  22 367 

xxi:    13    362 

Ecclesiastes  iii:    15.  27 

34 

vii :    8    452 

vii:    17 25 

viii:   5    27 

TsAlAH   i:    18 131 

ix:   6    432 

xxvi:    1,    2...  372 

xxvi :   3    25 

xxvi:    IS    ....  372 

xliv:    22    ....  430 

Iv:   4    512 

lvi:_  12 12 

Iviii:   13,  14..  220 

221 

Ix:    I    71 

Ixi:  3 332 

Ixiii:   I 107 

Ixiii:    3..  152,  388 

Ixiii :   4    26 


PAGE 
ISAIAH  Ixv:    17 27 

Jeremiah  v:   1 416 

viii :  7 25 

xxxi :  38  ....   364 

Lamentations         iii: 
22;  Psalm  ciii:   1-5  370 

iii:    22,    23...    363 

Daniel  vi:    10 372 

Habakkuk  iii:   3....    364 
Zechariah      ix:      11, 

12   198 

Malachi  iii:    1-4....   385 
Matthew  i:   23 424 

ii:    I,  2 416 

ii :  2 72 

ii:    II     74 

iv:   I..  82,  88j     9S 

iv    . .  .92,  93,  94,    95 

vi:    16-18    ...      89 

vi:    26,    29...    190 

vi:   28    286 

vi:   33    25 

vii:    7    416 

ix:   3S-38 67 

xii:   8,  9 115 

xii:  29,  Luke 

xi:    21,    22 288 

xiii:   38    59 

xiv:    19,    20..      69 

xv:  36 367 

xxi:    12    108 

xxiv:    37-39 ••    397 

xxiv:  42    ....   402 

xxv:    1-13    ...    303 

xxv:   31-46   ..    388 

xxvi:  26   ....    132 

xxvi:  27    ....    128 

xxvi:   29    ....    132 

xxvii:  35-43- •    i53 

xxviii:    16-20.      68 

69 
Mark  i:_  15 25 

ii:    27    222 

v:  20   ....  69,   372 

vi_:   31    90 

vii:  24 425 

x:   46-52    ....    108 

xjii:  33 25 

xiv:   19 242 

xiv:    22,    23..    123 

• xiv:    22-25...    128 

xvi:     14-20...    235 

242 
Luke  i:  74,  75 26 

•:   79    430 

11:    8    426 

ii:    13,  14    ...    427 

in:  6    430 

iii:    14    426 

xii:  40 389 

xiii:    8     15 

xv_:  18 26 

xvi :   2    448 

xvii:   15,   16..    372 

xvii:    16    ....    369 

^viii:  8   .  .  26,  389 

xviii:    ii    ....    372 

xix:  13 18 


PAGE 

Luke   xix:  37 367 

xix:   41-44    ..  IIS 

xxii:    7-20    ..  129 

xxii:    37    130 

xxiii:  21    ....  153 

xxiii:  33.  142,  145 

xxiv:    50-53..  241 

248 

xxiv:   SI    243 

John   i:   4 430 

j:   5    313 

1 :    14    428 

i:  14;  cf.  Rev- 
elation vii:  IS  and 
xxi:  3 428 

iii:    12    313 

iii:   16 430 

iii:  36   311 

iv:    14    26 

vi:    1-14    ....  74 

vi:   SI    131 

vjii:    12 70 

xii:   12,   13...  103 

109,  no 

xii:    24,    25. .  8s 

xii:  29 350 

xii:  32 154 

xii:   32-33    ...  163 

xiv:    333,  334 

xiv:   2    333 

xiv:   6 416 

xiv:    17    270 

xiv:    23-31    ..  264 

xvii:    7    449 

xvii:    9    252 

xviii:  37.  no,  in 

xix:   10    154 

xx:  21    61 

Acts    i:     i-ii ,     with 

Luke   xiv:    15-53.  •  ^45 

J:    5    265 

1:  9   244 

1:   14-21   268 

ii:    1-47    270 

ii:  2,  3,  4 274 

11 :  6 402 

ii:   7,  8 267 

ii:  41-42    ....  266 

vii:  17 450 

xiii :  2    93 

xiv:    8-18    ...  90 

xix :   2    267 

yxv\\:  35 367 

xxviii:    15....  367 

Romans  i:  8 367 

vi:   4    ...  191,  192 

viii:   16 270 

xiii:  2    399 

xiii:  8   357 

xiii :   II    391 

xiii:    12..  390,  391 

xv:    I,   3 63 

I.  Corinthians  i:   4- 

7   •  •  • 366 

i :  24    161 

ii:  2 160 

ii:   4    270 

iii:   21,  2J...  332 


PAGE 

I.  Corinthians  ix:  27    93 

xi :  24   129 

xi:  25    130 

xi:  26   125 

xi:   34    133 

xiii:    12    323 

XV :    1-4    304 

xv:  14 187 

xv:  17 193 

xv:  20 191 

xv:  35 192 

xv:  35,  36...  193 

xv:  41    194 

xv:  43,  44...  198 

xv:  54 t93 

TTTT  xv=  55 196 

II.  Corinthians      v: 

17  26 

yi:   10   93 

— ix:   15    364 

Galatians  iv:  4,  5..  418. 

vi:    14   ..  15s,  161 

Lphesians  1:   3,   10..  333 

iii:    17-19    ...  36& 

iv:  8   237- 

iv:    10   195 

v:   15-20   363 

v:   16   ....  26,  449 

v:  20   ...  366,  372- 

Philippians    iii:    20, 

^21 33r 

COLOSSIANS    1:     21,     22    165 

iii:   I    ...  192,    195 

— =r~  '"=   5. 94 

1.  Timothy   i:    17...    105 

ii:   3.  4 416 

vi:   18   364 

2.  Timothy   i:    3....  367 
Hebrews  iv:  7 23 

iv:  9    223 

iv_:   12   31 

vii:   1-4 Ill 

vii:    25    252 

ix :   7    26- 

x:  23  163 

xiii:  17 93 

James  iv:  14 25. 

1.  Peter    ii:    24 149 

iii:    15    151 

iii:   22    246- 

2.  Peter  iii:    12 392 

I.  John  iii:  2 399 

v:  6 182 

Revelation  i:  4,  5..  311 
'■ iii :  2   91 

iii:  21    451 

iv :   3    112. 

iv:    8,    with    i 

John  v:   20 312' 

v:  6   155 

v:  9   25 

VI :   II    331 

vii:    17    332 

xi:    17    367 

xx:    12    392 

XX :    13 3'  s 

xxii:    14    ....  247 

xxii:    20.  398,  399 


